Posting Daily Didn’t Work for 14 Months—Then This Did (T.D. Orel)

I'm at a funeral grieving the loss of the matriarch of the family and Nick approaches me and says gosh I just I love I love a good death Funerals are my favorite place to network. Would you like to be on my podcast? He has a fantasy author whose social accounts blew up when he stopped Posting every day and did something different What if one could crouch up and down in rapid succession over the corpse of an enemy? My god, what if we gave the Pokemans the right to bear arms? Yes, the person who sent you those things that you're freaking sick. Yes in this episode we get into the advantages of Hyper niche posting and how speaking to a tiny tiny audience is actually the best way to reach a much larger one people you always say like well if you post every day You're eventually gonna go by her.

I did it every day for 14 months Didn't work at all copying everybody else isn't gonna work and so I finally made the shift We're talking about what it's like to break through as a writer right now traditional publishing versus self-publishing get into his new book the sequel to the beloved Titan's nest Michael TD so good to see you Nick what what an honor is to be here Such an honor. Yes, you Your social followings have exploded since the last time I saw you which was just a few months ago Correct and I think we should touch on how we met And I'm a happily-painted picture. Let's start there. Yes.

I'm at a funeral Grieving the loss of the matriarch of the family and Nick approaches me and says gosh I just I love it. I love a good death funerals are my favorite place to network Would you like to be on my podcast? Yes, yes for the listeners who are familiar with Jim O'Brien. Yes he was the first episode I did that was not about college admissions and people really liked it was it just a huge inspiration for where the show went from there and and Jim said Nick you got to meet my cousin-in-law. Yes, TD and Yeah, just so happen to be at a funeral that was not an ex-opemite You're extremely respectful.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean I said hi first. Yeah, I think I think you opened the pie Yeah, so how have you done this because? You've got let's let's start with the niche that you're in sure Describe this niche Because it's nichic. It's yeah, it's extremely niche. I think is it niche or niche. It is niche. I just niche feels You know where I got it from tell me there's this youtuber and he talks about how the riches are in the niches And then he talks about a lot about how he's like I know those words don't actually rhyme because it should be niche And yet he says it so often and is really correct with his general advice on Podcasting Pat Flynn is his name and it was real exciting moment for me when he came on the show about six months ago Because I was like this is the guy learned Half this stuff on how to guide the channel.

Yeah, I think we need to touch on that as well You have such an impressive catalog And I was scrolling through after we first met and we were joking and I was joking about coming on because I've never felt more under qualified for podcasts in my life. You've a very impressive A group of people that you've had on here. So I'm not sure how I wiggled my way in here, but back to my niche Sure, well, we're not we're not above an epitism on the next show and you you're hey You're in the O'Brien family. Yes, we're gonna take care of all of you and for the for the listeners listener this guy's really funny he's worth the time and That's why he's on here even if you have not heard of him before because you're not in that fantasy novel world He's worth your time.

So let's dig into what that niche is far too kind. Yes, so I I'm gonna start at the beginning if that's okay. Yeah, so my Objective in life is to be a full-time fantasy author that he's the desire of my heart and so I started writing Back when I was college well, I've been writing since a little kid but seriously in college and trying to produce novels and Finish some projects that I was excited about and I had no idea how to get him out in the world And so of course here social media. I'm always a fan of the free option and social media of course is free. So I Started taking steps to set up a platform and Maybe a year or two ago someone or it back in the day people used to always say like well if you post every day You're eventually gonna go by right if you post every day By like the eight month mark you'll probably have 10,000 followers.

That's just how or since that easy Yeah, and so I was like okay excellent. This is a great way to bring some attention to my work I just have to post every day. I don't have a ton of gifts, but I'm incredibly persistent I think that's my greatest gift and so I'm like this is actually fairly easy for me and So I accepted that challenge and I said okay, I'm gonna post every day for a year minimum and I did it every day for 14 months and I didn't miss a single day on Instagram and I like quarter the way through I started TikTok as well I mean didn't work at all. Yeah, even at the end of that year mark Posting every day.

I would average It's like so rough you like 12 likes on a video and one comment for my mom. It's like you're doing great sweetie And that's like far more embarrassing You know so it didn't work at all and I was just incredibly frustrated and Wanted to quit and so I just started scrolling through what's known as books to Graham and before we get to the turning point where you start to Where the story turns and the hero finds his way The villain had you had you written Titans nest at this point Yes at this point. I had written So times has to technically my third novel the first year terrible times I was excited about and so this is this is the book that I was trying to get out into the atmosphere and It's just a self-published project and we can talk about that as well the difference Whenever you think we're ready.

Yeah, we'll get into that. Sure, but we'll start with the with the social So you've written this book. Yes, you can't I I'm sure get any publishers to call you back because that's the state of affairs as a correct young writer in this world today Who doesn't already have a hit book? They're like well if you don't already have a hit book Why we want to take your call right and you said okay? So the path is to build a platform on social media posting every day. It's not working. It's been nearly a year 14 months at this point. Yeah, okay over a year. Yeah, and yeah, so my my goal because I In the indie experience being in the independently published I Haven't enjoyed it I don't think I'm built for the indie life I'd really like to go to the traditional publisher so the whole heart behind building a following was to hopefully present to a Traditional publisher and be like hey, here's here's the following that I've built This is the community that I have the high engagement that I have I love a book deal.

Yeah so that was the goal and Yeah, that was that was the heart behind it and it was going terribly and I had incredibly low engagement I think at the end of the year Of posting every day I had maybe like 2000 followers Maybe less. Yeah, so I'm somewhere two or three somewhere in there and Then you would pivot into when things go up. Yeah So I started looking at what I was doing and of course Posting every day there's gonna be very few quality posts in there. You know, you're not gonna have an Excellent idea every day, right? And so the little corner of Instagram that we know as books to Graham Where I hang out where we it's you know writers and readers and reviewers all making book content And I was scrolling through it and I realized you know all of my posts were pretty much identical to what everything else that I was seeing and So much of books to Graham and it's really surprising to me is it's all copy and paste content What you think writers and readers and creatives would be a little more experimental and At that point I was like, okay, well clearly like copying everybody else isn't gonna work And I wasn't having fun either because I was just like looking to see what was popular copying and captioned using the popular audio It was flopping and so I finally made the shift of like, okay, you know the age of B yourself sweetie I was like, okay, I'm gonna talk about what I want to talk about I'm gonna talk about what I'm passionate about and I'm not gonna invest in a fancy camera or take classes We're like, you know, hire a coach.

I'm just going to Do what I think I know is best for me and that's just talking about what I'm passionate about so I sat at a table much like this and I you know put my iPhone 12 The other end of the table and one of the first bits I did was like and it was inspired from an actual conversation that happened where I was telling my wife in very dramatic fashion about a really exciting scene that I love from a fantasy book and You know, maybe 30 minutes had gone by and I realized she was still like she's a very gracious woman still At least pretending to be engaged with me and I realized from her perspective Like it had to be just absolute gibberish, which I thought was really funny And so I set up the camera and I basically did what I had done to my wife prior and said the same thing and uploaded that just me talking pretending to explain, you know a story to someone and That was my first video that got like 200,000 views and I was like I've made it.

Yeah, yeah and To the fear with posting that original video Was as we talked about like this is hyper niche. This is really hyper niche content where and this is specifically from a book known as the Stormlight Archive if there's any radiance out there That's it's a 1200 page book. It's an enormous book and I'm talking about a single scene in this like massive Enormous book and so if you haven't read this huge book and you have it and you don't know this exact scene You'd have no idea what I'm talking about and so initially I was scared to post it because I was like I Mean like maybe a handful of people even have any comprehension of what I'm talking about but this is where a huge shift happened for me because Of course, yes was getting some likes and comments But I noticed there was a ton of shares Yeah, and that was what really shifted for me was people sharing my content because I've realized that we all like have this deep desire To feel like we're a part of like some sort of exclusive club And people recognizing that they knew what I was talking about and they're like, oh, I understand get these references For whatever reason we love being a part of an exclusive club And then we love bragging about being a part of that exclusive club So then people started sharing out in their story like oh if you know, you know Was like a lot of captions I was seeing and so of course for marketing our initial thought is like We have to we have to cast a really broad net We have to get as many people as we reach as many people as we can But if you make something for everyone, it's really for no one.

Yeah, right and so Once that first one kind of took off and people They were engaging with that and were being super kind and encouraging. I was like, oh, of course You know the age old story of you know, I I was myself I didn't try to copy someone else. I did what I knew I was good at which is we're just talking yeah Yeah, and I was so encouraged by That response that that became like a series It was like point of view your wife is very patient Was like the caption that I used on all those videos and I just started going through all of my favorite book series And you're just like maybe like a minute long 42nd videos of me recapping really exciting scenes and that I think are exciting and characters I really connect with and pretending to explain it to my wife and And That was kind of what started to snowball and start to bring in people from these different fandoms that I was really passionate about and So that kind of became a style of my skits and my content and then I Did a video which kicked off what each kind of everybody in my space knows me as now is I call him Ulysses But he is the inner thoughts Character where the first one that took off was if you're familiar with the hunger games I did a skip Ross pretending to be the inner thoughts of the author of the hunger games for her most recent book in that video got over a million views on tiktok pretty quickly and the most important thing That connected with me and that I would encourage others to if you know they're trying to kind of build a social brand or starting to make content was it was Really fun for me and it no longer felt like a task.

Oh, I got a post I was having fun actually creating it and Getting it express myself creatively through this character and so now Here we are I think at the time of that video I don't know had a couple thousand followers And we've seen just like pretty incredible growth from this one character um that averages Some you know when I do this character Sometimes I'll have like 60,000 shares on one of these videos. Yeah, which is pretty unbelievable and again, it's me In my room with just the shittiest lighting my iphone 12 talking to the camera And it's really encouraging obviously that people to see people get as passionate about these things as I am because Um the nerdy life can kind of be lonesome Well, they they are hilarious and You're now 107,000 plus on instagram and it is growing really rapidly like yeah, they're I think when I we talked at your grandmother's funeral.

Yes. It was in the some 20 odd Thousand. Yeah, and it kind of seemed at that time. Well, how big does this niche actually get for sure? And clearly it can get a whole lot bigger And what 130,000 plus on tick tock and it's really just I mean This guy's the limit at this point because what's cool about you lissies is that the character? Yes It's really funny and there's no cap on the number of times You can do it because you've just got to find another another book you like another character you like and run with it Yeah, that's the beauty of it is I'm just talking about media and you know, it started off books that I really enjoy and then it quickly pivoted to movies and even comic books Um and just like even now like I've never done like I did one specifically on the the voice and the head of Voldemort So now I'm like even getting more like now.

I'm talking about just a single character Um and that one did well as well. So yeah, it's cool I people keep asking like are you running out of ideas? And it's like not as long as people keep making cool shit Yeah, because there's so much of it out there and it's pretty easy for me to I mean, it's it's in truth the same conversations that I would have with my friends You know after you see a movie or after you read a book And you look at the creative choices that a director or an author made and you just go, huh? That was funny that they chose to do that Um, and then I just deliver it with a goofy accent and people seem to really connect with it.

Yeah Well, I was really impressed. I saw Marvel actually commented on your spider-man video How's that feel for A young guy who clearly loves novel storytelling Uh It was pretty unreal. Yeah. I mean as As I've said like I grew up just like consumed with the stuff and I really love the stuff And I think I kind of fell in love with reading through comic books as well Um, and so and you know we we hold marvel at a really high standard and Yeah, I I was blown away that they commented on my silly video about spider-man Um, I even danced a little bit now one which is embarrassing but Um Yeah, and I think that's to something I've seen that's just been so powerful with social media as we Have the ability if we're persistent and creative enough that we can connect with People and brands and authors and director like we can reach people that there was no way We could have reached them 10 15 years ago Um, but I have the ability to connect with these people that's been like that's been the most amazing thing for me With seeing the growth and social media and people connecting Um is having my favorite authors huge authors reach out and say like I loved your video.

That was so funny. Um It's pretty unbelievable. Yeah Yeah, I Can identify with that feeling when yeah An author or a speaker comes on and I really Have respect them immensely and have ingested their work for years and Yeah, when they say hey, I your show actually came up on my feed and I really enjoyed the episode of xy and z so cool it's um surreal, uh, yeah, honestly and There are a lot of downsides to social media and this the new digital world, but the connectivity That's possible is a really cool feature because when I mean you When I was 20 years old, you probably weren't even born yet, but the at that time and place there was no way to connect to your favorite author filmmaker, I mean, it just didn't it didn't exist Totally Um, so that that part is pretty rad.

What was the line about the sticky goo coming out of his wristicles? I think it's secret liquids from his wristicles. Yeah, and I apologize for that. Yes. Yes Uh, that that was funny. That was fun. Um Um Okay, let's talk about publishing now. Yeah, let's turn to that because that's also at the at the heart of Why you needed to build a platform in the first place Let's talk about the difference between independent publishing and then with a publisher just so just to bring everybody up to speed first perfect um So I'll use you as as an example Let's say that you write a manuscript your first book and it is uh how to run a successful podcast Lovely title.

Yeah, and now you have a finish and now you're like, okay. What do I do with it? Um now you have two options You can either traditionally publish it or you can self publish it and the traditional publish route Which I think most people are a little more familiar with and that's what you see in movies and tv shows when they feature a writer So you take your manuscript and traditionally The best way to get it in front of a publishing house that's going to offer you a book deal Um is to get a literary agent. That's kind of the first step and so in that process you can What I recommend is you go and you look at and keep in mind I don't have an agent So take this with a grain of salt, but this is the wisest one to go down from yet look really um You take your manuscript to you you look at an agent who's representing Maybe someone else that's written a book about podcasting.

Yeah, and maybe you like that book you think it's similar to yours and so Um, you would look up this agent and then you go to their website and they usually have a wish list Um, and this can be on there's websites called query tracker or just publishing market And they list what they're looking for in a client And so if they say I'm looking for someone that's writing nonfiction about communication um Business you say okay like I check some of these boxes. I'm going to reach out And so they'll usually have a list as well like what they're looking for in a query letter Traditionally, it's going to be a brief synopsis of your book Uh small intro about yourself and maybe some accolades and you know, you obviously talk about your podcast and you're following um and then For fiction that usually are going to request the first 10 pages of your book Nonfiction, it's going to usually be the walk a whole manuscript because it's usually a lot shorter than you know like say tines Neseses 530 pages where Um, your manuscript might be one and two to 200 So you would then query this agent and this part is really challenging Because one they're usually really specific what they're looking for in their query letter or from your query letter And for a fiction author you have to sell your 600 page novel in a paragraph right which of course is really challenging and a lot of maybe a successful popular agent is going to maybe get like a hundred of these query letters In a week, maybe a day depending on who they are.

Yeah, so You have to try to stand out in a single paragraph, which um, I haven't figured out how to do but I'm well on my way, of course Yeah, um, so this is challenging right and so this is why um very few People actually land book deals because this first step of getting in with an agent Um is really challenging but if you do so say the agent likes your query letter They say wow, I've been I've been incredibly tantalized and titillate did by your query letter I'd like to read your full manuscript. There is. Yeah, there he is. I'm just hoping you miss these would show up Yeah, yeah, he'll rear his ugly head on occasion and so now you have the opportunity to send your full manuscript Um, this is thrilling.

It's also can be heartbreaking Um, because I've had a couple requests by full manuscript. You get really excited Um, you send it then also this all happens in a span of like a year It's an extremely slow process because they have a lot of Query letters to read through. Yeah, and so it can sometimes take Six months to get back to you for just to request your manuscripts, right? Um some some I would say like on the quicker side is like three months That's like a pretty quick response Well, and then they're going to read the manuscripts, which if it's 500 pages They're not going to do that in a couple of nights, right?

And so you can see how would really be drawn out And you're probably feeling pretty bad about yourself six months into it here in crickets Yes, and then get really excited when somebody asked for the manuscripts, right? But even that You don't really know where that's gone for sure And so yeah, it's You feel like the smallest saddest little grab in the whole wide world when you're sending out query letters They refer to it as the trenches. They always say like you're down in the trenches because it is It is a very humbling experience Trying to convince people that you are worthy of their time and worthy of an investment Financially, right and so say everything goes great The agent loves your full manuscript.

They read the full book. They say Nick. This is fantastic. I think this will sell And I'm a now as the agent I'm going to use my connections to go to different publishing houses and shop it around Hopefully, you know, the dream is you it kind of goes to a bidding war. You want multiple publishing houses interested And trying to one up each other for the rights to your book That's that's the dream for a lot of writers This because of course you're going to get they're going to buy it off you And you're going to get paid a livable wage which as an artist, you know, and drooling at the mouth Just considering it.

Yeah Although I've heard even some of those advances for a first-time writer are not first time I of course are going to be much smaller than you know someone with a much bigger catalog but Because like $20,000 Might sound like a hundred thousand dollars might sound like a lot of money But if you're talking about something that took you Years to create and then a year to shop around Well, okay if we're spending a hundred thousand dollars over six years, that's not adding up to a whole lot as annual Right. Yeah, so it's not always as fruitful as people think as well and Yeah, so that's another reason why you want to find a good agent You want to say yes to anybody because you want somebody that's going to fight for you and get you A deal preferably that you can live off of yeah times so that you can continue to do this Or a multi book deal of courses is the dream where You're you know guaranteed a certain amount of money for each book you write which is really cool Um, so any agents listening let's get Tanner set up.

Yeah, they are five book See more on Titan's nest. I love I love where your heads up. They are licking their lips. I can see it now Um, yeah, and so of course then that just goes to negotiations. Here's the bat. Here's the downside to traditional publishing Um use Most of your creative rights Uh, you might not get to choose the title anymore. Um how to run a successful podcast. They might throw that out the window Such a good time. I was such a strong title Traumatic Yeah, and uh They they can remove things they can have you add things that maybe you don't feel comfortable adding um Yeah, and I've you know, I've heard stories of Successful authors saying my favorite chapter that I was really excited about was Chopped out because of my my editor.

Yeah, or not getting and of course you don't get to choose the cover art Um a good deal. You'll you'll get some say in it of course Uh, but this is the major downside traditional publishing is uh, you're essentially selling you're selling the project and and some ways you're kind of hands off once it's sold um but it seems now a day that Publishers are a little more Um not lenient but more accommodating and want the author's voice to be more involved from my understanding Um, so I don't hear a lot of like, oh, they completely changed my title Unless there's already something that exists with that title, but I did just hear a story Like that though.

It's pretty pretty successful book Um, I don't know that I'm allowed to share what book it is because we didn't say it on the air but we talked about it off air and that this was a publisher of high standing Especially along academic lines and they just said yeah that title doesn't fit with our brand and Was a Tough one for the authors because they were excited that they'd gotten a deal. Yeah, and yet it was a fantastic title but it did have Fuck in The title and they were like yeah that is challenging the market and they were like we can we can make we can put that as the name of the first chapter um and to my mind It was Not that I necessarily know but when I read the book I was like oh that's shipping the name of the book before I had heard this story yeah, and To hear afterwards that that's what they had fought for and went 10 rounds over it and finally it was like Hey, this isn't your call.

Yeah, like they just started that one. They're like this is We gave you money. We own right the creative rights now and this is what it's going to be called And this is what the cover will look like Yeah, I mean pros and cons okay continue yes, so that's the traditional publisher out That's what a lot of people And you know there's there's some cool Obviously, okay. We'll get into the traditional publishing or self publishing and talk about why the traditional publishing is a little more sought after but um, so the beauty of self publishing is that literally any schmuck can do it and So I had queried a lot for Titans nest and the main response that I got was This is too long For a debut fantasy novel for someone with zero recognition no name I said that's that makes sense Sure And unfortunately and I I've been encouraged by some people like oh with like if you're going to start If you're going to pursue traditional publishing start with something smaller Um, yada yada yada and unfortunately I was like I'm gonna I'm really passionate about this story.

I want to do this story And so I had a few people request the manuscript and I never made it past that part just at At least the response to me was usually this is this is too long and fantasy is Also interesting like, you know nonfiction outsells fantasy that 100 to what those aren't actual numbers, but it's pretty drastic the difference Um, because again, this is a hyper niche and so um, it's a lot harder to celebrate a project like this um And so I went self publishing route and Again, the beauty of the self publishing route is that literally anybody can do it Downside of self publishing route is that literally anybody can do it?

I think there's something like 1100 novels Are published on the amazon alone like every day wow That's a lot of books that's a lot of books and so and then hard for me as a reader To decipher which ones have quality and which ones don't right and so to That is a huge part of obviously using social media because like you just said there are Millions of things that are Buying for our time and trying to get our attention and whether that's books or our phone Movies video games just our jobs, right? There's so many things and so we seek the The voice of people that we trust to say hey, this has value.

This is worth your time And so that was a huge part of my social media push was like, okay. I want to get tight and stressed in front of people That will validate it. Yeah, and people you know voices that trust and so that's why Obviously social media is huge to get in front of these reviewers who People trust and say yes. Hey, this is self-published everyone's like you But they're like but we think you enjoy so that is the goal. So anyways self-publishing You everything falls on you you have to do obviously all the writing All the editing you Will hire somebody to help you with the right, but you have to pay for all these things up front out of your own pocket So you have to pay for editing you have to pay for the cover design you have to pay for the The font work the typography on the cover You know you have to get your own website up and going again socials is all on obviously all on you And then you have to find distribution you have to find a printer and for someone who's never done this it's incredibly intimidating There's a ton of steps And it's just a ton of administrative work and that's been my biggest battle is I'm kind of stereotypical creative where administrative work is just devours my soul And it's really soul crushing for me.

And so when I'd much rather be writing and making silly videos So but the beauty of course with Being independently published and doing it yourself is you get to keep all of the creative rights and you get to make every decision You get to pick you know as I said the cover you get to pick the artist You get your title and you have full creative freedom to write whatever you want to write Which is really beautiful and if you have an audience and and in truth someone like yourself You know already has over a hundred thousand subscribers on youtube Um coming out of the gate to now right if you were to write a book you would have a pretty solid platform to self-publish it To get some momentum just right out of the gate Okay, so you're advising me how Podcasts that's yes And so there are now authors which has been really interesting because we've never We haven't really seen this pivot in the history of publishing but really established authors who sell a lot of books Um already with a traditional publisher like i've got a huge fan base Why am I using a traditional publisher when I can go self-published and keep a lot more of the The financial gains of publishing book so there's been some pivots in that and kickstarter has really changed the game for like independent publishers And like so Brandon Sanderson who is is kind of my hero.

He's he's built this incredible empire um he released author of the uh stormlight archive. Yes the stormlight archive correct well done Um like his kickstarter that he did for special editions of the stormlight archive uh over 40 million dollars raised on kickstarter. Whoa. Yeah Whoa That's a good haul which is unbelievable. There's no publisher that was going to give him that Right and of course he doesn't keep all that that's to produce the books Um, but he's going to keep them Much larger chunk of that than he would if he was traditionally published what she's still a chishe And mainly because of social media, it's a lot easier to get your work out there now than it was previously So any publishing kind of has to come up, but it still um isn't as glamorous and sexy to a lot of people as you know the traditional published book dealers Yeah interesting.

I mean if you're Trying to establish yourself that traditional publishing Is a stamp of approval? It's a credential where you can pay them for real. Yes And yet It sounds like some of the economic arguments If you already have a following a platform a audience that wants more of your work Right that might point towards flipping away from the traditional publishing and going to the self publishing And I remember lewie ck as a comedian before the controversy Yeah, all of that talking about how he had decided he was just going to sell Self produce his next special and then sell it through his email list distribution Yeah, and he could sell it.

I think the first one was only for five dollars And made twice as much money on it whereas before it would And this was a little bit earlier in it, but they had to sell it through amazon I believe was the going thing at that time where it might be 25 or 30 dollars And so he was like hey all of my true fans will find this They get it for a fraction of the price. Yeah, and I make more money doing it Why not go do this for sure and he was kind of a pioneer on that. I know ho i'm blanking on her name the She's a I think she is the top selling fiction writer shmrits real sexy books. Oh probably sera jmos Colleen hoover.

Oh, I didn't know she was originally self published. But yeah, she she's got tons of stuff out there author of it ends with us very ugly love Yeah, over 30 million copies sold as of 2024 And yeah, it all started with self publishing Well for one I understand out of her trailer that she was living in And she does not live in a trailer anymore. No, she does not But continues to self publish because The economics for her yeah or better. Yeah, that's Of course, yeah a huge part of that. I kind of skipped You keep a lot more of the royalties if you're if you're self published you keep the majority of the royalties You might not get any of the royalties depending on your contract But of course it comes down to Am I gonna sell enough books traditionally or self published that makes it worth it or as post-artitionally college you're guaranteed a certain amount I think you're the book deal.

So right now. Did any of these agents when you spoke to them say It would really help if you had your own platform not specifically, but a lot of Publishing houses when so you can skip the agent part and you can try to just go directly to the letter the publishing house Which is I think prob I assume from what I understand a far more challenging to you and get in that door and A lot of them I noticed would have a section because on these like query tracker forms they have Sections that you you plug in they have questions I'm don't know. I'm like another word But one of the many questions on there is uh, I would say like your follower count or your socials or link your socials Okay and so I And then I've never seen like an agent on their query letter specifically requests like what's your follower count?

But they always request that you link your socials And they're pretty open about they want to see that you're involved and engaged in the community. I know for a fact that for nonfiction it is far more compelling to an agent to have a bigger following than it is with fiction For reasons I don't entirely understand but I guess because it's if you're writing nonfiction You're probably writing actually about your life or your experience obviously and so people are already following because they want a piece of that So I guess it makes sense Pause this is important There are only three things you can train in life Your craft your body and your mind Most people work on the first two and just hope the third one shows up when it matters That's why I'm recommending finding your best by michael gervais I've done the course myself.

It's excellent. It's not Motivational not fluffy It's structured to train the skills that actually drive performance confidence recovery trust grit clarity under pressure If you ever feel capable on paper but inconsistent in real life, this is about closing that gap I don't put my name behind a whole lot of things This one earns it. You can find the link below no urgency Just a genuinely solid tool if you're serious about getting better So where do you go next? As an author you've now you're finding the success with the social platforms What happens next for td Um td is going to keep cooking so I've got the sequel to tines nest coming out I don't know in this layer, but uh secret is roost book two in the tines nest saga comes out on november 15th And uh it is currently Outlined as a trilogy.

So I've got another book in the works. That'll be coming out to next year is the goal And I'm going to continue just you know self-publish this series Lord willing It gains enough traction that a traditional publishing house makes an offer that is the dream But until then I also have some other projects that i'm working on In secret that I am going to start querying again and i'm hoping uh with my new found following and With like putting a lot of effort into building my my brand um that someone's going to recognize this effort as Just recognize my tenacity and my creativity and It would be awesome to find a traditional Deal so that I can help continue to finance doing the self-published stuff because And do love having full creative control, which is really cool Um, but I have people I'm sure that would love to hear from you now Because I I don't think I can overstate what a big deal it is to end up at more than a hundred thousand subscribers in a hyper niche area where You now are one of the the big dogs on social media in this space In this face.

Yes for sure. I mean, I'm I think I'm still considered like a micro influencer or whatever um to the general public, but it is strange to um, you know have 50,000 400 or 40,000 more followers than like some of my biggest favorite authors um And I you know, I would try to play places with them in a second because my heart's desires not to be a constant creator but to be a writer, but um Yeah, I'd like to think that uh, eventually an agent I was also lied to um Not by anyone in particular, but I just the world uh, I was pretty much I just heard over and over from people and like seen stuff on like social media and thrones And it was just like yeah, like honestly like you'll never get an agent unless you have 10,000 followers on the stuff So in my head, I Sold myself this lie the moment, but I had 10,000 followers.

I'm gonna be flushed with requests from agents of course uh, which of course is not the case And I genuinely haven't been querying since uh, I've Kind of got this momentum going so I I'm hopeful that Um, yeah, I think there's some fruit that's gonna come from all this labor. Yeah. Yeah. Well and So it's interesting because you mentioned uh, Brandon Sanderson earlier who you have done some collaborative stuff with and then also pierce brown, which is That's gotta be really exciting for you because I know I Didn't know those names off the top of my head, uh when when I saw that because I'm not in that uh fantasy novel World sure But for you, I mean you're in it you love it you live and breathe it clearly and the passion is so obvious when you talk about those books as characters What's that like to have those people reach out and say hey, let's do something together?

Yeah, it's surreal. Um, we haven't nothing and I can't talk about those but uh, we haven't like released any of the The stuff we talked about but to have them Um Or so like I have to talk to pierce brown directly, which is He's he's my idol. Yeah, um, I I'm very fond of him and his work is Incredible and I really love how he carries himself and blah blah blah blah But yes, the first night that or one of the first times that he reached out and um said I love your content, um It's my favorite red rising content on the internet and I would love to do some sort of collaboration Um, I didn't go to sleep that night because I had like the like adrenaline hot sweats And I just couldn't fall asleep Because it was just so surreal is that you know someone that I've been reading You know the last maybe over 10 years And he was kind of my first push on social media when I started posting once um once a day every day for a year I was doing some fairly creative stuff But for the most part, I was trying to think of clever ways to get in front of these authors and so um The main character in red rising.

I'm sorry to not first name's darrow and his mentor's name is lorn And so I first started doing like posting my decabtion was day one of posting until pierce brown Agree's to be the loan to my darrow. Yeah to become my mentor And so I just started doing that and I just tag him every day And then I think it was like day 22. He replied Um, he didn't agree to be my mentor, but he replied. Yeah, which was to me. I was like I couldn't believe it um And he was incredibly gracious with just like his time and to actually respond to me and and say some really kind of things um, so that's that's one way that I fought to get in front of You know somebody that I really admired and again social media is just such a unique tool that allows us to do this um Christopher Paulini who wrote one of my favorite fantasy series young adult fantasy series that I grew up reading He was doing a book signing Kind of near my area So I drove like an hour and I knows that he I know that he likes puzzles And so I built this puzzle box And you know everybody's just going up and getting their book signed and I just go Put this like treasure chest in front of them.

I'm like, uh, I know you like puzzles Um And I was like hey, I've your work has had immense impact in my life. I built this thing by hand. Yeah Like an intricate Moving part. No, not as complicated. You think it's just um like I took a Little treasure chest looking box and I painted it and I like molded and like sculpted a dragon on the top and I customized it to to his series And what I did was I told him and I had a little code padlock on it And I said, uh To get I know you love a puzzle. I was like to get inside this box I've been hiding the code to this lock in all my videos. I've been tagging you it.

Yeah, he was like, whoa Yeah, I've never had anyone do something like this. I was like, I hope not It's got insane. Uh, this guy gonna follow me home right now It's likely Um, and so through that like anyway, open the box I wrote him some kind words and we and the code Where was it in the videos? I just hid it in the background. So like I used the symbol for his series Which is like a little blue flame thing. Um, I put it in the background of my videos and um Like roto brush myself on top of so I could like move past it and I just like hid the numbers in that flame. Yeah Um, and yeah, you open it.

I got an email from him. Yeah, it was really nice And that's all that that did but it was so cool Right, um, yeah, so just like trying to do unique things that I've never seen anyone do and Um, I've met a lot of people in the space now, especially like other indie authors who were trying to do the same thing I am Um talking to me like nobody's doing stuff like that. Nobody's like, I mean It's it's really scary to put yourself out there like that and jump out of your comfort zone and And just like a straight up ass one. That's really successful. Like, hey, I think you should be my mentor, right?

Right. Just just sounds really dumb and it's like you get the hot spots when you're up there doing it, but um, I Like I I'm willing to do just about anything or anyone Uh, you know, I like why not like the worst that's gonna happen is someone's gonna say no and Or you know, humiliate me, but that's okay. Sure. Yeah, this seems like that's happening. Yeah, though. Yeah, not yet And I'm sure even if some of these authors are Not quite sure like is this person a stalker or where they actually coming from once It settles in and they think about the effort and time that went into something like that They're really appreciative of it.

I have to imagine. Yeah, I'd hope so but I don't know for sure And again, like I haven't like officially done any of these collabs that we've like brainstormed with some of these guys And they could kind of totally go to me. I just gave them this guys an absolute weirdo But uh, it's worth a shot and if this is you know a small stepping stone like a couple failures Uh To where I'm supposed to be I'm willing to crawl on my hands and To get over there and make it happen. I love it. I love it. I love the Passion to find your way in this industry and find a way to make it Work because most people Give up long before The point you're at and you've kept at it and you're finding a way through because in any of these sexy industries, right?

Because it's I know the actual Drudgery of writing it doesn't feel that sexy, but it is it is a very cool thing to be at a party and be like i'm a successful writer Sure, or I have to imagine it would be yeah And or if you want to be an actor or if you want to Make films whatever that thing might be in this sexy industry. They're just so many people vying for a very limited number of spots You've got to be willing to do What other people won't do or come up with something that's just so out of the box They never thought to do it to to find your way and it's Inspiring to see somebody who's figuring it out.

Well too kind. I don't know if I figured it out I'm certainly swinging for the fences and that's a huge part of it. It's just like experimentation That's where I think I found some momentum on social media is Yeah, I see people complain like I post four times a day every day and my engagements terrible And you go and look and it's the same video over and over like you have to be willing to experiment and try and bail And that's the only reason I've seen a lot of growth is because I was willing to experiment and try weird things and try Essentially try things that I hadn't seen before and I think there's a big part of scrolling that we're constantly looking for something We haven't seen before to make a stop and So yeah experimentation I think is huge and again persistence And what are the handles on tiktok and instagram?

On instagram it's just at td orel go for yel because when I describe this to people yes It doesn't Capture it and I'm like yeah, I know you're not it doesn't sound like you're gonna get it Yeah, you will when you see it. I have a hard time when describing like what if like oh you're making what kind of content you make I even I'm like I know it sounds really dumb right it's that you almost have to just do it Yeah for them. I would imagine but sorry it's a td or l. Yes, and then on tiktok it's at type of zest. Okay, okay Um Why does fiction even matter anymore? I mean it's just made up stuff right?

Yeah Totally Um, yeah, I think even as a kid I just really connected with I realized that fiction is this really powerful tool To evoke emotion and teach us lessons And especially as a kid we hear you know, I was fortunate enough to have parents that would say you know, you stand up for what's right You try to live selflessly you love and serve the people that are around you and You know what is coming from your family or your parents like yeah, I know I got it. I got it Um, but whether it be a storybook For a child or a future length film when we see these things in action And we see them like brought to life through an art form And it it's so engaging and captivating and it's so much more impactful than someone Just saying or telling like well, you should you know, you should Be willing to fight for those that can't fight for themselves You know like yeah, that's nice, but then for whatever reason when we see it and this really like beautiful Inarticulate form and my of course favorite is in the written form um I've always just found it so impactful and felt really convicted by things that I've read and um with these fictional characters that of course our favorite characters are those that are Broken and that are wounded and aren't perfect like us and they have faults and you're like I relate to that I understand and yet this person despite that they keep going that person despite the same insecurity or fear that maybe I have They're willing to overcome this insurmountable audit I think we learn a lot more about ourselves from fiction than then maybe some people give it credit for and Again, it's just a really powerful reflection of who we are and a lot of times it's it's a really dark reflection when we see like a villainous character um in any shape or form and it's like we see the ugliness of our world brought in a clever way and Sometimes it's so easy to like spot that evil Where it's not always like it's hard to talk about hard things in real life Yeah, like if I started talking to you about genocide or religion right now It's like immediately we're both like we'll be kind of uncomfortable Whereas when we we come upon upon it in fiction It feels like a safe place to explore these ideas And I think in the real world we're running out of Safe place to explore these ideas because everyone's so sensitive and where it's really hard to have conversations about hard things because people are so emotional and And that's okay, but I think fiction is still this vessel where we can look at these characters that we really admire and we can strive to be like these heroes Yeah And so yeah, as I said, I was like as a kid.

I really connected that originally like I think initially I felt it like watching movies Or even like watching a Sunday morning cartoon at all like like someone's doing something wrong I want to see that person get punched in the chin Yeah, like that's they deserve that that's justice right and yeah So to get like fully consumed by this and then I started I think realized through humor and storytelling that I was like Oh, like we all have the ability to evoke emotion or teach a lesson Through a story and through a narrative and it's a lot more fun And I think engaging to do it through fiction than it is maybe just to be preaching at people to be a good person sure or strive to ABC whatever it is So that's why I fell in love with fiction and that's why I think still has like such a grip on my life is I love reading about hard things And just a really unique manor and Some people do it incredibly well.

I'm not one of those people yet. I think I'm I'm trying to learn but Yeah, I I don't know how deep I want to go into specific character examples, but um That's my answer to why I love fiction back. You know I'm I am with you and I I thought there was this profound Explanation about it. It's buried in Yevall harari's work and he is a Professor he wrote sapiens and then he wrote nexus and he talked about History from the very beginning all the way up to the present moment and that early on I mean when we're out there on the savannah and able to group together in tribes That we needed an information system to expand beyond a hundred people and that thing was story story came in and could unite thousands of people together because all of human success is based on Trust and working together so much so that we can't even see it when we're in the middle of it but like we board airplanes without interviewing the captain who could crash us all all based on trust yeah And that it really is story was the original glue that brought people together and enabled humans to Outcompete all the other species on earth because once there was a shared story It could be a group of 10,000 people and suddenly we go oh You're on that story.

Yeah, we're on the same wavelength This is someone I can trust is someone I can work with without having to know them personally And then it really enabled the entire Modern world. I thought that was a Unique cool way to think about the power story and he's talking about fiction. He's not talking about so cool Preaching it somebody right because that we all know that doesn't work. Yeah, and yet a gripping story It is magic for our Base wiring truly. Yeah What are some of those characters and stories that um Again to go back to Brandon Sanderson. Yeah Yeah, I It's a story that I read years ago and Specifically a moment so there's a character named Calvin Calvin Storm West okay and Calvin sold into slavery by the kind of high-borns of this world and Has lived a horrific life because of these people they're gonna have a little light eyes and he's been branded as a dangerous slave they've marred his flesh and They kill those are some stormlight spoilers here if you're gonna read wave king skip this part And they've they've killed like the person that's most precious to him that he kind of committed his life to defending and um again, this is a massive you know 1200 page book where we just see Cality gets spit on and he's treated as as a dog and um Just goes through a horrible experience this enormous book and then the finale of the book He finally has the opportunity to take him and his fellow slaves and they can escape they have this window But he looks back and he sees these light eyes that have treated him so miserably Are incredibly outnumbered and they're trapped and they're gonna be slaughtered um And he stops and he turns back and you just know immediately because of his character That he's gonna go save them When he has the opportunity to leave them and they would leave him a hundred times over again He owes them nothing and just like as a grown adult like say my room like crying over the scene Yeah, which how often I you know, I grew up in church and I've you know seen the pastor up there a hundred times say like Love your neighbor love your neighbor love your neighbor and we hear it so often Present to that way that we grow callous to it And then when we see presented and it's just like really articulate and beautiful and thoughtful Way that when Caledan starts running towards the people that have persecuted in his whole life I all said i'm starting to feel convicted.

I'm like, am I loving my enemy? Well, am I being a Caledan storm Which sounds foolish but to be convicted by Um, someone's words written on a paper um told in a really beautiful way. I think it's just so powerful and Again, it's just really cool to be told in a way that evokes emotion Yeah, I'm continually when I stop and think about it blown away by the That experience you're just reading something that someone wrote down on a page, right? And yet it can Move so much in it. So I mean it can change the way we look at the world and then behave in the right Yeah, it's powerful And it should convict you and it should make you ask like do I love and serve people in this way Like I don't would you run and save your friend let alone your enemy?

It's I think it is really powerful and um, who knows maybe that week I was a better person I doubt it but I tried Yes, because of because of uh, yeah because of Caledan which is I think this episode of the next daily show is brought to you by Zapier If you've ever felt buried in repetitive work copying data moving files Sending follow-ups, you know, it's like death by a thousand mouse clicks Zapier has always been the tool that fixes that it connects over 8,000 apps who will drive slack notion Gmail myspace you name it so your tools can finally play nice together But here's the big shift Zapier now lets you create AI agents With their chat gpt integration Think of them as tireless teammates who never complain never take lunch and never get bored of doing the boring stuff I've actually made several of these little agents myself.

No python no JavaScript Just pure vibe coding which is my favorite kind of coding because even though I have no idea how to code I just talked to the AI tell it what I want it almost magically works For example when a podcast guest books a time Zapier can send them a personalized email from me preparing them for the show create a draft of show notes update my calendar and even prep a social media post Automatically all of which frees me up to focus on the important stuff Like taking credit for the amazing work my agents did And now Zapier just took it up another level for developers Zapier mcp is available right inside chat gpt Which means you can connect those 8 000 plus apps and trigger workflows just by writing what you want to happen Literally you tell chat gpt send this file to my team in slack update the spreadsheet and draft an email and zapier plus chat gpt Figure out the right tools do it for you getting started is simple Head to the zapier chat gpt mcp server and add the tools you want chat gpt to access Follow the steps in the connect tab and if you're an admin on a chat gpt enterprise account You can enable mcp across your entire workspace So if you're ready to stop wasting time on busy work join the AI revolution and make a little Automation magic of your own Try the zapier chat gpt integration using the link below TD let's take a moment to talk about AI yes friend or foe in the world of writing Yeah, that's uh, it is a loaded question To me as a creative and someone that considers themselves an artist uh, my initial response is to say that it is A foe we have a foe like we have never faced That it is the death of humanity that it is the the devourer of creativity in itself Which sounds really dramatic and I understand Have you had anybody with like a negative perspective on AI on the show?

the nate Stories episode is about to air and he wrote a book called if anyone builds it everyone dies So he definitely has a negative But he's really warning about the potential dangers of super intelligence and it actually killing humanity so that I think that's a slightly different Um, I think what you are getting at is something more nuanced which is The death of a lot of things we love in our day-to-day Life because this thing for whatever Reasons that are above my pay grade are allowed to be trained on all this copyrighted writing you know and now it can produce if you ask it to some facts simile of that copyrighted writing sure and it also allows people to In a very short period of time crank out some slop and then go self publish it It's never been easier to make something without substance and slap it up on amazon and I don't care for those Aspects of it, but I also recognize the huge Gains and wonderful things that AI can also provide so I yeah, I think it's good to get into all of that Let's let's get into where you're coming from from a writer.

Yeah, sure. Specifically though. There was a tweet though circulating Who is from But they said essentially like I want AI to do my dishes and take out my trash I don't want it to write for me. Yeah And you know, I think of course like currently where it's at it's like oh I have this thing that can write for me so I can go do my dishes and take out my own trash Yeah, great time As someone that's just really passionate about storytelling and creating Of course, I watch a lot of interviews of authors and directors and filmmakers that I really admire And when they talk about a film or a book or something that they're really proud of I don't think I've ever seen an interview where they say like oh, you know what like one night It all just came to me and it just flowed out of me and it was so easy and I was done in a few weeks And here's this masterpiece in my experience every time it's like This consumed me.

Yeah This this like broke something inside of you that I don't know if I could fix anymore. Yeah, and It requires sacrifice and I think the further we move away from that because it's like in our world We're just so obsessed with shortcuts. What's the easiest way to do something? What's the quickest way to do something? But I think we're losing Why Some of our work is can be so impactful because In my opinion, you know I remember playing football and you know that asked us to to Take lap around the field and the guys that would cheat in the coach be like you're only cheating yourself Yes, you're only benefiting yourself and in that moment you're like Yeah, but like am I really missing out on that much of the benefit if I If I cut just half Like I still ran a little bit um, I still ran I still ran um And it's like we probably don't see the fruits of that better like the benefit from actually running the full mile or whatever it is Uh until we do it every time and yeah, it takes more time.

Yeah, it's harder um, but you And it's hard because this is of course all in theory like tan It's not tangible to say like the impact that actually Creating has on your soul and on your heart and what you're passionate about Um, so it is really easy to discredit and be like, yeah, but like This is this program can do it What you've spent years doing it can do it in a day 20 minutes. Yeah last maybe um And so For me, I just think like We are so blessed in the struggle where I think we Find out who we are and we You know the old saying growth and comfort can never coexist right when we make ourselves uncomfortable Those are the moments that we grow so much and writing sucks most of time It's actually really hard and I feel like my most insecure my most vulnerable my most frustrated and um When I'm when i'm writing um But for whatever reason it's incredibly life giving for me and I and i'm growing a lot in that process Which I I feel like maybe sounds strange, but yeah, that's where I'm at currently I have another thought but I just slipped my mind I really like the direction you're moving in there where the To say we're blessed in the sacrifice.

Yeah I think about it a lot with learning and I don't know that there is a way to really learn without struggle and sacrifice you're sacrificing your time your energy And to become good at anything whether it's writing well or to become a doctor. Okay, think about The amount of knowledge you have to internalize to be an excellent doctor There's no way to skip the part where you wrestle with all this information Writing about it talking about it reading about it being tested on it so that it all becomes automatic So that when someone walks in to the office and they say well, I'm feeling this I'm feeling this and I'm feeling this thing I don't really know what's going on you go that one doesn't matter those two do this is what's happening and it needs to be lightning fast That can only happen with years of training Which is going to be uncomfortable along the way yeah And a lot of that is what learning is so there's a lot of talk right now that AI will transform education.

Yeah maybe Maybe because I don't know at that core level that having access to faster information Changes the equation of what's required for a human being to learn it right and when it comes to retain it Yes. Yeah, yes when it comes to Writing and creating it's so hard to become a good creator. Yeah, no one is born A great writer. You might have more talent than somebody else at a small level But the really amazing stuff only comes through the struggle and I See two sides of that then so it's like yeah, there will be whether it's writing or in any field Plenty of people who take the shortcuts and don't run the full lap but After thousands of laps all those corners that were cut add up and somebody who's embracing the struggle and getting in there and living in the trenches They will create something different And it will resonate with people Because of all that work and struggle that was In it to begin with and those people that took the shortcuts won't be able to do that Right.

I totally agree and on the flip side. I also fully understand So I think too with like I don't want to touch any of the creative aspects of Of humanity, right? I want it to do like I said somehow do dishes If it wants to create spreadsheets and run numbers, which I know predominantly That's what a lot of people use it for um and I totally understand the argument like this is like incredible progress and that um it is going to make a lot of things that are mundane and Not life-giving like writing or creating pain whatever you want to say Um, it's going to make those things a lot easier and maybe give you more time to do the things that you are passionate Which is beautiful and I understand that and I totally see that and I get the argument of like It is amazing that we are the most technologically advanced Society in the history of the world.

It is it's incredible. Um, we're also the most depressed We're also the saddest we're also the most anxious And I think as we strip away the human experience and try Our very best to get rid of suffering and struggle and discomfort Um, I think we're going to fall more into this like feeling purposeless voidless heartless depression And I think ais are really great Stepping stone towards that Darkness without to be dramatic. Well, you take all that negative Stuff which is well documented. Yeah that Has arisen out of social media, right? And of course Everybody should check out tv's social media because it's very positive of uplifting and funny But too much consumption of it leads to depression anxiety all these negative mental states Like that's pretty hard to argue otherwise now and AI is a amplification of all of that and we're seeing a lot of Rising cases of AI psychosis Which it basically is just a big term for people spending too much time talking to an AI It validating ideas that are actually driving people a little crazy.

Yeah That doesn't seem good for humanity for sure So yeah finding a balance somewhere Where we can get it to do the dishes but not write our stories for us Yeah, but maybe augment that process a little bit. I'm also hoping to that idea like I don't want to simplify it I Feel like there's too also too much of that as a result of social media, right? It's either either Either a heart or it's a dislike right? Yeah, and there are there's an infinite amount of gray area and nuance there There's no specific right answer. Yeah, because if you want to Research something for a story you're writing you can get that information that background information you need a lot faster Yeah, immediately and that might have not been The part of writing that you love you still have to go do the hard work Right with make turning it into a story and bringing those details to life and those characters to life So an augmentation rather than a replacement seems Sure Or the middle ground is yeah, yeah I think just like if given the choice if you said like hey AI vanishes entirely tomorrow or we continue to have a going I like to think that I lean more towards that like we've survived without a AI for a long time Let's continue surviving without a AI That's just where I land as a as a creative person Um, but I know that I'm in the minority Yeah, yeah, oh and it also gets tricky on You talk to people that are really good at drawing.

Yeah, they don't Like that now lots of people can Create an illustration with AI because that was a unique talent whereas Someone like me who can't draw Why go? Well, it's pretty cool that I can now describe something to my head and run on to see it Yeah and can create it and then show it to somebody and say this is what i'm talking about Yeah, and I think to at least in my space what i've seen online a lot is the art because I think the art is AIR is like coming quicker than actually the writing is and it's it's better And so I think I see that a lot more of of artists just devastated that like yeah They've committed their life to this craft and they want of course to be um paid for for their gifts right and to Make livable wages off what they're passionate about as everybody does Um, but now companies and brands They don't have to go to the artist anymore because in truth the AI yes It's stealing from these artists and it's it's just copying them per se But it's producing like pretty solid artwork and if I you know if that was my field I I'd be up in arms as well and I follow and I engage in you know, I follow a lot of those people Um, that's one of my favorite things that I follow like is Like fantasy sci-fi artists and so I I see there their fears a lot and I think that's too.

Likewise Um, I have my feelings about it because I'm like, yeah, that sucks. It does. It does. There's It's such a double edged sword I was talking to a young youngish around your age filmmaker and And He said well one I don't have a choice anymore. I've got to work with these tools So he was a little bit Upset about it. He said but on the flip side So I in trying to find the silver lining. He said, you know the new video creation stuff In using it in concert with stuff that's being filmed in person He said there there are things I can do now And I'm pretty hopeful within the next year will really be able to do as the technology advances That would have required tens of thousands of dollars to do as a regular production and he said I think I can express myself More fully by embracing this thing rather than running away from it, but writing is a tough one because I'm a lover of good writing sure and I don't think flooding the space with more garbage is helpful to anybody especially aspiring writers.

Yeah Yeah, and it is scary to think that yeah, obviously I've put a lot of time and effort into this and it is scary to think that somebody Just use the idea to write a manuscript and maybe they're signing a book deal right now as I'm sitting here bitching about it So that's not a great feeling but Unfortunately, it's probably moving in that direction and There's not a ton I can do about it except for sit here and bitch about so I'm gonna sit here and bitch There we go. There we go. It is funny how it's sci-fi writers that have been warning us about this stuff Yes, or forever. Yeah now that it's here.

We're all just like, yeah, it's fine. Totally. Maybe encourage We'll always say encourage people that are trying to build a social following and share my final thoughts and Yeah, I heard them to just do what they're passionate about and Should we ask you Lizzie's what he thinks about AI? We could try let's let's give it a shot. Okay. What does you Lizzie's think about AI? Yeah Lizzie's think about AI They're fond of the AI they will suffer for this perversion. I gotta get into character Those that admire artificial intelligence, they'll be the first consumed by the robots. Yes. That's all I got I love it.

I love it. Oh Ulysses makes me laugh. Oh, I'm so glad someone admires Ulysses There are many of us out there now. I guess so, yeah And what do we have to say to those young aspiring creatives That are out there whether they're trying to build a following or just create work and get it out into the world Yeah, we are really fortunate Even though I was just passionate with technology and but we are really fortunate that social media is this incredible free tool for you to express yourself and to talk about what you're passionate about and I will say be warned as your following grows You're not going to find fulfillment in that I thought you know when I was like told myself oh when I hit a thousand followers like I'm going to be I'm going to be content And then I hit a thousand followers.

I'm like I want to hit 10,000 followers like then I'll feel like you know I feel like I'm a content creator And you know I have now over a hundred thousand followers um on both my socials And now of course like the needle just continues to move But I think where I've I've found fulfillment Is truly just talking about what I'm passionate about and connecting with others who are passionate about those things so seek seek that joy and fulfillment in the community that you create and not in the numbers and You know and even with with you know The marvel official entertainment account comment you say it was really cool that they commented on that And I was excited for about like 30 seconds and then I forgot about it until you brought it up and That to be said is that I Found a lot more Fulfillment when someone with 12 followers sent me a message and was like hey, I really enjoyed tightness I can't wait for the next book because of course that is the desire of my heart is to is to be a full-time author and not a kind of fear I'm not sure what I'm you'll see is just rambling at this point but I'd encourage you again.

Just um if you pursue what you're passionate about I think A lot of doors open and when the doors don't open don't be afraid to just bang your head into them as hard as you can until they do open Love it and then one more time for people want to find you online. Yes at tdo rel It's on instagram at tightness on tiktok I'm also on youtube. I'm being inspired today to pursue maybe some more long-form content But I'm not great at this. Maybe I'll give it a shot And you listen to like to say this has been just incredibly exquisite I love it and then tightness can be found on amazon Amazon Yeah, it's all it's all linked to my bio on amazon.

I recommend the audio book if you're an audio listener Yeah, yeah, we're good. Did you do it yourself? No, I only have the one voice unfortunately Okay, not very dynamic in that space. Yeah Fantastic. All right, uh, it's been a pleasure as always I hope the next time I see you it will be at a Happier occasion than where we first met It's do bye awesome Fantastic Okay, everybody until next time ask questions Don't accept the status quo and be curious