hello everyone marco montemagno here the
text alchemist and today i’m here with
me ah to Greg gasps really I’m so happy
to have you here guess I’m I’m
embarrassed I’m excited you know how to
to have you here Callie nude and jumpy
geekbeat TV hi guys how are you
everything right I was telling to John
before to begin that you had such a
difficult surname and you know what i
did i did on soundcloud how to pronounce
montemagno which is my horrible surname
at some people can click on them to play
and hear that pronunciation that’s a
great idea I should do that but the
problem is even when people learn
exactly how to pronounce my name they
don’t want to do it so it’s it’s
actually you’ll appreciate this because
because you you have an ear that is
trained for languages other than just
English but that’s Americans were pretty
pitiful they don’t know one here so my
father’s Greek he’s a Greek immigrants
to the US and I was I’m a firstborn
first-generation American the way my dad
says that he says hose that Z this but
the way yeah but the way we say it in in
American we say hoses Edie’s but of
course even that’s too hard so that’s
why everybody just calls me john p in
fact if you google you you feed out Pope
John Paul every other john p possibility
yeah jaunty i am number one on google
for john p so that’s all you have to
remember john p i think even your
business card for a while just a judge
john be good
Google jumpy that’s great but also kelly
i saw your engine wikipedia and and you
ever an original italian name or are
just crazy no you’re absolutely correct
my real name is not cali lewis that is a
stage name it’s when my made-up name um
but it’s Luria petrucci so that’s my
very italian name drinkin an italian and
we fight all the time yeah great so good
Oh before to begin I’m just curious
about a couple of things the first one
is how was in in Mexico because I I saw
some holidays and vacations so i would
like to start from that point that i
think it’s very interesting you playa
the carbonite awesome it was it was
awesome I’ve never been to Mexico I
don’t think you had either the only
foray into Mexico I ever had before for
true yeah was in Laredo you don’t want
to be a Nuevo Laredo Mexico I’ll just
say that however a playa del carmen down
in the Mexican Riviera yes Wow yeah it
was really nice um better than I
expected I guess but we were there for a
friend’s wedding and they had asked John
to like photographer because he’s an
amazing photographer no stop you know
wedding photography certainly
differences and those other kinds of
photography and so if he did a fantastic
job at it and all those photos are
posted online beautiful beautiful shots
and I gotta hold flash everyone smile
little bit more serious question um in
Europe we’ve been talking a lot but i
think all over the world about obama
victory and i was wondering how how did
you get it also because I so so much
technology in this victory a lot of
using of big data data scientist social
media a lot well what was your feedback
about it
you know I I find it fascinating how
much technology is coming to rule the
election process and even though the US
tends to be a little bit ahead of other
countries I think that this is a leading
indicator of where it’s going to be
going everywhere uh I would actually go
back to the previous election and say
you know if we look at this this
particular election Obama did use big
data he had teams of people doing
analytics and number crunching and
telling him where to focus and what to
do and that’s useful but even in the
previous election he really ruled social
media the way no one ever had before so
what was the perfect timing for it for
sure and you know he was he was always
being seen with his Blackberry at the
time that was a big deal of course
that’s no longer the game but um yeah
there was a lot of technology but at the
same time when you’re actually in the
voting process I polls that we’re still
using very old methods in a lot of
places in a lot of places yeah we have a
mixture because the way the US voting
system works it’s not standardized um
nationally it’s unmanaged on an
individual local level so you really
might honestly have certain precincts in
small towns that use paper ballot paper
and they mark with a pencil and stick it
through a machine you know or you might
also have in other places touch touch
screen type of voting processes and you
know there have been a lot of
discussions about how things can be
cheated one way or another but but the
point is it’s not Universal at this you
know time so uh huh anyway it was it was
very interesting well by the way if
Callie you run for the next election
will vote for you I just want to tell
you this so no worry about that
I think he’s already taken to claim
because we’re saying than John T stands
for president yeah the P stands for
President Obama to be present at old
enough to be present but I am age I I
don’t think they’re gonna let me be
present enough pretty sure about that
alright guys so let’s go to oh my god I
always stay here hours talking about
stupid things lot ok now let’s still
serious geekbeat ok um I’m really
looking at gifted as a great example of
how to produce television quality videos
I’ve been doing a television on Sky News
in each day for seven years so I come
from a very traditional approach on
television a lot of cameras don’t some
people studios radio mic in your ear
with people talking every two seconds
ago in the second song and I’m in love
and I’m a tech entrepreneur so I’m in
love for technology and everything that
is new and keep it for me is a great
example of what you can do today I’m
online videos which is such a hot topic
and I love the way that you also test
experiment things i recently saw you
testing this tree caster TriCaster 44
live production so you always on the
edge in my opinion that that’s my
perception you know from a independent
observer so i was really love for your
your approach and i would like to
explain you to the tech alchemist
community so first what’s happening in
the online video world at the moment if
it’s possible to create a sustainable
business and i just would start from
this scenario then i go deeper in the
details there well first of all thank
you that’s that’s very humbling and we
we appreciate our team is constantly
trying to push the boundaries and you
know make great content but at the same
time experiment a little bit so we
appreciate that yeah I I would say if we
were trying to cut
the foundation for where online video
fits in the world right now I recently
read a statistic that three-fourths of
the American public currently accesses
YouTube on a routine basis and if you
just think about that for a minute and
let it you know settle in YouTube is a
service that literally did not exist a
decade ago so if we look at the adoption
rate of every technology that has ever
been in the history of mankind and we
compare that to the adoption rate of
online video using only YouTube as an
example it’s it’s an astounding change
in a very short period of time and so we
have clearly an audience that is there
that’s that desirous of the the content
but we also have a lot of independent
producers of content in fact the web is
really the great equalizer because as
you mentioned Marco you you are on TV
you have done television locally now you
can do the same thing internationally
and you don’t even need the studio where
we actually Callie and I both do routine
appearances on news segments and we go
to the local TV studios and CNN and BBC
and Fox News and all these guys and you
know they have magnificent facilities
and they’re nothing like our humble
little studio here but there’s kind of a
an adoption process of getting into this
where you you have to start small you
have to invest a little bit both in in
terms of time and some capital to start
off and as you grow the audience and as
you find ways and you have to be
opportunistic as you find ways to
generate some revenue you have to take
that and reinvest it in your
our online business in your you know
content business and maybe upgrade your
equipment and learn how to be a little
more professional and stay one step
ahead of all the others competitors out
there yeah i think you know you hit on a
really good key point there is is
upgrade um every everyone that I know
that it started out you know way back
when we all we all started small you
know and that is the beauty of online
content production is that you can start
small just like you were saying but the
upgrade process is key because you’ve
always got to push those boundaries
you’ve always got to get better teach
yourself more go to classes if you can
you know I mean get education is key in
terms of increasing your skill level as
well as your production level and all of
us I would just add one last little
comment which is um if I were going to
sum up everything that we both just said
I would throw a line that when I was in
the Marine Corps oh yeah decades ago
there we go a drill instructor told me
this once and he he was talking about
war okay but I have found it applies to
everything in life he who is most
committed wins yeah he did tell me one
thing John um what the minimal
production costs that you would
recommend to accompany my personal
theory is that soon every company will
have their own video studio whatever is
I mean just to produce them content comp
or a corporate accountant or doing
whatever is but just a small studio
video every company will have by the way
I also think that everyone will have
also his own documentary about himself
but this is another point
what’s the minimum production costs that
you would recommend how what was the
name or amount of mine you invest to
start producing decent video we actually
get this question a lot and it’s it’s
it’s difficult to answer up specifically
because there can be a wide variety of
environments and and styles and types of
video production but if we were to say
generally what do we think would kind of
be the the minimum investment that you
need to make and get started for the
average person who wants to begin
producing video content i would say uh
you could you could do it for easily
less than a thousand US dollars um and
that would probably be primarily broken
down into a few key pieces of equipment
number number one a camera of some sort
and you could do it for example with a a
nikon p71 hundred that’s a little pocket
camera it’s not even a video camera it’s
really a camera but the important thing
is it has really good optics it does a
nice movie mode and the key it has a
external microphone input jack that is
me before you you move on you have to
have that you cannot use the onboard
camera mic or anything you do because
the best is just bad quality and people
will notice and you know the thing that
that you have to remember always with
your contents and with the equipment
that you choose to use is that there’s
so much out there for people to consume
that if it is bad quality they’ll just
move right on they they don’t have to
stick around this isn’t the lecture
class you know they’re not with one
exception unless it’s like ridiculously
compel
yeah exactly you know is bad quality out
there they give millions of views by
elephant stepped on a baby even if it
was filled people are gonna watch it I’m
sorry yes the second the second little
piece of equipment that you really need
is a microphone but you can get by with
a wired microphone something cheap that
you’d find I don’t know if they have
radio shacks internationally but even at
a radio shack in the US just a little
$30 wired microphone and or a lavalier
microphone that you can clip on you and
then finally I think you need a little
external light because a lot of times uh
you you just don’t have quite enough
illumination and you could for 50 bucks
you can get something off amazon you
just do a search for LED light panel and
you get a small one of those for 50
bucks I mean what we just described
we’re easily under five hundred dollars
and you could up it from there a little
bit if you want but that would be plenty
to get someone started making some good
content that they could could put out
there so I mean you can do it for for
cheap you can you know just spend a
little bit and get started um but one
thing that everyone has to remember is
that the time that you spend to produce
it is going to be key as well that’s the
number one thing um you have to be
willing to spend the time to do it right
to do it well and just to do it at all
this video takes a lot of time also
obviously if you want to grow from that
we’ve been talking before about the
TriCaster 40 which is a
five-thousand-dollar mix or basically be
do now to make sure no to produce before
those kind of keep an I mean it Costa
and a 100,000 200,000 and then for two
thousand and now five thousand so
probably would be cheaper and cheaper
and cheaper to have great quality
material of a very professional
production I guess very soon yeah well
in fact yes you’re right the tricaster
is an interesting piece of equipment
because it’s essentially brought a
full-on production TV studio and
packaged in a box and they have a
variety of them the basic one starts at
five thousand you could spend fifty
thousand we have the fifty thousand
dollar ones here as well and what it
does is it allows you to switch between
multiple cameras that are hardwired into
it and allows you to bring up titles on
the screen it allows you to mix in other
pre-recorded photos and videos great
piece of equipment and if for example
you have a small business and you wanted
to do a weekly live streaming show it
really makes it affordable five grand
for one of those boxes three cameras
that are maybe you know like five
hundred dollars a piece like a canon
vixia camera camcorder a couple of mics
and a small $99 mixer I mean you’re
talking about let’s say under seven
thousand dollars have a full-on live
streaming maybe a little more for a few
lights but but you could even go cheaper
than that now there is an application
that you can get for iOS it’s made by I
for software and it’s called video
camera they’re in the process of
renaming it right oh yeah I think it’s
still called video camera you can load
it on iPhones iPads I think androids
coming soon is one of those little I not
not a phone but it’s like a nice but not
I puts the touch and ipod touch you can
load it on those and as long as they’re
all on the same wireless network you can
actually use let’s say three ipads as a
three cameras set up and switch between
them and control them all from one ipad
and that’s like 20 bucks apiece for the
application I mean you’re right it’s
getting much cheaper and you can still
have reasonable quality by doing it that
way
the other main problem is that a lot of
time people doing videos forget that
people then have to watch the video and
if it’s so boring or if there’s no
format or people will never watch it so
one thing that I really appreciate about
it is that you try to make technology
fun engaging in a very professional way
but making it easy get people closer to
technology by making it you know
entertaining also so this is a very nice
approach so what’s your secret formula
to engage in create an online community
and keep audience watching your video
and don’t oppose after 3 seconds kelley
lewis let’s jump to the next question ok
no you know I um that you are right our
number one priority is to entertain is
to have fun um neither of us think
technology should be boring and so we do
we just naturally have fun with it um
one key thing is that is our rules that
nothing gets on the show without us
being excited by it we’re passionate
about it so we’re not going to cover a
laptop that just came out if it has no
special features or it’s boring or it’s
sad we don’t do boring what’s the point
yeah so you know in and and we we love
helping people um you both of us are
constantly helping people and so I think
just by by translations we want to help
people understand what this technology
means and by no means do we think that
people are dumb or need to be you know
broken down for them that’s not our
philosophy we just want them to be able
to embrace technology a little bit
better
um and everybody has a different
expertise you know we it’s not like we
treat one particular thing as a as a
difficult topic and we try and dumb it
down for people we just try and talk at
a level that everyone can understand
across all the things that we that we
engage on and if I were going to try and
give you some advice on things that
people could do to do somewhat emulate
one I would say you’ve got to keep it
concise you’ll notice if you watch
geekbeat that every our normal episode
of course we do our long format weekly
show and we might touch on that in a
minute but in terms of a daily show it’s
five to seven minutes and we cover three
to five topics okay two minutes on a
topic is a long time for people to watch
on video so keep it short keep it
punching Oh chase changing up um visuals
is the big thing for video yeah making
sure that people aren’t just staring at
the same thing for I mean I think
there’s like a research study like every
seven seconds you have to have something
visually changing so that’s the best key
yeah um also I would say uh this one’s a
little more difficult this one only
comes with practice but be natural on
camera are so easy just be natural um
what happens is what anytime a camera is
pointed at you you feel like oh my god
this is being recorded for posterity
they could hold this against me you know
what if I make a mistake and believe me
this was this I think was more difficult
for me to overcome than normal people
because I used to be a chief marketing
officer like in a big business okay i
come from big corporate backgrounds and
everything we did was script it out I
mean a press release would go through
three people that come to me I just
finally guess what you’re going to say
things wrong on video
you’re going to make mistakes what we
have to do is change the mindset and you
have to say you know what if I say 10
things and one is wrong that’s perfectly
acceptable because nine ninety percent
of time what I did was fine and people
will forgive me for being human in fact
people like that they don’t want you to
always be perfect like a robot it really
depends on your contents I mean you have
to take that into consideration so if
for something like us we try and keep it
between five and seven minutes there is
there are studies that are showing that
longer form content on YouTube is doing
well and that people are accepting it a
bit more but at the same time you have
to have the right content to go
long-form look like it my general rule
is take as long as it takes to tell the
story and no longer okay it just what’s
what’s that individual story going to
take to hit the key points and not every
little detail you know don’t need
everything to actually you know what not
only do they not need every detail if
you give them every detail it doesn’t
leave them any opportunity for future
exploration of the topic so how about
tell them enough to get them really
interested and then let them google it
you know that gives them they were
engaged with that content well another
point that I was curious about term is
ISIL geek big bang on ok geek bit on
revision3 on YouTube so where is gig
without hey where is your house well
what’s your strategy being everywhere
but then how is the business model so I
want to try to understand a bit more
about that you absolutely have to be
everywhere these days and people are
where you
watching the content where they want to
watch it if that’s itunes they’re pretty
much only going to iTunes if they want
to only be on YouTube they’re only going
to be on youtube so you as a Content
producer have to be everywhere that you
want your ear content consumed so you’ve
got to be on YouTube you’ve got to be
keen on having an RSS feed available
through itunes if that we’re on tivo um
run the roku box well we’re also on
television and we also do live streaming
what we found was our audience was
wanting more from us than we were
delivering originally the geek beat show
only I mean only came out on iTunes I
mean you could get there that was it
then later youtube was added and we
treated it like like a like an ugly
stepchild actually I mean we tell Tom to
my friend Steve Chen this okay I’m so
good later we started saying you know we
get a lot of engagement on YouTube and
that’s a pretty good community let’s
give it some more attention and so we
started giving YouTube more love and
around the same time the audience from
everywhere was saying hey you know why
don’t you guys do some live content like
leo laporte for example and so we
dabbled in it and at first we treated
live like an ugly stepchild as well in
fact we treated worse than we did use
you but then live became important to us
and we invested in it we invest in the
infrastructure and the time to do it and
then of course we were approached by TV
network who said hey that live thing
that you do is you know pretty popular
can we put it on our on our nationwide
you know TV a thing and we said yeah
that sounds pretty good why don’t you do
that and so um yeah basically you can
graduation in fact not only that now
you’ll beat you very soon now we haven’t
told anybody this system it wasn’t
exclusive
wait wait wait okay go there is a there
is a network of it’s called indoor
direct in the US and they have TV
station TVs in like Wendy’s and taco
bells and unless drawn restaurant and
stuff all over the country thousands of
them and we’re actually going to begin
providing our DP content for them to run
on there so you kind of you know a lot
and and there’ll be some more things
coming to but but as Callie says you
want to be in as many places you can
even if you’re not making money off of
all of them because it’s additional
exposure it’s an additional awareness
and sometimes the best revenue that
you’re going to generate from things
like this is indirect it’s not direct so
yes we have Ford and we have netflix and
we have domain com and all these guys
advertising on our show but what
actually uh that’s not the bulk of our
revenue the bulk of our revenue comes
from special projects people ask us to
do endorsement things and all these
ancillary things so so mainly you want
to be everywhere so you can get as much
awareness as possible and then the other
opportunities start coming as well a lot
more read more about the business model
because everyone took about the business
model for videos and okay advertising
fine but if you have huge numbers is one
thing otherwise is very difficult
subscriptions or what’s the right
business model in your experience I
don’t also ich ich bitte is profitable
or not but what’s your vision on this
point
well okay we are we are fortunate enough
that that the geek beat on its own is
profitable limit lobster our parent
company which owns get beat and does
other things as well is very profitable
we do well we support a business we have
employees there you know we we keep food
on the table for those guys so that that
makes us happy as you know if you look
at that though it took seven years to
build what we’ve built so far and we
also have the the additional assistance
of having access to capital you know in
my former life I was I did pretty well
and so we had some capital not that we
had to invest a ton here but even just a
little infusion of capital to get things
started helps not everyone has these
advantages and frankly not everyone
wants to build a team of 10 20 40 50
people that’s I had a headache as well
so if I were to say where I think the
biggest return on investment comes from
being engaged and types of things we’re
doing right now for an individual the
biggest roi can come from establishing
yourself as an expert you don’t need
hundreds of thousands or millions of
followers if you even just build up a
few thousand and establish yourself as
an expert on a topic because you can use
that as a personal launchpad to get a
new job for example or to upgrade your
job and so you might have to invest in a
year or more of getting out there and
working the social media thing and doing
videos and being online and maybe
building a blog but if by doing so it
allows you to go from let’s say a thirty
or forty thousand dollar a year job to a
six years or 70,000 dollar a year job
hey that’s big big roi right and and
along those lines you know one thing
regardless of which path you choose and
you get the online video world and the
online world in general is all
personality based so it is about you
being that brand so when you’re trying
to become a you know an expert in a
field then you have to realize that it’s
about selling yourself and that’s a
really tough position for a lot of
people to be in they don’t feel
comfortable selling themselves they
don’t feel comfortable saying I’m great
which is nice it’s great because you
should be humble but well it’s also it’s
hard it’s hard to deal with rejection it
is and it doesn’t matter by the way who
you are even if you’re Cali Lewis this
is a good example and everyone should
note this ok cali is a very intelligent
beautiful woman she’s actually a model
people pay her huge money to come and
speak and represent their brands and you
know what virtually every video that we
put out that features cali if you go to
youtube and check out the comments
somebody’s gonna say oh she’s fat she’s
ugly she’s whatever you know and and it
happens to everyone happens to me it
happens to everyone and so you have to
very quickly develop a thick skin and
just get over it and say hey I’m gonna
do this as I said before he who is most
committed wins if you’re committed to
doing this in the long run it will pay
off you just have to you have to believe
that I got the back the best Wars calm
and ever when someone wrote me I don’t
like you because you look like Steve
Jobs ah but bet and I said I’m not bad
oh can you stay John but I’m not
compared to Steve Jobs when he was
battling cancer yeah you’re a giant so
guys were you very long so I just steal
you two minutes more because it’s so
much fun to to talk with you and also
because it is great to be to produce
your own video you are not obliged to
unit two I just give you this story I
had Jeff Bezos once guessed my vision
shown Sky News in Italy and I say to the
director of the channel I say these Jeff
Bezos I mean I would like to do with him
one hour something like that and he said
okay you have three minutes in half and
that’s it and say come on it’s jeff it
okay three minutes so actually the
horrible okay so um what I want to
understand is the tree gadgets that you
really would recommend normally ask
three apps or three websites for
business but tree gadgets that that you
say gosh those are three amazing gadgets
that I I really would like to recommend
you well we have just saying this we we
are kicking off our holiday gift guide
tomorrow omorrow tomorrow about that
sorry so like once a week you’ll see a
new gift guide so lots of stuff that
it’s coming up but what is your favorite
ever narrow it down yeah it’s really
hard um the theater bluetooth earphones
i use every single day they’re just
bluetooth earphones that are wireless um
well there’s no not you know their
bluetooth so they’re not connecting to
your phone so at the gym or in the car i
use those i use them while riding my
motorcycle or lawn mower deck she does
but this is definitely this is
definitely one thing we can agree on yes
fiat on headphones are great um another
thing that i think we can both agree on
is the my charge yes portable charging
unit i don’t import of latter-day do i
have one sitting here so oh I have one
hang on I’ll show you
one second it’s a portable battery
little charged up to three different
right so on this side it’s got a little
USB micro USB on the bottom here it has
an iOS kind of connector so you can you
can do that and then there’s also on the
bottom a USB port that you can plug
anything into but here’s the best thing
of all this is a 6000 milliamp battery
and if you look right here i can i can
hold this down and that is a those are
plugs i don’t know if you can see very
well let’s see how can we get to where
may be right there okay it plugs into
the wall so you just plug it into the
wall it recharges itself and everything
that you have plugged into it recharges
and then when you’re done you just fold
the little thing up stick this in your
bag take it with you and it’s it’s a big
enough battery to recharge an iphone
four times and that’s 99 bucks in the US
for the big one and there’s a small one
for 69 that’s what I think Depa what now
the third one well I’m wanting to say my
new windows your machine yeah I haven’t
started playing with wool that played
with it just a little bit this is the
sony vaio ultrabook that’s running
windows 28 and i’m really liking it it’s
a touchscreen but i can’t i don’t know
if i can say that just yet because I’m I
really play with it I think I think you
can say that we’re really enjoyed in
windows 8 and we think that the touch
interface will be an absolute must-have
I think if I were to pick a third gadget
okay I think I choose the braven one of
those speakers that’s a good one we use
that all the time actually it is a
bluetooth portable speaker oh and we owe
it’s seguin oh well yes or no no I’m
yeah you can use it that way um this is
really fun capability it’s really a
Bluetooth speaker it has a built-in
battery that will last at us tick 10
hours I think 10 hours but it also has a
USB port on it and if you’re let’s say
I’m big on dual purposing begzare um you
can you can use this with an iPhone or
an Android phone or whatever and it’s 6
watts so play your music through it you
can you could connect your laptop to it
and it’s much louder than your laptop is
and it sounds way better and then if
let’s say your battery on your phone
started dying guess what you can plug it
into the USB here and leach power off of
this and use it as a battery backup so
it’s a great sounding speaker that can
double as a battery backup and and
conveys e chain them together you could
have five of these you could put 20 of
them in a row and connect them
wirelessly to your iPhone and have a
concert rocking out in the woods
somewhere okay so there’s three games
for you lucky that you live in Dallas
otherwise I would come dress like a
ninja to try to steal in the night all
your gadgets oh yeah by the way you’re
reading Callie you are reading a book
mange of innovation something like that
possible hey what you reading a book
like a ninja of innovation something
like that by Gary Shapiro gary is the
CEO of the CEA which is the organization
that puts on see yes how about he yeah
he sells a lot of work with on the
innovative site of technology making
sure that technology is being pushed
forward and and well innovation it’s at
all really well clearly we’re advocates
of new developments in technology as you
can imagine
so I’m very much looking forward to
another guys okay Kelly you is john p
geek victim thank you so much guys tech
alchemist community just go and check
you guys you rock keep on going like
that and if you just do a lot for
everything thank you thanks Margaret really appreciate it have a good one
text alchemist and today i’m here with
me ah to Greg gasps really I’m so happy
to have you here guess I’m I’m
embarrassed I’m excited you know how to
to have you here Callie nude and jumpy
geekbeat TV hi guys how are you
everything right I was telling to John
before to begin that you had such a
difficult surname and you know what i
did i did on soundcloud how to pronounce
montemagno which is my horrible surname
at some people can click on them to play
and hear that pronunciation that’s a
great idea I should do that but the
problem is even when people learn
exactly how to pronounce my name they
don’t want to do it so it’s it’s
actually you’ll appreciate this because
because you you have an ear that is
trained for languages other than just
English but that’s Americans were pretty
pitiful they don’t know one here so my
father’s Greek he’s a Greek immigrants
to the US and I was I’m a firstborn
first-generation American the way my dad
says that he says hose that Z this but
the way yeah but the way we say it in in
American we say hoses Edie’s but of
course even that’s too hard so that’s
why everybody just calls me john p in
fact if you google you you feed out Pope
John Paul every other john p possibility
yeah jaunty i am number one on google
for john p so that’s all you have to
remember john p i think even your
business card for a while just a judge
john be good
Google jumpy that’s great but also kelly
i saw your engine wikipedia and and you
ever an original italian name or are
just crazy no you’re absolutely correct
my real name is not cali lewis that is a
stage name it’s when my made-up name um
but it’s Luria petrucci so that’s my
very italian name drinkin an italian and
we fight all the time yeah great so good
Oh before to begin I’m just curious
about a couple of things the first one
is how was in in Mexico because I I saw
some holidays and vacations so i would
like to start from that point that i
think it’s very interesting you playa
the carbonite awesome it was it was
awesome I’ve never been to Mexico I
don’t think you had either the only
foray into Mexico I ever had before for
true yeah was in Laredo you don’t want
to be a Nuevo Laredo Mexico I’ll just
say that however a playa del carmen down
in the Mexican Riviera yes Wow yeah it
was really nice um better than I
expected I guess but we were there for a
friend’s wedding and they had asked John
to like photographer because he’s an
amazing photographer no stop you know
wedding photography certainly
differences and those other kinds of
photography and so if he did a fantastic
job at it and all those photos are
posted online beautiful beautiful shots
and I gotta hold flash everyone smile
little bit more serious question um in
Europe we’ve been talking a lot but i
think all over the world about obama
victory and i was wondering how how did
you get it also because I so so much
technology in this victory a lot of
using of big data data scientist social
media a lot well what was your feedback
about it
you know I I find it fascinating how
much technology is coming to rule the
election process and even though the US
tends to be a little bit ahead of other
countries I think that this is a leading
indicator of where it’s going to be
going everywhere uh I would actually go
back to the previous election and say
you know if we look at this this
particular election Obama did use big
data he had teams of people doing
analytics and number crunching and
telling him where to focus and what to
do and that’s useful but even in the
previous election he really ruled social
media the way no one ever had before so
what was the perfect timing for it for
sure and you know he was he was always
being seen with his Blackberry at the
time that was a big deal of course
that’s no longer the game but um yeah
there was a lot of technology but at the
same time when you’re actually in the
voting process I polls that we’re still
using very old methods in a lot of
places in a lot of places yeah we have a
mixture because the way the US voting
system works it’s not standardized um
nationally it’s unmanaged on an
individual local level so you really
might honestly have certain precincts in
small towns that use paper ballot paper
and they mark with a pencil and stick it
through a machine you know or you might
also have in other places touch touch
screen type of voting processes and you
know there have been a lot of
discussions about how things can be
cheated one way or another but but the
point is it’s not Universal at this you
know time so uh huh anyway it was it was
very interesting well by the way if
Callie you run for the next election
will vote for you I just want to tell
you this so no worry about that
I think he’s already taken to claim
because we’re saying than John T stands
for president yeah the P stands for
President Obama to be present at old
enough to be present but I am age I I
don’t think they’re gonna let me be
present enough pretty sure about that
alright guys so let’s go to oh my god I
always stay here hours talking about
stupid things lot ok now let’s still
serious geekbeat ok um I’m really
looking at gifted as a great example of
how to produce television quality videos
I’ve been doing a television on Sky News
in each day for seven years so I come
from a very traditional approach on
television a lot of cameras don’t some
people studios radio mic in your ear
with people talking every two seconds
ago in the second song and I’m in love
and I’m a tech entrepreneur so I’m in
love for technology and everything that
is new and keep it for me is a great
example of what you can do today I’m
online videos which is such a hot topic
and I love the way that you also test
experiment things i recently saw you
testing this tree caster TriCaster 44
live production so you always on the
edge in my opinion that that’s my
perception you know from a independent
observer so i was really love for your
your approach and i would like to
explain you to the tech alchemist
community so first what’s happening in
the online video world at the moment if
it’s possible to create a sustainable
business and i just would start from
this scenario then i go deeper in the
details there well first of all thank
you that’s that’s very humbling and we
we appreciate our team is constantly
trying to push the boundaries and you
know make great content but at the same
time experiment a little bit so we
appreciate that yeah I I would say if we
were trying to cut
the foundation for where online video
fits in the world right now I recently
read a statistic that three-fourths of
the American public currently accesses
YouTube on a routine basis and if you
just think about that for a minute and
let it you know settle in YouTube is a
service that literally did not exist a
decade ago so if we look at the adoption
rate of every technology that has ever
been in the history of mankind and we
compare that to the adoption rate of
online video using only YouTube as an
example it’s it’s an astounding change
in a very short period of time and so we
have clearly an audience that is there
that’s that desirous of the the content
but we also have a lot of independent
producers of content in fact the web is
really the great equalizer because as
you mentioned Marco you you are on TV
you have done television locally now you
can do the same thing internationally
and you don’t even need the studio where
we actually Callie and I both do routine
appearances on news segments and we go
to the local TV studios and CNN and BBC
and Fox News and all these guys and you
know they have magnificent facilities
and they’re nothing like our humble
little studio here but there’s kind of a
an adoption process of getting into this
where you you have to start small you
have to invest a little bit both in in
terms of time and some capital to start
off and as you grow the audience and as
you find ways and you have to be
opportunistic as you find ways to
generate some revenue you have to take
that and reinvest it in your
our online business in your you know
content business and maybe upgrade your
equipment and learn how to be a little
more professional and stay one step
ahead of all the others competitors out
there yeah i think you know you hit on a
really good key point there is is
upgrade um every everyone that I know
that it started out you know way back
when we all we all started small you
know and that is the beauty of online
content production is that you can start
small just like you were saying but the
upgrade process is key because you’ve
always got to push those boundaries
you’ve always got to get better teach
yourself more go to classes if you can
you know I mean get education is key in
terms of increasing your skill level as
well as your production level and all of
us I would just add one last little
comment which is um if I were going to
sum up everything that we both just said
I would throw a line that when I was in
the Marine Corps oh yeah decades ago
there we go a drill instructor told me
this once and he he was talking about
war okay but I have found it applies to
everything in life he who is most
committed wins yeah he did tell me one
thing John um what the minimal
production costs that you would
recommend to accompany my personal
theory is that soon every company will
have their own video studio whatever is
I mean just to produce them content comp
or a corporate accountant or doing
whatever is but just a small studio
video every company will have by the way
I also think that everyone will have
also his own documentary about himself
but this is another point
what’s the minimum production costs that
you would recommend how what was the
name or amount of mine you invest to
start producing decent video we actually
get this question a lot and it’s it’s
it’s difficult to answer up specifically
because there can be a wide variety of
environments and and styles and types of
video production but if we were to say
generally what do we think would kind of
be the the minimum investment that you
need to make and get started for the
average person who wants to begin
producing video content i would say uh
you could you could do it for easily
less than a thousand US dollars um and
that would probably be primarily broken
down into a few key pieces of equipment
number number one a camera of some sort
and you could do it for example with a a
nikon p71 hundred that’s a little pocket
camera it’s not even a video camera it’s
really a camera but the important thing
is it has really good optics it does a
nice movie mode and the key it has a
external microphone input jack that is
me before you you move on you have to
have that you cannot use the onboard
camera mic or anything you do because
the best is just bad quality and people
will notice and you know the thing that
that you have to remember always with
your contents and with the equipment
that you choose to use is that there’s
so much out there for people to consume
that if it is bad quality they’ll just
move right on they they don’t have to
stick around this isn’t the lecture
class you know they’re not with one
exception unless it’s like ridiculously
compel
yeah exactly you know is bad quality out
there they give millions of views by
elephant stepped on a baby even if it
was filled people are gonna watch it I’m
sorry yes the second the second little
piece of equipment that you really need
is a microphone but you can get by with
a wired microphone something cheap that
you’d find I don’t know if they have
radio shacks internationally but even at
a radio shack in the US just a little
$30 wired microphone and or a lavalier
microphone that you can clip on you and
then finally I think you need a little
external light because a lot of times uh
you you just don’t have quite enough
illumination and you could for 50 bucks
you can get something off amazon you
just do a search for LED light panel and
you get a small one of those for 50
bucks I mean what we just described
we’re easily under five hundred dollars
and you could up it from there a little
bit if you want but that would be plenty
to get someone started making some good
content that they could could put out
there so I mean you can do it for for
cheap you can you know just spend a
little bit and get started um but one
thing that everyone has to remember is
that the time that you spend to produce
it is going to be key as well that’s the
number one thing um you have to be
willing to spend the time to do it right
to do it well and just to do it at all
this video takes a lot of time also
obviously if you want to grow from that
we’ve been talking before about the
TriCaster 40 which is a
five-thousand-dollar mix or basically be
do now to make sure no to produce before
those kind of keep an I mean it Costa
and a 100,000 200,000 and then for two
thousand and now five thousand so
probably would be cheaper and cheaper
and cheaper to have great quality
material of a very professional
production I guess very soon yeah well
in fact yes you’re right the tricaster
is an interesting piece of equipment
because it’s essentially brought a
full-on production TV studio and
packaged in a box and they have a
variety of them the basic one starts at
five thousand you could spend fifty
thousand we have the fifty thousand
dollar ones here as well and what it
does is it allows you to switch between
multiple cameras that are hardwired into
it and allows you to bring up titles on
the screen it allows you to mix in other
pre-recorded photos and videos great
piece of equipment and if for example
you have a small business and you wanted
to do a weekly live streaming show it
really makes it affordable five grand
for one of those boxes three cameras
that are maybe you know like five
hundred dollars a piece like a canon
vixia camera camcorder a couple of mics
and a small $99 mixer I mean you’re
talking about let’s say under seven
thousand dollars have a full-on live
streaming maybe a little more for a few
lights but but you could even go cheaper
than that now there is an application
that you can get for iOS it’s made by I
for software and it’s called video
camera they’re in the process of
renaming it right oh yeah I think it’s
still called video camera you can load
it on iPhones iPads I think androids
coming soon is one of those little I not
not a phone but it’s like a nice but not
I puts the touch and ipod touch you can
load it on those and as long as they’re
all on the same wireless network you can
actually use let’s say three ipads as a
three cameras set up and switch between
them and control them all from one ipad
and that’s like 20 bucks apiece for the
application I mean you’re right it’s
getting much cheaper and you can still
have reasonable quality by doing it that
way
the other main problem is that a lot of
time people doing videos forget that
people then have to watch the video and
if it’s so boring or if there’s no
format or people will never watch it so
one thing that I really appreciate about
it is that you try to make technology
fun engaging in a very professional way
but making it easy get people closer to
technology by making it you know
entertaining also so this is a very nice
approach so what’s your secret formula
to engage in create an online community
and keep audience watching your video
and don’t oppose after 3 seconds kelley
lewis let’s jump to the next question ok
no you know I um that you are right our
number one priority is to entertain is
to have fun um neither of us think
technology should be boring and so we do
we just naturally have fun with it um
one key thing is that is our rules that
nothing gets on the show without us
being excited by it we’re passionate
about it so we’re not going to cover a
laptop that just came out if it has no
special features or it’s boring or it’s
sad we don’t do boring what’s the point
yeah so you know in and and we we love
helping people um you both of us are
constantly helping people and so I think
just by by translations we want to help
people understand what this technology
means and by no means do we think that
people are dumb or need to be you know
broken down for them that’s not our
philosophy we just want them to be able
to embrace technology a little bit
better
um and everybody has a different
expertise you know we it’s not like we
treat one particular thing as a as a
difficult topic and we try and dumb it
down for people we just try and talk at
a level that everyone can understand
across all the things that we that we
engage on and if I were going to try and
give you some advice on things that
people could do to do somewhat emulate
one I would say you’ve got to keep it
concise you’ll notice if you watch
geekbeat that every our normal episode
of course we do our long format weekly
show and we might touch on that in a
minute but in terms of a daily show it’s
five to seven minutes and we cover three
to five topics okay two minutes on a
topic is a long time for people to watch
on video so keep it short keep it
punching Oh chase changing up um visuals
is the big thing for video yeah making
sure that people aren’t just staring at
the same thing for I mean I think
there’s like a research study like every
seven seconds you have to have something
visually changing so that’s the best key
yeah um also I would say uh this one’s a
little more difficult this one only
comes with practice but be natural on
camera are so easy just be natural um
what happens is what anytime a camera is
pointed at you you feel like oh my god
this is being recorded for posterity
they could hold this against me you know
what if I make a mistake and believe me
this was this I think was more difficult
for me to overcome than normal people
because I used to be a chief marketing
officer like in a big business okay i
come from big corporate backgrounds and
everything we did was script it out I
mean a press release would go through
three people that come to me I just
finally guess what you’re going to say
things wrong on video
you’re going to make mistakes what we
have to do is change the mindset and you
have to say you know what if I say 10
things and one is wrong that’s perfectly
acceptable because nine ninety percent
of time what I did was fine and people
will forgive me for being human in fact
people like that they don’t want you to
always be perfect like a robot it really
depends on your contents I mean you have
to take that into consideration so if
for something like us we try and keep it
between five and seven minutes there is
there are studies that are showing that
longer form content on YouTube is doing
well and that people are accepting it a
bit more but at the same time you have
to have the right content to go
long-form look like it my general rule
is take as long as it takes to tell the
story and no longer okay it just what’s
what’s that individual story going to
take to hit the key points and not every
little detail you know don’t need
everything to actually you know what not
only do they not need every detail if
you give them every detail it doesn’t
leave them any opportunity for future
exploration of the topic so how about
tell them enough to get them really
interested and then let them google it
you know that gives them they were
engaged with that content well another
point that I was curious about term is
ISIL geek big bang on ok geek bit on
revision3 on YouTube so where is gig
without hey where is your house well
what’s your strategy being everywhere
but then how is the business model so I
want to try to understand a bit more
about that you absolutely have to be
everywhere these days and people are
where you
watching the content where they want to
watch it if that’s itunes they’re pretty
much only going to iTunes if they want
to only be on YouTube they’re only going
to be on youtube so you as a Content
producer have to be everywhere that you
want your ear content consumed so you’ve
got to be on YouTube you’ve got to be
keen on having an RSS feed available
through itunes if that we’re on tivo um
run the roku box well we’re also on
television and we also do live streaming
what we found was our audience was
wanting more from us than we were
delivering originally the geek beat show
only I mean only came out on iTunes I
mean you could get there that was it
then later youtube was added and we
treated it like like a like an ugly
stepchild actually I mean we tell Tom to
my friend Steve Chen this okay I’m so
good later we started saying you know we
get a lot of engagement on YouTube and
that’s a pretty good community let’s
give it some more attention and so we
started giving YouTube more love and
around the same time the audience from
everywhere was saying hey you know why
don’t you guys do some live content like
leo laporte for example and so we
dabbled in it and at first we treated
live like an ugly stepchild as well in
fact we treated worse than we did use
you but then live became important to us
and we invested in it we invest in the
infrastructure and the time to do it and
then of course we were approached by TV
network who said hey that live thing
that you do is you know pretty popular
can we put it on our on our nationwide
you know TV a thing and we said yeah
that sounds pretty good why don’t you do
that and so um yeah basically you can
graduation in fact not only that now
you’ll beat you very soon now we haven’t
told anybody this system it wasn’t
exclusive
wait wait wait okay go there is a there
is a network of it’s called indoor
direct in the US and they have TV
station TVs in like Wendy’s and taco
bells and unless drawn restaurant and
stuff all over the country thousands of
them and we’re actually going to begin
providing our DP content for them to run
on there so you kind of you know a lot
and and there’ll be some more things
coming to but but as Callie says you
want to be in as many places you can
even if you’re not making money off of
all of them because it’s additional
exposure it’s an additional awareness
and sometimes the best revenue that
you’re going to generate from things
like this is indirect it’s not direct so
yes we have Ford and we have netflix and
we have domain com and all these guys
advertising on our show but what
actually uh that’s not the bulk of our
revenue the bulk of our revenue comes
from special projects people ask us to
do endorsement things and all these
ancillary things so so mainly you want
to be everywhere so you can get as much
awareness as possible and then the other
opportunities start coming as well a lot
more read more about the business model
because everyone took about the business
model for videos and okay advertising
fine but if you have huge numbers is one
thing otherwise is very difficult
subscriptions or what’s the right
business model in your experience I
don’t also ich ich bitte is profitable
or not but what’s your vision on this
point
well okay we are we are fortunate enough
that that the geek beat on its own is
profitable limit lobster our parent
company which owns get beat and does
other things as well is very profitable
we do well we support a business we have
employees there you know we we keep food
on the table for those guys so that that
makes us happy as you know if you look
at that though it took seven years to
build what we’ve built so far and we
also have the the additional assistance
of having access to capital you know in
my former life I was I did pretty well
and so we had some capital not that we
had to invest a ton here but even just a
little infusion of capital to get things
started helps not everyone has these
advantages and frankly not everyone
wants to build a team of 10 20 40 50
people that’s I had a headache as well
so if I were to say where I think the
biggest return on investment comes from
being engaged and types of things we’re
doing right now for an individual the
biggest roi can come from establishing
yourself as an expert you don’t need
hundreds of thousands or millions of
followers if you even just build up a
few thousand and establish yourself as
an expert on a topic because you can use
that as a personal launchpad to get a
new job for example or to upgrade your
job and so you might have to invest in a
year or more of getting out there and
working the social media thing and doing
videos and being online and maybe
building a blog but if by doing so it
allows you to go from let’s say a thirty
or forty thousand dollar a year job to a
six years or 70,000 dollar a year job
hey that’s big big roi right and and
along those lines you know one thing
regardless of which path you choose and
you get the online video world and the
online world in general is all
personality based so it is about you
being that brand so when you’re trying
to become a you know an expert in a
field then you have to realize that it’s
about selling yourself and that’s a
really tough position for a lot of
people to be in they don’t feel
comfortable selling themselves they
don’t feel comfortable saying I’m great
which is nice it’s great because you
should be humble but well it’s also it’s
hard it’s hard to deal with rejection it
is and it doesn’t matter by the way who
you are even if you’re Cali Lewis this
is a good example and everyone should
note this ok cali is a very intelligent
beautiful woman she’s actually a model
people pay her huge money to come and
speak and represent their brands and you
know what virtually every video that we
put out that features cali if you go to
youtube and check out the comments
somebody’s gonna say oh she’s fat she’s
ugly she’s whatever you know and and it
happens to everyone happens to me it
happens to everyone and so you have to
very quickly develop a thick skin and
just get over it and say hey I’m gonna
do this as I said before he who is most
committed wins if you’re committed to
doing this in the long run it will pay
off you just have to you have to believe
that I got the back the best Wars calm
and ever when someone wrote me I don’t
like you because you look like Steve
Jobs ah but bet and I said I’m not bad
oh can you stay John but I’m not
compared to Steve Jobs when he was
battling cancer yeah you’re a giant so
guys were you very long so I just steal
you two minutes more because it’s so
much fun to to talk with you and also
because it is great to be to produce
your own video you are not obliged to
unit two I just give you this story I
had Jeff Bezos once guessed my vision
shown Sky News in Italy and I say to the
director of the channel I say these Jeff
Bezos I mean I would like to do with him
one hour something like that and he said
okay you have three minutes in half and
that’s it and say come on it’s jeff it
okay three minutes so actually the
horrible okay so um what I want to
understand is the tree gadgets that you
really would recommend normally ask
three apps or three websites for
business but tree gadgets that that you
say gosh those are three amazing gadgets
that I I really would like to recommend
you well we have just saying this we we
are kicking off our holiday gift guide
tomorrow omorrow tomorrow about that
sorry so like once a week you’ll see a
new gift guide so lots of stuff that
it’s coming up but what is your favorite
ever narrow it down yeah it’s really
hard um the theater bluetooth earphones
i use every single day they’re just
bluetooth earphones that are wireless um
well there’s no not you know their
bluetooth so they’re not connecting to
your phone so at the gym or in the car i
use those i use them while riding my
motorcycle or lawn mower deck she does
but this is definitely this is
definitely one thing we can agree on yes
fiat on headphones are great um another
thing that i think we can both agree on
is the my charge yes portable charging
unit i don’t import of latter-day do i
have one sitting here so oh I have one
hang on I’ll show you
one second it’s a portable battery
little charged up to three different
right so on this side it’s got a little
USB micro USB on the bottom here it has
an iOS kind of connector so you can you
can do that and then there’s also on the
bottom a USB port that you can plug
anything into but here’s the best thing
of all this is a 6000 milliamp battery
and if you look right here i can i can
hold this down and that is a those are
plugs i don’t know if you can see very
well let’s see how can we get to where
may be right there okay it plugs into
the wall so you just plug it into the
wall it recharges itself and everything
that you have plugged into it recharges
and then when you’re done you just fold
the little thing up stick this in your
bag take it with you and it’s it’s a big
enough battery to recharge an iphone
four times and that’s 99 bucks in the US
for the big one and there’s a small one
for 69 that’s what I think Depa what now
the third one well I’m wanting to say my
new windows your machine yeah I haven’t
started playing with wool that played
with it just a little bit this is the
sony vaio ultrabook that’s running
windows 28 and i’m really liking it it’s
a touchscreen but i can’t i don’t know
if i can say that just yet because I’m I
really play with it I think I think you
can say that we’re really enjoyed in
windows 8 and we think that the touch
interface will be an absolute must-have
I think if I were to pick a third gadget
okay I think I choose the braven one of
those speakers that’s a good one we use
that all the time actually it is a
bluetooth portable speaker oh and we owe
it’s seguin oh well yes or no no I’m
yeah you can use it that way um this is
really fun capability it’s really a
Bluetooth speaker it has a built-in
battery that will last at us tick 10
hours I think 10 hours but it also has a
USB port on it and if you’re let’s say
I’m big on dual purposing begzare um you
can you can use this with an iPhone or
an Android phone or whatever and it’s 6
watts so play your music through it you
can you could connect your laptop to it
and it’s much louder than your laptop is
and it sounds way better and then if
let’s say your battery on your phone
started dying guess what you can plug it
into the USB here and leach power off of
this and use it as a battery backup so
it’s a great sounding speaker that can
double as a battery backup and and
conveys e chain them together you could
have five of these you could put 20 of
them in a row and connect them
wirelessly to your iPhone and have a
concert rocking out in the woods
somewhere okay so there’s three games
for you lucky that you live in Dallas
otherwise I would come dress like a
ninja to try to steal in the night all
your gadgets oh yeah by the way you’re
reading Callie you are reading a book
mange of innovation something like that
possible hey what you reading a book
like a ninja of innovation something
like that by Gary Shapiro gary is the
CEO of the CEA which is the organization
that puts on see yes how about he yeah
he sells a lot of work with on the
innovative site of technology making
sure that technology is being pushed
forward and and well innovation it’s at
all really well clearly we’re advocates
of new developments in technology as you
can imagine
so I’m very much looking forward to
another guys okay Kelly you is john p
geek victim thank you so much guys tech
alchemist community just go and check
you guys you rock keep on going like
that and if you just do a lot for
everything thank you thanks Margaret really appreciate it have a good one
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