You’ll Never Believe How He Sold Out Events Using Only Instagram

Benjamin Shrader is the CEO of Shrader Promotions, an event production and promotion company based in Texas. He's been organizing and running concerts throughout Texas for over six years. In that time, he's worked with artists like Ge z Wiz Khalifa and Parker McCollum. Now, I'm sure young people probably know who they are.

I have no clue. Actually. I know Wiz Khalifa, but that's by the by. he actually started his company while he was still a student at Texas A&M Go Longhorns.

He's achieved a lot for someone as young as he is, and when I learned of his severe dyslexia and ADHD, I just had to have him on the podcast to share his story. He's become a dyslexic advocate and given speeches to dyslexic students and student entrepreneurs across Texas. He almost exclusively uses social media to organize his events, and I'm I can't wait to get into that. As if all that adversity wasn't enough, he's had to overcome about a year ago, as if all that adversity wasn't enough.

About a year ago, he was diagnosed with a golf ball sized brain tumor. Thankfully he was able to have it removed, but did lose all the hearing in his right ear. This experience has given a new resolve and I've begun. This experience has given him new resolve and he's begun speaking on the necessity of fortitude for young people no matter what life throws at them.

So Benjamin, it's great to talk to you. So Benjamin, it's so good to have you on the podcast today. I was reading, I, I obviously just read out your bio and, for me, I'm blown away by, by blown away by all the adversity that you've had to overcome. So why don't you tell us about some of that stuff that's happened to you in, I guess what's a comparatively short life span compared to me Oh, I, I don't know about that, but thank you so much, for having me off the bat.

it's gonna be a wonderful conversation today. I have to say, I would say probably the, the biggest things that have, shaped my life, first and foremost, dyslexia, and very severe dyslexia To this day, I read at about, you're gonna laugh at me, but it's technically tested at a second grade reading level, but I often say third, because that sounds better to me, which I know is yeah. Are you smarter than a third grader or, but so it, it, that has been tough. And that is something that, that's a burden I'll have to carry for the rest of my life, unless, there's a Neuralink or something like that one day that can just fix that.

But that difficulty, really, I would say shaped who I am. And I would say without dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia, the big three. So that's trouble with reading, dysgraphia, trouble with writing and dyscalculia trouble with math. So I'm in the 1% for dyslexia.

extremely, extremely severe. I'm, and I'm in about the, very severe four dysgraphia and dyscalculia made me who I am. And I think without it, I probably would've turned out to be a jerk. it, it keeps you humble.

and it inspired me to something my father told me when I was young. He said, Benjamin, you're gonna have to work twice as hard as the other kids just to get to where they are. On certain things, but you're good at talking. Become the best at that.

That is how you will survive in a reader's world. And that so how, how young were you when it was diagnosed that you had dyslexia? was in kindergarten, I was very young, which, which was a blessing. because the younger that you are diagnosed and the younger that you can get remediation and therapy, it's very important.

You gotta get reading therapy if you have dyslexia. I had nine years of it just to get me to the point where I could function, like survive and just get around town. Yeah. 'cause my, my, my stepdaughter who's very, very, I mean, incredibly smart.

she was at university when she was diagnosed with dyslexia, right? So she had to change so much, she, she had ended up with a, like a specially supplied laptop with, all sorts of different font colors and sizes and everything else. I mean, I looked at it, I'm like, God, how can you read that? But that was the only way she could read it, right?

So she, again, she did really well because of, having it diagnosed. But again, it was probably a lot later than maybe it, it could have been diagnosed, which would've helped her maybe earlier on. In, in terms of. I mean, a lot of times, it is hard.

It can be hard even to diagnose if someone does not have it very severe, because one in every five people have dyslexia. It's very common. And all it is is, dyslexics are very smart. All it is is it's a different distribution and neural net connections.

So I got about half the neural net connections of the average on one side of my brain. But all those others, they're on the other side. So it, I'm not missing any, maybe I am, but not, not actual, not all dyslexics, but so we have those same number of neural net connections, the same level of intelligence. It's just spread out differently.

And I know often, in the United States, we were recognized very recently actually as an official disability. But myself, I will always call it a learning difference because. It is just, you give me an audio book and you give me, a way that I can take in media, that I can be a video instead of just text on a page and I can learn anything just as well as anybody else. like a, I mean, so I, I, I've be, I've talked to lots of guests on the podcast over the last sort of, few, few years really.

And, one of the things that's really been highlighted to me, I mean, virtually every, every time I have a podcast conversation now, we end up talking a little bit about AI and some of the, I I think a lot of people are frightened of ai, but there are some, some amazing use cases for some of the capabilities that it has. And one of the ones that I came across and I actually came across, I, I used to go out, walking during the pandemic, walked every day. I did more than 10,000 steps every day for the whole of the year of 2020.

and for me it was great. I lost 70 pounds, which, which I needed to lose, which, which was important. but, but I, I found, I was listening to, to podcasts on headphones, which was great, right? But sometimes I may not necessarily want to listen to a podcast.

I might want to, listen to the news and I didn't want to download an app and kind of switch on to the BBC news or something like that. and I came across this, this AI tool called 11 Labs, and they have a, I use it every day. I use it every day. I love it.

I, and I just literally grab A-U-R-L-I grab a URL, paste it into 11 reader, right? I can have Bert Reynolds read a story to me Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh, that's amazing.

It's, it's incredible. I, I 11 labs, I, I literally, I mean, last night at 3:00 AM I was using it, so I, I completely, boy, that is awesome. That you know about it. No, I love 11 labs because I found, I found, I had a, I had a co, I had a couple of, I mean, I was going out, walking every day and sometimes if I was trying to read a story on the news on my phone, right?

On occasions I would trip up and I ended up like falling down, smash my face open. I'm thinking, this is, this is too dangerous. This is way too dangerous to be doing this, right? So I thought, what, is there a solution I could use that would bring me the capability of doing what I wanted to do, which was to read the news?

I mean, I didn't need to necessarily read it. I just needed to know what was in there. And I can obviously speed up the speed of it. So it doesn't, it doesn't need to be read at, my pace.

It can be read much quicker if I wanna read it. Read it quicker, or I can read it slower if I'm slower. in, in terms of the on take, right? So it's, so again, I, I loved having that capability, but I think, again, as much as 11 labs and their AI sort of solution for, for reading the text is great.

There's a lot of people that have latched onto it and they're using it for nefarious reasons and creating sort of fake voices for, Oh yeah. You promoting things thing is they'll always be, they'll always be bad actors. I mean, we see the same thing with deep fakes, AI of any kind. Like they'll always be people that are gonna use tech for bad things.

and of course we want to try to mitigate that, but the benefits that it brings, I am so pro technology. 'cause I remember when I was a kid. And, reading for the Blind and Dyslexic was a big charitable organization in the United States. I actually did a lot of work with them.

They were great. just amazing, amazing people. But you know, it was read by people. They would read the textbooks and then you would get it on your Victor Reader, this little block, with an SD card that you'd put into it.

And the AI voices that did exist back then. I mean, robot terrible, absolutely terrible. Unnerving, almost a little creepy. And I remember being shocked by some people as a small minority of the dyslexic community, that as things got better and voice to text and text to speech became widely adopted, they were against it.

And they were thinking, oh no, you have to do it this certain way. And. What I really explained, and I I've talked a lot about this, was it's not a crutch. It's not giving you even an edge.

It's leveling the playing field. And that's, I, I know with accommodations, with things like that, that's all that we ask is to level the playing field. Because I mean, you, you put me in a room with a number two pencil and a test and you tell me, okay, take this. I mean, I'm probably gonna fail that test to this day.

I mean, you asked me to write, God, help us all, so you know it. But I, at the same time, I'm able to run an event production company and been doing that. Oh my gosh, my math is terrible. Either seven or nine years, one of the two.

But, it's, Because you, because you start, you started the business when you were still in Texas a and m, like as a student. Go Longhorns, you guys would say uni, but no, I started the business, towards the end of my freshman year of college. And, at, at, in the beginning it was very small and just, really the promotion of events was what we focused on. And then I said, boy, the real money's in events.

And we grew that over the years. Just, done some incredible events with people like, GEZ, Parker McCollum Co Wetzel, Wiz Khalifa, but not too many. I haven't had too the pleasure of, working with too many British artists, sadly. It is funny when you, when you sent your, your bio in, I looked at it, I thought, I don't know, I, I, I, I randomly heard of Wiz Khalifa.

I'm, I'm a big oh. Yes, music fan, So I thought, wow, these are, these are people. I mean, I'd heard of him, But, but you know, again, like a big deal. I know Wiz Khalifa's certainly a big deal.

I'm sure the others are as well. I mean, there's loads it was an immense honor. Yes. No, I, I think in the states, Parker McCollum and Co Wezel, the two big country artists, Parker McCollum's really had a meteoric rise.

and then GZ is a, popular rapper in the States. And, yeah, no, it is, it's been an incredible opportunity. Some of the people that, we've had the opportunity to work with, it's an absolute pleasure and an immense honor. And, the real deduction behind the business was college kids like to party, fight control party, and college kids will like me.

that was the simple, why I got into it, because, and I really attribute a lot of this to, being left out as a kid, being that weird, dyslexic kid. When I got to college, I said, never again. Never again. I will find a way that I can make sure I will never be left out again.

And what better way to not be left out if you're putting it on the show, It's your show like you are in control. So oh yes. Yeah, I'm always amazed at how many entrepreneurs They, they build their business on the back of one specific problem that they're probably solving initially for one specific person. I mean, I, I worked with a, with a client who, basically set up a dating website.

He was a programmer developer, And he set up this, this kind of dating website and the, the, the kind of the technology on the backend. And the only male profile that was on it was his, So all the, all the women were coming in and registering. So he had the sort of pick of, and then eventually he rolled it out so other men could be on there, right? But that's either like genius or absolutely morally bankrupt.

Either way. That is hysterical. That is awesome. so he, he, he stacked the deck in his favor, right?

In much the same way, I salute a problem, you solved the problem. It's like the guy who created eBay, you solved it because. His wife had a, I think it was like his girlfriend at the time had this kind of thing about, Pez dispensers. She wanted Pez dispensers and he set eBay up on the back of, being able to trade those with the, with other people, people that had them to, to sell.

He was able to buy them and that's where eBay started. Again, really interesting kind of how these yeah, no, I, I love eBay. I gotta say, I, I got some cool stuff on there, but, yes. No, I would say the two problems.

That I really saw myself solving was in the nightlife. A lot of times people get into it to party, they get into it to have a good time. It is a service industry. You are there to provide a service.

It is a business. And I always, I never drink when I'm working. I would don't do drugs, nothing like that. Never go after, expanding my love life or things like that.

I'm there to provide a service. I'm there to do a good job. The audience is the client and bringing professionalism. really one of the big reasons that helped me in the beginning was I always wore suit.

I always, or at least a sport code. And at, at first, I mean, I was what, 19 desperately trying to pop it around and you know that, yeah. a lot. I needed all the legitimacy I could get, all the legitimacy I could get.

but you know, as things grew, I continued that on just because it was about bringing that class order outta chaos and legitimacy. And then the other was, fraternities and sororities or some of my first clients. I'm not sure if there's an equivalent in, the United Kingdom. but you know what, we have these Greek organizations, they call themselves those Greek organizations.

They have no relation to actual Greece. But basically it's, social clubs and a lot of them. animal House is one of my favorite movies of all time. Yes, yes.

You know what that is not far I, I know, I visited a friend who was in, in, university in, I think it was in like Cincinnati or something like that. And, I stayed in his frat house at, I think it was at Fresher's God bless you. And it was, and it was amazing. I mean, food was an amazing kind of experience to be there.

But, I never joined one myself, but I, I worked with them all. really eyeopening. And, and what what was really interesting is most of the people that like, I, I used to way back in the very, very early days of starting out doing kind of online marketing, I discovered that like if you, if you were running, if you wanted to get links to other sites, right? so the, the whole ecosystem of SEO was built on the back of, authority and trust, right?

And one, one of the biggest kind of trust factors was education sites, right? so.edu and, Oh yes. The, oh, and the databases.

yeah, so what happened is I used to approach people who were in frat houses who worked in the IT department at an EDU, like a at a university. And I would ask them if they can place a link to one of my client sites or one of my posts or something like that on their website. In return for me, basically dropping a couple of kegs of beer at the frat house. And they were like, sure, we can do that.

So that's what I used to do. I used to send kegs of beer to, frat houses and, and I would get a link from an EDU site. So I won. They won.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's a win-win. Yeah, I'd, oh, it's a win win win as the tide rises, as do all ships on a river of beer. But, Yeah, no, what I saw with them a lot, and I guess one little tangent, I will tell you once, thank God this wasn't my event, but I had been invited to a, fraternity event just because I worked so much with them.

I did so many of their shows. And, but the mainly when they had, were bringing in artists and this one, they weren't bringing in an artist, so they had this, jungle party, they called it. And I show up and I'm chatting with some of the people glad handing as I call it. And, it's a, it's a bit of a Bach n it's a bit of a wild time.

and then I, I like do a double take and I look and I see a giraffe. They brought a giraffe a live I am like. Where did you get the giraffe? Where what, what?

I mean, do you need a permit for that? what the heck is, of course, the entire thing gets shut down because they literally brought a giraffe from some company that had a like nature preserve that they, I don't know, paid off or rented it. I mean, so that was hysterical. But no, I mean, animal house, it is.

Shockingly accurate. So yes, no, as you can imagine, working with the Greeks is very, very stressful Sometimes. I love 'em, they're great clients, but I prefer my corporate clients. No offense to the Greeks, I love you, but I'm sure they would be the first to admit that, they can be a bit stressful.

so yes, no, a lot of the, a lot of the companies though in the nightlife industry will greatly overcharge these fraternities and sororities to the point where it's a little ridiculous because, I mean, some of them have budgets that are, I mean, we're talking even at a and m where fraternities aren't big, a hundred thousand, $200,000 a year party budget. That's a bit obscene maybe, It is, but yeah. Yeah, that's a nice chunk of change. And then you've got these companies coming in that will charge them just, I mean, we're talking 30, 40% above what is normal.

And so I said, boy, I've met enough people, I've got enough of the connections. With these different managers where I can book certain different people. I've got enough connections with sound people that I can get the equipment. I mean, I, I can do this and, and only charge 'em 20% more.

And so it is a win-win or charge 'em 10% more and so that, I still make money. They get, they don't have to spend as much money and so thus they have more money for those kegs of beer. Yeah, I mean, it's like way, way back when I was in my twenties, so hundreds of years ago. It.

I used to be a sort of part-time dj, so my brother was the main DJ at this particular Oh, that's great. That's great. And, and from time to time he would get private gigs to go out and sort of do, do a party or a wedding or something like that. So he would ask me to fill, fill in for him at the club, right?

So I used to just go along and back in the day it was carrying big boxes of records and big Oh my gosh. Yeah. all that sort of stuff. I, I look at DJs now, I'm thinking they get to fly around on private jets and they just take a laptop, Yeah.

just, they literally take like a MacBook Pro, stick it on, press play, done, put a headphones on, put some smoke up, done, finished. but, but, but what it, what it really highlighted to me, in that sort of, I, I was the person that stood between the people in the room having a great time or not, not having a great time. But also I had to manage things in such a way. I mean, I had to make sure that the people who had were basically paying for me to be there to kind of like put on this entertainment that from time to time I would bring things down.

To enable people to flee the dance floor and go to the bar and spend money on drink. Otherwise, that you, you are, you were, you were, and probably are a 10 times better DJ than so many, because a lot of people don't understand that you have to be able to feel the crowd and then you have to remember that you're literally, you're part of a business operation. yeah. So I, so I know, I know the people that were there were ultimately the people that I'm looking after, but at the same time, I needed to make sure I looked after the pay master, who was the person, 'cause if, if he, he turned around and said, it's a great night.

Everyone was there. Had a great time. But we, we took 10% of what we would normally take. If we just, drink one night rather than having a dj, then that's not gonna work.

So it's important to, to like I said, bring things down and then as soon as they, you think right, they've had enough time to refresh, know, recharge, go the, go to the toilet, maybe have a cigarette or whatever, You bring it back up. Play another song that's a banger. You get 'em straight back yeah, yeah. It's all, it's all about the wave.

So you have the, the, the high point, the low point, the high point. The low point. Yeah. No, I mean that end, at the end of the most DJs don't understand that fundamental concept.

and at the end of the evening, the last 15, 20 minutes of the evening. What I used to do, I called it the erection section, where I would basically play slow songs to enable the people that were looking to maybe, hook up with somebody to go and ask them to dance and do a slow dance and everything else. And, and, you're, you are, you're a man of the people, so I'm sure that many gentlemen appreciate it. Your efforts, But, but, but I, I guess probably like you, I, I had some.

Challenges at school. I mean, like I, I used to read my school reports and they would say, I've seen very little of Jim and even less of his work. And, I didn't really leave that's terrible. I didn't leave school with very many qualifications.

but I've done okay since then. And I think I've done it in spite of my education, not because of And I think, I think it's, it's quite interesting, to to, to your point, I see young, really well educated people now and they lack the, the kind of personal skills to be able to communicate to people and talk to people and, have the conference, the gut and shake somebody's hand that you don't know. And, if you, if you're in a crowded room of strangers right, having the confidence to just go over there and, Hey, I'm Jim, it's nice to meet you and shake hands with people and what do you do and, and what have you.

Because I think, again, I think those are the skills, the soft skills that I think really help people get on in, in life, right? I think, you can have as much education as you like, but. completely, completely agree. I completely, I mean, I would say that.

The only reason that my business has had any success at all is because I can do exactly what you're talking about, that you go, I walk into a room and I say, okay, who do I need to shake hands with? Who do I need to talk to? Who do I need to, who are the power players or influencers in this community, and how do I connect with them so that we may both mutually benefit? And you know that to, but that stems from, having that dyslexia that there was no better advocate for myself than me.

And it was embarrassing a lot. It was so often humiliating. I really was, did not wanna speak up for myself, but I had to, or I failed the test, or I, would not do this, would not be able to do this thing. yes, no, the, the value of forging those interpersonal skills of just how to have a conversation, how to go forth and introduce yourself to people, and then always have an elevator pitch in your mind of whatever thing you're working on.

Just a quick summary. Boom, boom, boom. I do x and such. And yeah, no, it is, that skill is something that should be taught.

I was blessed at a and m. I, I went there for three years, then I had a brain tumor, and then I went, I finished up at UTSA. So talk to, just be, just before you move on to kind of the, the, the next bit, yes, talk to us a little bit about that, like the brain tumor, because again, when I read that, Oh, yes, yes, that's true. out at me the most.

I'm like, holy crap. That's you've had so many ad, so many things to, of adversity to deal with. forgive me, I can kinda show you, but I had a huge scar on the back of my head. 61, forgive me for being out of frame for a moment.

61 stitches. so basically I had 2% hearing loss in my right ear, only 2%. And a little bit of pressure like I was on a plane, but just very minor. Very minor.

I had been nauseous for years, but I did not know that that was a side effect. I am thinking, okay, I, I have all of these, events. I am around loud music all the time. What a tragedy that I, I probably do have some hearing damage.

That's what I'm thinking. So I get some earplugs. I start wearing earplugs very, religiously. And then I'm like, you know what?

I should get this checked out. Something doesn't, it just doesn't feel right. No, no headaches, nothing like that. Go to the doctor.

they look in my ears. Then they give me a CT scan. they're like, your bones look a little weird, but, you probably grew that way. You're probably okay, but we should probably get you an MRI just to make sure I get an MRI.

And then, so I had just finished this one big concert, and then we had one more coming up like very soon after. So I've been working like crazy. I get a call from my parents at 10:00 PM and I'm very close. My, my family are incredible, incredible people.

But you know, it was just, it was unexpected. I pick up and I'm like, oh, hey guys, how are you doing? And they're like, the hospital called us and they said, just come in tomorrow that they called us. 'cause we're your emergency contact.

Just come in and hey, it's in the States. Let me tell you, the hospital isn't calling you to just come in. I mean, I didn't sleep a wink that night. I mean, that is that is horrible news off the bat.

something is grievously wrong. I go into the hospital. Doctor sits me down and like I arrive, they like, take me back right away. Doctor sits me down, says, okay, are you ready?

I said, let's do this. I forget exactly if I said, like I said something like, let's dance, let's do this. I know, I know. And then he said, you have a golf ball size, brain tumor, something called an acoustic neuroma growing off your hearing nerve and pushing up against your brainstem.

If you do not get it removed, you'll be dead within one to two years of a stroke. Wow. And I'm 23, Wow. or, at the time I was, it was three years ago now.

And I, I, I just laughed. That was my very first reaction. I just laughed. Some I was like, I have a second opinion?

I'm gonna want yeah, yeah. And he showed, I mean, he showed the MRI thing to me on the screen and there was this massive white just glob right next to pushing me, just like literally indenting into my brainstem and. He said, yeah. And I told me I was gonna have to get it out, and I just said, all righty, there's a, a joke, or not even really a joke, a little saying that I, I say a lot and it's a reference to World War I, I say, sometimes the whistle blows and you just gotta go over the trench, like it's time to go.

You gotta do something. Yeah. something has to be done. You don't have a choice and it stinks, but you gotta do it.

And I went, to a couple hospitals, and then eventually I was very lucky I was able to have it removed. At MD Anderson, as they're one of the best, if not the best in the world, specializing in these things. So it's 12 hour surgery, team of three doctors, to extract. And I quote, A bloody fibrous tumor.

The yikes. yeah, luckily, and the one good thing too is that it was not, brain matter itself. So it was milam sheath, it was nerve coating. and that milam sheath just grew into this glob, basically of this mass.

But the sad thing, your balance, your facial and your hearing nerve are all wrapped together in your ear canal. My balance nerve was partially destroyed. My hearing nerve was mostly intact. However, the tumor was mostly coming from the hearing nerve and was basically one with it.

But my thank God they were able to save my facial nerve, otherwise it would look like I had had a stroke. But my lost my balance nerve, it was already so badly damaged, they couldn't save it. So I had to learn how to walk again. And that was, 'cause when you lose a balanced nerve, you stand up, boom, you'll just fall over.

You can't tell where your head is. It's the strangest feeling. But you, I got a second one, so you know, We take all these things for granted, don't we? We take the getting up and walking around and whatever else is completely mean, who, who thinks that a little, a little, a literal like hair, a little hair in your ear allows you to walk.

And if you lose that, you're just going to be falling everywhere. that is insane. And so then I also lost the hearing nerve in that ear. So I'm completely deaf in that ear.

I, I don't have zero connection to the brain, but I still wear an earplug just in case one day I got all the parts still, but I have no connection to the brain so they can ever reconnect it, But no, that it technology will kind of like find a solution, right? I have no doubt that one day nerves like that will be printed from your own cells and then something inserted back in. So you know, hey, we might as well, keep everything good. So that just in case, but had to get camera night.

so in the, in the US you have Dancing with the Stars in the UK we have a, a program called Strictly Come Dancing. And, and there was a girl a couple of years ago who won it and she was completely deaf, And she won this dancing competition 'cause she could hear the music through the vibrations, through her can feel the vibrations. Yeah. Yeah, I was like blown away with it.

And she became such a, a kind of a great evangelist for the, the sort of signing and, and deaf people. And, and it's really almost put it on the map. I mean, it was always on the map, but I think it's really just cemented its place in terms of how important it is to recognize that, yes, it's a, an impairment, but it's not a disability. It's not, it doesn't prevent people from doing things that.

Other, able-bodied people. I'm putting everything in inverted commas, but, able-bodied people, right? and, and No, I completely agree. And it's just about managing it.

And I mean, we all have of, as the saying goes, like across to bear, like we all have difficulties, all of us. And so we just have to try to manage them and get around them and level that playing field. And so it's I don't wear a hearing aid, across hearing aid one that would transfer the sound to the other ear because honestly it was weird to me. And like c Clogged my good ear.

So if I'm in a meeting or something, I literally will just sit so that I have people on my left side. And I will tell people, and I'm very, I'm a firm believer, you gotta be very open about these things. I'm very open with my dyslexia. I'm very open with the fact I'm half deaf.

So I'm like, yeah, no, I can't read that. Sit over here so that I can hear you. But no, I, of course I'm not that difficult about it, but, and most people too, if you ask for help, most people are so happy to help. they feel good about themselves.

I mean, many times, it's funny, I, will be. let's say I'm going on a date and if I know somebody relatively well or I've been on a few dates with them, I won't go through the whole process of busting out chat GBT to calculate the tip, right? I'll just say, oh, you know what, what's the right tip? Or something like that.

Just because honestly, the reading, the math, there's a little, it's a little painful. I don't know how quite how to describe it, but I, that's how I've come to, it's, it almost hurts a little bit, your brain, at least for me. But yeah, no, it's just, another obstacle to overcome and, everything can be overcome with, some determination and a smile. Be the happy warrior and you can win in the end.

And ultimately, you're not looking for sympathy. It's just a recognition of the fact that it exists and, and, people just have to be a little bit more accommodating because of it. Which, I think it you say, I think virtually everyone will be absolutely more than accommodating to, Oh yeah. It's amazing.

People are, people are overall, very, very nice. Now, when I was young with the dyslexia, there was, there were a good number of people that didn't believe in it. and that was a tragedy. And that was, I think that was the last, that was the last remnants of, oh, it's just the dumb kid.

Oh, you're not working hard enough. but today it's very well accepted. It's you know what, when, when, when you log into applications, like you put an additional layer of security and you do the two factor authentication, six digit numbers, right? I've got so many two-factor authentication providers, and every time I look at the number I'm thinking they're screwing with me.

They just put that number in there. I always type it wrong the first time. I'm always like getting the sixes and eights Doug, you don't have it pop up for you. Do I mean, on my you have an apple?

Yeah. No, I, I I'm on an Android. Oh, oof. Oof.

Oof. No, I I know I, I know an apple. I know an apple. apple, when you get the text, it pops up and you can auto fill it.

Yeah. But, but, but, but for Come to the light. Kim Apple's calling you home. the last time I had an Apple was app was, I had an iPhone four.

and in a drawer I've got an iPhone seven that used to be my wife's. and she's still on iPhones, but I just refuse to go back to them, even though I I, there are some really neat things that Androids can do, some really neat things and they are the ones that, apple, made the tech and then Android really just was able to take in a thousand different directions and do, my friend has this folding phone. I mean, he unfolds it like origami and then is able to use it and it's got screens all over it.

Yeah. My son-in-law has one, he's, I think it's called an honor, and he basically open it up and it, and it becomes like a, almost like a tablet that's decent gotta step up. Its game, honestly. And, you know a, a just a slightly thicker phone than you would normally have, but it's got all that technology built into it.

with seven cameras now and this chip, we are going to just have the best phone ever. No. And the stupid thing is most people have seven cameras on their phone, but all the lenses are covered in grease from their fingerprints. 'cause they've been yep, yep.

the whole time and they never stop my biggest problem. I, the lenses before I do something. If, if I'm ever, out and about with the family and I, I say, oh, hey, can you guys take a picture of me really quick? Or something like that.

My father will take the phone and he will look at me. He say, oh my God, man, this is disgusting. Like you's all smudged and everything, so No. Yeah, you got, boy, yeah.

A lens that didn't grease. That is an excellent idea. So we are somewhere into the conversation and we haven't really talked about marketing and this is really all about Forgive stories. No, no, no.

It's all good. It's all good. I've really enjoyed the conversation thus far. But, I'm, I'm curious, 'cause obviously on your, your bio, you said that virtually all of your success has come on the back of social media.

And I, again, I use social media, but I typically buy ads on Facebook and wherever else. I'm, I'm curious because, you know what, what, what do you think are the sort of secrets to your success with regards to social media for the purposes of your business? geographic representation and geographic targeting. So a lot of times on social media, we're gonna target a group of people, and for a service.

So we're gonna say, let's say, men 25 to 30 we're looking for, that's our target audience. What was lucky for me was that, getting my start in College Station and then now operating a business that really exclusively operates in Texas and offers an in-person service, I am able to build an audience. Here in Texas of people from the ages of 21 to let's say 45 or 18 to 45, that audience is a geographically based audience. So I'm able to directly, put ads to them.

I can target a city. I'm able to say, okay, I have this event here, come out and, get your tickets here. So that the power of that, and especially in the beginning, especially in the beginning where I was able to translate social media followers to people actually showing up to a concert, which is not something that is always standard. Then also, I would do a lot of targeting of micro influencers in the community.

So fraternity, sorority president, football players, baseball players, everybody gets a free VIP ticket. Two VIP free a b two free VIP tickets there, two free VIP tickets there. Boom, boom, boom. I have basically gotten all these people who have communities that look to that as leaders.

Now they're like, oh, I might as well go to the event. Then you have a hundred other people part of this organization who then have in their head, oh, I might as well go to this event. I also, used, posters a good bit and more so taking pictures of the posters, being out and about. We'd make really cool posters and then we put 'em up and then we'd take pictures of it.

Not so much even the tending people to look at the poster in real life. But you don't want it to be like a sort of professional poster photo. It's like very you're gonna laugh. We would make them like, Eastern Block Propaganda posters, put a bunch up and, red, red and Just gritty, but like really, really neat.

We, the gentleman that designed them was really, did a great job, but that really is the key. So you're targeting those micro influencers because regular influencers, it's, doesn't do anything like, especially not in the music industry where it's, you don't, they're followers. I mean, probably 90% of them are fake sometimes, and the rest of the time the people don't trust them. and they're only really the, the influencers are really only interested in what's in it for them rather than what's in it for the people that they're recommending, whatever it is Exactly.

you pay a crisis of grand, 10 grand to that's insane. To put a post out on their, to their followers, and it's 95% of their followers is probably not in my demographic locally to kind of Texas. So that's puts those people out, right? by the time you drill into it and get down to the sort of specific nitty gritty of who's actually in, in, in market, in location, it's a much, much smaller number, right?

as you say, probably much better to find micro influencers and people who are, local to where you are that can, as you say, promote it, go in a gorilla fashion to then, talk about it in a way that kind of, the word spreads without, I've always said, you just need to light the paper and let stand back and let it run. And hope, Oh, I, I like the sound of that. I love me. I love me.

G, let's light this candle. I always say that. Yes. No, really there's a crisis of trust and a crisis of authenticity and a lot of influencers.

The old way of influencers being is dying. You can't, you can't be so unrelatable. I often joke with people that I am human and relatable, just like I was designed to be. And I, I'm just an AI over here.

No, no. But really getting those, so we're talking people with really like 5,000 followers, around there, five, sometimes even less, who are trusted in their community, who are well-liked. And that can be difficult to identify sometimes. But really, it's doable.

It's doable just by, oh, follow, looking through social media, figuring things out. you just look at a location. You look at who's tagged or who, who's been there, and then you can just DM them, reach out. And, myself, I also put a lot of time and effort into building up a good following myself because really the business and me have always been synonymous.

One and the same is that, yeah, I am the representative of, of God Bless a rapper had once come up with the name and I, I used it, but I wanted you to know that I didn't come up with this. 'cause I'm not that arrogant of the Shrader Nation. It's my last name. S-H-R-A-D-E-R.

My father would say it's Sheep Without the Sea, but, yes. No. oh, yeah. Good.

I, I'm glad that joke. Sometimes it kills, it kills it. And then other times people look at me. What?

So no, I, I'm glad, I, I always say to people, half of the cool things that are said about me are ones that I started the, I started it to begin with. I put it out there and other people have just amplified it. Amen. I mean, yeah, I think I have about, 50, 50 K something.

But what's powerful about that is that that's not people from all over, that's Texas. And that's why, and because, because of that and because of the personal based industry that the nightlife is, I seriously doubt that I will ever expand beyond Texas. The pie is massive. And there is, there, the two big companies out here, we've done stuff with both of them.

Night culture and C3. C3 is the biggest one here in the state. And I coach is the second biggest one. I, we've done events, and marketing campaigns with the iHeart people.

And it's always very tempting. Some people get too greedy. They go, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna expand and go elsewhere, or go, go nationwide. And they just end up like diluting the value of what it is that they do locally.

Because if I'm going, if I'm going to Florida, I'm, if I'm brought on on an advising role, sure I can definitely help. But if you're wanting me to organize your event and you're wanting me to, sell your tickets, I will not have the same ability to utilize. The methods I do out here, which are relatively, relatively different simply because of the special situation that I spend years building up. Then if I go to Florida, I'm gonna need to pay for ads.

I'm going to need to do Instagram, Facebook Ads. I'm gonna make sure that, what type of email list do we have out here? What type of phone number list do we have out here? Are we gonna be able to do a text blast?

Are we gonna be able to do an email right? You're going from effectively zero Yeah. in Florida and having to begin from zero and, and work your way And the only reason that, elsewhere. Texas is no, no value to you, right?

I mean, yes, it might make people go, he's got 50,000 followers, so he must be worth following, but. you start from zero and go again. And, and also at that point in time, you are then ignoring what's going on in Texas, right? So you can't really be in two places at the same time.

I mean, I had that, Yeah. That's been such a a business in 2006 and I was trying to be in three places at the same time. I had a office in the uk, an office in Hong Kong, and I had a problem, a problem office in, Raleigh, North Carolina. I was trying to be in three places at the same time, and obviously couldn't.

so I ended up like having to go, having to choose which one was the bigger priority, right? So ultimately it wasn't my choice because I'd sold my company and I was at the beck and call of the, the people who had bought the company to put out the fire in North Carolina at the detriment of my office in Hong Kong and at the detriment of my office in the uk But, that, that was the kind This is a real, a real difficulty that I have had with scalability is that, when I send forth, I have two people that you know are full-time work for me, and then we have a good number of contractors when I've sent them forth to events in my name and in my stead.

The owner, the manager will be like, where the bleep has been. And so that has been a difficulty of that because, and this is one downside of the business being so tied to me that it is, I am the brand of, I am synonymous with the business. And show, I mean, I, I work in, I, I go to an affiliate event in, Vegas, every January, February, called oh, which one? Shoot, I, I think I might have, And, I might have been there, or no, was it, I'm thinking, video ranking academy.

Different, different conference, but same time periods. there's about 6,000 people go and they have something called a meat market, small table, two people. That's, that's what it started at. Small people, small table, two people.

Now you've got people with big booths and everything else. And then they have a, an actual, proper exhibition on the second and third day. but what you tend to find is that there's a lot of, I, I used to walk the floor 'cause I had clients that ran events, and I would like basically run all the sort of backend ads for them and that sort of thing. what what I found was that, I'd walk the floor and I would talk to some of the people who were exhibiting and I'm like, so how's it going?

And they said, oh, everyone that's here, we know them, right? So there's nobody new that we're meeting. And I said, so why are you here then? And they said, if we are not here, if we don't exhibit, then everyone will assume that there's something wrong.

That we're in trouble, You have to show the flag. it's like you show the flag. So if you're the event organizer, you're taking a booking for somebody that really doesn't necessarily want to be there, but they, they know they have to be there. And, but at the same time, I think if you can get the ancillary, so again, I, I always say take people along, take their best sort of, affiliates and networks out for dinners and lunches and, entertain them, take them to clubs, bottle service, whatever it might be.

To make them feel special, to make them want to commit to spend more money with you. I mean, I used to, to run an affiliate network and I had a, different people and, and I used to say, where do you want to go? Do you want to go do clubs and shows or whatever? And they just choose whatever they wanted to do.

gift too will go so far. Whenever I travel, I will get a good number of small gifts. when I was in Scotland, I got a bunch of quakes. the little, the communal cup, just little ones at the shop and to my best clients and, my lawyer, my best clients, my, and a lawyer is also a good friend of mine, but I, I gave the them quicks and I was like, Hey, oh, it's a sign of friendship and family thing.

Don't let it touch the table. You gotta finish the whiskey before. And, that small little act really goes a long way. Really?

every time I go to the states, time they see it, they think of you. put like a probably half a suitcase full of basically gifts from the uk. So I always go with like shortbread from Herod's and tea bags from Herod's in a, in a, in a tin. And I just give them out as just gifts to people that I know and everything else.

And they love it. They love the fact that, like I've, I've even given cocktail waitresses in the chandelier bar in Vegas, right? There's this girl said, oh, I love, I love a cup of tea and I love all this kind of posh this stuff. So I remembered that she did.

So I the British man is able to just pull out So I took a ba, a box of shortbread and tea bags, and she was like, wow, this is amazing. Because again, she, she'd looked after me, so I wanted to look after her, right? I could Are you a fan of Yorkshire Tea? no, I'm not actually a really, I'm not a fan of Yorkshire Tea.

I like Mark Marks and Spencer's extra strong tea bags. That's kind of my, my tea bag of choice. I, I'd say I'm an Earl Gray English breakfast type of guy. Myself.

And of course, there's a whole kind of battle of do you put the milk in first or after, and how long do you leave the I am. Say I love the milk thing. I, you guys, you guys really hit the nail on the head with the milk thing, the London fog, as we call it in the States. when I, when I sit with American friends right in somewhere and they go, I'll have a hot tea.

It's God, it's tea. It's not hot tea. It's oh, you guys are missing out on the iced tea. I gotta say, we gotta broaden the horizons.

It is surprising. Yeah. But I drink a lot of iced tea, but unsweet. So there, there's two schools of thought.

There's the dump a gallon of sugar in there with very American a bus, but, or, or, unsweet. But yeah, no, it, it, it's delicious. But no, I love tea. It's good.

coffee or, let's just say my stomach gets angry. so yeah, so I lost my train of thought in terms of where we Oh, my parties, I no, no, no, no. were saying you were, you had, given a teabag to someone who, or tea and that's the sort of thing that they will remember that I will kind of like, I'm recognizing, I mean, yes, whenever they would serve me drinks and everything, I would always, tip well, 'cause that's kinda what you do. to.

Yeah. but, but at the same time, like when I would go, like the next time I would go, I would see the person, they'd come up, gimme a big hug and everything, and people going, they didn't come up and give me a hug when I ordered drinks, but, it's like I've looked after them. So I think when you do that, then people will. Remember it and A lot of times there, these settings.

In these settings too, people don't even need to know your name. But if they do, that's great, but they don't need to, they just need to recognize your face. They just need to say, oh, I know that guy. Yeah, he was really nice to me.

And, and like there was a, there was a lovely cocktail waitress that, I think she was from Somalia or something like that, been living in the US for forever. And, I, I, last time I'd seen her was I think just before COVID, right? So probably January, 2020. And, and I didn't go, I think, I think I missed 21 'cause we couldn't go because we weren't allowed to go.

There was this kind of restriction. So I didn't go there and I, I think I missed 22 as well. So the next time I went was in 2023. So when I saw her in, in 2019 right.

She was pregnant and she's walking around with a tray getting water in her drinks. When I went again in 2023, she was pregnant. I'm like, that's either the longest pregnancy in the world. So I remembered that she was pregnant and she was blown away.

The fact that I even remembered right. That's amazing. was pregnant from the last time. And she got, she went and got her phone, brought it out, showed me the pictures of the baby.

Oh, it's so cute. Lovely. But I think, I think. A lot of people will treat that, that server as a server.

I treat her as a human and then that way she treats me as a and I, I judge people so hard on how they treat a server or the person that they're checking out with at the grocery store because I, all my life I have treated that it takes no effort to spread a little niceness, like just to be decent and also to its good practice. I, for years, I would practice on elevators, just making small talk. I would practice with wait waiters and waitresses. I would practice with the cashier that it's good practice and also to, it's just a nice thing to do, to spread a little bit of, a sprinkle of joy in what can be a pretty gray world.

I'm gonna share, I'm gonna share one of my trade secrets with you. Can I share with one, one of my trade trade secrets with you? So every time I go to to Vegas, right? you go up in the elevator and it's always full of people.

There's always like loads and loads of people, right? And, and usually most people don't wanna look at anyone. They try and look at the floor, and they look at the ceiling, and they look at their phone and whatever else, right? And I always go into the elevator, the door shut, right?

And I always turn around and face everyone, and I go, now you're probably wondering why I've called this meeting. And everyone just bursts out laughing. And then after that, everyone starts talking to each other and, yeah, and you are breaking the ice, right? It just breaks the ice and it takes the, You can say, oh, I, I'll split the pair with you is one that, I've used before.

yeah. No, that is, And you can vary it. I, I sometimes will throw, welcome to the, first the, the kind of the inaugural, meeting of the Claustrophobic Society of, of Vegas, That's funny. right?

Because again, some Oh yeah. The, the, the, why have I called Now you're probably all wondering why I've called this meeting. That's anyone, any of my friends that's ever been in the lift with me, they know every time. it's coming.

They know it's I'm doing it. I don't care who I'm with, with my wife. She hates me doing it, but I'm like, doing it. that is great.

Yeah, no, I, I think one of the biggest things that I, that's one of the biggest things that'll judge people on, is how they treat people that are technical below them. They're not saying that they are, but like in a social hierarchy, because I remember how people marked me, how people left, were looked at me as just that dumb, dyslexic kid, and how would they treat me if I was on the bottom again, badly. And so if I see someone be rude to a server, or things like that, I, I mean, that is the biggest red flag to me in business because when everything goes bad, what, are we gonna work together to solve the problem or are they gonna turn on me?

And so that area, it's that. And if someone ever cheats in a gang, if you're ever like golfing or I'm terrible, terrible at golf, but I, the look is nice. So you get a cigar, you go drive around in the little car, you drink iced tea. and I know, I'm sorry, the, we much as we butchered the queen's English, but you, you go to these things and, but if you ever, if someone ever cheats in a game, they will cheat in business.

Especially because it is a, it is a game. It person they're cheating is themself. That's yeah, it's not that good. It is not about.

And if someone gets angry at losing, I know that that is something that also too I have noticed, because if I play, a board game or even a sports game amongst friends, I am not there to win. I'm actually there relatively to have a good time and to make sure everyone has fun. That's why I'm there is to be much as you in the elevator. The facilitator is that that is the role that I play.

And so yes, we want to win. We try as hard as we can, but if we don't, we take joy in our friend other friends success because their success by the fact that they are our friends elevates us as well. And it's difficult. And grandchildren and, and like when you're playing games with 'em, right?

They always want to win, right? And I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you don't win, right? And you have to yeah. You don't.

And that's that again, that's part of the education process, learning, learning about life and that sometimes. father and I would play many, military board games when I was young. I know, it's strange, but I, I know that was, we really bonded over military history and, sometimes, but boy, these ones that we, I mean that they had long German names and like the rule books were like this thick and you're moving the little pieces, the, and cardboard dyes across the battlefield. I think one that we did a lot was, these two World War I, battle of the Bulge and then, El Lain, and then some Roman ones, So we had a good time with him.

but he would crush me sometimes. Other times he would, I think he would let me win to inspire me or I would get super but he would never tell you he'd let you win. no, difference. I think sometimes the, the, again, you, you need to help encourage your, your children, grandchildren to learn and, and learn to compete and, Yeah, sometimes you lose, but you don't give up.

You don't quit. You go down fighting and you do the best that you it's like when I was at school, we had if we had a race at school, right? If you won the race, you got given a pendant and they got a first, second, and third, and you got to stand on the top step as the winner, and then It's ridiculous that everyone gets a trophy. There are winners and losers Yeah.

And I remember going into somebody's house and they, they took me up to one of the kids' rooms and showed me around. I'm like, wow, is your kid like an Olympic athlete or something? He's no, he's really not. I mean, it's just, That is a disservice.

That is a disservice to everyone. not helping them to set them out for, for life. Merit is all that matters. I do not care about anything else other than the job that somebody does, and yeah, no, I was telling everybody that they're always gonna win.

A Gold Star is destructive for society because I mean you, I have weaknesses. I have weaknesses that if you put me against others, in a reading or spelling competition, I will lose. But you put me on a debate stage or you put me on something like that and I can dominate. And the fact that I'm able to admit that, understand that, find people who possess the skills.

I do not, but I possess skills. They do not that I work with them and then we succeed together. Everybody wins. good, and I'm the same.

I, I know my limitations. I know what I can a gold star every time, then why would I work with I know what I can't do, and the ones, the things that I can't do, I enlist the help of other people to help provide it if it's important to have to, you have to delegate. You have to delegate and, yeah. Yeah.

You really do. And, it's critically important that you find, find good people and let 'em do their job. I, been something I've been working on a lot, lately, was one organization, that I've done a lot of work with. They, Had asked me to join their board and then help build it out.

And I was focused on finding people who were good at their job and letting them do it. So I searched and I said, okay, you're really good. I want you to do this. And you have complete autonomy as, as long as things are going right, like you, you do it and I will trust you.

And so yeah, find good people and let them go forth. the only thing I add to that, I mean, that's exactly how I treat things as well. But having seen sometimes the, the, the implications of. that autonomy really catching you out, right?

I always say, look, we have, we have a process for doing certain things, right? And these, these, these are the kind of guardrails of, what's acceptable within, with anything within that is fair game if you straight outside of that, if you straight outside of that, right? 'cause again, I mean, I, I found myself on the hook sometimes where I've had, members of my team that have really screwed up in an ad campaign and we've spent a ton of money that we really weren't authorized to spend, was like not, not tracked properly.

So we couldn't see conversion, so we had no idea what was going on. that's a And it's kind of like, you either force the client to try and pay you and they, they hate you for it and they just don't do it. Or you suck it up. Pay the, pay their bill, right?

Say yes, that's all on us. Change a process, make sure it doesn't happen again. And I had that happen a couple of times. So I had to rewrite my sort of state, SOPs to ensure that that sort of But you might, you might have saved me a lot of trouble, with your, your wisdom.

I, I really, it's funny, you think things are gonna be self-explanatory, but they probably aren't always, no. Yet. autonomy is great, I'm, I'm, again, I'm a, I'm a huge fan of empowerment and au autonomy. And I don't possess for one second all of the right answers.

But at the same time, there are some limitations as to where people can operate with it. And if they stray off the reservation, knowing where they should stay, then. the biggest thing that I had set out, with them was that each person had their assigned, tasks. So we've got our social, social media, you've got, the in-person events that we are not, you're not going to go into somebody else's domain, but you're gonna work with, let's say the social media person has to work with the live event person, but you're not gonna cross over and, and basically get into their territory.

But, no, I, I think that, yeah, making it very clear. Don't, don't go crazy. Don't go crazy. Don't say crazy things.

Don't do crazy things. much as the, the other thing I find with, with event events themselves, right? A lot of people that work for the event company, they assume that when the event's not on, they're not like on the clock and they're not accountable. But they're, again, I've, is ridiculous.

That is so ridiculous. seen situations where there are people really letting themselves down and letting the company down because people know they work for the company and they're doing things that they really want not to be doing, whether it's harassing somebody else or whatever. And you think, just don't be that person. So quite often I've gone over and said, look, just discreetly, you may just want to dial it back a bit and I mean, I've got a whole little, it's just a sh.

Single page sheet, of almost rules for we'll have, sometimes these, I mean they're like, not really an intern, but like a paid intern where it's someone who's gonna be helping to manage things on the ground. and I have a whole sh basically list of rules. Don't drink, don't do drugs, don't go, after anybody, love, interests, don't get political, don't, all these different things. Just, I have it somewhere here, I In all honesty, that stuff should be common sense.

You shouldn't Yes, it should, but it is not. It is not. Yeah. No.

Oh, my, I have had, I have had people where, it's you get a hint of something from somebody and you feel, or you're feeling a personality and you're like, okay, yeah, yeah, we, we agree politically or we, we agree on this type of thing, but we're not gonna go into it. This is a business and some of the events I go say, they have a blacklist of people that they won't allow to go to the events in the future. Because of the way they behaved in previous events. And, and they have a code of You have to, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this.

Even if it, it's not even the event organizer staff, it's any attendee of the event. Because ultimately the, in, in a lot of cases they're walking around wherever they happen to be with lanyards on, with the name of the, the kind of the event organizer and their name. Making a you have to be careful of the, the crazies. The crazies.

And that's just a broad brush term for, I use really for the people that, I mean, I've had it at events where people will act to completely inappropriately or and it's very tempting. You kind of like, again, let, let's say you are married, couple of kids at home and you got a free pass to go out to, to to Vegas and party, right? And, and people get sometimes a little bit too carried away with that and, and it really What happens in Vegas does not stay in it ends up in social media and, people talk about you, right?

For all the wrong reasons. And, And that stays out there forever. to make sure, right? Again, I, I've always maintained a, a kind of watchful eye.

I used to work in the police, so I'm watching what's going on around me to kind thank for your service. That's awesome. to try and make sure that. Everyone within the industry has a good experience.

And if I see people getting into difficulty, even if it's with somebody who is not from the show, right? So if it's a, you, by the time you go to a cocktail bar or something like that, there'll be people that are not at your show that will be there, right? And if there's a, an attractive woman that's there or something like that, that's from our show, right? I will just keep a watch and usually I'll just go, is everything okay?

Can I get you a drink, blah, blah, blah. But really what I'm saying is, is is everything okay? Do you need help? Because, and they, and if they go, no, no, we're good.

I'm fine. I totally get where you're coming from. There's a term in the states that a girl will say to a bartender, it's signing an angel shot if she's got an issue. But, yeah, no, no, I completely understand.

And as a, as a leader of an organization of people or the organizer of a, an event, I do feel responsibility to my people. I gotta take care of 'em, and at the end of the day, the buck stops with me. So if you really badly screw up, like it's on me. And so I, and I, we're both gonna have to deal with it, so don't screw up.

just think as an industry, you need to keep an eye out for other people in your industry, To make sure that you, the last thing I wanna do is to sit having breakfast one morning and somebody will go, did you hear what happened to so and So and They kind of like got roofed and, woke up in the morning and, and it's I would hate to think that that was an avoidable situation if somebody had been more diligent in looking out to ensure that that person, if you ever, if you ever put your drink down, it's dead dear.

That's just a, one of the most basic, most important rules that, you know, you in my mind, I always set aside, like a lot of times I will be drinking either a Red Bull or I will have a Coca-Cola with a lime, so it looks like something, or I'll just have, a club soda. But the moment I put it down, it's dead. That the moment it leaves my hand, it's dead and I will just get another one. I mean, I, I must 'cause I enjoy, I, I don't drink ever at home, right?

So when I'm in the uk I will rarely, rarely drink. I mean, very occasionally I might have a drink, but just generally speaking, I don't But when I travel, 'cause I know I'm I mean, I, I, I will, I, I drink occasionally as well, but it's but what I try and do allergic to it. Funny enough, Vietnamese be 25% Vietnamese and they're the most likely to be allergic. And I, it gives me a terrible headache.

but I, I mean occasionally I will. It's just, it's never been my, I used to get a headache 'cause I used to drink so much, right? But it's like now it's just, but, but again, what I try and do is I try and go into the event you have to drink more to earlier, right? So I, I usually go in a day or two beforehand right.

And stay a day or two after. So I kind of like stack up some kind of off, off the grid time kind of both sides to, to, obviously getting there, I can decompress and get rid of jet lag a bit, right? And then after the event, I can decompress before going home, right? So it's It's great if you also can do those on the, on the ground operations there, those couple days before you can know where you're going.

You can know where the venue is. These, that's that. I've done the same thing. the nature of, of being a digital marketer is I can do my job anywhere in the world, right?

Laptop, wifi, I'm good to go, right? So I don't need to worry about four days out the office because I don't have four days out the office. I've just changed the backdrop for the office, right? so that's what I Yeah.

I'm lucky I can plan my job anywhere, but when it comes to the events, I have to Physically there. Yeah, I get it. I mean, and that's, and that obviously that's, that puts a different complexion on your stuff. But again, like the planning side of things, you can do it from anywhere, So Now like the smaller events, DJ bookings, smaller bar tabs, not always necessary, like those are like every other day.

But it's those big events, those flagship events where, hey, I have to answer the And at some point in time, I'm sure you'll, you'll start to think, okay, maybe, maybe now would be a good time to start some succession planning and bring somebody in, train gotta find an apprentice. I gotta find a, I I've been try, I, twice I have tried to train somebody up, but it, it is definitely a tough business, know, I know people that I think I might have found him now. I know people that spend a lot of time like working in the evenings and what have you, and they be basically become an absent parent.

They kinda have kids and they never see them because they're Oh yeah. It is a young man's game. It is a young man's game. I, I, for me, my end game's always been to go into politics.

It's what I love. I enjoy it. and so eventually at some point, I'll, I'll make that transition. It's funny, like I, there's a, there's a senator with the same name as me, Jim Banks, and I get all of his hate tweets come directly to me.

So people are, again, I keep thinking, why would anyone wanna go into politics if that's the way people treat you? I get so much hatred. It's it is vicious. But I, I have a odd compulsion in my heart that I, I really feel I wasn't put on this earth to do good.

But to fight evil, that was what I, I'm here for that. There are bad things, there are bad people. And, somebody has to, there's a Captain America quote where he, he says that I don't be a stick floating down the river, be a tree. And when the river comes crashing into you and tells you to move, you say, no, you move.

no, I, I always, that I, I love it. I genuinely enjoy it. And it's funny, it, it was the one, always have, always have, I just, I'm very odd in that way, but yeah, no, the, the vitriol and the, the rage and the anger that, is tragic and honestly, we, used to be a congressman. be like that.

he used to be a congressman and now he's a senator. So he is got even worse in, in, in that regard. But what's what was quite interesting is when he was a congressman, right? He used to defend my honor, right?

He would say, what a good man and honorable kind of digital marketer I am. And you've got the wrong person and, and almost deflected onto, onto him, right? I mean, I just, I just find, I just find it funny, right? I didn't know anything about him, but that sounds relatively decent.

but again, he seems like a really nice guy. I kept thinking maybe at some point in time if I ever get over to, I think he's in Indiana, maybe if I ever get over to Indiana, I'll go and visit him and maybe we'll go out and have some lunch or I bring, it rang a little bit of a bell that Indiana sounds right? So send it to Jim Banks. If you're watching this and I do make it to Indiana, I'm, I'm looking for you to pick up the tab for lunch.

Oh, yes. For all those hate tweets. Amen. Benjamin, thank you so much for being a, a great guest on today's show.

I really loved having, had a lot of fun It's been, it's been great. I've really, really enjoyed it. I don't think we talked, probably talked anywhere near enough about digital marketing stuff per se, but I think we covered enough with the other, other things nice to people and, be, be decent to your fellow human beings and that'll go a we dropped lots of nuggets along the way, so I'm, I'm sure that, there'll be plenty of things in there that people can, can pick up and, and take forward.

And, and clearly You're a man after my own heart and, just chatting with you. It's actually been a lot of fun, so I And if you're in Texas and you are looking for an event, you are the get, you are the man for, for, for, for doing that. If you're a student, again, I'm, I'm not quite sure that my, my demographic audience will be Texas kind of students, but you never know. we love, we love, everybody from the uk.

You guys are great. sorry about the whole tea in the harbor thing, but hey, we beat the Germans together, so let's party. Thank you so much for having me. That was a great time.