Australia's TOP Podcast Creators Share Their SECRETS! | Dos & D #605

We've followed you since the inception of dos and d , which is over four years ago now , and I remember to this day , um , when we first launched the instagram account , we had zero followers and we're like all right , let's follow some people of influence that we want to aspire to be like and one day get on our podcast .

And I remember , clear as day dos talking about you , I found this guy and this is what he talks about , and we followed you from literally you . If we went back , you'd be one of the first people we ever followed .

And then , a year or two later , we interviewed you for the first time and then you're one of only a handful of two-time guests on the show so that that is .

It's really , really inspiring and there's a lot that our audience is going to take away from this One having fun and doing what you love with people that you love , but also just taking a leap and backing yourself , maybe when a lot of people didn't see the vision that you guys now have .

But before we dive into all that juicy stuff , I put you boys on the spot a moment ago and just said how cool would it be for you guys to introduce each other . You're always bantering with each other . You're doing some fun stuff . If people want to go check out your social platforms , who wants to ? Actually let's boy scissor paper rocket .

Whoever , whoever , whoever wins gets to introduce the other one first , and then you can follow through .

Sometimes it tends to be five to ten minutes late , but outside of that , yeah , good bloke .

He does our YouTube stuff and our long-form stuff . He's the shorter half of Dawson D , in not just height but in other elements too , that's so true . And he's well-travelled , he's well-cultured .

But always up to Lockie , we've done like when we've had our most important moments across the last four years in terms of whether they're high , important like high meetings , important meetings , big guests , whether it four years , in terms of whether they're high , important like high meetings , important meetings , big guests , big guests whether it's on Zoom or whether

it's in person . It's like 30 seconds before it happens there's an inside joke or something that will just crack the other person up , like we're trying to fuck it up for both of us . And I don't know why we do that . Even just then I did it Not woke .

You guys might experience it too , where your throat is just like I'm so tired of talking . But I love it . And here we are , but boys , 200 episodes . We're actually at 203 . I think probably 204 . No , it's actually , it's thursday . I keep getting my days tangled up like my tongue . 204 next week .

What a milestone For the people who are just stumbling across your content and seeing what you boys are up to now . It didn't start that way .

I'd love to hear , I guess , a bit of a back story on where you boys have come from , what led you into podcasting , and then we can learn more about the success that's happened since and then we can learn more about the success that's happened since .

Four years now ? Yeah , so to give everyone a bit of a brief introduction , so DOS&D , that's our podcast . We've had that for four years .

It's now become not just an audio experience , it's now a big visual experience and that's kind of been our mission and goal is to turn it into not just a podcast but an actual , almost like a show , somewhere where people can go and be entertained and be inspired and listen to stories and have a laugh .

But four years ago that all began because Dee and I we were both just we would have been 25 and just we were both living in , you know , living in own houses . D was in the city , I was , you know , out where we grew up , and we were just unhappy , working jobs .

We didn't like and like yourself , like , we were just really heavily into personal development , wanted to improve , wanted to grow , wanted to become better and wanted more out of life . Like we were just , we were just not happy , um , and felt like we were settling for less than what we deserve in general overall .

And yeah , we were like we don't know what business to start . Why don't we just start with a podcast and just speak ? And we just started talking about stuff we wish we kind of knew growing up at a high school .

I wish I knew this and I wish I knew that , whether it was about relationships or money or sex or you know , friendships or trust or career confusion , those types of things .

And yeah , we just kind of just talking about that and you know your friends and family in the community are listening and you get 15 episodes in and they all drop off and then you have no one listening . And then you start to build your real audience , which is tough . And then , yeah , we started interviewing some people locally . That started growing .

We moved in together . We ended our relationships not because of the podcast , mind you , not for each other , not for each other .

You said you had that couple of friends and family that maybe listened to the first few episodes and then they decided , you know , they had other things to do but for you guys to persevere through that because you know , you know I can't remember the statistics , but it's something over 70% of people don't make it past 10 episodes .

You guys have done extremely well , managed to make it your career . So what kept you guys moving forward and not just settling ?

Rain , hail or shine , despite what's going on in our personal lives , despite challenges with whether it's recording or whatever , we'll find a way to release something . And partly , you know , in those early days there's some crap episodes , there's some like we're talking about things .

I remember one day I don't know why we started talking about conspiracy theories oh , here we go and we're not conspiracy theorists . So dos dos gave us some insight into the jfk assassination from the video that he watched the night before , not knowing too much about the subject .

So again , but so it's that kind of stuff that we think well , we put out an episode . We took the show to England or London very early on .

But we recorded an episode one day , lying both of us lying on an Airbnb bed , that we'd probably puked in the night before . You shat in the night before and you shat in the night before .

Thank you literally uh , give it all , give it all oh , we were sick and we're lying there like holding mics up , like just forcing it to our mouse just to get out , you know , 40 minutes of content and but we stuck to it .

And , um , for those that haven't come across our content , you'd normally get a bit higher quality than that these days , but the whole point was we're going to get something out and in a long-winded way we've stuck to it .

So four years , whether people were listening or not , whether you know , we just made sure we've kept that consistency to the audience and we've always promised that for those that are loyal and at the start there wasn't many and now there's a lot more but I think that was the .

That's the biggest ingredient and it's with anything you know , we didn't make money till probably we started making a bit of money about two and a half , three years in , but only like nothing to fund much , just a little bit of , you know , I suppose , reward for effort .

And then it took three years to actually start making something kind of respectable in a three and a half , to kind of have something consistent . So we've just preached consistency since the start and that's been the biggest force for us .

You got it done , um , but a time throughout this , you know , because a lot of people set goals and they say , all right , this is my commitment to myself , and then they fall off the wagon because of a range of different excuses . I know you guys have traveled a lot . You've lived apart .

There's so many things that have happened over your journey and you've still managed to just drop and fucking good episodes as well . So you're still making that happen . So can you give us a bit of adversity that you've come up against that have made you question it a little bit ?

So basically a year ago yeah , over a year ago now , april of 2023 I moved up to the gold coast , um , or up around that way , and with my partner because that's where she's originally from and we were like we want to live up there for a year and enjoy it and , um , you know , be closer to her family for a little while , and having that conversation with d

and having to kind of work out what we were going to do , because for three , three years , we've been like together , doing it in person , living together , even creating content outside of the show , you know , being able to go hey , let's go film this funny video , or let's go and do this or that and documenting , like our journey it's going to change and are

we still going to be able to do it ? Our journey it's going to change and are we still going to be able to do it ? And yeah , basically we had to somehow find a way to do it in person . We've always had a rule where we only want to do podcasts in person because we want to be that visual experience , like , have the studio and create it in that way .

So we were like , well , we have to fly . So if we're going to get one out every week , how are we going to do it ? And basically , yeah , we , we had to really try and make it work . Like , financially and , um , logistically , how the fuck are we gonna get an episode out every week when one of us lives interstate and we have to do it in person .

So one of us would fly back and forth , so d would fly up one month and then I would fly up the next month and fly down the next month and , um , we would batch record .

So we would you know , and we , we would you know , scramble , like you know , we might not have any guests lined up for the week before , but we had to get four lined up for that week when he's up on on the gold coast and you know , and we , but it pulls out yeah someone pulls out last minute and you know , you gotta , I'm flying to melbourne and someone

pulls out and you've only got one interview .

Let's find something else . Like that was really , really challenging and even financially like that that we weren't in a financial position , like we were earning some money from some sponsors and all our money was being blown on like airfares . So we actually weren't like the money .

Yeah , invested back into the show essentially , so that's probably one of the biggest ones that comes to mind . Do you have any ? No , I think .

So off the back of that , we created a business really around that time , where we create , created a service that we would create for others what we do for ourselves .

So we go to businesses not influencers , but businesses , um , that are looking for a podcast and looking , you know , for a mobile studio , and we would take all our equipment to them and set everything up , produce a show from edit for them , do everything a to z for them , so they can release their very own podcast at the same quality that we were releasing

ours . So that helped us . Okay , now we've got another way to generate income . So that was a big thing that came from that time . The other thing that we learned was batch recording is the best way to go . So now in Melbourne , it forced us to go up . We've got to up this . We can't do it from a lounge room anymore , week to week .

Yeah , we got to um , we got to source a studio . So we've sourced a studio and then we're like we batch record and now because of that we can bring in a team on that day because you know again , financially you're paying the team for for a day , not you know , every week , um , or a studio hire , anything like that .

So because of those challenges , you know it every week , or studio hire , anything like that . So , because of those challenges , you know it makes you think differently . You know what it's like Lach when you're comfortable . Sometimes you can get complacent and you're like well , everything's working If it's not broke , don't you know what is it ?

So on Zoom Dost is on the Gold Coast , I'm in Melbourne and we're like we need to find x amount of money it's a few thousand dollars and at four o'clock on the friday . We've been hustling all week four o'clock on the friday like we were just banging out emails and then we get this zoom meeting and she basically rang .

She rang dos and he put on loudspeaker and she basically said let's do it and we're just going . Yeah , we we're up and about and it was like the last possible minute that we could have found it . We found it , yeah .

So again , it's not obviously we're not necessarily talking about the business side of things , but it's funny how , in those moments when you really get almost desperate , you can find it and make it work .

I feel , yeah , and a lot of the people that I speak with as well and there's people in our academy and everything like that that love the idea of creating a side hustle .

You know , money's tight for a lot of people and a lot of people have incredible skill sets and ideas and they want to do it , but they are held back by their own mind and the fact that you boys have achieved what you've done , but then you've also monetized it and we all have moments where you're like shit , I don't know whether I can pay rent this week

or whatever that looks like , but as someone who has that entrepreneurial mindset , you just go okay , this is the problem . I'm going to do whatever it fucking takes to solve this bad boy and generally like in the 12th hour or I can't even remember my saying now , danny , but it's like that last moment you get the win and you're like yes it's all worth it .

I was about to quit and it happens , but I would love to dive into , like the business and the career that you guys have created for yourself . Obviously , you had the outlook that you didn't want to just settle for how your life was and you wanted to really build something meaningful .

So the decisions that you've made around the podcast you mentioned a moment ago , like you just want to do them in person , which is awesome . I've ruined that for you , boys , because we're doing this virtually Right .

But yeah , I'd love to dive into why it's important for you guys or you have that standard to do it in person and what other standards you have around your show yeah

, I .

What is now our show is it was never the whole , the whole plan was never to be where we are like . That was never the intention . It was never like ideally great , if it happens , fantastic .

But I don't think four years ago if we said our show would look like this , we'd have these people helping us , um , we'd have these sponsors and we'd have these guests and we'd be sitting in these chairs and we'd be talking about that topic like I don't think we probably would have .

You know , I don't think that was our plan , to be honest , because our whole plan initially was we want to . We want to honestly mate . We wanted to be like you , like our . Our initial beginning was we love personal growth , self-development , helping young men .

Even I worked with you , lockie , you know for those listening and part of the academy or I've worked with Lockie one-on-one or just love his content , like I was one of those .

I consumed it , I loved it and I was lost in a period of time in my life and I needed some guidance and some accountability and lucky provided that in an awesome way , and that's what we wanted . We wanted to be that .

And then , as that guest profiles changed , we kind of started realizing , actually , maybe , like we're not , maybe , maybe it's not personal development , like we were actually finding that we were enjoying the more entertaining element of it , like , actually , maybe we do have a bit of a personality that we can share .

And people were giving us feedback saying we actually enjoy the Dawson D uncuts just with you two , you know , and you guys are sharing some hilarious stories . And and then our three words at the beginning , when we started , was all right , we , we want to be relatable , we want to be empowering and we want to be vulnerable .

And early days , you know it was very much and this is and we need more of this but it was very much about mental health and it was around men's health and it was around vulnerability when it comes to more sadder , deeper internal stuff .

When it comes to more sadder , deeper internal stuff , what we've come to realise is those three words are still important to us , but the vulnerability and relatability , what we now realise is it's actually . It's about life is about having fun and taking the piss out of yourself and being vulnerable isn't just sharing mental struggles .

It's also about sharing real-life shit and mistakes and things that are funny , that we've all gone through but you wouldn't normally share it .

So if it's mistakes with money , mistakes with girls , mistakes with you know a job , or embarrassing stories getting rejected , like being open and vulnerable and relatable in that way and that's what has , like kind of that flipped our switch and we were like , okay , that's what we were going to be , um , but yeah , in terms of the show format , the , the , it just

kind of evolved and changed and , um , and then now I think , yeah , we , we love the content creation element , like you probably enjoy making your content , so for us , the visual part is so enjoyable , so we wanted to make that more of a prevalent or stronger part of

our show .

And we're like , well , let's come together , kind of thing . But the ironic- thing is . I would have had no idea in terms of editing or anything like that . So Doss was already a little bit not trained but well-versed .

You know , eventually down the line you talk about progression , that'll all be outsourced one day , but for the time being we still edit everything ourselves . And again , locke , it's not just putting the show up , it's it's all the admin stuff now , it's now running a business on the side of things . So we still edit for all our clients .

You know they all say to us first thing , I bet you're gonna offshore this to bar to , you know , indonesia or philippines . Or we say , no , we actually this is , you'll get us . We're editing , um , and so that expands the everything .

So each week , you know it's not just putting out one episode of our show , which , by the way , when we do all the editing , we add it up it's probably worth 20 odd hours , maybe even more . Um , it's clients , it's admins , it's it's we . We've got some brand deals . We have to create videos each week .

We've now got got a radio gig on behalf of another brand . So when we say it's a gig , it's literally two minutes four times a week to go and endorse a company . But again there's little things that are coming from it all where you know everything's just bigger than we ever anticipated . So it's all fallen organically .

You know we have strengths that the other may have weaknesses in and we've just kind of taken it on .

And I think the main thing is it doesn't really feel like work , like often we're working late at night into the weekends , but it's just become part of our lives , you know , and although it probably won't be that way for much longer , hopefully , we know that's what we signed up for . You know that's that old saying you work .

You know 80 hours a week to avoid working a 40-hour one .

It just makes me so happy because and there would be a number of people who've watched you guys literally transform your life and take charge of it and for me it's like sharing your story , other stories that I love sharing , because so many people sit on their fucking ass and they want to do it , but you guys are doing it and the example of you don't always

need the perfect plan . You can learn things on the fly . You work to your strengths or weaknesses . You commit to doing a lot of things in the beginning and hopefully , as you become more successful , you can outsource things . But when you're doing what you love , every moment is awesome .

Like it doesn't feel like dragging your knuckles to work on a monday doing something that you hate , and and on that too , like , like we like .

But basically he's found it , has he ? Have you got it ?

You can have four different incomes if you wanted to . You know , if you really wanted to , and that's what we do . So me in particular is , and that's part of our . Another adversity another challenge is just recently , probably about three months ago is um . I actually went and started .

I went and got another job , essentially so we were working three days a week each on dos and d and really probably paying ourselves like just a bare minimum um , and then we both had two day a week jobs for someone else um , like just freelance stuff , and I was probably .

I came to a decision in my head and me and my partner Garnie like I was kind of saying to her , I really want to like earn more money and save really hard and maybe we can buy a house or something .

So I had the conversation with Dee and I was like I actually think I want to maybe go and get another job and still do D and d , but until dos and d just goes completely full time , then then I'm ready to go full time . But at this point in time I was like I wanted to go and work somewhere else and I'm really lucky I've been able to .

I found a really perfect job and it's it's in podcast producing and it's very flexible and I'm able to do both , but I forgot where I was going with this Shit In terms of going through , like setting up your time and being able to take control of things , and having multiple things on the go at once , like earning money , yeah . Yeah .

So basically like , yeah , being able to work out that , okay , well , I can work that job and then those days can maybe drop eventually and I can earn some income , earn income from DOS and D and maybe there's . You know we're actually had to reformat everything . Reformat everything .

Like he's doing a little bit more work than editing-wise , or we have to structure our days with meetings with potential sponsors to a certain degree to fit it , so I can be in the meetings , or he takes the meetings on his own . So it can be very wishy-washy at times and even then like even getting into speaking , like the radio opportunity .

You know we're emceeing our first gig at the end of the year as well , like we've been booked for a Christmas party . You know we're we're emceeing we just got . We're emceeing our first gig at the end of the year as well , like we've been booked for a christmas party , you know that's boys thanks mate .

Yeah , like um , which is pretty cool as well , um , but just yeah , multi-hyphenated lifestyle I've got that book up there .

but . I think you've definitely touched on a really cool thing , like we can earn money from multi , multiple , different avenues , and I I'm a big believer , similar to you guys .

The normal way of , I guess , working and living wasn't exciting to me and it never has been , and I would much prefer to invest 10 years in you know , I am 10 years this year of working for myself and like the fact that I've supported that I'm stoked about .

But , similar to you guys , there's been moments where I've had to Uber drive or I've had to do so many different things to keep that dream alive . But as you continue to become learning different skills , you become , I guess , more valuable to certain people and you can get compensated for that and you start living that dream .

And then , I guess , for me , I'm living in America like fully self-supported , like doing so many cool things , and that's life and I really hope people who are listening to what you guys are doing and what you guys have achieved are inspired by that and just you know you guys are very real and honest about that , but you also have some fucking fun with it .

To me , as I was saying , it just makes me smile because you guys are . You guys are living the dream . And the dream doesn't mean we're flying around in private jets and got millions of dollars . It's just like our life is amazing . We're building it how we want want it to be exactly .

I'm like if my whole goal since I've been 18 years old , probably even younger was that I just wanted to make my own money , that's all I wanted to do . I just wanted to be able to be self-sufficient . So does it mean we're making millions of dollars ? No , but we're paying ourselves to do something we love , which is amazing .

And when we lay it all out , we're always setting goals , we're always reflecting . I mean , you can't see here . We can show you afterwards .

We've got a huge whiteboard here that lives in my living room and it's just absolutely packed with says 2023 on one side , everything we achieved , and then 2024 , what we want to achieve I love that we tick it off as we go and you know we had a certain figure in our head financially by the end of this year could we pay ourselves that amount ?

and we're not even at the end of the financial year and we've reached that , so we're probably we may be able to dream bigger boys yeah , that's it exactly , and it was when we wrote it down . We were like shaking . We're like , oh , will we be able to get to that point ? Maybe , maybe not . Um , and where we lay it out , we we can see .

You know of the multiple routes that we're we're investing in now , and the whole thing is it's like you talk about youtube .

That's a good example , something that will one day flourish for us , where when you're editing , spending hours editing a YouTube video and putting it out , and initially like no one's watching it , you're like , well , what's the point of this ?

But when you think down the line , okay , in five years' time , if we've got a following , or our projected following is of this , and that percentage is watching YouTube , and you convert them into ads and they go back and watch the old videos and suddenly everything starts turning , then that thing you invested in two , three , four years ago suddenly becomes the

income stream where you never thought of it . So we're now finding different elements in what we do where , like Josh said , emceeing is something we never really considered , but that's a big gig for us . And then the radio . You know , we're lucky , we've got . You know , I hope it doesn't sound like we're bragging .

It's just an example of opportunities that arise , like we got an email the other day from a talent agency that may or may not take us on , as you know . They want to manage us basically . But they also said they'd be connected with so-and-so at a very high you very high governing body of some of the biggest radio stations here in Australia .

We said no and they said , oh well , just letting you know they're keeping an eye on you . They're about to cull a bunch of their people . Would you be interested in doing a slot ? It may not be now , it may be six months , 12 months , two years , who knows ? But just letting you know they're keeping an eye on you .

So those things that we never considered may pop up , may or may not pop up in the future . And they say things like have you considered tv ? Well , we've never considered tv . And they said , well , just keep it in the . You know , keep it in your five to ten years , maybe something could go there .

So again , it's just , and we just , like I said at the very start , it's all consistency for us if we just keep showing up and putting out . You know , we have weeks where the , the downloads may dip or we're not getting anything on social media and it's , and you're flat about it . And then you have weeks that it all skyrockets .

It meant that we could sell ourselves before , probably ready to Do . You want to maybe share a ?

And we were both brought up by and I'll you know like you know a bit about my story , but both our dads had their own businesses , so that's what we witnessed as kids , and both in similar spaces in the event management industry , and our dads were the faces of their companies and my dad's company was more around sport and entertainment holding big sporting events

and entertainment events and booking guest speakers and connecting with big businesses and selling and business development and getting people in the room and just growing up and seeing him on the phone whenever in the car or doing going above and beyond for clients , and you know just just little things that you just don't realize as a kid , but they're things that

subconsciously you saw and heard and you've just taken them with you and gone with it and I think that's also why we are I don't know we're so like , because people would probably go shit , you've been on four years and you're still not full time like .

Surely that's enough of a reminder to kind of go , come on like but we've got enough wins on the board and we've trajectory . The trajectory is so there , you can see it and taste it and feel it .

You're like , fuck , we're not gonna stop , like we've always said we're four years into a 20-year apprenticeship like it's , like we're not stopping so , but we , we've saw our dads do that and I think that's what's like . That's why we're so confident and and just so like free willy about it , because we we've seen it and we know what it takes and we've seen .

You know , things that you just pick up on . That's , you know , important and you mentioned , you know , in terms of money and podcasting , and this is , I think , the biggest bit of advice or biggest we could offer for the way we've done . It is when most people start one of these things .

It's so funny how people put out 10 episodes of a podcast or 20 , and they're selling merchandise or they're selling something . They're trying to get their audience to buy something and and I get , it's different if you're more business-focused , like your show . We're entertainment , so we're totally different .

But , as of 200 episodes , we've never asked a single listener to give us money in any way . We haven't sold anything . We haven't even put up Patreon . We haven't done buy us a coffee for $5 . We've never done any of that . We've sourced it all through sponsors and adding value to them .

So , rather than trying to grab from the people that you know , listening like we're just trying to give back to those that are supporting us and we're then hoping that , you know , through our sponsors and things like that , that's how we're , that's how we're going to generate money .

And yes , down the line , you know we may go down merchandise and things like that , but that's , that's just a side thing , it's not we're . That's how we're going to generate money . And yes , down the line , you know we we may go down merchandise and things like that , but that's , that's just a side thing , it's not we're relying on that side of thing .

We've used our negotiation skills and our sales skills and relationships we've built over many years to go . Look back us in . This is our vision . You know , this is where we're going . Um , when we get there , this is what it's going to mean for you kind of thing . And we're talking off air , signing long-term deals , building long-term relationships .

You know , and yes , at the start a lot of them had to . You know , they're very much doing us a favour , probably based on our relationships , but now it's turning where . Okay , hey , this is our audience . Now , this is who you're getting in front of . They're benefiting , they're benefiting exactly . So that's the biggest tip we tend to give .

If you guys ever do have families and similar to amy nights who I've become in the process and who you guys are becoming , your young fellas or even just people in general , are watching what you do and being influenced and inspired to be better as a result of that .

Like you know , it is hard work to go pitch yourself , to sell yourself Most people can't do it Right and you go in there and say , hey , believe in my vision as much as we do at the moment . Maybe there's not as much upside for you , but there will be , trust me .

It's like that's a hard fucking thing to do , but you guys have done that and , once again , super inspiring stuff . What is the vision for you guys ? Where do you see now ? Like obviously you've started to get more runs on the board and working together , working strengths and weaknesses . Where do you guys want to take it ?

So we'd love to be able to , like we'd love to be able to go overseas , to america or to europe and create entertaining content and interview people overseas , and it's all covered and paid for by , like whoever's sponsoring . I know that's like .

One of our dreams is to go back overseas and interview the biggest names that we can ever imagine that we've dreamt of , um . You know there's , there's a list at the top and , like some of those names , I have no doubt that we'll , that we'll get them , um , and that that's , I know , one of our big .

That's probably our biggest goal and our biggest dream and our biggest vision is going overseas and interviewing some huge , high-profile names , just because we love them , like . That's probably why .

And I think , too , you know , in terms of what we're trying to grow with the brand Dawson D , I think the biggest vision is we don't want to be known as a podcast , we want to be known as a brand . We're Dawson D . Right , podcast is an umbrella arm of what we do .

What you'll see in the next 12 months it's slowly as we reinvest it all back in the show is our show is going to change a little bit away from the standard podcast that most people are used to hearing .

We want to turn it into more of a show and we want to create something that Like a program , like a program , like something that's gone missing a little bit in Australian TV , probably all around the world . But when we were growing up , we had shows like well , probably even before our time was hey , hey Saturday and variety shows .

Rove , rove and those kind of shows were unpredictable . But then with the whole landscape shifting , the world changing , that kind of got lost .

But on the internet we see a big opportunity there that we think we could create our show into more of a variety show where you might have Lockie might be sitting on a couch but you might be sitting next to an athlete , and then here's a good example .

Then you have Amy and you have Shepard playing a song at the end , right , and you might have a magician doing tricks , like it could be so random , but there's a gap because no one's doing it . And we see , we want , we want to .

We're not exactly crystal clear what it looks like , but we're starting to mold it into , just slowly , very subtly molded , into more of a visual element which dos is saying through some of our segments that we're bringing on , and the way our sponsors are going to get involved .

They're going to get much more benefit and eyes on them based on what we're going to create . But so , yeah , I think that's a big goal of ours too .

So , um , I don't know if it's different in the in the world of like big showbiz , like overseas , like as one name in particular that we want to interview is , um ricky gervais yes man , he seems like a legend yeah , like we've just been all like I think that's probably one of the things we bonded over like early in our friendship is the office , you know ,

and Office UK and having that English humour Like Dee's dad's from England . So you know , we share that English humour , we enjoy it and he's like one of our biggest ones that we love . And then we love music . So Robbie Williams Like I don't know , he's like one of our biggest ones that we love . And then we love music .

So Robbie Williams and I know people would go what out of every musician you'd want him to be Robbie Williams Like yes , because we grew up with him , our mums loved him , we love his personality , we feel like he'd be great , and so I think when that day comes I'm sure I'll be shitting myself .

Really , some might say , you know , they might want to promote something or promote a charity or something like that . And we're still at the point now where we've looked at sometimes we've looked at , sometimes we've looked and gone . You know what we actually could pay guests if we wanted to .

But the thing that now through our sponsors , by the way people come on the show and they walk away with a bunch of stuff , which is great , so we can give back , we can give them a bunch of cool gifts and giveaways and they actually walk away with something .

But we never mention that to them when we're in the , you know , when we're inviting them on the show because we want people to come on for the right reason . So , exactly when you just ask that question then about you know , meeting your heroes and maybe being disappointed because people come on and go . Well , there's no financial arrangement here . They're not .

You know , they're always . They're doing it because they want to do it , you know , and lucky it's only been the last six months where some of these people really look up to Suddenly we see them following us on Instagram out of the blue .

We haven't made contact , they follow us before we follow them , or we start seeing them liking our reels , and then we can kind of you know , we don't have to introduce ourselves and sell ourselves , we can kind of just have a conversation , go , would you like to come on ? And often it's yeah , we'd love to . It happened , happened literally yesterday .

So , um , that getting to that element too is a big step for us and I think you know , you know we want to work with people , that they want to be there , they want to share their story , they want to be open , vulnerable , happy to have a laugh , not take themselves too serious , and that's why we're probably not too worried about , yeah , being disappointed by

our heroes .

Like you said , you obviously started wanting to do like vulnerability and mental health and all that sort of stuff and you played around with that and then you realized you were more in the entertainment space , so you went with that and it's been a more , I guess , authentic or genuine for where you wanted to go and , as a result of that , your credibility and

your influence in the space has grown , and that's one thing that I say to a lot of people is the best . Like , I don't monetize my podcast at all and we can talk about this later on , like different ways why I use it for business . However , it's grown my network .

Like I had one of my idols on the podcast , the Iron Cowboy , maybe three months ago , and I was like a little kid in a candy store when I knew he was coming on and I never would have been afforded that opportunity if I hadn't have done the you know , 500 plus episodes prior and become the person who could you know , I guess he could leverage my audience

but then to be able to , you know , have his number now and text him and stuff like that . I'm like this is awesome , like you become mates with these people that you idolize . Can I just say something ?

One thing we noticed when we did shift that perspective and looked at ways to be vulnerable is we met a lot of people that were doing similar things at the same time , but they weren't . There was no authenticity and it really pissed us off .

So they're going out and they're preaching mental health , they're preaching vulnerability , they're preaching all you know , all the good stuff that you know , we all hear about , but a , they weren't living it themselves . Um b , they were in it .

They saw a money opportunity , you know , a financial opportunity , and just I'm going to leverage this whole mental health movement . I'm going to slap something on a T-shirt and sell it to the masses . And we've seen that happen a lot and that I don't know about DOS , but personally it threw me way off that space .

I'm like I don't want to be because there's very few that live it . You're a great example of a person that is authentic , that actually does like , puts out content that is authentic , that actually does like , puts out content that is authentic um , whether it's good , bad or indifferent where a lot of people don't . And that threw me , threw me off personally .

I started really resenting people doing it because you could see through it and I'm like I don't want us to be grouped in with that . I don't want us to be this , to be seen as trying to ride a wave . Um , I think that was a big step .

So it's an endorsement for you because you're one of the few and I mean it few that we've come across that actually live and breathe their lifestyle .

You see , obviously trends and fads happen and there are always people and nothing wrong with if that's how people want to do business , et cetera but I think longevity comes through authenticity and I've never wavered , much like you guys . You see , people come and go and in the beginning it used to frustrate me .

I remember people literally came into my program , stole , took the IP and pissed off , and I remember how angry and upset I was . And now I'm just like it's okay because I don't know my next move . And at the end of the day as well , very similar to you guys , like I love what I do , I've got a great lifestyle and I just want to .

You know I do it because I genuinely love it . I'm always , I guess , solving my own problems . I've always got shit to solve and getting to share that with people . So then my work and my podcast is a bit more . I wish I had more humor in it , but I'm not a funny guy like you boys .

But then I get to listen to your guys' content and content of the sort to get that . So it's cool that I guess what maybe turned you off . It has put you into a space where you're adding fucking market loads of value to people's lives and you're enjoying the journey as well .

What do you feel would be outside of , obviously , video editing and producing and all of that ? What do you feel would be the best skills that you guys have developed over the last couple of years that have put you in the position you're in ?

or like are we valid or have we done enough to prove to a business or to someone or to a brand or to another creator to collaborate ? Have we done enough ? Are we at a certain level ? I feel like what we've , like the major skill set that we've , like we've really battled with me personally , like d , even when we lived together .

D would always get angry at me . He goes you need to stop comparing yourself like stop comparing us to other podcasts , stop comparing like even the podcast . There's podcasts that were bigger than us that aren't even around anymore , but we're still around . And he would go like that's the perfect example of why you shouldn't compare yourself .

Everyone's on their own trajectory . But yeah , for us , we've gotten so much better at knowing our worth and being , you know , confident enough and have the you know , the verbal skills and the knack to

. I don't want to say sell ourselves like because we're not . We're not .

Everything that you've done has amounted to a certain level of value that you give to people , whether it's audience , the laughs Like we could list off a million different things that you guys provide in value and now it's that you're actually starting to recognize and own that and go . This is me . If you want to be part of that , then awesome .

So shit , I reckon in five years , this is going to be like gold to a brand , so why not , like go out and sell it ?

And at the start lock , when we the first time we started making money , the only way we thought we could and this is how we started was we'd go to , we'd get a big name guest on . We knew they were coming on in a month or two months and we'd be like all right , who would like to ? Basically , who can we sell this one episode to ?

So a good example is we had a jockey very well known in Australia , a legend called glenn boss won three melbourne cups , very famous jockey , and we had him on the show at the time for us really big deal . So we went , used our connections , we went to um , the melbourne racing company , and we got peanuts . But we got something for that episode .

We got to read an ad and we got to experience it all and we're like , okay was that our first sponsored yeah yeah , yeah , and then we got and then and then , when we knew we had big names coming on this is even as late as only nine months ago we were doing this .

You know , we'd go okay , we've got so-and-so coming on , let's let's partner a brand with it , and we'd be selling that person to the brand . So we'd be saying , hey , you know , um , put your partner , your brand , with this amazing person , because that's who they are . The biggest shift we had was all right that we're not doing that anymore .

We need sponsors , week in , a week out , no matter how well known the guest is . If it's just the two of us sitting there , we need it . We need dos and d sponsored and we need to find brands that see that to keep the show alive , keep it alive , especially when we're doing all that travel and stuff .

So so again , yes , heap , a fuck ton of rejection , heaps of it , heaps of it . But we found the brands that saw long-term . And they again , the key words we heard is they'd say boys , we want to partner with you for long-term . Because they saw the benefit . They realized sponsoring four episodes might not do much . But they heard week in and week out .

We said we'll bring the guests , trust us , we'll bring the guests , trust us , we'll bring the good quality guests . Um , but you know we , we need you on board and through their again , their consistency , their longevity .

Then they start seeing the rewards because their brand's being heard week in and week out and you know , dos hit the nail on the head like it's so scary when we put a figure out to brands that we think , oh are , are we pushing this here , like because we might have upped what we were .

And then when they come back and say , yes , it's the best feeling in the world and you know it Lach . The first time you ever make a sale , the first time you up your price and somebody says , yes , I can't . That euphoric feeling is very hard to describe to people that haven't experienced it , because it's something that you have literally created yourself .

And now somebody else has seen the value and said , yes , and I'm gonna I'm gonna financially reward you for it like it's nuts . So that's been challenges , but something we're hopefully overcoming now it's killer boys .

So I feel like that's when I look back on my like the last 10 years of my life , even like I think the amount of times I've probably had to update my LinkedIn bio because I've changed jobs or roles or doing things , or the multi-hyphen method , and I'm sure that gets looked at in bit fun , in a funny way from , like , you know people that are more you know

, um , I don't want to say , oh , they're more , just straight back and they're , you know that that's okay . If that's what , when they look at it , they might go , oh , that's a bit odd and it's a bit less credible or it's not as um , stable .

But I would say to someone , yeah , try , try , heaps of different stuff , because if you don't try enough things , um , how do you know that you might not have actually , you know , found something that you enjoy ? Like , how do you know ? If you know , I'll tell you we'll laugh . I say the same all the time .

How do you know if chocolate's your favorite flavor ice cream ? If you've never had it , you know . So you may as well go and try it . Like , try different stuff because you don't know . So that's , rather than go and just jump into something and stick at it and like , because that's what mom and dad think you should do .

Um , I think , yeah , I think the best thing you can do as a as a younger person is , yeah , try different shit I'm very much agree .

But you look back at key moments of your life when things changed and if that , if that didn't happen , I wouldn't , we wouldn't be sitting here right now and , like we , we joked about traveling , for example .

So for me , solo traveling was the biggest eye-opener I've ever experienced in my life that there is a whole wide world that's so much bigger than my little town . There's so many people . There's so many opportunities .

All these cool people that I'm meeting in hostels are doing all these ridiculous things that you've never heard of and some of them that I made friends with four years ago . I see them now and they're running these huge businesses and I remember sitting in a bunk one night with this dude from Canada and he had this idea .

We're like on a bunk bed and he's like telling me this goal . He's got his business , he's started and it was in Denver , colorado , and he's come out here and he's trying to do this thing and four years ago he had this vision . Now he's created this massive business . It's on steroids , it's going nuts . I remember when he was selling me this whole vision .

I think , especially in your 20s , it's the time to take risks , it's the time to have fun . It sounds stupid , but it sounds . We all say it . But set goals and stick to them like literally set goals . Stupid , but it sounds um , we all say it , but set goals and stick to them like literally set goals .

Um , because once you build confidence in yourself once I for me , personally , like I lost I joked before but I lost 30 kilos of weight and the best thing that came from that was , for once I set a goal and I had confidence now myself that I actually could stick to a goal that I've done .

And then suddenly to start a business or to do this or to do that became easy because you're like , hey , I've already proven , if I promise myself I can do something , I can actually stick to it . That was a big defining point for me .

So I think , in a long-winded way , it's all around yeah , building your own self-confidence and taking risks and having a crack .

Whatever it is , there's going to be some cool stuff happening .