Eric: 1:14

it got me thinking about how branching out it, I think is important to, even though I have like this formula that works, start doing these other little things to see what people might be interested in. I

Frannie: 1:25

think that's genius. All right. Welcome back to the something businessy podcast. I am really excited to bring back for, this is actually the first time we've had a repeat guest on the podcast and I know you're going to like him because his first episode with us was one of our, it's still one of our top downloaded episodes. So welcome back to the podcast, Eric Rhodes. We're so happy to have you back.

Eric: 2:32

Yeah. I'm glad to be back. Um, it's been like a year and a half or so, uh, but yeah, like we aired your podcast. Heck yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm all about it.

Frannie: 2:44

Yeah. We aired your podcast episode back on May 31st, 2022. I think we recorded it just a couple of weeks before that. So a lot has changed. What'd you said? It's been, yeah. So it's been about a year and a half since then. And last time I chatted with you, you had just kind of like gone through this crazy blow up on Tik Tok, gone from pretty much nothing to almost a million followers in less, what was it? Less than a year. Right. Right. That first. First million

Eric: 3:11

just a little over a year. So I, yeah, I started on in May, 2021. So it was about a year.

Frannie: 3:17

Okay. Awesome. Well, yeah. So I am just super excited to kind of like get the part two and see where you're at now and how your life has Changed and I have a couple of questions related to tick tock versus Instagram and kind of how you're navigating those differently I've kind of noticed that you're using them a little differently and We'd love to know some kind of thought process behind that and just check in and see how, what this ride's been like. Cause gosh, just trying to get you, you're, you're traveling all the time. You're like. Doing all kinds of fun stuff. It looks like,

Eric: 3:51

yeah, it's been a, it's been a wild ride the last year and a half, two years. Um, as you said, I went from basically zero followers on Tik TOK and, you know, 1500 that I've been sitting on, on Instagram for years. I couldn't grow. And then from 2021 to 2022, I had a million followers and that garnered me a lot of attention, um, nationwide. And. I started to get opportunities to travel here and there just a little bit through Tik Tok, but what happened was, I think what really changed was I took, this was September 2022, I started taking all of the content that I was posting on Instagram, excuse me, Tik Tok, and I started putting it on Instagram, like my viral videos and ones that I just thought were good. I just started posting those and It wasn't long before, um, I had a hundred thousand followers on TikTok. It was only a few months. So from like 1500, or sorry, I keep getting my, my, my sites mixed up. Instagram. So from like September 2022 till. January I grew to, to like 50 or a hundred thousand. I can't remember what it was. And now I'm at 400,000 and Instagram is where I feel like once that started to grow, that's when I started to receive a lot of, uh, big leads and opportunities to travel and, and do some pretty amazing things.

Frannie: 5:16

Oh, that's really fascinating. So you had a million followers on TikTok. You were starting to kind of get some interest and some actual, like real life benefits coming from it. But when Instagram started hitting those six figure counts, you saw actually even more opportunities coming from Instagram?

Eric: 5:34

Yeah. More, um, I don't want to say serious, because I've had serious opportunities from TikTok, but I just feel like... I mean, you know, Chevy reached out to me and said, Hey, we want, we, we love what you're doing on Instagram on, on social. We'd love to have you at CMA fest, repping our brand all week in Nashville, um, DJing, you know, on the, one of the main boardwalks. I was like, Oh my gosh. And, but that was from Instagram. It wasn't them finding me on Tik TOK. So I felt like Instagram has really brought me. The higher end corporate type of leads. Yeah.

Frannie: 6:12

And, gosh, how cool. Did you do

Eric: 6:14

that? Heck yeah, I did it. It was amazing. It was amazing. It was amazing. So Chevy had this, uh, very big sponsor of, uh, CMA Fest in Nashville every June and they had a big display, it took over pretty much a whole block of their, like, hybrid electric cars. And they put me up on this big, um, shipping container and they made banners with my name and face and like all of this stuff, like, so I DJ'd. For four days, um, on and off, they had me like certain sets, like four, four hour set or four, one hour sets. And I was just outside as people were walking by, it was like just tons of people there. It was a, I don't know. It was a blast. It was just a great opportunity. Um,

Frannie: 6:57

Oh my gosh, that is so cool. Uh, yeah, I mean you have had, so you've had some really cool things happen. Like can we talk about the, and I don't know the, all the ins and outs and the details of the story. So I just want to like, let you. Tell the story, but what ended up happening between I saw that you were actually had created buzz with Warren G and With this like Warren G Morgan Wallen situation like where he was actually trying to get publicly get Morgan Wallen to like record Uh, your mashup together. That's insane.

Eric: 7:35

This is a great story. Oh, sorry, go ahead. Start from the

Frannie: 7:39

beginning. No, yeah, you take it away.

Eric: 7:43

Well, it ties in, again, to how when I started putting stuff out on Instagram from TikTok, that's when great things started to happen. And one of the things that helped me take off was reposting my Warren G. Morgan Wallen mashup. People started to share it, react to it, and it just, it was like a viral, it went mega viral on lots of people's pages. Um, that sound that I made. And Warren G. caught wind of it, cause I, I posted that video like three different times. Because I believe in reposting your, your content that's good, because there are a lot of people that don't see it. You know, if I have a hundred thousand followers and my video gets 50, 000 views, that's 50, 000 people, probably more of my followers that haven't seen that video. So I repost stuff and I think I reposted it the second or third time and Warren reacted to it. And then when it went mega viral, he hit me up through the DMS and was like, let's make this a hit. No, what he did is he posted it. He reposted the video, tagged, um, His people and I saw it and then I dm'd him and I said hey Warren I saw that you want to make this a song like what what do I need to do to help and that started the conversation and then eventually He was all on board and eventually he ended up with you know, I don't know we ended up doing some facetiming and talking about how it could work, but We had, we heard nothing from Morgan Wallen, absolutely nothing. And it never actually happened, which is really disappointing. But the fact that I was having conversations with somebody I grew up listening to and, you know, idolized as a kid from a musical standpoint was pretty amazing. Just to be on that. That level. Yeah.

Frannie: 9:38

I mean, I saw the, I saw the video. I think it came across my feed from Warren G. Like not from you. Like I follow you. I don't even think I followed Warren G at the time, but that video went so viral of him basically like calling out Morgan Wallen to like do this together. Uh, I was just like, holy crap. And it said your name on there. I know him. This is crazy.

Eric: 10:07

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's been fun. It's been a fun ride. Um, and I've had, I've had conversations with other, uh, artists and I don't want to say a bunch of names, but like people that you would probably know, like we've had some talks on DMs, like about making certain, you know, mashups and things. It's pretty, it's pretty cool. Yeah.

Frannie: 10:29

Is it, has it gotten to the point where you have, um, artists that are kind of up and coming artists that are like, Hey, will you use my song? Yes. Help me get stuff out there. Like has that been happening?

Eric: 10:40

Yeah, I've received some of that. Um, that's a tricky thing that for me to navigate because I don't know, I don't know. I don't know what to charge. Sometimes. I don't like the song. I'm like, I don't, I don't wanna put something out that doesn't feel right. And so it's, I, I'd be, I'm pretty picky about. Yeah. Because I still want to, I don't want to just like, because it's exciting, like kind of sell out if you will, and just take anything that comes my way. Um, but, but I do have people reaching out, brands reaching out all the time.

Frannie: 11:13

I mean it's just, you can tell that it's just you doing your thing and having fun and using music that you enjoy and that you think is going to go well together. It definitely would change it a lot if you started like having to do all this weird music that people, you know, don't really resonate with. So yeah, good for you for just, you know, staying authentic. Um, okay. So are, you're not sharing every single video to Instagram, just the ones that you think like, like every few, cause you have, um, on Tik TOK, I noticed like you do the same format, the it's you at your mixer, whatever you call it. And you do your mashups or you do your, like the, the two songs. Um, so, but on Instagram, you are more, it's more of a Eric Rhodes kind of personal brand. Like there's some stuff about your family and your, Vacations and like life in Boise and stuff like that too. So I was curious, have you experimented with posting any other types of content on TikTok? Um, or are you like, no, I'm just gonna do this format for TikTok, and what's kind of the decision process there?

Eric: 12:23

Most of my content on Instagram, that is part of my other pillars, if you will, personal life, um, like family working out or things like that. Other things I'm interested in besides just the music, those are all typically. Pictures or like a carousel of pictures. You can't put those. I could, I could make it a TikTok video. I suppose that are, you know, the pictures move. I could put that on TikTok. Um, but I don't, I don't know. It just seems easier to just post like, cause you can post pictures and people will see them on Instagram, whereas you can't do that on TikTok. So I've just kind of treated Instagram like a multifaceted kind of, I don't know. Uh, what is it? Projection or what's the word I'm looking for? Um, I don't know. Oh, just who I am. Yeah. Yeah. And then, and then TikTok is insane with Facebook. My Facebook fan pages has grown a lot too. So I treat that the same way as Instagram. But, um, but yeah, TikTok, I've just kept it. I've kept the one formula and honestly my page hasn't grown a whole lot lately. And I think that's partially due to the algorithm. Cause I know Like six months ago or so, a lot of big content creators lost a lot of views and their pages haven't grown much. Um, and that's happened to me, but maybe branching out is a, is. Something I should do and start showing more of that, that side of me, but I always thought of TikTok as like this, you're, you're going to go, you should go viral on TikTok and you should, you know, those videos are just going to hit random people, whereas Instagram, I see it as like, I'm trying to nurture my fan base and then also grow, um, But maybe that's, maybe that's a bad strategy. Maybe I do need to be, you're making me think about these things. I

Frannie: 14:18

don't think, oh my gosh, I don't think you're having a bad strategy at all. Are you kidding me? You've got um, 1. 2 million followers, highly engaged. Uh, group of people on TikTok and 410, 000 on Instagram, Eric, I think you're doing just fine and you should be the one teaching the classes over here. I, uh, yeah, I'm just so in awe of what you're doing and I love how I ask you this question, like, what's the strategy behind it? And you're like, Oh, it's just easier to like do that. It's like you are just doing what feels good. And it's just, it's, it's all guided by just what feels like fun for you. And I think that's why it's working so well, because you're not overthinking it. You're really consistent with creating content and making sure that, you know, like you actually are really valuing the time that you're putting into that. And it really shows. And it's totally, even, even when the, when the views slow down or the reach slows down, you still show up and you still put the videos there. And I think it's just awesome. I was just curious if you've ever, if you had experimented at all with. Trying different types of videos about your life or anything on Tik TOK, and maybe they decided not to do that for some reason, or if you just haven't really ever gone there.

Eric: 15:26

I just have never gone there. I don't know. I, I've never really thought about it. I just thought Instagram was the one where I show all of my. Different sides of, of who I am and my brand and tick tock, which is the tick tock, the, the, the mix videos. So you really got me thinking about this. Like, I think I need

Frannie: 15:43

to, I'm like, okay, let's come up with a new strategy. Let's like mix it up a little bit. I mean, like it's, it's really smart though, in a way, like, because I love how you have a different persona on Instagram because not a different persona, but like. You're showcasing other parts of your life because your fans on Tik TOK will go and click on your Instagram link on from Tik TOK and they'll go over to Instagram and be like, Oh, he's sharing something different over here. This gives me a reason to follow him in both places. I'm not just going to get like a regurgitation of the exact same content every day. So I think it's a, it makes sense to me. I figured it was. Part of the strategy to like get people to follow in both places But you know when you do your fitness stuff like but you don't at the same time It's like do you want to be like creating videos all day every where you go all the time in every aspect of your life? probably not like you You know, you have like quality of life in those areas that you want to preserve. And I, making videos takes a lot of time and you have a system set up for these types of videos you make, where you probably have it all super easy to push record and go and you don't have to set up a tripod and like at the gym, like you're not going to have to do all that work. Every time. Yeah.

Eric: 17:01

I'm really not that kind of content creator that Mm-Hmm. like if you look at my videos there, there's, there's no editing really. It's just a static shot, like all the work goes into the, the, the mix itself. And then Mm-Hmm. on the ones that I talk. Making sure that I'm, you know, connecting with the audience when I talk. But it's pretty much one static video, which makes it very easy to do. Um, I'm not doing these cuts and, you know, tricky video editing. Um, but I do want to go back to what you said about this. I did, I actually did strategize getting people to Instagram. Um, when I wanted to grow, like I said, late last year, I was doing lives a lot on TikTok and telling people, Hey. If you want to learn more about me, like I'm doing all this other cool stuff on Instagram. So there was a strategy to get people over there and I've, I have moved a lot of people to that side. I have super, some super fans that are super cool. Um, and they, they're like, I don't even use Instagram, but I did, I now do because you, I followed you over there. And so, uh, it is a good strategy to, to have different content. On each platform so that people have a reason to go over there if that's where you want them to go. So I, I didn't mention that, but you're, you're right. I did do that. Yeah,

Frannie: 18:27

and okay, so as far as repurposing the videos, um, from TikTok to Instagram, are you, um, are you recording them just like into your phone and then posting them natively to each platform? Or are you downloading them from TikTok and uploading them to Instagram?

Eric: 18:43

So what I do now is I record the video on my phone. I typically will edit and adjust the volume and different things, sometimes add captions in CapCut, which is an editing app. And then I'll download that, that one, and then share it on all the platforms from my phone. Okay, yeah. Yeah, so I use CapCut to edit.

Frannie: 19:10

Okay, so you're adding the, the, like, overlay text in CapCut, not natively in the apps.

Eric: 19:16

Sometimes. It

Frannie: 19:17

depends. Yeah. Well, yeah, I'm just super curious about that because there's all kinds of speculation about like what the apps want you to do and what's going to get you the better, what the algorithm likes to see and everything. And um, the, the chat on Instagram, I'm definitely more, have more knowledge about Instagram is that the. You know, like the words that are in the captions are like metadata that is searchable and like, it helps it get delivered and everything. Um, and so a lot of Instagram coaches and stuff will recommend that you use the native, like caption things. But I've always kind of wondered, like, it doesn't really matter. And I, I don't know, I've always just kind of gone to like, if it's another barrier of difficulty for you to like get something posted, then it's not worth worrying about, in my opinion. You know, do you kind of feel that

Eric: 20:07

way? Yeah, I'm not, you know, it's funny. I'm, I'm not big on, I don't dive into strategy, like I don't listen to podcasts about how to strategize on, and, and I never really did. I just, not got lucky, but in a way, I just, I found something that really worked, And people love me for it and it's, it worked for me. And so I haven't had to really dive into like using certain hashtags and certain, text and such.

Frannie: 20:33

Yeah. Yeah. You're just, you're such an enigma. I, you're such a, like an inspiration because you're like, no, I'm just intuitively making content that I like and that I want people to see. And however that happens, I'm not going to, you know, waste so much time worrying about all of these little. Yeah.

Eric: 20:49

I mean, I do, I do, I do experiment. So some of my big viral videos, I was telling a little story ahead of time. So I'd say, Hey, cashouts talking about, I'm going to steal your wife and Chris Stapleton saying, you know, you should leave. We shouldn't be doing this. But then I'll say it goes together perfectly, check it out. And then I mix it. So I do this like little narration in the beginning and I stopped doing that for whatever reason. Um, I think I felt like people just want, didn't want to hear me talk. They just wanted to get to the point, which was the music. And then. I did some traveling this last week and talked to a couple people who were like, we love they were, no, they weren't even telling me this. They were describing me to their guests. One guy in particular, I was doing his wedding and he's like, this DJ is so great. He. What's great about is not only the mixing, but his, his narration and I'm like, man, I haven't narrated in a long time, but I heard a couple of people talk about that, how that's one of the keys. So I, I came home and all this week, you'll look at my videos and I'm saying something beforehand. So I'm experimenting to see if that helps and get, keep people more engaged. Um, I even did a video where I said, Hey, I posted it this morning. I said, Hey, I need you to help me solve a problem, like a debate between my wife and I. I think this one's fire. She doesn't like it. What do you guys think? So now I'm trying to get more engagement that way. Let's just see what, see what works, but I'm still doing my, my mixing, but trying to incorporate.

Frannie: 22:20

Yeah, I think that's, oh yeah, experimenting is really fun and yeah, I'd have to agree with the people you were talking to. I love when you talk at the beginning and it's like so many things where you're the expert at what you do and the people watching don't really know like what, how much thought goes into why you choose these songs or, you know, what's similar about them or if you're talking about how, you know, you juxtaposed the lyrics or like whatever it is. And it kind of like adds a little bit more kind of authority for you too. It's like, Oh, like that makes sense. There's actually like, like. You know, a lot of thought that goes into this and kind of makes people realize how How great you are and then how it's not just something that everybody can do, you know,

Eric: 23:10

yeah Yeah, for sure. I didn't just whip it up just to make a video. It's like I yeah to be creative here Yeah,

Frannie: 23:20

I mean, I don't think anybody thinks you're just whipping it up But like if I'm watching like somebody make I don't know anything that I don't know how to do like make a latte or something Like you don't realize How hard that is or what goes into it until they're like walking you through the steps of like a real artisan thing You're like, oh my man, like okay, I'd like to see it broken down sometimes and

Eric: 23:41

good. Yeah, so Yeah, sorry to interrupt you. Um,

Frannie: 23:45

so I think we have a little bit of a lag Yeah, so I have

Eric: 23:53

a radio show now on wild 101 in Boise and I pre record it. So what I've decided to do is Pre record it live on TikTok. So on Fridays, typically Fridays, I'll go live on TikTok and just record it from my, you know, mixing studio in here. And the last couple times, at the end, I've decided to have this, like, experimental mixing mashup session with the people that are following. So I got a couple hundred people in there and they're watching me and I'm like, Hey, let's... Um, let's try some things out and they, people actually love it. And I explained what I'm doing. I'm like, okay, I'm going to cut the vocal here and just, we're just going to play the beat and I'm going to add whatever. And I kind of explain it. And it's made me think, cause they, they love watching it and they love watching the process. Like maybe I start posting more of those kinds of videos, um, of how I came up with it and, and why. And I'm. It, it, I don't know, it's a, it got me thinking about how branching out it, I think is important to, even though I have like this formula that works, start doing these other little things to see what people might be interested in. But, um. I

Frannie: 25:04

think that's genius. Do you have those, like all of those, those are prerecorded, so they're actually recorded and saved somewhere. They're not just living live. Right.

Eric: 25:14

The live, the TikTok lives get saved for 30 days in your TikTok TikTok TikTok account. So I could, I mean, I could,

Frannie: 25:21

you could just go back in there and cut out a little chunk and try it. Yeah. Oh, you should do that. Yeah. Oh, I can't wait. I'll be watching.

Eric: 25:28

Carefully. Be my consultant.

Frannie: 25:32

Well, I think it's just, I'm just so fascinated with how far you've come in this like whole adventure for you. Like I just think it's so cool how cool, I mean, you're like a serious, like influencer. You know, um, we, we just were shooting weddings and, you know, doing weddings together a couple years ago. And, and both of our businesses have changed in so much. So it's just really fun to catch up and like, see where you're at, but I love that you think about it that way. You're like, okay, I'm going to do this radio show, which I did see that announcement. So congratulations. That's really fun. Um, but you're like, I have to re record this. So why not just also go live on TikTok at the same time and serve my audience there as well, and like, keep making content. Like anytime you can just turn your camera on and make content, it's. Like, I don't know. It's just so smart to, to kind of like, the people who are listening to you on the radio and Boise are probably not the ones watching your TikTok lives and vice versa. Those are people all over the world. So yeah, it's just, it's so smart. Just brilliant. Like right now, like this podcast, like we should be. Live streaming this on Instagram, but I haven't figured that out yet. So maybe someday. You know, it's like, I know. Yeah. So many things. Are you doing, uh, are you doing YouTube at

Eric: 26:54

all? Maybe we do it again. Maybe we do it again at some point, but it's not for a podcast. It's just like. A live conversation. Just talking. Yeah. Yeah. And um, I can help you build your social.

Frannie: 27:07

I would love that. I think, um, I think we should, you and I should probably just get together and like have some coffee or have a beer or something and we can just brainstorm for each other's um, content. For sure. For sure. It's always more fun helping other people come up with ideas. But no, um, have you experimented with YouTube at

Eric: 27:24

all? Um, it's kind of on my list of things to do. I, I've grown my YouTube to, I think I'm at 000 subscribers. And that's just pretty much through my Warren G. Morgan Wallen. Um, I, I posted that as a YouTube video and a couple others, and those went somewhat viral and those grew my page. So

Frannie: 27:53

that's amazing, but I have, are they just the YouTube shorts? Like you're just reaping. Sorry, we're doing the thing. Are you just repurposing the TikToks into YouTube shorts? Or are you making, like, YouTube videos?

Eric: 28:05

Yeah, so I'll... So if I say shorts, they'll be shorts. If I say videos, they're, like, full length videos. So I'm reposting some of my, uh, and posting some shorts. Those don't perform very well, so I haven't been very as active as I should and I'm just not as excited about it, but But the YouTube videos I would take like I would get in Canva and create You know get one of my branding photos and put my name on it with you know Warren G Versus Morgan Wallen and that would be my cover photo and then I would just play the whole track full version And just upload it to YouTube And, um, those kinds of videos have helped me grow that page, but I feel like there's more that I should do or could do, uh, because my, like, I think that's the best place to monetize your actual platform. Um, because there's like ad dollars there, but I don't know what that looks like for me yet. Um,

Frannie: 29:08

so, I mean, it's pretty cool that you've grown it to 60 something thousand followers with. A pretty minimal like amount of, it feels like Noah, you know,

Eric: 29:18

That's insane. Yeah. I feel very fortunate. I know like days of my industry who have hustled for years to get to like 20,000. Um, yeah. So I feel, I feel very fortunate and I feel like I need to take advantage of it, but just haven't had time. Well, yeah.

Frannie: 29:31

So do you have, do you have a team at all now or how does that

Eric: 29:34

look like? That's the next phase for me. Um, I have like a couple weeks of travel left and then it's. It mellows out and I think that's when I need to decide what to do. I had, I almost hired a talent manager who works with, um, other DJs. I canceled that because I wasn't quite ready for it. So I don't know, you know, I'd love to have somebody that. Um, helps manage all my content on social posts and engagement and think, cause it's very time consuming. Um, someone that books my flights and deals with all the leads and like I'm doing everything and it's, um, it's taken away from me being creative a lot. Um, so I definitely need a team and I don't think I can grow any further without it.

Frannie: 30:21

Yeah. I, I'm so surprised to hear that you don't have anybody like helping you. You've got to have so many. Like DMs and emails all the time. Are you, like, do you respond to all of that?

Eric: 30:35

I try my best. To DMs? Oh my gosh. I try

Frannie: 30:40

my best. If I open up, if I open up my Instagram DMS and there's more than like 10 or 15, I'm like, ah, I don't know what to do. I bet you have hundreds and thousands of them.

Eric: 30:53

Yeah. And across all platforms too. It's like TikTok, Facebook, um, Instagram.

Frannie: 31:00

Yeah. Hire somebody, Eric. Come on. Let's go. You need some, yeah, you need some time back. Uh, okay. I have another question for you. I want to know about the Tik TOK lives. I think Tik TOK lives are so interesting because there are a lot of times when I just go on Tik TOK live and I, you know, you scrolled the live feed, a lot of the things that are on there are the most mundane, like yours are fun and like you're doing, you're mixing music, but sometimes people are just. It's just like literally doing nothing. Cause I think it's so fascinating. But like, what do you, do you just turn it on and, and. Do you have something planned? Like, do you, um, do you respond to people? Are they asking questions? Like, what's the strategy for maybe not strategy, but like, what's the format for TikTok lives? And then are you getting like, are people giving like the gifts and, and stuff like that? Is that, I don't, I feel like such a, a boomer right now asking this. Cause I've just never done TikTok lives, but what is that about for you? And how do you have fun with that with your audience?

Eric: 32:01

Yeah, so I was last year, I was very even earlier this year, heavily into TikTok lives before I got really busy. And back then I would Try to be very consistent. So I'd show up maybe whatever night of the week and it'd be my usual time or an afternoon. And I just mix for an hour or two, but I'd make sure I had a mic on and I could talk to people. So it was very engaging responding to, um, cause there's a whole chat that happens. It's, it's, it's whole little culture. It's wild. But, um, but you can be really engaging with them. They send you gifts, they'll put like, and the gifts are like, I don't know what you call them. Um, like little animated things like all the people put, people spend like five bucks and put a cowboy hat on me or, uh. One time I got a, one time I got a, um, a baby lion and apparently a baby lion is like, it was like a couple hundred dollars. So everybody in the chat was like, somebody just bought you a lion. So I earned 200 bucks by just doing that. Now, I feel weird about asking people for money. So a lot of people on TikTok that go live, try to do, find ways to make money off their followers. So I'll be like, you know, I will play this. 80 song if once I reach X amount of gifts, so you can have these goals that you want. Um, I, I'm trying to, I don't know, for me, I'm trying to play a long game and I feel like asking my followers to give me money feels a little bit like begging and it feels a little like, I don't know, I want to just give, right. And just give, give, give. And then maybe if something down the road is like, Hey, I've got this merch that I'm, you know, that, these hoodies, I'd love for you to buy one. I always go live, I always do this stuff, um, pick up a hoodie, or whatever that is. Uh, it's kind of like the jab, jab, jab, jab, right hook from, um, Gary V. Mm hmm. Gary, Gary Vaynerchuk. But yeah, so, but lives are fun. It's a great way to engage people. It's also a great way to grow your following because it pops up in the For You page. And I, every time I do a live, I gain at least a few hundred followers. Um And yeah, they're just fun and you can get people to learn more about you. You just get these random people come in, you have your fans and then random people. And I, and I just tell them, I'm always plugging like, Hey, you know, go check out my mix cloud page or whatever, Patreon, and people will go do that. So it's a great way to grow your brands. Um, sometimes I'll just go live and talk late at night. Just like, Hey, what's up? And chat and they like that to ask me questions. Um, yeah,

Frannie: 35:01

cool. Yeah. It's super fun. It's, it's, it's really a interesting modality. And I think just to kind of like jump in and be able to chat with people and if they respond to your comment, you feel really special and, um, yeah, I think it's awesome that you do that and all right, well, I can ask a million questions about tech talk, but I, I kind of want to just ask you one more thing. Um, you, you just reminded me cause you mentioned, uh, you know, Gary Vaynerchuk and the, and his old school good old book, um, what you're, I know that you're very, you know, into personal development and, um, growth and reading and all of that. So what are you on right now and like, what's, who's, you know, your inspiration and what are you, um, are you in any, uh, programs or like working with any coaches or anything like that that are really inspiring you at the moment?

Eric: 35:52

Um, right now I'm re reading, um, Relentless by, oh my gosh, I'm forgetting his name. Um, anyway, it, it, he was Michael Jordan, Kobe's, like, Um, personal trainer, but he, it's, it's a mentality of being a certain type of winner, basically. But the book's called Relentless. Tim Grover is his name. Um, so I'm rereading that just to get my mind kind of, I don't know, I just feel like I always need to be reminded about why I'm doing things and how to have like, I never want to settle. So that book's helping me not settle. Um, I do want to join. Andy Frisella and Ed Milets are a taste syndicate pretty soon. And that's a big, I don't know if it's a mastermind necessarily, but it's a big group that learns from them, but they also network with each other. So you're getting like high level entrepreneurs, um, all kinds of, you know, great minds and driven people in this group. And you can start building relationships there. So that's, that's the next thing I want to, like group I want to get into. Um, Yeah, I'm doing 75 hard again. I'm on day

Frannie: 37:08

three. How are you? Oh, congratulations. Uh, yeah, Nicole, Nicole is doing it right now too. So she's, she's about halfway, she's about halfway through it. Yeah. Um, cool. Well, that's awesome. Um, you're always such an inspiration and I know how hard you work and how you just, yeah. And you're always so positive and chill. So thanks for being, um, just. You.

Eric: 37:34

Yeah. Thanks. Um, I appreciate that. Um, I always like our conversations. We need to, need to do it more. Yeah. Okay.

Frannie: 37:42

I know. Well, what's next? What's next for DJ Eric Rhodes? What can we be watching for? Uh. Any cool, uh, big opportunities that you're going to be like hosting or anything like that?

Eric: 37:56

Yeah. You know, nothing major right now. It's like my goal. Like I got this radio show and I want to, I'm trying to like learn and grow from that. And I'd love to get that eventually syndicated, go nationwide, and who knows maybe end up on like XM radio, maybe end up on TV. Like I just want to do, I want to take this as far as I can. And so I'm just really trying to just go, go all in on. Any possibility I can with this social media DJing opportunities that I have and just see where it goes. One of the things, I mean, I'm just going to close this out because you kind of reminded me of this, um, with asking the question about the book I'm reading personal development. Um, One of the things I want to do is kind of re reassess my goals. I feel like I haven't, even though I'm doing lots of cool things, I haven't really sat down and go, what, where do I want to be in like a year or two or five years? And so I'm going to have this like deep dive with a business coach of mine. But, um, when I did that several years ago, I went from, I had a multi op, I had a, uh, four DJs working for me. And I spent the whole year doing like in 2019 kind of unhappy because I was Not doing what I loved which was DJing and I was being a business owner manager And I didn't I found out I didn't like it and so I left that And let all the guys go they were all great But I just didn't want to do that anymore and I decided I'm gonna go all in on what I'm passionate about what I love To do and loved why I like to be creative and when I did that and I started setting goals attached to that like hey I don't want to have to set up a DJ equipment anymore I don't, I want to make DJ a wedding or some sort of event. Like I just started dreaming big and I wrote those down almost every day. And when I, and I didn't know how I was going to get there, but I knew that if I just worked hard and committed to somehow getting to these goals that I would eventually get there. And I didn't know that social media was my avenue, but, um, I really believe that like, if you're going somewhere and you're not quite sure how you're going to get there, that you will eventually get there if you just commit to that. That, that path and commit to working hard every day and just sticking with it. So um, I think for me to get to another level, like even farther, I have to redo that and, and kind of reassess and, and reach bigger, if that makes sense. Oh,

Frannie: 40:27

it makes so much sense. You were speaking my language big time. It's. When you just focus on what the end goal is or not end goal, but like what the next big thing is, because that's when you start to notice the doors opening and the opportunities showing themselves that you might not have noticed before. You might not have. So I think that's what you were doing and when social media was like, um, hello, this is working. You're like, oh my gosh, that could get me there. It's like, just kind of knock a notch. Yeah. So love it. Love

Eric: 41:03

it. Love it. Manager thing. Yeah. It might not have ever happened.

Frannie: 41:08

Right. And you had to try that to make, to find out that you didn't like that, you know, like. We all do things and go, go a little bit down one road and then we're like, Oh, nevermind. Just kidding. Command Z. Let me get out of here.

Eric: 41:21

For sure. Like that.

Frannie: 41:24

Yeah. Cool. All right. Well, I think that was an awesome little check in. So we'll do it again and, uh, see where you're at when we have this, uh, nationally syndicated radio show or something, something like it. Before you know it. Um, but just, we love kind of watching from afar and, and cheering you on always. And yeah, thanks for coming back on the podcast.

Eric: 41:48

Absolutely. Thanks, Frannie. Appreciate it.

Frannie: 41:51

All right. Talk to you soon.