A-Team (Alex & Andra)

Andra Vomir: We're sitting with Cory, who is our video producer. I don't remember

Cory McCabe: how it came up. Yeah, I reached out on Twitter. Somehow weather came up, right? Yes. And you said there's like a storm or something? I was like, oh my gosh, there's a storm here too. Yeah. And you're like, yeah, Austin's crazy. I'm like, oh my gosh. I'm not far from Austin.

Andra: You guys have known each other

Alex Bass: for a long time. I think one way. I've actually been listening to your podcast for years. When did you start listening to it? Probably 10 years ago.

Cory: We can speak the same language for the most part. I'm not an angel investor. Yet. This

Andra: video is sponsored by our good friends at Copper CRM.

Welcome to the after show. Is that what this is?

Cory: Yes.

Andra: Party time? Yeah. This is the debrief So we just filmed six episodes And we didn't we want to just like chill out. We're on the couch Sitting with cory who is our video producer It makes us feel very legit saying that

Cory: You guys are legit

Andra: And we're just gonna have a chat a bit like how It went filming the podcast and how we feel about things and kind of like where we want to take things.

Cory: Yeah. This has been a really fun. I mean, you saw me put on my Instagram, like you guys are like the dream team to work with. So like, this has been so much fun. Um, and you guys did a good job of just like being comfortable, right? Like these huge light. I don't know if everybody can see that, but we've got these crazy huge lights, these big cameras, and you guys are like, wow, there's like a bit of a shock, but you like rolled out into it.

You guys both were like super comfortable throughout all six episodes. And it was fun. I had fun. I think

Andra: that's a testament to you because I am normally not comfortable even when I'm alone. So the fact that

Alex: We've recorded content in, on this couch and it hasn't been as smooth as that. Yeah,

Andra: when it's just the two of us.

So I think like having your presence taking care of everything and also like you have a very like patient Vibe to you that I don't feel like you're just like, oh my god, I'm bored I want to get out of here, which would be my fear hiring like someone to help us out with this Yeah, so I feel like there's a good

Cory: synergy.

Yeah, that's well, that's that's good to hear. I feel like even To like have anyone present, like, let's say this is all your equipment. You guys set it up. You're making sure it's recording and the cards aren't full and the batteries are running all that stuff. Let's say you were taking care of that. Even just having somebody else in the room kind of creates this, like not audience, but like it kind of keeps things going.

Whereas like if you're by yourself, even if it's just the two of you, you might be like, this doesn't feel right. Let's start over. Let's stop this. And it's like when you have an audience, it's like it makes it remind you that like. It's just this is real. It's just happening now. We're not like performing.

We're just talking

Alex: Oh, and I mean even hearing like the little chuckles that you had a time It's so it's so nice because it's also like it just shows that you're listening and like it's really like yeah Yeah, it was great.

Andra: I think there's a lot of ways this could have gone wrong with like the wrong person So I feel very happy with how it went sweet So if there's been a journey of like how we even got here you guys have been I'm gonna put known in quotations of each other or known each other for a long time.

Alex: I think one way I've known, I've known, I, I was consuming your podcast, like every episode of it.

Cory: I mean, it was so, it was like, not my podcast, but it was a podcast that I was like a, I guess a co-host on, there's like a three person podcast and I was one of those threes, I was producing that podcast. Yeah.

And you were listening to that podcast since I don't know how long. Yeah. Like when did you start listening to that?

Alex: Um, I feel like probably. Eight to ten years ago. Yeah. And I was listening to every episode. It was one of the ones that I had like auto join in the queue. Um, and it is this weird thing too, that I actually, I don't think I watched any of the video side of things, believe it or not.

I just listened to the podcast. So I had been listening to your voice and I didn't even really like make the correlation or connection genuinely until like, I don't know, six months ago when we first like started. Having conversations and then I didn't even realize like I've actually been listening to your podcast for years.

Cory: That's insane. Yeah, it's always weird to hear. Yeah And now you guys are gonna get that I mean you already had the analysis paralysis podcast which and then now is this a separate one? We can cut this out if that's We're not

Andra: even entirely

Alex: sure. We don't know. Okay. We

Cory: don't know. We don't know. We're still figuring it out.

Andra: Yeah. Yeah. I think we both had podcasts in the past. Like you had the Blackberry podcast as well, which like you did religiously on every Sunday.

Alex: Berry flow upstream.

Andra: And I had a podcast, but honestly, it was just not legit. Like it was a DIY and whatever. I feel like this is the first time I actually feel like it's something.

And okay, so wait, you listened to his podcast. And then. You reconnected earlier this year? Was that this year? Yeah, it was, uh, was

Cory: it December, November? Yeah, maybe. Yeah. And I remember there was like a, a big storm. Yeah. This is the interesting part. . Was it in February then? Oh,

Alex: or maybe, I think it was another, it was another power outage.

Oh, it was, it was during this, around the Zapier time.

Andra: Yes. Which would've been in February. Okay,

Cory: okay. Yeah. So earlier this year, apparently. Yeah. My God.

Alex: Yes. Yeah. Oh

Cory: gosh. . I know. We're all like, whoa. Time. Oh my gosh. . Um. So yeah, we were talking and you, I don't remember how it came up, but it was like, I think somehow I reached out on Twitter.

Somehow weather came up, right? Yes, yes. Which it wasn't just like, oh, how's the weather? It was just like, I don't even know, but weather came up and you said there's like a storm or something. I was like, oh my gosh, there's a storm here too. Yeah. And you're like, yeah, Austin's crazy. I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm not far from Austin.

I don't know. Something like that, right? Yes. And then, yeah, then I was like, okay, I got to come up and see you guys. So the rest is history. I think

Alex: like a week later, like you swung by and we just hung out for the day and it was like, We were already like we dove into you. I think you were for like three four hours.

You got dinner It was just like everything was it was so nice. Yeah,

Cory: it was

Andra: very fun Yeah and then after you left because you had told us like your company is called behind the scenes and you do like Behind the scenes videos for like films and stuff like that and you want to do more of that So I like looked up I subscribe to your YouTube channel when you were here And then you left and then Alex and I like went and like binged watched like your videos and we're like I come

Cory: back later that same day Oh, yeah.

I think we did. I was like, these people are way too cool. I gotta go. Yeah. I was in town filming. Yes. Some sport. Yeah. Basketball or something. Um, or is it football? I think it's basketball. Yeah. And then I was like, Hey, actually, I'm, I'm done now. I can come back over. I don't even know. It's something like that.

But yeah, it's so much fun. But yeah, we started talking like YouTube content and just like. Um, all kinds of stuff. I think we even got like really deep too, like on personal stuff, and it was just, I guess that's a testament to you guys of how comfortable I felt, like, sharing with you guys, and it was,

Andra: yeah.

Yeah, because I remember after you left, I said to Alex, I'm like, how can we work with him? Yeah. I'm like, do you think we can make this happen? And he was like, I want to too. Like, we were on the same page, and we hadn't talked about it. So, we were like, yeah, just chuffed. Is that a bird? Chuffed to be here?

Cory: Yeah. Yeah. It's a British term. They say, I'm chuffed to bits. Okay. That's what they say. And that means

Andra: like, yeah. Somewhere in Australia. Apparently, yeah. Yeah. We were just glad that we got to do it. How, okay. So we, like, take us a little bit through the behind the scenes of what the setup was like. I think it wasn't more than you were anticipating.

It's more than I thought. Yeah.

Alex: Oh, you came out of the room and you were like, what happened here? Yeah. Oh yeah, that's right.

Cory: Cause we moved the

Alex: couch, we moved the table. We didn't know anything

Cory: we do. Yeah. Yeah. We moved a lot of stuff. No. Yeah. So this, yeah, I think it was. It's not necessarily that it took more than I was anticipating but I took a lot longer than I've ever taken setting up And I don't I don't know why that is I could be partially it's probably a lot of reasons But I think one of them is like usually I'm alone And like I wanted to like catch up to and so it's like I was a little bit distracted but I think I partially was it but also we kept like Um, coming up with ideas like first we thought maybe we'll shoot at the table.

Ooh, the couch would be a better vibe. Is there enough room? And so eventually we moved the couch back and then it was a fun thing. And then you helped me like rig. These um, these podcast arms. So yeah, it was

Andra: fun though. Yeah, you brought this huge light Like maybe you can even put a photo on the screen to show people It is like a Sun in our living room and we have three cameras Yep Like the most legit mics like it just we

Alex: weren't expecting it to be like we we genuinely thought in one way that you're gonna Have one camera, but then it's like oh probably two probably because you'd have one for each person.

Yeah But then you're like three and then it's just like, Oh my gosh, this is actually a lot more than we were expecting. That's

Cory: honestly like one of my favorite things to hear from anyone that I work with or like collaborate with, or like shoot a video for like friend, family. They're like, Oh my gosh. And I'm like, yeah, because I mean, there's been like years of accumulating.

Oh my gosh. Yeah.

Andra: So I think it's a testament to like, You because we are business owners, which means we are by nature control freaks So when we like wanted to work with you, we actually didn't even think to like ask you Of any specifics because we just trusted you entirely, which I think is rare because if we had hired someone that I had no trust, I would have gone into like micromanage mode.

The only thing I asked for because Alex the night before was like, is he bringing lights? And I was like, yeah, that's right. Like, I'm like, of course, because we had kind of talked about that before how I was like, is the lighting going to work? And you're like, we have lights. Don't worry. But then I had to ask because I'm like, imagine that would be horrible.

Because we knew

Alex: we're going to go into the night. Yeah.

Cory: Yeah, yeah, and as everybody can see like this is just the coolest set up like you got like windows galore So it just looks so good. Yeah, so and then we out they won't be able to see this but there's um These curtains are these shades that kind of come down and so we had fun Making that just right because you don't want to let in like too much light because then like that Yeah, compete with the lights that you set up.

So you kind of want to like, Yeah, we kinda, I feel like we dialed in just right. We move some plants around. It was so funny

Alex: too. Because like, we had recorded a couple episodes and then, um, the, the sun was going down. So then you got to fine tune the lights, bring them closer and tweak them. And you're like, this looks so good.

And we're like, no, like the first two, and you're like, no, those looked amazing too. But like now I have more control over the lights. Andre was, was nervous about going into the night with the sun down. Because it's the whole like natural light thinking and all of that. So that was also a learning experience too.

We were like, it was even trying to start earlier because we wanted to get the daylight in and we're actually like, wait, maybe at night looks better.

Cory: It kind of works and it's consistent too, you know? So. So we

Andra: were up till 2. 30 a. m. last night. We filmed one episode at midnight. Yeah. Yeah. We did. After dinner, yep.

We started at like 11. 30 and I think we wrapped up around 12. 30, which is not what I was expecting, but I guess when you have a son in your living room, these things are made possible. Okay. Next topic. I want to talk about our hopes and dreams of what, this sounds way too deep, okay? Just, we've enjoyed working together, let me put it that way.

And, like, want to hear from both of you, like, what would you like this podcast to turn into? Alex aCoryrey, you might have separate thoughts, and I'll share mine as well.

Alex: Yeah, I mean, I... Well, you and I have been talking about these stories and we've told these stories. We even had gone on a different podcast, kind of talking about parts of it.

But what we were essentially saying is like, I wish we could have just told this together. Cause like these stories, individual is, it misses so much context. So I think we're like telling this together, having genuinely for posterity, for the fact that like, we could look back on it in the future. That was like the main thing.

Right. But I think like, It's, it's just also, yeah, and I'm, I'm with a mindset, if no one watches this, I'm still cool with it. I feel like it was an investment in ourselves, in the story, and we're just like, we're excited to be able to do this along the way. Um, obviously would love for people to watch it and to be able to say, like, have some sponsors and things like that.

Just so we can keep doing it and do more of it. Right. Because that, like, this is, I, I... I don't know. I've had YouTube shorts that are like, Alex, you suck at content. And I do like, it's like this level where when I'm put on, on the set in a way, and I have to go, I just like lose all energy and everything. And I haven't felt that.

And I'm just like, this is actually like. Unlocking something in me that I didn't think was possible and it makes me want to do more of it Like I don't want you to go home Yeah, so it is it's a weird. It's a really weird Yeah, I wasn't I wasn't expecting that

Cory: to feel how you felt when like creating the content Yeah, which is basically just talking talking about things you care about things you have experience with things you enjoy.

Yes Yeah, and you don't have to worry about anything Yeah, so

Alex: now I like don't want it to end and I want to do more of it and figure out more ways to work together, so

Andra: I've like already fantasized about like you moving into the building and I was like wait I wonder if there's any like apartments open and I'm like he didn't ask for that Andre, reel back your

Cory: dreams But what else do you know about me?

That I'm living with my wife's grandmother right now What does that mean? It means I need a place to live.

Alex: We can get a three bedroom

Andra: Can we? Are there even units? I think

Cory: there's one. There might not be a corner unit though. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and that's, you know, that's vibes. That's vibes for days. Or

Andra: we can, yeah,

Alex: we'll see.

So, so what, okay, what about you? What is, what, what are you looking, or what, I guess, what, how do you

Andra: even ask that question? I mean, I, I think for you, maybe it's a little bit more difficult to say, but.

Cory: Well, yeah, cuz I'm, okay, so like, I'm like bystander listening to all six of these episodes that we recorded and Super fascinating to listen to like your story together as like a couple, there's like really, really cool, crazy stories about like all kinds of stuff.

Um, but also it's like on the technical side too, which is just, that's just fun. Um, I think what might be, I don't know how it could happen, but like somehow getting other companies voices in an episode, like, I don't know what that could look like. Um, But I feel like that can be fun to like this episode features this person or this company somehow that could be fun I don't know what that could look like something to you on maybe

Andra: but I think we're all like on the same pages like we Don't like ads and I think like we did record some ads and for someone that may have listened to the six episodes Maybe you heard some ads maybe didn't depends on if the company wanted to sponsor us.

So Yeah, I think we made our ads intentionally very conversational and very real. And we only want to take sponsors from like companies we're aligned with. So I like the idea of like, yeah, if there's like the founder wants to come in, not for an interview, because I think interviews are kind of like, I prefer discussions if there's some kind of like snippet.

But yeah, to be determined. Yeah. TBD. For me, I think I just really enjoyed. Like, yeah, talking, I feel like I had all this buildup of all these stories and we were talking about the same stories over and over for like a year and now we just like release them and now we're going to have room for more stories.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's almost like therapeutic in that way and I felt very comfortable, way more comfortable than I imagined that I would have just like, I guess, like speaking to the content and talking to you. And it was just nice to do this with you as like, a partner. Like, I feel like you're actually a great co host.

Alex: Well, I mean, it's, we, we, we, we both literally had podcasts on our own. Like when we had met, that was one of the things that is like, wait, you have a podcast. I have a podcast. Like, it's not even just like, I listen to podcasts. It's like, we each have a podcast. So it was all this, I think we knew one of the first days we met that we were going to do a podcast together.

We just didn't know when or what it would be, or we had to come up with the stories ourselves. Like we had to live life. To have something to

Andra: talk about. Mm-Hmm. , we alluded to this a little bit, but we started recording our conversations from like the first three months in and we have all of these recordings.

Nice. Not that I think they're worth going back to, but we just wanted to like have them. In case we want it we our initial idea was to record ourselves in like our normal day to day And we actually reached out to someone and asked him if he wanted to produce the podcast if we just sent him all the content And he can like create a storyline out of it, and he was not

Alex: interested.

Well, we sent over one It was just it was a lot to put on and it was a lot

Andra: of work Yeah, cuz it was like say two hours of a conversation I think he was trying to honestly focus on his own business. So, I understood. Like, obviously, it was not meant to be. This is way better. Yeah.

Cory: Um, wait, wait, did we ask you, like, what are your future hopes, dreams, goals?

For the podcast, what are some things you would want to do?

Andra: I just really enjoy doing this. Like I feel like so congruent and like almost like in my element. And I feel like it's been like a long time that I've thought about doing something like this. There's a lot of like podcasts that I admire. And Alex like made a joke this morning.

He's like, I feel like you're living your best life. You're like Shamboodram. Shamboodram's my favorite podcast host and I've listened to her for ages. And yeah, not that I'm comparing myself to her, but it's just nice to get to do this. And

Cory: it's not just like like filler content of like, oh, let's just put something out like you were you both were clearly like We want to talk about this so bad like very passionate and so like that definitely came across and so like I think that's also part of the excitement that you're feeling is like I'm talking about stuff that like really matters to me,

Andra: so.

Yeah, and I want, like, what I would love for this to continue on is, like, discussions. Even if it's like we're working through something and we want to, like, record a podcast about some of the conversations that we've had with that point in our life with, like, an outline. Not like just a complete free for all, but, like, here's, like, what we're thinking.

Like, for example, right now we're in the middle of a pivot, a business, we have the automation business that. Has sustained us and it's like her. Core business. And then we have our website, efficient app, which is evolving to be more of like a place for companies and teams to look at if they're selecting software, still learning how to even talk about that.

Like how, what would you add

Alex: on to that? Essentially just explain, there's so much software that exists and it's like just picking out the best software and letting people know when they should be using what, and then even what works well together through integration. And in a way it's just like brain dumping all, like we've been working with businesses for over a decade.

To implement software and we've integrated so much software. So we're kind of just like taking our brains and just throwing all this information onto the website to just help people. And it's like, great. Can we just share this stuff and find some way to make money from it through sponsorship? Something like, can we just give?

Give this information out at scale and figure out a business model. So there's no pressure on the business model right now, because we actually have the business of integrating, but we're like, can we figure out something else in this realm? And it's probably around content to some degree. Yeah.

Andra: And I'll tell you what I don't want it to be.

I don't want it to be anything that. Is not in alignment in the sense that we're taking sponsorship from companies we wouldn't actually recommend or use. And I think what's out there in terms of like YouTube content, when it comes to software is there's a lot of comparisons and a lot of people talking about software that they don't use.

Yeah. You

Cory: can always tell when it's like, okay, clearly the company sponsoring this, like. Has enough money that they like got this person because they're like, I feel bad saying it, but it's like, all right This is sponsored by NordVPN. It's like, do you even use that? Yeah, yeah. I mean, come on. Maybe they do, maybe they love it, but I feel like I see that everywhere It's like, yeah, I wonder if this person's just kind of like Like, I have no confidence with most like ad reads and that's what they are.

It's an ad read. It's like, say this, say that, say this. Some companies are getting a little bit better about like, hey, say what you want. We like what you're doing. Yeah. Keep doing it. Uh, just give us like some type of shadow or like put our logo in the front. Like, it's like, I feel like some companies are understanding that there's like the, the minimal, like not like in your face stuff is like actually what's more appreciated by the buyer or the customer.

Yeah. Which I feel like you guys did a little like. Well, I don't know if we want to talk about it. No, we

Andra: can talk about it, and I mean, this is behind the scenes.

Cory: Yeah, it is. It's behind the scenes. So, like, I feel like something that I guess all three of us value is like making it like... More a part of, um, the, the, how the content is normally structured.

So the, how the content is normally structured in this case is two people, you guys talking to each other. So why don't we just like keep doing that so that the, the listener is not like, Oh, this is the part where they let me skip, skip, skip, skip, like just make it natural. And like, it's so much more interesting.

Cause like, I know, Oh, okay. I'm hearing Andra's actual thoughts about this or Alex's actual. Experience with this and like that's just so much more like interesting and I'm like, hmm, maybe I'll try this out

Alex: well, I mean, I think the thing too that that's interesting around that is we Recorded a few potential sponsor breaks during like the talent of all this.

Yes, but they were companies we picked the companies Yes, because we had stories about them and two of them were stories that literally That morning you and I were talking about, I was just pitching you on software based on a need that you had. And it's like, why don't we literally just talk about that?

So it's, it's, there's a genuine story that just happened and. Yeah, it is this thing where it's like let's not force it if we don't have an interesting story or an interesting like that It just feels congruent that way. Yeah, the end of the day they might not be up for it. And that's also like cool We'll just sponsor the episode ourselves

So we literally had to pull our video producer in for this one because this morning You were describing to me about how you were looking for a tool That would help you in your business. And what is the general gist of what you're explaining that you're looking

Cory: for? Yeah. I mean, I went to you because you like this kind of stuff and I was just like, man, I have this problem.

Like I have this idea of wanting to like, have like almost like a dashboard. I didn't really know the right words to use, like a dashboard of like different clients that I have, like the ones that are. Currently active clients, the ones that like are hot leads and like maybe they've done this or they have paid, they haven't paid.

That'd be so cool, right?

Alex: Yeah, and I was just sitting there with the biggest grin. He's just going and going and explaining all the stuff that he wants. And I just had the biggest grin on my face. And then finally he stops talking. I was like, okay, so it sounds like you're looking for Copper CRM and you're literally looking for the thing that we do for businesses.

And he's like, yeah, but I wanted to like trigger emails to send out a certain type. It's like, yep, everything you can do that in, in copper. So you're like, you're literally

Cory: describing a CRN.

Alex: So Cory, you're going to go into our link in the description. You're probably going to be putting it down there and you're going to go check that out, sign up for copper and let us know what you think.

Does it work for what you're looking for? I'm down

Cory: to try it. Cool.

I feel like any company seeing that video would be. Yeah. Crazy not to like invest in that. Yeah. Like the fact that it was just so happenstantial, that that morning we were talking about it, it was just, it was mind blowing. And again, just to add to that like realness piece, like, uh, you really believed in what is mercury?

Mercury? Yeah. Um, and so like that, like I'm, I'm interested, like, it's basically like. Hacking word of mouth, you know what I mean? Like like I'm I would try something because I have a personal relationship with you and you're recommending it to me and you have No other like Agenda other than like, oh, I know Cory and it sounds like this could be a good fit for him Yeah, like so that's how word of mouth works It's like oh I've you know, like if you guys are like I've worked with Cory He was great with video awesome to work with like that stuff is natural.

Like so it's kind of just working on that. Yeah

Andra: A fear that I have with the podcast is that we're gonna run out of things to talk about because we are That's a real thing, yeah. Very heavy on stories and what we don't want this podcast to turn into is like, having guests on and just talking about AI for the sake of Oh, no.

AI, like, just shoot me now. Yeah, no. I think everyone is only talking about AI right now, so Yeah, we don't want to go down, down that direction. We don't even want to feel like, Oh, we need guests on so we can help with distribution. Cause I think that's like another reason people have guests on their podcasts.

Cause they're like, Oh, we want to get this person who has like a hundred thousand followers on our podcast so they can promote it. And then we get listeners. So we don't have that desire when with that comes a fear of like, well, how much can Alex and I talk about? And maybe then, you know, that's why we do.

Episodes every couple of months rather than trying to do a weekly thing. Yeah. We don't even know like how often we're gonna release,

Cory: but as often as you have something to share. Yeah. You know, . Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Andra: And that's where like, I like the idea of taking our everyday life and the things that we're going through in the business and having these discussions like live on, uh, like building in public.

Yeah. Right.

Alex: Yeah, those are the podcasts I enjoy most genuinely like the fathom analytics Above board build your sass like I feel like it's just like that you might not hear from them for a month But then you hear like in a way why you didn't hear from them for a month and sometimes it's like we generally had nothing To talk about we were just working on a feature and it's a boring feature, but we have to do it like right

Cory: Yeah, I I love hearing About people's failures, which I think you guys touched on in some of your episodes um That, that's more fun for me than the successes, although I do like those two, but it's like, I feel like those are the things we naturally want to share is like, Oh, I had this big win.

Um, I find it more like, I mean, I don't think I'm a unique in that, but like, just like hearing the, like the struggles and like, yeah, this one didn't pan out, you know, it's like, yeah, it's like, I don't know, it just, it makes it feel more like, cause I think if other people are listening and they're like, maybe possibly seeing themselves in your shoes, then.

Like they might think like well, maybe I like they might have some like doubts or whatever So like to hear that like you failed it's like okay because I think I would feel too But they're still doing it through the failures and maybe failure isn't the right word Some people don't like to use that because it's all like perspective.

Like maybe you don't actually maybe it's not considered a failure It's just like a what's the other word? I don't know. I feel like you used a different word,

Alex: but I mean that, that I think, but that's why it's like recording along the journey, like as it's unfolding, allows you to share more of that along the way.

Cause then it's like great. 10 years from now, you can talk about how the one company you invested in made everything and like, it, it almost like overshadows everything else, or it's not even interesting to talk about like right now. What we're doing is so interesting because we don't know if it looks like some things are going well, some things are not going well.

And we're like, but for all I know, a month later or two months or a year later, like that may totally change. We don't know. We, you were living in the unknown with us while we're in the unknown. And that's fun to talk about. Cause we can talk about what might be able to happen or what is definitely not happening because something did not work out.

It just feel it's. It's more therapeutic in a way

Andra: too. Okay. So in the nature of building in public, I guess we can share where we're at now as like a timestamp, and then in future episodes we can share the evolution. So with, like I said, we have the automation business and then we're going to call this that like efficient company just for the sake of this episode and efficient app is like our website and more of the content side of things.

If we're talking about like revenue from the content side of things, we've made 3, 000 so far from one partnership that we had with one company. And that is, that is where we're at. So other than that, like we're paying for the podcast. We don't have sponsors at the moment, but we recorded. Ads, as mentioned, that we're going to pitch.

And then we also have had some companies, I'm not going to name them, but, well, one company in particular that reached out to us and they wanted to do more stuff with us and they asked, how can we get on your website? And we didn't know what to say to them in full honesty. We jumped on a call and we kind of went back and forth.

They were like, what are you guys offering? And we're like, well, what do you want? And they're like, how much do you charge? And we're like, well, what do you want? Yeah, I know. At the end of the call. Alex was like, I feel like I was asking her our business model and I was like, I don't know what it is. So till this day, it's been about a month.

We haven't responded to that company, but it gave us indication that there are software companies that we align with. They are a topic on our website that want to do stuff together. So we're seeing this as an opportunity of like, I don't know if I want to call it a media business, but like, I don't know, what would you call it?

In

Alex: awareness, I just want more people to sign up for the, for these, the software and, and enjoy in the software alongside with me. Yeah.

Cory: Um, you're like enriching their, their lives personally and then, and their business as well. And that feels pretty good. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Andra: So if we're building in public, I guess like we can let everyone know, would we like share figures?

No. No. That's

Alex: what that's. Yes.

Cory: No.

Andra: Well, cause I don't want to out a company if. What do you mean? Well, like a fear that comes up is if like one sponsor pays a certain amount of money and then another one pays less. Okay.

Alex: I mean, just in general, like you, you don't need to, it is like we are at four figures in revenue in this business right now.

Andra: Okay. Right now we are at 3, 000. Four

Alex: figures. 3004 figures. That's fine. It's just more the point of, I think you would, you would ask us like what, how much have you done in like affiliate revenue? Cause I said that we were doing, you know, affiliates on the website and. I said that we've made zero dollars. I was

Cory: shocked.

Yeah, I was so shocked. And I think it's like you clearly believe in so many like. Like you got your top picks and all this. I was like, there's no way he's pulling my leg.

Andra: Well, maybe it's because some of these companies don't offer the best programs. True. That's

Cory: a real problem.

Alex: It is. It's tough. It's tough to get someone to actually convert on software to use your link.

Especially like if you don't give, give me. An incentive that I can give the end user versus like, use our link. You get nothing, I will get 15%, but use our link. It's like, what is like, I've always had that problem with these partnerships and stuff like that, but that's fine. I think it's just more of like, I don't think that we genuinely can build a business through affiliate through this way.

I think we need to go deeper, like partnership with these companies that we're in alignment with and be like, let's do something deeper. Let's do a deeper partnership here versus like. I don't know. Have

Cory: you ever reached out to a company that does not offer any type of affiliate program and asked if they're interested in setting that up?

So I, I have, cause there's a, there's a piece of software on my computer that is So I'm obviously I'm a video producer. My favorite is, uh, DaVinci Resolve. That's a video editing software. But other than that, just like daily use computer stuff, it's called keyboard maestro, which is only for Mac, uh, right now, but it is like the automation tool to automate literally anything on your computer.

Alex: Like that's what you showed us your phone. You're standing over there. You showed us your phone You click the button and then the music on your laptop just started going down and

Cory: I still haven't even showed you that but I can Do that from anywhere in the world. Yeah, like that's not like a Wi Fi Bluetooth thing.

I'm very proud of it I'll show you later. Yeah But anyways, they I I love love love this software like it is it's just it's an easy easy buy Yeah, and you don't you pay once I love that Really, really cool. But like, if they do have an upgrade, you can pay for that, um, at like a slightly discounted rate, which I happily do because I love them.

Yeah. I reached out to the, um, single owner, might be two people, but I think it's just one. I was like, I love this thing. I use it all the time. I tell people about it, but, um, I noticed you don't have an affiliate program. Like, I would, I would love to have more incentive. Like, yeah, the incentive is like, I love this product and I tell people about it naturally, but like, it's usually like, I don't go out of my way to do it.

Um, have you ever considered setting up an affiliate program? And I don't leave the email out there, I say, if not, I would love to help you set that up. Because like, I'm imagining, like, they've been here for years. Surely they've thought about it. I don't think I'm the first person to be like, have you thought about this?

And they're going, oh my gosh, Cory, you're so smart. Like, they've probably thought about it and haven't for one reason or another. Maybe it's too complicated, blah, blah, blah. So I reached out and he, he basically like, didn't want to deal with the overhead, I think, of just like, I mean, I guess there could be like, It's just another system to have to, to manage

Alex: just another, to rec another thing to reconcile.

Like if, if it was a meaningful amount of revenue, yeah, it would make sense. But like we, we do have some partners that they have an affiliate model and they've been sending us like 150, $200 a quarter. Mm-Hmm. . And I'm like, this is kind of a lot of work. They, they, they tell me how much we have to invoice them every quarter.

We send them an invoice, they make payments. Sometimes we accidentally. Uh, you know, they paid too much or something. Like there's been little reconciling things where they've had to fix it the month later or whatever. But that's, that's hours. That's time. Exactly. That it's like it. And, and that, that's actually the most amount of affiliate revenue we've ever gotten from.

And that, and that's still overhead. But, but that

Cory: sounds pretty unique in that you had to like create and send an invoice. And like, then they'd have to pay that and they might overpay underpay. Like a lot of the stuff you can just like. Like partner stack or like there's a lot of

Alex: expensive is it partner stack?

I think they start uh, 10 plus grand a year starting really?

Cory: Okay, so not nothing. Yeah, it's like it makes sense that like I was, I was very disappointed that he wasn't even like, yeah, he had already thought about it. He let me know that, um, you know, appreciated that I loved and supported the software, but it was like, man.

Yeah. But he did actually give me, um, it was the option of two things. I'm trying to recall, but basically like I could give people, uh, a 20 or 15% off thing, but it does nothing for me. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and I was like, okay, that's cool. And it could like be behind the film, right? Like I could make it anything. I could put it, make it Cory McCay the film, whatever.

So like I could make it custom, which makes it seem like I'm affiliated with them. Yeah. Which I kind of liked. Right. Yeah. Um, but I'm not getting anything. Yeah. I was like, dang

Alex: it, . It's nice. It's nice to, there's, um. There's a company I saw a business model around that, that's kind of interesting. They're called secret and they do like what you said.

They're like, we'll give you 15%. Yeah. Um, but they built their own, you unlock access to this and all of these deals by paying us 199 a year. But that, you have to do that at a scale where, right, where it's like, if you buy a subscription to our website, you get all of these deals. Interesting. Um, that's the only way that that model could work because they're going to source companies that will give them that discount.

It's a whole different business model. It's a full, like, it's a lot. Okay.

Cory: Um, this just came to mind. Kind of tangential. I can never say that word. Yeah. To this topic. Like, we're talking about like, oh, how could we make money doing affiliate stuff, right? Have you ever thought about you doing an affiliate program?

For other people to be your ambassadors. We

Andra: have, okay. We actually have a pretty, I mean, we've offered, I don't even want to say it on camera. Change it. Yeah, but we offered a substantial amount of money for referrals and we just said, just send them to us. And if they close and come on board, then you will get that money.

Wait,

Cory: real quick. Is there a difference between affiliate and referral? Is it essentially the same thing? I don't see the difference.

Alex: Yeah. No, it's, um, we've actually heard some people are like, our marketing director hates the term affiliate. We prefer referral. It's some of it is in a way it's like the idea of affiliate sounds like I am just using your link to do a thing.

Whereas referral is like, I am actually recommending because there's more meaning behind that word. Okay. But they're genuinely, they are interchangeable. I literally have a tag. Called affiliates slash referral, because I'm like, I'm confused. Some companies called affiliates. I'm calling a referral. It's the same thing.

Cory: I was confused too. And now we've cleared the air. Okay. Gotcha. So, okay. You've, you've, you've done something like that.

Andra: Okay. We, nobody's actually taken us up on it though, and we've offered it to certain people, mainly other consultants who are like, I know so many companies that need your services and they want to like make a cut off of the referral.

So we offer them a cut, but then I think it's, yeah, it's difficult because we get so. ingrained into a business that it's hard to like, there's not, yeah, like most people know businesses that are too small that wouldn't be able to afford our services. And then, yeah, if, I mean, to this day, yeah, if we got a good referral, we're like totally open to something like that.

Yeah.

Cory: I'm wondering how, like, we could make it easier for people, because I don't know how you like set it up, but if it was just like a conversation. Like over email or whatever and it's like, oh, hey if you refer someone, you know we'll give you 10 percent or whatever like whatever that is you can just have this like agreement and Free ad the for the most part people like it just don't take you up on it I guess I wonder how we could make it easier like imagine like you guys might even have this I don't but like you have like a portal for Not just like referrals but like a portal that like all of your clients go into to get their deliverables, whatever that is, right?

That might not be as straightforward for your, like your business model. Like, but for me, it might be like, this is where you get your video files. So like, it could be a site, uh, like a page on my website where they have to like sign in. And it's like, maybe I'm, my thought process here is like, if you create familiar with like.

I, I, I'm always going to this like portal for like my video files or whatever, like in my case, if there's also like a referral spot there where it's like easy click of the button or something, I don't know, like, I'm wondering if like, is it, is it a friction issue with people not referring?

Alex: I think there's by someone referring your services, like Think of some of our best customers that like love the work that we do.

There's a lot of risk in them referring what we do to someone else, a, that someone else could be one of their competitors potentially, cause it's like, oh, well we work with financial services companies. And then, so that's one thing. But aside from that, what upside does our customer get by referring us to more business?

Couple of things. We're going to have less focus on their business in their mind. It could be a thought that they have. Oh, so they're going to be busier and that's like great for them, but not as good for me. There's also, what if we don't do a great job for the company? Then that looks bad on like, if I, if we, if we recommended someone to a friend and then there's no deliverable, I've done this before, I've recommended a friend to another friend and it blew up because one of the friends didn't deliver to the expectations that the other friend had, it ruined their relationship.

And I'm like, yeah, it's just awkward now because I'm still friends with each of you individually. It's just like the risk associated with it is genuinely not worth it. Whereas I'm trying to put a frame on the like, would we recommend you to someone else? And it's like absolutely, but I also don't want to cut of that.

I don't give a shit about getting a percentage of what you do with someone. I'm like you, I know you will be happy using him and he will be happy. Like

Andra: it's worth more to us, like the relationship with you and you just being like, cool. Thank you. Is worse than you being like, here's. A thousand bucks. Like, I'd be like, what?

Yeah. Like, that's not what I want from this relationship.

Cory: I think that might be exactly the answer then. Like, basically, like, it kind of, like, muddies the waters of like, is this transactional? Yeah. Because they referred, you know? Yeah. It's like, then maybe, maybe it puts like a slight, um, uh, damper on the relationship.

I don't know the right word, but like, yeah, that's interesting. Maybe that's partially why. Because it just feels a little bit weird. But maybe most people don't know why it feels weird.

Alex: From a congruency thing, I'm, I'm very clear with that. I, I feel like even, I've been working with software for almost a decade or over a decade, rather, and I've tried this affiliate stuff for a while, because I'm like, well, I love Copper, so go sign up for Copper, and Copper, can you do something?

And they had a reseller thing, so I would actually buy licenses, and then I'd resell it, but now I'm like, Admin overhead that has been introduced into me. And they also have admin, it was all this stuff. And I'm like, I would rather copper just know that I'm sending a shitload of business your way, and you don't even need to know who it is.

It's just like, and then you guys appreciate me by a, maybe giving me free licenses. for our account. Maybe like if there's a good customer that you see could be a good fit for our services, you could recommend us to them because now we're helping your customers. And there's this like this thing that like everyone's helping each other and it's just genuine.

And I'm like, that's the type of stuff that I like more versus like this. Yeah. Transactional of like, I got you one new customer. And it's like, I know I got you so many customers

Cory: over the years. I think what we're saying after all this is that referral. Referrals work with like software where you're like, you know, you, you use copper.

That's not a person to you. It does something for you. And then it's like, yeah, I want, I would love to make this a transactional thing where I can benefit from it. So I'm going to tell my friend, Hey, use this link. It does this for you. It does this for me. But when it's a person, I think maybe it just doesn't work.

Alex: Yeah. I also feel like there's a disingenuousness of if I'm on a phone call with like, say a sales outreach and someone's like. Um, just giving that initial call and giving some suggestions, I might be like, okay, cool. Like, uh, by the way, I'll send you a link and if you sign up with that link, then you'll get a 10 percent discount.

Then I'm like, I feel like I'm now, you might think that I'm not being genuine about the best solution because I have an affiliate link that you could benefit and I could benefit from. And I'm like, I actually don't even want you to use my affiliate link because you're not going to take my advice as genuine, right?

And this whole dance. Yes. And then it's also like that. And then I genuinely also have anxiety sometimes where I'm like. Are they going to use my link? And then I need to reach out to the software company and be like, by the way, this email just might sign up. I don't know if they do. They sounded like they were interested, but I don't know.

And I'm like wasting all this time to try to get like a 20 affiliate. And it just, it doesn't make any sense. So I'm just like, what is the point of all of this?

Andra: I've seen you do that a lot, actually, like more than the affiliate program working, like mainly chasing it. Okay. I mean, I think this was a fruitful discussion.

I think it was fun. Yeah. I feel like, you know, we covered affiliate links. That was unexpected. Not

Cory: really behind the scenes, but it

Andra: was fun. I mean, it's, it's, I think this is what happens when you have like people who are in a similar space. Yeah, true. You can have like these healthy discussions and... We

Cory: can speak the same language for the most part.

I'm not an angel investor. Yeah. Yet. Oh. Oh, snap. Oh,

Andra: I mean.

Alex: Follow the journey of Cory becoming an angel investor. We don't know how long it will take, but be our friend long enough and it will

Andra: happen. True, true. I mean, you did talk a lot about certain companies that you really like. It's

Cory: true. Copper. com slash efficient.

That's not our link. I know. It's just fun. All right.

Andra: Are we wrapping up? Yep. I think so. Do, do, do. Thank you for being here and for being new. And we are like, yeah, I think this is like the best thing that we've done. We had so much fun. We did not spend money on a wedding. We did not. We talked about how we invested in a company rather than getting engagement rings.

This has felt like the most ceremonious part of our relationship in a way. Oh my gosh. And I didn't realize that going into it. I just felt it last

Alex: night. Yeah, you said I prepared for this more than I prepared for our wedding and. And it just feels, yeah.

Cory: Yeah. You did say that. That's right. Well, I'm honored.

That's so, that's so much fun. I mean, that's one of the first things I said, I was like, guys, this is pause for a second. I feel so honored to be doing this for you. This is so much fun. So thank you for letting me be a part of this and we'll see where it leads. Do you tune in next time?