{"video_id":"ywDRxC6A7d8","title":"Linus sits down with LMG CEO","channel":"FP Exclusives","show":"FP Exclusives","published_at":"2025-07-08T14:53:29Z","duration_s":2674,"segments":[{"start_s":0.0,"end_s":3.57,"text":"Sammy: On May 18th, 2023, a news bombshell shocked the world, 2 00:00:03.570 --> 00:00:06.806 even to Terren because Linus announced his hiring without informing him. 3 00:00:06.806 --> 00:00:09.743 Linus stepped down from CEO from Linus Media Group, Floatplane Media, 4 00:00:09.743 --> 00:00:10.677 and Creator Warehouse. 5 00:00:10.710 --> 00:00:11.611 Your first year Terren, 6 00:00:11.644 --> 00:00:13.980 was very intense as we had the great reset then. 7 00:00:13.980 --> 00:00:16.683 You were also a quote on quote \"a fly on the wall during that time\", 8 00:00:16.683 --> 00:00:19.652 so I thought instead of a one-year check we'd do a two-year check-in 9 00:00:19.652 --> 00:00:23.390 to gauge how well the transition is going as you've gotten your feet wet 10 00:00:23.390 --> 00:00:25.091 and made some changes internally. 11 00:00:25.158 --> 00:00:26.626 So Terren, your first question. 12 00:00:26.626 --> 00:00:29.262 In your first year, what did you observe from the company? 13 00:00:29.262 --> 00:00:30.597 And what did you think you noticed? 14 00:00:30.597 --> 00:00:31.498 Linus: Can I jump in for a second? 15 00:00:31.498 --> 00:00:35.335 Linus: Did you really not know that I was announcing your hiring? 16 00:00:35.468 --> 00:00:37.504 Terren: No, because I was in a meeting at Dell; 17 00:00:37.604 --> 00:00:40.206 and then I started getting bombarded on Messenger. 18 00:00:40.206 --> 00:00:40.507 Linus: Oh. 19 00:00:40.607 --> 00:00:41.775 Terren: It's like, hey congratulations. 20 00:00:41.775 --> 00:00:43.309 Terren: I was like, what are you talking about? 21 00:00:43.410 --> 00:00:44.744 I just saw the video. 22 00:00:44.744 --> 00:00:47.680 I was like, what video? And then I went to YouTube. 23 00:00:47.680 --> 00:00:48.615 Linus: I forgot about that. 24 00:00:48.648 --> 00:00:51.351 Terren: Yeah, and then I had a very awkward conversation with my boss. 25 00:00:51.351 --> 00:00:54.087 I luckily had this conversation with him a few weeks ago. 26 00:00:54.087 --> 00:00:55.688 It's like hey I'm leaving. 27 00:00:55.688 --> 00:00:57.791 He's like, cool, and then this is how we're going to do the transition. 28 00:00:57.891 --> 00:00:58.425 Linus: Uhuh. 29 00:00:58.425 --> 00:01:02.395 Terren: And all the publicity stuff before I had left was not part of the plan. 30 00:01:02.662 --> 00:01:03.063 Linus: Right. 31 00:01:03.063 --> 00:01:04.197 Terren: So I made a lot of apologies. 32 00:01:04.864 --> 00:01:05.265 Linus: Cool. 33 00:01:05.365 --> 00:01:05.732 Terren: Yeah. 34 00:01:06.032 --> 00:01:06.533 Linus: Good job. 35 00:01:07.033 --> 00:01:07.367 Terren: Yeah. 36 00:01:07.700 --> 00:01:08.501 Terren: So thank you for that. 37 00:01:09.502 --> 00:01:12.439 Linus: I mean, it was good practice for all the apologizing that you'd be doing 38 00:01:12.439 --> 00:01:12.906 Terren: Yeah. 39 00:01:12.906 --> 00:01:15.975 Linus: in the first few minutes of the job here. 40 00:01:17.577 --> 00:01:19.379 Terren: Yeah, hilarious, um... 41 00:01:19.512 --> 00:01:21.581 Sammy: Hahahahahaha. Linus: He was so bad on camera in that. 42 00:01:21.581 --> 00:01:22.515 Terren: Which one? 43 00:01:22.849 --> 00:01:23.283 Linus: Uh... 44 00:01:23.283 --> 00:01:23.983 Terren: Just all of them? 45 00:01:23.983 --> 00:01:24.484 Linus: Yeah. 46 00:01:24.484 --> 00:01:26.319 Linus: In general, you're pretty bad on camera. 47 00:01:26.319 --> 00:01:27.587 Terren: Yeah, this is my third video. 48 00:01:27.587 --> 00:01:29.789 Linus: Yeah; well no, he's fine when we don't script him. 49 00:01:30.056 --> 00:01:30.423 Terren: Yeah. 50 00:01:30.890 --> 00:01:34.727 Linus: But as soon as we put a teleprompter in front of him... like oh man. 51 00:01:34.727 --> 00:01:35.995 Terren: I'm like Ron Burgundy. 52 00:01:35.995 --> 00:01:41.101 Terren: Basically, it's just like F.U. San Diego or whatever the line was. 53 00:01:41.101 --> 00:01:43.770 Linus: Yeah well, Ron Burgundy had some personality though. 54 00:01:44.537 --> 00:01:48.842 Terren: He also had books that smelled like rich mahogany; and what do we have here? 55 00:01:50.677 --> 00:01:52.145 Terren: Does that smell like a steam deck? 56 00:01:55.782 --> 00:01:56.316 Linus: It's all fake. 57 00:01:58.251 --> 00:01:59.519 Linus: Sorry. What was the question? 58 00:01:59.519 --> 00:02:01.855 Sammy: What did Terren notice from his first year? 59 00:02:01.921 --> 00:02:03.957 And what did you learn from that year? 60 00:02:03.957 --> 00:02:06.860 Linus: Alright, this is where he throws the previous guy under the bus. 61 00:02:06.860 --> 00:02:08.394 Linus: Yes, please tell me what you noticed. 62 00:02:08.394 --> 00:02:09.395 Terren: The one thing I noticed, 63 00:02:09.395 --> 00:02:12.899 or the one thing that was super awesome about coming into a new role 64 00:02:12.899 --> 00:02:14.968 is just a passion that the entire team had. 65 00:02:14.968 --> 00:02:15.535 Linus: Mmmm. 66 00:02:15.535 --> 00:02:19.272 Terren: For the content, for the audience, and just for their work in general. 67 00:02:19.272 --> 00:02:21.574 Terren: Coming from I guess the business side of things, 68 00:02:21.574 --> 00:02:24.711 I think it's pretty different in terms of their approach. 69 00:02:24.711 --> 00:02:26.913 Terren: So it's trying to learn how to balance, 70 00:02:26.913 --> 00:02:30.617 I know all the things that really make LMG great compared to you know, 71 00:02:30.617 --> 00:02:35.155 some of the better practices that we see from the outside and learning what we can mesh. 72 00:02:35.155 --> 00:02:36.723 Linus: Caring about the numbers a little. 73 00:02:36.890 --> 00:02:38.725 Terren: Caring about the numbers just a little; yeah. 74 00:02:38.725 --> 00:02:42.061 Linus: Doing a PowerPoint once in a while. 75 00:02:42.562 --> 00:02:43.730 Terren: Yeah; and I think that's one of the main things, 76 00:02:43.730 --> 00:02:48.334 just understanding what we do well, and then figuring out where we can add value right? 77 00:02:48.334 --> 00:02:49.903 Rather than just trying to recreate the wheel. 78 00:02:50.003 --> 00:02:52.438 Linus: One of his favorite lines for the first, 79 00:02:52.438 --> 00:02:54.073 well actually, until now, 80 00:02:54.073 --> 00:02:58.278 is basically like go away and come back when you have a spreadsheet 81 00:02:58.278 --> 00:03:01.614 and at least like a couple of slides to justify this. 82 00:03:01.614 --> 00:03:03.683 Or do the due diligence. 83 00:03:03.683 --> 00:03:06.052 Linus: Or what is it you always say? What's the line you always say? 84 00:03:06.085 --> 00:03:06.986 Terren: Show me the numbers. 85 00:03:06.986 --> 00:03:08.021 Linus: Yeah, yeah, that one. 86 00:03:08.588 --> 00:03:11.457 Terren: Because that was told to me many, many times in my previous roles as well, 87 00:03:11.457 --> 00:03:14.827 because I wasn't always the most diligent in terms of how I was organizing things. 88 00:03:15.228 --> 00:03:17.630 And so that was something that was drilled into me for years and years. 89 00:03:17.630 --> 00:03:20.233 And so now I'm going to extend the same pain to everybody here, 90 00:03:20.233 --> 00:03:21.434 in the nicest way possible. Linus: Pay it forward. 91 00:03:21.467 --> 00:03:22.168 Sammy: Pay it forward. 92 00:03:22.168 --> 00:03:23.970 Terren: But I think that really helped me mature 93 00:03:23.970 --> 00:03:26.506 as somebody that has been in a business role. 94 00:03:26.506 --> 00:03:29.175 Well, getting things organized, really thinking through things, 95 00:03:29.175 --> 00:03:33.246 and understanding what the numbers are telling me. 96 00:03:33.246 --> 00:03:36.015 It doesn't mean that, hey we should action everything that we see inside the spreadsheet, 97 00:03:36.015 --> 00:03:39.152 but it's making sure that we have a perspective and we understand what we're talking about. 98 00:03:39.152 --> 00:03:41.988 Linus: To be clear, it's not that we never used numbers in the past. 99 00:03:42.088 --> 00:03:44.757 Linus: You know, when we did our annual budgeting Yvonne and I would sit down 100 00:03:44.757 --> 00:03:47.560 and really grind out a spreadsheet for hours. 101 00:03:47.660 --> 00:03:51.931 Linus: It's just that I would use a lot of way fuzzier math. 102 00:03:51.931 --> 00:03:54.500 Like I remember when I was first explaining to Yvonne 103 00:03:54.500 --> 00:03:58.204 that I didn't need to do what my uncle insisted I do, 104 00:03:58.204 --> 00:04:02.242 which was do a business case study or whatever, like a business viability study. 105 00:04:02.242 --> 00:04:07.647 Because I was like, well, I don't need to because at this headcount, 106 00:04:07.647 --> 00:04:13.219 at this payroll, and at even the very most minimalist possible of sponsorship rates 107 00:04:13.219 --> 00:04:18.491 at the very bottom of my projection we're over the line and I can probably beat that. 108 00:04:18.691 --> 00:04:21.527 So sitting down and looking at this for any longer than that 109 00:04:21.527 --> 00:04:25.865 is money that I could be spending on the phone or email with sponsors or shooting videos. 110 00:04:25.865 --> 00:04:28.167 So it's effectively a waste of time. 111 00:04:28.268 --> 00:04:32.538 And I think that culture may have permeated top down 112 00:04:32.605 --> 00:04:36.943 to just figure out if it's probably going to be viable, 113 00:04:36.976 --> 00:04:39.946 and then shoot your shot because anytime you're not shooting 114 00:04:39.946 --> 00:04:42.682 is time that bullets are not going into your targets. 115 00:04:43.049 --> 00:04:44.684 Terren: And because we came from the same place, 116 00:04:44.684 --> 00:04:49.489 I think I had a similar philosophy or a similar messaging when I first started at Corsair. 117 00:04:49.489 --> 00:04:51.991 I don't remember what I said, but then my boss turns over to me and says, 118 00:04:51.991 --> 00:04:53.860 \"hope is not a strategy\". 119 00:04:53.860 --> 00:04:54.894 Linus: Hahahahahaha. 120 00:04:55.061 --> 00:04:57.597 Sammy: So we went from a vibes company to a data company now. 121 00:04:57.730 --> 00:05:00.767 Linus: Well, I think we have vibes and numbers now. 122 00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:01.501 Sammy: Hahahahaha. 123 00:05:01.501 --> 00:05:04.470 Linus: Because we absolutely do things based on vibes, 124 00:05:04.470 --> 00:05:06.873 and vibes work out sometimes. 125 00:05:06.873 --> 00:05:10.310 Like we had that conversation recently where I called him on the WAN Show, 126 00:05:10.343 --> 00:05:13.780 and I asked what my budget was for approvals. 127 00:05:13.780 --> 00:05:18.384 Every executive in the company has a certain budget that they can approve up to. 128 00:05:18.384 --> 00:05:20.653 And he basically, what would you say? You said like, 129 00:05:20.653 --> 00:05:22.355 you're the owner I don't give a f***, or something like that. 130 00:05:22.355 --> 00:05:23.589 Terren: Yeah, but more politely. 131 00:05:23.589 --> 00:05:26.292 Linus: Yeah, yeah, yeah; because he was, because we were live. 132 00:05:26.292 --> 00:05:27.994 He would have been less polite if we weren't live. 133 00:05:27.994 --> 00:05:28.895 Terren: I had a couple of drinks. 134 00:05:28.995 --> 00:05:30.196 Linus: Hahahaha. Sammy: Hahahahahaha. 135 00:05:30.897 --> 00:05:34.500 Linus: So anyway, the reason it came up was because of the fire truck; 136 00:05:34.500 --> 00:05:41.374 and that was obviously a $35, 000 decision that I was like, let's buy a fire truck. 137 00:05:41.941 --> 00:05:43.343 We could probably monetize it. 138 00:05:43.376 --> 00:05:47.013 Like we could, we could probably break even on this; and that worked out. 139 00:05:47.013 --> 00:05:49.716 So if you actually look at the numbers and this is, 140 00:05:49.716 --> 00:05:54.787 this is a huge credit to our incredible design team, the creator warehouse team, 141 00:05:54.821 --> 00:05:58.291 the production team, the procurement team, the business team; 142 00:05:58.291 --> 00:06:01.160 everyone who pulled together to bring together sponsorships, 143 00:06:01.194 --> 00:06:02.995 get this fire truck, get this production done, 144 00:06:03.029 --> 00:06:08.701 get the products developed that we used to accompany the launch of the fire truck video. 145 00:06:08.735 --> 00:06:13.706 So from April 1st to 8th, I think is how long we had that shirt 146 00:06:13.706 --> 00:06:18.911 and that water bottle for sale? Dude, we sold 3, 500 thirst extinguishers. 147 00:06:18.911 --> 00:06:22.749 Like we bought the fire truck with just the sales of that water bottle. 148 00:06:22.749 --> 00:06:24.717 Linus: And then shout out to the CW team. 149 00:06:24.751 --> 00:06:28.855 We're going to be delivering those thirst extinguishers starting before the end of April. 150 00:06:28.855 --> 00:06:29.322 Is that right? 151 00:06:29.322 --> 00:06:32.425 Terren: Yeah, it'll be a, it'll be a period where we'll be doing fulfillment. 152 00:06:32.425 --> 00:06:34.293 But the first shipment is really going on next week. 153 00:06:34.293 --> 00:06:36.028 It's not going to be one or two, it's going to be hundreds. 154 00:06:36.062 --> 00:06:39.065 Linus: That's incredible, because we had no idea how many of these things to order; 155 00:06:39.165 --> 00:06:44.504 so we waited until April 1st to be like, are we going to sell 200 of these or 2, 000? 156 00:06:45.371 --> 00:06:48.574 Linus: Way more than that; but the factory was able to get it turned around. 157 00:06:48.574 --> 00:06:51.677 We're air shipping them over, so we take a bit of a hit on the margin; 158 00:06:51.677 --> 00:06:53.546 but still, free fire truck baby. 159 00:06:53.546 --> 00:06:55.214 Terren: I think that was part of Sammy's question as well, 160 00:06:55.214 --> 00:06:56.849 just in terms of hey what have you been doing? 161 00:06:57.283 --> 00:07:00.386 These are part of the things that, the boring things in the background 162 00:07:00.386 --> 00:07:03.156 from an operations perspective that we've been trying to you know, 163 00:07:03.156 --> 00:07:05.558 get the company over the hump, bringing the right people 164 00:07:05.558 --> 00:07:08.060 just so that we have the skill set to do things like this. 165 00:07:08.060 --> 00:07:10.663 Just because in the past our lead times, I'll be the first to admit 166 00:07:10.663 --> 00:07:12.698 are much longer than we would like. 167 00:07:12.732 --> 00:07:14.901 I think we're getting to a better place at this point where we have 168 00:07:14.934 --> 00:07:16.936 more sophisticated sourcing strategies, 169 00:07:16.936 --> 00:07:20.206 just because we have the right people on board in the right places. 170 00:07:20.573 --> 00:07:24.710 Linus: And I think this is the kind of thing that's like really not visible from the outside. 171 00:07:24.710 --> 00:07:27.280 I saw the quarterly business review for Creator Warehouse, 172 00:07:27.313 --> 00:07:28.981 which is what we're kind of focused on right now. 173 00:07:29.015 --> 00:07:30.082 But we'll talk about other stuff. 174 00:07:30.082 --> 00:07:36.022 And I think we were down from our peak was over a thousand SKUs for apparel. 175 00:07:36.022 --> 00:07:39.258 And I think we're down to like five or six hundred now; 176 00:07:39.292 --> 00:07:43.896 so there's been some kind of course correction that we might have overcorrected. 177 00:07:43.930 --> 00:07:48.334 Like for a while there you'd go on the store and there's like no apparel in stock 178 00:07:48.334 --> 00:07:51.404 because we'd allowed our SKU count to balloon like crazy; 179 00:07:51.437 --> 00:07:55.808 so we had a ton of inventory dollars tied up in like triple XL, 180 00:07:55.808 --> 00:08:00.279 you know, leftover Swackets in a corner somewhere that we just weren't being clean about. 181 00:08:00.279 --> 00:08:02.582 And then now we've cleared out a bunch of that; 182 00:08:02.582 --> 00:08:06.686 and I think we have something like *censored* million dollars of inbound orders coming in, 183 00:08:06.719 --> 00:08:08.120 but of the right stuff. 184 00:08:08.154 --> 00:08:10.389 Terren: Yeah, you should probably not get to really specific numbers. 185 00:08:10.456 --> 00:08:10.890 Linus: Oh. 186 00:08:11.090 --> 00:08:11.624 Terren: It's fine. 187 00:08:11.958 --> 00:08:12.625 Linus: Does it matter? 188 00:08:12.725 --> 00:08:13.626 Terren: Oh, probably. 189 00:08:13.726 --> 00:08:16.462 Linus: Is it just because my numbers are wrong or because we don't want to tell them? 190 00:08:17.063 --> 00:08:18.164 Sammy: Because he goes by vibe. 191 00:08:18.164 --> 00:08:19.565 Terren: Little part A, little part B. 192 00:08:19.632 --> 00:08:20.633 Linus: Yeah, I don't know; 193 00:08:20.733 --> 00:08:24.904 Linus: painful transparency has been probably another cultural difference. 194 00:08:24.937 --> 00:08:28.541 Terren: Yeah, what was the other one where basically we signed a light NDA 195 00:08:28.541 --> 00:08:31.210 and then Linus starts talking about property? 196 00:08:31.210 --> 00:08:32.445 Linus: Well, I didn't know about it! 197 00:08:32.445 --> 00:08:34.881 Linus: Nobody told me we had an NDA. 198 00:08:35.081 --> 00:08:36.682 Terren: And then I had to sort of pull him aside 199 00:08:36.682 --> 00:08:39.018 because the other party was kind of upset. 200 00:08:39.018 --> 00:08:41.821 Terren: They're like, well did you just flagrantly disregard this NDA? 201 00:08:41.854 --> 00:08:44.590 Terren: And it's like, no it's just like we didn't read this before we signed it; 202 00:08:44.624 --> 00:08:47.960 and to be clear I didn't sign it, somebody else signed it. 203 00:08:47.960 --> 00:08:51.397 Terren: It's like yeah that's yet another thing that we have to clean up slightly. 204 00:08:51.397 --> 00:08:53.933 Terren: And then that was true. 205 00:08:53.933 --> 00:08:56.402 Terren: Linus said you didn't tell me this was confidential. 206 00:08:56.402 --> 00:08:58.604 Terren: It's like, well assume everything I tell you is confidential. 207 00:08:58.905 --> 00:08:59.438 Linus: No! 208 00:09:00.373 --> 00:09:03.175 Terren: Yeah; but yeah, we like to share, we share a lot here. 209 00:09:03.709 --> 00:09:05.778 Sammy: Terren, is this the job you envisioned? 210 00:09:05.778 --> 00:09:07.079 Linus: Hahahahaha! 211 00:09:07.346 --> 00:09:07.914 Sammy: Or what changed? 212 00:09:09.448 --> 00:09:10.349 Linus: There's no way. 213 00:09:10.383 --> 00:09:11.284 Linus: Sorry, sorry; go on. 214 00:09:11.851 --> 00:09:12.818 Terren: Is this a yes - no answer? 215 00:09:12.818 --> 00:09:14.787 Sammy: It can be whatever answer you want. 216 00:09:15.555 --> 00:09:18.758 Terren: I think I've learned a lot, that's one of my key criteria. 217 00:09:18.791 --> 00:09:20.059 Linus: Hahahahahaha. 218 00:09:20.059 --> 00:09:22.328 Terren: Wow, nobody takes me seriously. 219 00:09:23.262 --> 00:09:24.430 Terren: One of my key criteria, 220 00:09:24.430 --> 00:09:27.266 and this is one of the bits of advice I've had for my team; 221 00:09:27.266 --> 00:09:29.268 you know, my team's going on for 20 years. 222 00:09:29.368 --> 00:09:30.436 If you're not learning in a role, 223 00:09:30.536 --> 00:09:33.873 I don't really think it matters what level or position you're in. 224 00:09:33.873 --> 00:09:35.975 It's time to start looking for a new challenge; 225 00:09:36.008 --> 00:09:39.011 that's not necessarily the case at Dell. 226 00:09:39.045 --> 00:09:41.113 Like, this is absolutely no slight to them; 227 00:09:41.113 --> 00:09:44.517 I was learning a lot there, but I thought that this gave me a longer runway 228 00:09:44.517 --> 00:09:46.586 just in terms of other things I can sink my teeth into; 229 00:09:46.586 --> 00:09:48.721 so, from that perspective I think it's been really good. 230 00:09:48.754 --> 00:09:51.123 I've learned a lot about the advertising business. 231 00:09:51.157 --> 00:09:52.992 I've learned how terrible I am on film in general. 232 00:09:54.293 --> 00:09:57.430 You know, so I know that I'm not being the influencer or content creator, 233 00:09:58.164 --> 00:09:59.432 once this job may be over. 234 00:10:00.166 --> 00:10:02.168 But no, it's been great. 235 00:10:02.201 --> 00:10:03.803 Sammy: But that's a good dynamic, you know. 236 00:10:03.803 --> 00:10:04.070 Terren: Yeah. 237 00:10:04.103 --> 00:10:05.638 Sammy: Like Linus is great on camera, you're not. 238 00:10:05.638 --> 00:10:07.373 Sammy: He's a vibe guy, you're a data guy. 239 00:10:07.873 --> 00:10:08.341 Sammy: It all works out. 240 00:10:08.341 --> 00:10:09.842 Terren: It's like peanut butter and jelly. 241 00:10:09.875 --> 00:10:10.509 Sammy: Hahahahahaha. 242 00:10:10.509 --> 00:10:12.511 Linus: Well, it's like when Yvonne, 243 00:10:12.511 --> 00:10:15.982 like, because Yvonne had met Terren before because we'd go to like 244 00:10:15.982 --> 00:10:20.820 the NCIX, you know, company Christmas party; and like she'd encountered him before. 245 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:24.890 But when we were like really interviewing him and she was really like meeting him, 246 00:10:24.890 --> 00:10:27.693 she kind of goes, \"you really have a type\". 247 00:10:28.594 --> 00:10:32.498 Because like that's the thing for me, right? 248 00:10:32.531 --> 00:10:41.073 Is I'm like, oh here's an idea; why don't we do like a last-minute sale event 249 00:10:41.073 --> 00:10:45.411 so that you know, because our pricing could be affected for Lime Day 250 00:10:45.411 --> 00:10:49.649 and it might not be a success for our US customers who are, 251 00:10:49.649 --> 00:10:51.250 like a big part of our customers. 252 00:10:51.283 --> 00:10:55.021 Why don't we beat the- Let's do a beat the tariff sale; okay, go. 253 00:10:55.054 --> 00:10:59.025 So I'll like have this idea, but you have to actually be tactical. 254 00:10:59.058 --> 00:11:01.027 You have to be detail-oriented, 255 00:11:01.027 --> 00:11:03.162 you have to be somewhat organized in order to execute it. 256 00:11:03.162 --> 00:11:06.532 And I can be organized, especially when I'm lucky 257 00:11:06.532 --> 00:11:10.403 and I happen to hit a hyper-focus when I need to be organized; 258 00:11:10.403 --> 00:11:14.340 but it's not in my nature; it's not something that I'm passionate about, 259 00:11:14.340 --> 00:11:15.741 it's not something that excites me. 260 00:11:15.775 --> 00:11:20.413 It's uh, so I need to surround myself with people who can kind of 261 00:11:22.848 --> 00:11:27.420 take the interesting idea and then like go actually turn it into something real. 262 00:11:27.753 --> 00:11:30.022 Terren: I think that's the dynamic that sort of works between us. 263 00:11:30.022 --> 00:11:33.426 I think I'm relatively good at interpreting what Linus wants. 264 00:11:33.459 --> 00:11:35.528 I tend to think that he talks on hyperbole sometimes; 265 00:11:35.528 --> 00:11:37.730 and I think that's part of the YouTube personality, 266 00:11:37.730 --> 00:11:39.832 or that's just part of his personality in general. 267 00:11:39.832 --> 00:11:43.135 Things would be a little bit disastrous if we just took everything literally. 268 00:11:43.502 --> 00:11:44.870 So I scale that back a bit, 269 00:11:44.904 --> 00:11:47.406 just to make sure that I understand the intent of what he's looking for 270 00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:51.877 and try to deliver upon his vision, given that he's a chief vision officer. 271 00:11:52.011 --> 00:11:55.581 So I think that's worked out relatively well just because that's, 272 00:11:55.614 --> 00:11:59.285 you know the yin and yang that we had, for lack of a better term, right? 273 00:11:59.685 --> 00:12:00.453 Linus: And you need both. 274 00:12:01.020 --> 00:12:01.420 Terren: Yeah. 275 00:12:01.454 --> 00:12:03.689 Linus: Like on I would say on Precision Screwdriver, 276 00:12:03.689 --> 00:12:08.561 we f*** up and we didn't listen to enough of the dragon energy hyperbole; 277 00:12:08.561 --> 00:12:10.529 we didn't order enough of them, we were out of stock for months. 278 00:12:10.796 --> 00:12:15.367 But then on Commuter Backpack, I was like well I don't want that to happen again. 279 00:12:15.367 --> 00:12:17.169 Order three times as many. 280 00:12:17.236 --> 00:12:20.706 Linus: And now we're sitting here with a bunch of made-in-China commuter backpacks 281 00:12:20.706 --> 00:12:23.509 that are going to be more challenging to move through, 282 00:12:23.642 --> 00:12:28.414 given the potential for crippling tariffs on that inventory 283 00:12:28.414 --> 00:12:29.782 for us to sell them into the States. 284 00:12:29.782 --> 00:12:34.687 So there's obviously, we're always working to kind of find the right balance; 285 00:12:34.687 --> 00:12:38.257 and we're going to get it wrong more often than not, but I think that's... 286 00:12:39.225 --> 00:12:43.229 Linus: as long as we're moving in the right direction. 287 00:12:43.262 --> 00:12:45.064 Linus: I mean look, we're not trying to get acquired right now, 288 00:12:45.064 --> 00:12:49.201 so it doesn't matter how much of our crappy internal stuff we air, right? 289 00:12:49.201 --> 00:12:50.636 Terren: Yes, yes. 290 00:12:51.070 --> 00:12:51.971 Terren: Hahahaha. 291 00:12:52.071 --> 00:12:57.209 Linus: Overall, I think every year LMG has been a better functioning company 292 00:12:57.243 --> 00:12:58.911 than it was the year before; 293 00:12:58.911 --> 00:13:01.947 and as long as we're going in that trajectory, then I'm comfortable. 294 00:13:02.081 --> 00:13:03.983 It doesn't need to be perfect immediately. 295 00:13:03.983 --> 00:13:08.420 Sammy: We're going to follow up on some questions that you slightly avoided 296 00:13:08.420 --> 00:13:10.022 during the live stream a year ago. Linus: Sure. 297 00:13:10.055 --> 00:13:13.793 Sammy: Apollo the Space Fox asked, your most favorite and least favorite thing at LMG? 298 00:13:13.893 --> 00:13:16.462 Sammy: You said learning was a favorite thing, 299 00:13:16.462 --> 00:13:18.297 but you did not answer your least favorite thing. 300 00:13:18.297 --> 00:13:20.232 Linus: Yeah, what's your least favorite thing at LMG? 301 00:13:20.232 --> 00:13:22.168 Sammy: So now I'm confronting you to answer that. 302 00:13:22.168 --> 00:13:25.337 Linus: The fact that the snack counter only comes from Costco. 303 00:13:25.337 --> 00:13:26.338 Sammy: Hahahahaha. 304 00:13:26.472 --> 00:13:27.406 Sammy: Because it's cheapest there. 305 00:13:27.406 --> 00:13:27.807 Linus: Yeah. 306 00:13:27.873 --> 00:13:30.543 Terren: There's a lot going on, I think there's a lot of curveballs. 307 00:13:30.543 --> 00:13:31.877 Linus: I mean, that's not even LMG. 308 00:13:31.877 --> 00:13:34.780 Linus: I was joking with Jordan earlier on the shoot today 309 00:13:34.814 --> 00:13:37.917 Linus: because I was like I'm just tired man. 310 00:13:38.017 --> 00:13:41.320 Linus: Like can I just have two years, okay? 311 00:13:41.320 --> 00:13:44.390 Linus: Without a major catastrophe, okay? 312 00:13:44.390 --> 00:13:50.529 Between COVID and then you've got the freaking you know hit piece. 313 00:13:50.529 --> 00:13:51.630 Let's call it what it was. 314 00:13:51.630 --> 00:13:55.434 There were things that were accurate in it, but a hit piece can be accurate. 315 00:13:55.601 --> 00:13:57.069 Sammy: I think Luke's calling it the Great Reset. 316 00:13:57.069 --> 00:13:58.838 Linus: Whatever, the hit piece. Sammy: Hahahaha. 317 00:13:58.871 --> 00:14:02.208 Linus: And then freaking, now we've got this global tariff uncertainty. 318 00:14:02.208 --> 00:14:07.446 And look, tariffs, they come or they don't or whatever; we can work around that, 319 00:14:07.446 --> 00:14:09.448 but it's the uncertainty, it's the back and forth, 320 00:14:09.448 --> 00:14:10.883 the will they won't they, what will they look like? 321 00:14:10.883 --> 00:14:12.585 And it's just like, can we just... 322 00:14:13.986 --> 00:14:16.388 Linus: Running a business is hard enough. 323 00:14:16.455 --> 00:14:19.258 Terren: To be clear, I'd be happy with two weeks without a curveball. 324 00:14:19.258 --> 00:14:19.992 Sammy: Hahahahaha. 325 00:14:20.092 --> 00:14:21.527 Terren: Two years, yeah! 326 00:14:23.963 --> 00:14:25.130 Terren: Two weeks, that's all I'm asking for. 327 00:14:25.364 --> 00:14:25.865 Terren: Yeah. 328 00:14:26.031 --> 00:14:28.200 No, but it's been- There's been a lot of stuff going on. 329 00:14:28.200 --> 00:14:29.501 Sammy: So those are the questions I have for Terren. 330 00:14:29.501 --> 00:14:30.469 Sammy: Now we're going to Linus. 331 00:14:30.569 --> 00:14:31.270 Linus: Oh, okay. 332 00:14:31.270 --> 00:14:33.706 Sammy: Okay, so everyone always asks how Terren is fitting in. 333 00:14:33.806 --> 00:14:37.042 Sammy: But how about you? How are you fitting into the new CVO role? 334 00:14:37.142 --> 00:14:41.313 What do you like about working with Terren? Things you don't like as much? 335 00:14:41.313 --> 00:14:43.148 Linus: That's like three questions, okay. 336 00:14:43.148 --> 00:14:43.883 Sammy: Well, it's general. 337 00:14:43.883 --> 00:14:49.588 Linus: CVO role, I'd say is good; it sometimes doesn't feel that different; 338 00:14:49.622 --> 00:14:52.391 and I think that's a good thing. 339 00:14:52.424 --> 00:14:54.093 Linus: And I'll kind of explain what I mean by that; 340 00:14:54.093 --> 00:15:01.400 because a lot of what I did as a CEO was more vision and executive anyway. 341 00:15:01.400 --> 00:15:04.436 Like a CEO is often expected to determine the vision for the company; 342 00:15:04.436 --> 00:15:06.772 so my new role is like not that different. 343 00:15:06.772 --> 00:15:10.843 And then I had really strong operational help 344 00:15:10.843 --> 00:15:14.480 from people like Yvonne and from people like Nick, 345 00:15:14.546 --> 00:15:16.682 and Colton and the rest of the exec team, 346 00:15:16.682 --> 00:15:20.319 even though most of them didn't even have like proper job titles. 347 00:15:20.319 --> 00:15:24.690 We didn't even have like a pyramid necessarily properly, 348 00:15:24.690 --> 00:15:26.091 I don't think at that point. 349 00:15:26.091 --> 00:15:27.493 Linus: Did we have an org chart when you joined? 350 00:15:27.526 --> 00:15:28.027 Terren: Yes. 351 00:15:28.027 --> 00:15:28.661 Linus: Oh, okay. 352 00:15:28.661 --> 00:15:29.995 Linus: Well, I might not have been aware of it. 353 00:15:29.995 --> 00:15:31.230 Terren: There were squiggly lines everywhere. 354 00:15:31.230 --> 00:15:33.299 Linus: Yeah, there was a lot of like dotted lines. 355 00:15:33.299 --> 00:15:33.866 Terren: Yeah. 356 00:15:33.866 --> 00:15:36.435 Linus: It was more of a disorganizational chart. 357 00:15:36.535 --> 00:15:40.239 And so you know, a lot of the time it's not that different, 358 00:15:40.239 --> 00:15:43.175 because I like come up with an idea and I kind of go, 359 00:15:43.175 --> 00:15:45.811 hey, can you do some quick viability analysis on this? 360 00:15:45.811 --> 00:15:48.013 And then I like make a decision or whatever. 361 00:15:48.080 --> 00:15:51.583 The difference is that now if I don't have time to make a decision 362 00:15:51.583 --> 00:15:55.821 or if I don't have time to follow up on the analysis, 363 00:15:55.821 --> 00:15:58.891 you know basically if I'm busy, somebody else does it. 364 00:15:58.891 --> 00:16:04.129 So it feels the same except when things keep going when I'm busy. 365 00:16:04.163 --> 00:16:06.065 Things don't get stalled as much anymore. 366 00:16:06.065 --> 00:16:09.802 And like we still have stalls, but it's smoother. 367 00:16:09.802 --> 00:16:10.703 I mean I went home- 368 00:16:10.703 --> 00:16:15.674 In the last three months, I've gone home early like three times, 369 00:16:15.674 --> 00:16:19.278 which doesn't sound that impressive; and it wasn't like super early, 370 00:16:19.411 --> 00:16:23.248 but that's more times than that probably happened in the previous three years, 371 00:16:24.049 --> 00:16:25.484 to give you some idea, you know? 372 00:16:25.784 --> 00:16:26.618 So that's good. 373 00:16:27.219 --> 00:16:28.854 Oh, what do I like about working with Terren? 374 00:16:28.887 --> 00:16:30.089 Linus: I mean, he listens. 375 00:16:30.089 --> 00:16:32.858 I think mutual respect is something I've talked about a lot on WAN Show 376 00:16:32.992 --> 00:16:34.960 when I discuss just like working relationships. 377 00:16:34.960 --> 00:16:37.229 He listens and also talks. 378 00:16:37.262 --> 00:16:40.632 You need both, right? So he's not afraid to tell me when I'm being a f***ing idiot. 379 00:16:40.632 --> 00:16:45.471 And I think that's speaking of you know, ego, like we were talking about earlier. 380 00:16:45.504 --> 00:16:50.609 I think that's really important is keeping yourselves accountable to each other 381 00:16:50.609 --> 00:16:53.012 and keeping each other accountable to yourselves, 382 00:16:53.012 --> 00:16:54.646 like making sure you have open dialogue. 383 00:16:54.646 --> 00:16:56.615 He's always willing to tell me if I'm being stupid; 384 00:16:56.615 --> 00:17:01.720 and then he's always willing to tell me if he's being stupid. 385 00:17:01.720 --> 00:17:04.256 And as long as you can both do that, I think that- 386 00:17:04.990 --> 00:17:06.658 Terren: And not get upset about it, I think that's the main thing. 387 00:17:06.692 --> 00:17:08.894 Terren: I don't think we hold grudges necessarily; 388 00:17:08.994 --> 00:17:12.931 so I never feel uncomfortable talking to him about difficult subjects. 389 00:17:12.931 --> 00:17:14.466 And that takes time. 390 00:17:15.367 --> 00:17:19.505 Terren: I think that's probably the best thing about a relationship, 391 00:17:19.505 --> 00:17:21.373 where basically we can have different points of view. 392 00:17:21.373 --> 00:17:23.609 Linus: Yeah, but like that's fine. 393 00:17:23.609 --> 00:17:27.579 Linus: And I think that we're both, we can both be reasonably objective 394 00:17:27.579 --> 00:17:29.181 and we're both kind of willing to try things; 395 00:17:29.214 --> 00:17:33.852 I think that's something where you can really poison a relationship 396 00:17:33.886 --> 00:17:38.590 if you don't agree and no one's willing to just try the other person's idea. 397 00:17:38.624 --> 00:17:40.793 And sometimes the other person's idea is wrong; 398 00:17:40.793 --> 00:17:43.162 like let's go back to the precision screwdriver under order, 399 00:17:43.162 --> 00:17:45.064 and the commuter backpack over order. 400 00:17:45.064 --> 00:17:48.267 We are both human and we are both capable of making mistakes 401 00:17:48.267 --> 00:17:50.836 in our own unique mistake making ways. 402 00:17:50.869 --> 00:17:53.972 Linus: But like I'm not mad about it; I don't think he's mad about it. 403 00:17:53.972 --> 00:17:56.508 Linus: So... we move forward. 404 00:17:56.508 --> 00:17:59.311 Terren: I think we're similar from a personality standpoint, whereas it's not- 405 00:17:59.311 --> 00:18:02.514 Terren: Okay, so this happened; so what do we do next to fix the situation? 406 00:18:02.514 --> 00:18:06.518 And we move on, and that's all we expect from each other and from our teams. 407 00:18:06.518 --> 00:18:07.519 Terren: Right? So... 408 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:08.620 Linus: As for what's bad... 409 00:18:09.788 --> 00:18:11.156 Linus: Well, he still hasn't moved here. 410 00:18:11.290 --> 00:18:11.824 Terren: Yeah. 411 00:18:13.125 --> 00:18:17.229 Linus: Speaking of you know, challenging conversations that we've had, 412 00:18:17.229 --> 00:18:19.932 he was supposed to move here in I think April of last year. 413 00:18:21.133 --> 00:18:22.568 Terren: Wow, how the time flies. 414 00:18:23.469 --> 00:18:24.770 Linus: It does, doesn't it? Terren: Yeah. 415 00:18:25.337 --> 00:18:27.239 Terren: Like this last three months has felt like a year. 416 00:18:27.372 --> 00:18:28.507 Linus: Hahahaha. 417 00:18:28.507 --> 00:18:29.208 Sammy: Another curveball. 418 00:18:29.308 --> 00:18:30.209 Sammy: Hahahahahaha. 419 00:18:30.209 --> 00:18:32.544 Terren: I'm spending a lot of time out here in my own events. 420 00:18:32.544 --> 00:18:34.413 Terren: Hahahahaha. 421 00:18:34.413 --> 00:18:35.781 Sammy: Do you miss doing CEO stuff? 422 00:18:35.881 --> 00:18:38.350 Sammy: I always see you taking calls, which I always find interesting; 423 00:18:38.350 --> 00:18:40.719 because I thought the goal was to get you off those calls, but- 424 00:18:40.752 --> 00:18:41.620 Terren: Can I answer that? 425 00:18:41.620 --> 00:18:42.788 Terren: He can't help himself sometimes. 426 00:18:44.123 --> 00:18:45.657 Terren: Hahahahahaha. 427 00:18:45.657 --> 00:18:46.391 Sammy: So he does miss it. 428 00:18:47.359 --> 00:18:49.027 Linus: Well I mean, look, 429 00:18:49.027 --> 00:18:51.096 how are you supposed to have a vision for a company 430 00:18:51.096 --> 00:18:52.898 if you don't have your finger on the pulse of it? 431 00:18:52.931 --> 00:18:54.633 Like, I think that's extremely unhealthy. 432 00:18:54.633 --> 00:18:56.802 I've always believed that the leader of a company should 433 00:18:56.802 --> 00:19:00.639 wear the products and should watch the videos, 434 00:19:00.639 --> 00:19:04.977 and should talk to the people who work there and should have you know, 435 00:19:04.977 --> 00:19:06.478 some idea what the f***'s going on; 436 00:19:06.478 --> 00:19:09.214 because it's like if I had a vision that you know, 437 00:19:09.214 --> 00:19:11.450 oh, we're going to be an electronics retailer. 438 00:19:11.450 --> 00:19:17.422 But I hadn't talked to you know, I hadn't read one of Chewy's weekly community reports 439 00:19:17.422 --> 00:19:21.660 where, oh people were really upset that in our Black Friday Cyber Monday sale, 440 00:19:21.693 --> 00:19:24.229 we had some computer parts for sale; they felt that was over the line. 441 00:19:24.229 --> 00:19:26.031 As it happens, that didn't happen. 442 00:19:26.031 --> 00:19:29.067 And it is possible that we could get into electronics retailing; I don't know. 443 00:19:29.101 --> 00:19:31.203 But the point is if I don't talk to people, 444 00:19:31.203 --> 00:19:34.406 well how the hell am I supposed to set a path and have a vision for the company? 445 00:19:34.406 --> 00:19:36.208 Linus: It's impossible; and then how's he supposed to execute it? 446 00:19:36.241 --> 00:19:38.143 Terren: I might have shared this story before so you guys can 447 00:19:38.143 --> 00:19:40.579 feel free to edit this out if this is just a repeat. 448 00:19:40.579 --> 00:19:44.016 Terren: Now having worked at like a hundred million dollar company before, 449 00:19:44.016 --> 00:19:47.619 a billion dollar company before, a hundred billion dollar company before, 450 00:19:47.719 --> 00:19:52.758 I think founders always have... I'm not going to say a hard time letting go. 451 00:19:52.758 --> 00:19:54.126 That's probably being unfair. 452 00:19:54.126 --> 00:19:57.529 I think they feel deep ownership in terms of what they do. 453 00:19:57.529 --> 00:20:04.403 So in every instance I've seen either the CEO or very, very, very early employees 454 00:20:04.436 --> 00:20:06.371 stay really involved in the company. 455 00:20:06.371 --> 00:20:08.307 I think that's really important just to understand, 456 00:20:08.340 --> 00:20:11.810 you know, the things that you really cared about are being maintained; 457 00:20:12.144 --> 00:20:15.747 even though that you might not have 100% direct control of it anymore. 458 00:20:15.747 --> 00:20:18.917 Linus: Well I mean, part of it is like you know this thing has a soul. 459 00:20:18.917 --> 00:20:22.521 And when the soul dies, I think the company dies; 460 00:20:22.521 --> 00:20:26.692 and I think that has a really harmful knock-on effect for everyone 461 00:20:26.725 --> 00:20:28.460 who loves the company and what it makes. 462 00:20:28.460 --> 00:20:30.495 I mean, I was sad when NCIX disappeared. 463 00:20:30.495 --> 00:20:35.133 I had a brand loyalty to that company both as a customer and then as an employee. 464 00:20:35.133 --> 00:20:36.602 It was upsetting for me. 465 00:20:36.602 --> 00:20:41.073 And then I think the other part of it is like you know, your name's on it, right? 466 00:20:41.073 --> 00:20:44.743 Like Michael Dell, Andy Corsair, their names are right on those companies. 467 00:20:44.776 --> 00:20:45.244 Terren: Tim Apple. 468 00:20:45.344 --> 00:20:46.211 Linus: Yeah, Tim Apple. 469 00:20:46.311 --> 00:20:46.578 Terren: Yeah. 470 00:20:46.578 --> 00:20:49.047 Linus: Like Linus Media Group, like even if- 471 00:20:49.047 --> 00:20:51.750 Even if I wasn't a shareholder at some point in the future, 472 00:20:51.750 --> 00:20:54.119 let's say I divested of the company in some way. 473 00:20:54.119 --> 00:20:57.689 If it was still called Linus Media Group and I read a headline that's like, 474 00:20:57.689 --> 00:21:01.059 yeah, Linus Media Group f***s up everything; I'm like, ah f***! 475 00:21:01.159 --> 00:21:02.394 Like that sucks, right? 476 00:21:02.761 --> 00:21:05.197 And it's not like, it's not like my name is Roger; 477 00:21:05.297 --> 00:21:07.633 you know, Rogers Communications or whatever, 478 00:21:07.633 --> 00:21:09.001 It's like ah it could be any Rogers. 479 00:21:09.001 --> 00:21:10.502 Like how many Linuses are there? 480 00:21:10.535 --> 00:21:13.272 There's that one hockey player, there's the Linux guy. 481 00:21:13.272 --> 00:21:15.874 Like what else have we got? A dead scientist. 482 00:21:15.874 --> 00:21:16.441 Linus: Like it's... 483 00:21:17.276 --> 00:21:17.743 Linus: crap. 484 00:21:18.510 --> 00:21:22.314 Sammy: What's your split then for CEO/CVO day-to-day activities? 485 00:21:22.414 --> 00:21:23.482 Linus: They're both very low. 486 00:21:23.949 --> 00:21:30.922 Linus: Most of my day-to-day activities are really in writing and hosting. 487 00:21:31.423 --> 00:21:34.693 Linus: And I mean, it's like the old days. 488 00:21:34.693 --> 00:21:36.962 I don't really have a ton of time for either of those things. 489 00:21:36.962 --> 00:21:40.766 Vision, a lot of the time comes during my own time 490 00:21:40.799 --> 00:21:42.801 because it's the only time when I have any time to think. 491 00:21:42.801 --> 00:21:47.472 Like the new idea for Whale LAN came from attending Whale LAN 492 00:21:47.472 --> 00:21:48.674 and spending time doing that on the weekend. 493 00:21:48.707 --> 00:21:51.943 I think that's honestly a big part of what has stunted our growth, 494 00:21:52.744 --> 00:21:54.379 you know, in the lead up to Terren coming here; 495 00:21:54.379 --> 00:21:56.682 and even during the time when we've been kind of reorging everything 496 00:21:56.682 --> 00:22:01.119 is I reached the point where I didn't have time to do any of my jobs well. 497 00:22:02.054 --> 00:22:04.890 And setting a direction for the company was one of them. 498 00:22:04.890 --> 00:22:06.191 Like there was some skill involved, 499 00:22:06.191 --> 00:22:10.662 but I got kind of lucky in a lot of our big growth phases. 500 00:22:10.662 --> 00:22:12.798 Like screwdriver and backpack could have been a disaster; 501 00:22:13.398 --> 00:22:17.302 but instead they funded this next stage of growth. 502 00:22:17.302 --> 00:22:19.771 I mean, it was because of them that I could afford to hire him 503 00:22:19.771 --> 00:22:21.340 and start building that team, right? 504 00:22:21.340 --> 00:22:24.876 I don't remember the question anymore, but very, very little, very little time. 505 00:22:24.876 --> 00:22:27.979 And it's hard to separate CEO and CVO. 506 00:22:28.347 --> 00:22:32.084 Sammy: What was your original vision when bringing in Terren? How's that vision changed? 507 00:22:32.084 --> 00:22:35.120 Linus: Well, the original vision got a bit of a curveball thrown into it 508 00:22:35.120 --> 00:22:40.192 because I expected him to have a solid six plus months; was that the timeline we set? 509 00:22:40.325 --> 00:22:40.792 Terren: Mhmm. 510 00:22:40.859 --> 00:22:46.998 Linus: To just watch, to just embed himself in every department 511 00:22:46.998 --> 00:22:49.468 one at a time and just watch. 512 00:22:49.501 --> 00:22:57.509 Probably what was most challenged at that time was production and post-production; 513 00:22:57.509 --> 00:23:00.011 and there's a lot of reasons for that that I'm not going to get into now. 514 00:23:00.011 --> 00:23:02.481 But those were the ones that needed the most attention. 515 00:23:02.481 --> 00:23:05.217 Linus: And when you look at the hire you might kind of go, 516 00:23:05.217 --> 00:23:07.085 oh, well, that's a total mismatch, right? 517 00:23:07.085 --> 00:23:10.756 Because his background is really in physical goods businesses, right? 518 00:23:10.789 --> 00:23:13.191 Product management and all that; 519 00:23:13.191 --> 00:23:16.061 but really that wasn't the part that I was concerned about. 520 00:23:16.061 --> 00:23:19.931 I felt that when you're smart and organized and you take time, 521 00:23:20.065 --> 00:23:22.901 which I knew he would do, you can learn that other stuff. 522 00:23:22.901 --> 00:23:29.741 It's just that he never got the time to sit and just watch and learn it. 523 00:23:29.808 --> 00:23:33.678 So I think that... I forget the question; 524 00:23:33.678 --> 00:23:37.549 but what happened next was basically the part that was easier to fix 525 00:23:37.549 --> 00:23:39.217 was the physical goods side, 526 00:23:39.217 --> 00:23:41.887 and so Terren ended up spending a lot more of his time on that. 527 00:23:41.887 --> 00:23:45.490 And then we ended up you know, continuing to struggle on the production side. 528 00:23:45.490 --> 00:23:49.027 And I think now we've sort of cleaned things up enough 529 00:23:49.027 --> 00:23:51.363 that he's able to spend time on both of them. 530 00:23:51.363 --> 00:23:52.798 And again, what was the question? Sorry. 531 00:23:52.798 --> 00:23:54.332 Sammy: What was your original vision? Linus: Oh, the vision, right. 532 00:23:54.366 --> 00:23:55.634 Sammy: Yeah; and has that vision changed? 533 00:23:56.168 --> 00:23:59.504 Linus: Bottom line, my vision was that he would look at everything, 534 00:23:59.504 --> 00:24:04.576 and use that time to brush up on his understanding of the media side of the business 535 00:24:04.576 --> 00:24:07.112 and focus on helping us fix production first. 536 00:24:07.112 --> 00:24:12.951 What actually ended up happening was because production was in sort of like 537 00:24:12.951 --> 00:24:20.225 more of like a panic, just keep the wheels on the tracks mode; 538 00:24:20.258 --> 00:24:23.295 keep it moving forward so we can support the rebuild. 539 00:24:23.328 --> 00:24:25.697 Terren ended up focusing more of his time on creator warehouse 540 00:24:25.697 --> 00:24:27.432 where there was an opportunity for growth, 541 00:24:27.432 --> 00:24:29.968 to help make sure that we had enough revenue coming in 542 00:24:29.968 --> 00:24:34.773 to help support getting that train, keeping that train on the tracks 543 00:24:34.773 --> 00:24:37.976 and then getting it kind of rebuilt while we were driving it. 544 00:24:37.976 --> 00:24:41.780 Because the reality of it is that while we did do a one week shutdown 545 00:24:41.913 --> 00:24:44.850 to kind of catch our breath, have meetings, 546 00:24:44.850 --> 00:24:47.886 break down barriers and communication and do all that stuff. 547 00:24:47.953 --> 00:24:52.390 Linus: You can't just stop a company until you solve all of the problems at the company, 548 00:24:52.390 --> 00:24:54.960 Linus: because by the time you roll it back up again, 549 00:24:54.960 --> 00:24:57.128 your biggest problem is going to be that you're out of business. 550 00:24:57.128 --> 00:24:59.664 Terren: I think one of the things I've learned from a career perspective is... 551 00:24:59.664 --> 00:25:03.201 no, especially earlier on I had a very specific way 552 00:25:03.201 --> 00:25:04.803 in terms of how I envisioned things to be done, 553 00:25:04.803 --> 00:25:07.405 especially being like a newer manager or whatever else. 554 00:25:07.405 --> 00:25:11.576 Over time, I realized that there are multiple paths to the same solution. 555 00:25:11.610 --> 00:25:13.411 And I think one of the things I appreciated, 556 00:25:13.411 --> 00:25:15.547 which is what I think Linus has tried to articulate, 557 00:25:15.547 --> 00:25:19.251 is this might not be an exact plan when I first started, 558 00:25:19.251 --> 00:25:22.454 but we found a way to continue down the same sort of trajectory 559 00:25:22.487 --> 00:25:25.690 that hopefully will lead us to the same end destination. 560 00:25:25.790 --> 00:25:28.260 Linus: And the train really is on the tracks. 561 00:25:28.260 --> 00:25:32.898 Linus: Like, even though we're uploading less, the business is actually doing fine. 562 00:25:32.898 --> 00:25:36.368 And we did that, we did that How Does LMG Make Money video recently, 563 00:25:36.401 --> 00:25:38.069 where we showed that a big part of that 564 00:25:38.069 --> 00:25:42.073 is because we've executed extremely well on Creator Warehouse. 565 00:25:42.073 --> 00:25:46.311 And I also have to give major props to the production side. 566 00:25:47.846 --> 00:25:51.483 Things are way cleaner; like, the amount of time 567 00:25:51.483 --> 00:25:55.587 that I waste idling on set because things aren't ready, 568 00:25:55.587 --> 00:25:58.723 the amount of time that I spend in script review, 569 00:25:59.391 --> 00:26:02.761 the amount of time that I spend looking at videos after the fact, 570 00:26:02.761 --> 00:26:05.263 after the editors are done with them and making changes 571 00:26:05.263 --> 00:26:09.034 is negligible compared to what it was a few years ago. 572 00:26:09.067 --> 00:26:12.504 And that is nothing against the team members back then, 573 00:26:12.504 --> 00:26:14.406 because a lot of them are the same team members. 574 00:26:14.439 --> 00:26:20.045 It's just getting those organizational processes tidied up makes an enormous, 575 00:26:20.045 --> 00:26:21.012 enormous difference. 576 00:26:21.012 --> 00:26:23.214 And so yeah even that side is actually, I think- 577 00:26:23.214 --> 00:26:26.318 I think I would be hard pressed 578 00:26:26.318 --> 00:26:31.656 to find something at the company that is worse today than two years ago. 579 00:26:33.058 --> 00:26:34.059 Linus: Actually, I have one. 580 00:26:34.059 --> 00:26:37.562 Linus: Our pile of Creator Warehouse returns is bigger than before. 581 00:26:37.562 --> 00:26:39.331 Linus: We still have dealt with it. Terren: We do have a plan, we do have a plan. 582 00:26:39.364 --> 00:26:40.332 Linus: Yeah, we've had a plan for... 583 00:26:40.332 --> 00:26:42.867 Terren: No, no, we had a semblance of a plan. 584 00:26:42.901 --> 00:26:45.937 Terren: Now we actually have one. Linus: What's the line? Yeah, concepts of a plan. 585 00:26:45.937 --> 00:26:47.172 Linus: We have concepts of a plan. 586 00:26:48.073 --> 00:26:51.209 Sammy: From your perspective Linus, how has Terren changed LMG? 587 00:26:51.209 --> 00:26:54.646 Linus: More organized; I think that's the simplest way to put it. 588 00:26:55.680 --> 00:27:01.319 Linus: I think that sometimes that can come across as us being a little bit more corporate; 589 00:27:01.353 --> 00:27:07.158 but the reality of it is that if you want to scale beyond a handful of people, 590 00:27:07.158 --> 00:27:12.530 there's a reason that bigger organizations operate the way that they do. 591 00:27:12.564 --> 00:27:14.699 And sometimes it's kind of a downer; 592 00:27:14.733 --> 00:27:19.371 like personally, I think it kind of sucks that our camera operators 593 00:27:19.371 --> 00:27:22.707 can't borrow camera equipment on the weekends for personal projects anymore. 594 00:27:22.741 --> 00:27:25.343 And I'm sure you probably agree Andy, that that sucks. 595 00:27:25.410 --> 00:27:29.047 Linus: But the reality of it is that when we had one camera operator, 596 00:27:29.080 --> 00:27:32.884 or two camera operators and nobody else on staff 597 00:27:32.884 --> 00:27:37.088 who would even have any interest in borrowing any of that crap, it was easy. 598 00:27:37.088 --> 00:27:40.925 Because everyone who could possibly want it knew where it was, 599 00:27:40.959 --> 00:27:44.262 knew how to take care of it, knew where it needed to go back, 600 00:27:44.295 --> 00:27:48.066 and knew if we were going to need it at a time when they were borrowing it. 601 00:27:48.833 --> 00:27:51.169 But as soon as you have more people, it's not viable. 602 00:27:51.202 --> 00:27:54.839 It's not reasonable, and we can't be wasting time here at the business 603 00:27:54.839 --> 00:27:56.741 looking for equipment that we bought, 604 00:27:56.775 --> 00:28:00.645 that we own so that we can do our productions because someone borrowed it. 605 00:28:00.645 --> 00:28:03.815 And you know, yeah, that blows. 606 00:28:04.015 --> 00:28:07.752 But you know, I also like to think that by being more organized 607 00:28:07.786 --> 00:28:11.022 we have more time to do things like you know, set up lights before a shoot. 608 00:28:11.022 --> 00:28:15.827 Like the camera guys used to get mad at me in the old days because they you know, 609 00:28:15.827 --> 00:28:18.163 it wouldn't look, it wouldn't live up to their vision. 610 00:28:18.163 --> 00:28:19.664 And it looked good enough to me or whatever, 611 00:28:19.664 --> 00:28:22.000 but it didn't live up to their vision because they didn't have time to set up lights. 612 00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:24.536 I mean Andy do a quick, do a quick pan for us, you know? 613 00:28:24.669 --> 00:28:29.040 Yeah obviously, it kills the poor camera operators to show this stuff; 614 00:28:29.040 --> 00:28:32.143 but you know, hey you know respect to them for putting in the work 615 00:28:32.143 --> 00:28:33.578 to make something look this good, right? 616 00:28:33.578 --> 00:28:35.180 I'm glad that we have a bit more time for it. 617 00:28:35.180 --> 00:28:38.149 I mean, do you think we have more time than we used to? 618 00:28:38.149 --> 00:28:38.483 Andy: Oh, yeah. 619 00:28:39.050 --> 00:28:41.486 Linus: Right? So, there's pros and cons. 620 00:28:41.486 --> 00:28:44.255 Linus: And you wouldn't just say that because we're sitting here, right? 621 00:28:44.255 --> 00:28:44.723 Andy: No. 622 00:28:44.723 --> 00:28:47.158 Linus: Yeah, Andy, Andy knows. 623 00:28:47.158 --> 00:28:52.697 Linus: Probably, like your first maybe month, maybe two months, 624 00:28:52.697 --> 00:28:55.934 I think you were a little bit shy about like giving me feedback. 625 00:28:56.434 --> 00:28:57.969 Linus: But then after that, you're just like... 626 00:28:58.069 --> 00:29:00.138 Andy: Yeah. Linus: your hair sucks, do that take again. 627 00:29:00.205 --> 00:29:01.473 Andy: Exactly, yeah. 628 00:29:01.473 --> 00:29:02.040 Linus: Hahahahaha. 629 00:29:02.140 --> 00:29:03.308 Andy: Your hair still sucks, so. 630 00:29:03.374 --> 00:29:04.342 Sammy: Hahahahahaha. 631 00:29:04.476 --> 00:29:05.343 Linus: It is what it is. 632 00:29:05.343 --> 00:29:06.978 Linus: Hold on, let me fix it; is that better? 633 00:29:07.145 --> 00:29:07.579 Andy: Yeah. 634 00:29:07.679 --> 00:29:08.446 Linus: Yeah, thank you. 635 00:29:08.980 --> 00:29:09.614 Terren: Going back to the vibe, 636 00:29:09.614 --> 00:29:12.450 I think that's the balance that we're trying to strike as well. 637 00:29:12.484 --> 00:29:13.585 It's like, don't kill the vibe, 638 00:29:13.585 --> 00:29:16.788 I think was probably a paraphrasing on what Linus told me as well. 639 00:29:16.788 --> 00:29:19.124 So it's like you know, some level of organization; 640 00:29:19.124 --> 00:29:21.993 but again what makes things fun here is not something 641 00:29:21.993 --> 00:29:25.330 that we want to squish or get in the way of. 642 00:29:25.330 --> 00:29:26.998 Sammy: So, now I have a question for both of you guys. 643 00:29:26.998 --> 00:29:28.933 Sammy: Can you walk us through how you guys work together? 644 00:29:28.933 --> 00:29:33.037 Sammy: Hypothetically, say that Linus wants to open an SI business. 645 00:29:33.037 --> 00:29:33.872 Sammy: Hypothetically. 646 00:29:33.972 --> 00:29:34.906 Linus: Sure, hypothetically. 647 00:29:34.906 --> 00:29:36.074 Sammy: Of course, all hypothetical. 648 00:29:36.274 --> 00:29:36.674 Linus: Sure. 649 00:29:36.875 --> 00:29:37.408 Sammy: How does that work? 650 00:29:37.675 --> 00:29:40.879 Terren: What I'll do is I'll go do the research from the analytics. 651 00:29:40.879 --> 00:29:41.412 Terren: So basically- 652 00:29:41.446 --> 00:29:42.881 Linus: Hold on, first we should probably explain. 653 00:29:42.981 --> 00:29:46.684 Linus: SI would mean a system integrator, like custom computers, 654 00:29:46.785 --> 00:29:49.120 like something like an iBuyPower or whatever. 655 00:29:49.220 --> 00:29:51.723 Terren: So yeah I go run some of the numbers from him, 656 00:29:51.756 --> 00:29:53.825 Terren: so he'll come in and he'll be like hey I got this great idea. 657 00:29:53.858 --> 00:29:55.059 Linus: Why don't we sell computers? 658 00:29:55.059 --> 00:29:55.860 Terren: Why don't we sell computers? 659 00:29:55.860 --> 00:29:56.895 Linus: Whoever thought of that before? 660 00:29:56.895 --> 00:29:57.529 Terren: Yeah, and then- 661 00:29:57.529 --> 00:29:59.764 Linus: I used to work at a computer store, you used to work at a computer store. 662 00:29:59.764 --> 00:30:02.300 We got all these computer parts, we should assemble them! 663 00:30:02.333 --> 00:30:07.305 Terren: So I have to practice my face, so I don't do the wide eye reaction or whatever. 664 00:30:07.305 --> 00:30:08.540 Sammy: Do you react when he comes out to you like that? 665 00:30:08.540 --> 00:30:10.141 Terren: It's like, okay yeah that sounds like a great idea. 666 00:30:10.575 --> 00:30:13.945 Linus: He does not! He does not say that, that is bull****! 667 00:30:17.015 --> 00:30:19.918 Terren: Again, we're trying to give space to people to talk 668 00:30:19.918 --> 00:30:22.387 and to suggest things while not being threatened. 669 00:30:22.520 --> 00:30:25.590 So usually the process would be, he'll come up with a great idea. 670 00:30:25.590 --> 00:30:27.125 It's like hey give me some time. 671 00:30:27.125 --> 00:30:29.160 We'll go look at some of the details here 672 00:30:29.194 --> 00:30:30.995 just so we can make a more informed decision. 673 00:30:31.029 --> 00:30:32.263 We'll start doing some of the research. 674 00:30:32.263 --> 00:30:33.898 It's like, you know how we- 675 00:30:33.898 --> 00:30:36.901 Linus: What is the total addressable market in North America? 676 00:30:36.935 --> 00:30:40.471 Linus: Because realistically we're not going to be competitive shipping systems to Australia. 677 00:30:40.638 --> 00:30:41.039 Terren: Yeah. 678 00:30:41.139 --> 00:30:43.708 Linus: Because shipping would just kill every deal. 679 00:30:43.708 --> 00:30:46.644 Terren: We talked about budget, right? It's just like well I can't do this all by myself. 680 00:30:46.644 --> 00:30:50.081 I can do parts of this; we'll need other help to do assembly, 681 00:30:50.114 --> 00:30:53.518 or marketing or vendor negotiations, whatever else it is. 682 00:30:53.518 --> 00:30:53.852 Linus: Yeah. 683 00:30:53.885 --> 00:30:57.422 Linus: What does our startup cost look like in terms of taking on inventory? 684 00:30:57.455 --> 00:30:59.924 Linus: Do we need additional footprint? 685 00:30:59.924 --> 00:31:05.897 Linus: Do we need to either lease or acquire property in order to run this business? 686 00:31:05.897 --> 00:31:08.900 Should we run this business in Vancouver? Does that even make any sense? 687 00:31:08.933 --> 00:31:11.769 Terren: So, the long and short of it is we'll go through this giant list of stuff 688 00:31:11.769 --> 00:31:12.971 that we have to answer for ourselves, 689 00:31:12.971 --> 00:31:15.406 just so that we have a financial picture of whether this makes sense or not. 690 00:31:15.406 --> 00:31:18.710 Then we have to have a debate; it's like well, are we adding anything special here? 691 00:31:18.743 --> 00:31:21.880 I think one of the tenets that we have from a CW standpoint, 692 00:31:21.880 --> 00:31:25.383 especially for new products is what else will we bring to the table? 693 00:31:25.416 --> 00:31:29.454 What makes this really really cool rather than just yet another... 694 00:31:29.487 --> 00:31:29.888 Linus: Hammer. 695 00:31:29.921 --> 00:31:30.288 Terren: Hammer. 696 00:31:30.755 --> 00:31:31.022 Linus: Yeah. 697 00:31:31.089 --> 00:31:32.390 Linus: And to be clear that doesn't mean 698 00:31:32.390 --> 00:31:39.197 that we will never make another pair of pliers, or tweezer or whatever. 699 00:31:39.197 --> 00:31:43.534 Linus: Like the raison d'etre of a product could just be, 700 00:31:43.601 --> 00:31:46.905 hey, this is a good product from a brand you trust; 701 00:31:46.905 --> 00:31:50.675 you know, with a trust me bro warranty and at a reasonable... 702 00:31:50.708 --> 00:31:55.079 not cheap, but reasonable price; that could be a reason to exist. 703 00:31:55.113 --> 00:31:58.283 But we'd have to figure out what that is 704 00:31:58.316 --> 00:32:00.551 before we just go and embark on, you know, 705 00:32:00.585 --> 00:32:03.321 oh yeah, let's build up capacity to you know, 706 00:32:03.354 --> 00:32:07.458 build half a million cyber computers a year, 707 00:32:07.458 --> 00:32:10.295 only to find out that the price was going to be double, 708 00:32:10.295 --> 00:32:13.031 the range was going to be two-thirds of what we advertised, 709 00:32:13.031 --> 00:32:15.533 and it was going to be years late and nobody would end up wanting them, 710 00:32:15.667 --> 00:32:16.734 and the panels would fall off. 711 00:32:16.734 --> 00:32:21.039 So I guess what happened there was we would talk through it, 712 00:32:21.072 --> 00:32:22.807 I guess is the answer to your question. 713 00:32:22.840 --> 00:32:23.875 Linus: And problem solve; 714 00:32:24.275 --> 00:32:27.812 because he might come to me and say, look the total addressable market for this is crap, 715 00:32:27.845 --> 00:32:29.981 and I might come back and say well yeah, 716 00:32:30.014 --> 00:32:32.750 it's because like look at the options that are out there. 717 00:32:32.750 --> 00:32:35.353 I think they're not fulfilling this need and that need, and that need; 718 00:32:35.386 --> 00:32:38.923 and then he might say, okay that's fair; 719 00:32:38.923 --> 00:32:40.491 but then let's go back historically, 720 00:32:40.491 --> 00:32:43.127 you know before the sh**ification of everything, you know, 721 00:32:43.127 --> 00:32:46.564 was it really that much bigger before all of these problems happened? 722 00:32:46.564 --> 00:32:48.333 And we'll kind of go back and forth on that, 723 00:32:48.366 --> 00:32:51.669 and to be clear we're not taking shots at any of the system integrators out there right now. 724 00:32:51.669 --> 00:32:53.071 There's a hypothetical conversation. 725 00:32:53.738 --> 00:32:56.240 I'm not saying it's impossible we would ever do a system integrator. 726 00:32:56.240 --> 00:32:59.177 I'm just saying that that's what the conversation would sound like. 727 00:32:59.177 --> 00:33:01.512 Sammy: Sorry, off topic; I wonder how many times you swore in this interview. 728 00:33:01.546 --> 00:33:02.180 Linus: I don't know. 729 00:33:02.347 --> 00:33:03.281 Sammy: Hahahahahaha. 730 00:33:03.348 --> 00:33:04.615 Linus: This is for the Floatplane people. 731 00:33:04.682 --> 00:33:06.484 Linus: I can swear if I f*****g want to swear. 732 00:33:06.584 --> 00:33:08.519 Linus: My goddamn f*****g website. 733 00:33:08.619 --> 00:33:09.721 Terren: I used to swear a lot more, 734 00:33:09.754 --> 00:33:12.390 and then I realized at one point in my career; 735 00:33:12.390 --> 00:33:15.059 I was like, you know what? I need to stop dropping F-bombs in the middle of meetings. 736 00:33:15.426 --> 00:33:16.794 Sammy: You need to swear at least once in this video now. 737 00:33:16.794 --> 00:33:19.197 Terren: I can, and this is where this is going. 738 00:33:19.230 --> 00:33:22.867 Terren: And then so I said this, like I had this like epiphany. 739 00:33:22.867 --> 00:33:24.769 I was like, I just need to stop with the F-bombs. 740 00:33:25.436 --> 00:33:28.573 Then it was one of the hard drive vendors that you know, 741 00:33:28.573 --> 00:33:32.110 called a meeting and then they just dropped a bomb on us just in terms of, 742 00:33:32.143 --> 00:33:35.847 hey, we're changing our program, we're cutting on your marketing funds, 743 00:33:35.980 --> 00:33:37.081 or we're not going to ship your product. 744 00:33:37.081 --> 00:33:38.850 I can't remember exactly what it was. 745 00:33:38.850 --> 00:33:39.984 Then I started dropping F-bombs; 746 00:33:39.984 --> 00:33:43.354 I was like that is just the stupidest f*****g idea I've ever heard, or whatever. Linus: Hahahahahaha. 747 00:33:43.354 --> 00:33:47.825 Terren: And then Jack, our mutual boss at that point in time kind of looked at me. 748 00:33:47.825 --> 00:33:49.961 He's like well that didn't last long, did it? 749 00:33:50.328 --> 00:33:51.763 Terren: And I was like, you're not helping. 750 00:33:51.863 --> 00:33:55.666 Linus: Hahahahahaha. Terren: Anyway, I think I've been saying that- Linus: He was worse than you anyway. 751 00:33:55.700 --> 00:33:56.868 Terren: Sorry? Who was worse than me? 752 00:33:57.035 --> 00:33:58.503 Linus: In terms of language, Jack. 753 00:33:58.503 --> 00:34:00.071 Terren: Oh yeah, he was much worse. 754 00:34:00.071 --> 00:34:01.506 Terren: But he didn't have a problem with it, right? 755 00:34:01.539 --> 00:34:05.176 Linus: My whole thing is like yeah I know swearing can be off-putting in a business environment, 756 00:34:05.176 --> 00:34:09.380 but I have never been good at the schmoozing thing. 757 00:34:09.414 --> 00:34:11.749 I've never been good at like kissing the ring 758 00:34:11.749 --> 00:34:15.553 and like the relationship-building side of things. 759 00:34:15.553 --> 00:34:17.955 Like, I can get along with people; I don't mind. 760 00:34:18.489 --> 00:34:21.459 You know, I like helping people win. 761 00:34:21.459 --> 00:34:23.861 I like win-wins, I like collaborating. 762 00:34:23.895 --> 00:34:28.499 But I'm not really like a social person. 763 00:34:28.533 --> 00:34:32.170 So you know, if you were to say to me like oh yeah you know, 764 00:34:32.170 --> 00:34:34.305 your vulgar language is you know kind of off-putting; 765 00:34:34.305 --> 00:34:37.675 and it could limit your ability to build relationships or do this or do that, 766 00:34:37.708 --> 00:34:40.678 I'd just be like, you know what? I'm just going to focus on building the best product I can. 767 00:34:40.778 --> 00:34:44.782 And then, realistically people they'll come and they'll advertise with LTT, 768 00:34:44.882 --> 00:34:47.919 regardless of whether they don't like me like using a naughty word 769 00:34:47.919 --> 00:34:51.522 in a conference call or whatever; and that has mostly borne out, 770 00:34:51.522 --> 00:34:56.494 but we have definitely missed business opportunities because I don't schmooze enough. 771 00:34:56.494 --> 00:34:59.063 And that's a big part of back to the whole CVO - CEO thing, 772 00:34:59.063 --> 00:35:02.066 that's a big part of what he does so much better than me. 773 00:35:02.066 --> 00:35:07.138 Like people are shocked to find out how few people I know in the industry; 774 00:35:07.138 --> 00:35:12.944 and it's like honestly kind of by design, it's not that I don't like them. 775 00:35:12.944 --> 00:35:15.780 It's just that I just can't. 776 00:35:15.780 --> 00:35:23.221 Like, the one-to-many relationship that I am in already has too many manys. 777 00:35:23.254 --> 00:35:29.794 Like, I was talking to a CEO of another company, one of our longtime sponsors, 778 00:35:29.827 --> 00:35:31.028 and they're basically going, 779 00:35:31.028 --> 00:35:35.967 look I get like 400 messages a day; it's completely untenable. 780 00:35:35.967 --> 00:35:39.036 And this is someone who does a lot of like networking and relationship building. 781 00:35:39.036 --> 00:35:43.341 And I'm just like yeah I'm glad that I actually have people 782 00:35:43.341 --> 00:35:49.180 to go and have dinner with somebody for me because I just, I can't a lot of the time. 783 00:35:49.180 --> 00:35:50.948 Terren: To be clear, to clarify his comments, 784 00:35:50.948 --> 00:35:53.251 I don't think I'm particularly good at schmoozing. 785 00:35:53.251 --> 00:35:57.388 I just find people interesting at times, and I carry on a conversation. 786 00:35:57.388 --> 00:35:59.323 Linus: Well yeah, that's basically schmoozing, isn't it? Terren: Hahahahahaha. 787 00:35:59.357 --> 00:36:00.424 Sammy: I saw you at CES. 788 00:36:00.424 --> 00:36:03.227 Linus: Yeah, no he's underselling. 789 00:36:03.227 --> 00:36:05.496 Terren: Yeah, I don't need other drinks Sammy, I mean I don't need other drinks. 790 00:36:05.496 --> 00:36:08.266 Linus: No, and it's not just schmoozing; I think that sort of, 791 00:36:08.266 --> 00:36:10.401 I think that sort of undersells it. 792 00:36:10.401 --> 00:36:14.305 Like I think that you said it better; like taking an actual genuine interest in people. 793 00:36:14.305 --> 00:36:16.707 I think for me a lot of it comes down to guilt, 794 00:36:16.707 --> 00:36:20.678 because I am genuinely interested, and people tell me something and I want to retain it. 795 00:36:20.711 --> 00:36:25.349 But then I will meet 40 more people that day and I have no idea who was who. 796 00:36:25.349 --> 00:36:27.084 Like if I had AR glasses that could 797 00:36:27.084 --> 00:36:30.121 kind of like give me a little briefing on people before I have to converse with them. 798 00:36:30.121 --> 00:36:32.924 Dude, ah, love that; even if it was all local, 799 00:36:32.924 --> 00:36:36.794 like all based on what they tell me, like no weird, creepy database or whatever; 800 00:36:36.794 --> 00:36:39.096 I'd love that, I would do way more socializing. 801 00:36:39.096 --> 00:36:44.001 But I just feel really awkward when I like don't remember how many kids people have. 802 00:36:44.001 --> 00:36:46.037 Terren: I'm bad with names, I remember details about people. 803 00:36:46.037 --> 00:36:49.607 Terren: So that's one area I need to work on, making sure that I don't fumble a name. 804 00:36:49.640 --> 00:36:53.444 Sammy: On that same live stream WizBiz02 from the stream also asks, 805 00:36:53.444 --> 00:36:56.013 what troubles you foresee expanding the business? 806 00:36:56.013 --> 00:36:59.517 Sammy: You gave an answer of giving focus and knowing what brings value long-term. 807 00:36:59.550 --> 00:37:03.888 Sammy: Have new troubles come? Do you think these troubles were underrated or overrated? 808 00:37:03.888 --> 00:37:04.288 Sammy: or- 809 00:37:04.388 --> 00:37:06.190 Terren: No, I think that's still succinct. 810 00:37:06.190 --> 00:37:09.360 Terren: I mean, when we asked about adjacencies based on your previous questions, 811 00:37:09.493 --> 00:37:12.964 I think one of the lingering doubts that we have sometimes is, 812 00:37:12.964 --> 00:37:15.666 are we good enough at doing this and getting this over the line? 813 00:37:16.100 --> 00:37:19.203 Or are we distilling what we do best into areas where 814 00:37:19.203 --> 00:37:20.871 again there's a little bit more risk? 815 00:37:20.905 --> 00:37:24.108 Linus: And are we doing what we are already doing well enough 816 00:37:24.108 --> 00:37:25.509 that we're ready to take on something else? 817 00:37:25.509 --> 00:37:29.313 Linus: I mean we hiatused multiple channels very recently, 818 00:37:29.313 --> 00:37:33.451 because we just took a step back after sort of you know, 819 00:37:33.451 --> 00:37:37.588 getting through that period of trying to fix the train while it was on the tracks, right? 820 00:37:37.722 --> 00:37:40.558 So it was finally on the tracks and we took a step back and we went, 821 00:37:40.725 --> 00:37:43.594 we are not excelling yet. 822 00:37:43.728 --> 00:37:47.832 Linus: We can excel more by being more focused here. 823 00:37:47.965 --> 00:37:52.103 So back to adjacencies, it's like adjacencies for us would be you know, 824 00:37:52.236 --> 00:37:57.141 opening up more media properties, right? Or selling more products, right? 825 00:37:57.141 --> 00:38:00.144 If you look at the main businesses, which are Creator Warehouse 826 00:38:00.211 --> 00:38:03.514 and then Linus Media Group and Floatplane I see as kind of together on the media side. 827 00:38:03.514 --> 00:38:04.181 Sammy: Shoutout Floatplane. 828 00:38:04.849 --> 00:38:06.751 Linus: Yeah shoutout Floatplane, right? 829 00:38:06.751 --> 00:38:11.255 Linus: So what business could we possibly have spinning up another channel 830 00:38:11.289 --> 00:38:14.458 when we just hiatused some other channel and you know, 831 00:38:14.458 --> 00:38:17.695 when we're still not uploading an LTT every day? 832 00:38:17.695 --> 00:38:21.065 And I'm not even saying that the goal is to get back to uploading LTT every day, 833 00:38:21.065 --> 00:38:25.369 but we certainly did it at one point and we actually managed to do it with a you know, 834 00:38:25.369 --> 00:38:30.041 I would say greater degree of accuracy than where we were at when we had the great happening, 835 00:38:30.041 --> 00:38:35.579 which again I reiterate, contained accurate critique while also still being a malicious hit piece. 836 00:38:35.579 --> 00:38:37.281 And then on the Creator Warehouse side of things; 837 00:38:37.281 --> 00:38:38.816 you know, we still have stuff to figure out on, 838 00:38:38.916 --> 00:38:42.153 you know, customer service first response times; they've been really good. 839 00:38:42.153 --> 00:38:44.255 The quality of our customer service is outstanding, 840 00:38:44.255 --> 00:38:47.425 but sometimes it can be a little bit on the slower side with fulfillment times. 841 00:38:47.458 --> 00:38:50.494 I think there's so many more products that Creator Warehouse has in the pipeline 842 00:38:50.494 --> 00:38:53.364 that could be churning faster; there's always things we can do better, 843 00:38:53.364 --> 00:38:56.367 so like do we need to start an SI business distraction today? 844 00:38:56.367 --> 00:38:57.234 No, probably not. 845 00:38:57.368 --> 00:38:59.503 So it's just, it's getting the timing right. 846 00:38:59.503 --> 00:39:02.239 Linus: I forget what the question was, but hopefully that answered it. 847 00:39:02.340 --> 00:39:05.710 Sammy: It was any issues expanding the business? 848 00:39:05.710 --> 00:39:08.713 Linus: Yeah well, the issue is making sure that we are really great 849 00:39:08.713 --> 00:39:12.450 at our core competencies before we try to expand the business. 850 00:39:12.883 --> 00:39:14.985 Andy: Can you repeat that? There was a train. 851 00:39:15.052 --> 00:39:18.255 Linus: Oh, that train is the business rolling down the track Andy. 852 00:39:18.589 --> 00:39:19.357 Terren: Chugging along. 853 00:39:19.490 --> 00:39:20.291 Terren and Linus: Chuga chuga chuga- 854 00:39:20.291 --> 00:39:22.259 Sammy: I have one final question and we'll wrap it up here. 855 00:39:22.460 --> 00:39:27.331 Sammy: We are in year two of your potential five-year long-term plan, Terren. 856 00:39:27.331 --> 00:39:30.968 What do you foresee in the next three years of LMG? 857 00:39:31.168 --> 00:39:34.672 Now that your fog of war is less foggy. 858 00:39:35.439 --> 00:39:36.273 Terren loves that word. 859 00:39:36.273 --> 00:39:37.975 Every time I talk to him he says the fog of war. 860 00:39:38.075 --> 00:39:38.609 Terren: Fog of war. 861 00:39:39.643 --> 00:39:41.779 Terren: European distribution, I think that would be a great thing. 862 00:39:41.779 --> 00:39:42.413 Linus: So great. 863 00:39:42.480 --> 00:39:43.214 Terren: So great. 864 00:39:43.214 --> 00:39:45.149 Linus: Very great, make Europe great again. 865 00:39:45.249 --> 00:39:50.020 Terren: Look, we're not blind to some of the critiques that we get back, 866 00:39:50.020 --> 00:39:51.389 and I think they're fair, right? 867 00:39:51.389 --> 00:39:55.693 Terren: Our shipping rates to Europe are very expensive and very long. 868 00:39:55.693 --> 00:39:58.195 So we know that we're not necessarily doing ourselves any favors 869 00:39:58.195 --> 00:40:00.664 for our customers outside North America; 870 00:40:00.664 --> 00:40:04.635 so again, some of this stuff feels like blocking and tackling 871 00:40:04.635 --> 00:40:08.406 is more boring than probably what some of the viewers would like to hear. 872 00:40:08.406 --> 00:40:11.075 Linus talked about the water bottle, cutting down lead times on products. 873 00:40:11.075 --> 00:40:16.080 That's key for us, making sure that we can bring products to market faster 874 00:40:16.113 --> 00:40:17.815 just so that we can cut down our development time. 875 00:40:17.815 --> 00:40:18.582 Terren: I think... 876 00:40:18.582 --> 00:40:20.484 Linus: So having more consistent stock across the store, 877 00:40:20.518 --> 00:40:24.555 and then trying to manage that across multiple distribution centers is going to be a real challenge. 878 00:40:24.588 --> 00:40:28.559 Terren: Yeah; and I think some of the new business ideas that we've been tossing around, 879 00:40:28.692 --> 00:40:31.896 making sure that some of those see fruition. 880 00:40:31.896 --> 00:40:37.034 Tying this back to your previous question, just in terms of focus; 881 00:40:37.067 --> 00:40:39.870 like, I think we've tried to maintain laser focus at this point in time 882 00:40:39.870 --> 00:40:43.941 just to again, make sure that we're good at our core competencies 883 00:40:43.941 --> 00:40:45.709 before we spread ourselves too thin. 884 00:40:45.709 --> 00:40:48.779 Linus: I'm really happy with the direction the lab is going under Luke's leadership. 885 00:40:48.813 --> 00:40:53.884 Linus: I would want to see way more product testing as part of our future. 886 00:40:53.884 --> 00:40:59.089 Linus: And then utilizing that, you know whether it's to grow traffic to the website, 887 00:40:59.089 --> 00:41:02.393 whether it's to create more content across ShortCircuit 888 00:41:02.393 --> 00:41:05.629 or various other Circuit branded channels or on LTT, 889 00:41:06.030 --> 00:41:11.001 whether it is to un-ens***tify the online retail experience. 890 00:41:11.001 --> 00:41:12.570 That's something I've talked about on WAN Show before. 891 00:41:12.570 --> 00:41:17.842 I would love to have a future where LTT Store or you know, 892 00:41:17.842 --> 00:41:20.311 maybe we go and acquire NCIX.com, right? 893 00:41:20.311 --> 00:41:23.981 We bring it back, we resurrect it; and as an electronics retailer, 894 00:41:23.981 --> 00:41:29.320 where instead of everything being, like J-M-G-H-K-O-O, 895 00:41:29.420 --> 00:41:34.325 you know brand, random s***; you know, everything is Labs verified. 896 00:41:34.325 --> 00:41:38.596 And you can pull up a test report for any product before you buy it. 897 00:41:38.696 --> 00:41:40.297 Like, how f***ing cool would that be right? 898 00:41:40.297 --> 00:41:44.368 The like anti-marketplace retailer, you know? 899 00:41:44.468 --> 00:41:47.505 Like I think there's a ton of opportunities. 900 00:41:47.505 --> 00:41:51.509 I don't know that we would execute that in three years, but maybe someday. 901 00:41:51.509 --> 00:41:53.310 Terren: I'm still in a bit of shell shock over 902 00:41:53.310 --> 00:41:56.113 Terren: like literally the last three months has felt like a really long time. 903 00:41:58.082 --> 00:41:58.482 Linus: Yeah. 904 00:41:58.649 --> 00:42:02.887 Terren: So, I'd like to see things calm down I think from a more macro perspective, 905 00:42:02.887 --> 00:42:06.223 Terren: because right now we're just in a very uncertain environment. 906 00:42:06.223 --> 00:42:08.826 Linus: And we're not even like taking political shots right now. 907 00:42:08.826 --> 00:42:09.293 Terren: No. 908 00:42:09.293 --> 00:42:13.030 Linus: It's just like I see a lot of people sort of critiquing the video 909 00:42:13.030 --> 00:42:16.000 any time I discuss any of this stuff to do with tariffs or whatever. 910 00:42:16.000 --> 00:42:19.870 And it's like, keep the politics out of it; it's like it's not politics, it's just a fact. 911 00:42:20.304 --> 00:42:25.175 It's a fact that when you charge money on imports, the price of those goods goes up. 912 00:42:25.175 --> 00:42:28.612 And when you charge and then don't charge and then you're going to charge again, 913 00:42:28.612 --> 00:42:31.248 but it's a different amount; but actually, it's delayed for 90 days. 914 00:42:31.348 --> 00:42:33.851 It throws a lot of uncertainty into the gears. 915 00:42:33.951 --> 00:42:37.488 And that's really, really challenging for businesses of all sizes. 916 00:42:37.488 --> 00:42:40.124 Linus: That's all, that's a fact; it's not political. 917 00:42:40.157 --> 00:42:42.526 Terren: I think my key job is to figure out where to allocate capital. 918 00:42:42.526 --> 00:42:45.696 So, where are we putting people? Who are we hiring? 919 00:42:45.696 --> 00:42:46.463 What to spend money on? 920 00:42:47.431 --> 00:42:48.132 Linus: Gamerplane. 921 00:42:48.265 --> 00:42:48.866 Terren: Gamerplane. 922 00:42:49.700 --> 00:42:51.435 Linus: Gamerjet with RGB. 923 00:42:51.569 --> 00:42:52.269 Terren: With RGB? 924 00:42:52.369 --> 00:42:55.839 Linus: A gamer yacht that docks inside the gamer plane. 925 00:42:55.839 --> 00:42:56.273 Terren: Oh? 926 00:42:57.174 --> 00:43:00.978 Linus: And then can fly to the ocean, and then you can ride the gamer yacht. 927 00:43:01.111 --> 00:43:04.248 Terren: Who's going to be the Bond villain? Is that what we're talking about? 928 00:43:04.315 --> 00:43:05.249 Linus: I'm not bald enough. 929 00:43:05.349 --> 00:43:06.483 Linus: I think it'd have to be Nick Light. 930 00:43:06.584 --> 00:43:07.117 Terren: Mmmm. 931 00:43:07.217 --> 00:43:07.685 Sammy: Hahahahahaha. 932 00:43:07.685 --> 00:43:09.486 Sammy: I did send Linus a plane; he said no. 933 00:43:09.486 --> 00:43:10.588 Sammy: I was like, wow a cool plane. 934 00:43:10.588 --> 00:43:11.922 Linus: I didn't even send that one to him. 935 00:43:12.890 --> 00:43:16.860 Linus: It was, the US is decommissioning some like cargo planes or some sh**. 936 00:43:16.860 --> 00:43:19.997 Terren: Intel also got rid of their planes; should we just buy one of the Intel planes? 937 00:43:19.997 --> 00:43:21.732 Linus: Oh, they're probably too big; I couldn't afford it. 938 00:43:21.732 --> 00:43:22.800 Terren: I don't think they're that big. 939 00:43:22.833 --> 00:43:23.167 Linus: Really? 940 00:43:23.267 --> 00:43:23.601 Terren: Yeah. 941 00:43:23.601 --> 00:43:24.902 Terren: I think they're like 10 to 20 people. 942 00:43:24.902 --> 00:43:25.703 Linus: Oh, okay. 943 00:43:25.936 --> 00:43:26.804 Linus: Gamerplane. 944 00:43:26.870 --> 00:43:28.272 Linus: I mean, it's already Intel inside. 945 00:43:28.405 --> 00:43:28.772 Terren: Yeah. 946 00:43:28.772 --> 00:43:29.506 Linus: Well, it used to be. 947 00:43:29.506 --> 00:43:31.108 Terren: Yeah, we can get AMD sponsored right? 948 00:43:31.108 --> 00:43:31.709 Linus: We'll put AMD inside. 949 00:43:31.775 --> 00:43:32.676 Linus: Hahahahaha. 950 00:43:32.676 --> 00:43:34.578 Linus: It'll go faster; but it might burn up. 951 00:43:34.678 --> 00:43:38.549 Sammy: To wrap it up I think it'll be fun to leave yourself a voicemail. 952 00:43:38.549 --> 00:43:41.418 Linus: A time capsule. Sammy: It'll be fun to leave a video email for one year from now. 953 00:43:41.552 --> 00:43:43.621 Linus: A video email? Sammy: For when we do this next year. 954 00:43:43.787 --> 00:43:44.521 Linus: Okay. 955 00:43:44.521 --> 00:43:44.855 Sammy: Yeah. 956 00:43:44.855 --> 00:43:45.956 Linus: Oh, I'm going to go first. 957 00:43:45.956 --> 00:43:46.290 Okay. 958 00:43:46.690 --> 00:43:51.261 Linus, great job surviving this year; I hope you're enjoying your gamerplane. 959 00:43:51.595 --> 00:43:52.563 Sammy: Hahahahahahaha! 960 00:43:52.863 --> 00:43:55.366 Linus: The SI business? Oh, man. 961 00:43:55.499 --> 00:43:58.268 You've done a great job; you have a system integrator now, 962 00:43:58.268 --> 00:44:01.538 and I can't even believe how many channels you launched. 963 00:44:01.605 --> 00:44:06.844 Congratulations; and this slow clap, it's not sarcastic. 964 00:44:07.778 --> 00:44:09.279 It's so that you can savor it. 965 00:44:10.914 --> 00:44:12.616 Sammy: Terren, do you want to do one for your camera? 966 00:44:12.616 --> 00:44:16.220 Terren: Why did you not speak out louder about the gamerplane? 967 00:44:16.654 --> 00:44:17.955 Sammy: Hahahahahaha. 968 00:44:18.055 --> 00:44:19.456 Terren: Why!? 969 00:44:20.257 --> 00:44:21.558 Sammy: Alright, cool; we can wrap it up. 970 00:44:21.558 --> 00:44:22.693 Sammy: You say thanks for watching guys. 971 00:44:22.693 --> 00:44:25.429 If you want to see the one we did last year, 972 00:44:25.429 --> 00:44:28.298 check out the livestream in the description. 973 00:44:28.298 --> 00:44:29.333 Linus: Great outro, Sammy. 974 00:44:29.333 --> 00:44:30.367 Linus: Next time, don't move the mic around so much. 975 00:44:30.367 --> 00:44:31.201 Sammy: No, that's for you, that's for you. 976 00:44:31.201 --> 00:44:31.502 Linus: Nope. 977 00:44:31.502 --> 00:44:32.002 Sammy: That's for you to do it. 978 00:44:32.002 --> 00:44:32.469 Linus: You did it already. 979 00:44:32.469 --> 00:44:33.337 Sammy: No, no, no! That's for you! 980 00:44:33.337 --> 00:44:33.704 Sammy: Wait!","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0}],"full_text":"Sammy: On May 18th, 2023, a news bombshell shocked the world, 2 00:00:03.570 --> 00:00:06.806 even to Terren because Linus announced his hiring without informing him. 3 00:00:06.806 --> 00:00:09.743 Linus stepped down from CEO from Linus Media Group, Floatplane Media, 4 00:00:09.743 --> 00:00:10.677 and Creator Warehouse. 5 00:00:10.710 --> 00:00:11.611 Your first year Terren, 6 00:00:11.644 --> 00:00:13.980 was very intense as we had the great reset then. 7 00:00:13.980 --> 00:00:16.683 You were also a quote on quote \"a fly on the wall during that time\", 8 00:00:16.683 --> 00:00:19.652 so I thought instead of a one-year check we'd do a two-year check-in 9 00:00:19.652 --> 00:00:23.390 to gauge how well the transition is going as you've gotten your feet wet 10 00:00:23.390 --> 00:00:25.091 and made some changes internally. 11 00:00:25.158 --> 00:00:26.626 So Terren, your first question. 12 00:00:26.626 --> 00:00:29.262 In your first year, what did you observe from the company? 13 00:00:29.262 --> 00:00:30.597 And what did you think you noticed? 14 00:00:30.597 --> 00:00:31.498 Linus: Can I jump in for a second? 15 00:00:31.498 --> 00:00:35.335 Linus: Did you really not know that I was announcing your hiring? 16 00:00:35.468 --> 00:00:37.504 Terren: No, because I was in a meeting at Dell; 17 00:00:37.604 --> 00:00:40.206 and then I started getting bombarded on Messenger. 18 00:00:40.206 --> 00:00:40.507 Linus: Oh. 19 00:00:40.607 --> 00:00:41.775 Terren: It's like, hey congratulations. 20 00:00:41.775 --> 00:00:43.309 Terren: I was like, what are you talking about? 21 00:00:43.410 --> 00:00:44.744 I just saw the video. 22 00:00:44.744 --> 00:00:47.680 I was like, what video? And then I went to YouTube. 23 00:00:47.680 --> 00:00:48.615 Linus: I forgot about that. 24 00:00:48.648 --> 00:00:51.351 Terren: Yeah, and then I had a very awkward conversation with my boss. 25 00:00:51.351 --> 00:00:54.087 I luckily had this conversation with him a few weeks ago. 26 00:00:54.087 --> 00:00:55.688 It's like hey I'm leaving. 27 00:00:55.688 --> 00:00:57.791 He's like, cool, and then this is how we're going to do the transition. 28 00:00:57.891 --> 00:00:58.425 Linus: Uhuh. 29 00:00:58.425 --> 00:01:02.395 Terren: And all the publicity stuff before I had left was not part of the plan. 30 00:01:02.662 --> 00:01:03.063 Linus: Right. 31 00:01:03.063 --> 00:01:04.197 Terren: So I made a lot of apologies. 32 00:01:04.864 --> 00:01:05.265 Linus: Cool. 33 00:01:05.365 --> 00:01:05.732 Terren: Yeah. 34 00:01:06.032 --> 00:01:06.533 Linus: Good job. 35 00:01:07.033 --> 00:01:07.367 Terren: Yeah. 36 00:01:07.700 --> 00:01:08.501 Terren: So thank you for that. 37 00:01:09.502 --> 00:01:12.439 Linus: I mean, it was good practice for all the apologizing that you'd be doing 38 00:01:12.439 --> 00:01:12.906 Terren: Yeah. 39 00:01:12.906 --> 00:01:15.975 Linus: in the first few minutes of the job here. 40 00:01:17.577 --> 00:01:19.379 Terren: Yeah, hilarious, um... 41 00:01:19.512 --> 00:01:21.581 Sammy: Hahahahahaha. Linus: He was so bad on camera in that. 42 00:01:21.581 --> 00:01:22.515 Terren: Which one? 43 00:01:22.849 --> 00:01:23.283 Linus: Uh... 44 00:01:23.283 --> 00:01:23.983 Terren: Just all of them? 45 00:01:23.983 --> 00:01:24.484 Linus: Yeah. 46 00:01:24.484 --> 00:01:26.319 Linus: In general, you're pretty bad on camera. 47 00:01:26.319 --> 00:01:27.587 Terren: Yeah, this is my third video. 48 00:01:27.587 --> 00:01:29.789 Linus: Yeah; well no, he's fine when we don't script him. 49 00:01:30.056 --> 00:01:30.423 Terren: Yeah. 50 00:01:30.890 --> 00:01:34.727 Linus: But as soon as we put a teleprompter in front of him... like oh man. 51 00:01:34.727 --> 00:01:35.995 Terren: I'm like Ron Burgundy. 52 00:01:35.995 --> 00:01:41.101 Terren: Basically, it's just like F.U. San Diego or whatever the line was. 53 00:01:41.101 --> 00:01:43.770 Linus: Yeah well, Ron Burgundy had some personality though. 54 00:01:44.537 --> 00:01:48.842 Terren: He also had books that smelled like rich mahogany; and what do we have here? 55 00:01:50.677 --> 00:01:52.145 Terren: Does that smell like a steam deck? 56 00:01:55.782 --> 00:01:56.316 Linus: It's all fake. 57 00:01:58.251 --> 00:01:59.519 Linus: Sorry. What was the question? 58 00:01:59.519 --> 00:02:01.855 Sammy: What did Terren notice from his first year? 59 00:02:01.921 --> 00:02:03.957 And what did you learn from that year? 60 00:02:03.957 --> 00:02:06.860 Linus: Alright, this is where he throws the previous guy under the bus. 61 00:02:06.860 --> 00:02:08.394 Linus: Yes, please tell me what you noticed. 62 00:02:08.394 --> 00:02:09.395 Terren: The one thing I noticed, 63 00:02:09.395 --> 00:02:12.899 or the one thing that was super awesome about coming into a new role 64 00:02:12.899 --> 00:02:14.968 is just a passion that the entire team had. 65 00:02:14.968 --> 00:02:15.535 Linus: Mmmm. 66 00:02:15.535 --> 00:02:19.272 Terren: For the content, for the audience, and just for their work in general. 67 00:02:19.272 --> 00:02:21.574 Terren: Coming from I guess the business side of things, 68 00:02:21.574 --> 00:02:24.711 I think it's pretty different in terms of their approach. 69 00:02:24.711 --> 00:02:26.913 Terren: So it's trying to learn how to balance, 70 00:02:26.913 --> 00:02:30.617 I know all the things that really make LMG great compared to you know, 71 00:02:30.617 --> 00:02:35.155 some of the better practices that we see from the outside and learning what we can mesh. 72 00:02:35.155 --> 00:02:36.723 Linus: Caring about the numbers a little. 73 00:02:36.890 --> 00:02:38.725 Terren: Caring about the numbers just a little; yeah. 74 00:02:38.725 --> 00:02:42.061 Linus: Doing a PowerPoint once in a while. 75 00:02:42.562 --> 00:02:43.730 Terren: Yeah; and I think that's one of the main things, 76 00:02:43.730 --> 00:02:48.334 just understanding what we do well, and then figuring out where we can add value right? 77 00:02:48.334 --> 00:02:49.903 Rather than just trying to recreate the wheel. 78 00:02:50.003 --> 00:02:52.438 Linus: One of his favorite lines for the first, 79 00:02:52.438 --> 00:02:54.073 well actually, until now, 80 00:02:54.073 --> 00:02:58.278 is basically like go away and come back when you have a spreadsheet 81 00:02:58.278 --> 00:03:01.614 and at least like a couple of slides to justify this. 82 00:03:01.614 --> 00:03:03.683 Or do the due diligence. 83 00:03:03.683 --> 00:03:06.052 Linus: Or what is it you always say? What's the line you always say? 84 00:03:06.085 --> 00:03:06.986 Terren: Show me the numbers. 85 00:03:06.986 --> 00:03:08.021 Linus: Yeah, yeah, that one. 86 00:03:08.588 --> 00:03:11.457 Terren: Because that was told to me many, many times in my previous roles as well, 87 00:03:11.457 --> 00:03:14.827 because I wasn't always the most diligent in terms of how I was organizing things. 88 00:03:15.228 --> 00:03:17.630 And so that was something that was drilled into me for years and years. 89 00:03:17.630 --> 00:03:20.233 And so now I'm going to extend the same pain to everybody here, 90 00:03:20.233 --> 00:03:21.434 in the nicest way possible. Linus: Pay it forward. 91 00:03:21.467 --> 00:03:22.168 Sammy: Pay it forward. 92 00:03:22.168 --> 00:03:23.970 Terren: But I think that really helped me mature 93 00:03:23.970 --> 00:03:26.506 as somebody that has been in a business role. 94 00:03:26.506 --> 00:03:29.175 Well, getting things organized, really thinking through things, 95 00:03:29.175 --> 00:03:33.246 and understanding what the numbers are telling me. 96 00:03:33.246 --> 00:03:36.015 It doesn't mean that, hey we should action everything that we see inside the spreadsheet, 97 00:03:36.015 --> 00:03:39.152 but it's making sure that we have a perspective and we understand what we're talking about. 98 00:03:39.152 --> 00:03:41.988 Linus: To be clear, it's not that we never used numbers in the past. 99 00:03:42.088 --> 00:03:44.757 Linus: You know, when we did our annual budgeting Yvonne and I would sit down 100 00:03:44.757 --> 00:03:47.560 and really grind out a spreadsheet for hours. 101 00:03:47.660 --> 00:03:51.931 Linus: It's just that I would use a lot of way fuzzier math. 102 00:03:51.931 --> 00:03:54.500 Like I remember when I was first explaining to Yvonne 103 00:03:54.500 --> 00:03:58.204 that I didn't need to do what my uncle insisted I do, 104 00:03:58.204 --> 00:04:02.242 which was do a business case study or whatever, like a business viability study. 105 00:04:02.242 --> 00:04:07.647 Because I was like, well, I don't need to because at this headcount, 106 00:04:07.647 --> 00:04:13.219 at this payroll, and at even the very most minimalist possible of sponsorship rates 107 00:04:13.219 --> 00:04:18.491 at the very bottom of my projection we're over the line and I can probably beat that. 108 00:04:18.691 --> 00:04:21.527 So sitting down and looking at this for any longer than that 109 00:04:21.527 --> 00:04:25.865 is money that I could be spending on the phone or email with sponsors or shooting videos. 110 00:04:25.865 --> 00:04:28.167 So it's effectively a waste of time. 111 00:04:28.268 --> 00:04:32.538 And I think that culture may have permeated top down 112 00:04:32.605 --> 00:04:36.943 to just figure out if it's probably going to be viable, 113 00:04:36.976 --> 00:04:39.946 and then shoot your shot because anytime you're not shooting 114 00:04:39.946 --> 00:04:42.682 is time that bullets are not going into your targets. 115 00:04:43.049 --> 00:04:44.684 Terren: And because we came from the same place, 116 00:04:44.684 --> 00:04:49.489 I think I had a similar philosophy or a similar messaging when I first started at Corsair. 117 00:04:49.489 --> 00:04:51.991 I don't remember what I said, but then my boss turns over to me and says, 118 00:04:51.991 --> 00:04:53.860 \"hope is not a strategy\". 119 00:04:53.860 --> 00:04:54.894 Linus: Hahahahahaha. 120 00:04:55.061 --> 00:04:57.597 Sammy: So we went from a vibes company to a data company now. 121 00:04:57.730 --> 00:05:00.767 Linus: Well, I think we have vibes and numbers now. 122 00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:01.501 Sammy: Hahahahaha. 123 00:05:01.501 --> 00:05:04.470 Linus: Because we absolutely do things based on vibes, 124 00:05:04.470 --> 00:05:06.873 and vibes work out sometimes. 125 00:05:06.873 --> 00:05:10.310 Like we had that conversation recently where I called him on the WAN Show, 126 00:05:10.343 --> 00:05:13.780 and I asked what my budget was for approvals. 127 00:05:13.780 --> 00:05:18.384 Every executive in the company has a certain budget that they can approve up to. 128 00:05:18.384 --> 00:05:20.653 And he basically, what would you say? You said like, 129 00:05:20.653 --> 00:05:22.355 you're the owner I don't give a f***, or something like that. 130 00:05:22.355 --> 00:05:23.589 Terren: Yeah, but more politely. 131 00:05:23.589 --> 00:05:26.292 Linus: Yeah, yeah, yeah; because he was, because we were live. 132 00:05:26.292 --> 00:05:27.994 He would have been less polite if we weren't live. 133 00:05:27.994 --> 00:05:28.895 Terren: I had a couple of drinks. 134 00:05:28.995 --> 00:05:30.196 Linus: Hahahaha. Sammy: Hahahahahaha. 135 00:05:30.897 --> 00:05:34.500 Linus: So anyway, the reason it came up was because of the fire truck; 136 00:05:34.500 --> 00:05:41.374 and that was obviously a $35, 000 decision that I was like, let's buy a fire truck. 137 00:05:41.941 --> 00:05:43.343 We could probably monetize it. 138 00:05:43.376 --> 00:05:47.013 Like we could, we could probably break even on this; and that worked out. 139 00:05:47.013 --> 00:05:49.716 So if you actually look at the numbers and this is, 140 00:05:49.716 --> 00:05:54.787 this is a huge credit to our incredible design team, the creator warehouse team, 141 00:05:54.821 --> 00:05:58.291 the production team, the procurement team, the business team; 142 00:05:58.291 --> 00:06:01.160 everyone who pulled together to bring together sponsorships, 143 00:06:01.194 --> 00:06:02.995 get this fire truck, get this production done, 144 00:06:03.029 --> 00:06:08.701 get the products developed that we used to accompany the launch of the fire truck video. 145 00:06:08.735 --> 00:06:13.706 So from April 1st to 8th, I think is how long we had that shirt 146 00:06:13.706 --> 00:06:18.911 and that water bottle for sale? Dude, we sold 3, 500 thirst extinguishers. 147 00:06:18.911 --> 00:06:22.749 Like we bought the fire truck with just the sales of that water bottle. 148 00:06:22.749 --> 00:06:24.717 Linus: And then shout out to the CW team. 149 00:06:24.751 --> 00:06:28.855 We're going to be delivering those thirst extinguishers starting before the end of April. 150 00:06:28.855 --> 00:06:29.322 Is that right? 151 00:06:29.322 --> 00:06:32.425 Terren: Yeah, it'll be a, it'll be a period where we'll be doing fulfillment. 152 00:06:32.425 --> 00:06:34.293 But the first shipment is really going on next week. 153 00:06:34.293 --> 00:06:36.028 It's not going to be one or two, it's going to be hundreds. 154 00:06:36.062 --> 00:06:39.065 Linus: That's incredible, because we had no idea how many of these things to order; 155 00:06:39.165 --> 00:06:44.504 so we waited until April 1st to be like, are we going to sell 200 of these or 2, 000? 156 00:06:45.371 --> 00:06:48.574 Linus: Way more than that; but the factory was able to get it turned around. 157 00:06:48.574 --> 00:06:51.677 We're air shipping them over, so we take a bit of a hit on the margin; 158 00:06:51.677 --> 00:06:53.546 but still, free fire truck baby. 159 00:06:53.546 --> 00:06:55.214 Terren: I think that was part of Sammy's question as well, 160 00:06:55.214 --> 00:06:56.849 just in terms of hey what have you been doing? 161 00:06:57.283 --> 00:07:00.386 These are part of the things that, the boring things in the background 162 00:07:00.386 --> 00:07:03.156 from an operations perspective that we've been trying to you know, 163 00:07:03.156 --> 00:07:05.558 get the company over the hump, bringing the right people 164 00:07:05.558 --> 00:07:08.060 just so that we have the skill set to do things like this. 165 00:07:08.060 --> 00:07:10.663 Just because in the past our lead times, I'll be the first to admit 166 00:07:10.663 --> 00:07:12.698 are much longer than we would like. 167 00:07:12.732 --> 00:07:14.901 I think we're getting to a better place at this point where we have 168 00:07:14.934 --> 00:07:16.936 more sophisticated sourcing strategies, 169 00:07:16.936 --> 00:07:20.206 just because we have the right people on board in the right places. 170 00:07:20.573 --> 00:07:24.710 Linus: And I think this is the kind of thing that's like really not visible from the outside. 171 00:07:24.710 --> 00:07:27.280 I saw the quarterly business review for Creator Warehouse, 172 00:07:27.313 --> 00:07:28.981 which is what we're kind of focused on right now. 173 00:07:29.015 --> 00:07:30.082 But we'll talk about other stuff. 174 00:07:30.082 --> 00:07:36.022 And I think we were down from our peak was over a thousand SKUs for apparel. 175 00:07:36.022 --> 00:07:39.258 And I think we're down to like five or six hundred now; 176 00:07:39.292 --> 00:07:43.896 so there's been some kind of course correction that we might have overcorrected. 177 00:07:43.930 --> 00:07:48.334 Like for a while there you'd go on the store and there's like no apparel in stock 178 00:07:48.334 --> 00:07:51.404 because we'd allowed our SKU count to balloon like crazy; 179 00:07:51.437 --> 00:07:55.808 so we had a ton of inventory dollars tied up in like triple XL, 180 00:07:55.808 --> 00:08:00.279 you know, leftover Swackets in a corner somewhere that we just weren't being clean about. 181 00:08:00.279 --> 00:08:02.582 And then now we've cleared out a bunch of that; 182 00:08:02.582 --> 00:08:06.686 and I think we have something like *censored* million dollars of inbound orders coming in, 183 00:08:06.719 --> 00:08:08.120 but of the right stuff. 184 00:08:08.154 --> 00:08:10.389 Terren: Yeah, you should probably not get to really specific numbers. 185 00:08:10.456 --> 00:08:10.890 Linus: Oh. 186 00:08:11.090 --> 00:08:11.624 Terren: It's fine. 187 00:08:11.958 --> 00:08:12.625 Linus: Does it matter? 188 00:08:12.725 --> 00:08:13.626 Terren: Oh, probably. 189 00:08:13.726 --> 00:08:16.462 Linus: Is it just because my numbers are wrong or because we don't want to tell them? 190 00:08:17.063 --> 00:08:18.164 Sammy: Because he goes by vibe. 191 00:08:18.164 --> 00:08:19.565 Terren: Little part A, little part B. 192 00:08:19.632 --> 00:08:20.633 Linus: Yeah, I don't know; 193 00:08:20.733 --> 00:08:24.904 Linus: painful transparency has been probably another cultural difference. 194 00:08:24.937 --> 00:08:28.541 Terren: Yeah, what was the other one where basically we signed a light NDA 195 00:08:28.541 --> 00:08:31.210 and then Linus starts talking about property? 196 00:08:31.210 --> 00:08:32.445 Linus: Well, I didn't know about it! 197 00:08:32.445 --> 00:08:34.881 Linus: Nobody told me we had an NDA. 198 00:08:35.081 --> 00:08:36.682 Terren: And then I had to sort of pull him aside 199 00:08:36.682 --> 00:08:39.018 because the other party was kind of upset. 200 00:08:39.018 --> 00:08:41.821 Terren: They're like, well did you just flagrantly disregard this NDA? 201 00:08:41.854 --> 00:08:44.590 Terren: And it's like, no it's just like we didn't read this before we signed it; 202 00:08:44.624 --> 00:08:47.960 and to be clear I didn't sign it, somebody else signed it. 203 00:08:47.960 --> 00:08:51.397 Terren: It's like yeah that's yet another thing that we have to clean up slightly. 204 00:08:51.397 --> 00:08:53.933 Terren: And then that was true. 205 00:08:53.933 --> 00:08:56.402 Terren: Linus said you didn't tell me this was confidential. 206 00:08:56.402 --> 00:08:58.604 Terren: It's like, well assume everything I tell you is confidential. 207 00:08:58.905 --> 00:08:59.438 Linus: No! 208 00:09:00.373 --> 00:09:03.175 Terren: Yeah; but yeah, we like to share, we share a lot here. 209 00:09:03.709 --> 00:09:05.778 Sammy: Terren, is this the job you envisioned? 210 00:09:05.778 --> 00:09:07.079 Linus: Hahahahaha! 211 00:09:07.346 --> 00:09:07.914 Sammy: Or what changed? 212 00:09:09.448 --> 00:09:10.349 Linus: There's no way. 213 00:09:10.383 --> 00:09:11.284 Linus: Sorry, sorry; go on. 214 00:09:11.851 --> 00:09:12.818 Terren: Is this a yes - no answer? 215 00:09:12.818 --> 00:09:14.787 Sammy: It can be whatever answer you want. 216 00:09:15.555 --> 00:09:18.758 Terren: I think I've learned a lot, that's one of my key criteria. 217 00:09:18.791 --> 00:09:20.059 Linus: Hahahahahaha. 218 00:09:20.059 --> 00:09:22.328 Terren: Wow, nobody takes me seriously. 219 00:09:23.262 --> 00:09:24.430 Terren: One of my key criteria, 220 00:09:24.430 --> 00:09:27.266 and this is one of the bits of advice I've had for my team; 221 00:09:27.266 --> 00:09:29.268 you know, my team's going on for 20 years. 222 00:09:29.368 --> 00:09:30.436 If you're not learning in a role, 223 00:09:30.536 --> 00:09:33.873 I don't really think it matters what level or position you're in. 224 00:09:33.873 --> 00:09:35.975 It's time to start looking for a new challenge; 225 00:09:36.008 --> 00:09:39.011 that's not necessarily the case at Dell. 226 00:09:39.045 --> 00:09:41.113 Like, this is absolutely no slight to them; 227 00:09:41.113 --> 00:09:44.517 I was learning a lot there, but I thought that this gave me a longer runway 228 00:09:44.517 --> 00:09:46.586 just in terms of other things I can sink my teeth into; 229 00:09:46.586 --> 00:09:48.721 so, from that perspective I think it's been really good. 230 00:09:48.754 --> 00:09:51.123 I've learned a lot about the advertising business. 231 00:09:51.157 --> 00:09:52.992 I've learned how terrible I am on film in general. 232 00:09:54.293 --> 00:09:57.430 You know, so I know that I'm not being the influencer or content creator, 233 00:09:58.164 --> 00:09:59.432 once this job may be over. 234 00:10:00.166 --> 00:10:02.168 But no, it's been great. 235 00:10:02.201 --> 00:10:03.803 Sammy: But that's a good dynamic, you know. 236 00:10:03.803 --> 00:10:04.070 Terren: Yeah. 237 00:10:04.103 --> 00:10:05.638 Sammy: Like Linus is great on camera, you're not. 238 00:10:05.638 --> 00:10:07.373 Sammy: He's a vibe guy, you're a data guy. 239 00:10:07.873 --> 00:10:08.341 Sammy: It all works out. 240 00:10:08.341 --> 00:10:09.842 Terren: It's like peanut butter and jelly. 241 00:10:09.875 --> 00:10:10.509 Sammy: Hahahahahaha. 242 00:10:10.509 --> 00:10:12.511 Linus: Well, it's like when Yvonne, 243 00:10:12.511 --> 00:10:15.982 like, because Yvonne had met Terren before because we'd go to like 244 00:10:15.982 --> 00:10:20.820 the NCIX, you know, company Christmas party; and like she'd encountered him before. 245 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:24.890 But when we were like really interviewing him and she was really like meeting him, 246 00:10:24.890 --> 00:10:27.693 she kind of goes, \"you really have a type\". 247 00:10:28.594 --> 00:10:32.498 Because like that's the thing for me, right? 248 00:10:32.531 --> 00:10:41.073 Is I'm like, oh here's an idea; why don't we do like a last-minute sale event 249 00:10:41.073 --> 00:10:45.411 so that you know, because our pricing could be affected for Lime Day 250 00:10:45.411 --> 00:10:49.649 and it might not be a success for our US customers who are, 251 00:10:49.649 --> 00:10:51.250 like a big part of our customers. 252 00:10:51.283 --> 00:10:55.021 Why don't we beat the- Let's do a beat the tariff sale; okay, go. 253 00:10:55.054 --> 00:10:59.025 So I'll like have this idea, but you have to actually be tactical. 254 00:10:59.058 --> 00:11:01.027 You have to be detail-oriented, 255 00:11:01.027 --> 00:11:03.162 you have to be somewhat organized in order to execute it. 256 00:11:03.162 --> 00:11:06.532 And I can be organized, especially when I'm lucky 257 00:11:06.532 --> 00:11:10.403 and I happen to hit a hyper-focus when I need to be organized; 258 00:11:10.403 --> 00:11:14.340 but it's not in my nature; it's not something that I'm passionate about, 259 00:11:14.340 --> 00:11:15.741 it's not something that excites me. 260 00:11:15.775 --> 00:11:20.413 It's uh, so I need to surround myself with people who can kind of 261 00:11:22.848 --> 00:11:27.420 take the interesting idea and then like go actually turn it into something real. 262 00:11:27.753 --> 00:11:30.022 Terren: I think that's the dynamic that sort of works between us. 263 00:11:30.022 --> 00:11:33.426 I think I'm relatively good at interpreting what Linus wants. 264 00:11:33.459 --> 00:11:35.528 I tend to think that he talks on hyperbole sometimes; 265 00:11:35.528 --> 00:11:37.730 and I think that's part of the YouTube personality, 266 00:11:37.730 --> 00:11:39.832 or that's just part of his personality in general. 267 00:11:39.832 --> 00:11:43.135 Things would be a little bit disastrous if we just took everything literally. 268 00:11:43.502 --> 00:11:44.870 So I scale that back a bit, 269 00:11:44.904 --> 00:11:47.406 just to make sure that I understand the intent of what he's looking for 270 00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:51.877 and try to deliver upon his vision, given that he's a chief vision officer. 271 00:11:52.011 --> 00:11:55.581 So I think that's worked out relatively well just because that's, 272 00:11:55.614 --> 00:11:59.285 you know the yin and yang that we had, for lack of a better term, right? 273 00:11:59.685 --> 00:12:00.453 Linus: And you need both. 274 00:12:01.020 --> 00:12:01.420 Terren: Yeah. 275 00:12:01.454 --> 00:12:03.689 Linus: Like on I would say on Precision Screwdriver, 276 00:12:03.689 --> 00:12:08.561 we f*** up and we didn't listen to enough of the dragon energy hyperbole; 277 00:12:08.561 --> 00:12:10.529 we didn't order enough of them, we were out of stock for months. 278 00:12:10.796 --> 00:12:15.367 But then on Commuter Backpack, I was like well I don't want that to happen again. 279 00:12:15.367 --> 00:12:17.169 Order three times as many. 280 00:12:17.236 --> 00:12:20.706 Linus: And now we're sitting here with a bunch of made-in-China commuter backpacks 281 00:12:20.706 --> 00:12:23.509 that are going to be more challenging to move through, 282 00:12:23.642 --> 00:12:28.414 given the potential for crippling tariffs on that inventory 283 00:12:28.414 --> 00:12:29.782 for us to sell them into the States. 284 00:12:29.782 --> 00:12:34.687 So there's obviously, we're always working to kind of find the right balance; 285 00:12:34.687 --> 00:12:38.257 and we're going to get it wrong more often than not, but I think that's... 286 00:12:39.225 --> 00:12:43.229 Linus: as long as we're moving in the right direction. 287 00:12:43.262 --> 00:12:45.064 Linus: I mean look, we're not trying to get acquired right now, 288 00:12:45.064 --> 00:12:49.201 so it doesn't matter how much of our crappy internal stuff we air, right? 289 00:12:49.201 --> 00:12:50.636 Terren: Yes, yes. 290 00:12:51.070 --> 00:12:51.971 Terren: Hahahaha. 291 00:12:52.071 --> 00:12:57.209 Linus: Overall, I think every year LMG has been a better functioning company 292 00:12:57.243 --> 00:12:58.911 than it was the year before; 293 00:12:58.911 --> 00:13:01.947 and as long as we're going in that trajectory, then I'm comfortable. 294 00:13:02.081 --> 00:13:03.983 It doesn't need to be perfect immediately. 295 00:13:03.983 --> 00:13:08.420 Sammy: We're going to follow up on some questions that you slightly avoided 296 00:13:08.420 --> 00:13:10.022 during the live stream a year ago. Linus: Sure. 297 00:13:10.055 --> 00:13:13.793 Sammy: Apollo the Space Fox asked, your most favorite and least favorite thing at LMG? 298 00:13:13.893 --> 00:13:16.462 Sammy: You said learning was a favorite thing, 299 00:13:16.462 --> 00:13:18.297 but you did not answer your least favorite thing. 300 00:13:18.297 --> 00:13:20.232 Linus: Yeah, what's your least favorite thing at LMG? 301 00:13:20.232 --> 00:13:22.168 Sammy: So now I'm confronting you to answer that. 302 00:13:22.168 --> 00:13:25.337 Linus: The fact that the snack counter only comes from Costco. 303 00:13:25.337 --> 00:13:26.338 Sammy: Hahahahaha. 304 00:13:26.472 --> 00:13:27.406 Sammy: Because it's cheapest there. 305 00:13:27.406 --> 00:13:27.807 Linus: Yeah. 306 00:13:27.873 --> 00:13:30.543 Terren: There's a lot going on, I think there's a lot of curveballs. 307 00:13:30.543 --> 00:13:31.877 Linus: I mean, that's not even LMG. 308 00:13:31.877 --> 00:13:34.780 Linus: I was joking with Jordan earlier on the shoot today 309 00:13:34.814 --> 00:13:37.917 Linus: because I was like I'm just tired man. 310 00:13:38.017 --> 00:13:41.320 Linus: Like can I just have two years, okay? 311 00:13:41.320 --> 00:13:44.390 Linus: Without a major catastrophe, okay? 312 00:13:44.390 --> 00:13:50.529 Between COVID and then you've got the freaking you know hit piece. 313 00:13:50.529 --> 00:13:51.630 Let's call it what it was. 314 00:13:51.630 --> 00:13:55.434 There were things that were accurate in it, but a hit piece can be accurate. 315 00:13:55.601 --> 00:13:57.069 Sammy: I think Luke's calling it the Great Reset. 316 00:13:57.069 --> 00:13:58.838 Linus: Whatever, the hit piece. Sammy: Hahahaha. 317 00:13:58.871 --> 00:14:02.208 Linus: And then freaking, now we've got this global tariff uncertainty. 318 00:14:02.208 --> 00:14:07.446 And look, tariffs, they come or they don't or whatever; we can work around that, 319 00:14:07.446 --> 00:14:09.448 but it's the uncertainty, it's the back and forth, 320 00:14:09.448 --> 00:14:10.883 the will they won't they, what will they look like? 321 00:14:10.883 --> 00:14:12.585 And it's just like, can we just... 322 00:14:13.986 --> 00:14:16.388 Linus: Running a business is hard enough. 323 00:14:16.455 --> 00:14:19.258 Terren: To be clear, I'd be happy with two weeks without a curveball. 324 00:14:19.258 --> 00:14:19.992 Sammy: Hahahahaha. 325 00:14:20.092 --> 00:14:21.527 Terren: Two years, yeah! 326 00:14:23.963 --> 00:14:25.130 Terren: Two weeks, that's all I'm asking for. 327 00:14:25.364 --> 00:14:25.865 Terren: Yeah. 328 00:14:26.031 --> 00:14:28.200 No, but it's been- There's been a lot of stuff going on. 329 00:14:28.200 --> 00:14:29.501 Sammy: So those are the questions I have for Terren. 330 00:14:29.501 --> 00:14:30.469 Sammy: Now we're going to Linus. 331 00:14:30.569 --> 00:14:31.270 Linus: Oh, okay. 332 00:14:31.270 --> 00:14:33.706 Sammy: Okay, so everyone always asks how Terren is fitting in. 333 00:14:33.806 --> 00:14:37.042 Sammy: But how about you? How are you fitting into the new CVO role? 334 00:14:37.142 --> 00:14:41.313 What do you like about working with Terren? Things you don't like as much? 335 00:14:41.313 --> 00:14:43.148 Linus: That's like three questions, okay. 336 00:14:43.148 --> 00:14:43.883 Sammy: Well, it's general. 337 00:14:43.883 --> 00:14:49.588 Linus: CVO role, I'd say is good; it sometimes doesn't feel that different; 338 00:14:49.622 --> 00:14:52.391 and I think that's a good thing. 339 00:14:52.424 --> 00:14:54.093 Linus: And I'll kind of explain what I mean by that; 340 00:14:54.093 --> 00:15:01.400 because a lot of what I did as a CEO was more vision and executive anyway. 341 00:15:01.400 --> 00:15:04.436 Like a CEO is often expected to determine the vision for the company; 342 00:15:04.436 --> 00:15:06.772 so my new role is like not that different. 343 00:15:06.772 --> 00:15:10.843 And then I had really strong operational help 344 00:15:10.843 --> 00:15:14.480 from people like Yvonne and from people like Nick, 345 00:15:14.546 --> 00:15:16.682 and Colton and the rest of the exec team, 346 00:15:16.682 --> 00:15:20.319 even though most of them didn't even have like proper job titles. 347 00:15:20.319 --> 00:15:24.690 We didn't even have like a pyramid necessarily properly, 348 00:15:24.690 --> 00:15:26.091 I don't think at that point. 349 00:15:26.091 --> 00:15:27.493 Linus: Did we have an org chart when you joined? 350 00:15:27.526 --> 00:15:28.027 Terren: Yes. 351 00:15:28.027 --> 00:15:28.661 Linus: Oh, okay. 352 00:15:28.661 --> 00:15:29.995 Linus: Well, I might not have been aware of it. 353 00:15:29.995 --> 00:15:31.230 Terren: There were squiggly lines everywhere. 354 00:15:31.230 --> 00:15:33.299 Linus: Yeah, there was a lot of like dotted lines. 355 00:15:33.299 --> 00:15:33.866 Terren: Yeah. 356 00:15:33.866 --> 00:15:36.435 Linus: It was more of a disorganizational chart. 357 00:15:36.535 --> 00:15:40.239 And so you know, a lot of the time it's not that different, 358 00:15:40.239 --> 00:15:43.175 because I like come up with an idea and I kind of go, 359 00:15:43.175 --> 00:15:45.811 hey, can you do some quick viability analysis on this? 360 00:15:45.811 --> 00:15:48.013 And then I like make a decision or whatever. 361 00:15:48.080 --> 00:15:51.583 The difference is that now if I don't have time to make a decision 362 00:15:51.583 --> 00:15:55.821 or if I don't have time to follow up on the analysis, 363 00:15:55.821 --> 00:15:58.891 you know basically if I'm busy, somebody else does it. 364 00:15:58.891 --> 00:16:04.129 So it feels the same except when things keep going when I'm busy. 365 00:16:04.163 --> 00:16:06.065 Things don't get stalled as much anymore. 366 00:16:06.065 --> 00:16:09.802 And like we still have stalls, but it's smoother. 367 00:16:09.802 --> 00:16:10.703 I mean I went home- 368 00:16:10.703 --> 00:16:15.674 In the last three months, I've gone home early like three times, 369 00:16:15.674 --> 00:16:19.278 which doesn't sound that impressive; and it wasn't like super early, 370 00:16:19.411 --> 00:16:23.248 but that's more times than that probably happened in the previous three years, 371 00:16:24.049 --> 00:16:25.484 to give you some idea, you know? 372 00:16:25.784 --> 00:16:26.618 So that's good. 373 00:16:27.219 --> 00:16:28.854 Oh, what do I like about working with Terren? 374 00:16:28.887 --> 00:16:30.089 Linus: I mean, he listens. 375 00:16:30.089 --> 00:16:32.858 I think mutual respect is something I've talked about a lot on WAN Show 376 00:16:32.992 --> 00:16:34.960 when I discuss just like working relationships. 377 00:16:34.960 --> 00:16:37.229 He listens and also talks. 378 00:16:37.262 --> 00:16:40.632 You need both, right? So he's not afraid to tell me when I'm being a f***ing idiot. 379 00:16:40.632 --> 00:16:45.471 And I think that's speaking of you know, ego, like we were talking about earlier. 380 00:16:45.504 --> 00:16:50.609 I think that's really important is keeping yourselves accountable to each other 381 00:16:50.609 --> 00:16:53.012 and keeping each other accountable to yourselves, 382 00:16:53.012 --> 00:16:54.646 like making sure you have open dialogue. 383 00:16:54.646 --> 00:16:56.615 He's always willing to tell me if I'm being stupid; 384 00:16:56.615 --> 00:17:01.720 and then he's always willing to tell me if he's being stupid. 385 00:17:01.720 --> 00:17:04.256 And as long as you can both do that, I think that- 386 00:17:04.990 --> 00:17:06.658 Terren: And not get upset about it, I think that's the main thing. 387 00:17:06.692 --> 00:17:08.894 Terren: I don't think we hold grudges necessarily; 388 00:17:08.994 --> 00:17:12.931 so I never feel uncomfortable talking to him about difficult subjects. 389 00:17:12.931 --> 00:17:14.466 And that takes time. 390 00:17:15.367 --> 00:17:19.505 Terren: I think that's probably the best thing about a relationship, 391 00:17:19.505 --> 00:17:21.373 where basically we can have different points of view. 392 00:17:21.373 --> 00:17:23.609 Linus: Yeah, but like that's fine. 393 00:17:23.609 --> 00:17:27.579 Linus: And I think that we're both, we can both be reasonably objective 394 00:17:27.579 --> 00:17:29.181 and we're both kind of willing to try things; 395 00:17:29.214 --> 00:17:33.852 I think that's something where you can really poison a relationship 396 00:17:33.886 --> 00:17:38.590 if you don't agree and no one's willing to just try the other person's idea. 397 00:17:38.624 --> 00:17:40.793 And sometimes the other person's idea is wrong; 398 00:17:40.793 --> 00:17:43.162 like let's go back to the precision screwdriver under order, 399 00:17:43.162 --> 00:17:45.064 and the commuter backpack over order. 400 00:17:45.064 --> 00:17:48.267 We are both human and we are both capable of making mistakes 401 00:17:48.267 --> 00:17:50.836 in our own unique mistake making ways. 402 00:17:50.869 --> 00:17:53.972 Linus: But like I'm not mad about it; I don't think he's mad about it. 403 00:17:53.972 --> 00:17:56.508 Linus: So... we move forward. 404 00:17:56.508 --> 00:17:59.311 Terren: I think we're similar from a personality standpoint, whereas it's not- 405 00:17:59.311 --> 00:18:02.514 Terren: Okay, so this happened; so what do we do next to fix the situation? 406 00:18:02.514 --> 00:18:06.518 And we move on, and that's all we expect from each other and from our teams. 407 00:18:06.518 --> 00:18:07.519 Terren: Right? So... 408 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:08.620 Linus: As for what's bad... 409 00:18:09.788 --> 00:18:11.156 Linus: Well, he still hasn't moved here. 410 00:18:11.290 --> 00:18:11.824 Terren: Yeah. 411 00:18:13.125 --> 00:18:17.229 Linus: Speaking of you know, challenging conversations that we've had, 412 00:18:17.229 --> 00:18:19.932 he was supposed to move here in I think April of last year. 413 00:18:21.133 --> 00:18:22.568 Terren: Wow, how the time flies. 414 00:18:23.469 --> 00:18:24.770 Linus: It does, doesn't it? Terren: Yeah. 415 00:18:25.337 --> 00:18:27.239 Terren: Like this last three months has felt like a year. 416 00:18:27.372 --> 00:18:28.507 Linus: Hahahaha. 417 00:18:28.507 --> 00:18:29.208 Sammy: Another curveball. 418 00:18:29.308 --> 00:18:30.209 Sammy: Hahahahahaha. 419 00:18:30.209 --> 00:18:32.544 Terren: I'm spending a lot of time out here in my own events. 420 00:18:32.544 --> 00:18:34.413 Terren: Hahahahaha. 421 00:18:34.413 --> 00:18:35.781 Sammy: Do you miss doing CEO stuff? 422 00:18:35.881 --> 00:18:38.350 Sammy: I always see you taking calls, which I always find interesting; 423 00:18:38.350 --> 00:18:40.719 because I thought the goal was to get you off those calls, but- 424 00:18:40.752 --> 00:18:41.620 Terren: Can I answer that? 425 00:18:41.620 --> 00:18:42.788 Terren: He can't help himself sometimes. 426 00:18:44.123 --> 00:18:45.657 Terren: Hahahahahaha. 427 00:18:45.657 --> 00:18:46.391 Sammy: So he does miss it. 428 00:18:47.359 --> 00:18:49.027 Linus: Well I mean, look, 429 00:18:49.027 --> 00:18:51.096 how are you supposed to have a vision for a company 430 00:18:51.096 --> 00:18:52.898 if you don't have your finger on the pulse of it? 431 00:18:52.931 --> 00:18:54.633 Like, I think that's extremely unhealthy. 432 00:18:54.633 --> 00:18:56.802 I've always believed that the leader of a company should 433 00:18:56.802 --> 00:19:00.639 wear the products and should watch the videos, 434 00:19:00.639 --> 00:19:04.977 and should talk to the people who work there and should have you know, 435 00:19:04.977 --> 00:19:06.478 some idea what the f***'s going on; 436 00:19:06.478 --> 00:19:09.214 because it's like if I had a vision that you know, 437 00:19:09.214 --> 00:19:11.450 oh, we're going to be an electronics retailer. 438 00:19:11.450 --> 00:19:17.422 But I hadn't talked to you know, I hadn't read one of Chewy's weekly community reports 439 00:19:17.422 --> 00:19:21.660 where, oh people were really upset that in our Black Friday Cyber Monday sale, 440 00:19:21.693 --> 00:19:24.229 we had some computer parts for sale; they felt that was over the line. 441 00:19:24.229 --> 00:19:26.031 As it happens, that didn't happen. 442 00:19:26.031 --> 00:19:29.067 And it is possible that we could get into electronics retailing; I don't know. 443 00:19:29.101 --> 00:19:31.203 But the point is if I don't talk to people, 444 00:19:31.203 --> 00:19:34.406 well how the hell am I supposed to set a path and have a vision for the company? 445 00:19:34.406 --> 00:19:36.208 Linus: It's impossible; and then how's he supposed to execute it? 446 00:19:36.241 --> 00:19:38.143 Terren: I might have shared this story before so you guys can 447 00:19:38.143 --> 00:19:40.579 feel free to edit this out if this is just a repeat. 448 00:19:40.579 --> 00:19:44.016 Terren: Now having worked at like a hundred million dollar company before, 449 00:19:44.016 --> 00:19:47.619 a billion dollar company before, a hundred billion dollar company before, 450 00:19:47.719 --> 00:19:52.758 I think founders always have... I'm not going to say a hard time letting go. 451 00:19:52.758 --> 00:19:54.126 That's probably being unfair. 452 00:19:54.126 --> 00:19:57.529 I think they feel deep ownership in terms of what they do. 453 00:19:57.529 --> 00:20:04.403 So in every instance I've seen either the CEO or very, very, very early employees 454 00:20:04.436 --> 00:20:06.371 stay really involved in the company. 455 00:20:06.371 --> 00:20:08.307 I think that's really important just to understand, 456 00:20:08.340 --> 00:20:11.810 you know, the things that you really cared about are being maintained; 457 00:20:12.144 --> 00:20:15.747 even though that you might not have 100% direct control of it anymore. 458 00:20:15.747 --> 00:20:18.917 Linus: Well I mean, part of it is like you know this thing has a soul. 459 00:20:18.917 --> 00:20:22.521 And when the soul dies, I think the company dies; 460 00:20:22.521 --> 00:20:26.692 and I think that has a really harmful knock-on effect for everyone 461 00:20:26.725 --> 00:20:28.460 who loves the company and what it makes. 462 00:20:28.460 --> 00:20:30.495 I mean, I was sad when NCIX disappeared. 463 00:20:30.495 --> 00:20:35.133 I had a brand loyalty to that company both as a customer and then as an employee. 464 00:20:35.133 --> 00:20:36.602 It was upsetting for me. 465 00:20:36.602 --> 00:20:41.073 And then I think the other part of it is like you know, your name's on it, right? 466 00:20:41.073 --> 00:20:44.743 Like Michael Dell, Andy Corsair, their names are right on those companies. 467 00:20:44.776 --> 00:20:45.244 Terren: Tim Apple. 468 00:20:45.344 --> 00:20:46.211 Linus: Yeah, Tim Apple. 469 00:20:46.311 --> 00:20:46.578 Terren: Yeah. 470 00:20:46.578 --> 00:20:49.047 Linus: Like Linus Media Group, like even if- 471 00:20:49.047 --> 00:20:51.750 Even if I wasn't a shareholder at some point in the future, 472 00:20:51.750 --> 00:20:54.119 let's say I divested of the company in some way. 473 00:20:54.119 --> 00:20:57.689 If it was still called Linus Media Group and I read a headline that's like, 474 00:20:57.689 --> 00:21:01.059 yeah, Linus Media Group f***s up everything; I'm like, ah f***! 475 00:21:01.159 --> 00:21:02.394 Like that sucks, right? 476 00:21:02.761 --> 00:21:05.197 And it's not like, it's not like my name is Roger; 477 00:21:05.297 --> 00:21:07.633 you know, Rogers Communications or whatever, 478 00:21:07.633 --> 00:21:09.001 It's like ah it could be any Rogers. 479 00:21:09.001 --> 00:21:10.502 Like how many Linuses are there? 480 00:21:10.535 --> 00:21:13.272 There's that one hockey player, there's the Linux guy. 481 00:21:13.272 --> 00:21:15.874 Like what else have we got? A dead scientist. 482 00:21:15.874 --> 00:21:16.441 Linus: Like it's... 483 00:21:17.276 --> 00:21:17.743 Linus: crap. 484 00:21:18.510 --> 00:21:22.314 Sammy: What's your split then for CEO/CVO day-to-day activities? 485 00:21:22.414 --> 00:21:23.482 Linus: They're both very low. 486 00:21:23.949 --> 00:21:30.922 Linus: Most of my day-to-day activities are really in writing and hosting. 487 00:21:31.423 --> 00:21:34.693 Linus: And I mean, it's like the old days. 488 00:21:34.693 --> 00:21:36.962 I don't really have a ton of time for either of those things. 489 00:21:36.962 --> 00:21:40.766 Vision, a lot of the time comes during my own time 490 00:21:40.799 --> 00:21:42.801 because it's the only time when I have any time to think. 491 00:21:42.801 --> 00:21:47.472 Like the new idea for Whale LAN came from attending Whale LAN 492 00:21:47.472 --> 00:21:48.674 and spending time doing that on the weekend. 493 00:21:48.707 --> 00:21:51.943 I think that's honestly a big part of what has stunted our growth, 494 00:21:52.744 --> 00:21:54.379 you know, in the lead up to Terren coming here; 495 00:21:54.379 --> 00:21:56.682 and even during the time when we've been kind of reorging everything 496 00:21:56.682 --> 00:22:01.119 is I reached the point where I didn't have time to do any of my jobs well. 497 00:22:02.054 --> 00:22:04.890 And setting a direction for the company was one of them. 498 00:22:04.890 --> 00:22:06.191 Like there was some skill involved, 499 00:22:06.191 --> 00:22:10.662 but I got kind of lucky in a lot of our big growth phases. 500 00:22:10.662 --> 00:22:12.798 Like screwdriver and backpack could have been a disaster; 501 00:22:13.398 --> 00:22:17.302 but instead they funded this next stage of growth. 502 00:22:17.302 --> 00:22:19.771 I mean, it was because of them that I could afford to hire him 503 00:22:19.771 --> 00:22:21.340 and start building that team, right? 504 00:22:21.340 --> 00:22:24.876 I don't remember the question anymore, but very, very little, very little time. 505 00:22:24.876 --> 00:22:27.979 And it's hard to separate CEO and CVO. 506 00:22:28.347 --> 00:22:32.084 Sammy: What was your original vision when bringing in Terren? How's that vision changed? 507 00:22:32.084 --> 00:22:35.120 Linus: Well, the original vision got a bit of a curveball thrown into it 508 00:22:35.120 --> 00:22:40.192 because I expected him to have a solid six plus months; was that the timeline we set? 509 00:22:40.325 --> 00:22:40.792 Terren: Mhmm. 510 00:22:40.859 --> 00:22:46.998 Linus: To just watch, to just embed himself in every department 511 00:22:46.998 --> 00:22:49.468 one at a time and just watch. 512 00:22:49.501 --> 00:22:57.509 Probably what was most challenged at that time was production and post-production; 513 00:22:57.509 --> 00:23:00.011 and there's a lot of reasons for that that I'm not going to get into now. 514 00:23:00.011 --> 00:23:02.481 But those were the ones that needed the most attention. 515 00:23:02.481 --> 00:23:05.217 Linus: And when you look at the hire you might kind of go, 516 00:23:05.217 --> 00:23:07.085 oh, well, that's a total mismatch, right? 517 00:23:07.085 --> 00:23:10.756 Because his background is really in physical goods businesses, right? 518 00:23:10.789 --> 00:23:13.191 Product management and all that; 519 00:23:13.191 --> 00:23:16.061 but really that wasn't the part that I was concerned about. 520 00:23:16.061 --> 00:23:19.931 I felt that when you're smart and organized and you take time, 521 00:23:20.065 --> 00:23:22.901 which I knew he would do, you can learn that other stuff. 522 00:23:22.901 --> 00:23:29.741 It's just that he never got the time to sit and just watch and learn it. 523 00:23:29.808 --> 00:23:33.678 So I think that... I forget the question; 524 00:23:33.678 --> 00:23:37.549 but what happened next was basically the part that was easier to fix 525 00:23:37.549 --> 00:23:39.217 was the physical goods side, 526 00:23:39.217 --> 00:23:41.887 and so Terren ended up spending a lot more of his time on that. 527 00:23:41.887 --> 00:23:45.490 And then we ended up you know, continuing to struggle on the production side. 528 00:23:45.490 --> 00:23:49.027 And I think now we've sort of cleaned things up enough 529 00:23:49.027 --> 00:23:51.363 that he's able to spend time on both of them. 530 00:23:51.363 --> 00:23:52.798 And again, what was the question? Sorry. 531 00:23:52.798 --> 00:23:54.332 Sammy: What was your original vision? Linus: Oh, the vision, right. 532 00:23:54.366 --> 00:23:55.634 Sammy: Yeah; and has that vision changed? 533 00:23:56.168 --> 00:23:59.504 Linus: Bottom line, my vision was that he would look at everything, 534 00:23:59.504 --> 00:24:04.576 and use that time to brush up on his understanding of the media side of the business 535 00:24:04.576 --> 00:24:07.112 and focus on helping us fix production first. 536 00:24:07.112 --> 00:24:12.951 What actually ended up happening was because production was in sort of like 537 00:24:12.951 --> 00:24:20.225 more of like a panic, just keep the wheels on the tracks mode; 538 00:24:20.258 --> 00:24:23.295 keep it moving forward so we can support the rebuild. 539 00:24:23.328 --> 00:24:25.697 Terren ended up focusing more of his time on creator warehouse 540 00:24:25.697 --> 00:24:27.432 where there was an opportunity for growth, 541 00:24:27.432 --> 00:24:29.968 to help make sure that we had enough revenue coming in 542 00:24:29.968 --> 00:24:34.773 to help support getting that train, keeping that train on the tracks 543 00:24:34.773 --> 00:24:37.976 and then getting it kind of rebuilt while we were driving it. 544 00:24:37.976 --> 00:24:41.780 Because the reality of it is that while we did do a one week shutdown 545 00:24:41.913 --> 00:24:44.850 to kind of catch our breath, have meetings, 546 00:24:44.850 --> 00:24:47.886 break down barriers and communication and do all that stuff. 547 00:24:47.953 --> 00:24:52.390 Linus: You can't just stop a company until you solve all of the problems at the company, 548 00:24:52.390 --> 00:24:54.960 Linus: because by the time you roll it back up again, 549 00:24:54.960 --> 00:24:57.128 your biggest problem is going to be that you're out of business. 550 00:24:57.128 --> 00:24:59.664 Terren: I think one of the things I've learned from a career perspective is... 551 00:24:59.664 --> 00:25:03.201 no, especially earlier on I had a very specific way 552 00:25:03.201 --> 00:25:04.803 in terms of how I envisioned things to be done, 553 00:25:04.803 --> 00:25:07.405 especially being like a newer manager or whatever else. 554 00:25:07.405 --> 00:25:11.576 Over time, I realized that there are multiple paths to the same solution. 555 00:25:11.610 --> 00:25:13.411 And I think one of the things I appreciated, 556 00:25:13.411 --> 00:25:15.547 which is what I think Linus has tried to articulate, 557 00:25:15.547 --> 00:25:19.251 is this might not be an exact plan when I first started, 558 00:25:19.251 --> 00:25:22.454 but we found a way to continue down the same sort of trajectory 559 00:25:22.487 --> 00:25:25.690 that hopefully will lead us to the same end destination. 560 00:25:25.790 --> 00:25:28.260 Linus: And the train really is on the tracks. 561 00:25:28.260 --> 00:25:32.898 Linus: Like, even though we're uploading less, the business is actually doing fine. 562 00:25:32.898 --> 00:25:36.368 And we did that, we did that How Does LMG Make Money video recently, 563 00:25:36.401 --> 00:25:38.069 where we showed that a big part of that 564 00:25:38.069 --> 00:25:42.073 is because we've executed extremely well on Creator Warehouse. 565 00:25:42.073 --> 00:25:46.311 And I also have to give major props to the production side. 566 00:25:47.846 --> 00:25:51.483 Things are way cleaner; like, the amount of time 567 00:25:51.483 --> 00:25:55.587 that I waste idling on set because things aren't ready, 568 00:25:55.587 --> 00:25:58.723 the amount of time that I spend in script review, 569 00:25:59.391 --> 00:26:02.761 the amount of time that I spend looking at videos after the fact, 570 00:26:02.761 --> 00:26:05.263 after the editors are done with them and making changes 571 00:26:05.263 --> 00:26:09.034 is negligible compared to what it was a few years ago. 572 00:26:09.067 --> 00:26:12.504 And that is nothing against the team members back then, 573 00:26:12.504 --> 00:26:14.406 because a lot of them are the same team members. 574 00:26:14.439 --> 00:26:20.045 It's just getting those organizational processes tidied up makes an enormous, 575 00:26:20.045 --> 00:26:21.012 enormous difference. 576 00:26:21.012 --> 00:26:23.214 And so yeah even that side is actually, I think- 577 00:26:23.214 --> 00:26:26.318 I think I would be hard pressed 578 00:26:26.318 --> 00:26:31.656 to find something at the company that is worse today than two years ago. 579 00:26:33.058 --> 00:26:34.059 Linus: Actually, I have one. 580 00:26:34.059 --> 00:26:37.562 Linus: Our pile of Creator Warehouse returns is bigger than before. 581 00:26:37.562 --> 00:26:39.331 Linus: We still have dealt with it. Terren: We do have a plan, we do have a plan. 582 00:26:39.364 --> 00:26:40.332 Linus: Yeah, we've had a plan for... 583 00:26:40.332 --> 00:26:42.867 Terren: No, no, we had a semblance of a plan. 584 00:26:42.901 --> 00:26:45.937 Terren: Now we actually have one. Linus: What's the line? Yeah, concepts of a plan. 585 00:26:45.937 --> 00:26:47.172 Linus: We have concepts of a plan. 586 00:26:48.073 --> 00:26:51.209 Sammy: From your perspective Linus, how has Terren changed LMG? 587 00:26:51.209 --> 00:26:54.646 Linus: More organized; I think that's the simplest way to put it. 588 00:26:55.680 --> 00:27:01.319 Linus: I think that sometimes that can come across as us being a little bit more corporate; 589 00:27:01.353 --> 00:27:07.158 but the reality of it is that if you want to scale beyond a handful of people, 590 00:27:07.158 --> 00:27:12.530 there's a reason that bigger organizations operate the way that they do. 591 00:27:12.564 --> 00:27:14.699 And sometimes it's kind of a downer; 592 00:27:14.733 --> 00:27:19.371 like personally, I think it kind of sucks that our camera operators 593 00:27:19.371 --> 00:27:22.707 can't borrow camera equipment on the weekends for personal projects anymore. 594 00:27:22.741 --> 00:27:25.343 And I'm sure you probably agree Andy, that that sucks. 595 00:27:25.410 --> 00:27:29.047 Linus: But the reality of it is that when we had one camera operator, 596 00:27:29.080 --> 00:27:32.884 or two camera operators and nobody else on staff 597 00:27:32.884 --> 00:27:37.088 who would even have any interest in borrowing any of that crap, it was easy. 598 00:27:37.088 --> 00:27:40.925 Because everyone who could possibly want it knew where it was, 599 00:27:40.959 --> 00:27:44.262 knew how to take care of it, knew where it needed to go back, 600 00:27:44.295 --> 00:27:48.066 and knew if we were going to need it at a time when they were borrowing it. 601 00:27:48.833 --> 00:27:51.169 But as soon as you have more people, it's not viable. 602 00:27:51.202 --> 00:27:54.839 It's not reasonable, and we can't be wasting time here at the business 603 00:27:54.839 --> 00:27:56.741 looking for equipment that we bought, 604 00:27:56.775 --> 00:28:00.645 that we own so that we can do our productions because someone borrowed it. 605 00:28:00.645 --> 00:28:03.815 And you know, yeah, that blows. 606 00:28:04.015 --> 00:28:07.752 But you know, I also like to think that by being more organized 607 00:28:07.786 --> 00:28:11.022 we have more time to do things like you know, set up lights before a shoot. 608 00:28:11.022 --> 00:28:15.827 Like the camera guys used to get mad at me in the old days because they you know, 609 00:28:15.827 --> 00:28:18.163 it wouldn't look, it wouldn't live up to their vision. 610 00:28:18.163 --> 00:28:19.664 And it looked good enough to me or whatever, 611 00:28:19.664 --> 00:28:22.000 but it didn't live up to their vision because they didn't have time to set up lights. 612 00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:24.536 I mean Andy do a quick, do a quick pan for us, you know? 613 00:28:24.669 --> 00:28:29.040 Yeah obviously, it kills the poor camera operators to show this stuff; 614 00:28:29.040 --> 00:28:32.143 but you know, hey you know respect to them for putting in the work 615 00:28:32.143 --> 00:28:33.578 to make something look this good, right? 616 00:28:33.578 --> 00:28:35.180 I'm glad that we have a bit more time for it. 617 00:28:35.180 --> 00:28:38.149 I mean, do you think we have more time than we used to? 618 00:28:38.149 --> 00:28:38.483 Andy: Oh, yeah. 619 00:28:39.050 --> 00:28:41.486 Linus: Right? So, there's pros and cons. 620 00:28:41.486 --> 00:28:44.255 Linus: And you wouldn't just say that because we're sitting here, right? 621 00:28:44.255 --> 00:28:44.723 Andy: No. 622 00:28:44.723 --> 00:28:47.158 Linus: Yeah, Andy, Andy knows. 623 00:28:47.158 --> 00:28:52.697 Linus: Probably, like your first maybe month, maybe two months, 624 00:28:52.697 --> 00:28:55.934 I think you were a little bit shy about like giving me feedback. 625 00:28:56.434 --> 00:28:57.969 Linus: But then after that, you're just like... 626 00:28:58.069 --> 00:29:00.138 Andy: Yeah. Linus: your hair sucks, do that take again. 627 00:29:00.205 --> 00:29:01.473 Andy: Exactly, yeah. 628 00:29:01.473 --> 00:29:02.040 Linus: Hahahahaha. 629 00:29:02.140 --> 00:29:03.308 Andy: Your hair still sucks, so. 630 00:29:03.374 --> 00:29:04.342 Sammy: Hahahahahaha. 631 00:29:04.476 --> 00:29:05.343 Linus: It is what it is. 632 00:29:05.343 --> 00:29:06.978 Linus: Hold on, let me fix it; is that better? 633 00:29:07.145 --> 00:29:07.579 Andy: Yeah. 634 00:29:07.679 --> 00:29:08.446 Linus: Yeah, thank you. 635 00:29:08.980 --> 00:29:09.614 Terren: Going back to the vibe, 636 00:29:09.614 --> 00:29:12.450 I think that's the balance that we're trying to strike as well. 637 00:29:12.484 --> 00:29:13.585 It's like, don't kill the vibe, 638 00:29:13.585 --> 00:29:16.788 I think was probably a paraphrasing on what Linus told me as well. 639 00:29:16.788 --> 00:29:19.124 So it's like you know, some level of organization; 640 00:29:19.124 --> 00:29:21.993 but again what makes things fun here is not something 641 00:29:21.993 --> 00:29:25.330 that we want to squish or get in the way of. 642 00:29:25.330 --> 00:29:26.998 Sammy: So, now I have a question for both of you guys. 643 00:29:26.998 --> 00:29:28.933 Sammy: Can you walk us through how you guys work together? 644 00:29:28.933 --> 00:29:33.037 Sammy: Hypothetically, say that Linus wants to open an SI business. 645 00:29:33.037 --> 00:29:33.872 Sammy: Hypothetically. 646 00:29:33.972 --> 00:29:34.906 Linus: Sure, hypothetically. 647 00:29:34.906 --> 00:29:36.074 Sammy: Of course, all hypothetical. 648 00:29:36.274 --> 00:29:36.674 Linus: Sure. 649 00:29:36.875 --> 00:29:37.408 Sammy: How does that work? 650 00:29:37.675 --> 00:29:40.879 Terren: What I'll do is I'll go do the research from the analytics. 651 00:29:40.879 --> 00:29:41.412 Terren: So basically- 652 00:29:41.446 --> 00:29:42.881 Linus: Hold on, first we should probably explain. 653 00:29:42.981 --> 00:29:46.684 Linus: SI would mean a system integrator, like custom computers, 654 00:29:46.785 --> 00:29:49.120 like something like an iBuyPower or whatever. 655 00:29:49.220 --> 00:29:51.723 Terren: So yeah I go run some of the numbers from him, 656 00:29:51.756 --> 00:29:53.825 Terren: so he'll come in and he'll be like hey I got this great idea. 657 00:29:53.858 --> 00:29:55.059 Linus: Why don't we sell computers? 658 00:29:55.059 --> 00:29:55.860 Terren: Why don't we sell computers? 659 00:29:55.860 --> 00:29:56.895 Linus: Whoever thought of that before? 660 00:29:56.895 --> 00:29:57.529 Terren: Yeah, and then- 661 00:29:57.529 --> 00:29:59.764 Linus: I used to work at a computer store, you used to work at a computer store. 662 00:29:59.764 --> 00:30:02.300 We got all these computer parts, we should assemble them! 663 00:30:02.333 --> 00:30:07.305 Terren: So I have to practice my face, so I don't do the wide eye reaction or whatever. 664 00:30:07.305 --> 00:30:08.540 Sammy: Do you react when he comes out to you like that? 665 00:30:08.540 --> 00:30:10.141 Terren: It's like, okay yeah that sounds like a great idea. 666 00:30:10.575 --> 00:30:13.945 Linus: He does not! He does not say that, that is bull****! 667 00:30:17.015 --> 00:30:19.918 Terren: Again, we're trying to give space to people to talk 668 00:30:19.918 --> 00:30:22.387 and to suggest things while not being threatened. 669 00:30:22.520 --> 00:30:25.590 So usually the process would be, he'll come up with a great idea. 670 00:30:25.590 --> 00:30:27.125 It's like hey give me some time. 671 00:30:27.125 --> 00:30:29.160 We'll go look at some of the details here 672 00:30:29.194 --> 00:30:30.995 just so we can make a more informed decision. 673 00:30:31.029 --> 00:30:32.263 We'll start doing some of the research. 674 00:30:32.263 --> 00:30:33.898 It's like, you know how we- 675 00:30:33.898 --> 00:30:36.901 Linus: What is the total addressable market in North America? 676 00:30:36.935 --> 00:30:40.471 Linus: Because realistically we're not going to be competitive shipping systems to Australia. 677 00:30:40.638 --> 00:30:41.039 Terren: Yeah. 678 00:30:41.139 --> 00:30:43.708 Linus: Because shipping would just kill every deal. 679 00:30:43.708 --> 00:30:46.644 Terren: We talked about budget, right? It's just like well I can't do this all by myself. 680 00:30:46.644 --> 00:30:50.081 I can do parts of this; we'll need other help to do assembly, 681 00:30:50.114 --> 00:30:53.518 or marketing or vendor negotiations, whatever else it is. 682 00:30:53.518 --> 00:30:53.852 Linus: Yeah. 683 00:30:53.885 --> 00:30:57.422 Linus: What does our startup cost look like in terms of taking on inventory? 684 00:30:57.455 --> 00:30:59.924 Linus: Do we need additional footprint? 685 00:30:59.924 --> 00:31:05.897 Linus: Do we need to either lease or acquire property in order to run this business? 686 00:31:05.897 --> 00:31:08.900 Should we run this business in Vancouver? Does that even make any sense? 687 00:31:08.933 --> 00:31:11.769 Terren: So, the long and short of it is we'll go through this giant list of stuff 688 00:31:11.769 --> 00:31:12.971 that we have to answer for ourselves, 689 00:31:12.971 --> 00:31:15.406 just so that we have a financial picture of whether this makes sense or not. 690 00:31:15.406 --> 00:31:18.710 Then we have to have a debate; it's like well, are we adding anything special here? 691 00:31:18.743 --> 00:31:21.880 I think one of the tenets that we have from a CW standpoint, 692 00:31:21.880 --> 00:31:25.383 especially for new products is what else will we bring to the table? 693 00:31:25.416 --> 00:31:29.454 What makes this really really cool rather than just yet another... 694 00:31:29.487 --> 00:31:29.888 Linus: Hammer. 695 00:31:29.921 --> 00:31:30.288 Terren: Hammer. 696 00:31:30.755 --> 00:31:31.022 Linus: Yeah. 697 00:31:31.089 --> 00:31:32.390 Linus: And to be clear that doesn't mean 698 00:31:32.390 --> 00:31:39.197 that we will never make another pair of pliers, or tweezer or whatever. 699 00:31:39.197 --> 00:31:43.534 Linus: Like the raison d'etre of a product could just be, 700 00:31:43.601 --> 00:31:46.905 hey, this is a good product from a brand you trust; 701 00:31:46.905 --> 00:31:50.675 you know, with a trust me bro warranty and at a reasonable... 702 00:31:50.708 --> 00:31:55.079 not cheap, but reasonable price; that could be a reason to exist. 703 00:31:55.113 --> 00:31:58.283 But we'd have to figure out what that is 704 00:31:58.316 --> 00:32:00.551 before we just go and embark on, you know, 705 00:32:00.585 --> 00:32:03.321 oh yeah, let's build up capacity to you know, 706 00:32:03.354 --> 00:32:07.458 build half a million cyber computers a year, 707 00:32:07.458 --> 00:32:10.295 only to find out that the price was going to be double, 708 00:32:10.295 --> 00:32:13.031 the range was going to be two-thirds of what we advertised, 709 00:32:13.031 --> 00:32:15.533 and it was going to be years late and nobody would end up wanting them, 710 00:32:15.667 --> 00:32:16.734 and the panels would fall off. 711 00:32:16.734 --> 00:32:21.039 So I guess what happened there was we would talk through it, 712 00:32:21.072 --> 00:32:22.807 I guess is the answer to your question. 713 00:32:22.840 --> 00:32:23.875 Linus: And problem solve; 714 00:32:24.275 --> 00:32:27.812 because he might come to me and say, look the total addressable market for this is crap, 715 00:32:27.845 --> 00:32:29.981 and I might come back and say well yeah, 716 00:32:30.014 --> 00:32:32.750 it's because like look at the options that are out there. 717 00:32:32.750 --> 00:32:35.353 I think they're not fulfilling this need and that need, and that need; 718 00:32:35.386 --> 00:32:38.923 and then he might say, okay that's fair; 719 00:32:38.923 --> 00:32:40.491 but then let's go back historically, 720 00:32:40.491 --> 00:32:43.127 you know before the sh**ification of everything, you know, 721 00:32:43.127 --> 00:32:46.564 was it really that much bigger before all of these problems happened? 722 00:32:46.564 --> 00:32:48.333 And we'll kind of go back and forth on that, 723 00:32:48.366 --> 00:32:51.669 and to be clear we're not taking shots at any of the system integrators out there right now. 724 00:32:51.669 --> 00:32:53.071 There's a hypothetical conversation. 725 00:32:53.738 --> 00:32:56.240 I'm not saying it's impossible we would ever do a system integrator. 726 00:32:56.240 --> 00:32:59.177 I'm just saying that that's what the conversation would sound like. 727 00:32:59.177 --> 00:33:01.512 Sammy: Sorry, off topic; I wonder how many times you swore in this interview. 728 00:33:01.546 --> 00:33:02.180 Linus: I don't know. 729 00:33:02.347 --> 00:33:03.281 Sammy: Hahahahahaha. 730 00:33:03.348 --> 00:33:04.615 Linus: This is for the Floatplane people. 731 00:33:04.682 --> 00:33:06.484 Linus: I can swear if I f*****g want to swear. 732 00:33:06.584 --> 00:33:08.519 Linus: My goddamn f*****g website. 733 00:33:08.619 --> 00:33:09.721 Terren: I used to swear a lot more, 734 00:33:09.754 --> 00:33:12.390 and then I realized at one point in my career; 735 00:33:12.390 --> 00:33:15.059 I was like, you know what? I need to stop dropping F-bombs in the middle of meetings. 736 00:33:15.426 --> 00:33:16.794 Sammy: You need to swear at least once in this video now. 737 00:33:16.794 --> 00:33:19.197 Terren: I can, and this is where this is going. 738 00:33:19.230 --> 00:33:22.867 Terren: And then so I said this, like I had this like epiphany. 739 00:33:22.867 --> 00:33:24.769 I was like, I just need to stop with the F-bombs. 740 00:33:25.436 --> 00:33:28.573 Then it was one of the hard drive vendors that you know, 741 00:33:28.573 --> 00:33:32.110 called a meeting and then they just dropped a bomb on us just in terms of, 742 00:33:32.143 --> 00:33:35.847 hey, we're changing our program, we're cutting on your marketing funds, 743 00:33:35.980 --> 00:33:37.081 or we're not going to ship your product. 744 00:33:37.081 --> 00:33:38.850 I can't remember exactly what it was. 745 00:33:38.850 --> 00:33:39.984 Then I started dropping F-bombs; 746 00:33:39.984 --> 00:33:43.354 I was like that is just the stupidest f*****g idea I've ever heard, or whatever. Linus: Hahahahahaha. 747 00:33:43.354 --> 00:33:47.825 Terren: And then Jack, our mutual boss at that point in time kind of looked at me. 748 00:33:47.825 --> 00:33:49.961 He's like well that didn't last long, did it? 749 00:33:50.328 --> 00:33:51.763 Terren: And I was like, you're not helping. 750 00:33:51.863 --> 00:33:55.666 Linus: Hahahahahaha. Terren: Anyway, I think I've been saying that- Linus: He was worse than you anyway. 751 00:33:55.700 --> 00:33:56.868 Terren: Sorry? Who was worse than me? 752 00:33:57.035 --> 00:33:58.503 Linus: In terms of language, Jack. 753 00:33:58.503 --> 00:34:00.071 Terren: Oh yeah, he was much worse. 754 00:34:00.071 --> 00:34:01.506 Terren: But he didn't have a problem with it, right? 755 00:34:01.539 --> 00:34:05.176 Linus: My whole thing is like yeah I know swearing can be off-putting in a business environment, 756 00:34:05.176 --> 00:34:09.380 but I have never been good at the schmoozing thing. 757 00:34:09.414 --> 00:34:11.749 I've never been good at like kissing the ring 758 00:34:11.749 --> 00:34:15.553 and like the relationship-building side of things. 759 00:34:15.553 --> 00:34:17.955 Like, I can get along with people; I don't mind. 760 00:34:18.489 --> 00:34:21.459 You know, I like helping people win. 761 00:34:21.459 --> 00:34:23.861 I like win-wins, I like collaborating. 762 00:34:23.895 --> 00:34:28.499 But I'm not really like a social person. 763 00:34:28.533 --> 00:34:32.170 So you know, if you were to say to me like oh yeah you know, 764 00:34:32.170 --> 00:34:34.305 your vulgar language is you know kind of off-putting; 765 00:34:34.305 --> 00:34:37.675 and it could limit your ability to build relationships or do this or do that, 766 00:34:37.708 --> 00:34:40.678 I'd just be like, you know what? I'm just going to focus on building the best product I can. 767 00:34:40.778 --> 00:34:44.782 And then, realistically people they'll come and they'll advertise with LTT, 768 00:34:44.882 --> 00:34:47.919 regardless of whether they don't like me like using a naughty word 769 00:34:47.919 --> 00:34:51.522 in a conference call or whatever; and that has mostly borne out, 770 00:34:51.522 --> 00:34:56.494 but we have definitely missed business opportunities because I don't schmooze enough. 771 00:34:56.494 --> 00:34:59.063 And that's a big part of back to the whole CVO - CEO thing, 772 00:34:59.063 --> 00:35:02.066 that's a big part of what he does so much better than me. 773 00:35:02.066 --> 00:35:07.138 Like people are shocked to find out how few people I know in the industry; 774 00:35:07.138 --> 00:35:12.944 and it's like honestly kind of by design, it's not that I don't like them. 775 00:35:12.944 --> 00:35:15.780 It's just that I just can't. 776 00:35:15.780 --> 00:35:23.221 Like, the one-to-many relationship that I am in already has too many manys. 777 00:35:23.254 --> 00:35:29.794 Like, I was talking to a CEO of another company, one of our longtime sponsors, 778 00:35:29.827 --> 00:35:31.028 and they're basically going, 779 00:35:31.028 --> 00:35:35.967 look I get like 400 messages a day; it's completely untenable. 780 00:35:35.967 --> 00:35:39.036 And this is someone who does a lot of like networking and relationship building. 781 00:35:39.036 --> 00:35:43.341 And I'm just like yeah I'm glad that I actually have people 782 00:35:43.341 --> 00:35:49.180 to go and have dinner with somebody for me because I just, I can't a lot of the time. 783 00:35:49.180 --> 00:35:50.948 Terren: To be clear, to clarify his comments, 784 00:35:50.948 --> 00:35:53.251 I don't think I'm particularly good at schmoozing. 785 00:35:53.251 --> 00:35:57.388 I just find people interesting at times, and I carry on a conversation. 786 00:35:57.388 --> 00:35:59.323 Linus: Well yeah, that's basically schmoozing, isn't it? Terren: Hahahahahaha. 787 00:35:59.357 --> 00:36:00.424 Sammy: I saw you at CES. 788 00:36:00.424 --> 00:36:03.227 Linus: Yeah, no he's underselling. 789 00:36:03.227 --> 00:36:05.496 Terren: Yeah, I don't need other drinks Sammy, I mean I don't need other drinks. 790 00:36:05.496 --> 00:36:08.266 Linus: No, and it's not just schmoozing; I think that sort of, 791 00:36:08.266 --> 00:36:10.401 I think that sort of undersells it. 792 00:36:10.401 --> 00:36:14.305 Like I think that you said it better; like taking an actual genuine interest in people. 793 00:36:14.305 --> 00:36:16.707 I think for me a lot of it comes down to guilt, 794 00:36:16.707 --> 00:36:20.678 because I am genuinely interested, and people tell me something and I want to retain it. 795 00:36:20.711 --> 00:36:25.349 But then I will meet 40 more people that day and I have no idea who was who. 796 00:36:25.349 --> 00:36:27.084 Like if I had AR glasses that could 797 00:36:27.084 --> 00:36:30.121 kind of like give me a little briefing on people before I have to converse with them. 798 00:36:30.121 --> 00:36:32.924 Dude, ah, love that; even if it was all local, 799 00:36:32.924 --> 00:36:36.794 like all based on what they tell me, like no weird, creepy database or whatever; 800 00:36:36.794 --> 00:36:39.096 I'd love that, I would do way more socializing. 801 00:36:39.096 --> 00:36:44.001 But I just feel really awkward when I like don't remember how many kids people have. 802 00:36:44.001 --> 00:36:46.037 Terren: I'm bad with names, I remember details about people. 803 00:36:46.037 --> 00:36:49.607 Terren: So that's one area I need to work on, making sure that I don't fumble a name. 804 00:36:49.640 --> 00:36:53.444 Sammy: On that same live stream WizBiz02 from the stream also asks, 805 00:36:53.444 --> 00:36:56.013 what troubles you foresee expanding the business? 806 00:36:56.013 --> 00:36:59.517 Sammy: You gave an answer of giving focus and knowing what brings value long-term. 807 00:36:59.550 --> 00:37:03.888 Sammy: Have new troubles come? Do you think these troubles were underrated or overrated? 808 00:37:03.888 --> 00:37:04.288 Sammy: or- 809 00:37:04.388 --> 00:37:06.190 Terren: No, I think that's still succinct. 810 00:37:06.190 --> 00:37:09.360 Terren: I mean, when we asked about adjacencies based on your previous questions, 811 00:37:09.493 --> 00:37:12.964 I think one of the lingering doubts that we have sometimes is, 812 00:37:12.964 --> 00:37:15.666 are we good enough at doing this and getting this over the line? 813 00:37:16.100 --> 00:37:19.203 Or are we distilling what we do best into areas where 814 00:37:19.203 --> 00:37:20.871 again there's a little bit more risk? 815 00:37:20.905 --> 00:37:24.108 Linus: And are we doing what we are already doing well enough 816 00:37:24.108 --> 00:37:25.509 that we're ready to take on something else? 817 00:37:25.509 --> 00:37:29.313 Linus: I mean we hiatused multiple channels very recently, 818 00:37:29.313 --> 00:37:33.451 because we just took a step back after sort of you know, 819 00:37:33.451 --> 00:37:37.588 getting through that period of trying to fix the train while it was on the tracks, right? 820 00:37:37.722 --> 00:37:40.558 So it was finally on the tracks and we took a step back and we went, 821 00:37:40.725 --> 00:37:43.594 we are not excelling yet. 822 00:37:43.728 --> 00:37:47.832 Linus: We can excel more by being more focused here. 823 00:37:47.965 --> 00:37:52.103 So back to adjacencies, it's like adjacencies for us would be you know, 824 00:37:52.236 --> 00:37:57.141 opening up more media properties, right? Or selling more products, right? 825 00:37:57.141 --> 00:38:00.144 If you look at the main businesses, which are Creator Warehouse 826 00:38:00.211 --> 00:38:03.514 and then Linus Media Group and Floatplane I see as kind of together on the media side. 827 00:38:03.514 --> 00:38:04.181 Sammy: Shoutout Floatplane. 828 00:38:04.849 --> 00:38:06.751 Linus: Yeah shoutout Floatplane, right? 829 00:38:06.751 --> 00:38:11.255 Linus: So what business could we possibly have spinning up another channel 830 00:38:11.289 --> 00:38:14.458 when we just hiatused some other channel and you know, 831 00:38:14.458 --> 00:38:17.695 when we're still not uploading an LTT every day? 832 00:38:17.695 --> 00:38:21.065 And I'm not even saying that the goal is to get back to uploading LTT every day, 833 00:38:21.065 --> 00:38:25.369 but we certainly did it at one point and we actually managed to do it with a you know, 834 00:38:25.369 --> 00:38:30.041 I would say greater degree of accuracy than where we were at when we had the great happening, 835 00:38:30.041 --> 00:38:35.579 which again I reiterate, contained accurate critique while also still being a malicious hit piece. 836 00:38:35.579 --> 00:38:37.281 And then on the Creator Warehouse side of things; 837 00:38:37.281 --> 00:38:38.816 you know, we still have stuff to figure out on, 838 00:38:38.916 --> 00:38:42.153 you know, customer service first response times; they've been really good. 839 00:38:42.153 --> 00:38:44.255 The quality of our customer service is outstanding, 840 00:38:44.255 --> 00:38:47.425 but sometimes it can be a little bit on the slower side with fulfillment times. 841 00:38:47.458 --> 00:38:50.494 I think there's so many more products that Creator Warehouse has in the pipeline 842 00:38:50.494 --> 00:38:53.364 that could be churning faster; there's always things we can do better, 843 00:38:53.364 --> 00:38:56.367 so like do we need to start an SI business distraction today? 844 00:38:56.367 --> 00:38:57.234 No, probably not. 845 00:38:57.368 --> 00:38:59.503 So it's just, it's getting the timing right. 846 00:38:59.503 --> 00:39:02.239 Linus: I forget what the question was, but hopefully that answered it. 847 00:39:02.340 --> 00:39:05.710 Sammy: It was any issues expanding the business? 848 00:39:05.710 --> 00:39:08.713 Linus: Yeah well, the issue is making sure that we are really great 849 00:39:08.713 --> 00:39:12.450 at our core competencies before we try to expand the business. 850 00:39:12.883 --> 00:39:14.985 Andy: Can you repeat that? There was a train. 851 00:39:15.052 --> 00:39:18.255 Linus: Oh, that train is the business rolling down the track Andy. 852 00:39:18.589 --> 00:39:19.357 Terren: Chugging along. 853 00:39:19.490 --> 00:39:20.291 Terren and Linus: Chuga chuga chuga- 854 00:39:20.291 --> 00:39:22.259 Sammy: I have one final question and we'll wrap it up here. 855 00:39:22.460 --> 00:39:27.331 Sammy: We are in year two of your potential five-year long-term plan, Terren. 856 00:39:27.331 --> 00:39:30.968 What do you foresee in the next three years of LMG? 857 00:39:31.168 --> 00:39:34.672 Now that your fog of war is less foggy. 858 00:39:35.439 --> 00:39:36.273 Terren loves that word. 859 00:39:36.273 --> 00:39:37.975 Every time I talk to him he says the fog of war. 860 00:39:38.075 --> 00:39:38.609 Terren: Fog of war. 861 00:39:39.643 --> 00:39:41.779 Terren: European distribution, I think that would be a great thing. 862 00:39:41.779 --> 00:39:42.413 Linus: So great. 863 00:39:42.480 --> 00:39:43.214 Terren: So great. 864 00:39:43.214 --> 00:39:45.149 Linus: Very great, make Europe great again. 865 00:39:45.249 --> 00:39:50.020 Terren: Look, we're not blind to some of the critiques that we get back, 866 00:39:50.020 --> 00:39:51.389 and I think they're fair, right? 867 00:39:51.389 --> 00:39:55.693 Terren: Our shipping rates to Europe are very expensive and very long. 868 00:39:55.693 --> 00:39:58.195 So we know that we're not necessarily doing ourselves any favors 869 00:39:58.195 --> 00:40:00.664 for our customers outside North America; 870 00:40:00.664 --> 00:40:04.635 so again, some of this stuff feels like blocking and tackling 871 00:40:04.635 --> 00:40:08.406 is more boring than probably what some of the viewers would like to hear. 872 00:40:08.406 --> 00:40:11.075 Linus talked about the water bottle, cutting down lead times on products. 873 00:40:11.075 --> 00:40:16.080 That's key for us, making sure that we can bring products to market faster 874 00:40:16.113 --> 00:40:17.815 just so that we can cut down our development time. 875 00:40:17.815 --> 00:40:18.582 Terren: I think... 876 00:40:18.582 --> 00:40:20.484 Linus: So having more consistent stock across the store, 877 00:40:20.518 --> 00:40:24.555 and then trying to manage that across multiple distribution centers is going to be a real challenge. 878 00:40:24.588 --> 00:40:28.559 Terren: Yeah; and I think some of the new business ideas that we've been tossing around, 879 00:40:28.692 --> 00:40:31.896 making sure that some of those see fruition. 880 00:40:31.896 --> 00:40:37.034 Tying this back to your previous question, just in terms of focus; 881 00:40:37.067 --> 00:40:39.870 like, I think we've tried to maintain laser focus at this point in time 882 00:40:39.870 --> 00:40:43.941 just to again, make sure that we're good at our core competencies 883 00:40:43.941 --> 00:40:45.709 before we spread ourselves too thin. 884 00:40:45.709 --> 00:40:48.779 Linus: I'm really happy with the direction the lab is going under Luke's leadership. 885 00:40:48.813 --> 00:40:53.884 Linus: I would want to see way more product testing as part of our future. 886 00:40:53.884 --> 00:40:59.089 Linus: And then utilizing that, you know whether it's to grow traffic to the website, 887 00:40:59.089 --> 00:41:02.393 whether it's to create more content across ShortCircuit 888 00:41:02.393 --> 00:41:05.629 or various other Circuit branded channels or on LTT, 889 00:41:06.030 --> 00:41:11.001 whether it is to un-ens***tify the online retail experience. 890 00:41:11.001 --> 00:41:12.570 That's something I've talked about on WAN Show before. 891 00:41:12.570 --> 00:41:17.842 I would love to have a future where LTT Store or you know, 892 00:41:17.842 --> 00:41:20.311 maybe we go and acquire NCIX.com, right? 893 00:41:20.311 --> 00:41:23.981 We bring it back, we resurrect it; and as an electronics retailer, 894 00:41:23.981 --> 00:41:29.320 where instead of everything being, like J-M-G-H-K-O-O, 895 00:41:29.420 --> 00:41:34.325 you know brand, random s***; you know, everything is Labs verified. 896 00:41:34.325 --> 00:41:38.596 And you can pull up a test report for any product before you buy it. 897 00:41:38.696 --> 00:41:40.297 Like, how f***ing cool would that be right? 898 00:41:40.297 --> 00:41:44.368 The like anti-marketplace retailer, you know? 899 00:41:44.468 --> 00:41:47.505 Like I think there's a ton of opportunities. 900 00:41:47.505 --> 00:41:51.509 I don't know that we would execute that in three years, but maybe someday. 901 00:41:51.509 --> 00:41:53.310 Terren: I'm still in a bit of shell shock over 902 00:41:53.310 --> 00:41:56.113 Terren: like literally the last three months has felt like a really long time. 903 00:41:58.082 --> 00:41:58.482 Linus: Yeah. 904 00:41:58.649 --> 00:42:02.887 Terren: So, I'd like to see things calm down I think from a more macro perspective, 905 00:42:02.887 --> 00:42:06.223 Terren: because right now we're just in a very uncertain environment. 906 00:42:06.223 --> 00:42:08.826 Linus: And we're not even like taking political shots right now. 907 00:42:08.826 --> 00:42:09.293 Terren: No. 908 00:42:09.293 --> 00:42:13.030 Linus: It's just like I see a lot of people sort of critiquing the video 909 00:42:13.030 --> 00:42:16.000 any time I discuss any of this stuff to do with tariffs or whatever. 910 00:42:16.000 --> 00:42:19.870 And it's like, keep the politics out of it; it's like it's not politics, it's just a fact. 911 00:42:20.304 --> 00:42:25.175 It's a fact that when you charge money on imports, the price of those goods goes up. 912 00:42:25.175 --> 00:42:28.612 And when you charge and then don't charge and then you're going to charge again, 913 00:42:28.612 --> 00:42:31.248 but it's a different amount; but actually, it's delayed for 90 days. 914 00:42:31.348 --> 00:42:33.851 It throws a lot of uncertainty into the gears. 915 00:42:33.951 --> 00:42:37.488 And that's really, really challenging for businesses of all sizes. 916 00:42:37.488 --> 00:42:40.124 Linus: That's all, that's a fact; it's not political. 917 00:42:40.157 --> 00:42:42.526 Terren: I think my key job is to figure out where to allocate capital. 918 00:42:42.526 --> 00:42:45.696 So, where are we putting people? Who are we hiring? 919 00:42:45.696 --> 00:42:46.463 What to spend money on? 920 00:42:47.431 --> 00:42:48.132 Linus: Gamerplane. 921 00:42:48.265 --> 00:42:48.866 Terren: Gamerplane. 922 00:42:49.700 --> 00:42:51.435 Linus: Gamerjet with RGB. 923 00:42:51.569 --> 00:42:52.269 Terren: With RGB? 924 00:42:52.369 --> 00:42:55.839 Linus: A gamer yacht that docks inside the gamer plane. 925 00:42:55.839 --> 00:42:56.273 Terren: Oh? 926 00:42:57.174 --> 00:43:00.978 Linus: And then can fly to the ocean, and then you can ride the gamer yacht. 927 00:43:01.111 --> 00:43:04.248 Terren: Who's going to be the Bond villain? Is that what we're talking about? 928 00:43:04.315 --> 00:43:05.249 Linus: I'm not bald enough. 929 00:43:05.349 --> 00:43:06.483 Linus: I think it'd have to be Nick Light. 930 00:43:06.584 --> 00:43:07.117 Terren: Mmmm. 931 00:43:07.217 --> 00:43:07.685 Sammy: Hahahahahaha. 932 00:43:07.685 --> 00:43:09.486 Sammy: I did send Linus a plane; he said no. 933 00:43:09.486 --> 00:43:10.588 Sammy: I was like, wow a cool plane. 934 00:43:10.588 --> 00:43:11.922 Linus: I didn't even send that one to him. 935 00:43:12.890 --> 00:43:16.860 Linus: It was, the US is decommissioning some like cargo planes or some sh**. 936 00:43:16.860 --> 00:43:19.997 Terren: Intel also got rid of their planes; should we just buy one of the Intel planes? 937 00:43:19.997 --> 00:43:21.732 Linus: Oh, they're probably too big; I couldn't afford it. 938 00:43:21.732 --> 00:43:22.800 Terren: I don't think they're that big. 939 00:43:22.833 --> 00:43:23.167 Linus: Really? 940 00:43:23.267 --> 00:43:23.601 Terren: Yeah. 941 00:43:23.601 --> 00:43:24.902 Terren: I think they're like 10 to 20 people. 942 00:43:24.902 --> 00:43:25.703 Linus: Oh, okay. 943 00:43:25.936 --> 00:43:26.804 Linus: Gamerplane. 944 00:43:26.870 --> 00:43:28.272 Linus: I mean, it's already Intel inside. 945 00:43:28.405 --> 00:43:28.772 Terren: Yeah. 946 00:43:28.772 --> 00:43:29.506 Linus: Well, it used to be. 947 00:43:29.506 --> 00:43:31.108 Terren: Yeah, we can get AMD sponsored right? 948 00:43:31.108 --> 00:43:31.709 Linus: We'll put AMD inside. 949 00:43:31.775 --> 00:43:32.676 Linus: Hahahahaha. 950 00:43:32.676 --> 00:43:34.578 Linus: It'll go faster; but it might burn up. 951 00:43:34.678 --> 00:43:38.549 Sammy: To wrap it up I think it'll be fun to leave yourself a voicemail. 952 00:43:38.549 --> 00:43:41.418 Linus: A time capsule. Sammy: It'll be fun to leave a video email for one year from now. 953 00:43:41.552 --> 00:43:43.621 Linus: A video email? Sammy: For when we do this next year. 954 00:43:43.787 --> 00:43:44.521 Linus: Okay. 955 00:43:44.521 --> 00:43:44.855 Sammy: Yeah. 956 00:43:44.855 --> 00:43:45.956 Linus: Oh, I'm going to go first. 957 00:43:45.956 --> 00:43:46.290 Okay. 958 00:43:46.690 --> 00:43:51.261 Linus, great job surviving this year; I hope you're enjoying your gamerplane. 959 00:43:51.595 --> 00:43:52.563 Sammy: Hahahahahahaha! 960 00:43:52.863 --> 00:43:55.366 Linus: The SI business? Oh, man. 961 00:43:55.499 --> 00:43:58.268 You've done a great job; you have a system integrator now, 962 00:43:58.268 --> 00:44:01.538 and I can't even believe how many channels you launched. 963 00:44:01.605 --> 00:44:06.844 Congratulations; and this slow clap, it's not sarcastic. 964 00:44:07.778 --> 00:44:09.279 It's so that you can savor it. 965 00:44:10.914 --> 00:44:12.616 Sammy: Terren, do you want to do one for your camera? 966 00:44:12.616 --> 00:44:16.220 Terren: Why did you not speak out louder about the gamerplane? 967 00:44:16.654 --> 00:44:17.955 Sammy: Hahahahahaha. 968 00:44:18.055 --> 00:44:19.456 Terren: Why!? 969 00:44:20.257 --> 00:44:21.558 Sammy: Alright, cool; we can wrap it up. 970 00:44:21.558 --> 00:44:22.693 Sammy: You say thanks for watching guys. 971 00:44:22.693 --> 00:44:25.429 If you want to see the one we did last year, 972 00:44:25.429 --> 00:44:28.298 check out the livestream in the description. 973 00:44:28.298 --> 00:44:29.333 Linus: Great outro, Sammy. 974 00:44:29.333 --> 00:44:30.367 Linus: Next time, don't move the mic around so much. 975 00:44:30.367 --> 00:44:31.201 Sammy: No, that's for you, that's for you. 976 00:44:31.201 --> 00:44:31.502 Linus: Nope. 977 00:44:31.502 --> 00:44:32.002 Sammy: That's for you to do it. 978 00:44:32.002 --> 00:44:32.469 Linus: You did it already. 979 00:44:32.469 --> 00:44:33.337 Sammy: No, no, no! That's for you! 980 00:44:33.337 --> 00:44:33.704 Sammy: Wait!"}