CO-HOST | Make Money by Doing the Work, Not Chasing the Shortcut

0:00When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications, and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit at ND.com slash podcast. That's ND.com slash podcast, terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. You're listening to the Travis Makes Money podcast. What's going on? Everybody welcome back to the show on this episode. My producer Eric is in studio causing all sorts of problems, which is like the opposite of his job, but he's here anyway. What's up Eric? I'm like your resident Gremlin. You come in here into the room and I'm naked on the floor chewing through wires and just punch it all through the drywall. I want to paint a visual image for the listeners. Unfortunately, it's just a massive hair in the corner nibbling down on the chords.

1:02Microphone. How have you been doing? Okay. Good. Okay. Good. Me too. I did do something really funny recently. I doubt that. I don't know the other day. I was editing a video of myself talking and when I was recording, I had this really crazy headline I read. I figured what the headline was, but I said when I was recording, I said yikes on a bike. Okay. I'd said that, which was funny. I thought that's like a funny way to punctuate the moment, but in the edit, I put a PNG into the transparent image of a bicycle and then I put the words yikes over it. So it was yikes the word and then I had the bike pop in. I thought it was very funny and nobody said anything about it. Nobody commented on it. No kidding. It was very funny. It was very funny. It was crazy that nobody said anything about that. Yeah. So bad for you. Don't. I mean, don't be. Just go try it out and open my knits. Why is guys?

2:02I want you to go over to why is guys? Yeah, I'm doing a little, hey, how about a yikes on a bike? You know? Have it on your t-shirt or something. That would be good merch. That would be so crazy to open my knits and be like, where do I put my merch to? You know what I mean? That would be crazy. It's crazy. I'll be in the back. Yeah, that would be absolutely crazy. Just a CD from that night. Yeah, that would be crazy. Anyway. That was really crazy. Probably not a great way to make money. What? Mike? Open Mike night? Open Mike night merch. That's what they call surgery when the patient is Mike. They say it's open Mike night time. We have his cut him open. Okay. Well, he works out that one. Thanks guys for coming out to the funny bone. Your next comedian is Eric. Eric and I don't know how to say his last name. You can't spell Squarsonsky without, ha ha.

3:02Help me. Help me. I'm dying up here. That's your opening. That would be a great opener. No, no, I'm dying up here. I'm dying up here. Somebody say anything. Just go up in a cold sweat. Somebody help me. Well, this is not going well. Oh, man. That's so funny. I still think, uh, I never meant I had a joke pulled up. Anyway. Anyway. All right. No, I did make one really funny joke one time, but I can't translate it to real life in like a comedy stand up piece. One time I was in, I was in this restaurant in South Carolina. And on the, on their menu, they had like options. They had like gravy and all this other like southern food. And so I ordered the food and she said, do you want to do you want to do you want to say, do you want to say, do you want us to put a wini in it for an extra $2 like a hot

4:04dog? And I said, last time I put a wini in the food, the health code rating for the restaurant dropped. And she didn't laugh. She didn't laugh. No, she didn't laugh. One time, one time was at the store and the clerk. And this was a, this was a, how do you remember all of these instances? No, this is you trying jokes. Well, there's not that many. In a lot of times it's the same joke tried often, you know, but no, one time I was at there and the guy was like, he did laugh, but it was like 7 or 11 or somewhere. And I put the card in and it like beeped and I took it out. And he's like, oh, you have to leave it in a little longer. And I said, that's what she said. And he laughed at that. So that was pretty good. So I got, I have like a lot of topical humor. It's pretty funny. Like are you analyzing this right now? No, I have a lot of topical like you're auditioning for the one. Well, the other joke comedy musical, the other joke, my style of humor really, it's really topical. The other joke I think is really funny is Tammy Weinett was a huge name in country music.

5:04And it's pretty incredible that some of her songs resonate with the audience because, you know, her song, DIVO RCE requires, you know, the ability to spell, which is something most country music fans don't have. And I think that's a pretty good one. That's a, you know what? That's a pretty solid one. You probably wouldn't go over well in Nashville or it would go really well. It would be really good. Same with religious jokes. Yeah, yeah. Like a religious joke in Utah. Well, I was going to say, isn't it really weird that the only way to stop being gay is to ask Jesus to come inside you? Yeah, yeah. That's a good one. That's a good joke. That's a strong one. On the flip side of that, I actually prayed a prayer to become a Christian. You should just change it to ask a man to come inside you. No. No. No. No. Okay. No. I did. This is a good one though. I said, the question is when are you going to actually try to? No, here's a really good one. I've already spoiled all of my jokes. No, here's a good one. Do you think all the people that are going to the open mic? They probably, that would be crazy. That's why he's guys. He don't be really funny. Are listening to this podcast.

6:05Well, you know, be a really funny prank is if I, if I hired like 30 people to fill the audience and then we both agree to go and I pay them all not to laugh at you and to laugh at me. That would like, that would be one of the funniest things you could possibly do. Like to just be like, I go out there and crush and just go out and bomb. I like high five you on the way out. Like, dude, this is awesome. The crowd's hot. You go out there and just just mom. No, I did have one. It's on the flip side of that. But I pray to pray to become a Christian as a kid because there's nothing more evangelical than asking a 33 year old man to come inside. The most valuable workflows are often the hardest to document. When they span people, systems, judgment calls, they can stay undocumented, leaving teams, guessing, creating inconsistency and holding AI back. Well, that's exactly the problem that today's sponsor scribe was built to solve. Scribe is a specialized intelligence platform trusted by 94% of the Fortune 500 that captures

7:08workflows as work happens and automatically generates step-by-step guides with screenshots and instructions. So no one has to sit down and write documentation from scratch. Teams can review, edit, and share the guides for onboarding, training, software rollouts and day-to-day work. Scribe also automatically redacts sensitive info like names, account numbers, emails from screenshots. You know all the stuff you don't want other people saying. And as an admin, you control and enforce that across the whole team. Once a guide is reviewed, anyone can launch real-time on-screen guidance that shows exactly where to click inside the actual tool so critical processes can get done right every time. And because most AI was trained on the internet, not your company's way of working, Scribe helps power your AI agents with real context, giving them a foundation built on how work actually happens, not just guesses. One more at scribe.how slash TNM. And mention Travis makes money for your first month of scribe capture free on Select Plans.

8:08That's SCRIBE.how slash TNM. Most of us picked a bank at 16 and never looked back. Sound familiar? Well, that's where chime comes in. Chime is changing the way that people bank. They are not like traditional old stuffy banks who charge fees and gatekeep perks and rewards. Chime offers the most rewarding fee-free banking all with no overdraft fees, no monthly fees, no minimum balance fees. Plus, you get 5% cash back on chime card in the category of your choice like gas or groceries, all while building credit through regular everyday spending with no credit check. And if you're ever in a pinch, SpotMe lets you overdraft up to $200 fee-free. So join the millions who are already banking fee-free with America's number one choice for banking head to chime.com slash Travis. That's chime.com slash Travis. Sign up now. It only takes a few minutes. Chime is a FinTech, not a bank, banking services and chime card provided by Chimes Bank Partners, qualifying direct deposits required, terms and limits apply.

9:10Go to chime.com slash disclosures for details. Okay. Well, that's good. Well, that just from Bumble. Now that we've turned off half our audience, let's get into some more stuff. Well, I hope nobody was turned on by those comments. Yeah, 33 year old coming inside you. I'm all ears. Well, if you're a 33 year old. That's what they call, that's what they always said about Horton. He's all ears. He's an elephant. Big ears. So I watched, I watched a clip. Help! Somebody help, I'm dying. I'm dying up here. It's funny to die in a room with there's only one other person and you're a good friend. Somebody help me. I'm just my audience is not like in this. Like I'm forcing you to tell more of audience possible. Like this is what we agreed on to talk about for this episode. I paid you to pretend I was bombing, but these are actually really funny. All right, so here's a clip that popped up and it reminded me of you. And every time I see a clip that reminds me of you, I go, I don't, I watch a prime time

10:14and I'm talking like Chris Hansen. I saw a clip. It reminded me of you. You got to have the fry. What's the deal? Oh wait, that's, I did Jerry Seinfeld by way of Chris Hansen. You did. Jerry Seinfeld is someone who should sit down with Chris Hansen. Am I right? I don't know. Shouldn't day high schoolers. All right, here we go. This clip reminded me of you. It's a clip of Ava DuVernay, a filmmaker. And she said something and it made me think I was like, this is Travis. And when I see clips that remind me of you, I immediately blocked it and mute the account. I'm just kidding. I see it because I go, hey, Travis would like to talk about this. So here's that clip and I'm going to play it for you. All right. I like Ava DuVernay. Selma, you were watching Selma? Nope. All right. Well, here we go. Often meet people who ask, can you help me? Often meet people who ask, can you help me? Or how do I do this? Do you want to have coffee? Can I take you to coffee? Can I grab a coffee?

11:15I'd love to take you to coffee. Just pick your brand a little bit. Oh my God. Is this Travis? Yes, of course. Is this Travis right here? No, it's just a universal thing that people don't like being asked to participate in. Yeah. Can I see you in my script? Can you read my script? I have a script that I'd love for you to just check out when you can. Can you read my mentor? I really need a mentor. All that energy. All the people. I need to put that clip just out of context and she's like desperately asking a room full of people. Yeah. Can I go to coffee with you? Can you be my mentor? Can I pick your brain? Yes. Pick my brain. On trying to extract from other people is preventing you from doing. All of that other is desperation. But when I figured that out, things started to change for me. When I'm meeting people, one on one, and they're coming up to me and I'm feeling the desperation. I can't say to them in that moment what I'm about to say to you right now because it would be rude. But we're all here and we're safe.

12:15So I'm going to say it. Knock it off because it doesn't work. It's never going to work for you. That feeling of I need help. I need all these things to proceed. When I got that, a revolution happened for me. And that's when things started to change. Spend the next. Spend the next. I was in that same place. All of the time you're spending trying to get someone to mentor you. Trying to have a coffee, trying to, I don't know, all of the things that we try to do to move ahead in the industry is time that you're not working on your screenplay. Strengthen in your character, arcs. Thinking about your rehearsal techniques. Setting up a table, read to hear the words. Thinking about symbolism in your production design, your color palette. All the time you're focusing on trying to grab. I need this. I decide I don't have this. You're being desperate and you're not doing. You have to be doing something. Desperation, all that stuff is not active. It's not doing anything. It's not moving you forward because all of the so-called action is hinging on someone doing something for you.

13:20Does that make sense? Sure does. No. Someone's an audience. No, I don't understand. Can you explain over coffee? The audience was really upset about that. I was like, I want to see that the comments scattered at the plus. Wait, I'm going to read the comments. Things started to go my way when I knocked it off. So... I didn't stop being desperate because things started to go my way. I changed my mind and things started to go my way. Ooh, that's good. So people love this advice. Yeah, not just kidding. No, they don't. There's a good mix, okay, of comments. And I think some people are being intentionally obtuse. That's my favorite thing to call people. Obtuse? You're being intentionally obtuse. I do like using that word. Because you often are. Me specifically? Yes. No, I love telling people like you're being intentionally obtuse right now. Like you're either... I watched a video the other day and I told Tara, my spouse, partner, life partner for many years. I told her I said, either this person is the stupidest person alive or they're intentionally

14:23being obtuse. And I took a puff from my cigar. I'm like, I'm spools. I felt so cool when I said it. Anyway, add that to your repertoire. Okay. So I said, I get this, but also not at the same time. Very profound. He said, Ava has said numerous times that Michael Mann is like a mentor. That's a sick ass mentor. But wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, to her and help her with her career. So is that statement no longer true? Because that goes against everything she said here, LL. I'm intentionally obtuse. Yeah. You can have a mentor. I think I don't think that one is intentionally obtuse though. Because I think people do confuse that. They hear what she's saying, but they don't understand what she's saying, which is that those things are still important to have mentorship to gain perspective from other people who you look up to. Those things are important. But coming across with this, this stink of destiny, when you're trying to convince somebody to do that for you is not the way to secure those things. Like the action of actually writing it and doing something about it is a much faster

15:27way to getting people to look at your work. You'll draw a mentor with your work. Like someone commented, filmmakers, network, network, network, also filmmakers this. So and I'm like, come on. It's not that complicated. It's a both ends of the thing. It's just that you're doing it the wrong way. So like asking for a virtual cup of coffee, asking somebody to pick their brain and giving that like, oh, you know, take a look at my script or oftentimes it's not oftentimes though, those types of people didn't write the script. That's the problem. Like look at my polished, finished product that I have already done. It's like, it's the business person who, like I have a friend who's an investor, angel investor, and is invested in like 75 different companies. And this thing is always like, people come to me with business ideas and they want me to invest in. And then he's like, send me a business plan and I'll take a look. And he's like, do you know how many people have ever sent me a business plan who came up to me and asked me like, cool pitch like that? And I was like, I don't know a few. He was like zero. Zero of a pitch. That night.

16:28Yeah. So I was like, I have this idea. But that's my point is like, they want you to do the work for them. Yeah. They're not interested in actually doing the work. And they're telling themselves it's because they don't know how to do the thing. But in reality, every person that is at the position that they want to be at also didn't know how to do the thing when they started doing the thing. And then when you start doing the thing, then you started attracting other people into your life who are also doing the thing and then you get to learn from those people. And it helps. Like, it's not a one should you network or should you work on your script? It's you should be doing both of those things. And doing one of those things will help you do the other one easier. Yeah. Like learning more about doing the thing will help you in building relationships in that world. Building relationships in that world will help you in learning how to do the thing better. Right. You know what I mean? Like, but just sitting there and doing nothing. And then and then happening to run into somebody who you look up to in line at Starbucks at the convention that you're at and then asking them to take some of their time, which is

17:32like their most coveted asset that people pay probably a lot of money for. And then just being like, oh, yeah, you've never met me. I've never met you. We're total strangers. But can you do this massive favor for me? Like that's just it's a turn off to anybody who's in that type of a space. Yeah. Like she's not saying to not do these to not do those things. She's just saying that like going about it like this will never get you what you want. Yeah. Which is absolutely true. You say something that I love and you only get one of those today. I give you one compliment per six episodes of batching. I always liked what you said where when you come to pitching, I came and look at you. I say this. I don't like complimenting you. The most valuable workflows are often the hardest to document when they span people, but the most important is to have a system. Judgment calls they can stay undocumented, leaving teams, guessing, creating inconsistency and holding AI back. Well, that's exactly the problem that today's sponsor scribe was built to solve. Scribe is a specialized intelligence platform trusted by 94% of the Fortune 500 that captures

18:37workflows as work happens and automatically generates step by step guides with screenshots and instructions. So no one has to sit down and write documentation from scratch. This can review, edit and share the guides for onboarding, training, software rollouts and day to day work. Scribe also automatically redacts sensitive info like names, account numbers, emails from screenshots, you know, all the stuff you don't want other people saying. And as an admin, you control and enforce that across the whole team. Once a guide is reviewed, anyone can launch real time on screen guidance that shows exactly where to click inside the actual tools. So critical processes can get done right every time. Because most AI was trained on the internet, not your company's way of working. Scribe helps power your AI agents with real context, giving them a foundation built on how work actually happens, not just guesses. Learn more at scribe.how slash TNM and mention Travis makes money for your first month of scribe capture free on select plans.

19:37That's SCRIBE.how slash TNM. Most of us pick the bank at 16 and never looked back. Sound familiar? Well, that's where chime comes in. Chime is changing the way that people bank. They're not like traditional old stuffy banks who charge fees and gatekeep perks and rewards. Chime offers the most rewarding fee free banking all with no overdraft fees, no monthly fees, no minimum balance fees. Plus, you get 5% cash back on chime card in the category of your choice like gas or groceries, all while building credit through regular everyday spending with no credit check. And if you're ever in a pinch, spot me, let's you overdraft up to $200 fee free. So join the millions who are already banking fee free with America's number one choice for banking head to chime.com slash Travis. That's chime.com slash Travis. Sign up now. It only takes a few minutes. Chime is a fintech, not a bank, banking services and chime card provided by Chime's bank partners, qualifying direct deposits required, terms and limits apply.

20:39Go to chime.com slash disclosures for details. Because it disgusts me. What does that say about you? No, one thing you've said that stuck with me forever. See, it's because you get you start doing what my dog does when I give her a treat. All right, I'll look over here. I'll look at the camera. This is such toxic masculinity right now. Exactly. Here, let's look at the opposite directions. So it says something nice about me. No, something you said that I really like is when you talked about pitching gas and you always said it's not always had the idea like you're going to keep moving forward either way. And so and not saying like, oh, screw you, get on the bus, sir, you're going to be under the bus. But this thing of like, okay, I reach out to you and my shows at this level, I'm doing this thing. I'd love to have you on and they say no or not right now. And then you keep doing all the stuff you're doing. And the next time you come by, you say, hey, my shows grow into this point. I've had this many guests. I've done this. I just landed this project. I started this company and they say, no, you come back.

21:41Hey, by the way, I just came out with my book or I did this thing and they're going, wow, like even though I didn't do something with them then, like now they've kept going. And this is serious to them. And who knows where they're going to go next. I want to be a part of it. Exactly. And psychological desire to be a part of something bigger than yourself. When you see people that are actually doing the work, it prompts them to want to do something with you because they're like, oh, I want to have a piece in that. I think about that all the time. That air of desperation that comes before that where most, because that's where most people stop is the problem is that they go, like regardless of the situation, whether it's, whether it's starting a podcast or starting a business or whatever to a side also, it's like they have these five things in mind that they're going to do is like, oh, you know, starting this, I'm going to be an affiliate for this supplement brand. Right. I know five people who work out a lot. Well, I'm going to go talk to those five people and those five people say no. And they're like, I'm not going to supplement brand. It doesn't work. You know what I mean? And then the same thing with pitching guests for podcasts, like, well, we'll go talk to

22:42these five people and then they reach out to them and then they go, no, not right now. Or like, I'm not, you know, got a lot of stuff going on. And then they just go throw their hands up in the air and it's like, well, it doesn't work. It's not ever going to work. Whereas the person is just like, okay, great. Well, I'm going to keep working in the meantime. Like you've given the idea that like trains leave in the station with or without you. So if you want to be a part of this, then jump on the train. But if you don't, that's totally fine because I'll go find some other people who are willing to jump on the train. Yeah. And like that's going to bring more people. It's going to attract the same type of productive energy that those people are putting out into the world. You know what I'm saying? And a aspiring filmmaker and it's like, you talked to someone and go like, yeah, I'm an aspiring film maker. I'm doing this. And the next time they see you, you've got a short film. And the next time you see your infestible and the next time you're working on commercials and the next time you're working on your script for your first, like, it's the progress that they're seeing. And again, like I said, the podcast world, I think about all the time, like I love pitching guests a year later. Because even for me, it's a confidence boost. But yeah, I've done like these 30 things.

23:42Don't you need this guest now? Right. Exactly. Whatever the thing is. Yeah. There's been situations like that where I've changed my mind. And people like come back to me and like, like they see the DM. Final, so I'm the 31 men. Yeah. Big mistake. Huge. Take a mistake. That's Trump. I don't. I always go to. It is a movie about a wealthy man and an escort. So, okay. Anyway, someone said this is how people talk when they forget what it felt like before the man shut up. Anyway, Eva commented to respond to the clip and to some people. And she said, I was deeply wrong to say that. No, I'm just kidding. She said this. This is her and her own comments. She's in the comments if we ever post the video. So thanks for reminding me about this speech. No, I see. She said it's the one that fellow artist mentioned to me the most. It's not easy to understand if you're not in the head, heart, space to understand it. If you think you need advice, access, approval, acknowledgement, affirmation, oh, I love a iteration. From other people in order to proceed, I can do that like a preacher. Yeah. If you need advice, I approve, vote, acknowledgement.

24:44That's too many syllables for a preacher. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, affirmation from other people in order to proceed than this speech is not for you. I don't mind the people in the comments who don't embrace the concept that you're experiencing to artists is yours and yours alone. Coffee's and mentors and chasing wasn't my way. That a different experience once it clicked for me that all that stuff is outside of me. It's outside of you. What's yours is what you have to say and share. The experience of being you and doing your work. That's yours. And that's what your energy might best be spent on instead of the chasing. Once that's your full focus, mentors will be drawn like a magnet. Desperation repels, passion draws people in. And everyone knows the difference. If this message resonates with you, then take it and run with it. And to your computer, your canvas, your community, your own creativity, make your passion the priority. Passion is felt, not requested. Once that idea is in your bones, then you're off. That was my experience anyway. Good luck to all. It's not easy, but it's beautiful. Wow. My hands are burning because she's on fire. That comment was burning. She's so hot right now. It's on like Donkey Kong over here.

25:46Transl. No, it's so good. So anyway, I thought that was great. It reminded me of you, something you talk about all the time. And as someone who's been in many ways, I've been toward me over the years. I just appreciate it. Well, anyway, how about the game, huh? My girls boobs. You know, beer, battle, struggle. I don't know. I'm trying to illiterate. I don't know. No, that was really good. Especially the part because in that response, she addresses the whole like, if you're not saying, I'm terribly, I'm not mentally. This is the real, yeah. Like, if you want those things, you have to attract them into your life. You can't go out and push and push and push and try to get somebody to, again, have a virtual cup of coffee or let them pick your brain. No. So it sounds like the worst activity on the planet. So what do you have? A vulture. When you say stuff like that, you're reminds me, I'm sorry, when you say that, I got a really bad joke. When you say that about pick your brain and you said one time, you're like, it's what do you have a vulture?

26:46You said that one time. Oh, really? I remember it. You did stick with your stimulant. No, and then, but it's the kind of, it's the same lane of joke as when you wear like writ pans around an old guy and he's like, who's you get those on discount? He's like, oh, that's the literally the level of craft that you're working with. Yeah, just to bring it back to her. But it's also more applicable. But also that's funny. Being a vulture. Like, you know, I almost couldn't get these because they were in short supply because they're short shorts. No one could see it. All right. All right. For those that are tuning in, just remember, it is good to have mentorship and it's good to learn from others and it's good to seek outside counsel, but not at the expense of the work that you do and never with an attitude or a stink of desperation. So thank you, Eva, for the amazing words. If you're tuning in right now, remember money only solves your money problems, but it's easier to solve the rest of the problems of money in the bank. So let's start there. Here on the Travis Makes Monday podcast, thanks for tuning in. Okay. Guys, next time. Peace.

27:47I picked a bank at 16 and never looked back. Sound familiar? Well, that's where chime comes in. Chime is changing the way that people bank. They're not like traditional old stuffy banks who charge fees and gatekeep perks and rewards. Chime offers the most rewarding fee-free banking all with no overdraft fees, no monthly fees, no minimum balance fees. Plus, you get 5% cash back on Chime Card and the category of your choice like gas or groceries all while building credit through regular everyday spending with no credit check. And if you're ever in a pinch, spot me, let's you overdraft up to $200 fee-free. So join the millions who are already banking fee-free with America's number one choice for banking head to chime.com slash Travis. That's chime.com slash Travis. Sign up now. It only takes a few minutes. Chime is a fintech, not a bank, banking services and chime card provided by Chime's bank partners, qualifying direct deposits required, terms and limits apply. Go to chime.com slash disclosures for details.