Foundations of Creation

April 29, 2025Today, we share lessons we recently learned about teaching skills to others. Ryan leveled up his teaching skills by teaching a tequila class last week, and I just returned from a week-long teaching workshop in Barcelona with my hero, Lucas Rockwood, the best teacher I’ve ever known.We discuss our lessons learned about preparing lessons, presenting them on camera to be more engaging, and additional skills for performing live coaching. Coaching is the best first step to turn any educational channel into a business, and these tips will help you become comfortable enough to take that leap.Finally, I discuss how our teaching experiences showed us the unexpected places where teaching skills boost our lives and our creative careers.Things referenced in today’s episode:Lucas Rockwood’s Podcast - https://www.yogabody.com/podcast/Science of Stretching - https://www.yogabody.com/stretching/Karolis Gadliauskas, Videographer - https://karolisg.com/

March 11, 2025🇮🇪🇮🇪This special St. Patrick’s Day episode, we have Shane Carberry who literally makes Irish whiskey in the heart of Ireland. Shane is the head of operations at Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey Distillery, a life coach, and of course, a brilliant content creator.First we discuss Shane’s work at Tullamore, rising up from his start at the bottling room and the role soft skills played in his success. And of course get his authentic Irish take on me & Ryan’s ludicrous American plans for St. Patrick’s Day.Next Shane tells us how his path to getting started in Tullamore is intertwined with his path to content creation, and a frosty move to Canada. We learn about his process, why he creates and what he’s achieving with it.We learned a lot and had a great time, so I hope you take time to reach out to new creators in your space too. I met Shane through my first stab at networking to meet creators in my field. Like how Ryan meeting Cory Cranfill accelerated both our growth & increased our creating fun, this has been a great experience and deeply educational. So if you’ve been too nervous to try it yet, I heartily recommend you get out of your comfort zone and give it a shot!Sláinte! ☘️🇮🇪Things referenced in today’s episode:Shane Carberry - https://www.youtube.com/@ShaneCarberryTullamore Dew Irish Whiskey - http://www.tullamoredew.com/The Spirit of: Captain Morgan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3E7oN_3G6Y&list=PLjTR2ZZRadLeswgavC9_XGcllltWgUqOJ&index=3&pp=iAQBhttps://www.sandrarajic.com/Eric Partaker - https://ericpartaker.com/peak-performance-programSubtle Art Of Not Giving a Fuck https://amzn.to/4bPie0CSo Good They Can't Ignore You https://amzn.to/4kR9Stt

Feb 5th, 2025 We start discussing the bridge between truth and lies in your writing. This has been a fundamental disagreement between Ethan & Ryan for years, but Paul Smith’s Sell With a Story reconciled them together. We discuss his chapter on how much you can stretch the truth in your professional stories. Guidelines when it’s acceptable, when it’s not, and how to know how much to stretch. This has freed me to trim down my writing significantly, making it far more engaging to listen to. And helped me understand my good friend Ryan. This was one of my favorite discussions we’ve had so far. Then next we throw words out the window and enjoy analyzing 4 SuperBowl ads. Heavily visual, light on words, and condensing a TON of ideas in just a few seconds, these were great lessons in short, powerful art. They say if you can write ads, you can write anything. Things mentioned in this episode Sell With a Story - https://amzn.to/4aSAeXK

December 18th, 2024 Steve Jobs is often cited as the greatest storyteller the business world has ever seen. But was he? Or was he a mediocre fraud? This episode we analyze his greatest storytelling feat during his 2007 keynote releasing the very first iPhone. Cory Cranfill joins us again, serving as the perspective of a real life business owner. We breakdown what he did that was so effective. Things that you could use tomorrow. What things he glaringly missed and should have added. And as usual Ryan breaks my brain with another great idea that I had completely missed. We wrap up with a look back at 2024, sharing our best lessons of the year, biggest surprises, and what goals we’ve set for 2025. Do they spark any new ideas for you? What were your biggest lessons of the year? Items Referenced In This Episode Cory Cranfill - Shed Logic - https://www.youtube.com/@shedlogic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQKMoT-6XSg&t=92s

11.08.24 Stories Sell by Matthew Dicks explains how to apply all the great storytelling & dramatic techniques commonly taught, to functional writing. Things like education and business. Things like Ethan works on. Things that Ethan has ranted & raved to Ryan about. Not being able to use all this ‘trash clutter of entertainment advice’. This episode we discuss the techniques in this book that unlock how to apply all that entertainment advice to other domains, and have them magnify the power of value based writing. Not simply shoehorn them in as a meaningless amusement. Then we use this knowledge to analyze the primary product of the Nelson-Greebrier’s Halloween Event: a halloween drink menu with a story written for each cocktail, each tempting the reader to purchase that brew. This has been one of my favorite episodes, both in fun and in amount of valuable knowledge shared. I hope you enjoy it, and all the fusions of dramatic & functional writing we can now discuss together. Items Mentioned In This Episode: Stories Sell by Matthew Dicks - https://amzn.to/3CqiYvO Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks - https://amzn.to/4fCu4Mi Nelson’s Greenbrier Distillery - https://greenbrierdistillery.com/

October 22, 2024 After a year of waiting, Ethan attended a weeklong Masterclass on speaking stills with Vinh Giang. This episode we discuss the most valuable takeaways in Speaking & Storytelling. It also was a hard & frightening reminder of how you can forget how much you love something, no matter how strong that love is. You need to periodically take action to be able to feel how much you enjoy it, and not lose track of that. Finally we breakdown an example video from Vinh that brings together several of the techniques he taught. Key Takeaways This Episode: How to build ‘Dynamic Vocabulary’ The true way to use vulnerability to connect, that we’ve all be misunderstanding The critical key to making stories as short as even one sentence, to fit in any situation, even serious ones. Things Referenced This Episode: https://www.instagram.com/p/DAYSyAOMDJV/

September 26 2024 We’re back, with something new! We took a short break while Ryan got set at his new job. While we were on break, one of the first podcasts that influenced me made nearly 2 decade return: Diggnation. Kevin Rose. Alex Albrecht. Great memories, bad beers. Looking at it again, that format practices all 3 critical forms of speaking skills: Reading from script Presenting from bullet points Full improv speaking So we gave it a shot. We had a great time doing it, and learned more about content creation techniques. Hope you will too. Things Referenced In This Episode Diggnation Rebooted 01 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJWIrYEm2mo Anthony Gallo post car accident - https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_-w2inpBQ4/ Faroe Island sheep - https://www.instagram.com/p/C9gAq6QvdFQ/ Tom Brady AI - https://www.instagram.com/p/C_67YeyvEEd/ For feedback - https://x.com/808ethan

August 9, 2024 This episode we discuss the different value of each of the components of content creation and how best to split your efforts, and when to shoot horizontal vs vertical. Then we get into a new writing exercise with Ryan using examples of Anthony Bourdain’s writing. We look at his first ever published article, and the evolution of his TV show intros. Analyzing revealed: Powerful use of the negative: Pointing out what’s not there How he added emotion to everything, big or small to make the writing engaging and tangible Weaving a world of excitement then only after, introducing himself as a player in that world. Interesting not for himself, but for his membership in a world you’ve already been entranced with. Together we discuss how these techniques could be applied to the script for Ryan’s podcast intro, for his Season 3 revision. Good concrete examples of theory put into practice. I learned a lot from this episode and had a lot of fun as well. I hope you do too. Thanks to Ryan for the great plan. Let us know what emotion you’re building into your next content.

July 20, 2024 Ethan shares his first experiences meeting other video creators at the Part Time YouTube Academy meetup in London. It was shocking how much more could be learned by people only a year ahead instead of so advanced all their techniques had become invisible. And a surprise that should have been obvious: they were all incredibly fun to talk with! Highly recommend seeking out other creators in person as soon as possible. Next we share more vlogging lessons learned from Ryan’s first attempts recording at a cocktail conference, and Ethan recording his trip to Finland. Clarify what you want to get out of making the video Budget how much time on your trip you’ll dedicate to it Do pre-production planning, and start practicing that skill How to manage the overwhelm of all the clips you’ll make Dealing with smartphone HDR footage in editors & platforms usually designed for SDR Finally we discuss some vlogs we like and why. Question for the week: Ryan’s next story he wants to tell is a historical account from a black woman and would love recommendations of some black creators, authors, producers or directors he could learn from, and what you liked about their work. Items Referenced This Episode: Part Time YouTuber Academy - https://aliabdaal.com/courses/ Life of Tom - https://www.youtube.com/@LifeOfTom/videos Cowboy Kent Rollins - https://www.youtube.com/@CowboyKentRollins

July 9th, 2024Working further on developing writing skills, this episode we try out Matthew Dicks strategy of creating the first version of his outlines by having conversations with his friends about his ideas. We attempt this live in this episode, also explaining how this technique helps, how to do it yourself. In Ethan’s live run explaining his video idea about ‘Creating Despite Friction’ to Ryan, a number of surprise realizations came out, and a major increase in clarity on the topic. Also in preparation for Ethan’s trip to Finland, he discusses his first vlog: the techniques to make one and the surprising amount of benefits discovered from doing one. It’s turning out to be the learning tool he was searching for.Ryan asks Ethan - “What historical art style would his next work most closely fit in?”Ethan asks Ryan - “What has he learned from making this podcast together?”We’d love to hear who your favorite vlogger? And what do you like about their channel? Matthew Dicks Author of StoryWorthy - https://amzn.to/3Y8dkXQ https://www.youtube.com/@matthewjohndicks

June 26, 2024 This week we discuss the unexpected value of learning to vlog and do a deep dive breakdown of an example travel vlog of the Ardbeg Scotch distillery. We get into the different subgeneres of vlogging, the lesser known ones that have turned out to be useful, despite us being uninterested in the standard popular ones. Also how every type a video is little bit a mix of nearly all types and what benefits you can bring into your more serious content if you gain some experience in the vlogging genre. Then we break down a vlog visiting a whiskey distillery, a great example of a different type of vlog where the speaker is not the focus, gaining information is a major component and the vibe is chill. We break down its: Video shots, the choices and ordering of them that made it work Composition of shots that worked exceptionally well and how to see those opportunties when visiting a site Use of different styles of transitions to break the video into chapters while keeping other clips feeling part of the same thought The good qualities of the sound design we want to imitate How the speaker used motion and a specific arm angle to make his spoken segments hold attention & add to the feeling of progress through the story When to use text overlays vs post recording voice overs The overall structure that we liked and would use ourselves Check out the video & let us know what you thought about it too: Whiskey Geek’s Ardbeg Tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQTBzwRaeoA

June 11, 2024 Writing is the most important skill in all your content creation. This episode we dive deep in learning to improve our writing skills by breaking down the techniques & skills Ryan used in writing his episode of Spirit Of on James Buchanan. This has been one of my favorite episodes to record and I feel I learned a lot that will make easier to write in the future. Would love to hear if any of these techniques help you out, or if it made you think of another tip you use. Covered in this episode: The 4 paragraph structure Ryan surrounds the body of his script with every episode Why to start a story in the middle of the action, how to create that tangible picture, and set the feel of a historical era How to decide what should be cut from your story and what should stay. Ryan explains his technique for doing this by setting the character’s story within Ryan’s personal story of hearing the tale. How surprisingly often non-sequiturs can work, and how they are the key to solving forks in a story and several other problems when writing can only follow one idea at a time.

June 3rd, 2024 In a rare episode Ryan makes an in person appearance in Nashville. Following up on things I learned about Ryan from our interview with Cory Cranfill, I ask Ryan about his previous education in content creation. First Ryan tells us about the Modern Rogue weekend content creator bootcamp he attended. What it was like studying under Brian Brushwood, what he learned there, and connecting with Cory there. Then a layer before that, I ask Ryan about his whiskey training at Wizard Academy. It was originally founded as a marketing school and Ryan also got storytelling and writing training during his classes there. Ryan tells us of the hard process of learning to write, the benefits of being exposed to good quality writing, and how he learned by recognizing good when he saw it. Next Ethan & Ryan discuss the removing friction from your creative process so you can create in ease and inspiration, vs. powering through friction and overcoming it through brute force. As usual we came at this question from total opposite sides. It appears in the end you really need a mix of both. Finally Ethan shares how his hobby of making videos of dim stylish bars may have brought him his first client: another beginner creator launching a music career. Items Referenced In This Episode: - Modern Rogue - https://www.youtube.com/@ModernRogue - Wizard Academy - https://www.youtube.com/@TheWizardAcademy - Cory Cranfill - https://www.youtube.com/@cranfill

May 14, 2024 This episode we interview special guest Lea Brainerd, a clinician at Mindbloom providing ketamine therapy. Ethan credits his Mindbloom for improving several of his creative skills & taking action on his content creation dreams. Lea first guides us through how ketamine therapy works. She explains the powerful mental preparations that can be done before a session to multiply the effects, also the Trust, Let Go, and Be Open framework, the experience during the actual session, and how to multiply the lasting effects through active integration after a session. Lea also explains the current safety & legal state of ketamine therapy, and how unlike most mental health treatments, which are prescribed and repeated for life, ketamine therapy is designed to give you experiences you learn from and eventually never need again. Lea shares with us the remarkable results she’s seen in it’s primary purpose of treating depression and anxiety. Next we discuss how ketamine therapy can grow the fundamental skills needed in content creation. In particular, strengthening your ability to be intentional, which is essential for actively pursing your true dreams & succeeding in entrepreneurship. Listening skills, which are core to planning content that connects with an audience, performing market research, and creating believable characters with perspectives different than your own. And writing skills, through the increased awareness of the connections between ideas & which are significant and which can be left on the cutting room floor. Finally, Lea shares her personal experiences with her family & mental healthcare that gave her a lifelong passion for improved treatments, and her own experiences with ketamine therapy, both as clinician and a patient. She explains why she believes it’s essential to have expert assistance for patients’ integration step, and special customizations to ketamine therapy for various patients such as those with ADHD. Lea runs Transcendental Health, a private Ketamine therapy & life coaching clinic covering Tennessee, Florida & Wyoming.. Referenced Items: Lea’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/transcendenthealthllc/ Transcendental Health Website - https://www.transcendenthealth.net/ Upcoming retreat in September: https://emandscott222.com/ketamine-assisted-retreat

April 30, 2024 Ethan & Ryan share the things they learned from hosting Cory, their first ever guest. They learned about different styles of questions and when to use them, what different level of listening vs controlling the flow is ideal for different types of content, and the advice Cory shared after the episode. Next Ethan explains how many ways improving his listening skills is paying off in his content creation, and how most of developing those skills has come from alternative lessons far outside the scope of content creation. He covers why the one that has the rare supply of patience to be quiet & listen actually has more power than the person who is speaking the most, and ensures you grow and develop as fast as possible. Ethan also retells how his trip to the Dominican Republic, doing nothing for 4 days with an old friend taught, him even more about both listening and burnout, and how ‘losing’ those 4 days paid off in his work too. Finally catching up on our new creations, Ryan tells about his first attempt at vlogging in public, dealing with the microphone, the weather, and his growing strength at doing the scary thing and learning from the experience. Ethan walks through creating his Dominican Republic video, from rapid planning shots, & editing, in the most on target ‘small pot’ he has created. An ideal target to try to aim for in future creations.

April 19, 2024 In this episode we interview our first ever guest: Cory Cranfill. A friend of Ryan, Cory is a professional content creator, who pivoted from a 9-5 management job at Microsoft to creating content for Brian Brushwood’s Modern Rogue, then kept going to form his own content marketing & consulting business: Right Tool Media. Cory walks us through his journey from an untraditional background, to building a successful traditional career in operations at Microsoft. Then how the lessons he learned taught him how to make the big leap to leave it all, show up on the set of Modern Rogue with a bottle of whiskey to get an unpaid start content creation. Next rise to success there as well, and then take another leap, starting his own media business from scratch and building it to a success he owns. He shares with us how he learned to overcome the ‘soul sucking feeling’ of looking into a camera, his success with unscripted dialog & live editing, how he set up a full multi-cam recording solution for Whiskey Provisioner, and the most important equipment recommendations for getting started. Cory also works behind the camera at Whiskey Provisioner and behind the camera on his channel Shed Logic. Referenced Items: Right Tool Media - https://www.righttoolmedia.com/ Shed Logic - https://www.youtube.com/@shedlogic Whiskey Provisioner - www.YouTube.com/@whiskeyprovisioner So-Han at Tea House Ghost - https://www.youtube.com/@TeaHouseGhost Brian Brushwood & The Modern Rogue - https://www.youtube.com/@ModernRogue RODE Wireless PRO - https://amzn.to/3QiQEiI Rode Wireless GO II - https://amzn.to/3JBT7RL Rode VideoMic GO II - https://amzn.to/4aSOsqH

April 3, 2024 Ethan tells us about starting in voice acting. How it’s rapid learning for important skills, and an excellent way to make lots of ‘small pots’. Ryan discusses the short trailers he’s making for his newly released episodes of season 2 of ‘Spirit Of’, with good insights on rapid creation with your phone, minimal resources and your ideas.  Next we discuss the balancing act between enjoying and succeeding at content creation, starting with how to decide the right balance for you, and some examples of good tradeoff and bad ones.

March 29, 2024 We celebrate Ryan releasing the long awaited 2nd season of his whiskey audio drama ‘Spirit Of’, telling the legendary stories behind famous whiskeys. We discuss the fear of releasing your work to the public turning into anticipation and excitement, and how everything got started for Ryan over a year ago. Then a spoiler free discussion of the behind the scenes process and learning from making the first episode of the new season: Taketsuru - Father of Japanese Whiskey.

March 20, 2024 Ethan & Ryan celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and discuss the videos they created for it. They both dipped their toes into Short Form content and have a good discussion about important lessons needed to make them well, and how that actually taught them more about making Long Form content. Ryan walked us through a discussion on maintaining motivation through hardship. If you can do it then, you’ll make it through everything and last until you achieve your dreams. Finally Ethan shares the lessons he learned on writing scripts in batches helping the speed and fun of writing, the critical need to target Browse & Search traffic one at a time, and more about connecting Thumbnail, Title & Hook together.

March 5, 2024 Ethan celebrates making his first full video using the techniques learned from Part Time YouTube Academy, and shares with Ryan the surprise lessons he learned from the first completed process.  Then Ethan & Ryan discuss the gems they were simply taught too soon before they could use them, that became distractions and hurdles. For example, presenting from word for word scripts instead of rough bullet points, outsourcing editing & using 3 point lighting to record a talking head video. By discussing the Parable of the Sculpture, they build a guide for when it’s helpful to start hiring assistance, even when quite new.  Finally they discuss the reasons and opportunities in having guests on the podcast & how important it is to clarify your motivations in order to maximize the benefits you get out of your creation.

February 20, 2024 Ethan & Ryan expand the topic of sincerity in content creation in their first ever movie discussion: Fight Club.  First Ethan discusses the extra filmography elements he was able to notice by watching it after a year of learning content creation. Including a deep discussion on how color theory was used in the film, and a brilliant use of sound design. (Ryan’s Specialty) Then aided by his new script writing technique, Ethan analyzes how the plot centers around sincerity with yourself. The consequences of losing it, and the challenging journey to rebuilt it after it’s been lost.  Finally Ryan leads a discussion on the power of masterful speaking & refined writing shown in the movie V for Vendetta.

February 20, 2024 In our first episode with a planned theme of focus, Ethan tells us about a new script writing technique he is wildly excited about, which fixes so many of his struggles with writing.  Next he discusses yet another course he has started, for only $1, and how it was genius and making you emotionally ready to make enough videos, mistakes and all, to master the art and find what your topic truly should be.  Then Ethan & Ryan share their experiences with sincerity in Content Creation. Its uses, and how to grow it when speaking on camera.  Finally Ethan shares his new one desk recording studio setup, which has exploded how much content he creates by making it ease, comfortable and even inviting. Referenced Items: Ali Abdaal - https://www.youtube.com/@aliabdaal Part Time YouTube Academy Foundations - https://academy.aliabdaal.com/part-time-youtuber-foundations

February 9, 2024 After 12 months of recording in dubious locations and learning, we hit the huge milestone of publishing the podcast to the public! Ethan discusses the final gap work needed to make it possible, and all the learning that required as well, from brainstorming a name, creating an animated logo with music for the intro, adding quality captions, writing episode titles and show notes then of course, uploading it online! Then together discuss additional things learned from reviewing the backlog of episodes & why the new tools coming out today make right now the best time to start a podcast.  Finally we look at what creation related skills you could have already just from living your life. Ethan & Ryan reflect on what skills their unrelated experiences might have given them, and how much of a head start other’s may have from a seemingly normal life. Then compare that to the starting point for some of the people we’re emulating and trying to catch up with.

January 25, 2024 Ryan and Ethan take a look back at 2023, and look forward to 2024. We remember how little we new a year ago, hardly anything at all. Appreciate how much we have learned in our first year studying content creation. Reviewing our creations from time to time has taught us so incredibly much, in this episode we encourage everyone to do the same, and review their work from the past year.  Then we look forward to 2024 and set goals, and remind ourselves how to avoid the mistakes we made last year.  Top 5: things you now know / can do, that you didn't before Top 3 accomplishments of 2023 3 goals in 2024 Advice you wish you could have given to yourself January 2023 Next learning or creating

August 12, 2023 Ethan shares a bunch he learned about camera angles from his practice project filming a mock aerial property advertisement for a condo building. A critical revelation: close up shots trigger the non visual parts of the viewers mind and unlock all 5 senses!  Together Ethan & Ryan discuss the benefits of planning shots in advance, how to use example content for a leap ahead, and how using editor templates both speed up your creating but also your learning. Ethan gets excited yet again about the advice he learned from new 14 Day Filmmaker lessons. Also a discussion about how doing podcasting & staying in touch with friends via voicemail has actually increased Ethan’s non-existent ability to shut up and listen. Leading to deeper conversations, better connections with friends, and hopefully better podcast episodes for the audience.  Finally, Ryan again shares his writing skills from whiskey school, breaking down not just how much he dislikes starting a story in the middle of the climax, but why it’s a bad idea and how to make the story better.

July 29, 2023 Episode 4! The first episode Ethan & Ryan clearly defined the topic of the podcast. Video & proper audio mixing to come later :) Ethan is thrilled with his ability to pick course teachers, and shares the things that he picked up from the 14 Day Filmmaker course that he’s most excited about. Also how the weekly office hours by the instructor Anthony Gallo showed how getting lots of practice doing scripted videos help you get better at doing live speaking too. An example how you can stay enthusiastic enjoying the creative work for years while making something successful and profitable. And some brilliant tips on how to avoid burnout while still being productive.  The most educational part of the podcast so far, Ryan uses his ‘Radio Show’ podcast skills to analyze the usage of sound effects & cuts in a sample video, and together Ethan & Ryan put together their experiences with the emotional effects of color to both have better ideas how to use them than ever before.  Ryan talks about his time working as a whiskey bartender, sharing how the sacrifices required and wisdom learned there are helping him learn content creation techniques. Then Ryans hatred for social media reveals the importance of sincerity, the hidden gems of brilliant content on Youtube, and what YouTube analytics teach us about where to focus on our time when learning & creating content.   Finally Ethan gives Ryan a surprise gift to throw him into the deep end of content creation for the next episode.  Referenced Items: Anthony Gallo https://www.youtube.com/@MrPaulXavier His film course - 14 Day Film Maker https://www.contentcreator.com/14-day-filmmaker

July 16, 2023 Ethan returns from Europe and tells what he learned from flying a drone in Austria &  Scotland. Including a visit to Clydeside Distillery, the most beautiful whiskey still in the world! He then discusses the new filmography course he started, how to solve the problem of ‘Course Addiction’ (getting trapped studying how to do things but not practicing enough to build the actual skills), and how to tell if a course will be good or not before buying it.  Together Ethan & Ryan discuss the different learning style needed to learn content creation vs. science or engineering, and how to make this difficult leap if you trying to leave your day job. Then combine their new experiences sharing techniques how to flawlessly erase your mistakes with multiple takes on a single camera.  Ryan creates, on the spot, great advice how to prevent getting overwhelmed with the increasing gap between what you can do, and what you know can be done, so we keep learning by creating lots of things. Then shares his trip to Olde Raleigh Distillery in North Carolina and  Ryan then reveals a bombshell event changing the future of the podcast forever!  Also dogs. Referenced Items: Clydeside Distillery - https://www.instagram.com/theclydeside/ Anthony Gallo https://www.youtube.com/@MrPaulXavier His film course - 14 Day Film Maker https://www.contentcreator.com/14-day-filmmaker Olde Raleigh Distillery https://www.instagram.com/olderaleighdistillery/ Labrador Retriever https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labrador_Retriever

We record with video for the first time, and nothing goes wrong at all

December 19, 2023 Ethan discusses his final push to complete the prelaunch ad campaign for his online whiskey tastings in time for Christmas. Also reading Alex Hormozis book $100 Million Leads is so similar to the 30 Day Content Creator course, and how studying two similar things actually helped.  Next, looking back on the project, Ethan & Ryan discuss the Parable of the Pottery Class. What successes and mistakes in points out in Ethan’s learning process this year, and how we can all apply it next year, to learn even faster. Then, for the first time, Ethan reached out to a creator he admires: Timm Woods. Ethan & Ryan discuss what he learned from the process and how, even before collaborating, pursuing a collaboration can teach you skills, ready before you need them.  Referenced Items: Alex Hormozi - https://www.youtube.com/@AlexHormozi $100 Million Leads - https://www.amazon.com/100M-Leads-Strangers-Stuff-Acquisition-com-ebook/dp/B0CFDR3TYV Anthony Gallo https://www.youtube.com/@MrPaulXavier 30 Day Course Creator - https://www.contentcreator.com/30-day-course-creator Timm Woods - https://www.instagram.com/timm.woods/?hl=en

November 1, 2023 Ethan tells about meeting up with local Nashville content creator Stuart of XPLR Nash. A great time, thrilled to find he is a quality person in real life, learned a lot and was proud to fine Ethan knew enough to even add value to the discussion.  Next a discussion how the dark moody art of Halloween further matches the Baroque styles that lead Ethan to his choice in camera, and pretty much every other creative choice. Another hammer in the coffin that Ryan’s analysis was brilliant! Then Ethan discusses discovering how the true root of yet another period of burnout, is actually the stress of dealing with uncertain decisions after a lifetime of working professionally in careers all about finding certain answers. Some lessons need to be learned a few times before you truly get it, and this time we find concrete ways to feel creative burnout coming, how to solve it, how to manage deadlines with all this uncertainty, and how grappling with all the uncertain decisions in art is the core gift you are giving to your audience and the world.  Finally Ryan got a new job in Minnesota! Another step forward, his job connects to storytelling and whiskey, giving him another level up and more experience honing his skills.  Referenced Items: Stuart Deming https://www.youtube.com/@xplrnash

August 29, 2023 Our first episode shot on a real camera! Sony A7SIII. Also our first episode recorded remotely with Ryan in Minnesota, the podcast journey continued and the torch did not go out. Ethan shares thoughts on how studying content through paid courses and aiming to make profit from these skills, helps you learn significantly more than doing it for a hobby.  Ethan & Ryan discuss how the differences in what you need to learn art vs learn science is similar to the differences between working as an entrepreneur vs. being an employee. All connected to that famous 80/20 rule, and how painful it can be to apply it.  Finally, Ryan brings examples of storytelling about James Buchannon to analyze, revealing how to use exaggeration & descriptive language well, and what they can add to a story. Then a behind the scenes look on his process writing a future episode on a viking related whiskey. Referenced Items: Sony Alpha 7S III https://electronics.sony.com/imaging/interchangeable-lens-cameras/all-interchangeable-lens-cameras/p/ilce7sm3-b James Buchanan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Buchanan

#7 - Ethan’s First Real Camera! Sony a7S III & 30 Day Course Creator September 22, 2023 Ethan bought his first real camera! A Sony A7SIII. We discuss what it adds to content creation and learning creating. Also all the reasons Ethan picked this specific camera over all others & why he’s obsessed with night shots & bokeh.  Next, we discuss how the learning we’ve done so far is already paying off. How taking notes during your creating process is so wildly valuable, and how it’s turned making this podcast from laborious to fun and creative. How the photography / videography studies have made looking at the world so beautiful we have to check we haven’t been drinking. A good reminder of all this, we discuss Shaan Puri on the Modern Wisdom podcast declaring the most critical things for success isn’t hard work, but storytelling and enthusiasm. Then Ethan recaps finishing the Stage Academy course and what he’s learned so far in his next course, 30 Day Course Creator. A deep discussion on the mix of art skill & business skill in that course, working surprisingly well together and opening up so many possibilities. Finally Ryan gives feedback on Ethan’s 2nd version of the Donut Lord story. Then blows Ethan’s freaking mind by analyzing why he chose that camera, and how it links deep to the fundamental core of who he is.  Referenced Items: Sony Alpha 7S III https://electronics.sony.com/imaging/interchangeable-lens-cameras/all-interchangeable-lens-cameras/p/ilce7sm3-b Shaan Puri on Modern Wisdom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d4AkAaF_Mw Vinh Giang https://www.instagram.com/askvinh/ Stage Academy https://stageacademy.mykajabi.com/ Anthony Gallo https://www.youtube.com/@MrPaulXavier 30 Day Course Creator - https://www.contentcreator.com/30-day-course-creator

September 14, 2023 After learning beginner skills in a good range of content creation skills, Ethan declares it’s time to focus on mastering the few that matter most to him. He tells how he started this month’s course, Stage Academy, how impressed he is with the course, and the value of superior speaking skills. Of all the forms of content creation, speaking is what got both Ethan & Ryan to start learning content creation. Among the benefits of being the most powerful creating art, Ethan tells how it’s also improved his conversations with close friends.  Next Ethan discusses our root motivations for creating different art, and analyzes the different skills the creators he is inspired by have. From this process a clear idea of what skills would need to be focused on to create the content he is most interested in. This lead to Ethan realizing he has to start now, on his dream of creating an online whiskey tasting program for the holidays. This opens the door to a large discussion on the challenges in larger projects and how to solve them, the additional knowledge needed for the business side of content creation, and once again, how applying the 80/20 rule is the difference between creation being painful vs being thrilling and inspired.  Finally, Ryan again walks us through improving storytelling techniques by telling his story of how and why he moved to Minnesota, and discussing Ethan’s feedback. We both also learned to better give and more importantly accept feedback, a critical core skill for mastering content creation.  Referenced Items: Vinh Giang https://www.instagram.com/askvinh/ Stage Academy https://stageacademy.mykajabi.com/ Anthony Gallo https://www.youtube.com/@MrPaulXavier 30 Day Course Creator - https://www.contentcreator.com/30-day-course-creator

June 10, 2023 In this episode Ethan reveals he bought his first piece of content creation gear: a Mavic 3 Pro drone! He explains what project made this unusual choice the only right way to start for him. He discusses all the courses he signed up for to learn how to create content, how to tell a good course from a bad one before buying, and the power of quality speaking skills. Ryan teaches Ethan some of the writing skills he picked up in a whiskey school, tells us about the origin story of Japanese whiskey, and makes a bottle of pickle flavored Blantons… for reasons that become obvious the more you get to know Ryan. Together they learn how to structure a podcast, figuring out how long an episode should be to hold attention, how many topics need to be planned to fill an hour, and how to separate topics relevant to the audience from detours into general socializing. Referenced Items: Mavic 3 Pro https://www.dji.com/mavic-3-pro Alex Harris - https://www.instagram.com/alexharris52/ His Drone & Editing Course - https://dronelaunchacademy.com/aerial-video-a-to-z/ Vinh Giang - https://www.instagram.com/askvinh/ His Speaking Skills Course - https://stageacademy.mykajabi.com/ Lucas Rockwood - https://www.instagram.com/lucasrockwood/ His Science of Stretching Course - https://www.yogabody.com/stretching/?AFFID=297295 Wizard Academy - Ryan’s Whiskey Training https://wizardacademy.org/upcoming-classes/ Masataka Taketsuru - founder of Japanese whiskey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masataka_Taketsuru

May 21, 2023 Our first full episode recorded on quality mics in a quiet space. We recorded these long before we mastered audio, video or podcast structure, so you can see us overcome some of the same problems you will run into. As the episodes progress, everything will improve, and you’ll hear us discuss how. This episode we figured out where to put the mics… by putting them in the wrong place.   In this episode we discuss: Value of enthusiasm in content creation & how to maintain it, keep it from feeling like a job Choosing your first recording mic How to re-record to fix mistakes while sounding natural Scripted vs freeform content Freeform feedback and learning from Ethan’s recording about intelligence being primally intimidating Behind the scenes on Ryan creating an episode of his scripted podcast: Spirit Of episode 1 - Shackleton  Ryan’s preparing for creating Spirit Of Season 2: The story of the father of Japanese Whiskey As a creator being Q, so you can make the audience feel like James Bond A class on content creation Ethan took from a very unlikely source: his mortgage broker What hipsters teach us about the need for sincerity in any good story Ryan’s experimental Jameson Bourbon aged in Rose casks

Ethan & Ryan share the roadblocks, answers and breakthroughs that you might run into through their journey discovering how to create content themselves.