Riding Shotgun: Inside the Subie & YOU! Podcast with Rafael Ruiz

Transcript

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I didn't know, when I first started it, that I was going to get sponsored.

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I didn't know that Subaru of America was going to reach out to me and say, hey, we've got some opportunities.

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We want to run by you.

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All right, welcome in.

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It is a new episode of Basic AF.

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Tom A, Jeff B.

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Back together again for a new show.

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Jeff, how's it going?

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It's good, tom.

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I'm here, I'm breathing, I'm among the living, I'm doing all those things.

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Yeah, it's good stuff.

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Happy to be here, happy to see your bright, smiling face.

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Likewise.

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Likewise, we have a very special guest on this episode.

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We have Rafael Ruiz joining us.

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He is the host of the Subi and you podcast.

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You've probably heard Jeff refer a couple of times to the side project that I have that Subaru related, and so Rafael and I have been chatting back and forth for two plus years, I think at this point, through Instagram and messages and everything.

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So he has his own podcast for the Subaru community, the Subi and you podcast, and has found some great success with it.

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Well, over 140 episodes, 100,000 plus total downloads.

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So, rafael, thank you so much for joining us.

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It's a pleasure to have you.

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Yeah, you're welcome.

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Thanks for having me on and thanks for that great intro.

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You said that you're going to have somebody very special on, so I'm wondering who that is.

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Okay, sorry, pal, it's you.

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The Easter Bunny's not coming to this one.

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Yeah, we got a ways for that yeah.

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So we know you're slumming with us.

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So that's a pretty straightforward.

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Yeah, and we do appreciate you taking time to join us for this one.

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Yeah, no, very glad to be here.

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It's nice to be a guest on another podcast.

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Right, you don't have much work to do with this one you just talked to us.

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Yeah, nice change Wax eloquent.

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Yeah, rafael had me on his show, episode 78, about a year and a half ago and, to be honest, that's kind of what got the itch going again for me to want to do podcasting.

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Jeff and I did a show with friend of ours back in 2011 and we hit 30 couple episodes.

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I think it was for that and then that kind of fell off John Mangino.

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Yeah, Hi John.

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We know you listen.

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And so he had me on his show and it was a lot of fun.

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We had a great conversation and I was like, hey, that kind of has me wanting to do this stuff again, and it took a little while, but then Jeff and I reconnected.

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But anyhow, we have Rafael along.

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We want to talk to him about his show and how he produces that, manages it, edits records not necessarily in that order Systems.

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He has apps that he uses, things like that and let you all get to know him a little bit better and, hopefully, enjoy the show.

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Yeah, and I think the starting point is how did you get started doing this?

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It's kind of interesting because obviously Subaru's vehicles.

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I'm a genius and we all know this already and it's interesting that you kicked off a podcast.

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How did you get started?

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Why did you start doing this?

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What kind of precipitated that?

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I bought a Subaru Crosstrek back in September of 2020 and had no idea that there was this humongous community out there.

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I knew I wanted a Crosstrek for years and I also wanted to get a manual.

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So that's a little bit different because they're pretty rare with the Crosstrek.

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So I bought the Crosstrek, started an Instagram account because I was following some other Subaru's with my personal account and I started to see really quickly that people are very passionate about their Subaru's, and back then reels weren't a thing, so there wasn't.

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It's mostly just pictures and captions.

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So I again very quickly saw that people are passionate.

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So I decided because I had done a podcast before this and so I already had some equipment, kind of knew how to interview people and I had some ideas of what I wanted to do.

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But I was thinking maybe people might be interested in sharing more about their car, you know, their mods and then also their Subaru journey, and I didn't know it would become what it has.

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But so that was kind of where the idea came from.

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And then there's this woman that does decals.

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Her name is Jen.

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She goes, her account is eccentric designs and I started connecting with her, became friends, bought some decals and I got her to be my first guest, and so that was kind of how it all started.

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Very interesting.

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So you started that in what year you started?

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You got your Subaru in 2020.

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Yeah, you kicked off the podcast a long after that.

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My first episode released on Monday, january 4th of 2021, because I wanted to release it for the new year for 2021.

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And I was like, well, january 1st is a holiday, so a lot of people may not listen to it.

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It's also on a Friday, so people are going to be out partying and stuff.

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Who's going to want to listen to a podcast?

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So I'm like, let me just do it on Monday and then I'll just release them every Monday from then on.

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And so Jen with eccentric designs had she had been doing that for about six months, a lot of people in the community knew who she and they knew who she was, who she was, and people were already buying her decals.

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She also has a separate car account and a lot of people were following that.

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So having her on is my first guest and I had put out a little teaser on my page.

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But having her as my first guest and people seeing that people kind of freaked out and then came to the podcast pretty quickly and just started growing from there.

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Wow.

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That's very smart.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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So it's really interesting to see that and then to kind of pick up, just based on the fact that you saw a couple things on Instagram, had you seen Tom's stuff?

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Actually, tom, when did you put your start doing your site?

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It's been a couple of years.

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Oh, it's been, yeah, nine years now.

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Nine years 2014.

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Yeah, yeah, okay, which sometimes I wonder that must be crazy, that's what I'm doing.

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But yeah, well, I mean you get connected with accounts, especially like in the.

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Through Instagram and the Subaru community.

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You come across so many people and you get connected with so many people, like I don't remember how.

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I get connected with a lot of different people.

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So I'm sure that I saw Tom's account somewhere or somebody shared it in their stories or something, and so I thought it was really cool what he is doing, because his account isn't he's not featuring his own Subaru, he's featuring other Subarus, and so I thought that was really cool and I reached out to him and was like asked him if he'd be interested in being on the podcast to talk about what he's been doing and, especially since he's been doing it for so long featuring all these other builds and finding out how he is getting these people onto his account, like is he reaching out and asking them for permission or is he just sharing their accounts.

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So that was a good episode and interesting to find out how he got started, what he was doing, and we've been state connected and we help each other out.

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He's got the newsletter, so he includes like a rewind for the podcast and the newsletter, which I very, very much appreciate and I remember at times to share in my stories that he has a newsletter and try to get people to sign up for it.

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Yeah, and I'm happy to share that.

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I think one, because you're just such a nice guy.

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And you really are, and I think that's part, a big part actually, of the reason why your show has done so well is because when people sit and they talk to you and get to know you and plus you're going out to events and things now too but you're, you know, you're just a likable, sincere, good person and I think that attracts people.

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Thank you, thank you.

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I hope so.

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I have a lot of people say too that I have a very calming voice and I was recording with a guy.

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I think it was last night.

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I was talking to him and he said that and I'm like man, I hope I'm not putting people to sleep while they're driving.

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No.

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I'm getting it directs because, oh yeah, I was listening to the Subin U podcast and his calming voice.

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Maybe that could be your other gig.

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Hey, I've thought about it.

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Yeah, there are some opportunities with that.

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No, I've actually I took a.

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I'm trying to thank you.

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I took a voiceover course a little over a year ago, because I had so many people compliment my voice.

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I'm like, okay, I guess I have a nice voice, let me see if I can, you know, give this a shot.

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And I've done a couple of things so far.

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That's great, yeah, and listening to you now, I'm ready to take a nap.

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No, all right, we lost Jeff.

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I don't add much to this anyways, it's been lost for a while.

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So in 2021, january 2021, you kick off your first podcast.

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You're now at how many episodes is it again?

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You're at 140?

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142.

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This past Monday I released 142.

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142 episodes.

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Now does that count?

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But you have had bonus episodes.

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Yeah, it's not Thanks to you, it's just 142.

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I also have bonus episodes.

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I have quite a few because I went to Subifest California.

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I did a bonus episode from there because I recorded with people.

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I went to Subaru Flat Fest, which is in Madison, wisconsin.

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I have a bonus episode from that.

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I went to last year.

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They had the big event at Gilman Subaru Southwest, so I did a bonus episode from there.

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And just recently they had Subifest Texas and I recorded with four of the kind of Texas Dallas area dealerships and that was a bonus episode.

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But I also did there's something that I did that I wanted to do more of.

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It's just I just don't have a lot of time to do it.

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But I did one episode with a couple of guys called Tales from the Trails, where they were just talking about crazy stuff that happened while they were out and hitting some trails, right.

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Which was probably a fun episode to do.

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Oh it was, and it was cool too, because I had met them.

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It was with Chris and Juan.

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Chris goes by Shadow Roo.

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He was episode seven, the one that I recorded with the funky phone.

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And then Juan he was.

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I think it was episode 12.

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And so I went to Colorado because I was going to do the episode with them and then I said wait a minute, I'm going to be coming out there and we're going to hit some trails together and I want to wait until after I come out there so that I can be part of that episode, so we can talk about Tales from the Trails with me in it as well.

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So that was what we did.

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Nice, nice.

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So let's go back to that.

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So episode one the early days.

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I know we talked a little bit before we started to record about this, but I thought it was interesting In the early beginning, which makes sense the early beginning not the late beginning, not the middle.

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Yeah, yeah, the middle beginning or the end beginning.

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It's been a long day, so in the early days of your podcast, what type of a setup did you have?

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So back then I had the Scarlett 4i4 and then I had that going through my MacBook and then my microphone was the Shure MV88, which is this small, tiny little condenser microphone that I bought as part of a video kit because I was thinking that it would be cool to have that and use it at events or something.

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And I bought it before I even started the Subaru podcast, because I had mentioned earlier that I had another podcast so, and it was a vegan themed podcast and I was going out to like vegan festivals and stuff and I thought it'd be cool to have for those kind of events Gotcha.

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So that's what I was using with my other podcast and that's what I started off with this one.

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And then again, with episode seven, I ran into the issue of recording a phone call.

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So that was when I upgraded to the Roadcaster Pro, because it has the ability to take a phone call and record that way, which I really really like, right.

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Okay, so Roadcaster Pro, still, you've got a Shure.

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Which Shure do you have there?

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So actually I have the this is a Shure, I think it's the MV7B, because I know there's like the MV7 that a lot of the bigger the.

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Joe Rogan mic.

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Huh, it's the Joe Rogan mic.

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Yeah, yeah, it's a little bit of a crossing.

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So this is kind of like the baby brother of that and I so when I all of my equipment that I used, I ended up doing a lot of research, looked up a lot of YouTube videos and that was how I selected my equipment.

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So I got I did.

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This was a new mic.

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It's relatively new, and so when I found out that it was coming out and it was half the cost, I'm like I'm gonna upgrade to that, let's do that.

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Yeah, I did a lot of the same thing before I pulled the trigger on.

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What I was going to get is like lots of YouTube videos, and it's a personality defect I have where I have to research things into the dirt.

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Oh, I do too.

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Yeah, I get that.

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So, yeah, I, I, I went deep and I was like, no, this is too much, I just need to not think about it so much.

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So I just got the Rokaster Pro 2, which was the current model at that point, and the RODE is the PodMic just because it's around.

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Just keep the stack road, and that way, if there's any issues anywhere, it's one place to contact and license it yeah that's good.

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So what did you?

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So I did a lot of my research with podcastage I'm guessing that's how you say it and because he does a lot of mic and podcast equipment reviews, yeah, and and he's got an awesome setup, which I'm sure is a lot of money, but he talks about post editing and stuff, which I don't do any of that because I just have GarageBand Right, so I don't have.

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I mean, I know there's, I know there's plugins and stuff and there's another podcasting app that you can use for recording.

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I can't remember what it's called, but it has some plugins that you can use and I was thinking that would be really nice because there are some things that cut out some of the noise that can come through, and but I mean this program is like a thousand years old.

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This program is like a thousand dollars.

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So I'm like um that's how I'll stick with what I'm doing.

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Yeah Well, I mean, you're having great success with it so and yeah, honestly, to me it's like the, and I know it's changed a lot.

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But podcasting in its truest sense to me is this it's three dudes in closets.

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Yeah, because it's the only quiet space in the house and but I think that's really like, that's it's roots, that's where it came from, um, and then, you know, it became hip and the, the big mega corporation, started to do it.

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I heard, where did I hear this song?

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It might have been on, uh, on Adam Curry shows, but he was talking about that and maybe it was NPR.

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They had like 23 people working on one show, yeah, and then they laid them all off because it didn't make any money.

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And I'm like, well, no kidding, it doesn't make any money, it's a podcast, yeah.

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I mean you have to have thousands of downloads to make money.

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And cause I was, I was watching a YouTube video.

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Cause I use Buzzsprout and Buzzsprout has a YouTube channel and they have a podcast about podcasting.

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So I was watching one of their YouTube videos and they were talking about where was I going with?

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this Uh, oh, they, yeah, so they were.

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They were talking about, uh, downloads and everything, and they had this woman on that started a true crime podcast, which apparently those do really well.

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So maybe that's just what I need to do if I want to make money, right?

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But kill somebody and then talk about it, right yeah?

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So.

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So she was like, yeah, you know, when I first started out I wasn't getting that many downloads.

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I mean, I think I was only getting like 1500 downloads and, you know, a week.

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And I'm just like what?

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Not that many.

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So because I know that the way like sleep number, bed and better helpcom and all those companies that that are in the business to sponsor podcasts, they want to sponsor podcasts that get thousands and thousands of them downloads because they need thousands and thousands of people to be listening to it to get any kind of, you know, exposure out there.

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And so, you know, usually with those you get paid, like if it's like a 60 second ad at the beginning of an episode, it's like 30 bucks for that 60 second ad, so which you think $30 isn't that much.

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But if you take $30 times 10,000 downloads per episode and if you're doing four a month, that's a lot of money, right, I don't have those kind of downloads.

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No, you really need those big numbers?

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Yeah, Because it'll pay you per Yep.

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So go ahead, Jeff.

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No, no, no, no, no.

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Got nothing in.

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No, I was going to say that I am thankful to be sponsored with my podcast.

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Nice.

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Who sponsors you, by the way?

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Let's shut them out here, might as well.

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It's a company called Subaru of America, you may have heard of it Wow.

00:17:51.663 --> 00:17:53.067
Yeah, it's a little company.

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Ooh, what a flex.

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Now it'll eventually be.

00:17:56.342 --> 00:17:58.990
You know that might be big business in time.

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Well, so they have the Subaru gear store where they have, you know, anything that's branded Subaru and Subaru Motorsports USA, and they so with the, with the gear store.

00:18:11.275 --> 00:18:20.468
They didn't really they don't really do any advertising, and so they thought that that would be a good fit for the podcast, because then that would get the gear store more exposure.

00:18:20.468 --> 00:18:32.028
And so so they started sponsoring me, and this is we're in the second year of them sponsoring me Not two years in a row, but like the second term, if you want to call it and then I have a wheel sponsor that sponsors me.

00:18:32.028 --> 00:18:33.224
So that's, that's been nice.

00:18:33.224 --> 00:18:37.869
And then that woman, jen from eccentric design, she started sponsoring me as well.

00:18:38.932 --> 00:18:39.073
Right.

00:18:39.073 --> 00:18:45.115
I think that's the benefit of being in such a you know well-defined niche, right Because?

00:18:45.115 --> 00:18:47.079
It's not just cars right, it could be anything else.

00:18:47.079 --> 00:18:49.848
It's not an automotive show per se, it's really not.

00:18:49.848 --> 00:18:56.781
I mean, we talk about Subaru's on the show, but it's, it's more the story behind the person who drives it.

00:18:57.403 --> 00:19:15.231
Yeah, yeah, and in my probably the last 10 episodes or so, I started doing an, a segment called to you know the person behind the account, where I asked personal questions so that, because you chat, you can chat with people online a lot about builds and a little bit about themselves.

00:19:15.231 --> 00:19:29.592
But one of the things that I found that people have messaged me that they say man, I've been chatting with this person for so long and now I get to actually hear what they sound like and learn more about them, and so to hear people say that it's really meaningful, you know it is.

00:19:30.714 --> 00:19:32.400
Definitely is All right.

00:19:32.400 --> 00:19:50.546
And so, with the, the show, maybe let's talk a little bit about how you operate that thing, cause you've got, obviously you're scheduling that you need to do, you've got recording, we've talked a bit about the podcast setup that you have there, so we've, we've covered that, but like, what's You're doing, travel?

00:19:50.546 --> 00:19:52.589
Clearly Right yeah.

00:19:52.890 --> 00:19:55.861
Yeah, I have some done, some travel, yeah.

00:19:55.861 --> 00:20:02.173
So I use note, my notes app to keep track of all of my guests.

00:20:02.173 --> 00:20:04.763
So I have I have.

00:20:04.763 --> 00:20:26.884
So basically have like a subi and you it's kind of like my you know folder off to the side and then within that I have a bunch of different notes that I've put together and that's where I compile all of my individual episodes, where I'll have like the episode number, what the title is going to be, and then all of the information that I'm going to put into my episode notes.

00:20:26.884 --> 00:20:41.710
And then I have a separate one that I have it's just called subi and you podcast guests and that's where I have all of the guests listed that I've recorded with and then the ones that are on my list of ones to get to at some point.

00:20:41.710 --> 00:20:45.650
And I've had some people on the list for a long time.

00:20:45.650 --> 00:20:54.027
I recorded with the guy the other night and well, the one from Monday had been a year that we started talking until I finally got them on.

00:20:54.729 --> 00:20:54.949
Wow.

00:20:55.951 --> 00:20:56.132
Yeah.

00:20:56.599 --> 00:20:58.525
Do you have guests every show or you're having?

00:20:58.525 --> 00:21:00.730
Okay, you have guests every single show.

00:21:02.102 --> 00:21:03.708
Except for I have done.

00:21:03.708 --> 00:21:05.555
I don't remember if I yeah, so I did.

00:21:05.555 --> 00:21:08.605
I think I did it as a bonus episode, but I haven't really.

00:21:08.605 --> 00:21:11.352
I think I've only maybe done two solo episodes.

00:21:11.352 --> 00:21:32.549
But other than that, I mean it's the point and the I guess the goal of the podcast is to interview people within the community or brands, because I've had quite a few brands on the podcast as well that make products for Subaru only and then also for Subaru and other car manufacturers, so that's been fun when I did so.

00:21:32.549 --> 00:21:54.192
When I reached my, I did 100,000 download solo episode and I so that one was a solo episode and I put in a lot of statistics of what's happened over the past 133 episodes and 100,000 downloads, and at the time I had recorded with 19 brands out of 133 episodes.

00:21:54.585 --> 00:21:55.469
So that was that was.

00:21:55.469 --> 00:21:57.611
I didn't even I didn't know that the number was that big.

00:21:57.611 --> 00:21:59.612
So that was interesting for me to find out.

00:21:59.612 --> 00:22:01.451
I knew it was quite a few, but not that many.

00:22:01.924 --> 00:22:02.769
Yeah, it's really impressive.

00:22:02.769 --> 00:22:11.653
And then when you record, how far in advance typically do you record before the show will actually come out?

00:22:11.653 --> 00:22:21.009
Like I'll tell you, our show is usually like a Friday night, but we're more topical, like it's kind of it's not necessarily a new show, but we do covers.

00:22:21.009 --> 00:22:30.571
You know, if it's a big news story, we'll cover it, and so sometimes it's timely in that regard and so we'll usually record like on a Thursday or Friday, and then the show gets published on Monday.

00:22:30.571 --> 00:22:39.397
But sometimes I wish it wasn't as aggressive, yeah that's pretty compact, but we make it work.

00:22:39.684 --> 00:22:42.353
But how do you set that up for what you're doing?

00:22:43.184 --> 00:22:45.991
So I usually I've kind of gone.

00:22:45.991 --> 00:22:47.715
It hasn't been consistent.

00:22:47.715 --> 00:22:50.230
I usually will try.

00:22:50.230 --> 00:22:56.891
So I have my son with me every other week so I try not to record the weeks that he's with me and, just, you know, give him that time.

00:22:56.891 --> 00:23:06.493
So I try to record the weeks he's not with me and I generally would like to record at least two or three episodes a week if I can.

00:23:06.493 --> 00:23:17.311
But at minimum I try to do two, because in that way if somebody cancels on me then I'm like, oh crap, now I don't have an episode for Monday.

00:23:18.153 --> 00:23:18.335
Yeah.

00:23:19.105 --> 00:23:35.067
So I have done as many as four or five, I think, in one week, which was it was tough, but it was also nice because I'm like now I can just kind of sit back and relax and just edit over the next few weeks and not have to worry about that's what we need to do.

00:23:35.449 --> 00:23:36.973
Yeah, and we've talked about that.

00:23:37.164 --> 00:23:40.174
We've talked about, you know, of piling up a couple of them.

00:23:40.325 --> 00:23:55.390
Probably do that coming up in the well, because once you hit like November and you hit the holidays and it's gonna be tough to do, like you know, a Thursday and then drop it on Monday, but I mean, be asleep from Thanksgiving dinner will be try to do a show, yeah.

00:23:57.184 --> 00:24:01.885
Well, yeah, so I tried to get at least a couple of episodes in.

00:24:01.885 --> 00:24:10.867
You know that week that my son isn't with me, so that for the next two weeks I can have episodes to put out and then, when I get to that two week mark, again record a couple more.

00:24:10.867 --> 00:24:14.727
And it's to keep and I have kept that pretty consistent, except for lately.

00:24:14.727 --> 00:24:16.913
It's just been tough to get them in there.

00:24:18.346 --> 00:24:20.292
Is this your primary line of work?

00:24:20.292 --> 00:24:22.667
Is this the only thing that you're doing, or do you have a day job?

00:24:23.204 --> 00:24:25.313
I wish it was but no, it is.

00:24:25.905 --> 00:24:27.150
I do have a full-time job too.

00:24:27.190 --> 00:24:28.031
That's the thing is so.

00:24:28.051 --> 00:24:28.574
Which is what?

00:24:28.574 --> 00:24:28.854
What do?

00:24:28.874 --> 00:24:30.086
you do so.

00:24:30.086 --> 00:24:46.511
I'm a project manager for a small architectural and engineering firm and you know it's a good job but it can be stressful at times because we've got a lot of projects going on and we're always really busy and you know so it's tough because, like when I'm recording in the evenings, that's taking up my own personal time.

00:24:46.511 --> 00:24:49.734
When I'm editing in the morning or in the evenings.

00:24:49.845 --> 00:24:58.127
that's taking up my own personal time, right and you have a long, stressful day at work and then you come home and then you get to jump right back into work.

00:24:58.127 --> 00:24:59.987
Yeah, and it could be.

00:24:59.987 --> 00:25:04.275
It's a lot Sometimes wonder why I do all the side things.

00:25:04.275 --> 00:25:08.391
I have going on and told Jeff it's like, ah, maybe rethink some of the things.

00:25:08.511 --> 00:25:16.068
but I mean, thankfully, I work from home, so the only days that I don't work from home are on Mondays, so like yesterday.

00:25:16.068 --> 00:25:18.726
So we're recording this on Tuesday night and.

00:25:18.726 --> 00:25:26.845
I recorded an episode on a Monday and that was tough because I had set it up to record at seven, I believe, and I got home at like 640.

00:25:26.884 --> 00:25:28.592
So I messaged the guy and I was like hey.

00:25:29.265 --> 00:25:30.210
I need a few more minutes.

00:25:30.210 --> 00:25:31.589
And he was like, yeah, sure, no problem.

00:25:31.589 --> 00:25:38.553
So, yeah, I try to get those in so, like you know, I don't have to like get home from work.

00:25:38.553 --> 00:25:54.230
So I try to schedule them around seven or seven, 30 my time, so that I can have some time to eat and just relax, cause I just because it's five o'clock doesn't mean I'm done with work, cause a lot of times I might work till 535, 45 or six, depending on what we've got going on.

00:25:54.230 --> 00:26:06.069
And then I'm like okay, now only have an hour before I have to record, Then we chat for a while, then we record the episode, which can be anywhere from an hour and 20 minutes to an hour and a half, and then we chat for a while.

00:26:06.069 --> 00:26:07.309
So then there goes two hours.

00:26:07.309 --> 00:26:12.788
So now by the time I'm done, it's like nine o'clock and I'm like now I gotta start thinking about getting ready for bed.

00:26:12.788 --> 00:26:16.989
Yeah, pretty much, even though I don't go to bed that early.

00:26:17.932 --> 00:26:18.051
Right.

00:26:18.051 --> 00:26:32.532
So we had conversations like before just phone calls and things where we were talking and both of us kind of talking about that balance between primary work and inside hustles and things and those I think you mentioned back then you know.

00:26:32.532 --> 00:26:37.933
So you know it's 11 o'clock and you'd just gotten back from a road trip and you had a show to edit and Monday's coming up.

00:26:37.933 --> 00:26:39.609
So you said you had to do it and you did.

00:26:40.050 --> 00:26:43.131
Yeah, Well, yeah, and that's the thing too is my previous job.

00:26:43.131 --> 00:26:51.294
I used to travel, so if I was gonna have to be gone for like two or three days some week, then I had to schedule around that.

00:26:51.294 --> 00:26:59.894
And that was a lot tougher when I was traveling because I would get sometimes we would, you know, I'd get home and I'm like, oh man, I gotta edit.

00:26:59.894 --> 00:27:10.809
I might get home on a Friday or something and like I gotta edit this episode before Monday, but I've got plans for the weekend and so just trying to squeeze everything in is, you know, tough sometimes.

00:27:11.692 --> 00:27:19.047
So let me ask you this, and I'll pose this to both of you, all right, why do you think we do these things Like?

00:27:19.047 --> 00:27:21.013
Because, I mean, we've talked about it.

00:27:21.013 --> 00:27:33.231
It's you've got the grind of work, you've got family life, you got dinner, you need some decompressed time, and then we say you know what I'd like to do in the non-spare time that I have?

00:27:33.231 --> 00:27:37.490
I'd like to do some more work, but I'm not getting paid for, so it's a labor of love.

00:27:37.490 --> 00:27:40.753
I mean, there's no, no considerable income.

00:27:40.753 --> 00:27:42.328
I speak for Jeff and I.

00:27:42.328 --> 00:27:44.733
Raffiato, I don't know your situation, but yeah.

00:27:44.904 --> 00:27:47.148
You said it wasn't your full-time job, so we'll go with that.

00:27:47.148 --> 00:27:52.574
So what drives you to do the show?

00:27:52.574 --> 00:27:54.308
You asking me, or Jeff?

00:27:54.308 --> 00:27:56.892
I know Jeff, he just likes to see my face.

00:27:57.266 --> 00:27:58.211
I'm more curious about yours.

00:27:58.211 --> 00:27:59.852
This is my social club.

00:28:00.948 --> 00:28:01.388
This is.

00:28:01.750 --> 00:28:04.528
Tom's basically the only friend I have, except for Steve.

00:28:04.528 --> 00:28:14.192
Steve, you're my friend too, but Tom's, tom's like I said, I live in Jeffrey Dahmer's basement.

00:28:14.192 --> 00:28:15.390
That's where I'm at right now.

00:28:15.390 --> 00:28:18.374
There's not much going on if I'm not out collecting heads.

00:28:18.374 --> 00:28:25.199
So yeah, I do it for the fun of it.

00:28:25.199 --> 00:28:27.653
I really this is an avocation for me.

00:28:27.653 --> 00:28:31.048
I have a few of these, actually A few live-in theaters.

00:28:31.611 --> 00:28:32.473
No, no, no, no.

00:28:32.473 --> 00:28:41.593
Oh, I was on the board of a local theater for up until June of this year, but also I do a lot of theater work.

00:28:41.593 --> 00:28:49.690
In fact, this week, starting on Thursday evening, we're in tech for a readers theater production that's gonna run on the weekend.

00:28:49.690 --> 00:28:52.050
So I've got tech and then I've got four shows.

00:28:52.050 --> 00:28:56.373
So that's obviously another outlet.

00:28:56.373 --> 00:29:00.112
But this is to me, this is creative, it's a creative outlet.

00:29:00.112 --> 00:29:04.852
And, for the record, I mean Tom does most of the late work on this.

00:29:04.852 --> 00:29:06.791
He does the hard work.

00:29:06.791 --> 00:29:21.817
I show up and try to be funny Rarely am I, but I try to be, try to add some 15-inch humor into this conversation.

00:29:22.498 --> 00:29:25.609
There, it is 35 minutes in.

00:29:25.609 --> 00:29:27.508
That's right, that's a record for us.

00:29:27.508 --> 00:29:29.327
Yeah, well, it is.

00:29:31.108 --> 00:29:52.772
So for me this is a fun thing to do, and the only thing that I do after this is Tom does whatever editing there is, and usually it's pretty much straight from tape to live, and then I listen to it to make sure that there's nothing to egregious in it before we send it out.

00:29:52.772 --> 00:29:56.511
So that's kind of my piece, and I can do that while I'm washing dishes.

00:29:57.509 --> 00:30:00.550
Yeah, yeah, for me again.

00:30:00.550 --> 00:30:07.954
I just I bought the Subaru because I'd been wanting a Subaru Cross Trek for a long time, for at least five years.

00:30:07.954 --> 00:30:14.713
So when I bought it I was just thinking, hey, I have this car that has the ability to go off road.

00:30:14.713 --> 00:30:20.115
I didn't know how capable it was, but I mean I'd watched some YouTube videos so I knew it was pretty capable.

00:30:20.115 --> 00:30:35.069
But I'm also watching these YouTube videos, thinking I have nothing like that around where I am, but when we have our annual family reunion there's some county roads up there that might be fun, and that was like what I was thinking would be at the extent of it.

00:30:35.069 --> 00:30:43.993
So when I started connecting with all these people and seeing their passion, then my passion grew seeing what they were doing and connecting with people.

00:30:43.993 --> 00:31:02.113
And then so when I started, when I had the idea to do the podcast to give because it's really to give people a place to share about their build and their journey and about themselves, and because the last question that I asked is like how is owning a Subaru change your life?

00:31:02.113 --> 00:31:04.392
And so that's where we really get into.

00:31:04.392 --> 00:31:06.230
It's more than just about a car.

00:31:07.585 --> 00:31:10.094
But for me, I enjoy connecting with people.

00:31:10.094 --> 00:31:18.451
I enjoy helping people to share their stories and I didn't know when I first started it that I was going to get sponsored.

00:31:18.451 --> 00:31:24.249
I didn't know that Subaru of America was going to reach out to me and say, hey, we've got some opportunities we want to run by you.

00:31:24.249 --> 00:31:27.855
I didn't know that I would be going out to all these events.

00:31:27.855 --> 00:31:34.352
I didn't even know about the Subifest events, I didn't know about Winterfest, I didn't know, I mean, there was so much I didn't know about Subaru.

00:31:34.352 --> 00:31:41.272
So for me, I enjoy doing it to just it's kind of my way to be a part of the community.

00:31:41.272 --> 00:31:55.792
But also the messages that I get from people is that's a really big part of what helps me keep going, as people reaching out and saying thank you for doing this, keep doing it, we love it and we look forward to it every Monday.

00:31:56.585 --> 00:31:58.030
Yeah, I think they've definitely made.

00:31:58.030 --> 00:32:04.650
You've made a connection with them and, through extension, they've made more connections into the community, I think.

00:32:05.325 --> 00:32:11.855
Yeah, because I've had so many people say that it's helped connect the community in a way that has never been there before.

00:32:11.855 --> 00:32:26.153
And then I've had people say, oh man, I've been looking for a Subaru podcast for a long time and I just Googled and I came across yours or somebody might see it in somebody's stories and be like, oh, that's how I came across the podcast.

00:32:26.153 --> 00:32:32.512
And then there's people that have I've never listened to a podcast ever in my life and this is the only one that I listen to.

00:32:32.512 --> 00:32:34.951
Or I've never listened to a podcast.

00:32:34.951 --> 00:32:40.634
I listened to this one and now I've started listening to some other ones too, because I like the platform and I like the concept of it.

00:32:41.066 --> 00:32:52.375
Right, yeah, and I think what's interesting about Subarus in general is it really is people that have Subarus, or tend to have Subarus, tend to be people that are outside a lot.

00:32:52.375 --> 00:32:55.232
They're camping.

00:32:55.232 --> 00:32:59.973
I don't want to generalize too much, but you don't hear about the Buick podcast.

00:32:59.973 --> 00:33:03.393
There might be, but not, but not Delta 88.

00:33:03.393 --> 00:33:10.237
Got my Delta 88 and we're ready to go, boys.

00:33:10.464 --> 00:33:13.933
My mom had a Delta 88.

00:33:13.933 --> 00:33:14.976
That was a thing.

00:33:15.424 --> 00:33:22.657
It definitely was a thing, but it definitely seems like a very connected community.

00:33:22.657 --> 00:33:34.332
In fact, when Tom first started doing his Instagram, I was at that time driving a Subaru my son's driving that one now, as we said earlier.

00:33:34.332 --> 00:33:49.038
But the growth of his Instagram was insane to me, like some teeny tiny little Instagram that he just put up because he likes Subarus On a whim.

00:33:49.038 --> 00:33:51.791
Yeah, it was just kind of a fun thing, and how many people do you have following that now?

00:33:51.791 --> 00:33:52.808
I already asked that, I think.

00:33:54.768 --> 00:34:04.462
About 40,000, a little over that, but it's gotten pretty stagnated of late because of the platform changes Like yeah.

00:34:04.563 --> 00:34:04.744
Instagram.

00:34:04.945 --> 00:34:09.574
I think Rafael mentioned it earlier, but like with the reels and video and things like that.

00:34:10.849 --> 00:34:11.751
Instagram is trying to be.

00:34:13.369 --> 00:34:25.641
They want to be TikTok, because TikTok's eating their lunch which is funny, though and Twitter's, which is their so-called Twitter thing, has actually become a pretty good photo-sharing platform.

00:34:25.641 --> 00:34:33.900
Oh nice, and which makes sense when you think about it, because when you join threads, you join with your Instagram account.

00:34:33.900 --> 00:34:42.405
So if you already have the Instagram account, that kind of leads to think, well, you're probably like photography, at least back in the day.

00:34:42.405 --> 00:34:42.788
I don't know.

00:34:42.788 --> 00:34:48.451
I mean, you know, maybe people just joined for reels and stuff now, but so it's actually become pretty good for that.

00:34:48.451 --> 00:34:52.769
But I'm sure video won't take it over eventually as well.

00:34:53.701 --> 00:35:02.791
Yeah, and when they started coming, when people started doing reels, I was like I love doing photos, I am not gonna do reels, and now I do a lot of reels.

00:35:02.791 --> 00:35:03.742
But.

00:35:03.742 --> 00:35:13.820
But I'm starting to do the reels because I've found ways to get creative with it and I've started using this app called cap cut, and cap cut is really fun to put stuff together.

00:35:13.820 --> 00:35:15.603
So I've just I've been having fun with it.

00:35:15.603 --> 00:35:17.668
Nice, so I enjoy doing reels now.

00:35:17.969 --> 00:35:19.313
It's definitely the reason to do it.

00:35:20.601 --> 00:35:22.007
Yeah, so with your.

00:35:22.628 --> 00:35:23.190
I'm sorry, go ahead.

00:35:23.311 --> 00:35:26.927
Yeah, no, I just I was gonna say real quick because, like I, so I have a.

00:35:26.927 --> 00:35:32.987
I have a patreon account also, so I have patrons that you know sign up and help support the podcast.

00:35:32.987 --> 00:35:52.239
And we were having a chat the other night and we were talking about posting and how you know we've there were several of us that were saying that we are just gonna post whenever we want to and not try to, you know, post on a regular schedule or post just a post, and so I'm kind of getting more like that with my car account.

00:35:53.184 --> 00:36:03.297
But I have a wheel sponsor, so we have wheel Wednesday, so I have to make sure and try to come up with something to post for that right, and but other than that, you know I just in living in Houston.

00:36:03.297 --> 00:36:10.373
There's not much here, so it gets kind of boring at times and I just feel like I don't have much content to post need to head down to Nolence.

00:36:11.280 --> 00:36:14.231
Urban drive around downtown Houston and stuff.

00:36:14.612 --> 00:36:15.175
Yeah.

00:36:15.175 --> 00:36:25.014
Yeah, I mean there's stuff here, but like the other, I mean last week it rained, so Thursday night I met up with some people and I went mutting and it was so much fun.

00:36:25.014 --> 00:36:27.264

Riding Shotgun: Inside the Subie & YOU! Podcast with Rafael Ruiz

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