Young Entrepreneurship [Sam Dinzey]

You're now listening to Vice's Invultures, a podcast on Cultures. Welcome back to the Unpacked segment of Vice's Invultures, where we share from our collection of solo interviews done by the co-hosts. What's going on everybody? This is A2, Entrepreneurship.

It's becoming way more scalable as of late, and I'm happy to present conversations around ways that individuals I know have been able to thrive in this ever-changing job culture. The next voice you will hear is that of a good friend of mine, Sam Dancy. He wears many hats. What he will now share is only about a select few.

So as far as like, actually when I'm doing something as intensive and time intense, it starts playing so it's been cool because I'll move into a place and I'll be always giving me access to it via the idea would be like, you'd be a state-side. Free Lancers, also agencies are generally paying, you know, 14, in the Midwest, like 14, 18 bucks an hour, or something. Right. So if so, um, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dude, that's awesome. So with regards to just what you're trying to address as far as people needing video, where you having, where you yourself experiencing this issue of waiting for a month for a video product or is there something that when you were working? Yeah, because I make it on my own. Right, exactly.

Okay. Because you were, because you were super, you were very self-sufficient, but so this was more something that clients were like experiencing, just like, okay, like, well, this is what I'm going to do to circumvent this type of thing. And so that same person, obviously, I've got a client, obviously. For sure.

And so I still get calls from people. I've just gotten like, hey, we're looking for this. And so I always, I'm like, boys are freaking out. So I friends, freelancers.

And so, um, you're starting something like this, getting the ability to you, being still like, kind of present in that spirit of space. I'll finally do that. And then also at the same time. So allow me to funnel like all the relevant AI and all of their marketing things are going to eventually be funneled through this agency as well.

So I benefit from it because not only have to do that, I'm supposed to do myself. I love it, man. You're super resourceful. It's all about your stories just from the jump.

You were always the mindset of just filming stuff. What is it about film that like really excites you? I mean, like, did it change over time like growing up in your parent studio or is it still the same thing? What is it about film that just really, really grabs your attention?

Right. As I saw that, you know what I mean? Like well, really well produced stuff. Like, it's, it's really nothing.

And you see people, it's hard to see with like mainstream movies as much now. There's been a lot of like online digital marketing, I just see some like style things that haven't pushed out. almost like marketing sense. It does a really good job of it.

It's just, they're just, they're just, you know, trying to give it to a filmmaker and be like, you know, create something. Here's a list of stories, create something beautiful. And it's not like, hey, we're our stuff to do this with this. Like, yeah, there's obviously they're wearing pegging on you stuff, but that's not the focus.

It's in the brain, the focus of the story. Yes, yes, yes. And some of the stories that I've seen come out of this, and it's just something about, I don't know, there's, I've seen a lot of really beautiful things. Some of the times I've had a camera in my hands, some of the times I've had it.

It's capturing those things. It's also just amazing too. And there's a lot of layers there. Yeah.

It's weird too because like I spent a year abroad in Micronesia, tiny island, you'll know where that's at. I'm Caleb Atkinson, super taunted filmmaker's photographer. So he had his stuff, he actually bought some photos out there and got a ship, so he was like, I didn't have anything with me, which was weird because normally in any situation like that, I always have access to a ton of gear, which was weird for me because it took me, took me a little bit to kind of re-appreciate things that you see and experience this day. I don't know if you've seen this before that.

Yes, yes. I'm so glad you brought up. Yeah, the photographer is about to take a picture of this thing that he's been hunting for months. And he finally sees it.

And just, so I would love to say I was mature enough to be like, I'm not going to take a picture, but I couldn't take a picture because I didn't have a camera. And as I really like, I was talking about that, I mean, there's like weird process around, but there's some moments where I'll have stuff with me and I just don't want to think about necessarily shooting. And I just kind of want to enjoy it, which has been really good and really bad because I live in what we do have beautiful things here when I travel. Right.

I like the usual. Yeah, so sometimes I like a legal place to be like, yeah, that was beautiful, but definitely just not bad. Yeah. That's actually, I'm really glad you brought up the Walter Mini movie because that particular scene that you mentioned is something that I always think about when I think of that movie is my favorite scene.

And it's actually, you kind of started talking about it already when it talks about like documenting. Do you feel like as somebody who really appreciates, you know, good storytelling, like good visuals, like, you know, at this, at this current point, like, you know, obviously talking about marketing, things like, but at this current point, like what you're doing with your business and stuff, how important is it for you to like, have something with you to document things? Or are you more of like in the moment and just like enjoy it? Or is it kind of like both?

So I'm really bad at documenting. I guess when I started my company, it was like a stint where I was like, our business models and plans, there's a lot of frustration, a lot of kind of like, and do this thing and like kind of start up when it's social media. Just using Snapchat memories. And I was just like kind of recording stuff as I went along against my Snapchat memories.

I deleted all my social media, so I stopped doing that. A lot of them I've done right now, just it hasn't been super well documented and people have done a lot of other things, which would be cool to have documents that I think I think eventually will. I think right now that was just kind of like a lot of a day, but Sundays are great. And like you could say they're super glamorous and romantic in terms of like how it works out other days aren't period, you know, and in terms of just how everything is right now.

I think right now it's not a huge priority. And also at the same time, I mean, I think that sometimes by for sure, I guess before I got super into the study, so I didn't have my work with any of my stories. And so I was like really good at that. And so I was like really good at that.

Yeah. And so I was like, I recognize that. The same guys are just really good at it. Richard Stethans on the West Coast, he's checking my dad's work coming out of high school with just phenomenal.

Nice. Nice. So you mentioned social media and I hadn't noticed this before. And I think now's the time probably time to talk about it because while you are doing this new startup, you also, like you said, like you don't have social media in there.

So this question is kind of too full like, hey, like how are you keeping tabs on everybody that you want to as far as create inspiration, you know, potential clientele, like all this stuff. I mean, obviously you have a huge network, but like what does that look like for you? And when you decided to just like not like deal with social media, always it because like you just didn't want to deal with the documentation or whatever, or is it, was it like, I mean, it's just like a time thing. Yeah.

Social media is amazing to I love it. For one reason, I glory days. I don't know. I keep using the word romantic, but the romanticized research issue was purely just for reconnected.

The days I've been up here in Sublark on. You think so? Plappers do exist. Like it still exists for that.

But there's so much more intruding, like probably different. Same thing with Snapchat. For me, sorry. It's really fun.

But I agree, it has to be balanced. Notice that there's just one guy, I just remembered sitting in my house, notice for whatever reason where I was in my background. My family realized that it was a reflex or like a instinctively swag. So where like Instagram was, and I was like, why am I going on Instagram itself?

I started tracking how much I was spending, and there was no, I was using an everything. Just in my mind, I was like, just trying to keep time. I was getting on. I was like, any time there's any dead moment in my day, I'm like, oh, let me just hop on the whole block.

So I started initially, it's like, every time I grab my, so I can try to leave it, I can try to leave it. At any time, I instantly grab for my phone, I'm going to say a prayer for a person or something like that. So, I realized I was praying a lot. I had to start mixing it up.

I was like, I wish it's a push-ups. But it was really good for me. But it was a lot of time. And so you've spent not huge into like, I don't watch TV shows or like, I watch Twitter, it's the only show that I watched.

Yeah, how much time you're spending consuming movies, TV shows, YouTube, and social media on top of that. Like, just to you. Like, when I was starting everything, everything was kinda recognized that, you know, I probably spent a lot of time, keeping another client in the door, or just learning something myself, or just like doing something that would have been hard to find. Then, like, it's just a downside.

I'm not super kind of on the influencer, which is, you know, not. But I found myself doing a lot more of, like, I spent, I listened to a lot. Like, I was listening to YouTube videos, talks, debates, things like that. And I definitely think that a lot of what I started to spend at World Issues topics, media, like, some people throttle themselves and say, oh, that's awesome.

I saw a messenger, like, coach, I'm telling coaches. Yeah, for sure. So, I'm messaging. I saw a messenger.

Right. Jeez. I feel that though. That's what's up.

And, you know, like, I love this conversation because it's really interesting hearing answers. I've been, what's up? No, I was just gonna say, like, kinda to what you were saying about throttling. Like, that's something that I've done.

Like, what I did, I think, around the time that I met you was, I started fasting one day a week. And then, like, over time, it's become like, you know, iOS has like the screen time, which was very, very useful for me because like, I'm like, I'm way more distractable than you. I feel like, and so I didn't, I couldn't even keep track of time like the way you were. So when I realized how much time I was spending just off of the numbers, I was just like, okay, so now I started cutting, like cutting down.

And then also just, you know, what you do in that sense is you simplify, because you not only simplify, you, you invest your time instead of spending your time, because I think that's a big difference. And like, I can see that. Like, I remember when we saw each other, like two months ago, and like, I could tell like, just by, you know, your energy, like, you were definitely investing your time into something else, I suppose, to spending your time on something, usually what I'm saying. I think that's good.

Yeah. So it's like, there's like two things that I go from that first thing, I want to avoid as people ask me, like, how are you? That's the first thing that I get. And then the second thing that you mentioned there.

Yeah. So, yeah, so, um, my, as far as like, I've still started striving, that's not super, yes, it would benefit from having some social media. But there's also a lot of things that I've generally speaking right now, it's a lot older, like, running the buildings that we're getting up. So like, if I have an Instagram for my surviving company, yeah, which I want to do, like, 6K.

And it sounds like you don't really have the audience for that either, because the people, like, the demographic that you're dealing with, it's not like, you know, they're going to be checking it constantly. Right. I even said there's no application, because there definitely is. I just think that right now, I'm doing that.

Yes, sir. And then kind of the same thing flies over to AI the last few years, and then I've been asking my lead dev and a couple of the other guys, just new people and other companies I need else. So you guys necessarily have to like, do a bunch of outbound marketing or anything like that, just because like, we're, so, right, like, if you go to our website right now, like, if you need AI, you don't know specifically that you do. Yeah.

And so what we're doing right now, things for the clients. And so I kind of want to take that same kind of approach and just make, because it is a space right now that there's a lot of uncertainty about people, there's all sorts of opinions, ideas of what AI is. Yeah, I don't. All of those things.

Alexa. Turned out some Alexa, some voice recognition, identifying patterns, that's like, that's... What's it called? Like, if this and that technology, something like that?

Something like that. I think you see it. I've been pushing it a lot right now. The easiest one, I think, is it'll tell you, like, you match it together.

Yeah. You know, how do I match it? Yeah. So, because at this point, like, I can put a 24 with this ethnicity that happens in this, that are interested in this.

Yep. And you can go out and hold that as that and then go, I could go break a bunch of emails. We had a client that wanted to scrape all of it. You can email those emails so that you can email those people for you.

That's not as possible. It's really there. It's like, people are freaking out now about it's too late to freak out, because you accepted all of the terms and conditions. Exactly.

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So, I mean, there's not a lot of close safe spaces.

If any, there's no safe spaces. I'll be there. But there's really good stuff. Like, do you Snapchat filters that are coming out right now?

The one that changes your face to a girl. Yeah, I just thought it. Yeah. So, I can send you an article just to keep you.

Just to keep you experimenting with it. And the only way that they're doing it as well as they're doing it, is if they're using stored selfies of people that they haven't deleted. So, to pool all of their data from that allows them to be able to track a face that accurately and identify the quotes there is a bermain. So, and it's happening all the time.

Yep. And, yeah, people wonder why, but you know, it's there. Also, if you want to know why you're getting ads, nothing's you're talking about, like Google it. There's a lot of, like, companies that are just so much happening.

Like, I was with some people the other day and I was like, you know, when I just terrified them. And so, we were at a coffee shop. We have a butcher name. I'm like, bye.

Yep. And so, I jumped to a link where they were selling the usage status with their party. You know, like, you know, like people don't know. Like, you're just buying your name, your email, whatever.

You're used to just being tracked. You know, and it's not hard. Especially if it's like a public Wi-Fi network, right? Even worse.

Right. Yeah, of course. Yeah. You see like, crazy mergers, like Facebook already had so many different groups.

Yep. And then they consumed Instagram. So they knew what things you liked in terms of articles and everything else. Exactly.

And so, like, that's just like, the novelizing. Much of you learn to identify when things, um, and shit. Yeah, so, like, there's, it's out there. I've been for me because my background is not in the list.

Right. Um, it's a principle that, um, it's a principle that, um, it's a lot of, um, it's a lot of the principle, um, that the speed and capability of computers can, with, you see that with now, would be, allow us to track miners as they enter into nightlife venues and identify that you can do. Wow. That's a lot of, um, that's a lot of, um, um, that's crazy.

So, and like, that's not the crazy thing is like, that's not as out there. Like anybody has, like, what Amazon Web Services and IBM mods and a lot of these tools are out there. This one, you don't even necessarily have to code to build an app because there's so much code out there. Yep.

Like, it's insane. As a 22 year old who's like, you know, put social media, like on the shelf, um, who's put startup, like, in his lab, trying to get that thing going and like, other things going on. Like, what is, what does balance look like for you? What does, what does time look like for you?

Obviously you said that from week to week, you know, one, one project might get more emphasis than others. But like, what's, what's the details in that? Because I think like, as, um, as a early, early to mid twenties, in the early to mid twenties age bracket, with all these, with all these different things that we had discussed, it's almost kind of hard to break through that noise and just be like, you know what, like, I'm a stick to this and like, I'm just going to do it and ignore like all the other extra stuff. What does that look like for you?

So, um, and so, I think the biggest thing for me has been, I have a lot of skillset, like, I can do all of them well, some of them better than others, but which is kind of a blessing and a curse blessing because I'm getting like, I kind of need it to do everything. Um, now it's like recognizing like, what are the things I am good at? Yep. What I'm going to do?

Yep. Um, recognizing like, you might time is better than doing one of these things. So, trying to categorize my time has been, trying to kind of, trying to kind of resume to do as well as my time before that it has been huge and like, that's, I guess, biggest rate that helps a lot of that is organization, which was something that I just had so many fires grading before that I tried to say, organize them like, if what happened and then like, you know, stuff would blow up in one area and it'd be, uh, it's gone to the phone now where I feel like, I'm finally at the point where I have a handle on like, these are things I don't want to get better at. This is how much time going to spend, I'm getting better at those things.

Um, so taking the time for myself, you know, a few hours here, here and there, excuse me. Um, I probably spend 50 to 60 hours a week work on what I do, so like, it's nice to kind of a crutch and then to get over that. Right. But yeah, no, I entered my time, like, I spent a lot of time with people that I can't really sleep in anymore.

It's a great feeling. It's a good time for like, self-reflection, like, I'm a deal. Yep. So, um, yeah, no, it's definitely coming out of the like, what places have you been to that really stick out in your mind when you think about your travel experiences?

Been to a few places, um, a lot of Central and South America, some Europe, not a ton. Um, I was in Jordan about a month ago, but, um, I'm like, I guess the ones that I have, like, stuck out the mess of my brain, um, I guess it's hard to answer that question because I, my old man, there's always a place that I stuck in most time. I think so, anybody here could take that place if I stuck more time there. Um, but in the current, you know, say everything's hard.

Um, I think, I'm in the most of it myself there. Um, and you know, it's also good that I'm changing a lot of things happening. I kind of like, change my perspective on things. Um, something about travel there, like, there's just something about, I come from a super small town in Illinois, oh, you asked me, I'm Dominican, Puerto Rican, Puerto Rican, um, hey.

So, I speak Spanish, which is kind of in the vehicle that's allowed me to do a lot of my travel. Um, and so, but, you know, I come from a super small town, um, um, 500 people, um, I'm in the vehicle, town, somewhere in Illinois, super tiny, um, were one of the only non-white families living out there, which, like, hasn't ever been an issue. Um, but a lot of my friends, not that we're out there, like, they've never left, you know, a one-hour radius of that, you know, them going on vacation is like, they've been to Florida once in their entire life. Um, and so, I mean, a lot of people, especially now, like, begin thinking, like, oh, I mean, I want to travel, like, I want to go to all these places and, but they don't, they just, I was like, why don't you do it?

Right. Um, and they're, the reason a lot of times is finances and money and blah, blah, blah. I remember one, like, it's a lot, it's a lot cheaper to travel and people think, um, way cheaper to travel and people think. It's a very true.

Um, you don't need $5,000 to see the ocean. Um, you probably need $100 to see the ocean. The facts. If that, you know, like, you're gonna get work for more.

And then if you have more people going with you, Garntrip, like, just go down there, it's probably gonna be like 40 bucks in gas each person. Yeah. You guys spend a weekend out there, split an Airbnb, like, you know, like, you've been eating around in the oodles for the last five years, either for another weekend. Um, it's like, uh, it's like, no, and then, um, um, no, just in your Instagram, you're in the travel, especially in international travel.

Just because you learn so much about what you have here in America. Um, my views, politically, I've changed a lot because of a lot of what I've seen, um, just because I've seen things that work and I've seen things that don't, uh, and I've seen, like, people's mentalities in either one of those places, um, in terms of, like, better middle of themselves, better middle of their own communities. Um, you just learned so much, man. Like, there's just something about seeing a goat on the baggage claim.

Like, that, that will change the way that you, that you look at, like, Oh, in that moment that Sam realized, man, like, there's countries out there where you gotta pay to use a public toilet, like, like, like, if you're out there, like, it's not like you can just walk into a gas station and use the bathroom. Yeah, exactly. And the Philippines has, like, freaking, get no, sorry, for you. No, I mean, like, there's no, like, they don't sit on their toilet, they squat, you know, they don't have places.

They don't use toilet paper in some of these countries. Like, you know, so it's like, what do you, like, you just get so used to America. Um, and in part of it, like, that was also, like, I thought I already had a handle on that, like, what it was like not to have things. Um, and then upon, like, everything was imported over there.

So, like, you know, we get X numbers, shipments a month. And if something ran late, like, the produce section, like, oh, just no fresh vegetables in the store. Like, you, like, you are gonna see a tomato for a couple weeks, you know, just one of it. Yeah, so it just wasn't available.

And like, where I was in India at one point in time, like, the only toilet paper that was within, like, a 50 mile radius was what we had in our backpacks and that we got brought out there, you know, and like, because we were out in like a tiny little bottom show in the garden in the center, it's like, it's like, you don't, that's just stuff at you. It's just so normal that you're okay with it. Like, we're so blessed to have the things that we do here and just have, like, even if we still have to pay for it, it's all available, which I think is like incredible because there's some places, man, like, you know, it's like not to be able to get tackled up, like, whatever you want. Right.

You know, it's a dumb little thing, but like, I just remember the first time that I was out of the country, for any time, it's tiny, just tiny place in the middle of nowhere. Like, it was so satisfying when I smelled McDonald's, Greece, and the Chicago here at work, like, I was like, like, I'm home. Like, you know, and like, which is a terrible thing to say, but like, you know, we just have so much here and it's incredible to see incredible and of opportunity. There's just some places that you can get the most hardworking person ever, you're never going to have an opportunity to move up ever.

Like, you want to be able to make more of yourself, like, your basic, a lot of these places, like your community will, like, define how the rest of your life goes. It's very, very hard to, like, flip that around. Yeah. And so, yeah, no good.

No, I was just going to say, like, when you were talking about different areas in the world, that just have different things, I remember my mom and Filipino, so going to the Philippines, they have these, they're basically, but they are buses, but you, they call them G-knees and you see people inside them, but you also see people, like, hopping on the side of it and like grabbing, like, the side rail and that's normal. Yeah, yeah, like, on the top, like, people chilling in the truck bed, you know, like, hanging off of things like, you can't do that here. And it's just like, there's different, there's different luxuries that you get to experience, like, in different countries, but there's also different things that you see, like, as you said, you see in different cultures that you don't get here. And that's why, like, coming from two immigrant parents, like, the opportunities here, like, as you said, cannot be taking for granted at all because there's a low ceiling for a lot of these countries, super low ceiling.

They might not even know that their ceiling is low. Or if they do have ambition to go higher, like you said, the community is going to define it. And that's like, that's kind of hard to think about, but, you know, with this being a podcast based in America, like, our perspectives are American, even though there's been a lot of different people, you know, with rappers backgrounds, like, you know, you're Hispanic and, you know, like, I'm half Asian, things like that. So, you know, as, like, I don't want to, like, diminish, like, what these countries are, just like, like, India, for example, like, people look at a lot of these pictures, even just different countries in Africa, like, they, like, a lot of what I, something that I've struggled with a lot is like, kind of gotten better about it just because I've started to try to understand people's perspectives more.

It's the idea of everywhere that is in America is like one of the most unsafe places ever. Yeah. And not only is it the most unsafe place ever, but like, it's just going to be a poo-poo, if we're going to make a reference to that at the very moment. Right, right, right.

Yeah, so like, it's, and they're not, like, you're looking at, like, Calcutta New Delhi, like, these countries, that, like, these, these things, like, like, there's a lot of stuff that goes on there, like, on a plane, I was sitting next to this guy that, yeah, I don't even know how, like, he has two publicly traded companies in his family. He's one of the, like, he's, and he's from the Philippines, like, his family's like, all Philippines, like, they just have been there their entire lives. And, like, there's the richest man in the world was in Mexico, but the longest time, people like to, you know, and, like, people forget that, you know. And so, like, that being said, like, America's really great, and a lot, a lot of things, but there's also, like, we have to be humble also in recognizing, like, we aren't really great and a lot of things, we have a lot of opportunity, but, you know, other places have a good, too, like, there are good things about other places as well.

And so, I don't, like, sometimes I find that we become a little bit arrogant with what we have, like, I'm the same way. It took me a really long time, so I made a lot of trips, like, I didn't, like, recognize that and see that. But, yeah, now there's just, there's so much to see, and so, like, if you're on the fence, if you're on the fence, you're on the fence about traveling somewhere, like, just go. I never said, just go.

I don't know, maybe to mace and people everywhere. Also, the Middle East is dope. The Middle East. Like, yeah, I don't know.

Definitely. No, I mean, I'm glad that you brought up that point, because it is apples and oranges when we talk about, like, the beauty of countries. I remember when I went to Jamaica, during this past Christmas, I enjoyed way more of my time outside of the all-inclusive and inside. I actually hated the fact that I was in the all-inclusive because of the simple fact that I just felt like I was back in the States.

And I just felt that, you know, for lack of a better term, I felt that the culture of Jamaica was being appropriated by the hotel that I was staying at. And I'm not saying that it wasn't nice to be a hotel. What I'm saying is that when you travel, you know, going back to the conversation about, like, how travel is important. When you travel, you have to experience travel.

You can't just travel as an American and just be in your safe space, because what that does is that you grab yourself of the beauty that that country has. Yeah, it might not have the same resources that you have, but there's still beauty to be found. Like, different resources. Yeah, exactly.

I remember I was in a lagoon on New Year's Eve in Otter Eos, and I'm looking like sky-full of stars. And every time I moved, you know, the little organisms in the water, they turned blue. Like, I don't get that in America. You know what I mean?

Like, and there's light pollution in New York where I live. So it's like, you know, there's beauty to be found everywhere. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, taking it all in because I know I'm not going to experience that again. Easily one of my best travel experiences.

So yeah, I'm with you, bro. I know for me, a lot of people ask a lot about like, just doing all that stuff and kind of just taking chances whether it be spending a year of traveling all that different. Like, if you're on the fence, do anything like that, or not, I'm like, that's about doing something like that. Like, this is the time in our lives when we should be doing those things, whether it be taking a chance to start your own business, that kind of thing.

Like, you're young and out. Like, for me, like, I started myself because I really sound like, I had things to lose. I was like, I was like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm young enough now where I can learn a lot now doing this, whether it works or if it doesn't, like, it's going to be like a bike experience. Like, I'm not going to be able to take- where my company has become hugely large and successful and selling them or if they're just coming back to the future.

Like, I'm not going to be able to be in the position to take it like a chance like as quote when I have a wet kids family house or what you're like going to be. Or be able to do like all of these travels at that point. So, just for anybody who's listening, that's all the fence about making a decision whether just something that could just be significant. Do it.

This is the time to do it. You're young enough. You're going to land on your feet. Like.

No, I agree with that. And, you know, the part of it is the risk. You know, there's no, you know, there's no reward without risk, I believe. So I really appreciate those goals.

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