0:00 [Music] and welcome back to the illusion that is the careful boys where today we're sitting here with Max Tuning. Y'all, we're going to do something different with our guest here today instead of asking you questions so you can talk about all the business that you've been doing. Just out of your curiosity of what we've got going on here, ask us questions about how this operates. He asked one of my favorite questions that most like people that know what they're doing ask. And he goes, "So, what are you guys doing here for the rest of the time?" Yeah. As a business mogul you are, congratulations with everything you've done. Ask us some business questions. I just want to see how we answer or give us some advice. No, no, not yet. Not yet. You have to learn about us before you can give us honestly. How how does that I know I I mean I wonder I was no one was sweating at the time when I was talking about uh like partnerships failing but like how
0:51 does how does this dynamic work? Well, it's really easy. We have no stake in it. Yeah. They're not employees. They're not employees. We have zero employees. We're just employees. No, there's zero employees. We're all independent contractors. Yes. They're they're here on their own will on their own time. So, and y'all y'all switch up like uh a lot of them have different like uh I guess familiar faces, right? Yeah. But they're not always y'all have like different circle of friends. They all just like rotate. Yeah, there's like a rotating eight like people and then sometimes the guest changes. I think there's like the six team and then we have some, you know, players on the bench. Who's Who's the most fan favorite? Who's the most popular? This dude right here. Probably Bart. No, you. Nah, dude. I swear Nick. Nick is the funniest
1:42 and the comments the comments under this video will prove that. Who who who's the person that says the most out of pocket things that the comments will like that guy. Okay. Well, are they for it or are they like, "Bro, that was the dumbest thing you've ever said." Both. They're for it. They're for it nowadays cuz I I I run a pod and one of my buddies is like will say like super left field out of like political stuff and people will either like all praise him or be like, "You're the dumbest thing I've ever seen." Like what kind of comment was that? I think we rotate cuz we have Subin too. That's like really awesome. But yours is like a bit like people know that you're going to say something like that. So it's I don't think people have ever called you dumb. They just go, "Oh, that's Bart being B." But your analogies are really good cuz you explain it well. Nah, I think the the difference is like when you can see somebody who also like you know uh started a business, started a family, is doing successful, is buying
2:32 houses, but you know there's a track record of an actual like legitimate and logical person. Then your jokes are just jokes. But then you got a guy like Sub in here and uh they just think we have like a a resident ████ Yeah. He's an illegal immigrant that's MAGA. Yeah. So we love him. That's a lot. It's a lot to take in. What do you have y'all talked about? What do you all think about the tariffs? We haven't even gone there yet. No, but our fans hate it when we get political, but we still do it anyway because it drives the most amount of comments because they either are pissed you're talking about it, pissed at what you're saying cuz they disagree with you. Um, we can't even rage bait. Those videos do the worst, but we just do it cuz it's fun. Yeah. What's been like the most uh what's been like a topic y'all talked about that
3:22 afterwards like it enraged like the comment section that you're like, "Oh, maybe we shouldn't we shouldn't have done that." Anything that has to do with Trump or Elon or Trump. The thing is, well, before Elon joined, you know, Maga Crew, everyone was cool with it. So, we just kept talking about it the same way. We just didn't pivot when the world did. And no one no one's burning his cars before. Yeah. They're just burning his cars now. Having having Telsey Gabbert here was really good. And then months later when we posted it on Instagram that she was here, then people got mad. Yeah. You know why? It's cuz a lot of people didn't even know who she was. They didn't know who she was at the time after she joined uh Trump's camp. But we, you know, we always followed her and I liked her just from the when I first saw her in the first primary that she was, you know, the one that what was it 2016? Yeah. Wait, I have a question. 2020.
4:13 Why is it a big brain strategy of doing a five videos at like 20 minutes a piece versus just one video at like an hour or No, no. Shows us what the data shows us. What you're witnessing is like same method, dude. We're organic in the way that we create our processes and then we just never change or evolve them. So, we came. Yeah. This is like 12year-old method. I can. Those lenses are Bro, what year were you using these lenses when you used You said you started in like 2013, right? That's like 2016 lens. The Canon literally the 80D. I haven't seen anyone use the 80D. And y'all aren't even using the video road mic pro pluses. Those are What's the road road mic pro pluses? Uh imagine imagine if people could watch your videos and have like better audio.
5:03 That's what that was. Wow. And actually So would you say that? Would you do you think that's good? I'm not I'm I'm surprised, but I I thought y'all were going to have like mics that were like out of camera that were like sitting right too too much. Too much off camera. You can just dangle those mics audio coming from those. I just want to know I just want you to imagine that this is this is 2012 and we are cutting edge for 2012. You're not wrong. What if we start holding mics? Do you think we'd look more professional if we just held mics? They're not even plugged in. Why don't Why don't y'all just have like little shore mics? Just the mic right here, right? Or like Yeah, like a stand. Are you against having higher quality audio? Data data shows that it wouldn't improve. I'd love the answers to all these. Yeah, I'm I'm just a witness right now. The funny I mean cuz it we never really had to change it for a long time until now.
5:53 If it ain't broke, don't change it. It It's a broke. I'm telling you, it's been broke for 6 years. I think like the average consumer when they clicked to our videos, they go, "Why does this look so old?" Somebody said that on one of the videos recently. What's the biggest shift y'all seen in like uh being on How long have y'all done this show? Probably 12 years now. Oh ████ 18 years on YouTube. So, I mean, we've all y'all been on longer than I have, but like So, I've I've been on YouTube since like 20 late 2012, early 2013. Um, what have you seen shift the most in like uh viewer, whether it be like engagement or like how like short form is like impacted? Like what's y'all's opinion on like the viewership? because I mean you've been through the the the ups and the downs on YouTube and everyone's kind of experienced it especially after like short form came out like what's y'all's view on that? Yeah, same. I think a lot of people shifted to short form especially the fan
6:44 base um you know we probably have same era fan base but all of our peers were seeing the same drop in our long form or regular view uh videos because I think the they're getting into the stage of maybe 30s now. So, they're getting, you know, further into their careers. They have kids and then so, um, it's kind of selfish of them, don't you think? Super selfish. Why aren't you watching YouTube? Why are you worried about your family and your career? But I do think a 15minute video on your wife while she's talking. Yeah. I I would say like a 15-minute video for them, like they can binge watch during college, after school, whatever. But now they have to strategically choose what they want to watch. and you're competing against podcasts that are 3 hours long or whatever that can dedic, you know, that can take most of their time. But I think our era YouTube, they would
7:34 probably watch your video and then go to Christian's video and then they can watch another fitness guy's video and then they can hop over and see barbell videos and then that would take up maybe 3 4 hours cuz they're going between 10 20 minute videos. And this is why the format is 20 minutes for us is because we started during a time when um we would newsjack uh uh content and we could do 10-minute videos. That was long long form back then on YouTube, 10 minutes cuz it used to be two three minutes. Remember that? And then so uh we just kept it that way cuz that's just what our fans were used to. And we never pivoted to podcast when everyone was going toward that way cuz you kind of like had a podcast format pre-podcast. So we just kind of kept it. Mhm. Do you still what do you enjoy doing the most? Do you still do a lot of like the skits stuff? No, we have we haven't done skits long cuz those those are so like we stopped doing skits in like 2016
8:26 maybe or 17. Yeah. Um I do and then the minute I think about like what it takes to put it together, I get burnt out. Yeah. But does it have to take what you what like you put you used to like the production everything that put it together like does it actually need that or is that just like what you're used to and you're like no it has to do this but in reality you can you could just like have a part in a camera I think it's part of like the I guess the creativity part of it. It's almost like like let's say you got to be in Dr. Dre studio and it's fun versus like hey I got this Fisher Price like beat making machine and you're likeing ding ding ding dong. Yeah. But I I look at it like action. Do you ever not like maybe resentment
9:17 but do you ever like look at a lot of uh the super short form like Tik Toks like little tiny skits and stuff that get like crazy views and you're like my my stuff's like way way funny funnier than this but like but you're not doing any of that content anymore. But you're like man I can make stuff so much better than this but you don't. No. I get to me an old guy yelling at the cloud. I see that as a different thing now. What? I see that as a different thing now. So before I would compare the two, but but now I go, "Oh, that's just a different thing." And they're crushing it. And um if I want to, that's the other game that I would have to play. But not but I'm not going to do it. But I'm not going to do it cuz I still really do just enjoy like the more Kian Peel or Chappelle show type stuff cuz like that's the I guess like the Dr. Dre studio and that's where I get most of my fulfillment from. Okay. I got bored from doing it too much. bored from I just be like we were just too funny all the time making this top tier content. It wasn't
10:07 appreciated as much as it should have been. Bart real specific to you is uh now that you've shut down like the clothing and the supplements and it's been how long since that happened? Since last year over a year July almost almost a year. Okay. How how do you feel about your decision? Are you like are you like at peace with it or do you ever like high level regret? cuz I when I started Sour Strips, I was running Ever for the clothing and I got into like bags and stuff and then I tried managing everything and realized I couldn't and then I shut Everford down um beginning of last year in January. Um and for a period of time I was like oh man like why did I do that? Like do you have any or you were like good written? So I don't I I ████ love my decision cuz we we cuz I um I never seem that serious about anything. No, no, no, no. To to c so to
10:58 like to catch you up to speed, I was in a pitching process for like 4 years to sell. Yeah. And we sell to sell bar. Sell bar. Yeah. Like the whole brand, the gym, the supplements, the the apparel. And then we got like pretty close. We had like three LOIs and then we had like This happens. Yeah. See, two purchase right to the end. Yeah. Two purchase agreements drawn up and then one pretty much fell through way at the end. Then I was like, are we going to pursue this indefinite? I I talked to uh I don't have a Miss Texas. cuz I'm a Miss East LA. Miss East LA King Taco. Yeah. Like Miss King Taco, Miss Carnosada. Um what what do we want to do? Do you want to keep pushing this indefinitely? Cuz as you know, like running the business and selling the business, it's like it's like having two jobs now. Do you know on a surface level like can you like briefly just like why did the deal fall through? Is it like on their end? Are they like
11:49 one of them? I think so. They didn't have their cash and they were pretty legit, right? like they were Yeah, but I I think they didn't have their cash. So, I think they were waiting for a specific I think they were arbiting somehow and then so the funds didn't fall through at a certain point and I think it was um they were trying to request another like two week extension and for me it was already been too many extension. I was just tired of pursuing this thing indefinitely. This is already like the third LOI. So, um, I talked to Miss Carnosada if we want to keep doing this indefinitely, and we're like, you know what? Like, let's this will be a non-stop thing and we're just going to keep putting our own life choices and our own like life milestones to the side. So, we decided to shut it down and it's been the most peaceful. We've been able to focus on family. Like, this is like our
12:39 Did you replace that time? Like, did you replace the time you were putting into like uh clothing and supplements? Did you replace that with family? Yeah. just like being way more present with the family. And then this is how I know I didn't regret the decision. I think maybe like a few months ago, uh I I got like a DM and then they're like, "Hey, I'm part of this fitness venture or health and wellness vent venture capitalist group, blah blah blah blah. Um would you be um interested to revive the brand if we were to also come acquire and all that all that stuff?" And I was like, "Oh s███." Damn. And I was like, "Nah." Wow. Yeah. So, I was like, I really like where we're at now. Yeah. I want to move. What would What would have been the price and you'd have been like, okay, I'll do it. Oh, 76 million.
13:29 77 number. That's a strong number, dude. That and up is a real man number. Yeah. I was just I we just really like what we have right now. And um I think there might be another time where I have like a second wave or second wind of like really pursuing entrepreneurship. But like the amount of like you know like the d-stress, the low bandwidth, the not having ████ random heart attacks with people speaking to you and ████ Pakistanis or whatever the ████ they speak. It's It's pretty cool. I uh I've done a lot of Pakistani problems. Yeah, I'm sure you still get a lot of like messages from people of like, man, I wish you still like had the brand going like I I love this item from you like a lot. A lot. You know, my favorite uh my favorite apparel piece that that y'all made was
14:20 the I used to wear it all the time. The um it was a long sleeve black like oversized and had like the like the drop shoulder and like the stripes that were on the the side and like barbell. It went from like like the back shoulder all the shoulder across. Those are sick shirt. Oh, thank you, man. Bring it back, dude. No. 76 million. Man, you know what sucks? The the thing that I did regret, and this has nothing to do with business or finances, was uh during the whole time we were doing barbell, we would go, "Oh, like whatever drop we had," and we had like almost monthly drops like, "Oh, we should make a small thing for Ta. Oh, that's a great idea. What's my son's name? We should make a small thing." And through his like six years of life until we closed, we're like, "Oh, ████ We never made a single thing for you. Just make a small version oneoff sample.
15:10 No, because you know, like you're you're just so in the weeds. That's the thing about like business. You're like so in the weeds of things and you're just trying to like get it all right and then you do have some fun ideas you can never execute cuz you're so in the weeds and and the next drop's over and then it's the next drop and I tell you like if someone's into clothing, I think clothing is like the it's not the it's one of the easier like barrier of entry. like almost anyone can start a clothing company and that's why you see so many but like company too ever before. Yeah, it ran for like 5 years. Um and so it uh I think clothing is one of the biggest ████ to like scale. Like it's great in the beginning all the deals, but like to scale a clothing company is just it's so much like just capital and inventory and like you have you have no idea what's going to sell and it's like and reinventing the wheel every season. Oh, it's like the hardest thing to do.
16:00 And especially when you have especially creating clothes for guys because you're like, "All right, let me move the logo over here. Let me move it over here now and I'll put it on the back now. Make it this fun." Like you're just like kind of moving it around doing different things cuz you're like guys only want a like a black t-shirt and like wear the same clothes like you know 8 months out of the year. Um I have a box of anorex right now at my house of what? Anorax you like the kind of like a pullover like uh waterproof like windbreaker material. Oh. um barbell ones or barbell ones because there was a typo and you know like when you look at letters and designs for so long letters are no longer letters they're just designs. So for some reason we spelled department with a e at the end like departmente and it went through so many what the ████ We went through so many
16:52 yeah so many quality control checkpoints that no one caught it cuz everyone has a design eye. So it's like oh yeah symmetrical that's like that's the pan tone we needed like no one's looking at it for just regular English right cuz everyone you're so used to wearing all these other hats cuz it was all Mexican when I uh draw you could have spun that into a joke and then people would have bought it to collect the limited edition misprint. I don't think it can because it didn't. The campaign we shot was really cool. You know what I mean? Like it has if that's one product part of like the big campaign and all the athletes that we shot we shot with these like special ops guys and they said, you know what I mean? It's like one product that like doesn't we're too all in. Yeah. It doesn't fit. So we went too cool on it. Never talked about it, but there was a t-shirt Shelley came out for the knock and I like messaged him. I was like,
17:42 "Bro, the word spelled wrong on the front of that shirt." And he's like, "Ah, whatever." you know, with Sour Strips, um, I had to change, um, I had a graphic designer I don't work with anymore, uh, but like years ago, I was like, "Hey, I need something changed on the back of the bag." It was like whether been like the barcode, the ingredients, but I was like, "Hey, on the back of this bag, they already exist. I need you to change like X, Y, and Z in these things." Like, "Okay." So, he sends back to me and I'm like, "Okay, yeah, great. Going to production like all these things." And after we um, you know, we this was with two flavors, blue raspberry and watermelon. And we made at the time we made like 500,000 bags of this. So good amount. And like I get a message from um someone that like had it and they're like, "Hey, on the front uh the like artificially flavored candy, it like it says officially." And I'm like, "What the f███?" So we like he like misspelled it.
18:33 So I'm messaging him. I'm like, "Bro, like you misspelled artificially." And he's like he's like, "Damn, that's I wish we should have caught that." I was like, "Bro, I told you to change the back of the bag. Why would I recheck the front of the bag like of of anything that didn't happen?" And he's like, "I don't know. That's crazy." I'm like, "Craphic designers do that s███." Is he Korean? No. Got a beef with Korean graphic designers. I don't know. Cuz we've dropped a lot of like workout programs and then so like almost every workout program we drop will probably go through like 12 drafts. Yeah. So you create a program. Cool. Everything. Oh, this one this word is uh misspelled. Can you change this? Whatever. They change it. Then I read it. I'm like, what happened to that word on page three? I changed that one. You don't even have to touch that. What the ████ And then so you're changing the correct page three, then page 24 is ████ And he changed 24. I'm like, what the ████ is up with graphic design? And now with bags, I have to like I'm like I'm like I'm like zooming in like
19:23 300. I'm like, "All right, let's go by letter by letter and I'm like reading everything cuz And you do the QC. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Cuz at the end of the day, no one cares more than you. And like there'll be times where five other people have proof read it and my English is the worst and I still catch the mistake. I'm like, "Oh my god." God, I'm like, if I caught it, there's at least three more errors in this thing. Got to stop hiring from East LA, dude. I know. You just want like the project to like that project to get done and you're at like chapter 18 of it. You're just like just all right, approved. Maybe the entire time you just thought that's how you spell the word. Maybe people just thought it was Barbell Burg.
// end of tape