Episode 0Dec 25, 2025· 49:22
The Unhinged New Year Planning Session Every Content Creator Needs to Hear
▸ Show notes from the creator
This might be the most honest, unfiltered conversation about being a content creator you'll ever hear. Robert and Ashley have known each other since they were teenagers working at a movie theater, and now they're both navigating the chaos of making money as content creators in an AI-disrupted world—and they're holding nothing back.
From admitting they both hate social media (while being on it constantly) to confessing they still don't know what they want to be when they grow up, this accountability session covers building service pages, cross-promotion strategies, the struggle of having creative minds without business brains, and why "doing what you love" still requires figuring out how to eat. Robert commits to finally monetizing Crooked Table Productions properly, Ashley shares her fitness podcast pivot, and they both agree: you can't just have a blog anymore in 2025. Fair warning—this episode includes tangents about ramen noodles, station prep, and whether Famous Ashley Grant is actually a porn site.
About this episode
This might be the most honest, unfiltered conversation about being a content creator you'll ever hear. Robert and Ashley have known each other since they were teenagers working at a movie theater, and now they're both navigating the chaos of making money as content creators in an AI-disrupted world—and they're holding nothing back.
From admitting they both hate social media (while being on it constantly) to…
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Full transcript
00:19
What's up, my bloggy friends? Famous Ashley Grant here, and holy cow, I can't believe it is about to be the new year. It seems like just yesterday, 2025 began, and yet... We're just upon 2026. When did this happen? So... I just want to let you know that what you're about to hear is probably the most unhinged interview I've ever done. I interviewed Robert Yannis Jr. He and I have known each other since we were both working at the theater. I think I was 16. He may have been 17, maybe 16. I'm not sure. But we've worked together forever. We were working at the theater. Then we both got into freelance writing. He worked for me whenever I was working for a magazine for a little bit. And we've kind of just hung out and known each other ever since. We're both content creators. And so I wanted to sit down.
01:04
with him and talk about our new year's goals because I feel like it's important to kind of reflect on where you are right now and where you want to be in the new year. I feel like if you do that, you're setting yourself up for success for the new year. So I tried to not edit this as much as possible. So it's very unhinged, but I find it kind of entertaining and I hope you will too. And I hope you'll glean some sort of insights from it and hopefully it'll get you to think about what you want your 2026 to look like, what you want your new year to look like.
01:30
Happy holidays from all of us here at the Bloggy Friends show. And let's get into it. Robert, the reason I wanted to bring you on is because you and I have known each other forever. And you kind of were both in the same boat in the sense that we're both content creators. We're both writers. We're both trying to figure out what we want to be when we grow up. And so, like I said, I kind of wanted this to be an accountability thing of what are you doing in 2026? What do you want to do? What do you want to? see happen in your career? And the idea being, maybe we'll inspire other people who are listening to figure their shit out too. Yeah. I mean, for me, I just keep running into a roadblock when it comes to the content writing side of things. I think the proliferation of AI, as we've sort of been talking about, has kind of decimated in large parts the reliability of that industry. You're seeing journalists
02:26
and... And writers kind of laid off left and right. So since leaving my last job about, I'd say a year ago, but it was also more like January because I did stay on part time for a few months to kind of help transition to the new person and everything. But it's I've really been focusing on kind of other skill sets and like developing my skill set. I think that's even in the last role that I did. I was writing, but I was also editing, but I was also doing social media, but I was also, you know, working on a podcast, but I was also hosting webinars. Like that was kind of the day to day workload was kind of all of that on and off. And I think that was sort of a good crash course and a good sort of way to shake things up. So I've been leaning a lot more on the video side of things, on the audio side of things, kind of developing skill sets. I've kind of been toying with editing. I've actually,
03:22
for most of this year, been kind of doing a little bit of content editing for test prep materials and things like that. And it's not a reliable paycheck, but it's new experience. So what I've really been doing the last few months is kind of exposing myself to a variety of different types of content creation. I've even done a little bit of voice acting for AI training, ironically enough. Being like, hey, this is how this should be read based on the prompt, et cetera. So it's been that's kind of been where I've been really turning my focus to in addition to my own podcast and all that other stuff. But like just trying to sort of spread my wings and embrace the new multimedia landscape that we're all facing and try and familiarize myself with some of the tools, including AI that are. slowly creeping in and I think just kind of becoming, well, not even slowly creeping in, quickly creeping in and sort
04:20
of becoming the norm because, you know, I've seen two extremes, the people that are just like, well, we're going to have AI do that. And the people that are just like, nope, I won't use AI. I won't work with anyone who uses AI. I am, you know, complete anti that technology. And I think there's got to be some more nuance in that conversation and there's got to be more of a balance because it is. It is here. It is growing. It is developing more sophisticated responses all the time. And I think it's really become more of an art of how to properly use it. We're focusing so much on should we use it?
04:59
Should we not use it? That we're not educating people on, okay, it's here. It's infiltrating everything anyway. What is the best way to implement it? And how can we apply it to improve things or improve efficiency? Without getting lost in the shuffle, because those people who are so anti are, I think, going to really wake up one day and find themselves at a disadvantage. I agree completely. I mean, and, you know, it's funny you said the skill set thing, because five years ago I started working for a client and I was required to start a podcast as part of like, you know. being able to write for them.
05:36
And I started trying to build that skill set myself. That's how the bloggy friend show came to be. You know, I started it on April Fool's Day in case it was awful. I could say it was a joke. And, you know, I too have been like I've been hard pivoting lately, like really trying to do a lot more audio, looking for gigs that are audio related, because even though there are an annoying amount of people that are using AI for podcasting now, too, I still feel like.
06:04
You can still tell when it's actually a person that's recording it, you know, because you don't have those robotic sounds and you don't have those monotone in the, you know, although I will say it's scary how good it's getting. I mean, I heard I heard an overdub of of someone that that I kind of respect. And when I was listening to it, it sounded like him. I was like, I couldn't tell that he didn't record it live. And that's scary as hell. But at the same time, I feel like if we're going to be bloggers, we, you know, I said this about a year ago. I can't remember who I was talking to, but well, I've said it to several people. Let's be honest. You can't just have a blog anymore. You need so much more than that. You need to build like a full media brand behind yourself. And I think podcasting, it's kind of just like. the next evolution for us content creators. We have to all have a podcast
06:52
or something. And I feel like if we have a podcast, maybe that's the way we build community now. Maybe that's the way we can talk directly to our people because it is intimate, right? It's intimate. I'm in your ears or, you know, well, I'm probably in your ears because we're not doing, we're not listening to podcasts passively. In a way, we're sort of actively listening to it. But at the same time, we're we're doing our grocery run or we're doing our commute or we're, you know, doing laundry while we're listening to a podcast. So I guess that is passive, isn't it? At the same time, it's like active, passive listening. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely.
07:33
Because like you're still listening to the person, even though it's sort of it's sort of the whole parasocial thing where you're like, oh, I feel like I know these people because it's like. You're a fly on the wall on their conversation, whatever the topic may be. And so it's like, you know, it does feel like that intimate connection. And I think the fact that a lot of times, you know, especially if you're listening to it with headphones or AirPods or whatever, it's like no one else can hear you. It's like you're let in on that conversation. Yeah. I think and I think that's you're seeing a lot of not only, you know, independent podcasters enter the fray, but like. All the celebrities now have podcasts. I mean, if you if that isn't an indication that that's where the industry is going, that's where the money is. Everyone like literally every time I turn around, I'm like, oh, that's right. Kiki Plummer
08:23
has a podcast. I forgot. Oh, Amy Poehler has a podcast. Oh, Dax Shepard has like every famous person who was an actor, a singer on movies, television, whatever authors. Reality. There was all of them. Yeah, exactly. Like my guilty pleasure is gravy. level podcast girls next level podcast is um holly and bridget from the girls next door circa you know the 2000s and uh and i i was one of those annoying people that watched girls next door because okay fine i wanted to be a kept woman i thought it was cool you know and just hearing the background of what was really going on behind the scenes that's fascinating you know It's all these nostalgia things that are happening as well. Like we have the House of Hallowell podcast. That's the charmed rewatch.
09:09
Or the office ladies that are doing an office rewatch. And it's kind of funny how all these people that are doing podcasts that are rewatch ones, like even the Full House one. I can't even think of all the ones that are probably in existence right now. There's a How I Met Your Mother one that I think just started. It's like one of the co -creators of the show and Josh Radner, who played Ted, just like How We Made Your Mother, I think it's called. It's terrible. Of course there is. Okay, so all these people that are starting podcasts, all of them are also starting websites, and many of them are starting blogs to go with the podcast so that they can get the SEO, so they can, you know, hell, get into the AI agents, to get into ChatGPT browser, to get into ChatGPT browser. I've not tried it out.
09:57
I don't hate. But but yeah, I think I think as content creators, if we are not adding more skill sets to our repertoire, to our toolbox, you know, we're going to be that much more difficult to employ. And I mean, I used to joke that I had to get fired seven times before I was unemployed. And that number is dwindling and that scares the shit out of me. And so it's like if we don't find new avenues, new ways to bring in revenue.
10:29
oh i'm scared for us yeah yeah i mean and and when i officially left full you know uh my last in office full -time role was 2014 and i was like i gotta get out of here and that's when i first took the jump and was doing freelance and was kind of started with entertainment writing and then was doing some content marketing stuff in there and then kind of trying to balance the two of them and so for a lot of the last decade I was kind of bouncing back and forth between entertainment journalism or features and or content marketing or like business journalism and back and forth and back and forth and some combination of the above. And now it's I doesn't feel it's it suddenly it doesn't feel like it's enough.
11:16
Like all of that experience is kind of like, yeah, OK, but what else can you do? I'm like, oh, OK, well, I spent the last decade kind of focusing on the writing part of it and these particular sort of subsets. And now I feel like a lot of that is devalued in a lot of ways because of the technology, because of the world that we sort of find ourselves in today. It's 100 percent right there with you. I mean, you know, it's it's funny because I, too, have written about all kinds of different things. And I make it sound like a prison sentence when I'm like, yeah, I did two years of security, you know, writing for security, which it felt like a prison sentence because it was bloody awful. It was boring as hell. Don't get me wrong. I was very good at writing it. Yeah, but I didn't like it.
11:55
You know, it's like there are certain pieces of content that I'm so glad no one knows I wrote that they were ghostwritten because I would just be ashamed if anyone knew like some of the stuff I've written. But no, it's just like it was dark content, like really like suicidal ideation and, you know, depressing. And it's like, thank God I had those gigs because it paid the bills. But thank God my name's not on it. But I find myself now like trying to really dive into what do I even like? Like it kind of reminds me of that scene in Runaway Bride whenever Julia Roberts character is trying 27 different types of eggs because she has no idea what type of eggs she likes. Do you remember that movie? It's been a long time since I've seen it, yeah. Well, basically every guy that she has ever dated, that's her favorite type of ex. She dates one guy, she wants scrambled. She dates another, she wants poached.
12:47
Right, right. She dates another, she wants ex -Benedict. But, well, I guess that is poached. But you get the idea. So she likes different eggs depending on who she's with. And so it's kind of like that for a freelance writer. We fall into this, oh, where that's what we like, but do we really? So I'm sitting here with 27 plates of eggs trying to figure out what kind do I even like? Yeah. Yeah. And so that that's kind of been one of the things that I've been trying to figure out myself. You know, at the time that this comes out, it'll have been more than 100 days, like well, well over 100 days that I've been kind of getting obsessed with fitness. I had my. 100 day mark in October. So thank you. Thank you. I busted my ass and lost three pant sizes and 20 pounds. Go me a little attaboy right there. But but so that's kind of become my passion right now is talking about fitness and talking about movement. And so I
13:41
did start a I soft launched a podcast called More Movement, Please. By the time this airs, I will be going public with it. That is the plan. So hopefully future Ashley can. Be excited. But it's like, OK, if I love that right now, do I then go after fitness blogs to write for? Or do I start talking to more fitness podcasts? Because I was actually doing some ghostwriting for a fitness podcast. I was writing all their show notes. And so it's like, OK, so since I've since I've acquired the tool of being able to podcast and I can also can do kind of decent graphics and Canva for social media. Right. What else can I do? You know? But at the same time, I'm really at that point in my career, and I'm sure you can relate to this because we've had similar conversations. I'm at that point in my career where I'm like, I want to build something that is mine that no one can take away from me, even if it's ghostwritten in the sense that it
14:39
has a pen name. I don't want to have to keep chasing people to tell me I'm worthy of being paid. I want to find ways to acquire sponsors, to acquire affiliate partnerships, to acquire all those things to feel like I matter. I want the people to love me. I just need external validation. And a paycheck. Yeah, and a paycheck would be nice. And, you know, if that paycheck happens to have seven zeros, that's fantastic as well.
15:07
find another number that is higher than zero right and not in the negative what yeah i was gonna say what if it's on the right of the decimal point no i don't want it no need a couple million and i'll be good but yeah no that's i think that's the thing i was thinking of when you were talking about the 27 different kinds of eggs it's like okay what am i interested in one and then two how can i pursue that like that's that's the that's the The real challenge is like, OK, I'm interested in this. Where is there space for, you know, in the marketplace for me to kind of go after that topic or pursue it? Or and or is it something like you like you're doing with the other podcast? Like, is that is it something that you create on your own? And then my challenge has also been, one, I have the creative mind and I have the interest in all the crooked table stuff that I've been doing with my podcast. But
16:01
it's like I don't have the business mind. So I'm like, I can. plan podcasts and get guests and create content and then I put it out into the world and then I'm like now what because I don't have the I don't have the knowledge or the direction like or I you know I need to try and work on that but then it's also like but in the meantime I also need to bring in things that are going to make money now not eventually you know and that's the big challenge with the podcasting but then also with like any sense of creative writing because every once in a while the people in my life will be like you should work on that that's that novel that others that whatever creator I'm like yeah when like exactly with what time with what energy because I you know my wife and I have two small children for people listening and don't know that I know Ashley does and with what time with what energy with what money yeah am I gonna sustain doing that
16:57
and not and justify that focusing on creative writing rather than trying to pursue some form of income, even if it takes the form of taking online courses and skills development, because that at least will lead to presumably better opportunities down the line. So I've kind of been trying to focus more on the skills development side of things and then sort of to dovetail off of your fitness goals. I've been working on a lot of trying to get my mind and body and spirit all aligned because everything's been really thrown out of whack the last several years and so using this sort of forced downtime um to to kind of get everything in order so that when the next big thing does arrive or at least or i create it whichever the case may be um i'm more and i'm in a better i'm in a better you know personal space to actually devote time and focus to it Yeah, it makes perfect sense to me.
17:59
And I mean, that's one of the things I was saying, like you and I have that in common that we we have these goals, but then trying to figure out, OK, how the hell do you make it happen? Because we can sit there and write, you know, 20 blog posts. We can sit there and record 20 podcast episodes. But you want me to monetize it? What? Like, how do I how do I tell a person, hey, this is worthy of you sponsoring me for 20 grand for the year? Right. Madeira and headlights going I don't think I can do this man right and if you're like me and I know a lot of creative people are you're you get really passionate about the things that you're creating but then as soon as it turns time to convince people to to you know take it in to read it write it or to read it listen to it watch it whatever suddenly you're like uh I made this thing I hope it probably sucks I don't know check it out like all you completely retreat all that self -worth stuff
18:52
starts bubbling up and then you're like, oh, I made this thing. I'm so sorry. Yeah, you know, yeah. Even if you're proud of it behind the scenes, it's it's a very different energy to put forward that that level of confidence, at least for me, it is. Oh, I same boat, bro. I mean, and funny, though, is because of the fact that, you know, the the new podcast that I'm working on, the more movement, please, for some reason, something about it. it feels like it would be easier to sell than to sell like the bloggy friend show because I guess the bloggy friend show it feels like it's my baby and and it's my story of of um of how I became a content creator and all that stuff and how people can do the same thing that I'm doing but something about the more movement please it feels more like this is so cheesy it feels more like a movement in in some weird way like I I feel like there's a passion and a um
19:47
purpose behind it because, you know, I'm watching right now as, as family members are dealing with health problems that I, you know, I don't want. And that was actually one of the things that, that started the hundred day fitness journey is I, I got word that someone close to me was having a medical issue. And I remember whining to my instructor. I'm like, I don't want to be like that. I don't want to, you know, I don't want to be that age and having all these woes.
20:18
And she's like, so change it. You're the only one who can. Yeah. And I'm like, damn it, woman. Why do you have to always be right? You'll have to ask her that on the podcast. That's the plan. That is one of the many plans. But but yeah. And then and then, you know, she said that phrase to me of, you know, the exercising is a choice just like anything else. take the time for it and it's like well damn it hit me again with another dagger yeah but um i guess it's just a matter of figuring out okay now that i have this skill set number one how do i do it to bring money in and number two how can i build something that i own like i i just i keep coming back to that because like i've been in the game since 2007 and i have nothing to show for it except for famous ashleygrant .com yeah and people still ask me if it's a porn site Which I always say yes. You're like, not yet. No, I always say yes.
21:12
And here's why. It's because whenever I was working for Metromix, huh? You'll get more traffic that way. Exactly, exactly. You're just going to check it out. Back when I was working for Metromix, I gave this guy a card and he looked at me and said, famous Ashley. Does that mean it's a porn site? And I said, absolutely. And he sent me an email, no, no, a text message at three o 'clock in the morning. And he's like, I have been to every single page of your website. There are no boobs. And I was like, I literally texted back. You're the boob, but thanks for the traffic.
21:42
Yeah. Yeah. Right. It's the only thing I could think to say, because what do you say to that? But especially at three in the morning, he's like, I've all set up. I have my station ready and nothing. I'm not finding any material to work with. In a drunken stupor, he's like, there is nothing here. Well, I can just imagine. I didn't use any explicit terms, just to say. You can put onto that whatever you think. He had his station ready. All right. He had his station ready. Audience, take from that what you will.
22:20
I'm over here blushing. You can't see it because I'm not going to show this video to anybody, but I'm probably as red as a tomato. Phew. Oh, man. Okay, so let's kind of reel things back in. Sure. If you woke up tomorrow. Well, I hope you wake up tomorrow. But if you woke up tomorrow and. It feels like a threat. What is it that if you tell someone to have a good day, it's sweet. But if you say have a good 24 hours, it sounds like. Yeah. The countdown begins now.
22:51
The countdown begins now. Have a good 24 hours. OK, if you woke up tomorrow and money was not an issue, what would you do? I would still be doing the podcasting stuff that I've been doing mostly unpaid for the last decade. I would still be doing that and I would hire people to do the promotion stuff for me and doing at least marginally better than I'm doing now. And that's why that's been such a passion project for me because it's really the connections that I've made from doing all my Crooked Table podcast stuff because it's like I made real... IRL friendships from, from those, from those podcasts, like people that I only met on Twitter, which I'm not on anymore at all. Cause I backed out of Twitter slash X after events occurred. Now your ex got it. Yeah, exactly. X is my ex. And then, um, you know, I've met some of these people in real life. I've started my, have a, uh, my, my podcast back to
23:53
Bluey that I, my cohost and I. met online and then a few months ago met in person for the first time and we've been doing that for a couple years and that's been really fun so i mean i would continue doing the entertainment coverage that i've been doing on my own podcasts and videos and stuff and i would probably crack open the creative writing thing again it's like it's i'd be doing the stuff that i want to do that i don't feel like i can justify because i'm trying to do the stuff that will get me paid i mean it's tale as old as time right So it's like trying to find a balance between those two or even better, having them be one in the same is the, you know, the long term like pipe dream, maybe, but at least like the goal, like in the back of my mind, that's always kind of nagging at me. I hear you.
24:41
And I mean, it sounds very similar to some of the stuff that I've said that I, I too would be still podcasting. I still would be writing in some capacity. I'm not sure what type of writing I am. I do love writing about food. I get a kick out of that. I like figuring out recipes and then telling people about them. So, you know, one of the things that my husband and I were talking about doing was launching a food blog.
25:01
But then when I watched the helpful content update, which was anything but and it killed all the recipe blogs that I loved. Like, I mean, one of the girls I know, she was getting a million page views a month and she went down to ten thousand a month. And that's kind of a big deal. Yeah. I mean, that is a that is a business killer. And so it's like, OK, so if we know what we're passionate about and what we would do. with not getting paid considering well that's what we're already freaking doing how do we now take that and turn that into an actual revenue stream because you know they say oh if you if you do what you love you'll never work a day in your life yeah but we still gotta eat yeah exactly we still gotta eat sharon so if we have to eat how the hell do we get paid and i don't know if you've noticed but things are not getting any cheaper out there in the world i don't even want to talk
25:49
about it And that's all I'm going to say about that. Well, I will say one thing. I agree completely because I remember when ramen noodles were less than 30 cents a package and I just saw them for $1 .50. What the hell? I'm not bitter. Ramen noodles are pretty good, though. So, like, if you got to eat for $1 .50, you could do a lot worse. Yeah, you're not wrong. Have you seen the ramen noodle cookbook? No. Oh, my goodness.
26:17
The recipe's in there. Like, I have one that I still use. And we call it Thailand noodles. Because there was this recipe that we tried when we were in Thailand. And it was, well, interestingly enough, $1 .50 on the street. Anyway. But, yeah. So, we still make that here at home. Because, you know, it's a cheap meal. Yeah. So, no. There's nothing wrong with Thailand noodles. There's nothing wrong with ramen noodles. But I don't want them every day. Right. I like some variety.
26:46
Yeah. Because I'm a bougie bitch. And you can cover food on your More Movement, Please thing. That's like a whole, you know, if you're doing a lot of movement, you want to eat right, it complements it, the whole fitness thing. So there's opportunities there. I've had this discussion. Same page, best thing for everybody. It's just a matter of figuring out, okay, how the hell do you pay for it? And so, like, I've been looking into new affiliate opportunities. Yeah. Yeah.
27:15
So I was looking at that. I was looking at Commission Junction. I was looking at Warrior Plus. I was looking at JV Zoo, you know, the joint venture affiliate network company. And I actually now that I've started trying to put out affiliate offers, I actually have made a little bit of money, but not as much as I need to pay King Bill. Right. Oh, yeah. And that's always the problem. Right. And I just I interviewed a blogger yesterday who said that, you know, oh, you know, I started my blog back of this and back in the day and and I wasn't making any money. And then then last year I got serious and now I'm making between a grand and two grand. And I just wanted to reach through the computer and be like, oh, how? Because, you know, we've been at this forever and I'm not making two grand a month on my own shit. Right. Exactly. But I would like to. Sure.
28:08
Gimme. Yeah. There you go. So I'm curious, because you do so much with entertainment, have you considered doing a Patreon? I have considered. I have a Patreon. I have not done much with it. Yeah. But I do have a Patreon. I even put a couple like bonus content things on there. Yeah. Because I had this big plan of like, oh, I'll have the Patreon and then like the older episodes of the show that are either not on Apple podcast because there's so many episodes in the. crooked table podcast slash now close watch feed um kind of dropped off or before the rebrand and just post them on the patreon as a as a kind of a a perk there or like uh bonus content from specific episodes and that kind of thing i just haven't kept up with it yeah and it's one of those things that it's also like well there's nobody there so It's a chicken and egg thing. There's not going to be anybody there unless they put content
29:03
in it, into it. But it's hard to, again, to justify putting content into it. If there's nobody there. I get it. I totally do. But I, yeah. So I've, I've had that in my, I had that in my script when I do the whole welcome to close watch or welcome to French's detours or whatever. And then as my sign off, I had the whole thing about support us on Patreon. I've just been like skipping over it the last several months. Cause I'm like, there's not anything there. It doesn't feel disingenuous to promote it. So. I hear that. That's something I need to I have a lot of things, even in the crooked table space that I want to pursue that I haven't because I keep scaling back the number of episodes I want to do because I don't want to overwhelm myself. So it's all about balance again. This is my whole. Yeah, this is my whole journey of this this year, especially is how do I fit everything together? Like, how do I
29:53
make all these things work internally and externally, personally and professionally? And so. That's been a real kind of puzzling together situation. Hey, I get it. Are you using ads on your CrookedTable.com? No, I have not. In fact, I haven't even kept up with CrookedTable .com. CrookedTable.com now forwards to the link tree with all the different links. And CrookedTable .com is officially even a fully active website at the current time.
30:26
It's a holy whaty? Sorry. It's not even fully active at this current time. Not fully active. I thought you said something else. Sorry. That too. Probably that too. Been a long day. So, okay, if we were to reverse engineer this to figure out how to get you paid, because we're going to figure you out first, and then maybe we'll think about it. Oh, boy. Others have tried. Best of luck. All right. So if you were to revive kirkatable .com, basically it would entail taking every single episode that you have created and writing a blog post about every single episode.
31:01
Yeah. What say you? So, okay. So writing a blog post, do you mean like, hey, in episode such and such, we talked about the show notes blog post? Basically show notes. Yeah. I had done that. And then. So I'm probably have most of like up until the last year or so, most of them written and on the, you know, the the WordPress site of all of that. OK, haven't been that posted. So now how could you refresh that to include affiliate links to every single movie you talk about and include like a donation button to support the show or things like that? Like, how could you how could you do something like that? I mean, the obvious thing is buying things on physical media or merch connected to each film, that kind of thing. And then. Yeah, I don't know. What do you mean? What do you mean buying? Why would you buy it? Well, you're talking about affiliate links to services or to purchase products or purchase products. Like, do you have to actually
32:12
purchase the product to be able to? Oh, no, I don't have to purchase. I'm saying for other people to purchase it. Yeah, yeah. No, no, no. OK. Because it would be like, you know, I did an episode on The Wiz just recently that's about to be posted. Probably by the time this is up, it will be live. And there's a 4K Criterion collection of The Wiz that retails for like $39 something on Amazon. So that's kind of on the smaller end of things. But still, it's something. That would be the most obvious one to add. And I had an Amazon Associates account at one point that I did not. keep up with. And I think I tried recently and they were like, no, thank you. And I was like, oh, okay, thanks. So then instead you should sign up for like Rakuten and then instead of using Amazon as your, you know, your video links, you could link to Walmart and Target, buy the video there. Yeah. Yeah. Just a thought. Yeah.
33:07
These are all things I have not been putting, not been focusing on because I've just been creating the content and then praying that it does something. What does that mean to you, praying that it does something? I don't know. Downloads increase on their own, basically. I don't know. I haven't been doing that as strategic with it as I probably should have because I have more of the creator mindset. And I've been kind of putting so much focus on the content creation that I haven't put the same amount of care and effort into what happens next. And also, I've been doing full -time jobs in the midst of all this. So when I edit stuff, it's usually at night or whenever.
33:52
So it's easy to slip through the cracks. Sorry, go ahead. No, no worries. I was just going to say, who is it that you host your podcast with? Well, right now it's with Speaker because I'm also part of a podcast network. That's only been the last year or so, less than a year that I've been doing that. So now I do have... some ads on throughout my episodes because of that. That's what I was going to ask you. So you have dynamic ads that are OK. So if you if you needed to increase revenue, the fastest way would be to increase your downloads. Sounds like. Yeah. OK, so if you were going to increase your downloads, what would you do? How would you go about it? I mean, it feels like the most obvious answer is social media marketing, which is, again, as we've established, not my strong suit. OK, so no, no, you're not going to social media instead. I think what you should do is go back to all of your past episodes
34:45
and refresh the SEO on them, like make them more searchable. And they all need to be on YouTube, too. And if you're not on all the podcast directories, you need to get your show on all the podcast directories. Yeah, that's another thing. So. I don't want to say social media is like the is like the worst thing to do. Instead, I think what you should do is be strategic if you are going to use social media, maybe instead. write some LinkedIn blog posts, like write articles on LinkedIn about the different episodes, maybe make them related to something business oriented or I don't know, anything really. And then link back to the episodes. Maybe that would help build your integrity, make you look marketable. Because I've actually been playing with that myself.
35:30
That's actually how I landed some of the affiliate commissions I did this year. I was repurposing some of my posts about how to be a podcaster. and actually made some sales. Who knew? So, I mean, it's just, that's a thought. Yeah. And it's one of the things I'm playing with. Like I'm playing with all kinds of different ideas. Like one of the things that my husband and I were talking about is we were talking about starting an actual website for the food blog that I was telling you about. But the more I talk to people and the more I discuss things with like how everything is moving, I can't help but wonder if my better way. of moving forward is just to have everything on my own personal website, famousashtagrant.com and have categories of all the things I give a damn about. That way, it's only one thing to take care of. Yeah. So like the More Movement Please podcast. Yeah, OK, it's a new podcast,
36:17
but it redirects, you know, to famousashtagrant.com slash more movement, please. The podcast I deal with podcast. It will go to famousashtagrant.com backslash podcast I deal with or bloggy friends show. Even that has the same thing. And so I'm like, OK, so. If I if I'm creating all these things and it only goes to one place, maybe that'll be easier. Yeah. Yeah. Like one source of truth. Like I mentioned Denise Duffield Thomas earlier. Anyway, she's also my money mentor.
36:48
And her thing is she sells a money boot camp like that's that's her big bread and butter item. She sells money boot camp and she sells sacred money archetypes. But money boot camp is her big thing. And so. Her mantra, even though it's not always sexy, is all roads lead to boot camp. And so everything she does, the whole goal is to get people into her boot camp. So whatever she's creating, everything goes to DeniseDT .com because they're all trying to get you into the boot camp. And so I'm looking for my all roads lead to moment. I'm trying to figure out what the hell that looks like. And the only thing I can keep coming up with is all roads lead to famoushushagrant .com. I don't know what else to do. Like, I really do not know what else to do. I know there's all kinds of things I want to write about. I know there's all kinds of things I want to podcast about. But the idea of creating a single website for every single thing that
37:42
I want to do just sounds exhausting. Yeah. It's funny that you mentioned that because one thing that I've talked to Kai about, obviously, all of this, she hears most of my... grievances throughout the years as you may assume um she'd be like well why don't you use crooked table for like if i'm doing the my own shows on crooked table.com why don't i just when i do work for other people like have that be as like as have crooked table be like the hub for all of that stuff and then the more that i've gotten into video and audio production for like clients or as a as on more of a freelance slash contractor basis the more i'm like yeah does crooked table productions doesn't have to just be me talking about movies it can be audio video production period and so that's one thing that i'm thinking about is just expanding that scope to include production services that i do for other uh, for other shows outside
38:49
of the ones that I've already kind of created under that banner. Then it sounds like you already know what you need to do. Create a page with your services. Uh, cricket table .com. Yes. So what do you want to do with it? It sounds like you need to add a production services page to site and, um, then start promoting the shit out of yourself. So if we, if we get a, um, a services page. then at that point we just need to promote you to other podcasters. And do you feel like you're in a position that you have enough experience that you could actually sell this stuff? Do you feel like you're in a position you could actually sell this stuff? Could I do the job? Yes. Could I sell it? I don't know. That's the problem.
39:39
Because I'm not, as we were saying, selling myself is not a strong suit. How'd you get your writing gigs? Yeah, I know. Good question. That's what I wonder a lot of the time. Other than me emailing you one day randomly and saying, hey, you want to write for the magazine? Me emailing people randomly? Me emailing other people randomly? I got my, well, my first like major post -college online entertainment thing was with Screen Rant.
40:06
And that was literally me just tweeting out one day, man, I wish I could write for at Screen Rant. And the guy who ran the who owned the site at the time responded and was like, hey, send me an email, blah, blah, blah. And that's how that happened. And I worked with them for several years. And that kind of was the starting point for that. So I think I'm just not vocalizing. I'm not manifesting things as much as I should be. I'm keeping all my cards close to my chest and saying, like, I want this and this and this and this and dealing them out. And I think I need to. I need to try and meet the universe halfway. I'm working on I'm working on a lot of stuff internally, actually, that it's hopefully going to help with a lot of this thing. A lot of the confidence and the self -worth and and the putting myself out there of it all. I do think that's been holding me back quite a bit.
40:55
Absolutely. So here's what we're going to do. You're going to get the page up, get the page up and I'll promote it. Damn it. OK, sounds good. Yes. So this is your accountability reporting for duty telling you that, yes, get the page up and I will promote it to my network. OK. And then you're just going to retweet it or not retweet it, reshare it. How do you do it? Repost it. Repost. You're going to repost it. Yes. That's step one. I do think this is also like all of this is coming at a really good time, too, because I usually take like the end of the year, the beginning of the next year, like November, December, January to kind of. not be recording podcasts constantly and to kind of be in more of a regroup and refresh type of mode. So maybe that's a good window to sort of do some of these things and make some of these changes and kind of prepare for the future of Crooked Table Productions.
41:49
Okay, so you're going to do your page and I'm going to do mine where I'm going to say people can hire me as their voice. There you go. And then you're going to put it on your page and I'll put yours on mine and then we'll promote each other. That works for me. Digital high five. that's the cheesiest fucking thing i've done all day it's but we both participated so we're both equally uh guilty yes we're we're cheese and cheese whiz who's who is anyway um so yeah i think that could be a fun way to play uh that's one idea and then i'm already harassing you about whether or not you're working out so maybe i'm going to start harassing you about other things too i know i was even going to say i'm like oh she's going to have a new question every monday Did I tell you you're in my calendar? Am I really?
42:34
Yes. What I did. I appreciate that. I literally put in my calendar every single Monday at I think it's 730 a .m. I get an email that says harass Robert and ask him his fitness goals for the week. And every Monday or Wednesday, depending on how soon I sheepishly respond. It's usually me being like, not much. I have two small children. They drain me of all my energy. Yeah, you're like, I open Facebook and I see she's messaged me. I ain't fucking touching that. I know there are people that do that because they've told me. I open my phone and I see I got a message from you and I don't open it because I don't know what it holds. Now I know. I know that feeling.
43:17
I know your game, Robert. I'm going to make you work, damn it. That's the plan. More movement, please, and more work, please. I mean, yeah, there you go. That's one of the tabs on, you know, one of the things you can have on Famous I Should Grant. More movement, more work next to it, whatever. You just go with the more blank. Right. Anyway, I don't even know if we have enough meat on this bone to come up with something good, but I'll edit it so that it sounds good. The magic of editing. Yes. That guy said, we'll fix it in post. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So, okay. Bringing all this back together, you're going to make a services page. I'm going to make a service page. So we're going to promote each other. What else? What can we do in 2026 to finally be the rock stars we deserve to be? I like your creative writing thing. I might want to do, I might brush up more on some of that. I think there's a lot
44:19
of catharsis from. And I think I want to refocus some of that. Also, the fact that I have these podcasts, it has not eluded me that that's an easy place to put ads for, I don't know, if I've written a book or if I have another podcast, which I've been cross -promoting my Back to Bluey podcast that I co -host on episodes of Crooked Table stuff as well. And I think also just cross -promoting in general with more people because I know a lot of... Podcast people, obviously, because I've had a lot of them on my show. And maybe just being more vocal about cross -promoting, not just by being on each other's shows, but like, you know, you see every once in a while on social media, like, hey, anybody up for an ad exchange? Because I have a 30 -second spot of me being like, hey, listen to the Crooked Table, Close Watch, and Franchise Detours, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So being more open and more vocal about collaboration and tapping
45:14
into the community more. I think that's a great idea because if we don't ask for what we want, it's definitely a no. So I think we just start just asking who knows what could happen. I mean, we have no idea where our conversations could take us. We have no idea where, you know, if we just start finally putting ourselves out there, who knows, maybe, maybe by the, in fact, I'm going to bring you back at the end of 2026. We're going to rehash this out, find out where we've been. and kind of just see what's next. I mean, that is, of course, if Bloggy Friends Show even still exists. I kind of hope it does because what I'm kind of thinking is with Bloggy Friends Show, it's kind of like my business more than photographs. It was the beginning of everything.
45:58
Like I named it more than photographs because at the time I literally was, well, doing more than photographs. That's why I named it that because, you know, people are asking what I do and I'm like, well, you know, I do a little of this, a little of that. And they're like, well, aren't you just a photographer? I'm like, no, I do more than photographs. And so that's why that stuck. And so now it's like, OK, well, if I'm doing a little bit of this, a little bit of that, maybe I keep the bloggy friend show because blogging is how it all got going. Yeah.
46:26
But I keep saying it and I'm still going to I'm going to sing it. You know, this is the hill I will die on. You cannot just have a blog. anymore like if you want to make money online as a content creator in 2025 2026 and beyond for god's sakes brandon you need there it is you need to have more than that it has to be more than that you have to have things that drive people to it you have to i mean yeah okay social media but i we both have already made it pretty clear we hate social media like it's it's a it's a time suck it's a it's a no Even though I have to do it because I'm on it all freaking day. Like anybody knows that they can send me a message and I will be on social media for now. Yeah. But it's like, okay, if that's the case and we have all these things at our disposal, surely to God we can figure out how to funnel them into a way that we can make money. Yeah. Doing things we love.
47:26
Exactly. Yeah. And I mean, I think that at least with the more movement, I think that that, like I said, it's becomes more than just a passion. It's also got purpose behind it. Anyway. So we talked about all that. I know where I'm going to go with the episode. I'm going to make it sexy. I'm going to wrap it up in a bow. It's going to be awesome. Enjoy your next 24 hours. Have a good 24 hours. Have a good 24 hours. So where can people find you online, Robert? Are we really doing that? Because I'll do it. We're really going to do that. We're really doing that.
48:06
Find you online, Robert. You can find me on social media at Crooked Table. I'm on Blue Sky, Instagram, and Threads. You can also find me at CrookedTable.com, which will mostly forward you to the link tree where you can find my podcasts, Close Watch, Franchise Detours, and the one I co -host, Back to Bluey. And you can find me on LinkedIn and all of that good stuff, Robert Yannis Jr. Well, we will definitely leave all the links in the show notes. And Robert, I just want to thank you for being on the show. And I hope you have a very happy new year. I hope all of our dreams come true in 2026. I hope that we become the rock stars that we deserve to be. And until next time, may your paid shoes be high and your bounce rate be low.