The Couple's Table

Authentic Connections in the Digital Age

Heather & Tom Season 1 Episode 163

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Ever wondered how a simple second microphone can transform your podcasting experience? Join us as we share our personal journey in upgrading our live stream setup, enhancing our broadcasting quality, and connecting with listeners worldwide, from Mildura to across the globe. We also take a nostalgic look back at Black Friday madness, contrasting the chaos of in-store adventures with today's laid-back online shopping atmosphere. Our Thanksgiving reflections bring a sense of gratitude and simplicity, as we opted for a cozy celebration intertwined with gaming, highlighting Heather's exciting expansion of her gaming channel.

Step into the world of music and discover the art of micing a drum kit with expert tips on choosing and placing microphones for the best sound. We reminisce about our own musical paths, from childhood piano lessons to dabbling with the acoustic guitar, emphasizing the critical role of sound engineering in live events. We also express our deep appreciation for the gaming community that has supported us, acknowledging the shared successes and camaraderie that have made this journey so fulfilling. Plus, explore our evolving content creation strategies, from pioneering gaming channel growth to building a vibrant and engaged community.

From transforming our gaming side project into a primary focus to mastering the intricacies of podcasting, we discuss what it takes to stay true to one's passions while navigating a competitive landscape. Discover the value of real-time engagement with a dedicated audience and how platforms like YouTube Premium offer unique benefits for creators and viewers alike. As we reflect on our creative journey, we consider how personal authenticity and genuine connection with our audience have been key to our growth, from playful holiday-themed projects to gratitude-filled gaming experiences. Join us for an episode filled with personal stories, technology talk, and a heartfelt exploration of community in both physical and digital spaces.

🟣 CONNECT WITH HEATHER —
My Vlog Channel: http://www.youtube.com/heatherjustcreate
My Tutorial Channel: http://www.youtube.com/heatherramirez
My Gaming Channel: http://www.youtube.com/heatherjustplay
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/heatherjustcreate
Website: http://www.heatherjustcreate.com

🟣 CONNECT WITH TOM —
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/tombuck
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/sodarntom

Speaker 2:

no-transcript.

Speaker 1:

It's an MV7+, but I mean sound-wise they should be pretty much the same.

Speaker 2:

Should be the same. All right, let's check in with the comments. Really quick, kane. Hello, hello. Kane is saying morning from Mildura, Australia, Starting our Saturdayurday making breakfast for my boys and listening to my two favorite live stream hosts. It's going to be a great weekend, so nice parker, jennings hello everyone hello, hello. Just flinks is here, hey, hello, how you guys doing. And bon is here, hey, everyone, hello, hello, hi. Happy friday, yeah, here we are day after thanksgiving day after thanksgiving indeed. Bon, that plate looked so good.

Speaker 1:

Bon appetit. Am I right?

Speaker 2:

In our Discord server we had people sharing their Thanksgiving spreads and oh.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I was definitely thinking okay, next year we have to make some, we have to make mashed potatoes.

Speaker 1:

I feel like yeah, I was okay for fitness goal reasons not doing that this year.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, charles McGregor is here. Hello, tom, not trying any weird new microphones on the couples table two weeks in a row. What is this?

Speaker 1:

Well, we sort of I don't say permanently, but we added a more permanent second person setup in here, yeah, which has been really nice. Don't say permanently, but we we added a more permanent second person setup in here, yeah, uh, which has been really nice. And since I don't have to set up a new mic from scratch every time, we're just kind of just been leaving it, especially now for couples table, where I'm on your mic. I'm not unplugging or touching anything over here. So, um, that would be the one to change.

Speaker 2:

But it just kind of works. It would be harder to change, I feel like, than before, where there was no second mic in here, so every time I was bringing in a mic stand, a cable and a mic.

Speaker 1:

So I was like, well, which mic am I using now? Which is very fun, I like doing that, but that, I mean, that is really fun. It did lead to problems sometimes because I, you know, oh fun. It did lead to problems sometimes because I, you know, I'm plugging in a mic. How does it sound? The things are all weird. This is a little more consistent. We're basically using the exact same mic, same settings. It's easy.

Speaker 1:

Um, hopefully it gives me the chance on my videos to to play with different microphones and stuff. I constantly change the mic on my desk setup yeah every time I use my desk setup jake is here.

Speaker 2:

Hello y'all, hello, hello. Sean is here. Hey, sean level up with mike happy black friday everyone watching from car and bumper to bumper traffic listening in the car yes, sorry you're stuck in traffic. I know we were gonna run errands today, but I was like I don't know if I want to go out into the world today. Just I don't know how crazy it's gonna be where we're at. But I was like I don't know I don't know.

Speaker 1:

I remember working retail on many black fridays, but I don't know if it's the same chaos that it was yeah I remember after college I'm sorry, after high school I worked at a video store.

Speaker 1:

I know I've told this many times for a couple of years and on black friday it's a video rental store. It was like an independent blockbuster kind of thing. So we rented movies. We had like a few movies for sale and like candy for sale, and I'm not even kidding On the Black Fridays that I worked there, people would come in like sweaty and panicked, like literally just like what do you guys have on sale? Do you have anything on sale? What do you have rent three get one free. And like like people were just going door to door Like what does this store have? What does this store have? Do you have anything?

Speaker 2:

It's not like that.

Speaker 1:

I don't think it's like that. I mean that was 2004,. 20 years ago.

Speaker 2:

So online shopping is a little bit different.

Speaker 1:

Everything's a little bit different. I feel like it's like yeah, I'm gonna go black friday shopping and then you kick back on the couch with an ipad or something right, exactly the twine poodle oh was rib jam hello everyone.

Speaker 2:

Hello, good to see you. Uh, let's see just flanks. I just got my mxl 604 today and I forgot how much fun it is to mess around and test new mic pencil condensers are wicked pencil condensers are awesome, they're.

Speaker 1:

They're small, little, almost look like little shotgun type microphones or like sort of like that, like your blue one that you had kind of. They're usually shorter, but they're so good at being directional and so good at, like, picking up sound from distances.

Speaker 2:

Oh they're great, call me, come in the house, hi, hi, hello, hello. Yeah, tom and I do. We didn't go too crazy with thanksgiving food yesterday and our tradition I don't, it's not, it wasn't intentional, but it is a tradition that we just stay here yeah, just life is easier yeah well, my parents live in the la area yeah, worst traffic.

Speaker 1:

I am not, we're not going to be, and it was raining we spend more time in traffic than we do at their house.

Speaker 2:

So, I was like I can come on Tuesday or something. Yeah, I mean, they visited last weekend.

Speaker 1:

So it was like we got to hang out. If we live 20 minutes away, for sure, that'd be wonderful, yeah, and then figuring out what to do with our dogs and the whole thing. You go, you go out of town on a like a vacation. You come back and you like a vacation because it's so exhausting.

Speaker 2:

So, uh, we did get to do some really fun things with gaming really special fun things.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, heather's been um, you know, pivoting towards the gaming channel for several months now and it's been going really well. And it's super cool because I think we see this a lot in our discussions here, when we whether it's us or people in the chat we talk about like new projects or new things, and it's like, okay, we'll start doing this, and then, when this happens, you do this or you whatever. And I feel like it's so interesting because the gaming channel has gotten to the like and then point like start by doing this and then and I don't mean like and now, monetize, like crazy or whatever, but I just mean like you know, like today you were talking about um being really intentional with scheduling, streams and stuff, um, rather than casual and stuff. I was like, yeah, I think you, you've built a thing, you have a proof of concept, you've built it. It's something is growing there and now is the time to sort of like shift into a different gear of and that's really cool yeah, it's been super fun.

Speaker 2:

It's just it's I don't know. It's fun, I I have more to say, but yeah, it's, it's just, it's really cool because it does feel so organic well, it is yeah, we can talk more about it. But, tom, this might be an odd question for the couple stable, but how do you mic up your drum kit and how many mics do you use and where do you place them?

Speaker 1:

I am horrific at micing up drums.

Speaker 2:

I don't have specific drum mics because you don't, yeah, you don't, you don't mic up your drum kit I don't.

Speaker 1:

really I haven't recorded drums in ages other than like experimenting from time to time. But yeah, when I do or have in the past obviously use a bass drum mic, which sometimes I'll use, like the sm7b for my bass drum mic, I usually use the sm57 for the snare and then I'll um, I usually find some kind of condensers I don't have pencil condensers, but something like two condensers to sort of put overhead for cymbals and toms and stuff, and sometimes maybe I'll have something else down on a tom On a tom so cute.

Speaker 1:

But I don't have. I don't have like a drum mic set up. If I recorded a lot of drums and I had a lot of budget, I would love to have like an earthworks drum mic setup because they're so nice and so beautiful and they're just like and they stay out of the way. Yeah, it's very hard when you're playing drums.

Speaker 1:

Drums already have like so many stands and it's like tripods and light stands, it feels like to the drum kit, yeah, so now you're gonna add a mic stand and mic cables and stuff and earthworks does a really good job at like really good mics that just stay out of the way, and also then having a mic that's close to something as loud as a drum, it can be really hard to get it to sound right because it's so loud I can't even imagine, I have no idea. So if you, go to a concert and you hear a drum drums played live. That sound amazing.

Speaker 2:

Definitely give props to like the sound engineers or the mixer because I don't know how it just doesn't get blown out immediately they have done a good job yeah real pal room. There's no place like home. Hi, hi thanks for our home yesterday yes, and thanks for stopping by our stream last night yes charles, that is great that you found success with your gaming channel. Heather, I'm always curious about when that and then step is for everyone. Yes, and every project. Yeah, it's. Uh, we can talk more about that. We can talk about it.

Speaker 1:

It's fascinating to me.

Speaker 2:

Um, the twin poodle says congrats on the gaming channel, Heather. I've caught some replays and it's been a lot of fun to watch. That's so cool. Be careful micing up a tom.

Speaker 1:

You never know what'll lead, heather we know tom is a multi-instrumental instrumentalist.

Speaker 2:

Yes, that's in my resume but do you play any instruments or even have any desire to learn one? Uh, I, I don't want to say I play the piano, but uh, we have a keyboard. Tom actually got it for me for Valentine's day, way back in the day.

Speaker 1:

Our first Valentine's day.

Speaker 2:

Oh wow, see, he is a good memory. But uh, and it's so nice, it's beautiful.

Speaker 1:

It's a Yamaha keyboard.

Speaker 2:

It's like weighted keys and stuff, so it feels piano-ish, it's so pretty, um, and I, I, so it feels piano-ish, it's so pretty and I have been playing piano since I was a kid. When my parents forced me to take piano lessons, my brother pursued it to the point where he started writing his own music. But I did not. But I still like to play every now and then, but it's definitely just, you know, whenever I have the craving, which is not as you know a couple songs on guitar too.

Speaker 1:

We don't have an acoustic guitar, but I feel like that's your jam.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think I had a phase in college where I who didn't. Yeah, tried to do acoustic guitar. That was fun, but dang, it hurts my fingers so much.

Speaker 1:

You gotta build up the calluses.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that was definitely like a. I don't know if I'm gonna keep going cause like. I feel like it still hurts just thinking about it. Let's see, I'm trying hard to get an earthworks drum mic kit for a friend that's cool. They are beautiful well, you wanna talk about the gaming channel a little bit.

Speaker 1:

Sure.

Speaker 2:

So explain the phases, these different phases that you are talking about from your perspective.

Speaker 1:

I mean, it's a little different for every project. For your gaming channel specifically, I think part of it was you know, it wasn't that long At the beginning of summer it was like let's get the PlayStation out of this room, let's get all the streaming gear out of here, because you're not going to do gaming channel anymore. And it's simplified and now the gaming channel is the main channel. So we've done a shift.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and the I think so one was acknowledging that not only do you want to make stuff on the gaming channel, but you want that to be the priority and the main focus, which, in a lot of cases for stuff like this, is like what makes it the main channel is just saying it's the main channel, you know, like that's it, that's all it takes, yeah you know, if you had, if you had a channel that had, you know, two million subscribers and was bringing in six figures a year and a channel that was brand new, then it's a little different when it's like, okay, I'm switching main channel, whatever, but when everything's like, all things considered, equal for the most part, yeah, yeah, and you had done the gaming channel a couple of years ago when you started it and it seemed like it was, you know, it seemed like it was going somewhere, and so there was already kind of that proof of concept, like I think there's something here.

Speaker 1:

If I just do my own thing, gaming's a really intimidating niche because it's very popular, it's, it's very established, there's norms, there's expectations, there's lots of different creators, culture, all that stuff, all that is already established, yeah and so you're jumping in there.

Speaker 1:

It's strange to like have been on youtube for as many years as you have and then jump into a part of youtube where you're like I don't know what I'm yeah, I mean, I talked about this on previous couples table, but the vocab is not even the same yeah it's so different, it's so different yeah.

Speaker 1:

So there's that part there which is just like the getting up and running and so you know, like making videos, doing a couple streams, and then you know people started showing up, like a community started developing, and and it was kind of like that was what we had said was just do this till the end of the year, like just whatever you're doing, you're making videos. When you make videos doing streams and do streams, just do this yeah the community though that has developed there is so strong and amazing and it's crazy, yeah, so crazy I think it's really unique in the gaming world to have the type of I mean you can tell, because that's what people say to have the community.

Speaker 1:

You have a lot of people too are, you know, like in their 30s, in their 40s, 50s?

Speaker 2:

yeah, it's, it's old and we have a 73 year old yeah, it's so I think.

Speaker 1:

I think that's unique for an audience like that to have, think that's unique for an audience like that to have an outlet in the gaming world, and so I know it's. We still have a month left in the year and originally the plan was like do this to the end of the year. But now you're, you're, you have an audience, you have a core community and so that and you ended up building a discord server organically. Not like the strategic thing, but it was.

Speaker 2:

There was a need, like we need a place I think, the way that I I think, the way like my approach has shifted. So you know, first it was I have loved video games since forever. I have a skill set that is youtube content creation. Why the heck would I not? Mesh those together and let's just make videos about video games yeah, and that's all it was.

Speaker 2:

And it was just. I think the first time I started the channel, that's, you know, kind of had been my approach to it, and then this second time around. I think we have grown so much. Uh, as you know, business, business partners, business owners, content creators and just like as individuals, in terms of, you know, recognizing when things are in alignment.

Speaker 2:

I think, especially when it comes to something like YouTube, there's so much discourse on this is how you're supposed to do it, but, at the end of the day, you are the YouTube creator, and if you don't want to do the way that it's supposed to do it, you, the end of the day, you are the youtube creator, and if you don't want to do the way that it's supposed to do it, you will burn out right, and so it's like finding the balance of making sure that, uh, things are in alignment, and I think my hope with this gaming channel is to do it the way that I feel like.

Speaker 2:

Uh is not the. You know I have not seen an example of the success that I am envisioning, but I think I want to prove that it is possible, and I think the reason why I haven't seen an example of it is the way that I'm envisioning means that it is naturally smaller, and so I'm sure it exists. It's just that I don't know about it because it's not a 2 million channel, it's not a 5 million channel, it's probably a couple thousand, and so it's never going to be on my radar. But I think when it comes to YouTube it's like you know, the traditional way is the YouTube creator is speaking one to many, right? You're talking to over here this person4 000 today, probably oh yeah, maybe even right this minute yeah, I think tom's gonna hit 154 000 subscribers, which is insane, right.

Speaker 2:

So it's like tom is speaking to hundreds, thousands of people, uh, one to many, this is very much two-way. It is two-way conversation. I am very much involved. I am talking to specific individuals. I know their name, they know my, obviously know my name, but it's you know, it's a conversation versus I'm talking at, which is not bad, it's just different right, and I don't know what that means in terms of you know the business side of things, but I do believe that, uh, with the value, with the, with the value that is, um, not transactional yeah the intrinsic value.

Speaker 2:

I feel like that is going to manifest in some.

Speaker 1:

Well, because that was that was a problem that you needed to get to deal with and figure out early on, was you were saying the gaming channel felt indulgent because it's like it's. It's not everything up to this point on youtube you've done, done like this is a tutorial, this is a documentation of something, this is a. You watch it, you learn, you know, you clearly get something from this, versus like I'm playing a video game or enjoying, you know a hobby. Essentially right, how, how does that work? And that was a big like hurdle to get over.

Speaker 2:

Huge yeah. And I think, like, like the way that I've always approached youtube is is like, how is this going to make money? Obviously right, if this is like our bread and butter, who wouldn't approach it that way? But I think, like, one thing I've discovered in the past two years is, um, I think, if I do it the way that feels naturally to me, which is not following the money I know it sounds so- that's what I've been saying from the beginning, though, is this is the way to do it.

Speaker 2:

It sounds like that movie if you build it, they will come. It sounds naive, but I believe it, though right. I believe that if I do it the way that feels right, I feel like it will happen yes I don't, I can't explain beyond that, but I really do believe because I I see that I feel the value. I feel the value here, but I don't. I know it's hard because it's like okay, now I don't. I don't want to look at it like how am I gonna monetize all of this?

Speaker 1:

you know yeah, well, we've. We have talked about this a lot, um and the the. The thing about it that I think is really important, that we always emphasize is, like, everybody's youtube experience is different. So if you look at somebody who's successful and one thing, you try to copy paste what they do, it's probably not going to work for you and so you need to figure out things organically. Like, yes, it makes sense, if you're doing a gaming channel, to have a discord server, but both of us were not into discord prior to this, like we're. Just it doesn't really work for us. It it organically became a thing that made sense for your channel to have, and then the right people also showed up to help build it and to help run it and now it's like the biggest asset for the channel.

Speaker 2:

For sure.

Speaker 1:

But if you had done it like, okay, I'm doing this, I should have a community thing I'm gonna do a. Discord. Let me spend three weeks perfecting this test Discord server before I make it public and try to get people in there. It like would have just been pushing this boulder up a hill versus like no, we need a place discord makes sense, let's build it from there.

Speaker 1:

And I feel like monetization is the same thing like yes, yeah, if you try to figure out like okay, well, the you have to pay to be in the server, or whatever, I feel like, as time goes on, things just make sense and that could be anything from. The channel just does well and gets lots of ad revenue.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Cool.

Speaker 2:

Maybe there's nothing has to change. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Maybe there's authentic, organic sponsorship opportunities. It doesn't have to come from the audience, but maybe the audience pitches ways to do membership just the same way. They pitched discord, like maybe you know, the people who are participating in the channel will help figure out whatever it is that leads towards monetization and it starts and it grows, and it grows and it grows and you don't know which of those things is going to be the right thing. Last week we talked all about like switching from Patreon to YouTube channel memories. My thing was like, yeah, let's do Patreon, let's do Patreon the people who watch my channel.

Speaker 2:

The majority said no and I spent four, I guess I spent really like six years, yeah, trying to force it when really it's like let's just look at what's actually happening yeah, so yeah, I guess, like the, the thing that I want to prove is that you could do it organically, you. You could do it in a way where you're not chasing numbers.

Speaker 3:

That's what I want to do, I want to prove that.

Speaker 2:

I want to be an example that you don't have to just be on the hamster wheel of views and subscribers and dollars and all these things. That's very admirable. Or naive. I'm all for naive, though, like if that's what it is, I check everything against you and I trust you, and if you believe in this, then all right, we're gonna be good.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's I mean, that's how At least I'm not crazy. That's how my channel grew as well, like is I I? I started even the opposite. I wanted no part of monetization. We've gone over this a lot, but it's like things made sense.

Speaker 1:

So things like affiliate links yeah made sense when people literally started asking for affiliate links. Right, you know, like stuff just kind of makes sense. Companies offered sponsorships and I said no, I wasn't ready for that. And then a couple of years go by and suddenly it's like, okay, I feel like this works, like. And so now, when, when I look at like the way my channel works and like the things that help it earn revenue and monetize- plan for any of that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's all stuff that showed up over time and made sense and things come, things go like, and it's even even though it's a lot of stuff that other people are doing. The way it's done and how you know how each thing relates to the other, I feel is very unique and that's why it's so hard to give a one-size-fits-all answer yeah for anything, because you really do like the community you have and the way that you, as just an individual, lead communities and motivate and inspire people and draw people to you is very unique. And so someone else who says like, yeah, you get a newsletter and a sales funnel or whatever it's like that. No, that's not taking into account any of the things that are unique to you, any of your unique strengths and gifts and talents and stuff.

Speaker 2:

So one thing to so here's an example of how I am operating. Differently is I am at the point, have been at the point, where people have been reaching out to send. To send stuff, yeah, can you do a review, can you make a video on your you know youtube channel about this gaming microphone or whatever? And I'm just like no, no, no, no. I don't care how much you're gonna pay me, no, I don't but it's, it's.

Speaker 1:

I think it's really cool to be at the point where, like clearly, the channel's like popping up right right on radars.

Speaker 2:

Yes, that's a good sign. Yeah, people are reaching out, and I just yeah, even if the answer is always no. The fact that it's like there, that's like you know, 10,000. Right, it's, you know, modest in the grand scheme of things, yeah, but I mean you're, you know, you're regularly pulling in what 50 viewers on a live stream. Yeah, which is insane 45 to 60 viewers on a live stream.

Speaker 1:

When I do live streams on my 154 000 channel, it's 120 people, 150 people, which is more, but like uh ratio wise, it's not that much more well, see, that just goes to show the, the um.

Speaker 2:

I don't know not the quality, but the connection yeah, like it's very. It's a lot. There's a lot more depth.

Speaker 1:

Yes, well, I mean the stuff that people say and the experiences people have had and the conversations in the discord server.

Speaker 2:

It's very special yeah, observantly, hello, pimp me's. Here we are strong speaking of yeah, any tips on syncing three mic tracks of a conversation between three people on a podcast? Uh I'll tell you. Okay. So this is what I think you're gonna say tell me you just do a test recording, hear all of them and then adjust accordingly.

Speaker 1:

Oh they're talking about sync, so they're like oh, you're talking about mixing? Yes, well, because mixing is like the levels and the sound quality, syncing is like are we talking at the same time?

Speaker 1:

got it, got it, got it um, if you're using a mixer, like a roadcaster or something, you don't have to because it's just recording them all at once. If you're recording things separately, the easiest, easiest thing to do is just when you start recording clap, clap and then you have your three audio tracks. You'll see the spike from the clap and you just line those up and you're good audio hotline.

Speaker 2:

I made it well. Hope you're doing well as well, kathy. Hello, hello. Is there any news on youtube community? Seems like there was something discord like coming that I haven't heard any updates, but I I see the only update that I've seen since I talked about it probably a month ago, is just more of it's coming it's coming.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, I don't know. I haven't seen like a timetable or anything. Kane, I've moved to live streams for a very niche audience, about a thousand for an Australian exam. I'll likely never hit monetization, but I count my channel as extremely successful for what I've set out to do.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm sure that it's like wildly valuable for those people who need that. Right after this, I'm actually going to record a video for my second channel about hockey gloves, goalie gloves, and I mean that channel's 100% for fun.

Speaker 2:

Like, not the numbers do not matter at all and like not, the numbers do not matter at all.

Speaker 1:

No strategy at all. Yeah, but it is a thing of like. The reason I'm recording this video is because I needed this video and it didn't exist, and so I want to make that video and see if that's helpful.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the Twine Poodle says wow, I showed up at the right stream. I just got monetized last week and I'm currently on my journey. In all of this, I've landed on turn on ads. That's it. I'm not ready for more. Yeah, same, that's what I did. Turn them on yeah.

Speaker 2:

Because the thing is, with what we wish that we could have told you early on, when you were like I'm not going to monetize my channel at all, is that YouTube is already monetizing your content. Whether you are monetized or whether you turn on monetization, YouTube puts ads on everything right. When you turn on YouTube monetization, you're just opting in to get a cut of what they're making.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it did used to be different. When my channel got monetized, they would only put ads on it. If you had no ads, there were no ads on your videos. They changed that, though, to just put ads on every video. So if you start a channel today, upload one video to just put ads on every video. So if you start a channel today, upload one video, it could have ads on it even though you're nowhere near being monetized.

Speaker 1:

So, yes, I used to say I don't think, once you get monetized, wait until, like, what you would be earning is, I would call it a life-changing amount of money, which doesn't mean like tens of thousands of dollars, but like two 300 bucks a month is a life. That could be a car payment, a utility bill, like all kinds of stuff. That's life changing to me. You know $16 a month. I was like I'm willing to sacrifice that for not having people sit through ads. But as soon as YouTube was like we're gonna put ads on everything, no matter what, then it's like yes, let me opt into that as quickly as possible, because why not? Yeah?

Speaker 2:

It doesn't affect the viewer's experience.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's the same.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, charles, I also like that you jumped into games because you wanted to. I think I need to learn how to go for things before things are perfect, which, ironically, I've told so many others to do the same.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

It's so much easier to tell other people what to do.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's always clear what other people should do. It's very hard on your own.

Speaker 2:

And I will say, like you know, we had the first person that I know of leave our Discord server this week. There was, you know, I don't even know how to explain this a huge learning moment for me in terms of managing a community, how I should handle these things, because, of course, like you know, as much as we say, as much as there's so many positive things happening in the Heather Just Play community, when people get together, personalities are gonna personality right. So that is absolutely inevitable. I'm not trying to prevent that, but it's just like how do we, you know, cultivate the community and keep?

Speaker 1:

it healthy community. Well, that's part of the growth too is like at first everything's very exciting, but then time goes on and the newness wears off and things settle in. So then you know, like it's the thing that we talked about, I don't know. Earlier this year we did some episodes where it was like, oh, it's the beginning of the year when everyone's quitting youtube, remember?

Speaker 1:

oh my gosh and it was like well, this is where youtube, like has been around long enough for careers to like legitimately end, like not abruptly, but like people choose to retire after like a full career.

Speaker 2:

You've been doing YouTube 10 years.

Speaker 1:

All right, yeah, it had been around long enough for that. So same thing here, like part of your channel. Growing is now. It's been around long enough for you know different types of things to be able to even happen, both positive and negative.

Speaker 2:

But my point is, like you know, going for it before it was perfect, we definitely, you know having like an established guidelines for how the mods handle these different things. It's all on the fly, Like we're all. If anything, I'm the one who's learning the most because I feel like a lot of my mods have been mods.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they have a lot of experience.

Speaker 2:

Yes, so it's. I feel like I could have handled the situation better, but also I'm glad I didn't wait. You know it's like I. It doesn't make sense to have it be perfect when you can't anticipate everything that's going to happen. So just go and then deal with things as they come up, and then that can set the precedent for how things like how you deal with things moving forward. Let's see Twitch requires an average of 75 viewers for their partnership program.

Speaker 2:

Less than 1% of people reach that. So 60 viewers is an absolutely amazing result, Heather. Wow. That's crazy. I don't think we're at 60 yet 50,. But yeah, I see your point.

Speaker 1:

You popped over the 60. I don't know what the average is.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, for some of your streams. No, I think 52.

Speaker 1:

I swear there was like a 60 something, but maybe I'm wrong. I just take the compliment.

Speaker 2:

Let's see if you get monetized. Another benefit is controlling how many mid-roll ads play and where can make it a better experience for your viewers. This I have not done. I have not turned on mid-rolls at all. Uh, because I? It's one thing to turn on monetization in a way where it doesn't affect the viewer experience.

Speaker 2:

Mid-rolls affect the viewer experience and so I have not put in any. And I don't know. I debate on it because you know we just did a live stream last night. That was three hours long, plenty of opportunities to stick in mid-rolls. But I don't know, it just doesn't feel right yet see.

Speaker 1:

What's funny, though, is you helped me decide to turn on mid-roll ads earlier this year on the table.

Speaker 2:

I have it on here. I have it on, yeah, so that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1:

It's different, everything is different. Like, yeah, there is no yes or no. Yes, mid-rolls, no mid-rolls. It's like midrolls make sense on your channel, they don't make sense on this one right now, and I was. I was anti-midroll for a long time anti-midroll um, and then it's.

Speaker 1:

That's the thing of like this is my job, like it's also a thing of I feel, like it's either people can watch the ads or like I I hope this doesn't get too much youtube premium is a very good deal. Like if you don't want to watch ads, youtube premiums fantastic, because it's like you get six accounts or something for the one price. They don't have to be in your family, you can just add five other google accounts for anybody for one youtube premium subscription. It's a great deal. Then you don't have to watch any ads because, honestly, like mineral ads are annoying. But if you already have to watch two or three ads to get to the video, in the first, like gosh.

Speaker 2:

So like I, I I'm not a twitch person, but a lot of the people in the Heather Just Play community are, and so now I have been going to Twitch more often to watch their streams and it's just, it's like add one of four and I'm like, are you serious? This is insane.

Speaker 1:

Just to start the stream. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And then, like sometimes, I have like multiple, multiple of them are streaming at the same time. So to switch between, I have to watch ads.

Speaker 1:

I know I'm, oh my god constantly re-evaluating our like monthly subscriptions to different services, but youtube premium is one that is like, yeah, it's like the electric bill, it's just essential well, I think also.

Speaker 2:

it's like um, I think the reason why it doesn't feel right to put mid-roll ads on the gaming channel is because so many of my regular people invest so much time into the community that it's like there, you go.

Speaker 2:

You're giving me something in a different way here, though. It's like you know, on this channel we do one show a week, so it's you know. Sorry guys, but you're going to get the bit. It doesn't feel weird? I don't know. I think a lot of you have YouTube premium also, but who knows, let's see. Okay, yeah, it can be work, but there needs to be something that keeps you passionate.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yeah, in the pews there are different ways to measure success. Whenever I feel bad about our analytics, I hear from someone who was inspired by your content. Yes, totally, pimpy, wait, you can. I'm adding this to my main youtube account then, because I still get ads here.

Speaker 1:

Oh, yeah, totally yeah, I think it's six total accounts yeah, it's a few, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I don't want to say a lot, but in in the subscription world it feels like a lot yeah, because they don't have to be in your household either yeah uh youtube premium also replaced my spotify with youtube music. Oh yeah, premium Premium.

Speaker 1:

That's true too, which also I noticed. As of yesterday, there's now a new icon next to people's names who are, like, primarily musicians on YouTube. You know, there's a checkmark next to people who are verified or over 100K. There's now it's a little fuzzy thing with a music note in it for people whose channels are primarily music.

Speaker 2:

Like primarily music. Like primarily music. What do you mean?

Speaker 1:

Like they're musicians, like if you see someone I mean I don't know if it would pop up in my like things here, but a lot of people have, I don't know, popped up a lot yesterday on my video. That I did, but like every person who had a little music note, I clicked on their channel and it was like most of their stuff was songs like okay, so like taylor, swift would have who who mostly posts like music videos I think music videos or just straight up like they're on youtube maybe it's they're on youtube music and posting on youtube music?

Speaker 2:

oh okay, because I was like we watch music channels, but I don't they do like analysis I don't think it's that, no, no, no.

Speaker 1:

I think it's like. Here's an album you can listen to.

Speaker 2:

Got it Okay.

Speaker 1:

Which is interesting, and it makes me wonder. Like they revamped, like the creator awards, I wonder if there'd be like a music award, a separate music recognition thing. I don't know, I just thought that was interesting and I just I only noticed it yesterday and I'd love to see if I could find a little example of it.

Speaker 2:

Ads on Twitch are a plague. To miss a cool moment that happened live, while also having an option to rewind just kills the point of the whole website. But Twitch Turbo is a fix for that, I guess. Yeah, because you can't rewind on Twitch.

Speaker 1:

You can't.

Speaker 2:

No, you have to wait until it becomes a VOD.

Speaker 1:

Oh see, here here's one. See this little music note and if I go to their channel and I view their channel, I'm sorry you guys can't see this. He has regular videos. Well, actually I think, oh releases, he has albums, he has a Final Fantasy Endwalker in piano.

Speaker 2:

What's this guy's name?

Speaker 1:

This is SLS Music. That's cool. They have Final Fantasy. They just randomly commented SLS Music, sls Music, all one word. Yeah, that's them.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so you see the little icon right there, right here. Yeah. This is a.

Speaker 1:

Wait, did it say something when you moused over that? Official artist channel. That's cool.

Speaker 2:

So it's like a, it's like verified for musical artists, that's cool interesting that's also pippi, I don't know if you're seeing this, but I have your. I have your quiz up. I'm gonna try to. I want to make tom take the quiz, but anyway, let's see. Uh, julie, glad I finally catch a live julie tom new enthusiasm podcast season coming anytime soon. This is this is the hot question this is the hot question and it's also just funny because it's, it's good, because I was like no one's gonna miss this show, yes, that's why.

Speaker 2:

It's funny, because you were so like I. Just I want to be done with the season yeah, so a couple things with my personal podcast.

Speaker 1:

I really, really want to do it again, but I did 13 seasons over five years and I ran out of topics and then it became a it was quickly becoming a chore and I was like this has to stop. I do not want this to be a chore. Not enjoy this. It's literally called the enthusiasm project, like I have to be enthusiastic about it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I'm like stopping it, um, but I didn't say anything about like stopping not stopping whatever, no I'm taking a break, nothing, you just then road came out with the roadcaster video when did you end it? May of this year.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay but it was a while ago. It's the end of the year, it's a long time. Prior to that, I've never taken more than like maybe a month-long break in between seasons, so it's a long time, um, but so the roadcaster video basically can. Let me do what I used to do with the audio versions, which was little to no editing, because I just record everything in the roadcaster you know you could play the intro, do the thing, pause recording, even if needed whatever and then be done roadcaster video.

Speaker 1:

Now I can do the same thing play intro, mix stuff, even have clips or whatever other graphics done. As soon as I stop hitting record, turn record off again, I have the finished file ready to go done. Um, so that's really cool. The next thing are topics, and I have topics I have. I have things like this would be a good episode, this would be a good episode, but it's like okay, I can come up with like three or four that I'm excited about. I need like 10 or consistently. And so what I've been trying to do is figure out okay, instead of like a topic, because what I've done in the past, like oh, I'll do this show about monetization, this show about blah, blah, blah and instead of trying to find topics that I can go on for an hour plus each week, what I'd like to do is have structure and segments.

Speaker 1:

So it's like, okay, this week's whatever segment, I'll do this, this week's whatever segment, I'll do that, and that way it's like it kind of it's, it builds itself yeah, but I was also you told me this yesterday, which I think is a great idea is just asking we're talking about YouTube community stuff, we're talking about membership things. Why not just ask people? There have been so many people asking for this podcast hey, what are some things you would love to hear on the podcast, because then not only will it give me ideas, but if I know there are people actually want to listen to this yes, it makes it a lot easier to that's how it is with the gaming show.

Speaker 2:

People ask like oh, they like make a video about this or talk about this, or let's do this in the game.

Speaker 1:

And I'm like, oh, knowing that people are, you know I can think of people that are going to get a kick out of this thing that I'm going to make so the other part is, which I think I figured out, is uh, since I do want to add a video component, that's something that I think for my own, like professional development, would be good. I have the tools to do it really easily. Now it's also heading into 2025, I feel like it makes sense. Uh, I do not think I can put the videos on my channel. I think I have to do a podcast channel for it, which is something I've been hesitant for.

Speaker 1:

It was actually, I think it's bailey who's the one welcome to having three youtube channels and I think that's just the way that it is, because even importing the rss feed to my main channel has been a nightmare and a mess and like because youtube doesn't let you separate it, so it's hodgepodge, it's yeah, wow which is why it's all unlisted, so it doesn't show up.

Speaker 1:

If you go to my public videos page, you don't see it. You only see the podcast in playlists. But that means you can't find, you can't search it or find it, so you can't use any of the powerful youtubeness, whereas if it were all on its own channel the only reason I could, if I could separate it on my channel I would love it to be in one place like here's here's my videos, here's my podcast One place. I don't think that happens, so I think it needs to be on a different channel, which is fine, totally fine, especially if that workflow is super easy. But yeah, so figuring that out, figuring out content structure and then jumping back into it like feeling very confident that there's plenty to talk about for a long time to come.

Speaker 2:

Pimpy says you can rewind, but you have to do a bunch of clicks, just flinks. There is no rewind on Twitch. You have to turn it into a clip or wait for the VOD. The funny thing is that some people make VOD sub only and disable clips. So not even that works for every time. King Freeman, is it true? You're five foot one. It says you are on Google.

Speaker 1:

Is your height? On Google You're not 5'1", but are you looking it up?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, how do you? Well, first of all, why did you look that up? Nothing.

Speaker 1:

Maybe there's a different Heather who's 5'1".

Speaker 2:

Heather Grimes is who the hell that is? I don't know who that is, yeah anyway, I'm not, I'm five, four and you are five nine ten hey, andre, hey, everyone almost forgot start learning oh, andre, I appreciate you.

Speaker 1:

You jumped into some comments yesterday and really uh oh yeah, we were talking about that, yeah I, you, uh, not that there's anything bad happening, but I just appreciate you jumped in and shared like a really good perspective in the comments of my video from yesterday.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Simply obs. Hey, hey gotta say, Heather, you are looking like pure fire with that fierce green.

Speaker 1:

I love the green. The Doc Pops are great and we've been using these for a long time now and they're great.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no complaints, bandrew kind of does a segmented show and it seems like a pretty fun way to run a podcast.

Speaker 1:

Plus, it makes it more engaging for the listeners he's someone that I've been looking to as an example and he does have a separate podcast channel. Um, and yeah, you kind of need it yeah, thanks for the answer, tom.

Speaker 2:

I totally get the whole podcast thing. I've been going for five years as well and it's like how much longer can I talk about this stuff?

Speaker 1:

yeah, because then you start revisiting, like you know, I know sometimes you need to revisit things because there's an update, like every year or so. I can do a studio tour video because so much has changed and so that's cool. But other topics, like we'll just talk about this again, like, but it's the same and I don't want to do that. So I want to. I think me having a better understanding of what people get out of the podcast, like what they like about it, why they even want to ask if there's going to be more like what do you like about it that you want more of, would really help me understand what direction to take. It, which is fun, like I actually don't dislike this. This is going back to that and then thing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so you did five years of a podcast, and then what? And adding video is going to be huge.

Speaker 2:

There's going to be a next phase, which I'm quite excited about. Yeah, it feels different versus I think it was getting to the point where it was just like rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I was. You know, I was sort of unclear, I was losing track of my purpose because there was the thing of like, when it starts and no one's listening, it almost doesn't matter because I just say anything. But then it's like, okay, well, do people want creator insights? Do people want gear, do people want whatever? But you need feedback. I mean you can, which is why, if it's on its own channel with a comment section, if I have a more robust member community, all these things, you can actually get that feedback yeah and I just didn't have any of that infrastructure in place yeah, uh, tom says podcast.

Speaker 2:

Uh, thank you, tom, happy to contribute if I can yeah, I appreciate that. Julie, I love more of your personal behind the scenes, like when you you left teaching, when you took a two week break, etc.

Speaker 2:

Cool, that's good to know and see there's like that's where I feel like segments really help, like two or three segments in a show one of the reasons why I want the couples table to exist is because I do feel like the way that we approach content creation is, I don't say, unconventional, but, um, I think what we try to emphasize is that it looks different for everybody, like what is?

Speaker 2:

successful for one person, uh, could be the total opposite for somebody else, and it really is just about finding what works for you. But the thing that could be helpful is just seeing how other people do it and then you can make your own, you know, judgment call in terms of how you want to approach it. But, like before, like first half of my YouTube career was just like oh, this is the way that you're supposed to do it. Cool, let me do an online course and all that and all my course is great. The way that you're supposed to do it cool, let me do an online course and all that and all my course is great. Very, uh, effective for you, right?

Speaker 1:

you?

Speaker 2:

oh yeah buy your course yesterday. Like courses are great for me, though, um, I really I think the way that I should have gone was a live cohort, because I like the interaction, I like like teaching live, I like having conversations. I need the real-time feedback versus like sure, I made $300 off course, but I don't get to talk to that person, like they just go take the course on their own time and like I feel like that's what people want, right, passive income. Like don't you want to just have a marketing funnel where your course is just running in the back? Actually, no, the interaction, otherwise it just feels empty. Um, so, yeah, that's just an example of like, it's just different. But you, you, I think on your podcast you share a lot about that.

Speaker 1:

Uh, yeah, well, personal, yeah, but there was also becoming overlap between the show and the podcast and there were times I'd be like, yeah, on the most recent couples table we're talking. And I was just like, well, here's just me talking about this topic. Now here's both of us. And it was like, okay, let's, let's differentiate a little more, um, which is all good, and like having people ask at this point has been like every awesome makes me like really want to do it again. I really want to do it again. So let's say, uh, we'll kick off 2025, you know yeah, new inspirational.

Speaker 2:

So what else is up, tom?

Speaker 1:

well, we made a video for my second channel this week we did. That was fun and that took off yeah, I haven't made a video on that channel in five months, I think. Yeah, it's very different than my main channel. Yeah, I got a new bass guitar and we unboxed it together and it was really fun. It's a super fun video and see, that's the thing. The primary audience on that channel now is like I have a lot of like music related videos bass and guitars and stuff. And hockey, and then hockey.

Speaker 1:

And I know it's pulling in two different audiences, but it's like those are the videos I want to, I mean, and other stuff.

Speaker 2:

There's also flight training, there's personal vlogs, there's like you know, there's a lot, a little bit of everything on there because this channel and my tutorial channel are consistently bringing in income, even though I haven't uploaded videos here or there in a while, but it's, you know, especially on my tutorial channel, it's search based content, so that thing is just still going. Videos from 2019 still going. So it's like, you know, I'm not in a rush to figure out how to monetize this, but it's also like, yeah, you can make a video about your base, you can make a video about your hockey gloves and stuff like that, and it's like you're not strategizing to grow the channel, but it's nice that you could put ads on it.

Speaker 1:

It's way fun. And it's also great, like how would I make a review about hockey equipment? And it's also great, like how would I make a review about hockey equipment? How do I bring in like the sound of a bass being played with a backing track, like it's a different type of you know, it's a chance to to utilize a lot of the tools and things and workflows that I talk about on my main channel. It's a chance to use them, like when, when we did the bass video.

Speaker 1:

Originally it was just going to be me, so I had a whole certain wireless mic system that I was going to use so you could hear me talking while I did it, and it was kind of last minute that it was like oh, do you want to be in it too? Okay, cool. So then I quickly switch it to the DJI mic system, which is like cool, how would we use this? What's the best way to do it? Okay, we'll do this. I think it sounds fantastic. I think the video worked great, but, of course, not a single person in any of the comments commented on the video.

Speaker 2:

That's not what the video's about.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and so it's kind of cool, like okay. And it's also sort of neat to then like okay, like I've seen. I have seen what a lot of hockey gear videos look like, and if you're not at a rink a lot of them are kind of like phones in corner with ceiling light turned on, sort of situation, which is fine. But it's like okay, it's kind of fun to like. Oh, like a different stuff is in my studio space and you know, I don't know, it's sort of interesting to like.

Speaker 1:

I guess I would call it professional development in a way that you know, when I was teaching I could go to school every day and students would be working on all these different projects and short films and stuff. So it's like I don't do a lot of narrative work, but every day I'm helping people figure out narrative things, build sets, craft scenes, light stuff, mix audio, do all those things, and it's like cool. Now I'm still fine tuning those skill sets as well. Well, I'm not teaching anymore, so I don't have that every day, and now playing with the second channel is a good chance to do that.

Speaker 2:

Well see, here's another example of like it's different for everybody.

Speaker 2:

So I think one thing that you know in the past two years that me and you have really leaned into is doing it our way right and you have multiple comments on that video, that comment about our dynamic, and it's like, if you, if, if you watch a tutorial on how to make a review or an unboxing video, no one's gonna say, grab your significant other and record their reaction, or whatever, but it's like it's not even it's. It's not like we're strategically doing that, but it is a, it is a unique thing it's like what do we have?

Speaker 1:

because that was the thing with the video is like as a dude, rapidly. Well, I guess firmly in middle age, nearing middle age. At this point a very common thing is, especially if you're into instruments is like hiding it from the wife. Getting the wife's permission like, oh you know, like your wife won't notice that that you suddenly have a new guitar or that that one you know, suddenly your cheap one was replaced with a very expensive one or whatever. I know people are joking a lot on that, but I really liked that. I'm like, okay, let's open this together and you like you unbox it first, you see the whole thing first and you have a reaction that's just like even as like not someone who plays the bass or anything, you just see the colors and the design, you're just like wow, this is awesome.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I know you and I know, that you're gonna love it right, and so that's like. That's my genuine reaction of like, oh my god, I can't wait for you to see this yeah, and it's the same thing.

Speaker 2:

There's reasons why on the heather, just play channel, we rope in top yep, and he shares his reaction to you. Know it's been so. I think everyone has really enjoyed seeing your uh discovering the final fantasy 14 experience. It's been really fun for me to watch, but also to be able to share that with everyone yeah, it's been fun to share yeah, all right, let's see being able able to talk with you two each week. I miss it. I totally love the new base video Great job.

Speaker 1:

Heather. Oh yeah, See, that'd be right up your alley.

Speaker 2:

Tom Buck and the Hockey Puck is a shame not to use as a channel or podcast name. That's like funny.

Speaker 1:

That's really good.

Speaker 2:

That base video was awesome. Heather's reaction was fantastic.

Speaker 1:

Honestly, it makes the video.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it's funny because that was not the plan.

Speaker 1:

No, it was a last minute plan.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you were like, do you want to be in this? Like sure, and I think I would have hesitated if it was a main channel video. Not hesitated, but like, are you sure? But because it was on your other channel, I was like sure, what do you want?

Speaker 1:

What do you need me? Times where I've made videos for the second channel at the last minute. I'm like this should be a main channel video actually, and it's funny because the way that I make those videos with the different the, the approach and like the lack of pressure, I guess is very helpful and like I like that you can practice that on a channel that has no consequences and perhaps that can help you do the professional development on how you can kind of bring that into your main channel.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I think that's a good thing very much uh, let's see. If tom is showing off his base this willingly, what is the actual purchase he's hiding? Oh, we gotta share bank accounts yeah, although I did have to, so tom's birthday is next wednesday oh yeah, and I did have to get your um your birthday present. I put it on my credit card oh you know it would be.

Speaker 1:

It's like where it's from and stuff. Oh yeah, we don't. We also I don't think we are pouring over the like.

Speaker 2:

You spent how much at pure goalie yeah, and it was just chocolate chip cookies from leaven bakery, new york well, you also got me kizik shoes yeah, but see you told me about those. See my size, that's right so I was like let's just put that on the joint account. Yeah, that's fine Cybertruck in the neighbors. That's funny. That would be so funny Anything else.

Speaker 1:

I mean those are. There's been so much fun stuff, but those are kind of the main things that stick out. I feel like there was something else, but I mean, we're always talking YouTube and creator stuff and your gaming channel has been taking off and it's been fun.

Speaker 2:

I've been learning about my channel and Well, here I'll share one thing that was like so special from last night. So after so, tom and I it's so funny because pre pre-gaming channel streams the way that would see live streams one hour, that's the default time, like if we're gonna do a couple's table, if we're gonna do a live stream, maybe an hour, an hour and a half, uh, but that's as long as it goes. Tom, that was probably what. I don't know how, what your longest live stream was, but we streamed for three hours and you were in it yeah, you've, and you've done longer.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, which like I'm learning that three hours is about my limit too like physically I start to like, because the monitor yeah the monitor is like further, and so then, like I, my eyes start to have trouble focusing anyway. Um, so we did three hours stream. Then I told everybody, um, I'm gonna end the stream, take a break, but I'll come back and play with uh, you know, members of the heather just play community. So we jumped in game and, um, they were doing this thing this is off stream this is off stream.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, stream is over. Uh, no cameras on, we're all just playing. The thing that we were doing is this thing called treasure maps, where basically, um, you open up a treasure map, you go to the coordinates, and it has the potential to open up a special dungeon where you can get extra treasure right. So, like, you go to the treasure map, uh, coordinates, there's a treasure box, you open it, you get the treasure, but there is that chance of spawning a. You open it, you get the treasure, but there is that chance of spawning a, like, additional dungeon, to get additional treasure right. This is a common thing to do in the game but because yesterday was thanksgiving, they started without me, since we were like taking care of the dogs and stuff, and one of the mods suggested that the group share what they were thankful for in celebration of thanksgiving, before going into the the additional dungeon so every time one did pop up before people going in, they would say I'm thankful for blank all seven people in the group had to say I am thankful for something, yeah, and like it was, it's just but you guys played for like a couple of hours

Speaker 2:

right, yeah, and they played before I even got there, right. So it was like, uh, he had taken screenshots of what people were saying and, of course, like you know, everyone was like, just think, you can't help but be like I am thankful for the fact that I'm doing this thing, that I'm doing right now with these people that I'm with. So it was a lot of like, thankful for Heather, just play, thankful for being able to connect with you guys, and of course, I'm like, oh, my god, this is so nice. But then, when I jumped in, I also said like I'm thankful for this, you know, just this whole thing. But then we were doing multiple rounds, right.

Speaker 2:

So it, yes, we're all thankful for, like, the big thing that we all have in common, but now we have to start like, okay, we've checked off the easy things.

Speaker 2:

Now we got to like aside from that, what are we thankful for? Family members and pets and hobbies and, uh, you know, just in real life stuff, irl stuff, and the fact that we were doing that while playing an mmo is insane to me. Like, to me, that's that's the specialness of this community of like, you know, just like showing that we're human, you know that there's a human side to the player, whereas I feel, like in other communities which there's nothing wrong with that other communities focus on the fight, the dungeons, the bosses, the mechanics, the you know, the how to play the game. We're over here like I am thankful for my husband, I am thankful for this, that and the other. Or, like you know, there's two people who have been friends since high school. They've been friends for 30 years and it was like, yeah, I'm thankful to be able to be friends with this person. You know family members and pets and goals and things that we're working on for 2025. And it was just like so cool, it's just so special.

Speaker 1:

That was one of the coolest things I've seen.

Speaker 2:

I was like with the phone, like tom, look at this. Oh my gosh, like it's.

Speaker 1:

So that's really fun and you bring out those kinds of special things in people or at least give them a space to where they could do that. That's really cool.

Speaker 2:

So nice, yeah, so nice also. Sorry, there's the sharks cracking game tom keeps like I could see it's the.

Speaker 1:

It's nearing the end of the second period and the score is four to five. It's a nine goal game who is? Winning sharks just got five to four. Those are my two favorite teams, so I I don't care who wins, but that is halfway through the game.

Speaker 2:

Nine goals is a high scoring game uh, kathy says record cold in the east, but are you still having ice cream after? So I we actually got pints of ice cream because it was going to be closed yesterday, so I still have a pint.

Speaker 1:

And I'm happy to take a break from ice cream today because, yeah. And we also had a giant cookie this morning, so no, shortage of the sweets, but also we go to handle so much. Last time we went they gave us free coupons for free ice cream.

Speaker 2:

Next time we appreciate you guys here. Uh, let's see. Now we know that both of you play instruments, so the logical question is when are we getting the couple's evil christmas album? Actually, I can learn a christmas song or two yeah that'd be fun uh, oh, no coffee just occurred to me that a big reason why I enjoy coming to your live streams is how supportive you are of each other.

Speaker 1:

It's truly special Wow. We are very lucky, that's for sure.

Speaker 2:

Digging deeper, getting real Exactly.

Speaker 1:

When people stop being polite and start getting real.

Speaker 2:

Does everyone understand that reference?

Speaker 1:

I'm sure our group understands that reference a lot of people Okay, say it one more time.

Speaker 2:

You our group understands that reference a lot of. Okay, say it one more time. You have to say what happens when seven strangers stop being polite and start getting real. Do you guys remember that? I don't remember it, but when you say it I, I I like can hear it, but I wouldn't be able to pinpoint where it was from, I promise you, at least one or two people in our chat will what I've learned in education applies online relationships are everything, 100, everything Yep 100%, yeah, the real there you go See the real ones, know the real world.

Speaker 2:

Hey, oms, all right, Well, that's it.

Speaker 1:

That's it Time to clear the table.

Speaker 2:

Well, that was fun.

Speaker 1:

That was fun. Let's see how this game shakes out and then go make my goalie glove video.

Speaker 2:

All right. Mtv Hi make my goalie glove video. All right, mtv hi joel the road to health. Oh my gosh, I missed the beginning. What does heather play? Uh, heather plays video games, but you can see on my other youtube channel called heather, just play and also the piano.

Speaker 1:

I don't know if we're talking about instruments. Oh yeah, look at that. Don just got home from handles. Oh, what flavor did you get, don? Let us know in the chat.

Speaker 2:

Oh see, okay, Everyone does know the opening. Yeah, we're all MTV.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, the algorithm brought us all together for her reason.

Speaker 2:

Did you like road rules or real world?

Speaker 1:

Oh, real world.

Speaker 2:

I was never into road rules. Yeah, I couldn't get okay. The reason why I don't like road rules is the same reason why I can't watch the hot ones. I wanted the conversation without the distraction of a challenge.

Speaker 1:

Yeah yeah, exactly it's about the challenge.

Speaker 2:

I just want to hear you guys talk about whatever yeah, yeah yeah, piano very little. I don't even know if I would say I play.

Speaker 1:

It's like I've heard she's very good I just memorize is what I do yes, so do I, it's.

Speaker 2:

Fine mint with oreos. I'm 22 and I have no idea what this mtv talk is. Oh, my god, is mtv still a thing?

Speaker 1:

it's still on. I don't know what's on there, not the real world such a good show.

Speaker 2:

So the real world was a show where seven strangers like the first reality show yeah, they put them in a house and they just lived together for like six months and it was all recorded drama confessional groups.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, like see, it's a thing they would have a challenge sometimes, wouldn't? They'd be like they have to run a business or something, or they'd have to like. At least, maybe at the end I think they started like having challenges, I don't know, but it was like a longer like.

Speaker 2:

It was like the first reality.

Speaker 1:

You're all going to work at a restaurant or something and like that's why they're doing while they're living there.

Speaker 2:

First season were old and Puck season.

Speaker 1:

I'm that old.

Speaker 2:

I'm that old. What does that mean?

Speaker 1:

One of the characters, one of the people, puck Puck. Was he in Hawaii? Was Puck Hawaii, or who am I thinking? I'm thinking of a guy with like sort of like bleach dish hair. The Hawaii season is the one that stands out to me a lot.

Speaker 2:

I have a favorite season.

Speaker 1:

Oh, there's New Orleans too. That one stands out a lot.

Speaker 2:

There was a girl. It was an asian girl, see, of course I don't remember her name, but I really liked that cast in that season, but I couldn't tell. I'm sure there was another asian girl in another season it was just your reflection in the tv screen. She doesn't say much I've been trying to learn guitar. It took a while to get back.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

Don, that sounds amazing. Thin mint ice cream. Thin mint in ice cream form.

Speaker 1:

I'm definitely a mint ice cream fan, but I've never had it from Handles. We need to get the sampler one day.

Speaker 2:

We're never going to get other flavors.

Speaker 1:

I know us it's so hard, yeah, All I know us so hard yeah, all right, let's end the show. All righty, Well, time to clear the table. Thanks for everyone hanging out. If you're doing anything.

Speaker 2:

Black Friday hope you get some cool deals Also.

Speaker 1:

it does seem like it's worth a look, because you were looking at a lot of like oh yeah, like the Elgato prompter is 200 bucks, like there's some good stuff, yeah you want.

Speaker 2:

If you want any of my online courses, you can use promo code bf24 for 15 off bf24. All right, see you guys later, or you did you?

Speaker 1:

do it. Yeah, it's time to clear a table and stuff okay, yeah, all right, see you score is six to four now bye.