Latest / The Scene Projects / Frank T. Ziede on Creativity, Business, and Podcasting Insights

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Frank T. Ziede on Creativity, Business, and Podcasting Insights · The Scene Projects

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  This program is part of the Scene Projects podcast network.
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  Scene Project features interviews with independent musicians, comedians, and artists
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  from across the Midwest.
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  Become part of our community and support local art wherever you are.
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  Welcome into this very exciting episode of Real Biz.
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  I am your host Bubba Starts, and I am pleased to bring in my friend, author, and facilitator,
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  Frank Ziti.
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  Frank, welcome to the show.
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  Thank you, man.
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  That was an awesome intro.
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  Like, I love that concept of supporting art because I'm a big fan of art.
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  Yeah.
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  Well and that's where this all grew from.
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  It's just being someone who not only produces their own, but admires other artists.
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  And it was so important to me in this changing digital age of media to build a platform that
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  was all about just supporting the creators and not necessarily elevating one above the next.
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  I've numb you know, I I've interviewed Grammy nominees and, you know, one of my first one of
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  the first 20 interviews I did, Frank, was with Bill Payne who founded the band Little Feet.
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  Wow.
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  Played with everyone, and I'm going like, how am I on this phone call?
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  And he kinda said that to me where he's like, look, Bubba.
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  You're you're one of us, man.
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  Like, you're a musician.
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  You're an artist.
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  And I think, you know, coming from someone that played with Seeger and Jackson Browne and did a
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  record with Barbara Streisand that he doesn't remember, you know, where you're like, okay.
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  Yeah.
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  Where you're just like, if you're an artist, you're kinda swimming in the same pool and, you
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  know, a lot of the same things.
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  Some of us achieve a different, you know, circles that we run-in, but it's all the same.
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  And I think I've tried to bring that little bit of, you know, kinda confidence that he gave me
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  in that conversation to everyone that I talked to.
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  Right?
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  You know, people that are just starting out will put me on a a little bit of a pedestal
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  like I you know?
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  And it's like, I'm I'm literally I have 19 listeners on Spotify.
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  Right?
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  Like, I don't wanna I would've done anything as a musician, but, you know, the podcast
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  continues to grow and to become something that we hope last the test of time.
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  Right?
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  Or last, you know, thirty or forty years, and it would make it a little longer than MTV did.
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  True.
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  Well, Frank, we're not gonna talk about me today.
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  We'll we'll converse a little bit back and forth, but I'd love to give you the floor here.
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  And, have you give us a little bit of your backstory.
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  I know you come from the auto industry, and you've been a facilitator, you know, in
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  corporate America.
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  You But have a lot of other varied interests.
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  I know you're working on books.
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  So give us a little bit of the backstory, and we'll kinda pick it up from there.
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  But I anytime I do a podcast, I talk to the audience who's actually listening in their ear
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  pods, and I say, thanks for listening.
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  This is some of your time that you're actually set setting aside to figure out what this
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  conversation is about.
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  So my name is Frank Ziti.
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  I'm also, like, known as FTZ, my initials.
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  This is my life in the background here.
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  I'm a diehard Laker fan.
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  I love movies.
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  My favorite movie is heat.
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  I'm addicted to doctor Pepper.
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  But my work industry, because I know this is about biz, I I started as a corporate trainer
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  and facilitator about twenty five years ago.
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  And if you don't know what that means, like, if you ever come to a corporate event for a
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  manufacturer or a company and they're running quote, unquote training, I do the training.
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  And I heard from a buddy of mine on another podcast, he says, you hope that you provide the
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  best mandatory training that they've ever been in.
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  And so that's what I try to do.
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  I try to make it engaging and exciting.
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  But from a creative standpoint, my life was all about creativity.
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  My family were all singers and performers and artists.
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  So I grew up as a kid doing freehand art, sketching, sculpting, watercolor, pencil,
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  stippling, you know, all the different sort of visual art mediums mediums.
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  And then I did musicals as a kid, so I was a singer.
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  And then I became a professional dancer and choreographer, dancing with Celine Dion in the
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  nineteen ninety nine Billboard Music Awards.
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  Insert clip here.
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  I did a music video with Genuine for a song called None of Your Friends Business.
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  I did a song with Usher, where I performed as a a dancer called Pop Your Collar.
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  So dance was also a big part of it, and and and the main vein of that also is just music.
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  And I know that music is your world and what you do.
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  I think music is a universal language.
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  I think it's like oxygen for me, and I still use it every single day in my training.
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  There's no way I can run a course or workshop or a class without having good music to be the
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  intro and outro for different modules, to change the music to a specific type of music to
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  use during intellectual activities where they need to think.
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  So we change the beats per minute.
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  We change it to there's no no vocals in the background.
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  Right?
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  So it's a sort of ethereal acoustic music that helps their brain engage, but then we amp it up
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  during the the sort of large participatory activities that we do so that their beats per
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  minute, their blood pressure goes up, and their engagement goes up.
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  So, yeah, the arts and creativity, I think, is something that I wouldn't I wouldn't be able to
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  live without if that can sum up that conversation as best as possible.
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  And and exactly why I started this show because there are so many overlaps of created creative
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  processes and music and the arts and business.
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  And I think you are a a true embodiment of how those come together.
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  Right?
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  You come from, you know, your early probably, like, another life, I'm sure it would feel like
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  now.
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  Right?
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  Being a choreographer and dancer in the nineties, to what you're doing now, but
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  realizing that the music and it infuses and it invigorates in those spaces that could
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  otherwise just be a a total slog and super boring.
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  And I I meet people all the time and they're like, well, I'm not creative.
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  And I I I think of a quote from a guy named Seth Godin who's been in the marketing hall of
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  fame.
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  And he in his in a book he wrote called Purple Cow, he's like, that's not how that works.
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  You you you're not born with some sort of creativity.
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  The and and some people have a natural affliction for creativity.
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  Right?
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  They've got this thing they can't stop getting out of them, but I've found that creativity is
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  something you have to work at.
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  There's always a muse moment.
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  There's always something where you get inspired, but that's only 10% of what you're
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  doing.
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  The other 90 is the hard work.
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  If you wanna be an artist, you have to draw more.
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  I know a guy here in Chicago, and he he posts a drawing every day.
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  So for the last three years, he committed to himself to draw something every day.
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  So he has a book that every day, he draws something.
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  And he's drew and you can see the progression of his work.
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  It's gotten better and better and better.
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  If you're a screenwriter, I've done films as a director and producer.
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  So we've been in the the Los Angeles short film festival and the New York film festival for
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  shorts and all these different things.
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  So, I mean, my my short form is, like, anywhere from seven to fifteen minutes of a of a movie.
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  But I had to write 50 scripts and constantly write, you know, so you have to write something
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  every day if you wanna be a writer.
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  I would assume then, because I'm not a songwriter, not a musician.
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  That's my that's my sister.
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  She's a singer.
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  But I would assume then that you have to do the same thing.
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  As a as a musician, you have to create every day and keep perfecting your craft.
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  And I think that you look at someone you're like, wow.
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  They're amazing.
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  They're just so talented.
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  And I was like, I they're they've got some talent, but what you're seeing there is
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  probably what seems effortless is twenty five, thirty years of them working themselves to the
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  bone to perfect that so it seems effortless.
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  Yeah.
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  The tens of tens of thousands of hours.
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  Right?
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  Not just ten.
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  It takes ten thousand hours, I think, maybe to, like, just be good at, like, an instrument, the
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  guitar especially, because it can be so varied.
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  I was very lucky to grow up in a musical family myself, so I think a lot of that creativity
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  just kind of becomes inherent, you know, not different than you when you're surrounded by it
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  all the time.
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  It infuses your life.
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  Like, you can't help but be a little creative.
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  You know?
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  My kids probably get a little bit of that from me.
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  We push them to read a lot, so then they're always writing stories.
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  My daughter's writing songs.
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  She's nine.
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  Right?
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  Like, I wasn't writing songs at nine years old.
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  You know?
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  I was, I still can't draw.
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  I don't have that, but I have a a talent for being able to convey feelings.
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  But I
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  give you And that's
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  I give you mad props that you're encouraging it because there is a connection between
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  creativity and curiosity and how it's taught out of people.
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  You tell kids, stop asking so many questions, but that also, like, limits their creativity.
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  So you as a parent who are, like, pushing them and encouraging them I think of my grandmother
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  who was the artist painting, but at the same time, she could play piano and everything.
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  And I she sat me down one day to try to teach me how to read sheet music.
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  And she got in about five, seven minutes in, and I was there.
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  And I I can do it's what's the thing when you've got an ear and you can hear a pitch and
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  you can you can hit a you can hit a tone?
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  It's not perfect pitch, but there's something where, like, you acoustically, can hear a note
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  and you can replicate that note.
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  I can sort of do that.
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  So she was like, well, let me teach you how to read music.
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  After seven minutes or so of doing this, she my middle name is Tyrone.
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  She I go by Ty when I was a kid.
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  She puts her arm around me and she was like, grandson, you you're just you're probably never
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  gonna learn how to read music.
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  And I was I tried and I was fingers on the keys, and I was like, it's not for me.
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  It's not for me.
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  You know?
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  But there I think there are people, like, they break through that moment, and they they keep
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  working on the craft of creativity.
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  And I think that's what separates the good from the great.
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  Yeah.
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  I've never been able to read music, which sounds wild for, someone who's been doing it
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  for, you know, thirty years.
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  I've been playing music or, you know, singing since I could talk essentially.
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  But it's always been just I've been able to match a tone.
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  Right?
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  I'm a really good parrot.
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  I know how to match a tone.
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  If you show me how to do something, I got a steel trap of a memory to to memorize that.
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  But even playing so I played drums in, like, concert band growing up and just being able to
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  do that, but just being able to, like, make it sound like I heard it sound.
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  They
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  are do
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  doing these things, and I don't necessarily have to have someone even show me that I can
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  match that.
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  But, yeah, you put a piece of sheet music in front of me.
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  Right?
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  I think there's an old joke about guitar player to shut up and put piece of sheet music in
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  front of them, something of that nature.
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  Yeah.
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  It it works.
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  That's good.
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  No.
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  So, you talked about your, you know, your history with writing and directing and, you
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  know, you're facilitating.
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  How does how does that kinda you know, and even the choreography where you're really a
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  director, right, of a different type, a different kind, that how does that go into your
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  your business side?
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  I mean, because you're writing and directing these training seminars.
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  And instead of trying to make it so that they learned this, you also have to make it
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  entertaining so that it actually sticks.
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  Not just that they're gonna be able to get through it, but that they'll actually retain
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  what you're trying to teach them.
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  Well, I think you said this earlier when we were before we started recording, edutainment.
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  So it's this conversation of trying to engage people in a fun way that makes it a a little
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  more tolerable to try to take the fire hose of information that you're trying to share as a
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  company or as a team.
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  You know, you everybody wants to train their employees, but that word train I or train
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  training no.
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  What was it?
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  Manage managing comes from Magiano.
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  It's like an Italian word, and it it was used in the conversation of train a horse.
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  So nobody wants to be managed.
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  Right?
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  They all wanna be led.
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  And, like, if you go to the word led, it's the word laden, which is like old English, and it
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  means to be a guide.
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  Everybody wants to be guided.
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  They wanna be led through a training event or a a work conversation.
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  So I would say to anybody who's in corporate America, go take an art class.
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  Go take a music class, go take an acting class or an improv class.
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  Because I didn't know it, but everything I was doing from the creative side and the arts was
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  preparing me for some part of or or or function within corporate facilitation and education,
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  which is just training adults.
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  So when I go into a room, I use all of my art skills to create engaging flip charts that are
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  clear and you can read them, but also have artistic feel.
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  I do handwritten thank you cards for every single group that's got a personalized icon or
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  something, their favorite sports team, or, you know, I would draw the the cow that's over your
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  shoulder because I'm sure it's got some psychological background to it.
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  That's all the art training that I had.
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  From a from a performance standpoint, being an actor, now I have an understanding of how that
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  translates to body language, eye contact, tone, emphasis, pace when trying to be more
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  empathetic to someone in the in the in the group of participants who's sharing a powerful
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  moment of learning.
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  But at the same time, I can change that pace and focus to be more present you know, more
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  performer in a moment where I need to make a more engaging fun moment, or I need to make
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  something that's more distinct.
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  So all of it is interconnected.
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  I'm trying to oh, from a writing standpoint.
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  Right?
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  If you're gonna, you know, try to write a story, I've developed content for brands like
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  BMW and MINI and Rivian.
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  And so my job then was, okay.
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  How do I tell a compelling story in a workshop?
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  I've got a ninety minute module.
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  Well, I have to have beginning and middle and an end, like great the great, you know,
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  storytellers of of thousands of years ago.
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  Good stories have beginning, middle, and an end.
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  So good workshop should have the same thing.
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  And then as a director or producer of a film project, I'm like, alright.
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  Do I have all the necessary tools?
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  Do I have all my materials?
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  How did seats look?
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  How's the room temperature?
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  How's the lighting?
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  I find that it's all interconnected.
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  And any good facilitator is great at improv.
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  They can always do the mind mindset of yes and.
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  They can they can hear a participant say not the right answer, but an answer, and they can
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  go, yes, Bubba.
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  I like what you've got there.
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  And if you connect it to this topic, we're getting to the point of learning that we're
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  trying to really teach everybody.
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  So as I said in the beginning, if you're in any sort of job, go take an improv class, an acting
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  class, an art class, a movement class, a music class, like, engage in.
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  And I think there's I know there's a preponderance of research that shows when you
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  stimulate creativity in human beings, you're open their willingness or their propensity to
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  accept new ideas.
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  They can they can consider the possibility of doing something different.
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  And if I'm gonna teach people how to do things at our company or our team or in this workshop,
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  I need them to be open to new ideas.
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  So creativity can help with that.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, it opens you up to possibilities.
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  Right?
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  Right.
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  You know?
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  And and I don't think it's ever bad no matter what age you are to go be bad at something
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  again.
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  Right?
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  Like, go go try something and kind of bring yourself back down.
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  And even more so for, you know, you know, especially salespeople that that rise to the
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  top of their respective companies or CEOs or anyone of that nature that you rise to a
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  certain point in your life and you are sometimes the smartest person in the room, that
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  it's nice to kinda go and not be.
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  And that was great for me kinda shifting careers.
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  And not that I was the best musician or or anything, but I was, you know, I saw a need,
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  and I didn't care how bad I was gonna be early on.
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  I know I could talk.
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  That wasn't a thing.
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  But all of this production behind the scenes, like, I didn't know anything about it.
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  And there's been an evolution coming from, you know, March 2024 when we were audio only
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  working off a tiny little, you know, a Zoom p four, which just has the microphone plug ins in
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  the back, which I was comfortable with.
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  As a performer and audio engineer, I was very comfortable with that.
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  Now moving it into, you know, where we're at now with the StreamYard studio and where we're
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  going with this national tour and actually having, you know, camera crews and and
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  producing that out.
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  And also with not just the, like, the performance shows, which I have a lot of
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  experience in, but also bringing these creator conferences out and doing a lot of what you do
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  in the corporate, you know, business world, bringing it to creators.
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  I haven't been to a lot of business conferences, but the one that I was at was
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  brutal to try and get through.
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  Right?
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  Because it was very dry, and it didn't have a lot of entertainment, you know, factors to
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  every single person.
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  Right?
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  I mean, and it was eight hours long, and it was just like, holy cow.
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  How do people sit through a lot of these?
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  And I'm sure a lot of them are extremely boring, and people kinda tune out halfway
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  through.
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  I know I got a lot out of, you know, like, the initial speaker and maybe the person after
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  them, but after that, my brain's turned off.
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  Right?
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  Well, I I think there's only so much that you can really absorb in that time anyway.
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  And that's why our you know, the way I'm trying to facilitate these creator conferences is a
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  little bit of enter you know, edutainment.
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  Right?
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  A little bit of education in there, but networking.
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  And that's really what it's about.
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  It's getting creatives in the same room with one another, being able to interview them on
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  short podcast bits while everybody's kinda milling around and sitting them down.
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  So everybody's gonna get a little promotion.
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  Everybody has an opportunity, you know, if you buy the tickets or submit.
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  The way I have it is that you submit to be on the TV show and you get free tickets to the
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  conference.
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  And Nice.
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  Just because I don't see that the value for them yet is in, like, paying to be in the
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  conference with the freebie of being maybe featured on the TV show.
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  But it's the same thing.
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  It's just like submit, pay the fee to come hang out with us.
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  Give us a day.
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  We're gonna get you a little bit of education on some things that you should know and not
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  going into the weeds.
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  Right?
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  Like, you have ChatGPT.
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  You have all these resources on the Internet now.
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  You can go find out, but sometimes you just don't know what you don't know.
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  And you need just a, like, a top view, and we have some really, you know, creative and and
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  experienced people that are joining us in all these different markets and then not doing it
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  just once, but we're gonna take it on the road and do it 10 times in 10 different cities and,
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  you know, touch on all these markets.
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  And really, to me, that's the future of what I'm doing.
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  It's not just the getting out and performing and doing those things, but educating these
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  creators so that we can build careers for everyone, not just ourselves.
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  I'll give you two or three things that that are echoing what you just said.
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  There's a thing called the last lecture.
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  It's a it's a a book or a video that a guy made.
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  He knew he was dying, and he wanted to leave this for his kids.
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  But one of the quotes, and that has always stuck with me, is start small, but start.
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  Right?
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  Get get the and and what I found as a creative person is, once you start a a ball rolling, you
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  will be shocked.
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  And this is for anybody who's trying to create.
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  You will be shocked how many people will want to get on that ball.
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  They'll they'll they'll come out of nowhere.
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  Like, if you're an artist and you're a singer and you wanna write an album and do an album,
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  you will be shocked.
• 19:36
  All of a sudden, will come out and be like, why play bass?
• 19:38
  You know, somebody else will come out, well, I'm an audio engineer.
• 19:41
  I'd love to help.
• 19:42
  And then somebody's like, I've got a studio.
• 19:43
  Come on.
• 19:44
  You know?
• 19:44
  And they'll help you because they're you know, that old concept of many people leave lives of
• 19:50
  quiet desperation.
• 19:51
  And I don't put that on them like they're weak or anything.
• 19:54
  I think humanity is hard.
• 19:55
  I think life is hard.
• 19:57
  But when they see someone like Bubba start to start that mission, everybody wants to get on
• 20:03
  board.
• 20:04
  And all of sudden, they feel inspired to keep going and doing things.
• 20:07
  So people will come out of the woodwork, and they will help you kinda keep building this
• 20:12
  thing.
• 20:12
  But I when I think of you, I think of something I got from a family therapist friend of mine, a
• 20:18
  guy named Steven Parker who who helps families, and he's just awesome here in Chicago.
• 20:23
  But he I was talking with him one time about my fear, my impostor syndrome, about buying
• 20:28
  creative and trying to start things.
• 20:30
  And he gave me this quote.
• 20:32
  I don't I think it's from Gauthier, but I it's probably not.
• 20:37
  But anybody can look it up.
• 20:38
  It's called the man in the arena.
• 20:40
  And are you familiar with it?
• 20:42
  Yeah.
• 20:43
  I think it's actually a Teddy Roosevelt quote.
• 20:45
  Oh, okay.
• 20:46
  Alright.
• 20:46
  Yeah.
• 20:47
  Then I think it's a whole poem.
• 20:48
  Yeah.
• 20:49
  Yeah.
• 20:49
  And so it's just this this thing.
• 20:52
  Like, many people sit outside the arena, and they they they critique, and they point, and
• 20:58
  they tell you what you're doing wrong, but it is the person, the man or woman in the arena
• 21:04
  whose face is marred by dust and their knuckles are scratched up and everything.
• 21:09
  Even if you fail, and failure is a part of success.
• 21:12
  It is not the opposite of success.
• 21:13
  It's a part of success.
• 21:15
  But even if you do, at least you tried, and you weren't sitting outside the arena just pointing
• 21:20
  and living that life of quiet desperation.
• 21:23
  So I commend you for starting because I think it's just gonna keep building.
• 21:28
  Well, that's that's what it felt like was that desperation when I was working in the factory.
• 21:34
  You know?
• 21:35
  For me, you know, my life had a dramatic turn from, you know, a lot of addiction problems in
• 21:42
  my twenties and, you know, eventually landed me in prison for a couple of years and being in
• 21:47
  that prison and finally, like, ending the chaos.
• 21:50
  My life was so chaotic for so long, and I didn't have any direction.
• 21:54
  I finally, like, sat down, learned how to weld while I was there, took all the classes, was
• 21:58
  very committed to, like, I'm changing my life.
• 22:01
  You know, I have three kids now.
• 22:02
  I'm not you know, this isn't a life that that's for them anyway.
• 22:06
  You know, stuff I I went to prison for marijuana.
• 22:09
  So now it's pretty legal and getting decriminalized.
• 22:11
  It seems crazy, but I'm very grateful because it it it kinda showed me that, like, I'm not
• 22:16
  broken.
• 22:17
  Right?
• 22:17
  Just because I wanna create like, chase creative endeavors doesn't make me kinda, like,
• 22:22
  less a part of society.
• 22:23
  It's just a lot harder.
• 22:25
  Right?
• 22:25
  Like, it was very easy for me getting out of the prison cell, going to, you know, a job,
• 22:31
  working that, but it was also freaking killing me.
• 22:34
  Right?
• 22:34
  Like, I wasn't able to express myself creatively.
• 22:36
  Yeah.
• 22:37
  I could go and play a little bit of music on the weekends, but just, like, living that life
• 22:41
  over and over again, looking at guys that were twice my age, you know, like, oh, only five
• 22:46
  more years to retirement, Body's completely broken, missing fingers.
• 22:50
  Yeah.
• 22:51
  You know, work at manufacturing jobs where I was just like, can't see myself in this
• 22:56
  position.
• 22:56
  Like, I can't see myself here in five years, much less twenty.
• 23:00
  You know?
• 23:01
  And and the upward mobility of those places is all in not how smart you are, but how long
• 23:06
  you've been here with the company.
• 23:08
  And it's like, well, I'm already twenty years behind some of these people.
• 23:12
  You know?
• 23:13
  And there's a lot of companies now that don't reward those twenty years.
• 23:17
  That's why he's gone.
• 23:18
  Right.
• 23:19
  So and I've seen a lot of that too, right, where I was just like, this isn't for me.
• 23:24
  Yes.
• 23:24
  I'm more than capable of doing this, but I've you know, I've always had the feeling that I
• 23:28
  was here for something greater, and it just took, it I had to do it.
• 23:33
  I thought I was quitting my job in early twenty twenty four, Frank, to be a rock star.
• 23:37
  I had a bunch of gigs booked, and I was playing some big amphitheaters, and I thought that was
• 23:41
  it.
• 23:41
  Right?
• 23:42
  You know?
• 23:42
  Like, we're we're out on the road, and it didn't take longer being out there to be like,
• 23:46
  oh, I don't want this life either.
• 23:47
  Right?
• 23:48
  Like, being away from the family all the time.
• 23:50
  Like, if I wanna do this, then it's, you know, five, six nights a week and, you know, singing
• 23:56
  and performing.
• 23:57
  And while I love I love that part, it it was almost you know, it was something else inside
• 24:02
  of it that I loved.
• 24:03
  It was the you know, a little bit of the traveling, but when you don't drink, it's hard
• 24:10
  to, like, wanna be a part of the party culture anymore.
• 24:13
  Like, it worked very well in my twenties.
• 24:15
  And in the meantime, podcasting, it kind of, had started to become more of what I was doing.
• 24:20
  Everywhere I went, I was bringing my microphones with me.
• 24:22
  I was recording conversations with other artists, and it's like, oh, this is great.
• 24:26
  And I just had a great a, I had a great interview with a man named Brandon Day, and
• 24:32
  Brandon is a neural coach.
• 24:33
  And we talked a lot about flow state and, you know, how it he was an athlete, you know,
• 24:39
  division two, I believe, you know, national champion, cover a Sports Illustrated, you know,
• 24:45
  for a game they played.
• 24:47
  And it was speaking with him about the the similarities between, like, being out on the
• 24:56
  field at a high level and being a creative, being a musician up on the stage.
• 25:00
  He's a guitar player and picked up, you know, performing live as well.
• 25:04
  And he's like, you're all we're all looking for the same thing.
• 25:07
  We're looking for that flow and in there.
• 25:10
  And during our conversation, I'm realizing like, oh, that's why I'm in love with
• 25:13
  podcasting.
• 25:14
  Right?
• 25:14
  That's why I'm in love with these conversations because it's all flow state.
• 25:18
  I'll do three interviews today, Frank.
• 25:20
  Right?
• 25:20
  I'll do five meetings tomorrow and staying live, and I got another live show tonight, and
• 25:25
  I'm on air thirty hours a week.
• 25:27
  And then with this tour, we're keeping the cameras on on the tour bus, backstage, at the
• 25:33
  conference, so I can just be in it.
• 25:35
  Right?
• 25:35
  And the more I'm in it, the better off I am.
• 25:38
  And not only, you know, being on camera, but I'm also kind of in that flow behind the camera
• 25:43
  with the, you know, more, I guess, would be like the production side, not necessarily
• 25:48
  physically, but the setting up of even the website development and all these things.
• 25:52
  Like, it's all part of that and building, and it just it it combines those two halves of my
• 25:58
  brain, that very meticulous and and analytical side with the creative side and being able to
• 26:03
  bring them together.
• 26:04
  And that's why I'm so I'm really excited about the future of what we're doing and what we're
• 26:09
  building more so than even having won the content creator of the year award.
• 26:13
  In some in some ways, like, that was the starting gun.
• 26:16
  That wasn't the that wasn't the finish line.
• 26:18
  That was somebody finally giving me a little bit of authority in this space to say, hey.
• 26:24
  Go see what this does for you.
• 26:26
  And, hi.
• 26:27
  I'm Bubba Starts.
• 26:28
  I got an award winning podcast.
• 26:29
  And to watch the doors that have opened to us from that has been incredible.
• 26:34
  I've covered PGA tour events.
• 26:36
  I got to I got to interview Ronde Barber, Cernick, Faldo, and Chris Carter, right, at a
• 26:41
  presser.
• 26:41
  And it was just like, oh, this thing is kinda it's pretty cool.
• 26:45
  Yeah.
• 26:45
  Yeah.
• 26:46
  100%.
• 26:47
  Yep.
• 26:48
  So it it's been a really cool convergence of seeing now where it all goes.
• 26:52
  And, yeah, to to talk with someone like you that's kinda been in a in a similar veins,
• 26:58
  right, where you've been in the creative side, but you've also been on stage, you know,
• 27:02
  facilitating with business and corporate types.
• 27:04
  And we're trying to kind of teach the creative world a little bit of how to act a little more
• 27:12
  corporate.
• 27:12
  Right?
• 27:12
  And so they can actually build themselves into a business and to grow for themselves and to
• 27:19
  build what I I think, you know, as younger as a younger man, I was chasing maybe a record deal.
• 27:25
  I wasn't chasing it that hard because I was kinda like, oh, I can play guitar at parties
• 27:29
  and, you know, get the girl whatever.
• 27:31
  Have a good time.
• 27:32
  But, now it's so easy.
• 27:35
  I wouldn't say easy, but it's it's much easier now for creatives to build themselves a
• 27:40
  business than it ever has been before and to build a career out of that.
• 27:45
  Agreed.
• 27:47
  So you got a book coming out soon.
• 27:50
  What's the book about, Frank?
• 27:52
  It's called the lost art of giving a shit.
• 27:54
  So it's it's apropos to all the things you were just talking about, that you recognize that you
• 27:59
  do care about what you're doing and you wanna do something different.
• 28:02
  But the it is the culmination of sort of the last twenty five years of my facilitation life.
• 28:08
  It's me gleaming any of those things that I gathered in there and trying to realize that it
• 28:13
  does matter to give a shit about what you do.
• 28:16
  And I know the word shit can be off putting to some people, but there's this thing on the very
• 28:20
  first page called the big idea in three parts.
• 28:22
  Number one, according to Gallup in 2024, there was $7,800,000,000,000 in lost productivity due
• 28:29
  to disengaged employees.
• 28:31
  Part two, some of you who read that don't give a shit.
• 28:35
  And part three, some of you are more upset that I said the word shit than the first thing I
• 28:39
  said.
• 28:40
  And so it's like we have this global epidemic of disengagement.
• 28:44
  And, you know, one of the stories in the book is about shopping carts.
• 28:49
  You know, I can tell a lot about a person by how they interact with the shopping cart.
• 28:53
  And it's it's just wild.
• 28:56
  Like, if you if you don't care enough to do the smallest things, how you do one thing is how
• 29:01
  you do everything.
• 29:02
  So the book is broken up into five chapters.
• 29:04
  Either you do or you don't give a shit.
• 29:06
  Like, figure out.
• 29:07
  Do you care or do you not care?
• 29:09
  Part number two, if you don't give a shit, you probably need to figure out why.
• 29:13
  Because caring about what you do shows that you're engaged.
• 29:16
  It has financial and holistic and health and spiritual benefits all the way around.
• 29:22
  Part number three is why they give a shit.
• 29:24
  Like, shows an overwhelming propensity of data and research that talks about, like, caring
• 29:30
  about what you do as an employee reflects in all these different ways and how it can pay off
• 29:36
  tenfold.
• 29:37
  And number four is how to give a shit with the give a shit kit.
• 29:40
  Right?
• 29:40
  And it's this thing called power.
• 29:42
  It's this the power of caring about what you do.
• 29:46
  So it's preface everything, open it up, wonder why, engage your tools, and recap it all.
• 29:52
  And it's about I mean, at the heart of this whole thing is how to become a better
• 29:55
  conversationalist with another human being, the power of human connection.
• 30:00
  So the book is for anybody who is an employee who serves any customer or a leader who serves
• 30:06
  those employees.
• 30:08
  And I think I really think at the heart of it, you can walk into a business or you can walk
• 30:12
  into a concert, you can walk into a bar and somebody's performing or there's creative doing
• 30:17
  something.
• 30:18
  You can tell the employee or the performer who actually gives a shit about what they're doing.
• 30:24
  And it's noticeable, and it's like a cologne that you can smell or a perfume, and it makes,
• 30:30
  in my opinion, all the difference of whether or not you're gonna be loyal to that performer or
• 30:35
  that artist or that brand or that company or that business.
• 30:39
  And that's you know, I don't know if I'll ever get a chance to write another book, but it was
• 30:44
  on my heart and on my soul that I had to stick my flag in the ground and go, this stuff
• 30:49
  matters.
• 30:50
  It's not just about the spreadsheets and the quarterly reports.
• 30:53
  You have to care about what you're doing.
• 30:55
  You know, there's a bunch of books back behind me.
• 30:57
  One of them is Simon Sinek's, you know, New York Times bestselling book globally called
• 31:01
  Start With Why, and it's finding out the why you do what you do every single day.
• 31:05
  Very powerful book.
• 31:06
  But I feel like I can't even help you figure out your why until you will admit that either
• 31:12
  you do or you don't give a shit about the work you're doing.
• 31:15
  And if you don't, that's okay.
• 31:16
  Let's be honest with each other.
• 31:18
  Like, just tell me.
• 31:19
  I don't give a shit about this.
• 31:20
  I don't wanna do this.
• 31:21
  Cool.
• 31:22
  Great.
• 31:23
  Why don't you?
• 31:24
  Is it the job, or is that you just don't care about whatever you're doing?
• 31:29
  And I've I've often found in doing this for, you know, man, twenty five some odd years, that
• 31:34
  most of the time when people don't care anything about what they're doing or their job
• 31:37
  or anything, there's previous trauma.
• 31:40
  There's unresolved relationships.
• 31:42
  There's something deep inside that is blocking them from actually caring about the world that
• 31:47
  they live in and the work they do every day.
• 31:49
  So that's the book.
• 31:50
  Comes out this summer.
• 31:52
  Yeah.
• 31:52
  I can't wait, and we're definitely gonna have you back on to deep dive the book when it does
• 31:56
  come out.
• 31:57
  I I can't wait to grab a copy this summer and, take it on the well, I'll take it to the pool
• 32:02
  with me.
• 32:02
  I'm taking the summer off.
• 32:03
  Last year, I spent a lot of time on the road, and that's when everybody's home.
• 32:08
  My wife works at the school.
• 32:09
  My kids, you know, are in school all year.
• 32:11
  So trying more to do my traveling in the winter months heading south from South Dakota and get
• 32:18
  somewhere warm.
• 32:19
  And, you know, now with everything that we've built here, you know, I can circle.
• 32:23
  It was NAAM last weekend out in, you know, Anaheim or wherever it is, Southern California.
• 32:28
  Yep.
• 32:28
  Orlando had the big PGA conference, and it's like, well, I kinda have, like, I have PGA
• 32:33
  credentials now that I've used.
• 32:36
  I I might as well try to use this as an in, and I'm working on NFL credentials hopefully for
• 32:42
  next season.
• 32:43
  And, you know, it's kind of the old, you feel the dreams.
• 32:46
  Right?
• 32:46
  If you build it, they will come, and you kind of alluded to that earlier.
• 32:50
  It's like if you get something moving, the people who do give a shit will find you.
• 32:55
  Right?
• 32:55
  It's, it's like a cologne.
• 32:58
  Right?
• 32:58
  Like a fine perfume that people are attracted to.
• 33:01
  And for me, I I had to you know, not giving a shit was what took me away from the factories I
• 33:08
  was working in where I was just like, I can't do this.
• 33:10
  Like, you people don't care about what you're doing, then I'm definitely not caring.
• 33:15
  I don't care about money enough to just stay somewhere and be miserable to to do it.
• 33:21
  And so I'm glad that I found mine and I found something that I can remain passionate about.
• 33:27
  And, you know, podcasting is great because I get to dip into all the things.
• 33:30
  Right?
• 33:30
  I know you're a bit huge sports guy as well.
• 33:32
  We started the scene project sports network for that exact reason.
• 33:35
  Yeah.
• 33:35
  I care about music, and I love all these things, but I like sports too.
• 33:39
  And I wanna have an opportunity to talk about my opinions on things, and there's just nothing
• 33:43
  stopping you.
• 33:44
  And that's why we really encourage, you know, not just our creators, but really anybody.
• 33:48
  Like, if you have thoughts in your head that you think are a little bit different or you
• 33:52
  know are a little bit different, you should start a podcast and talk about them.
• 33:56
  Right?
• 33:56
  And it's so easy to do these days to just do it.
• 34:00
  And so far, we've started, you know, five or six of our friends on their journey and helping
• 34:05
  to facilitate that and to keep them going.
• 34:09
  For me, it was my therapy.
• 34:11
  Our get better together project and talking with my friend about our, you know, traumatic
• 34:16
  upbringings and different things out of our world and sharing our shit with one another was
• 34:22
  like, oh, I finally got to, like, tell that story and not just tell it because I was having
• 34:26
  to tell it over and over again to everyone.
• 34:28
  I got it out.
• 34:29
  I got it on tape.
• 34:30
  I don't have to tell that story anymore.
• 34:31
  Right?
• 34:32
  Like, go listen to episode three of the get better together if you wanna hear that story
• 34:36
  because I'm not telling it anymore.
• 34:37
  And in some ways, you know, a book, you know, my book, building your scene that I put out
• 34:42
  last year in the same vein where it was like, look.
• 34:45
  This is out.
• 34:46
  I don't have to tell you over and over again what to do.
• 34:49
  Like, it's in the book.
• 34:50
  It's a free download on the website.
• 34:52
  Like, go read that.
• 34:53
  If I write another one that, you know, people are clamoring for, you know, maybe we'll
• 34:58
  publish it into, you know, covers, but nobody's reading real books.
• 35:02
  Right?
• 35:02
  Like, we're we're part of a small group of people.
• 35:05
  You know, most people are either getting it on a Kindle or just read it on your phone.
• 35:08
  Right?
• 35:08
  Download the PDF if you care.
• 35:10
  If you give a shit to read it, you will.
• 35:13
  And if not, that's okay too.
• 35:15
  I I don't really mind.
• 35:16
  Frank subscribers did you say you had on Spotify?
• 35:20
  I think 19 monthly listeners right now on our, on my music page.
• 35:25
  The podcast does a little bit better.
• 35:26
  We're about to cross 10,000 downloads in in our lifetime, so that's exciting.
• 35:30
  I think about around 1,500 or so a month now that we're kinda clipping up to.
• 35:34
  So I know we're back listening.
• 35:36
  But just to the people that are there, do you care?
• 35:40
  And and if you're hearing this, right, take the inspiration of what Bubba's doing and go make
• 35:46
  something.
• 35:46
  Go create something.
• 35:47
  It's gonna be awesome.
• 35:49
  Indeed.
• 35:49
  Well, Frank, I don't wanna take up too much of your time.
• 35:51
  I'm sure you still have to work today.
• 35:53
  So I appreciate you jumping on with us.
• 35:56
  Go ahead.
• 35:57
  Plug anywhere people can find your stuff.
• 35:59
  I know, we'll be looking up on YouTube those old music videos trying to spot you.
• 36:04
  Yeah.
• 36:04
  The please don't.
• 36:06
  My website is ftzinc.com.
• 36:10
  So it's me incorporated, ftzfoxtrottangozebraincindigonovembercharlie.com.
• 36:18
  And, but but LinkedIn is where a lot of my content lives, so you can just find me.
• 36:22
  There's only one Frank Ziede on LinkedIn, and it's z I e d e, and that's me.
• 36:28
  Awesome.
• 36:28
  Yeah.
• 36:28
  There's only one Bubba starts to it.
• 36:30
  Makes it easy to stand out.
• 36:32
  Right?
• 36:32
  Right.
• 36:33
  Frank Ziede, thank you so much for being part of the scene, I really appreciate you, brother.
• 36:38
  It's an absolute pleasure.
• 36:39
  Thanks to everybody for listening.