SPI 585: Life as a Parent and an Entrepreneur at the Same Time (Caleb had Twins! Let’s catch up)

SPI 585: Life as a Parent and an Entrepreneur at the Same Time (Caleb had Twins! Let’s catch up)

[00:00:00] Caleb:
If the kids are having a good day, I can really dive in and focus hard on work. If I didn’t get a great night’s sleep, I have to reset my expectations on what can be done with the various businesses I’m involved with. I have to ask myself, “What am I actually capable of accomplishing?”

What really helps me is taking some of the bigger projects and goals, and breaking them down into smaller steps that are more accomplishable. I think I’ve been a little more ruthless about my time.

[00:00:46] Pat:
Welcome to episode 585 of the podcast. That was Caleb Wojcik, who we’re going to hear more from today. You may have heard him on the show before, because he has talked about creating video and getting started on YouTube a long time ago. Recently he came on to talk about SwitchPod with me because he and I are partners on SwitchPod.

We started that company in 2019. That physical product that we co-invented and co-launched on Kickstarter to the tune of $438,000 from backers. That company and that business still continues to run.

We wanted to come on today for a few reasons. Number one, to give you an update on that company, where it’s at, how it’s doing, and how it’s performing. But more than that, Caleb Has an update to share because recently he and his wife have given birth to twins, and they have a toddler on top of that. So it has definitely affected work in many different ways, both positive, and in a more challenging way.

So I wanted to get real with you today with Caleb, somebody who’s right in the middle of it all. Not even a year old, these twins are. Of course that is a handful for sure, for both he and his wife. However, as a business owner and entrepreneur, that can mix things up and shake things up a little bit. So I just wanted to bring Caleb on to be honest and real about the situation.

And of course give us an update on SwitchPod. He and I both have an incredible update. Many of you who have been students of mine have maybe already heard about this. But right now, as we speak and as this episode is airing, if you’re already hearing this that means our course, YouTube From Scratch, is now live.

That’s right. Caleb and I partnered together to create a course for those of you who are just starting out on YouTube, or maybe you started before and you just aren’t getting any results.

As many of you know, I started a YouTube channel recently over at Deep Pocket Monster. I’ve had my YouTube channel, the Pat Flynn one that started in 2009. That is. 400,000 subscribers. Caleb has his YouTube channel and of course we are just, we work really, really well together. And it’s interesting cause we both come from the digital world yet. Our first product together was a physical product, but here we are finally creating a digital product. For those of you, who’ve been demanding this from us and that is eight years.

From scratch course to help you get to a thousand subscribers unlock monetization and add that to what it is that you do, whether that’s to enhance the brand that you’ve already started, or start your business from scratch on YouTube and take advantage of the algorithm. And of course we know how that works and we want to give it to you.

If you want to check out that promotion, I’ll talk a little bit about it at the end, but if you want to check it out now, head on over to SmartPassiveIncome.com/YouTubeFromScratch. Again, that’s smartpassiveincome.com/YouTube From Scratch. And that is a partner course that he and I have worked on together over the last several months for you.

And we are launching it right now, special launch price. If you. want to check it out anyway, more of that later, but right now let’s get into the interview with our good friend, Caleb, why. Caleb. Welcome back to the SPI podcast. Thanks for coming on today.

[00:03:42] Caleb:
I think this is number four.

[00:03:45] Pat:
Ah, so you and Chris Ducker and maybe a ReMeter a couple other people have showed up the most and yeah, but I know that you probably more than any of them have had such a major life change since the last time we’ve chatted a few. You want to give a quick update on like the big life events that have happened.

Cause that’s really going to be the center of the conversation today. What has happened since the last time you were.

[00:04:05] Caleb:
My wife and I had twins, about eight months ago now. And that really changed things. We already had the toddler, And we were like, okay, we want one more kid. it’s still kind of pandemic. Like, we’re going to be stuck at home anyways. Like my wife might be pregnant and we might as well, like, you know, we’ll come out of the pandemic, we’ll have two kids.

And people were like, oh, you have a full family now, but a surprise extra kid in there. And, so that’s kind of thrown our.

[00:04:31] Pat:
You guys are always over achieving and overshooting, those goals. so how has life changed since then? And we’ll talk about SwitchPod.

We’ll talk about a lot of the other projects that you and I are gonna be working on in the future. but you know, two kids all at once. I mean, that’s got, that’s got to ruffle things up a little bit make a big change and change the way you do what you.

[00:04:52] Caleb:
Yes. It definitely. It definitely did. I mean, going from one kid to two is already a big step as everyone has told me before where it’s like, one kid is one kid, two kids is an kids. It’s not two kids. It’s like, because now both parents are, have their hands full and can’t get anything done. And so with the additional twin. It’s just, it’s just a lot of hands needed. You know, we, we have, we have one grandma that lives nearby. She’s been excellent. She’s been helping Monday through Friday so I can actually get work done after, you know, I took some time off when they were born, but

It’s right now is the sleep thing. And anyone that said, kids knows like, you go through a time of like, you’re not sleeping, but then.

You get to a point where like, okay, you should be sleeping. like come on now. Like it let’s sleep through the night, you know? And, so with one kid, it was it was like a coin flip. Like how are they going, gonna sleep through the night? And with two kids, it’s kind of like a recessive gene, you know, when you’re like in science class in high school.

And you’re like, okay, are they going to have Hazel eyes or whatever? And like, okay, it needs to match up. And with three kids, it’s like a slot machine where you hit all the cherries on a single night to get to get through the night. And, we’ve had one night that was close in eight months. but you know, it’s just without full nights of sleep.

You’re not yourself. You’re not fully recharged. And I’m trying to remember if you’ve had an episode about sleep on the podcast, with

[00:06:12] Pat:
We did have Sean on the show. Yeah, but we talked about a lot of sleep tips, not necessarily about how to manage sleep. especially with two or three young ones in the house. How has that effected your productivity levels?

How has that affected your workspace?

[00:06:27] Caleb:
I think I just have to be flexible. you know, like if the kids are having a good day or if my mom was in Tom and helping, I could really dive in and focus hard on work, take on a new project type of thing.

But, I didn’t get a great night of sleep. I have to just kind of reset my expectations on what can be done. and so, you know, like with the various businesses I’m involved with. Helping you with video stuff, helping other clients with video stuff, running SwitchPod day to day. any other additional projects, you know, I just kind of have to say, what am I actually capable of accomplishing?

And I think what really helps me over the long-term is having some of the bigger projects and goals and breaking them down into smaller steps that are more accomplishable in like an hour or two before.

Like, I need help with nap or like help with a feeding or something like that. So I think I’ve been. A little more ruthless about my time and more ruthless about what am I going to actually do today? one tool I’ve been using a lot is called analog by, AGA monk,

From our friend Jeff Sheldon. it’s, it sounds really simple, but if it’s a system that allows you to just write down 10 things that you’re going to do that day, And you just get one card for the day.

It’s not a notebook where you’re gonna get like overwhelmed. It’s just like focus on these 10 things that you can get done today. And most days I don’t finish all 10, but I try to put the most important ones at the top and just go in order. And I try to do that before I open email and open social media and try to like figure out what I’m doing for the day and just try to make progress on each of the businesses each day, a little bit.

And that’s really helped.

[00:08:05] Pat:
I remember when we had. It was a huge change in how I did what I did. It was very similar. There was just not as much time to get things done. So I had to be overly cautious of what exactly I was going to be doing and how it was going to matter.

And there was also internally, it felt like there was a lot more at stake, right?

Like I have to get this right. Or I have to do these things, or I have to launch these things because now it’s not just me and my wife, it’s me and my wife and our son. And then, our daughter, Kai came along and you have three little ones now, how has this changed? Your goals, how has this changed? Like the why behind what you do prior to having.

[00:08:42] Caleb:
I would say the goals are less superficial now because you know, it might’ve been before where it’s like, I want to say for a physical thing, like I want to buy a house. I want to get a car. I want to. Get an X-Box or, you know, whatever, whatever it is. now it’s like, okay, there’s an infinite amount of money that kids could cost over the next 20 to however many years, between food and activities and school and college.

And who knows what weddings. So there’s almost like this infinite ceiling of earning potential that you kind of want to strive for in some ways, but also just be like, okay, what’s enough. Like, look at the months, coming up, do some financial forecasting a little bit, do like, what Matt does for, for SPI and get a feel for.

Okay. How much do I have to make? But to also be present with my family because this time is the only time. they’re going to be this age. And so it kind of just shifts your priorities a little bit. work-wise and kind of changes your goals of, you know, one of the things I was driving for up until we had kids was I want to be able to afford a family and for my wife, not to have to work. And now we’re at that point and I’m like, oh, that’s what I was striving for this whole time. So if I want to take an afternoon and go to the zoo or something like that, like this is what I’ve been working for. And I shouldn’t feel guilty about taking a few hours off on a single day and not be like my worst boss I’ve ever had, which I think people tend to do when they work for themselves.

[00:10:14] Pat:
Have you had any additional pressure to meet certain goals as a result of the family? I know that that was a big thing for me. It’s like, oh my gosh. If this doesn’t work. And, you know, of course my mind goes in places. It shouldn’t, it’s like, oh my gosh, we’re going to have to sell the home. And we’re going to be homeless if I don’t make this work.

And as a business owner, I mean, a lot of it is you at the helm of, of that, of that ship. How are you balancing pressure now that there’s a lot more seemingly at stake? You know, it’s one thing to want an Xbox and then not getting an X-Box, but it’s another thing to, you know, make sure there’s enough food on the table.

I mean, just to say, for, for the family and that kind of thing. How, how have you dealt with. Additional pressure or, or is there additional pressure for you? I know there was a lot for me. and I had a hard time sort of dealing with that initially.

[00:11:00] Caleb:
I think that the pressure has just always been there for me. Cause I’ve always been into personal finance and wanted to get out of debt and, and things like that And I’ve taken, like I took a job out of college. That was maybe not exactly what I wanted to do, but it was something, it was the safe thing to do, had a 401k, it had benefits and things like that.

And then. Didn’t really like that and decided to do some more risky things and go work for a blogger. I went to go work for corporate bar and left that to go work for myself. And I think those decisions would have been way harder with children, but, you know, we waited until we were in our early to mid thirties to have kids and. I was, you know, 10 ish years into trying to figure out this entrepreneur thing and running my own business for seven or eight years. By the time we had the twins. And so it, it was a different stage then I feel like where you were at, when your first was.

[00:11:55] Pat:
Yeah. When county was born, I had literally had just gotten laid off a year and a half prior. And I was building green exam academy.com. SPI was a new thing that was more of just sharing how I was building my business in a more of a, release valve for me, really more than anything at the time. didn’t have any plans for it to turn into this full fledged business like it is now, but there was definitely a lot of pressure.

And unfortunately what that meant was there were many days where I was just in front of the computer because I just had to make it. Right. And that was like the hustle and the grind and looking back, like, I’m grateful that I did all that, but at the same time, I also wish that I had been more conscious about how that decision affected April, my wife.

And if we had a lot more conversations early on about why I was maybe doing these things, it might’ve helped a little bit as far as you know, it just always felt. I was trying to balance being there as husband and then a soon to be father with the business that had to work. It was just, it was just a lot of additional pressure.

And I think that you’re right now that you’ve had your business for a while and you can see how maybe refocusing priorities is really the big thing versus like needing to make it work. Cause you know, you can make it work. Now at this point, I didn’t know I was going to make it work and that, Effected me.

I, one thing that. I, did learn very quickly when I had kids was this idea of setting boundaries around work and personal. How’s that going for you? Or are you finding that that’s difficult or what strategies are you using to make sure that. when you are in work time, you are in work time and you’re able to focus there. But then on the flip side, when you’re with your family, you are fully focused there.

[00:13:32] Caleb:
There’s always some flexibility in that, because there might have to be like a last minute phone call or something that happens, like when you’re with the kids or things like that But I’m pretty strict about Monday through Friday, like nine ish to five ish. And I don’t work outside of that. and you know, I’ll, I’ll go upstairs and have lunch and help out or. The twins, like are given, given Jen our time, you know, like take a walk in the middle of the day, give her a break, that sort of thing. but I really try not to work nights and weekends and unless there’s a client deadline that we have looming or something like that, I really. Tend to work nights and weekends.

And that’s just the boundary that I’ve, that I’ve set into intends to work and then to try to be a little bit more flexible with myself about like, Hey, it’s really nice out. Like, let’s go to the beach at three o’clock or, you know, like, that was a rough night. Like, let me help out with breakfast a little bit more.

And like, I’ll get down to work at 10 or 10 30 kind of thing. So it’s just, having boundaries about when I don’t work and then being a little bit more flexible. When I get to work because you know, the, the work tends to expand to there’s a lot of times. So,

[00:14:37] Pat:
Right.

[00:14:37] Caleb:
Focus on getting the most important things done.

[00:14:39] Pat:
How about physical boundaries? Because that was a big thing for me too. We, when he was born, when we read in a one bedroom apartment and, you know, my office was literally like in the kitchen and the.

[00:14:51] Caleb:
Seen that YouTube video. It’s still public, I think. Right.

[00:14:54] Pat:
It is still public. Yeah. It’s a I’ll link to, in the show notes. it’s called the, over the top office of a six-figure business owner or something.

And it’s just the whole point is

[00:15:04] Caleb:
Next to your dining

[00:15:05] Pat:
Yeah. The, the point is it’s nothing in that you don’t need a fancy space in order to do things, but I did need some sort of physical space outside of the family to be able to focus or else. It’s just going to blend and I’m not getting any work done, or I’m not, you know, fully focused to where it needs to be.

Do you have a space to do your work? And when you do that, like, are you able to separate yourself and be able to focus and, you know, at the same end, like, are you, when you’re outside of they’re able to shut the door or, or put that away and, you know, close your mind off of, off of work to.

[00:15:38] Caleb:
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I mean, we live in San Diego, which you don’t really need your garage. So I work in the garage, honestly.

Like I have my desk set up there. This filming setup is in a garage. And, that’s kinda my, my work space and there’s a door, which is a huge thing with kids. It’s on a different level.

So, you know, there’s stairs and a stair gate, you know, so the toddler doesn’t can’t come in, but like, you know, when she comes back from the park with Nana and like she comes and says, hi, and like, I can get interrupted still, which is fine. but I do have a separate space.

And another thing is like, I need my computer to do most of my work.

I could do some on my phone, but I leave my computer in the garage. I rarely take it upstairs. and that, that separation is

[00:16:19] Pat:
Is that like a rule you set for

[00:16:20] Caleb:
Partially out of laziness. Like I don’t want to unplug my laptop from my monitor and take it upstairs, but also just like, I don’t. Be working around the kids. I don’t want to be distracted when they’re doing something.

And you know, they’re still in the twins are still at an age where they’re like fall over, you know, sitting up if they are not being watched. So it’s not like I want to be distracted and I try not to do much work on my phone. I might check in on email or support stuff, but I don’t keep social media on my phone.

And that, that helps as well.

[00:16:49] Pat:
Oh, that’s really great. Yeah. I maybe that’s a strategy lock your laptop in your office. So it actually is a chore to take it out and then you’ll not take it out on, but I was going to ask about the phone too, and that’s, that’s great. Cause that’s often. Sort of fall back onto if we don’t have access to our computers and such.

So that’s really great. It sounds like a lot of discipline is in place. how are you and your wife working together during this time?

Because as a business owner, it can be very difficult. You have things that you need to do as well, but obviously she needs, what she needs, whatever that might be.

How are you? how, how has that, that was rough for me in April and the beginning of. We’re newly married and learning how to communicate, what are some perhaps strategies that you’re able to use to be able to make sure everything’s, you know, doing what it needs to.

[00:17:39] Caleb:
I think communication and expectations are probably the two big this thing. So, you know, like this morning, for example, is like, we’re recording this at 10:00 AM. And last night was a rough night, but because it was on the calendar and because Jen knew about it, like I could help until 9 45 and I was like, I gotta go downstairs.

And like even Nana, who’s helping out with our toddler. She, she knew as well that I was recording. And so there, there is, there is some expectation and communication about what’s needed from, from my end.

[00:18:09] Pat:
So they know you, they know what’s going on on your end.

[00:18:11] Caleb:
Yeah. Yeah. So they can plan like, okay, so our toddler is going to go to the park, cause it will be quieter for recording a podcast.

If the toddlers at a park, like those types of things are helpful to communicate and have expectations. And then it just has to be a two-way street. You have to, you have to give and take and, and help each other out when, when needed. So those are the biggest.

[00:18:31] Pat:
It’s, it’s definitely a challenge for sure. But the communication and I like what you said about, you know, helping the other person understand what you have going on that, you know, some stuff can be moved in. Some stuff can be interrupted, but like you said, a lot of podcasters people shooting videos.

Like it’s just, if we have that specific time then okay. But. Can’t be selfish and just take that time. We have to help other people understand that that’s also time taken away from them as well, to be able to help and support and whatnot. So again, every family’s different, every couple’s different, every kid is different.

So it’s like, we’re just sharing your experience. I’m sharing mine. We’re not saying this is the way you should do things, but we’re just hopefully enabling you to have conversations with perhaps significant others in your life about this as well. Or, or perhaps share this with somebody who might find it helpful.

Who’s a brand new father or mother, as an entrepreneur.

[00:19:22] Caleb:
And there are different phases to like, especially in like the first year, How long they stay away, constantly need to eat. Like how many naps are they doing? Like that changes every, like, as soon as you get it down, like as soon as you say, okay, we got this and then it changes, you know? So, you know, like it’s changed multiple times in the past eight months about like, what the twins need.

Like when are they waking up? Like, how often does Jen need me to come upstairs and help? You know? So it just kind of keeps changing and you just kind of have to keep adjusting and communicating.

[00:19:52] Pat:
What have you put on hold as a result of, starting the family with the young family and all the things that are required there as far as like your business. Goals or business wants and. things that you had planned, what have you consciously made a decision of to sort of stop doing or put on pause for right now to focus on what is a priority for you?

And it should be a priority.

[00:20:15] Caleb:
Yeah, I think personally, I’ve put a pause on my own projects. So, you know, been doing a lot of stuff with you. Like more client work. We have another big client that we’re working on, where we’re, I’m sending out a team to film and. In house. so that’s like one burner. If he’s in like the four burner theory where he can only afford things on the stove at a time, the second one would be switched pod.

So between those two, that’s like 50, 50 of my work time. And then the other two burners have to be like, one of those gotta be family. And then maybe two of those should be, should be family. Or like the fourth one is like taking care of myself, like exercising and sleep and food and those types of things.

I had this thought the. other night, I was like, you can have a great business. You can have a great body, or you can have a great, like family or marriage. You can say it’s really hard to have all three of those things. You know, like one of those things that has to give, and for me, it’s always been like, the health thing would give, like, I’d rather spend time with my wife And like grow that relationship or like make sure my business is good.

And the. Health always falls to the third wheel. so I feel like my, my personal projects, so that would be like making my own courses or filming YouTube videos or having a podcast. That’s just kind of been on pause at this point. partially because the other two business things are enough, you know, enough things to do always enough to do and bringing in enough money.

They don’t have to do them. but it’s also just a time thing.

[00:21:45] Pat:
Yeah, I like that for birder sort of analogy. Has health taken an impact since having the kids

[00:21:52] Caleb:
I mean sleep and food definitely takes an impact. You know, if you’re not rested, then you’re not as willing to want to exercise. but I really try to get outside once a day, try to take a couple mile walk if I can take, you know, take the twins, take the dog, get outside. That’s really important. And then we’ve done at the beginning of each of our kids being born.

We did like a meal service type thing where, you know, like easy, easy to prep or easy to warm up healthy food as, as really made, really made a difference. It’s more expensive for sure. But when your time is so limited, you don’t want to default to. Fast food or, you know, bags of chips or, you know, whatever.

Yeah.

[00:22:38] Pat:
That’s what I did.

[00:22:39] Caleb:
Do you want to, you want to still eat healthy and have good portions and that sort of thing. So that, that was an expense that we’re willing to make.

[00:22:47] Pat:
That makes sense. I mean, I fell into the trap of just, I don’t have as much time anymore. And, food and health definitely took a toll when Keoni was born that I remember one time county was I think, six months old or something, and I was carrying him up the steps, at our house. I was just tired. And I was like, this, this is ridiculous.

I can’t even go up the steps carrying my baby. What’s going to happen when he’s starting to run around and all this stuff. So I started to try to take care of myself. And I took some like at home fitness programs and started to try to eat a little bit better. And once I actually started to do that, I found that I had more time and energy than I did before.

And that combined with like, knowing what to say yes to knowing what to say no to, It worked out. but it was very difficult at first. So, thank you for the insight into your life and what’s been going on and you know, hopefully this doesn’t scare people away from, you know, this kind of thing.

I think, you know, for me, I can say on this end of it, now it is been the best thing that we’ve ever done. And the kids now at 12 and nine, almost 10. Tony just filmed his YouTube video, like first one in a couple of years. Cause he’s gotten into Nerf guns now and he wants to do reviews on Nerf guns and we go thrift shopping and go to the swap meet.

He finds like these old vintage things he wants to film about them, modify them and that kind of thing. He picked up, uh Filmora does the editing program cause he heard it was easy and he just watched a few YouTube videos to learn how to do it. And he was. Everything on his own from thumbnails title to editing, filming, all like everything on his own.

And, it’s pretty neat to see that like all that hard work that was put in in the beginning to, you know, not like train them to be a YouTuber, but just like to encourage them and get him to find himself as It’s like, it’s coming out now. And it’s just been amazing. So, you know, I’m interested too. And you know, our families are very close, your family and my family, so excited to, see your kids grow up and, and be a part of their life.

I’m just thankful to, to know that that’s going to happen. It’s just, it’s just awesome.

[00:24:46] Caleb:
Yeah, I’m excited. I’ve seen, I’ve seen Keoni and tiger up and it’s, it’s fun. Over the past 10 years did see how they’ve changed and to see to me, it’s the personality things that were there when they were so young. It’s like, you’re still the same Like you’re still the same as you were when you were like two years

[00:25:03] Pat:
You’re always just stay for now.

Oh man, but he is, he’s definitely going through changes right now. I mean, he started sixth grade this year, so middle school. So he’s got six classes during the day, which is very different than elementary school. You just sit in the same spot the entire day. Right? And so to have the transition to middle school happen after two years of sitting at home, learning on zoom was a huge, very tough transition.

And he actually was not doing so great in school for a while, just because he couldn’t keep up. And it was so different. but he’s been able to on his own now, with a little encouragement from us, get back

On track and his grades are good again, and he’s, he’s enjoying himself. and you know, there are mental and body changes that are happening during this age. Plus the schooling. I mean, there’s a lot and I’m remembering when I was in middle school, I was like, I hated middle school. I just hope it’s at least a little bit better for him. and then Kai coming up, I mean, I mean, just there’s boys now and like all this kind of stuff, it’s just, you know, the challenges never go away.

They just change.

[00:26:02] Caleb:
Yeah. Yeah. We were at a park this weekend and another twin mom pulled up and she was like, it doesn’t get easier. It just gets different. And we’re like, okay, that wasn’t super helpful, but it’s probably accurate.

[00:26:15] Pat:
That’s hilarious. let’s switch over to SwitchPod. Cause we’ve been working on this for several years now. We launched it in 2019 as many people know. And it’s still rolling. how would you offer an update to everybody listening? As far as how a SwitchPod is doing.

[00:26:28] Caleb:
I think through the pandemic and through the supply chain and manufacturing issues and retail locations being closed And things like that. I feel like we weathered it pretty well,

[00:26:41] Pat:
Yeah, we survived.

[00:26:42] Caleb:
We, we basically got inventory for the first time in October. 2019. And then, you know, like five months later, you know, the pandemic shut down the world.

So we had plans for specific things that didn’t really take off, you know, like getting into more physical retail stores was really hard. And one of the relationships, like we’ve finally got partnered with them and they were selling online only. And then they’re like, well, it’s not selling units. And I’m like, well, how are you going to compete with Amazon?

Like we were partnering with you to be in your physical stores. And so like, there’s definitely been challenges in that. And we’ve had to really stay on top of. Lead time for making sure we have enough inventory because you know, our factories in China, which was the first place that was, you know, hit by this and shut down everywhere.

And you know, it’s getting shut down again more recently now. And so all the shipping ports are completely clogged up and you know, like, I don’t know about you, but I’ve, I’ve backed a Kickstarter campaign in the past, like year or two, like during the pandemic And They’re really far behind. They’re like, it’s common guys.

It’s on a boat. I swear, like it’s coming and everybody in

[00:27:47] Pat:
Yeah.

[00:27:47] Caleb:
It’s like, how dare you take our money? And like, you know, people are on the internet, you know how they are.

[00:27:52] Pat:
I mean, that’s kind of how Kickstarter works though,

[00:27:54] Caleb:
Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, like I was proud that we were able to deliver about six or seven months after we got the money from Kickstarter.

I was pretty proud about like how quickly we did that. And I’m really glad we did because, with pandemic and everything hitting, I think we’ve weathered it pretty well, but we’ve, we’ve added new products. We have more accessories for SwitchPod, always thinking about what’s the next big thing. I don’t know.

What, what are you excited about?

[00:28:18] Pat:
Like you, I’m just really grateful that we were able to, like you said, weather the storm and still have things ship out. We had a number of pieces still in the U S to be able to ship out to people who purchased. And a lot of people during the pandemic started their content creation journey. Right.

And a lot of people wanted the tools and we thankfully had them. So business has been going pretty well. It’s been selling primarily on Amazon. However, we’re also selling off of our [email protected]. And since the launch of the SwitchPod to get people to. We have launched a ball head. The ball had, had an interesting journey.

It actually, wasn’t something we invented like the switch pot. It was one that was actually sort of white labeled at when you saw it. Actually, I think when you were in China, when you were touring the factory, making sure it’s doing some QA, some quality assurance while you were there. And we saw this really good one.

And then you were like, we should, we should put our stamp on it and manufacture these. And we have, and they’ve been doing really well. It’s a perfect sort of upgraded, complimentary accessory to the switch pot to be able to start to move the camera around, versus just being able to open and close a tripod real fast.

And then we launched a iPhone, slash Android comPatible adapter for the ball head, or switch. And that’s been going pretty well, too, obviously a lower price item. Both of these things, the ball ahead was interesting. Cause we had a company reach out to us during the pandemic and say, Hey, we want to buy like hundreds of these.

And we’re like, why, what do you, what are you doing with them? And they, they were going to put them on, these, apparatuses or, or, or devices that would check for COVID at like airports and things like that. Like sensors and stuff.

And they just needed a baldhead or

[00:29:57] Caleb:
Body temperature, scanning things. Yeah. Yeah, like 200 ball heads. So it was like, okay, you know, cut a special deal with them.

[00:30:05] Pat:
Yeah, that was really interesting. but then since then, we’re also, we’ve also been working on some other products. I don’t know if you want to share what we have, that just came out and also, you know, I know there’s some other stuff that maybe we don’t want to share yet. quite yet, as far as what’s what’s coming, but, it’s cool because we have the.Based product. And now these other accessories are going along with it. That’s the way that you should do e-commerce right? Because your best customers are the ones who’ve already purchased from you and then need the other things. It’s why, you know, all the accessories at apple probably make more money than the actual apple devices themselves.

But we have some stuff coming up in some stuff that was just launched. If you want.

[00:30:41] Caleb:
Yeah. so we came up with a second phone adapter, just like a beefier stronger one. both of those were similar to the. The factory was making them themselves. And so they own the rights to them and they could modify them to our colors, our branding, like, you know, a little bit size changing, things like that.

So we update our phone adapter and they just came out recently with our quick release plate adapter and, and all of these accessories are based on user feedback is based on oh, it’d be really awesome if you guys had a plank. And so we’ve tried to stick to that whenever. And so with this quick release plate adapter is, is

If you have a bunch of different cameras, you have the same ARCA Swiss play on the bottom of them a lot of the times, and you can quickly change them.

So we have a adapter that you would screw onto the switch spot, and then you’d have a plate that goes on your camera and you can quickly take it on and off. So if you are putting a ball head on it, you want a, you know, a way to just like change cameras really quickly. you can do that.

[00:31:41] Pat:
Yeah. That’s awesome. And like I said, we have some other things in the works too, and, you know, accessories and whatnot, but we’ve also been throwing around the idea and perhaps, maybe it’s because of both the pandemic and big life changes that, that we’ve had, that we’ve kind of put this on pause, but I think we’re almost ready to launch another flagship product, right?

Like another new line, if you, if you want to call it that, perhaps what are you thinking or what, like has been our thought process about that? As far as what we could create, because we’ve come up with several different ideas and we haven’t necessarily like landed on one yet, but I’m just starting something new And fresh.

And you know, whether it’s an invention or, or, or an upgraded version of something that already exists, like it’s, to me really exciting because this could take SwitchPod from where it’s at to like the next step to get to wherever it ends up going with.

[00:32:33] Caleb:
Yeah. I think one of the things about e-commerce is you could sell almost anything. You can go to Alibaba, you could white label things. You can copy cat what other people do, and just try to. Get more inventory, get more skews, get more things that you’re selling on your website. And I’ve been really hesitant to do that.

Like I would rather have less things that are high quality And are directly related to the target audience or related to our main product.

[00:33:01] Pat:
Like, you need, you need bags on your, like, you guys should sell bags and you should swell

[00:33:06] Caleb:
Merchant shirts and hats and yeah.

[00:33:08] Pat:
Like, we don’t want to do that.

[00:33:09] Caleb:
Yeah. I mean, I’m not hearing from customers that they want t-shirts And hats with switchboard. If we made them, we would sell some, but, you know, it’s a matter of focus for me of what, what we’re going to make. And so, you know, right now we’re making things that go with the SwitchPod tripod that were initially created and invented and kickstarted.

So if we want to make another line of products, I don’t want to just make. something that’s a copycat of something I would like to make something that’s unique. I would like to have it be different enough. And so, you know, we’ve talked a lot about a lot of different things that creators need, to make videos, to record podcasts. you know, there’s all the electrical things. Microphones and switchers and recorders and cameras and things Like That That kind of feel a little bit beyond my ability. And then there are the more mechanical things where there’s, you know, just looking around at like any desk tour office tour you see on YouTube.

It’s like, there’s like the desk mats. And like the monitor stands in the mic arms and the. Whatever else. So it’s like, we would want whatever we use to make things easier and faster and more lightweight, or travel-friendly just like the SwitchPod. Like having that be the, the impetus for creating a new product would be to not just have a version of something, but to make something better.

[00:34:31] Pat:
Yeah, I’m remembering when we were at craft and commerce, I think it was June of 2019, or no is probably 2018. We saw, a few people speak on stage and one of them, the name’s blanking on me right now, but they were talking about the idea of like finding the little frictions for your target.

[00:34:48] Caleb:
Yeah. So Tom and Dan from studio. Neat.

[00:34:51] Pat:
Studio neat. That’s what it was. Yeah. Yeah. And so like, we’re looking for the next little friction that we can help and, you know, help make a little bit easier. Right. And that was the big thing about switch and why? I think a lot of people were surprised because. It just is a tripod that opens and closes real fast and like, yeah, that was a little friction that a lot of people had when it came to flogging and traveling.

And we were able to find that little friction and solve the problem. It doesn’t bend around trees or wrap around this. There’s been some competing products that have come out since then, but they just, try to become, like, I feel like they’re more of the Swiss army knife of the thing. It’s like, we’re gonna, we’re going to take everybody’s feedback about. Everything and put them all into one tool and the tool doesn’t become interesting anymore just becomes utility. There’s actually, you know, it doesn’t do any of those things gray. It does a mall, but we want to take a little friction and be the best solution for that.

[00:35:44] Caleb:
Yeah. And, you know, thinking of the different products that studio neat has made that I’ve purchased through the years are like they made one of the first iPhone tripod adapter. Things that just made it really easy to take your iPhone and put it, on a tripod.

They made, you know, an early iPad stylist that was like really comfortable.

And you could write with, and Simple syrup maker, which is like simple syrup for making cocktails is really just sugar and water, but they made this bottle with a funnel that makes it real easy to pour the sugar to a certain level with the line, fill the water to a certain line and it, you make it.

And you know, it’s not an expensive or creative thing, but it’s like, if you want to have simple syrup made, like it’s, it’s brainless to just follow what the, what they’re doing. And so it’s like, like you said, all these little frictions, like no, their business doesn’t. Make simple syrup bottles, but it’s like one of their many products fix those little frictions and little pain points.

[00:36:38] Pat:
Yeah. So we thankfully are our own audience as well. So we look for little frictions in our lives and little things that we do, and we try to have an open eye and open ear to those things. But we also are grateful to have this rather large. Not necessarily I don’t, I don’t even know if we want to call it audience because we’re not publishing content, but they’re customers.

But you know, I also wouldn’t want to say customers because if they’re more than that, they’re like creator customers. Right. And I think that. What has our brand stand out versus a lot of these other companies that are creating solutions that are out there. It’s like where a part of the audience too. And as we say, inside of the box, when you open it up, it’s by creators for creators.

And it’s cool because we are still seeing out in the wild SwitchPods. I was at social media marketing world, and a phew. We saw our, I saw a bunch of SwitchPods. I know you weren’t there, but there was a ton, there was one guy who had a rig that had like four cameras. With his own specialized adaptor.

And he was just holding it with a switch pot and then people were just going around holding it and filming videos. I had met a baseball player that had one in public and was using it. And I was just like, I went up to him and it actually was Trevor Bauer, former pitcher of the Dodgers. We exchanged numbers.

And then two weeks later, Through a terrible, public relations thing. and then I just was like, I don’t really want to talk to this guy anymore. It probably wouldn’t make a lot of sense for me to do so, with, you know, what he’s been going through. So, that was unfortunate, but again, like another case of just people are using this thing and that’s like the most incredible thing.

And so to imagine people using our next idea, whatever that next idea might be as. Encouraging. I’m really excited about that. And when you think about like the timeline for that, what do you think like I’d love to just personally know what you think as far as like development, prototyping, and when that could potentially come out, we can sort of like, see how our prediction here perhaps compares to what actually happens in the future.

[00:38:37] Caleb:
I mean switchboard took, what about two years from like initial idea to shipping? I would say. So like it took like a year and a half from idea to launch. So, we, we ha we have ideas. I think it’s just choosing one and going for it and willing to take on more risk.

[00:38:57] Pat:
Yeah.

[00:38:57] Caleb:
But I would say in two years from now, so let’s 2020. second flagship and I don’t think it’s going to be under the SwitchPod name.

[00:39:07] Pat:
No switch, pause like a line, right? Like that’s

[00:39:10] Caleb:
Yeah. Yeah. Most people don’t know where like the name of our actual LLC is I assume.

[00:39:14] Pat:
No it’s studio gigawatt by the way, which is a reference to back to the future. But I think you’re right. I think it’s going to be outside of the switch, pop line. And this will be like a new line of things. It solves a friction for a particular type of person who films, video, and here are the tools and accessories and things that you would need to best do that.

So I know we’re kind of beating around the Bush cause we don’t want to necessarily reveal what I think is the idea that you and I are both thinking about. But anyway, it’s just really exciting and it’s fun. It’s it’s like another new beginning, but SwitchPod has definitely helped us get here because I think that with SwitchPod.

You know, how, how much it’s, succeeded in. And again, we see it in videos too, like MKBHD holds it and, and, and we see a few other creators using it. it’s just like, wow, now we can open up the doors to even more creators to use, our, our next thing. And that’s exciting because, you know, ultimately. The business.

I would imagine if it continues to grow, we’ll get to a point where it could be very valuable for, you know, for us, as co-owners and co-founders to, you know, potentially cash out one day. Right. and that’s kind of like still like the ultimate goal, but, we want to do it right. And we want, we want to do it with grace. We want to do it with a lot of service to creators in mind first.

[00:40:28] Caleb:
Yeah. I guess I get caught up in like what we’re able to do with, you know, just the, the team, you and I, and the people we’re having make the product and like what we’ve done in the past. And I need to be able to expand, to be like, Well, we could, we could do so much more if we just get to know the right people.

Cause we could have never made SwitchPod without getting to know the product team. And so it’s like if we have bigger ideas of things or things that involve electronics or what have you, it’s like, we just need to beat the person that knows the person and get, introduce us to the other person. So that’s how, that’s how this all happened.

And thinking a little bit bigger when it comes to the next product is something we should do.

[00:41:05] Pat:
Yeah, for sure. I’m excited about that. So we should chat about that privately in the future. So we can actually start putting things into place, but, D this has been fun to catch up. what else do we have going on? Oh, you and I are gonna be working on something together very soon. If not already in production.

We’ve had, at SPI, a load of people ask for help with their YouTube channel. And, you know, I always sort of differ. This is very similar to what happened with the podcasting stuff, right? It was like, no, go to Sean Cannell, go to Roberto Blake and all these people are amazing and they can help you out.

But then of course, there’s droves of people who go, oh, Pat, we want to learn how you do video and who works with you? And can you guys help. So we could go down the route of, you know, a cohort-based situation sorta like Ali Abdullah does, or we could create, you know, a helpful YouTube video that kind of answers all the questions and solve the problems, in like a surface level way.

But yeah. You know, people want a course. And so we are actually putting together a course, both Caleb and I are contributing to that and will likely be on sale for those at SPI later in the year. and that’s really exciting. I, every time I’ve teased that to people in office hours and other places, people have gotten really excited about that because YouTube is definitely becoming a place that a lot of people are going to, to not just create, but to amplify

Their business, you know, with SEO and Google taking it. and with video becoming even more popular, you know, YouTube is definitely a way for you to niche down and find an audience that hasn’t found you yet. So what can you share to tease people about what we’re going to be talking about in that course? And, I dunno, hopefully we’ll maybe get even like a landing page set up to drive people to, after we finish here, to get them excited.

[00:42:45] Caleb:
Yeah. I mean, we’re going to focus on setting the foundation of, of a good YouTube channel and setting you up for. Either making money directly from YouTube, like from YouTube ads or, you know, using it to drive business to your business, whether that’s just having it be social proof or having it actually drive leads to your business to buy courses or products, or what have you like. I’ve gone on and off of YouTube on my personal channel, in waves. But like, I still get a check from YouTube every month. Like, because of all this work I’ve done in the past, and I’ve helped people like you and a lot of other clients launched their YouTube channels and learn the analytics and what matters and what doesn’t and how to do titles and thumbnails.

And, your channel has been on there for over 10 years, I think. And you’ve learned a lot over the years.

Works and what doesn’t, and then you’ve had recent success with your Pokemon YouTube channel at well that we’re going to pull from, like what’s working now and really just help people get a solid foundation of whether they’ve never made a YouTube video before, or they’ve been making them, but they don’t really have a good strategy.

Like this’ll help set your channel up in a good place to, to have the right cadence, to know what videos to make and to how to, you know, how to grow your.

[00:43:57] Pat:
Exactly. And to get more specific, we want to help you. YouTube is get to a thousand subscribers because that is the number of subscribers you need in order to enable monetization that plus 4,000 hours of watch time, which I know sounds like a lot, but if you do it right, and if you get to a thousand, the way that we’re going to teach it, it can definitely help you get there.

And you’d be able to unlock that. And. Drive more leads to your business and all those other things too. I’m really excited about it because I want to track how quickly we can get people to a thousand after they start going in the course, I’d love to share, a very specific number in terms of how long on average it would take our students to go through and have that blow people’s minds.

So that’s going to be the goal and the approach, and we’ll, we’re going to work really closely with those, especially the first students who get in there in a beta launch and founders group and whatnot. So stay tuned. I’ll share a link after we close up here, as far as where you can go probably landing page, or if not already, the course that’s available. If this is something you’re listening to in the future.

Caleb, thank you so much for coming on and the update. It’s been super fun to hang and see what was going on with the family and the business and SwitchPod. Where should people go to follow more of your stuff and get more of your content in their lives?

[00:45:06] Caleb:
Well, SwitchPod.co is where you’ll find more about our products that we have together. If you want to learn about making videos, you can go to MakeBetterVideos.com. That’s my website where I have my courses, and go to my YouTube channel and stuff where I teach video production, editing, things like that.

[00:45:21] Pat:
Nice.

Hang around, we’ll tell you where the link is for info about our YouTube course together, and stay tuned.

Thank you so much, Caleb. Appreciate you.

[00:45:29] Caleb:
Thanks for having me.

[00:45:30] Pat:
Alright. I hope you enjoyed that interview and update from Caleb. Caleb and his wife, Jen, are doing an amazing job as parents, as entrepreneurs, and as business owners, and as friends. Caleb and I are continuing to still work together to serve you.

As we mentioned earlier, our brand new YouTube course is now live. It’s called YouTube From Scratch, and it’s literally going to tell you step-by-step how to make it happen; how to get to a thousand subscribers in the shortest time possible for you in the niche that you’re in.

The cool thing about this is we both were like, “We have just such an extensive knowledge of YouTube, should we put everything that we know about it is in there?” Quickly, we decided that that was not going to be of best service to you. The best service to you would be efficiency in transformation. Efficiency to help you get to a thousand subs and begin that momentum on YouTube to start to see results sooner than later.

So, you’re going to find that a lot of the lessons inside of this course are very short. They’re very, “Here’s the thing to do, now go and do it.” You actually see me build a brand new YouTube channel from scratch. It’s a sample one, but it is one that’s alive, and you can actually see the videos for it and how we approached it so that you can have that as a basis for your decision making with your channel.

Again, if you already have a channel and you want to go back to the foundations and get it right, you can take the course. Or, if you want to start from scratch and start brand new, just clean slate and do it right the first time, go to SmartPassiveIncome.com/YouTubeFromScratch. One more time, SmartPassiveIncome.com/YouTubeFromScratch is where you can go and check it out.

We know that you’re gonna enjoy it. You’re especially going to enjoy the introductory price that’s available right now, since this is the first time we’re launching it. The price will be going up after the launch is over, probably a week after this episode goes live. So, if you’re listening to this within the week that it has been published, act now. Against SmartPassiveIncome.com/YouTubeFromScratch.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I appreciate you. If you also want to get the show notes and links to all these things that we were mentioning today, and all the fun resources, go to smartpassiveincome.com/session585. That’s 585. Again, SmartPassiveIncome.com/YouTubeFromScratch.

Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate you, and hope to see you inside the course, YouTube From Scratch, which you can find at SmartPassiveIncome.com/YouTubeFromScratch.

Cheers.