00:00:00
Speaker 1: High Scrollers is produced on gadigul Land.
00:00:02
Speaker 2: We pay our respects to the traditional custodians of this country and Elder's past and present.
00:00:07
Speaker 1: Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.
00:00:13
Speaker 3: Well, welcome to.
00:00:16
Speaker 1: Great start, no kick going, kick going.
00:00:18
Speaker 2: What's my close friends is close friends, sisters. I was gonna say welcome to Christian whole, but welcome to close friends. This is where we just get to dive a little bit deeper. It's a little bit more relaxed. We get to take the take the bizaarz out of it and just have a fun chat. And I think we could, yeah, for sure. I mean, no one can see you, but take it off. I know that you brought a package that you wanted to open during the main episode, but we didn't get around to that because we wouldn't shut up. So can you explain what you've gotten, why you've brought it?
00:00:45
Speaker 4: Please?
00:00:46
Speaker 1: Okay? So Hi, I'm Christian Hull, I'm thirty nine, and I went far at the start of the year for asking people to send me their miniature items. So I got obsessed with mini items and I wanted to build a little so a trinket tray. So back in ye oldie days when you made newspapers, they used to have these trays where all the letters would sit. It just looks like an Excel spreadsheet. And I was to fill that with minis, so I asked people to send me them, thinking i'd get twenty. It's been seven months of pure hell. My po box gets hundreds every say, every week. So I've got a thousand unopened sitting in my spare bedroom and it's just turned into like an incredible saga where I'm building what I'm calling the mini museum and I'm going to take it on tour around Australia. It's popped off, it's doing really well, and I wanted to bring with me one of those packages and I thought we could open it and see what someone has sent. This one has come from Sally from the UK.
00:01:44
Speaker 3: Lovely.
00:01:44
Speaker 1: One thing I've noticed is people spend a lot of money to send me these. One woman in the US spent three hundred dollars in postage send me stuff, and so that insane. What is a mini museum like minis of what? Like mini anything? Mini anything? This was like Nan NaN's always got a little mini thimble, or he's got a little mini item. That probably means a lot to her and the family. You've inherited it, you maybe don't want it, or you want to do something with it. I wanted to take it, hear the story behind it, and put it in a little collection. And that really resonated with a lot of people, and they started sending me a lot of these gorgeous little treasured memories. People are beautiful. They've also just blatantly ordered shit off Timu and sent it to my Pao box. And so I have so much just shit, but every now and then you get a really good one and I'm hoping that's what's in here.
00:02:36
Speaker 2: Okay, so this could be or this could be an antiques road show moment for us.
00:02:41
Speaker 1: Yes, so I've asked people to send a note with it to try to tell me what it is. And oh my god, Okay, this is oh my god.
00:02:51
Speaker 3: No, okay, let me read the note, let me read this is what it is.
00:02:55
Speaker 1: But I'll hold it up to the camera. Hello, Christian, I thank you so much. Okay can you.
00:03:00
Speaker 3: Read it in a British accent please?
00:03:02
Speaker 1: Kevin in the UK Ala Christian, say much for all the last and hours of enjoyment. I heard you mentioned it, one of your favorite films is The Labyrinth. Well mine is two. So I bequeath you with one of my prized positions of Oggle, keep on being your lovely self and making the world laugh. Love Robin Hood County. Wait Sally from Robin County. Did she really say bequeath Yeah? The quick so I get like here, hold up, I get a little note usually and so she's just shared with me she loves The Labyrinth, so she knows my favorite film is The Labyrinth. Uh, and she sent me the most gorgeous little figurine, probably from the nineteen eighties, of one of the characters from The Labyrinth, which is Hoggle. No, have you seen The Labyrinth? Yesie, it's my favorite movie of all time, really part of the bebe Yeah, it's a great film. And so what I've been doing is sort of collecting these and now I've got, you know, Sally's cool little memory. It's got a connection, and I'm making a coffee table book. Because this escalated and exploded into this absolutely gargantuan thing. People wanted me to take it on the road and take it on tour and logistically absolute nightmare. And so what I said was, well, I'm going to catalog the majority of these and bringing out a coffee table book at the end of the year. And then I'm also trying to potentially buy a mini the car and wrap it and call that the mini Museum and so put some little shelves in it and maybe take that on the road.
00:04:39
Speaker 3: Well that's fun.
00:04:42
Speaker 1: So there's a lot happening with it. You know, this was supposed to be like a two week story arc on Facebook, and it's just become this insane, insane thing. And I've been featured on a lot of international press, So it was on I think it was on the Today Show in the US, It's been on the BBC. I've been interviewed like all the morning talk shows about it, and so it's been really exciting. And I mean it's also fantastic because Facebook. It's monetized on Facebook, so it's basically I'm also being able to earn.
00:05:16
Speaker 2: Which we did speak about. We said we'd come back to that in the Close Friends episode. By the way, because I've shared with the scrollers before about my journey with Facebook monetization, and I kind of gave them a rundown on the fact that you never really got paid from Facebook, and when you did, it was because of ads on your videos, and so your videos had to have a certain requirement, and obviously they the more views they got, because you know, sometimes a video would get one hundred thousand views, but maybe not everyone got an ad on that, so it's only off the people who saw an ad and then, like your CPM, I kind of taken them through that whole journey. And I've also explained that for me on social media, monetization on any platform is something that I've never been able to tap into. Like it's always been pennies for me across the board, no matter when I was back on YouTube or.
00:05:58
Speaker 3: Whether it was on in Instagram.
00:06:00
Speaker 2: Went through a bit of a phase of trying to do it Facebook as well.
00:06:04
Speaker 1: A dollar eighty two I think I made in total over the years.
00:06:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, I will say that Facebook has been the most successful because just to refresh your memory scrollers, they have this new kind of way of doing it where just views, likes, comments, that's actually you get a centaur to per like and things like that, or sometimes it's less than a cent. But it's the first time that I've actually made some good money, and I mean good money for me is still.
00:06:31
Speaker 3: Not comparable to everybody.
00:06:32
Speaker 2: Else, and I like, on a good week, I'll make two hundred bucks from that, but majority it's like twelve dollars a week. Right from the monetization on Facebook, I know that you are in a totally different ballpark because you're one of Australia's top creators on Facebook and just earning an absolute motza.
00:06:52
Speaker 3: Do you want to take us through your journey with that?
00:06:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I will. Also when we dispart, I'm going to put you into for some people who can help you grow it, because it's Facebook has. When they introduced this monetization, it changed my life. So I used to have a retail shop. I was so inspired by Brett to start my own merch business that I did that. And it is so much work and it's so expensive, and it failed. So it didn't It didn't work. I lost a lot of money. I was in a lot of debt, and I two years ago closed everything down and was like, right, okay, well I'm going to go back to full time work because I don't know, I'm not getting sponsorships And it was literally touring and sponsorships were the only source of income I was getting and then I joined a team called the collab Bar because they were like, give us access to your Facebook, we'll get your Facebook earning. And it had ticked along quite nicely and I was like, oh fine, if I'm giving up may as well. And then over the course of the twelve months that I was with them, we learned consistently posting, and I post it's a lot. It's six videos a day, so it's a lot. Has built it to a level now where I can see you sitting down. I make on our friage one hundred thousand dollars a month. Yeah, right, so it's yeah, it's really really just from Facebook alone, just from Facebook. And so like when the Minis happened in December and January, that exploded me into a US market. And so a cost for an Australian viewer is very different from a cost from an American viewer. So when someone views in America, I get paid probably two or three times more. And so I saw a huge increase in revenue after the Minis because I brought in a huge US audience. And so December I want two hundred thousand, January I also want two hundred thousand. And then I'm trying to consistently keep that at a level so unrelatable, and it's put me in it's i'd love to say I feel guilty about it. I don't really feel guilty, but it's put me in this sort of different ballpark with what that's allowed me to do, and to go from someone in twenty twenty four who was like, no, well the dream is over to oh shit, look at all this money coming in. It means I can lean in, and I've got the flexibility to lean in and take this like this mini journey. You know, I can buy a car and travel around or I'm not reliant on sponsors, so I'm not really actively looking for them anymore.
00:09:37
Speaker 2: And it's just.
00:09:38
Speaker 1: Taken the pressure off and I'm able to just do so much. And like it's all about posting consistently.
00:09:48
Speaker 3: You just have to. It's a lot.
00:09:50
Speaker 1: It is a lot, but you earn so much that now I have a video editor that I pay monthly and it's this well organized. And I know at some point Facebook will I don't know, something will happen. Mark Zuckerberble, I don't know. Anything could happen, and it could all be over. So I've just been squirreling all of that money away and for the inevitable, you know.
00:10:16
Speaker 3: Setting yourself up. That's good. You said you brought an investment property.
00:10:20
Speaker 1: Well to Bali.
00:10:22
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:10:22
Speaker 1: I went to Bali in March as a bit of a bit of a fun thing to do. I'm gonna go to Barli do a wellness retreat with my podcast partner Chrissy so we can.
00:10:32
Speaker 3: Record some episodes. Oh, that'll be fun.
00:10:33
Speaker 1: In a laugh, Get there, Get to Bali. It was the most life changing retreat I've ever been on. We didn't take magic mushrooms, disappointed, but it was just it was so spiritual and I'm not like I don't believe in God. I don't believe in it, Like that's doesn't exist, it's not real. And I was very much someone that was like you die, you go into a hole in the ground, you rot, end of story. But I just had these experiences while in Bali where I was like, oh, I'm one of my biggest fears is my parents passing away. Like I don't have many friends. I've got incredibly close relationship with mom and dad. They're always in my content. They earn a lot of money for me too, haha. And I've not been home for fifteen years, so I've lived around Australia and I have I just don't really see my family that much. And in Bali I was like, oh, I need to stop distancing myself because I'm scared that my parents will die. That's dumb. Go and be closer to them now. And so I was like, oh, I'm making a shitload of money. I'm gonna I'm gonna buy a place in Sydney. And so I ended up getting the most fucking stunning bit of land in a place called Bundina, which is just it's a peninsula, it's in the National I'm in the National Park up above. It's a beach house, like I'm two houses back from the beach and it's just in this random sort of spot.
00:12:02
Speaker 3: It's a little hobbit hole that.
00:12:04
Speaker 1: I'm turning into an art studio and I think I'm really lucky that that's what Facebook has allowed me to do. And so I'm going to try to keep my Brisbane place and Sydney and it's just crazy, just just a crazy amount of money that's opened up different opportunities, and I do feel horrifically guilty because it's in the middle of where people cannot afford anything anymore.
00:12:39
Speaker 3: I'm in shock hearing that.
00:12:40
Speaker 2: Actually like that, I knew it was good money, but like that's like crazy, crazy amount, so just crazy. If you could just forward those contacts that you had just to me immediately, they might wrap this up in a Marc I message them so that we can think property and Bundy as well.
00:12:56
Speaker 1: You can if I mean, if anyone is on faceboo book and they're doing they've got some solid numbers, collabor They're based in the Gold Coaster, are a bunch of young guys and you know, they got my page up to a really great level.
00:13:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so six videos a day, Like that's a lot. So what what is that? What is a day earning that much money from Facebook? Give me like a day? What does a day in Christian Hull's life look like? Do you have to get up every day in film six videos or what's that look like? No, it's a lot of bulk recording, like a lot of it. Like if you've seen myself, it's real dumb. I do reaction videos to clips. Opening packages is another one that does really well just general life stuff that I find like I'm really lucky that I've built a community of people that are highly engaged.
00:13:41
Speaker 1: So the more engagement and the more it's almost like a whore crux. The more you give of yourself, the more people will engage, which is the more money. And so you know, I've been opened about Manjaro, about weight loss, struggles, just every facet. I've been very open and honest about. And you know that just generates an income. But I've been open and honest about it for the entire time I've been online, and now I'm just cashing in. And so a day would be just there is I mean, there's no standard day, but I would film a bunch of package openings, film some reaction content, a lot of admin meetings, making one pages updating analytics to send to potential clients or to send to you know, like we hired a fantastic creative director for a book. So it's like having I liken it to this. Imagine you've got six skewers and you're spinning plates on them, and so my job every day is to wake up which plate isn't spinning so fast, and work its spinning that and keeping it afloat. And so you've just got so many plates spinning that inevitably one will fall off and sort of break away because you just don't have the time. Because you've got Patreon, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, two podcasts, you know, organizing book, You've got all this and I do it with myself and basically my manager, Sarah.
00:15:06
Speaker 3: It's a lot.
00:15:07
Speaker 1: It's so fun though, and I'm very lucky, and so I'm cashing in on it now because I know at some point I'll probably still have to be spending all these plates and then the money won't be won't be there.
00:15:18
Speaker 2: Well, that's the other thing, because the only time that Facebook monetarization did work for me when it was first released and we were on YouTube and then Facebook was like, come over and do videos. And remember back then they had to be landscape and they had to be three minutes long. And then so I was then making like three minute videos for faith. Actually, sorry, I think I've got it around the wrong way. They wanted sixty second videos. You could only upload sixty second videos, so they were like, we want fifteen to sixty second videos and that's what you'll get paid for. So then I got into the rhythm of doing fifteen to sixty second videos, was posting those. Then they changed and said, oh, now you need them to be over three minutes to be eligible for ads. So then I started making three minute videos. Then with the rise of TikTok, I'm back to like fifteen second videos, and then they're like no form con so now I'm back to three minute it is, And so for me, I felt like every time I just almost get the hang of something, it's like, oh, they've changed the whole thing again. I've got to start from scratch and try and learn this new sort of system, and it's just mind boggling. I think this is a really good example, though, of something that I really struggle with in this industry, which is that there are some creators who are earning an absolute matza, and I'm so happy for you that you are, but there are a lot of people who also get lumped into that same Like you saying that today is probably going to make people go, oh, well, everyone's posting Facebook videos. They must be making one hundred grand a month, and it's like, yeah, it actually just isn't the case. Like, because you've got me, That's why I am so vocal about being.
00:16:41
Speaker 4: Like I made twelve dollars this week because people go influencers or content creators, they so out of touch, they make so much money, all this money, it's like, well, for some true Christian out of touch must be nice as well, it's not happening for them, and I feel like they all just get lumped into this sort of thing. It's like when an influencer does something wrong or gets called out on their behavior, like all of them are painted with the same brush.
00:17:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, correct, which I feel why we all hate being called an influencer exactly.
00:17:10
Speaker 2: And I was just about to say, I feel like we're a little bit not what's the word adjacent or like what's the word that where we don't get lumped into it.
00:17:17
Speaker 3: You and I one where men.
00:17:18
Speaker 2: But like also I feel like we're a little different to like your typical influencer. But at the same time, like I do feel like everyone gets painted with the same brush of like, oh, just lazy content creator, influencer who doesn't do anything, whereas like, yeah, for a lot of it's annoying too, because the ones that seem to be I mean, you're a bit of a unicorn in this when I say this, But like the ones that seem to be spinning all the plates are the ones that usually aren't making as much money and the ones who just do live this like lazy influencer lifestyle making all this money. Like it's kind of like I found an imbalance of that. But you are proving me wrong on that with what you've said, because you.
00:18:00
Speaker 1: Whilst the monetization for me was like almost like an overnight success, it took me nine years of you know, five of those years I was working twelve hours a day doing a radio job and doing social media, and so I liken it as too. I've done, I've done the hard slog and now I'm catching in on all of the thing that I've built. And then there's people that they have that instant success without that slow build. So they're not prepared maybe as well as I've been. They don't have the understanding. They haven't been through what paying taxes, or what running a businesses or having staff, or they haven't done all these things. And so I'm so fortunate to have gone through all that that now there's all this money coming in, I know, you know, thirty seven percent of that goes to tax, fifteen percent of that goes to my manager and then twenty percent is usually business expenses, and then I can pocket the rest. I know it's it's not going to be consistent. And then to your point before about sixty second videos, three minute videos, fifteen seconds, I've been pretty lucky to just I don't give a shit about the algorithm. And so there'll be times where it's high and times where it's low, and you just do what you enjoy, which I mean easy said than done when you're making one hundred thousand dollars a month, because it's a lot. It can be so much like you can do all these videos and make nothing and you're like, what's a fucking point? But I'm very yeah, I'm very fortunate that I don't know, I managed to crack it somehow.
00:19:37
Speaker 2: It's crazy, like not only to get that jump right at like you know, this far into your career, but I think it just speaks a lot too you as a person, the fact that you've been able to sustain the career for that long, even though it has had ups and downs.
00:19:53
Speaker 1: Like many downs, many ups. Yeah, but also you know, and you should be doing something. This is you just take a moment. This is what Barley has done to me, where you just stop and reflect. You go, right, I'm feeling I'm in a down. What's happened in the last year, and you list all these things off. SBS invited me to go and do this alone Australia thing. That's pretty cool. They invited ten people. Or I released this. It's sold out. I made this video. I was on the Today Show. So you just sort of you go, everything is pointing in the right direction. It'll go up, it'll go down. Just make sure that you know, you take stock of what you've been doing. Yeah, and look, if it's not working, then maybe it's not for you, or change change it up. I see people posting, you know, constantly sort of the same thing, and I see that it's not really working. And in radio, what would what we would do? Because I used to working I don't know, I've dropped this all the time, but radio. I was so fortunate to working commercial radio because they are ruthless. You've got sixty seconds to three minutes to talk on air when you're doing a brick show, that's it. So you've got to get to the point really quick. You've got to hook the audience in and you have to be able to tell from one story. You have to get like three talk breaks out of it, because every day you're talking about your life, so you've got to milk it for everything. And then when that's done, you go and you sit in the boss's office and they listen back to everything and tell you all the things you did wrong and where you need to improve and all the things that worked really well. So that constant feedback and that constant pressure and then the ratings would come in. Was this like cooker of making you be the ultimate content machine for radio to get the ratings. And so when I left that, I just adapted that formula to social media. But a lot of like a lot of content creators just go straight into it. So they do a lot of things that radio taught me. Don't do you never ever say you guys? Hey, you guys? Why do you never say that? Because I'm watching alone in my bed. Who is the guys you're referring to?
00:21:59
Speaker 3: It's just you?
00:22:00
Speaker 1: So you make it. You've got to make that real personal connection.
00:22:04
Speaker 3: And just stop. Just edit the waffle out. You can edit.
00:22:07
Speaker 1: See radio you couldn't edit. So you have to be really good at doing everything live really well. And a lot of influencers will leave gaps in or SIPs of their drink. Take that shit out because people will swipe away. And so it's over that time learning just how to make a piece of content, even though it can be so dumb, like just opening the mail, but the way you edit it captures people and then it hooks them in and then they feel invested or inviting people into your life is really fun. Well you know it's fun, and then you're just like, Okay, I'm in two hundred thousand dollars of debt, Now what the freaking hell am I going to do?
00:22:47
Speaker 5: And then bam, it's interesting because like it's to me, I'm like, if I open mail, like people would be like, what the fuck, get get a job?
00:23:03
Speaker 2: Like that, if I open a package, people would be like, this is so boring, Get a job. Do you ever feel like it's like it's I don't know, to be hard. I mean, obviously it's been such a success for you, but even with the tap Border series that you so love, so loving, like I do have a sense of like this is like the shittest content ever and obviously like it works, But I think that's probably how you feel. It's like opening mail. You're just like, this is so random that people enjoy this, but it's working.
00:23:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's why. Also to our earlier conversation of having a meet and greet is so important because that's where people will genuinely tell you the thing that resonated with them, and you're like, that's so interesting that resonated with you. That didn't do very well, and you know, we'll hang on. It's reaching a niche audience, but it's really connecting with them and it has this incredible meaning for them and they feel seen. And then that gives you the motivation and you're like, great, well even the if the water seas for Adelaide only gets X amount of views, people still they still can Views don't really mean anything. Yeah, it's the comments in the dms, and so you can have low views with high comments and you just you just get a few people that really connect with it. It's just weird.
00:24:20
Speaker 3: It's just so it's so inspiring.
00:24:22
Speaker 2: Like I'm now on a mission to make one hundred k a month on Facebook, so thanks for that. I've got a long way to go from my twelve dollars.
00:24:29
Speaker 1: But I'm a friend of mine, so my podcast partner Chrissy. I was constantly at her, like, you're posting all this stuff on Instagram and TikTok, can you please just start posting on Facebook? Just get it going, get it going, get it going. And so when because we went to Barley together and while we were there, I just stood over her shoulder and basically was like, Okay, now do this. And now she's I mean, she's not making a hundred thousands a month, but she's like, you know, she's doing quite well. And so she's seeing this earnings which is motivating her, which is my her do more things. And so once you can sort of get in that area, it's just motivates you, because it can be so hard to find motivation when you're not having FaceTime with people, when your tour is getting you a negative profit, and when you don't leave the house and you just get in your own mind.
00:25:24
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:25:25
Speaker 2: I could talk to you for literally ever, but we are unfortunately out of time. I would love to say there's one other thing that I was going to talk to you about today, which I want to end on because I'm sitting here talking to you and all I want is more, and I think you've got that, Like that's really part of so much of your success. Is like, all I want from you is more. I'm like, where can I see more? Where can I listen to more? I need a deeper dive on Christian Whole because you're just so interesting every time you open your mouth, I'm like, I want to keep talking. I could do one hundred Close Friends episodes with you. And in the main episode, I was going to talk about one of my Another royal flush that I had was that I'm a celebrities picked up by Channel seven. And what I'm thinking sitting here right now is because that's a reality show and it's my favorite reality show.
00:26:12
Speaker 3: But what I'm.
00:26:13
Speaker 2: Sitting here thinking right now is I was like, I would love a Christian Whole reality show a behind the scenes which I know you dabbled in with a bit of Emmy lou Loves, but would you ever do it like a reality.
00:26:25
Speaker 3: Show of sorts. Well, so that's where.
00:26:29
Speaker 1: I go, That's what I'm doing already, Like I'm already posting all behind the scenes. I'm already doing it. I think the difference between that is you'd have a production and a camera crew that could actually capture it without me having to set up a camera and almost perform. Yeah, I'd love that. Oh would I love that?
00:26:48
Speaker 2: Really?
00:26:49
Speaker 3: Yeah?
00:26:49
Speaker 1: I don't know if that I don't know if it'd be interesting enough.
00:26:52
Speaker 3: Would you rather.
00:26:53
Speaker 2: Do and already establish one? Like I can see you on The Traders? I want to do Taskmaster Okay, yeah, that would be hilarious.
00:27:00
Speaker 3: Task Master is a good one. I don't know.
00:27:04
Speaker 1: So I look at doing reality shows like I look at touring. I'm like, okay, well, if I'm taking six weeks away, that's one hundred and ten thousand dollars that I'm not making on Facebook. So my fee is two hundred grand. And they're like, nah, You're not worth that. But I mean I'm not worth that, and I did. I couldn't Yeah, because you really you love I'm a celeb one hundred percent dream to be on season twenty eight, like six, can we make me famous enough to be on season seventy one of that bloody show? Yeah?
00:27:38
Speaker 3: I love it. I would love to do it.
00:27:40
Speaker 1: I just I just could not think of anything worse.
00:27:42
Speaker 3: But I do anything.
00:27:43
Speaker 2: I would love. I would love The Traders as well. I would do any I think like we have a real problem with like Australian media in general. I mean, this new season of The Traders has been like which, by the way, is coming out soon and I would encourage anyone to watch because they've been quite diverse with the casting into You've got Queen Kong, who's a drag queen from Drag Race down Under. You've got Claudia from Love Island who's now like an influencer. There's all these people on it. They're kind of diversifying who they put on the show. I mean, a couple of real housewives are on it, as you said, Gretel Colleen is hosting it. But our media in Australia just doesn't want to. They don't understand. And I've done a few castings for reality shows and they go, oh, we just don't think we have we don't have a spot for a drag queen this season, and I go, I'm not a drag queen because I wear makeup like it's just so old and white, and they don't get that. Right now, television will die if you don't bring in the younger generation who are listening and watching to these podcasts and not your fucking TV shows.
00:28:44
Speaker 1: Well you nailed it, but you're also maybe ten years too late. Like you look at television, you look at radio. In my it's dead, it's done. I mean, I'm sitting in the Nova studio right now. I hope they can't hear me. But you're like, I remember working in radio ten years ago and it was all like they catered to their audience and the audiences growing up. The young kids were on YouTube and you'd have so the enormous stars coming to Australia for YouTube FanFest, and not a single television newspaper or radio would touch them. Jenna Marbles, Lily Seeing Troy Savann, Connor Franta, huge names, huge audiences, and they would just let that guy like a press release would come in. Do you want to talk to them?
00:29:25
Speaker 3: Who were?
00:29:25
Speaker 1: They don't want them? They're like, shit, this is the like the new audience that you need to cultivate are going to these platforms, bring them to you by talking to these people, and they just didn't do it. And I worked on a show in twenty fifteen called YouTube Hits where we incorporated YouTube into a late night radio format and it was like the first sort of drama before drama channels. It was just discussing YouTube stuff. Going on, and it was so easy to get the biggest names in YouTube because no one was touching them. So we had all of these people, I've met all of them. Oh God, lost my mind. And it got to a point where the big wigs were like, we don't get it, so we're not going to run it anymore. And I think that channel could have been earning you now ten years on hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. You could have been using it to sell it, you know.
00:30:15
Speaker 3: I was.
00:30:16
Speaker 1: I was part of SAA, Tanya Hennessy was part of We were all in there doing our Facebook YouTube thing at the time as well. There was a lot of people within that company and they just what I used to do is because I used to be a social media creator for the breakfast shows, I had access to every page, every Facebook page in Australia for like B one, O five, SAFM, FOXFM, TODAYFM. Because I used to schedule the show that I worked on's content nationally and every now and then I'd just be like, it's going to go in and schedule some of my videos and I would just share my content in there because I thought to myself, well, if we're sharing random people online. Why can't we share people that work in the same building, And so I do myself every Now I'm going to do a tenure video and they caught wind of it and they said, you can't do that anymore, and I was like, why, I don't understand. You're an entertainment brand. You're not cultivating what's going to happen when the young people and our CEOs of companies buying media, they're not going to buy radio because they didn't listen to it growing up, and they're like, what is this And that's exactly what's happening. And you've got wave after wave of redundancy. And I just think that's adding to your point of there's no talent in Australia to fill these shows like there is in Britain or the US. Right, sure, we can do a couple of seasons of them, but like there's no panel shows that comedians can go on really unless they're on the ABC. There's just we just don't cultivate a good entertainment industry.
00:31:50
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:31:50
Speaker 1: I don't think it's support, and that's so separate from social media. Like social media has always been a tool to support mainstream media. That's how it was viewed, get the views, get the listens via posting on Facebook, and now it's reversed.
00:32:08
Speaker 2: Yes, they have to use social media to get listens on their shows. Yeah, they have to post because that's where the audience is. Yeah, very true, insightful, Like it's so valuable. And this episode could be four hours long if we could let it be, because I just want to hear more and more from you. And if you want to hear more from Christian, you can go unless it is podcast.
00:32:32
Speaker 3: Remind me what's that? What's that called?
00:32:33
Speaker 2: With Chrissy, It's called we will Always Have? Because I always, I always go to say complete drivel. Do you still do that? Well no, I didn't think, well we will always have?
00:32:45
Speaker 1: So yeah, and that's I just travel with Christita foreign places and she has a meltdown.
00:32:51
Speaker 2: And hit record, which is like the most fabulous friendship.
00:32:55
Speaker 3: Unfortunately I don't listen to podcasts.
00:32:57
Speaker 2: Sorry, but I think I see you and Chris see on Facebook and Instagram all the time.
00:33:03
Speaker 1: We're too busy touring and creating.
00:33:05
Speaker 3: I know.
00:33:06
Speaker 2: And so if you want to keep up today with Christian, will have all his links down below. But thank you so much for taking the time to come on high, Scrollers. I have loved this entire chat with you, and as I said, I could talk for another fucking ten hours. But when I'm up in Brisbane, we'll have to go out for a coffee love and we can talk and bitch and do all of that sort of stuff when I come back for the Bring Back Lammage.
00:33:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I'm buck and I missed you because I'm down the road from where you your show was.
00:33:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, well will you still be there or are you going to be in Sydney doing your art studio?
00:33:33
Speaker 1: When are you in Brisbane? This is an off their chat.
00:33:36
Speaker 2: This is Yeah, we can chat later. That's that's what close friends is. Thanks for listening, Scrollers. We'll see you next Tuesday.
Speaker 1: High Scrollers is produced on gadigul Land.
00:00:02
Speaker 2: We pay our respects to the traditional custodians of this country and Elder's past and present.
00:00:07
Speaker 1: Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.
00:00:13
Speaker 3: Well, welcome to.
00:00:16
Speaker 1: Great start, no kick going, kick going.
00:00:18
Speaker 2: What's my close friends is close friends, sisters. I was gonna say welcome to Christian whole, but welcome to close friends. This is where we just get to dive a little bit deeper. It's a little bit more relaxed. We get to take the take the bizaarz out of it and just have a fun chat. And I think we could, yeah, for sure. I mean, no one can see you, but take it off. I know that you brought a package that you wanted to open during the main episode, but we didn't get around to that because we wouldn't shut up. So can you explain what you've gotten, why you've brought it?
00:00:45
Speaker 4: Please?
00:00:46
Speaker 1: Okay? So Hi, I'm Christian Hull, I'm thirty nine, and I went far at the start of the year for asking people to send me their miniature items. So I got obsessed with mini items and I wanted to build a little so a trinket tray. So back in ye oldie days when you made newspapers, they used to have these trays where all the letters would sit. It just looks like an Excel spreadsheet. And I was to fill that with minis, so I asked people to send me them, thinking i'd get twenty. It's been seven months of pure hell. My po box gets hundreds every say, every week. So I've got a thousand unopened sitting in my spare bedroom and it's just turned into like an incredible saga where I'm building what I'm calling the mini museum and I'm going to take it on tour around Australia. It's popped off, it's doing really well, and I wanted to bring with me one of those packages and I thought we could open it and see what someone has sent. This one has come from Sally from the UK.
00:01:44
Speaker 3: Lovely.
00:01:44
Speaker 1: One thing I've noticed is people spend a lot of money to send me these. One woman in the US spent three hundred dollars in postage send me stuff, and so that insane. What is a mini museum like minis of what? Like mini anything? Mini anything? This was like Nan NaN's always got a little mini thimble, or he's got a little mini item. That probably means a lot to her and the family. You've inherited it, you maybe don't want it, or you want to do something with it. I wanted to take it, hear the story behind it, and put it in a little collection. And that really resonated with a lot of people, and they started sending me a lot of these gorgeous little treasured memories. People are beautiful. They've also just blatantly ordered shit off Timu and sent it to my Pao box. And so I have so much just shit, but every now and then you get a really good one and I'm hoping that's what's in here.
00:02:36
Speaker 2: Okay, so this could be or this could be an antiques road show moment for us.
00:02:41
Speaker 1: Yes, so I've asked people to send a note with it to try to tell me what it is. And oh my god, Okay, this is oh my god.
00:02:51
Speaker 3: No, okay, let me read the note, let me read this is what it is.
00:02:55
Speaker 1: But I'll hold it up to the camera. Hello, Christian, I thank you so much. Okay can you.
00:03:00
Speaker 3: Read it in a British accent please?
00:03:02
Speaker 1: Kevin in the UK Ala Christian, say much for all the last and hours of enjoyment. I heard you mentioned it, one of your favorite films is The Labyrinth. Well mine is two. So I bequeath you with one of my prized positions of Oggle, keep on being your lovely self and making the world laugh. Love Robin Hood County. Wait Sally from Robin County. Did she really say bequeath Yeah? The quick so I get like here, hold up, I get a little note usually and so she's just shared with me she loves The Labyrinth, so she knows my favorite film is The Labyrinth. Uh, and she sent me the most gorgeous little figurine, probably from the nineteen eighties, of one of the characters from The Labyrinth, which is Hoggle. No, have you seen The Labyrinth? Yesie, it's my favorite movie of all time, really part of the bebe Yeah, it's a great film. And so what I've been doing is sort of collecting these and now I've got, you know, Sally's cool little memory. It's got a connection, and I'm making a coffee table book. Because this escalated and exploded into this absolutely gargantuan thing. People wanted me to take it on the road and take it on tour and logistically absolute nightmare. And so what I said was, well, I'm going to catalog the majority of these and bringing out a coffee table book at the end of the year. And then I'm also trying to potentially buy a mini the car and wrap it and call that the mini Museum and so put some little shelves in it and maybe take that on the road.
00:04:39
Speaker 3: Well that's fun.
00:04:42
Speaker 1: So there's a lot happening with it. You know, this was supposed to be like a two week story arc on Facebook, and it's just become this insane, insane thing. And I've been featured on a lot of international press, So it was on I think it was on the Today Show in the US, It's been on the BBC. I've been interviewed like all the morning talk shows about it, and so it's been really exciting. And I mean it's also fantastic because Facebook. It's monetized on Facebook, so it's basically I'm also being able to earn.
00:05:16
Speaker 2: Which we did speak about. We said we'd come back to that in the Close Friends episode. By the way, because I've shared with the scrollers before about my journey with Facebook monetization, and I kind of gave them a rundown on the fact that you never really got paid from Facebook, and when you did, it was because of ads on your videos, and so your videos had to have a certain requirement, and obviously they the more views they got, because you know, sometimes a video would get one hundred thousand views, but maybe not everyone got an ad on that, so it's only off the people who saw an ad and then, like your CPM, I kind of taken them through that whole journey. And I've also explained that for me on social media, monetization on any platform is something that I've never been able to tap into. Like it's always been pennies for me across the board, no matter when I was back on YouTube or.
00:05:58
Speaker 3: Whether it was on in Instagram.
00:06:00
Speaker 2: Went through a bit of a phase of trying to do it Facebook as well.
00:06:04
Speaker 1: A dollar eighty two I think I made in total over the years.
00:06:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, I will say that Facebook has been the most successful because just to refresh your memory scrollers, they have this new kind of way of doing it where just views, likes, comments, that's actually you get a centaur to per like and things like that, or sometimes it's less than a cent. But it's the first time that I've actually made some good money, and I mean good money for me is still.
00:06:31
Speaker 3: Not comparable to everybody.
00:06:32
Speaker 2: Else, and I like, on a good week, I'll make two hundred bucks from that, but majority it's like twelve dollars a week. Right from the monetization on Facebook, I know that you are in a totally different ballpark because you're one of Australia's top creators on Facebook and just earning an absolute motza.
00:06:52
Speaker 3: Do you want to take us through your journey with that?
00:06:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I will. Also when we dispart, I'm going to put you into for some people who can help you grow it, because it's Facebook has. When they introduced this monetization, it changed my life. So I used to have a retail shop. I was so inspired by Brett to start my own merch business that I did that. And it is so much work and it's so expensive, and it failed. So it didn't It didn't work. I lost a lot of money. I was in a lot of debt, and I two years ago closed everything down and was like, right, okay, well I'm going to go back to full time work because I don't know, I'm not getting sponsorships And it was literally touring and sponsorships were the only source of income I was getting and then I joined a team called the collab Bar because they were like, give us access to your Facebook, we'll get your Facebook earning. And it had ticked along quite nicely and I was like, oh fine, if I'm giving up may as well. And then over the course of the twelve months that I was with them, we learned consistently posting, and I post it's a lot. It's six videos a day, so it's a lot. Has built it to a level now where I can see you sitting down. I make on our friage one hundred thousand dollars a month. Yeah, right, so it's yeah, it's really really just from Facebook alone, just from Facebook. And so like when the Minis happened in December and January, that exploded me into a US market. And so a cost for an Australian viewer is very different from a cost from an American viewer. So when someone views in America, I get paid probably two or three times more. And so I saw a huge increase in revenue after the Minis because I brought in a huge US audience. And so December I want two hundred thousand, January I also want two hundred thousand. And then I'm trying to consistently keep that at a level so unrelatable, and it's put me in it's i'd love to say I feel guilty about it. I don't really feel guilty, but it's put me in this sort of different ballpark with what that's allowed me to do, and to go from someone in twenty twenty four who was like, no, well the dream is over to oh shit, look at all this money coming in. It means I can lean in, and I've got the flexibility to lean in and take this like this mini journey. You know, I can buy a car and travel around or I'm not reliant on sponsors, so I'm not really actively looking for them anymore.
00:09:37
Speaker 2: And it's just.
00:09:38
Speaker 1: Taken the pressure off and I'm able to just do so much. And like it's all about posting consistently.
00:09:48
Speaker 3: You just have to. It's a lot.
00:09:50
Speaker 1: It is a lot, but you earn so much that now I have a video editor that I pay monthly and it's this well organized. And I know at some point Facebook will I don't know, something will happen. Mark Zuckerberble, I don't know. Anything could happen, and it could all be over. So I've just been squirreling all of that money away and for the inevitable, you know.
00:10:16
Speaker 3: Setting yourself up. That's good. You said you brought an investment property.
00:10:20
Speaker 1: Well to Bali.
00:10:22
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:10:22
Speaker 1: I went to Bali in March as a bit of a bit of a fun thing to do. I'm gonna go to Barli do a wellness retreat with my podcast partner Chrissy so we can.
00:10:32
Speaker 3: Record some episodes. Oh, that'll be fun.
00:10:33
Speaker 1: In a laugh, Get there, Get to Bali. It was the most life changing retreat I've ever been on. We didn't take magic mushrooms, disappointed, but it was just it was so spiritual and I'm not like I don't believe in God. I don't believe in it, Like that's doesn't exist, it's not real. And I was very much someone that was like you die, you go into a hole in the ground, you rot, end of story. But I just had these experiences while in Bali where I was like, oh, I'm one of my biggest fears is my parents passing away. Like I don't have many friends. I've got incredibly close relationship with mom and dad. They're always in my content. They earn a lot of money for me too, haha. And I've not been home for fifteen years, so I've lived around Australia and I have I just don't really see my family that much. And in Bali I was like, oh, I need to stop distancing myself because I'm scared that my parents will die. That's dumb. Go and be closer to them now. And so I was like, oh, I'm making a shitload of money. I'm gonna I'm gonna buy a place in Sydney. And so I ended up getting the most fucking stunning bit of land in a place called Bundina, which is just it's a peninsula, it's in the National I'm in the National Park up above. It's a beach house, like I'm two houses back from the beach and it's just in this random sort of spot.
00:12:02
Speaker 3: It's a little hobbit hole that.
00:12:04
Speaker 1: I'm turning into an art studio and I think I'm really lucky that that's what Facebook has allowed me to do. And so I'm going to try to keep my Brisbane place and Sydney and it's just crazy, just just a crazy amount of money that's opened up different opportunities, and I do feel horrifically guilty because it's in the middle of where people cannot afford anything anymore.
00:12:39
Speaker 3: I'm in shock hearing that.
00:12:40
Speaker 2: Actually like that, I knew it was good money, but like that's like crazy, crazy amount, so just crazy. If you could just forward those contacts that you had just to me immediately, they might wrap this up in a Marc I message them so that we can think property and Bundy as well.
00:12:56
Speaker 1: You can if I mean, if anyone is on faceboo book and they're doing they've got some solid numbers, collabor They're based in the Gold Coaster, are a bunch of young guys and you know, they got my page up to a really great level.
00:13:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so six videos a day, Like that's a lot. So what what is that? What is a day earning that much money from Facebook? Give me like a day? What does a day in Christian Hull's life look like? Do you have to get up every day in film six videos or what's that look like? No, it's a lot of bulk recording, like a lot of it. Like if you've seen myself, it's real dumb. I do reaction videos to clips. Opening packages is another one that does really well just general life stuff that I find like I'm really lucky that I've built a community of people that are highly engaged.
00:13:41
Speaker 1: So the more engagement and the more it's almost like a whore crux. The more you give of yourself, the more people will engage, which is the more money. And so you know, I've been opened about Manjaro, about weight loss, struggles, just every facet. I've been very open and honest about. And you know that just generates an income. But I've been open and honest about it for the entire time I've been online, and now I'm just cashing in. And so a day would be just there is I mean, there's no standard day, but I would film a bunch of package openings, film some reaction content, a lot of admin meetings, making one pages updating analytics to send to potential clients or to send to you know, like we hired a fantastic creative director for a book. So it's like having I liken it to this. Imagine you've got six skewers and you're spinning plates on them, and so my job every day is to wake up which plate isn't spinning so fast, and work its spinning that and keeping it afloat. And so you've just got so many plates spinning that inevitably one will fall off and sort of break away because you just don't have the time. Because you've got Patreon, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, two podcasts, you know, organizing book, You've got all this and I do it with myself and basically my manager, Sarah.
00:15:06
Speaker 3: It's a lot.
00:15:07
Speaker 1: It's so fun though, and I'm very lucky, and so I'm cashing in on it now because I know at some point I'll probably still have to be spending all these plates and then the money won't be won't be there.
00:15:18
Speaker 2: Well, that's the other thing, because the only time that Facebook monetarization did work for me when it was first released and we were on YouTube and then Facebook was like, come over and do videos. And remember back then they had to be landscape and they had to be three minutes long. And then so I was then making like three minute videos for faith. Actually, sorry, I think I've got it around the wrong way. They wanted sixty second videos. You could only upload sixty second videos, so they were like, we want fifteen to sixty second videos and that's what you'll get paid for. So then I got into the rhythm of doing fifteen to sixty second videos, was posting those. Then they changed and said, oh, now you need them to be over three minutes to be eligible for ads. So then I started making three minute videos. Then with the rise of TikTok, I'm back to like fifteen second videos, and then they're like no form con so now I'm back to three minute it is, And so for me, I felt like every time I just almost get the hang of something, it's like, oh, they've changed the whole thing again. I've got to start from scratch and try and learn this new sort of system, and it's just mind boggling. I think this is a really good example, though, of something that I really struggle with in this industry, which is that there are some creators who are earning an absolute matza, and I'm so happy for you that you are, but there are a lot of people who also get lumped into that same Like you saying that today is probably going to make people go, oh, well, everyone's posting Facebook videos. They must be making one hundred grand a month, and it's like, yeah, it actually just isn't the case. Like, because you've got me, That's why I am so vocal about being.
00:16:41
Speaker 4: Like I made twelve dollars this week because people go influencers or content creators, they so out of touch, they make so much money, all this money, it's like, well, for some true Christian out of touch must be nice as well, it's not happening for them, and I feel like they all just get lumped into this sort of thing. It's like when an influencer does something wrong or gets called out on their behavior, like all of them are painted with the same brush.
00:17:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, correct, which I feel why we all hate being called an influencer exactly.
00:17:10
Speaker 2: And I was just about to say, I feel like we're a little bit not what's the word adjacent or like what's the word that where we don't get lumped into it.
00:17:17
Speaker 3: You and I one where men.
00:17:18
Speaker 2: But like also I feel like we're a little different to like your typical influencer. But at the same time, like I do feel like everyone gets painted with the same brush of like, oh, just lazy content creator, influencer who doesn't do anything, whereas like, yeah, for a lot of it's annoying too, because the ones that seem to be I mean, you're a bit of a unicorn in this when I say this, But like the ones that seem to be spinning all the plates are the ones that usually aren't making as much money and the ones who just do live this like lazy influencer lifestyle making all this money. Like it's kind of like I found an imbalance of that. But you are proving me wrong on that with what you've said, because you.
00:18:00
Speaker 1: Whilst the monetization for me was like almost like an overnight success, it took me nine years of you know, five of those years I was working twelve hours a day doing a radio job and doing social media, and so I liken it as too. I've done, I've done the hard slog and now I'm catching in on all of the thing that I've built. And then there's people that they have that instant success without that slow build. So they're not prepared maybe as well as I've been. They don't have the understanding. They haven't been through what paying taxes, or what running a businesses or having staff, or they haven't done all these things. And so I'm so fortunate to have gone through all that that now there's all this money coming in, I know, you know, thirty seven percent of that goes to tax, fifteen percent of that goes to my manager and then twenty percent is usually business expenses, and then I can pocket the rest. I know it's it's not going to be consistent. And then to your point before about sixty second videos, three minute videos, fifteen seconds, I've been pretty lucky to just I don't give a shit about the algorithm. And so there'll be times where it's high and times where it's low, and you just do what you enjoy, which I mean easy said than done when you're making one hundred thousand dollars a month, because it's a lot. It can be so much like you can do all these videos and make nothing and you're like, what's a fucking point? But I'm very yeah, I'm very fortunate that I don't know, I managed to crack it somehow.
00:19:37
Speaker 2: It's crazy, like not only to get that jump right at like you know, this far into your career, but I think it just speaks a lot too you as a person, the fact that you've been able to sustain the career for that long, even though it has had ups and downs.
00:19:53
Speaker 1: Like many downs, many ups. Yeah, but also you know, and you should be doing something. This is you just take a moment. This is what Barley has done to me, where you just stop and reflect. You go, right, I'm feeling I'm in a down. What's happened in the last year, and you list all these things off. SBS invited me to go and do this alone Australia thing. That's pretty cool. They invited ten people. Or I released this. It's sold out. I made this video. I was on the Today Show. So you just sort of you go, everything is pointing in the right direction. It'll go up, it'll go down. Just make sure that you know, you take stock of what you've been doing. Yeah, and look, if it's not working, then maybe it's not for you, or change change it up. I see people posting, you know, constantly sort of the same thing, and I see that it's not really working. And in radio, what would what we would do? Because I used to working I don't know, I've dropped this all the time, but radio. I was so fortunate to working commercial radio because they are ruthless. You've got sixty seconds to three minutes to talk on air when you're doing a brick show, that's it. So you've got to get to the point really quick. You've got to hook the audience in and you have to be able to tell from one story. You have to get like three talk breaks out of it, because every day you're talking about your life, so you've got to milk it for everything. And then when that's done, you go and you sit in the boss's office and they listen back to everything and tell you all the things you did wrong and where you need to improve and all the things that worked really well. So that constant feedback and that constant pressure and then the ratings would come in. Was this like cooker of making you be the ultimate content machine for radio to get the ratings. And so when I left that, I just adapted that formula to social media. But a lot of like a lot of content creators just go straight into it. So they do a lot of things that radio taught me. Don't do you never ever say you guys? Hey, you guys? Why do you never say that? Because I'm watching alone in my bed. Who is the guys you're referring to?
00:21:59
Speaker 3: It's just you?
00:22:00
Speaker 1: So you make it. You've got to make that real personal connection.
00:22:04
Speaker 3: And just stop. Just edit the waffle out. You can edit.
00:22:07
Speaker 1: See radio you couldn't edit. So you have to be really good at doing everything live really well. And a lot of influencers will leave gaps in or SIPs of their drink. Take that shit out because people will swipe away. And so it's over that time learning just how to make a piece of content, even though it can be so dumb, like just opening the mail, but the way you edit it captures people and then it hooks them in and then they feel invested or inviting people into your life is really fun. Well you know it's fun, and then you're just like, Okay, I'm in two hundred thousand dollars of debt, Now what the freaking hell am I going to do?
00:22:47
Speaker 5: And then bam, it's interesting because like it's to me, I'm like, if I open mail, like people would be like, what the fuck, get get a job?
00:23:03
Speaker 2: Like that, if I open a package, people would be like, this is so boring, Get a job. Do you ever feel like it's like it's I don't know, to be hard. I mean, obviously it's been such a success for you, but even with the tap Border series that you so love, so loving, like I do have a sense of like this is like the shittest content ever and obviously like it works, But I think that's probably how you feel. It's like opening mail. You're just like, this is so random that people enjoy this, but it's working.
00:23:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's why. Also to our earlier conversation of having a meet and greet is so important because that's where people will genuinely tell you the thing that resonated with them, and you're like, that's so interesting that resonated with you. That didn't do very well, and you know, we'll hang on. It's reaching a niche audience, but it's really connecting with them and it has this incredible meaning for them and they feel seen. And then that gives you the motivation and you're like, great, well even the if the water seas for Adelaide only gets X amount of views, people still they still can Views don't really mean anything. Yeah, it's the comments in the dms, and so you can have low views with high comments and you just you just get a few people that really connect with it. It's just weird.
00:24:20
Speaker 3: It's just so it's so inspiring.
00:24:22
Speaker 2: Like I'm now on a mission to make one hundred k a month on Facebook, so thanks for that. I've got a long way to go from my twelve dollars.
00:24:29
Speaker 1: But I'm a friend of mine, so my podcast partner Chrissy. I was constantly at her, like, you're posting all this stuff on Instagram and TikTok, can you please just start posting on Facebook? Just get it going, get it going, get it going. And so when because we went to Barley together and while we were there, I just stood over her shoulder and basically was like, Okay, now do this. And now she's I mean, she's not making a hundred thousands a month, but she's like, you know, she's doing quite well. And so she's seeing this earnings which is motivating her, which is my her do more things. And so once you can sort of get in that area, it's just motivates you, because it can be so hard to find motivation when you're not having FaceTime with people, when your tour is getting you a negative profit, and when you don't leave the house and you just get in your own mind.
00:25:24
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:25:25
Speaker 2: I could talk to you for literally ever, but we are unfortunately out of time. I would love to say there's one other thing that I was going to talk to you about today, which I want to end on because I'm sitting here talking to you and all I want is more, and I think you've got that, Like that's really part of so much of your success. Is like, all I want from you is more. I'm like, where can I see more? Where can I listen to more? I need a deeper dive on Christian Whole because you're just so interesting every time you open your mouth, I'm like, I want to keep talking. I could do one hundred Close Friends episodes with you. And in the main episode, I was going to talk about one of my Another royal flush that I had was that I'm a celebrities picked up by Channel seven. And what I'm thinking sitting here right now is because that's a reality show and it's my favorite reality show.
00:26:12
Speaker 3: But what I'm.
00:26:13
Speaker 2: Sitting here thinking right now is I was like, I would love a Christian Whole reality show a behind the scenes which I know you dabbled in with a bit of Emmy lou Loves, but would you ever do it like a reality.
00:26:25
Speaker 3: Show of sorts. Well, so that's where.
00:26:29
Speaker 1: I go, That's what I'm doing already, Like I'm already posting all behind the scenes. I'm already doing it. I think the difference between that is you'd have a production and a camera crew that could actually capture it without me having to set up a camera and almost perform. Yeah, I'd love that. Oh would I love that?
00:26:48
Speaker 2: Really?
00:26:49
Speaker 3: Yeah?
00:26:49
Speaker 1: I don't know if that I don't know if it'd be interesting enough.
00:26:52
Speaker 3: Would you rather.
00:26:53
Speaker 2: Do and already establish one? Like I can see you on The Traders? I want to do Taskmaster Okay, yeah, that would be hilarious.
00:27:00
Speaker 3: Task Master is a good one. I don't know.
00:27:04
Speaker 1: So I look at doing reality shows like I look at touring. I'm like, okay, well, if I'm taking six weeks away, that's one hundred and ten thousand dollars that I'm not making on Facebook. So my fee is two hundred grand. And they're like, nah, You're not worth that. But I mean I'm not worth that, and I did. I couldn't Yeah, because you really you love I'm a celeb one hundred percent dream to be on season twenty eight, like six, can we make me famous enough to be on season seventy one of that bloody show? Yeah?
00:27:38
Speaker 3: I love it. I would love to do it.
00:27:40
Speaker 1: I just I just could not think of anything worse.
00:27:42
Speaker 3: But I do anything.
00:27:43
Speaker 2: I would love. I would love The Traders as well. I would do any I think like we have a real problem with like Australian media in general. I mean, this new season of The Traders has been like which, by the way, is coming out soon and I would encourage anyone to watch because they've been quite diverse with the casting into You've got Queen Kong, who's a drag queen from Drag Race down Under. You've got Claudia from Love Island who's now like an influencer. There's all these people on it. They're kind of diversifying who they put on the show. I mean, a couple of real housewives are on it, as you said, Gretel Colleen is hosting it. But our media in Australia just doesn't want to. They don't understand. And I've done a few castings for reality shows and they go, oh, we just don't think we have we don't have a spot for a drag queen this season, and I go, I'm not a drag queen because I wear makeup like it's just so old and white, and they don't get that. Right now, television will die if you don't bring in the younger generation who are listening and watching to these podcasts and not your fucking TV shows.
00:28:44
Speaker 1: Well you nailed it, but you're also maybe ten years too late. Like you look at television, you look at radio. In my it's dead, it's done. I mean, I'm sitting in the Nova studio right now. I hope they can't hear me. But you're like, I remember working in radio ten years ago and it was all like they catered to their audience and the audiences growing up. The young kids were on YouTube and you'd have so the enormous stars coming to Australia for YouTube FanFest, and not a single television newspaper or radio would touch them. Jenna Marbles, Lily Seeing Troy Savann, Connor Franta, huge names, huge audiences, and they would just let that guy like a press release would come in. Do you want to talk to them?
00:29:25
Speaker 3: Who were?
00:29:25
Speaker 1: They don't want them? They're like, shit, this is the like the new audience that you need to cultivate are going to these platforms, bring them to you by talking to these people, and they just didn't do it. And I worked on a show in twenty fifteen called YouTube Hits where we incorporated YouTube into a late night radio format and it was like the first sort of drama before drama channels. It was just discussing YouTube stuff. Going on, and it was so easy to get the biggest names in YouTube because no one was touching them. So we had all of these people, I've met all of them. Oh God, lost my mind. And it got to a point where the big wigs were like, we don't get it, so we're not going to run it anymore. And I think that channel could have been earning you now ten years on hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. You could have been using it to sell it, you know.
00:30:15
Speaker 3: I was.
00:30:16
Speaker 1: I was part of SAA, Tanya Hennessy was part of We were all in there doing our Facebook YouTube thing at the time as well. There was a lot of people within that company and they just what I used to do is because I used to be a social media creator for the breakfast shows, I had access to every page, every Facebook page in Australia for like B one, O five, SAFM, FOXFM, TODAYFM. Because I used to schedule the show that I worked on's content nationally and every now and then I'd just be like, it's going to go in and schedule some of my videos and I would just share my content in there because I thought to myself, well, if we're sharing random people online. Why can't we share people that work in the same building, And so I do myself every Now I'm going to do a tenure video and they caught wind of it and they said, you can't do that anymore, and I was like, why, I don't understand. You're an entertainment brand. You're not cultivating what's going to happen when the young people and our CEOs of companies buying media, they're not going to buy radio because they didn't listen to it growing up, and they're like, what is this And that's exactly what's happening. And you've got wave after wave of redundancy. And I just think that's adding to your point of there's no talent in Australia to fill these shows like there is in Britain or the US. Right, sure, we can do a couple of seasons of them, but like there's no panel shows that comedians can go on really unless they're on the ABC. There's just we just don't cultivate a good entertainment industry.
00:31:50
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:31:50
Speaker 1: I don't think it's support, and that's so separate from social media. Like social media has always been a tool to support mainstream media. That's how it was viewed, get the views, get the listens via posting on Facebook, and now it's reversed.
00:32:08
Speaker 2: Yes, they have to use social media to get listens on their shows. Yeah, they have to post because that's where the audience is. Yeah, very true, insightful, Like it's so valuable. And this episode could be four hours long if we could let it be, because I just want to hear more and more from you. And if you want to hear more from Christian, you can go unless it is podcast.
00:32:32
Speaker 3: Remind me what's that? What's that called?
00:32:33
Speaker 2: With Chrissy, It's called we will Always Have? Because I always, I always go to say complete drivel. Do you still do that? Well no, I didn't think, well we will always have?
00:32:45
Speaker 1: So yeah, and that's I just travel with Christita foreign places and she has a meltdown.
00:32:51
Speaker 2: And hit record, which is like the most fabulous friendship.
00:32:55
Speaker 3: Unfortunately I don't listen to podcasts.
00:32:57
Speaker 2: Sorry, but I think I see you and Chris see on Facebook and Instagram all the time.
00:33:03
Speaker 1: We're too busy touring and creating.
00:33:05
Speaker 3: I know.
00:33:06
Speaker 2: And so if you want to keep up today with Christian, will have all his links down below. But thank you so much for taking the time to come on high, Scrollers. I have loved this entire chat with you, and as I said, I could talk for another fucking ten hours. But when I'm up in Brisbane, we'll have to go out for a coffee love and we can talk and bitch and do all of that sort of stuff when I come back for the Bring Back Lammage.
00:33:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I'm buck and I missed you because I'm down the road from where you your show was.
00:33:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, well will you still be there or are you going to be in Sydney doing your art studio?
00:33:33
Speaker 1: When are you in Brisbane? This is an off their chat.
00:33:36
Speaker 2: This is Yeah, we can chat later. That's that's what close friends is. Thanks for listening, Scrollers. We'll see you next Tuesday.