Aaron Francis

Transcript

James

00:00:16 – 00:00:25

I'm one of your cohosts, James, and I'm back here with JR Farr, who's the cofounder and CEO of Lemon Squeezy. Welcome back, JR. Did you enjoy your time off from the pod?

J.R.

00:00:25 – 00:00:26

I did. Good to see you guys.

James

00:00:26 – 00:00:47

Well, it's good to have you back. And we've got a guest, a previous guest. Someone who joined us on episode 30, Ameren Francis. At that time, he was an educator at PlanetScale, and he had just launched screencasting.com, which we talked about. But unfortunately, on the 6th March 2024, he was part of layoffs from the company.

James

00:00:47 – 00:01:07

But since then, he's had a hard decision to make. Does he go and find another job? Or take the leap to become a full time entrepreneur? Now the job offers did come in thick and fast because over 600,000 people saw his tweet saying that he'd been laid off. But after documenting his thoughts on his podcast, Mostly Technical, Aaron announced what he was doing next.

James

00:01:07 – 00:01:16

He has launched his own studio with the infamous Steve the editor, Try Hard Studios. Aaron, is that a fair summary of what's happened over the last couple of weeks, man?

Aaron

00:01:16 – 00:01:23

Man, it sounds really good when you say it. It sound it sounds like a a perfectly put together story. I mean, yeah. That's right. That's totally right.

Aaron

00:01:23 – 00:01:27

It feels a lot more chaotic on the inside, but I like the sound of it from from your voice. And thank you on the inside, but I like the sound of it from from your voice. And thank you for

James

00:01:27 – 00:01:34

sharing so much of it on Twitter. It's been I I wanna say fun to follow along, but interesting to follow along and document on your podcast. It can be fun. That's okay. That's okay if it's fun.

James

00:01:34 – 00:01:36

Do you have a along and document on your podcast. It can be

Aaron

00:01:36 – 00:01:38

fun. That's okay. That's okay. That's fine.

James

00:01:38 – 00:01:40

Did you see those layoffs coming?

Aaron

00:01:40 – 00:01:57

No. Totally blindsided. This is my first layoff, and I was still out on paternity leave. So I didn't really have a pulse of, like, day to day, you know, inside. And so I I don't know that anyone saw it coming, but least of all me, because I had been out for, you know, 2 months taking care of kiddos.

Aaron

00:01:57 – 00:02:05

And so, yeah, huge huge surprise and not exactly what I was thinking my return from paternity leave would look like.

James

00:02:05 – 00:02:16

Mhmm. Because it seemed like things were going really well with PlanetScale. You just got your new Avan Francis Studio of Light and Sound, which, by the way, really cool. JR, did you see this?

J.R.

00:02:16 – 00:02:18

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I watched him putting it together. Yeah.

James

00:02:18 – 00:02:20

The man hired an apartment to

Aaron

00:02:20 – 00:02:21

I know.

James

00:02:21 – 00:02:28

To to build his studio in. Talk us through that, Aaron. Why why did you choose to hire an apartment rather than just like an office block studio thing?

Aaron

00:02:29 – 00:02:48

Yeah. So I got out of the house because, you know, now we have 4 kids that are under 3 years old, and recording videos in a house like that is just not gonna work ever. And so I got out of the house, and I was like, okay. What what do I need here? And I started looking at, like, co working spaces, but they don't you know, I've got a lot now.

Aaron

00:02:48 – 00:03:20

I'm like full time video. And I was, like, I don't know that they have enough space for me slash I don't know if I wanna leave all the gear in a shared working space. And so I looked at that, and then I looked at, you know, boring old office leases, and they were extremely expensive. And I started thinking, like, I went looking at apartments and they were cheaper than, like, office spaces. And so I found a, I didn't find a studio, but I found a 1 bedroom.

Aaron

00:03:20 – 00:03:33

So I have 2 separate rooms. I found a 1 bedroom, and I moved all of my equipment and my gear, everything in here. And turns out, having an apartment as an office is amazing. I've got a private bathroom. I've got a kitchen.

Aaron

00:03:33 – 00:03:44

There's a pool downstairs. There's a gym downstairs. I'm like, why why didn't I think of this before? So, you know, once it once it's prettier, I haven't, you know, put anything on the on the wall back there. I'll have a full studio walk through.

Aaron

00:03:44 – 00:03:50

But I think this is, like, the ultimate the ultimate life hack is a co working space, but it's actually just your own apartment.

James

00:03:51 – 00:03:54

It's pretty cool. I I my my apartment is kind of that because I've

Aaron

00:04:14 – 00:04:23

now yeah

J.R.

00:04:27 – 00:04:40

I wanna get more into, like, the topic of today. But just to kind of can you give us any insight? I mean, PlanetScale has raised over a $100,000,000 in funding. Series c, pretty far along in their journey. Can you tell us what the reason was?

J.R.

00:04:40 – 00:04:43

Was it just, hey, times are tough? Or what

Aaron

00:04:43 – 00:05:05

was it? I can give you the reason that their public blog post said. And their public their public blog post said, if I recall correctly, they're cutting sales and marketing to be an engineering focused org so that you can trust that your database company will be around forever. I think they wanted to become profitable so that people would trust them with infrastructure.

J.R.

00:05:06 – 00:05:18

Yeah. And it seemed like they followed up with a few thing, like, then they kind of went into the the free tier was gone and then people were kind of outraged about that. And so, yeah, it seems like they made a few few steps there. Okay. Interesting.

J.R.

00:05:19 – 00:05:34

So James, I mean, I guess we should get into like his job hunt. Right? And ultimately going down this decision. And more context for Aaron too is Aaron's a new dad with twins and, you know, like, I shouldn't say new dad, but you know, you're you're adding to your family with twins. So

James

00:05:34 – 00:05:34

you yeah.

J.R.

00:05:34 – 00:05:43

So you so, like, your mindset. Right? Like, your maybe your goals in life are different. Right? So as this happens, I'm sure there's things that unfolded.

J.R.

00:05:43 – 00:05:46

But, yeah, maybe walk us through that first reaction and kinda where you're at. Yeah. Totally. So we got we got the news on a on

Aaron

00:05:50 – 00:06:04

a Wednesday, and I was set to return from paternity that Friday. I had already booked myself to go see Dune 2 in theaters on Wednesday afternoon. I was like, alright. Paternity's over. I better, like, enjoy this while I can.

Aaron

00:06:05 – 00:06:25

And got laid off and then immediately went and saw Dune 2, which, you know, it it kinda it kinda worked out perfect. So as I was walking into the theater, you know, fired off this tweet of like, hey. I just got laid off. I need help figuring out what's next. And so I then I go and see Dune 2 and it's amazing and it's just incredible.

Aaron

00:06:25 – 00:06:55

And I, you know, walk out of the theater and it had just gone insane. And I think James said earlier, hit 600,000 impressions. And so, you know, people like, 1, I think it was breaking news that PlanetScale had just done layoffs, and 2, I had become so publicly tied to PlanetScale that I think a lot of people were surprised, myself included. And so I walked out, and it was just, like, DMs and retweets and quotes and responses and emails. And some people called me.

Aaron

00:06:55 – 00:07:14

And I was like, man, this this is insane. And this is the first time I've ever, like, publicly put myself out there for a job. Like, I came to PlanetScale through a private DM. I went to 2 people before that through a private DM before that. So, like, every job I've had, it's kind of been like, oh, I you know, this is an opportunity.

Aaron

00:07:14 – 00:07:20

I will go seize it. And now it's, hey, everyone. Guess what? And the the response was overwhelming.

James

00:07:21 – 00:07:51

It was so cool to see the amount of people that poured on love and support to you and gave you job offers. What I like about the previous jobs you've got is I think that is how good people get hired. It is through d m's. It is through showing the work that you've done. And you've spoken about your 2 pool job where you sent Ben, CEO of Tupelo, like, a list of stuff on your website of the most interesting things you've been working on that are relevant to what

Aaron

00:08:00 – 00:08:04

for, like, a developer who also does marketing type stuff.

James

00:08:04 – 00:08:05

Yeah.

Aaron

00:08:05 – 00:08:25

And it was very unclear what he wanted. And so I put together a list on my website of, of, like, hey, Ben. Not really sure exactly what you're looking for, but here's a bunch of developer remarkety stuff that I had done. And it was just a list of articles I had written, conference talks I had done, like, good tweets. Like, I I showed him some tweets that I thought were, like, really good.

Aaron

00:08:25 – 00:08:40

And I just put a whole list on my site and gave him links and was like, if you think this is interesting, I would love to talk more. And then I looked through his you know, who he followed on Twitter, and I found some people that knew me. And I was like, hey. I looked through your Twitter following. These people know me.

Aaron

00:08:40 – 00:09:01

If you wanna talk to them, you can reach out to them. At that point, all of that stuff was extracurricular. Like, I was writing articles about, you know, MySQL, and I was giving conference talks on Laravel stuff. And it was all extracurricular. And so by the time it came time to, like, show that I was somebody who could do the job, I could just simply say, like, look.

Aaron

00:09:01 – 00:09:12

I've done the job. Not for you, but I I, like, have done the job. And if you think that fits, great. Otherwise, you know exactly the type of work I can do. And I think that was compelling to him.

Aaron

00:09:12 – 00:09:13

Mhmm.

James

00:09:13 – 00:09:39

And this episode, when you sent me the topic, I loved which was side projects as layoff insurance. Now this could go two ways. Right? This could be and explain to me kind of what you meant by this, but I'm seeing it as layoff insurance for, right, okay, I've got a bit of time to figure out what I wanna do because my side project's earned some money, Or it's okay. Now I've been laid off, and I can maybe do this full time.

James

00:09:40 – 00:09:57

Or I've got all these side projects that I've done over the years that make me really appealing to be hired from other people. So what what did you mean by saying that to me? Was it one or the other? And did that help sort of shape your decision making for the next stage of your life?

Aaron

00:09:57 – 00:10:17

When you lose your job, you also lose the paycheck, which I think is, like turns out that's that's the part about the job I loved the most. You know? I enjoyed the job, but, like, wow. Getting paid was pretty important. And when I reached out to you about, like, side projects as layoff insurance, my thinking is I didn't lose all of my income.

Aaron

00:10:17 – 00:10:29

Right? I lost the majority of my income. Sure. But I didn't lose all of it, and I have something in motion. And

James

00:10:54 – 00:10:54

Aaron

00:10:58 – 00:11:41

calculus quickly became, do I look for a job, or do I take some of these things that have shown signs of success and, like, put the full weight of of my efforts behind those things. And so suddenly, like, I'm not as desperate as I would have been otherwise. Right? Because if I had no side projects, no public body of work, and no income coming in, there's only really one option, you know, at that point, in my opinion, and that's get a job as fast as you can. But now, frankly, having a side project that made some money while I still had a job set us up my family up for a little bit of a buffer, a little bit of a cushion.

Aaron

00:11:42 – 00:12:01

And so even coming out of it, the side project has already served its purpose, and that it has filled our coffers a little bit so that we have more runway. And now it's like, hey. This thing that was working, maybe it's working a 5 out of 10 with halftime effort or less than. Now maybe it's time to push on it. And now I've got, you know, Steve involved.

Aaron

00:12:01 – 00:12:28

And so I think the side projects as insurance from my mind is is money. There's a totally viable way of looking at it as, like, public body of work. And, you know, if you have a bunch of side projects that you saw through to completion but don't make any money, employers still are gonna look at that and say, wow. This person, like, they did the whole thing soup to nuts, and maybe they can come do it for us as well. So I think there's no bad outcome of it, but I was thinking primarily money.

James

00:12:29 – 00:12:56

Okay. So let me first talk about as a public body of work, and then we'll talk about money and your decision to do what you wanted to do. So I asked JR this question off air, and we promised we'd save it for the recording because I think having side projects can really make you much more attractive to employers. But I don't know because I've not hired that many people. So for you, JR, when you're hiring people, do you think it's a good bet good thing that they have side projects that are entrepreneurial or a bad thing because it might distract them?

J.R.

00:12:56 – 00:13:17

No. I I mean, I'm I'm very much of the opinion that it's a positive thing. Mostly because there's something to be said for, like, a practitioner. Right? They're, like, truly understands what it takes to do this, to get something off the ground, and also maybe even gain some perspective and and appreciation for, like, wow, it actually is really hard to do some of these things.

J.R.

00:13:17 – 00:13:36

So there's empathy that's created between both the employer and the player. We're like, I understand this is a tough decision or right? So and I and I also think that sometimes there could even be a gain from a technology perspective where it's like this person was able to go and play freely in this environment and bring it back as a positive to the whole org.

James

00:14:19 – 00:14:29

They're ambitious, and they wanna do cool stuff. Mhmm. You want those kind of people in your organization. Do do you find, like, those kind of people hard to work with JR? Or, like, how do you cultivate those people within organization that wanna do their own thing?

J.R.

00:14:30 – 00:14:49

I've had experiences where it can be where you can tell maybe that there it's it's it's becoming or they want it to be something. So if they Sometimes it's like nice upfront to say, okay. Ultimately, is this what you're wanting to do? Are you trying to grow this and this is a stop gap? If so, that's fine.

J.R.

00:14:49 – 00:14:54

But I just wanna sure we're on the same page there. So then we can kind of operate that way. Or it's like, no. No. No.

J.R.

00:14:54 – 00:15:09

Like, I'm just a I'm just a tinkerer and this just keeps my mind going and it's you know what I mean? There's it's a difference. And so I think it's good to, like, call it out upfront because if you don't, then, yeah, I do think you can maybe get into some weird stuff. But, you know, our focus becomes an issue. But overall, I think it's really positive.

James

00:15:10 – 00:15:21

So, Aaron, with your side projects, we spoke about screencasting.com, your course that you launched, which was awesome. Did you have anything else sort of on the side that was making a bit of money that sort of helped your decision making?

Aaron

00:15:21 – 00:15:29

Yeah. Weirdly, weirdly, I have an asset. It it's financial accounting tutoring for sophomores in college.

J.R.

00:15:29 – 00:15:31

Oh, yeah. Love this one.

Aaron

00:15:31 – 00:15:44

Yeah. And so this is, like nobody nobody knows about this. Everybody knows me. If they know me at all, they know me as, like, Laravel slash database guy. Turns out, speaking of education, I got my masters in tax.

Aaron

00:15:44 – 00:16:10

So I got my undergrad in accounting and my masters in taxation, became a CPA, spent a year at a big four accounting firm, and then was like, this sucks. But the thing that I actually loved was introduction to financial accounting, which is a sophomore level class at universities. And, while I was at my college, I tutored that class for, like, the next 3 or 4 years after I took it. And so I just you know, I was really good at it. I loved it.

Aaron

00:16:10 – 00:16:39

I thought it made a lot of sense. And so I put together, like, this whole website of video training on specifically, that class, like, 4 college sophomores. So talk about maybe the worst market is college students and people that only buy once, and you can never sell them anything else because they move on. But it's been like, that that property has earned me over a $100,000 in, you know, the time it's been alive. So it's not a it's not a lot every year.

Aaron

00:16:39 – 00:16:52

And in fact, like, I turned off payments maybe 2 or 3 years ago because some Facebook thing changed. And I was using Facebook for the login, and I didn't have time to fix it. But it still exists. Right? So this property still exists.

Aaron

00:16:52 – 00:17:14

Students use it every single semester. I get emails maybe once a week talking about how I saved their lives because they were failing accounting. And turns out I just I need to spend a little bit of time and turn the paywall back on. But that was another thing in my mind thinking, okay, screencasting dotcom has now done close to a100000 in less than, you know, whatever. It's been 6 months.

Aaron

00:17:14 – 00:17:35

This accounting thing does about maybe 20 to 30 1,000 a year, like, when when payments are enabled. And that right there is is is money. Like, I I lost a big job, but I'm not starting at 0. And if I put some concentrated effort into these things that are already rolling, maybe I can get them to roll faster. And, like,

James

00:17:43 – 00:17:56

I think you're so spot on with this, Aaron, because I see a lot of people who have side projects that can't quite get it off the ground. Get it from 0 to 1, and they're like, if only I could quit my job, I would have more time.

Aaron

00:17:56 – 00:17:57

Mhmm.

James

00:17:57 – 00:18:24

And that would be the the re the thing that would push it along. When often if you can find a way to get that from 0 to 1 when you're currently working a job, then you've got something that if you then spent more time on it, and someone like you who's proven to be very productive with your time can push it further. So what what was the turning point for you? Because you had these job offers on the table. What was the turning point to say, like, I'm gonna go all in on my own thing?

Aaron

00:18:24 – 00:18:42

You know, I did I did a series of of calls. Like, I thought wisdom would dictate that I talk to all these companies. Right? And so I did because, you know, like Jer said, I'm a new dad again, and we have 4 kids under 3. And the hardest working person in our family is my wife, but she doesn't get paid for it.

Aaron

00:18:42 – 00:19:17

And so it's, it's all on me, so I gotta figure this out. So I took all these calls, talked to a lot of really great companies, really nice people, and then also talked to a lot of, like, friends and mentors. And coming out of that week, I felt like there are a lot of opportunities to go do the same thing I just finished doing. Really super excited about that. The only thing that was really exciting about that was the comfort and security of cashing a a check.

Aaron

00:19:18 – 00:19:23

Mhmm. But in terms of, do I wanna go run it back? Like, I just played that level. I just played that level. I beat the level.

Aaron

00:19:23 – 00:19:47

Do I wanna play that level again? And I think the answer ended up being no. And so from there, like, as I was talking to these these friends and mentors, they're like, you just you gotta you gotta dream bigger. And I'm like, maybe now maybe now is the time. And so this I think a few things conspired to make this the best possible time to do this while simultaneously being the worst possible time.

Aaron

00:19:47 – 00:20:08

So, like, from from the work perspective, this is the best possible time for me to do it. I I think I have from, an objective judgment. I did my job extremely well at PlanetScale. That was pretty public, which is a good thing, and then I exited PlanetScale without any weirdness. Right?

Aaron

00:20:08 – 00:20:23

So here's where it would be weird. If I worked really hard and became the face of PlanetScale and then was like, see you. Thank you. That would be like, oh, that guy's that was kinda ruthless. That guy's kinda I don't know if I trust him.

Aaron

00:20:23 – 00:20:38

But, like, I worked really hard, basically became the face of PlanetScale, and then left through no fault of my own. And so, like, I'm the aggrieved party. I'm not, like, the aggressor. And so now I'm out there, and I've I have this body of work. And now it's like now is my moment of capturing the most attention possible.

Aaron

00:20:38 – 00:20:40

And so I think this, opportunity

James

00:20:43 – 00:20:43

because if I do it and fail, I haven't really

Aaron

00:20:43 – 00:21:02

lost anything. Like, 6 months from now, if I go back to I haven't really lost anything. Like, 6 months from now, if I go back to a company or any company and with my hat in hand and say, like, hey. I tried to live the American dream, and it didn't work out for me. Who's gonna be mad?

Aaron

00:21:02 – 00:21:14

Like, who's gonna be mad at me for that? You know? But if I were to go to a company and 6 months later quit, I would feel kinda like, oh, man. I kinda did them dirty. And so I feel like this is a two way door.

Aaron

00:21:14 – 00:21:41

I can try this for 6 months or a year, not padding, historic side projects and ongoing side projects, like, really makes that solution or that decision a lot easier.

James

00:21:42 – 00:22:15

You said something there that made me realize why this is such a good move for you right now, which is you have the attention of so many people right now in this moment. So that tweet you put out, 5, 600,000 people, every other tweet you put out has got 100, thousands of people, like you, messaging you. I'm sure your inbox is flooded with people. Your podcast, Mercy Technical, that's also doing well. So I guess it was like, I'm at the peak of my well, what could be the peak of my powers right now in terms of getting better.

Aaron

00:22:15 – 00:23:11

At least a local maximum. I hope it's not my global maximum forever, but this is for sure a local maximum that I am fully aware of and fully, like, trying to not let it, pace what super tight.

J.R.

00:23:11 – 00:23:12

Mhmm. Yep.

James

00:23:12 – 00:23:23

So launch video, Steve, who is he, talked to me about it. Aaron, this is just I thoroughly enjoyed on all 3 minutes 40 of this video. Mhmm.

J.R.

00:23:24 – 00:23:24

It was good.

James

00:23:24 – 00:23:33

It was good. If you haven't seen it, there'll be a link in the show notes. Talking about who Steve is, the launch video, and what Trial Studios is.

Aaron

00:23:33 – 00:23:51

Yeah. So Steve came to PlanetScale through a tweet of mine when I, you know, when PlanetScale was looking for an editor to help me with videos. And so that's when we found Steve the editor, which is a hysterical moniker that I gave him. He's now producer Steve and has been all along. He's much more than an editor, but it's a lot funnier to say Steve the editor.

Aaron

00:23:51 – 00:24:07

So Steve is just, like, this multitalented, unbelievably creative guy that I worked with at PlanetScale. He's weirdly been a real estate agent. He's a software developer. He does his own real estate deals. Also, turns out he's an incredible filmmaker, videographer, editor, all these things.

Aaron

00:24:07 – 00:24:21

So one of us in terms of, like, does 8 different things. And so Steve and I used to bebop all the time at PlanetScale about, like, alright. Here's an idea. Like, how do we make this work on YouTube? And Steve would be like, hey.

Aaron

00:24:21 – 00:24:27

Your idea kinda sucks. Let's make it better. Like, great. That's what you're here for. And so Steve and I got along really well.

Aaron

00:24:27 – 00:24:35

He's super talented in areas that I'm not and vice versa. And so we decided, hey. Let's take the show on the road. You know? I like him.

Aaron

00:24:35 – 00:24:46

We're buds. We're good together. So let's team up, and let's open a video studio. And so he flew to he's in Boise, Idaho. He flew down to Dallas and rented an Airbnb that was very aesthetic.

Aaron

00:24:46 – 00:25:21

And so we took we did a lot of the shots in the Airbnb, which was fun. And we made this video that's basically, like, my announcement video of of what's next. And the the arc of the video is, like, starts with me getting laid off and then being sad all around town, you know, like watching watching TV and eating Doritos. And then there's a turning point where it's like I took actual clips from people's podcasts talking about the layoff and then naming me specifically as they can't believe I got laid off. And so we put those clips in the video, and then the comeback, like, the the triumphant return is, hey.

Aaron

00:25:21 – 00:25:32

Let's do this for real. Like, we've been kinda doing this. We've been dallying on the side for a while. Let's, like, freaking do the thing. And that's that's kinda how the video, like that's the end of the video.

Aaron

00:25:32 – 00:25:48

And so it was a lot of fun. And, like, being a, you know, being an actor is, like, way outside of my skill set, but it was fun. And I think that it served the purpose very, very well of, like, what's the people that were wondering what's he gonna do next, this video was like, oh, cool. I'm so pumped for him.

J.R.

00:25:49 – 00:26:02

Aaron, what what was the response like, I mean, I'm I know there's been a lot of support and a lot of, you know, attention. But, like, what is the actual, like, the result? Right? Did you actually did you sign up cost do you

James

00:26:15 – 00:26:15

Aaron

00:26:19 – 00:26:34

on those tweets, and so I'm kinda, like, I I'm kinda set for a little while. You know? But, you know, basically, everyone that we talked to during the interviews, we basically got back to them and we're like, hey. I I really appreciate your time. Turns out I'm gonna go solo.

Aaron

00:26:34 – 00:26:59

I would love to, you know if if that makes sense for us to work with you still, we'd love to talk. So a lot of those interviews became leads, and then a lot a lot of people did reach out, you know, through from the announcement video saying, like, hey. We need we need help with video. And the shape of that has been the thing that we're figuring out on the fly. Like, Steve Steve has done the full on video company thing before, so I rely on him a lot for it.

Aaron

00:26:59 – 00:27:25

But the shape of what we're offering has been a little amorphous, because people companies need so many different things. But, like, where we're trying to funnel people is you have an in house video person or people, and Steve and I can work as outside consultants to make that person more powerful and more effective. So you're spending half a1000000 to a1000000 on salaries to run this team, and you're putting webinars on YouTube and getting no results. Like

James

00:27:26 – 00:27:26

Right.

Aaron

00:27:26 – 00:27:39

We can help you with that. And so that's kind of where we've been funneling conversations. And then the other leg of it is a company will come to us and be like, we don't have any video people in house. We don't want any video people in house. We want you to do it all.

Aaron

00:27:40 – 00:27:59

Mhmm. And that's also super interesting if a lot more expensive. Right? Because if I'm gonna be on if I'm gonna be on camera for these companies making these videos, I just can't do that for every company. And so that's, like, the total white glove turnkey service of you give us some material, and we'll turn it into video, and it will be very good.

Aaron

00:27:59 – 00:28:01

So that's kind of the shape of it so far.

J.R.

00:28:01 – 00:28:06

How did you come up with the name? I laugh at it because of, like, yeah, my connotation to the name.

Aaron

00:28:06 – 00:28:06

But how did

J.R.

00:28:06 – 00:28:08

you guys come up with that and why?

Aaron

00:28:08 – 00:28:22

Yeah. So I I've been on about this for a long time, Maximum Effort. Unfortunately, Maximum Effort is a video production studio by Ryan Reynolds. Yeah. And so, like, maximum effort studios, we'd probably get, hosed pretty quickly on that.

Aaron

00:28:22 – 00:28:30

And so we started thinking about other ideas, and the I think the reason you laugh is because a try hard is usually a bad connotation. Right?

J.R.

00:28:30 – 00:28:31

Mhmm.

Aaron

00:28:31 – 00:29:04

And so we went we went with Try Hard Studios to kind of, like, hang a lantern on that as you would as one might say to, like, put a put a point on it. Like, we put in a huge amount of effort, and that is what makes that's what makes our results very good. And so, like, in a world, I think, Right? Like, if you're a kid and you're putting in a ton of effort at this thing that you love, people are gonna be like, dude, you're such a try hard. And you're like, well, I'm I am.

Aaron

00:29:04 – 00:29:05

I am trying hard.

J.R.

00:29:05 – 00:29:06

Yeah. Yeah.

Aaron

00:29:06 – 00:29:16

And so we kinda, like, we kinda pivoted from maximum effort to try hard because it does have this nice, like, almost double entendre where it's like Yes. Oh, you guys are try hards.

James

00:29:16 – 00:29:17

You know, like, you're

Aaron

00:29:17 – 00:29:19

Yeah. God dang right we are.

J.R.

00:29:19 – 00:29:32

And now that you say it, now that I understand where it comes from, I actually appreciate it. I love it even more now because one of the values that Lemon Squeezy is craftsmanship because, you know, our opinion is if you're gonna make something, you might as well make you might as well really give it your best. Right? And so Yep. I love that.

Aaron

00:29:32 – 00:29:32

There is a,

J.R.

00:29:33 – 00:29:34

I'm thinking.

Aaron

00:29:34 – 00:29:40

There's a company called Grovemade that makes these really beautiful Mhmm. Desktop, accessories. I have a Grovemade

J.R.

00:29:40 – 00:29:41

I have one right here.

Aaron

00:29:41 – 00:29:52

Yeah. You it might say it on your stand if it's if it's that laptop stand. It's a stand. There's a little imprint on it that says made the hard way. That is the most badass thing to say, we made this the hard way.

J.R.

00:29:52 – 00:29:52

Exactly.

Aaron

00:29:52 – 00:29:57

Yeah. Cool. I love that. And so that's kinda well, you know, we vibed off of that.

James

00:29:57 – 00:30:04

I got the urban dictionary definition just while you guys were talking and it made me chuckle. Try hard, somebody whose effort level and emotional investment

Aaron

00:30:09 – 00:30:10

your

James

00:30:15 – 00:30:15

I love that.

Aaron

00:30:15 – 00:30:38

So where does it sit with your existing, courses you've got at the moment, Aaron? So, again, we're gonna be able to push this boulder downhill a lot faster because now Steve's on board. Right? So we're working out the the actual structure of it, but screencasting.com is now a try hard brand. It's a it's a try hard asset.

Aaron

00:30:38 – 00:31:01

So we're gonna we're gonna have the flagship course as it exists now, and then we're going to have Steve is gonna record a a mini course on Premiere for screencasting. And so it's gonna be like, hey. You wanna use Premiere? Turns out Premiere is incredibly complicated. Here's the 20% you need to know to make beautiful screencasts with Premiere.

Aaron

00:31:01 – 00:31:12

And so we're gonna do that for all the editors. So he's gonna do Premiere. I'm gonna do ScreenFlow. We're gonna do DaVinci, Descript, all of these editors. And these will become, like, add on or secondary

James

00:31:13 – 00:31:13

Yes.

Aaron

00:31:13 – 00:31:39

Courses. And then it's gonna become this destination for for screencasters to come and talk shop. So we're gonna add a forum. I'm gonna potentially start a podcast interviewing screencasters about how they built their empire and got rich, you know, hopefully. And then Steve, as he is doing all of this other stuff that we're doing, is gonna be creating content for YouTube, just like quick tips on screencasting YouTube.

Aaron

00:31:39 – 00:32:52

And so this whole thing just kinda, like, slots nicely into this try hard brand. And I think with I It's it's been pretty great. And, you know, something, again, capitalizing on on the moment. You know, somebody tweeted shortly after I was laid off, a graph of their YouTube subscribers before and after taking the course, and it was just it was amazing. Great testimonial.

Aaron

00:32:52 – 00:32:56

And so I quote tweeted it and said, use code layoff for $50 off.

James

00:32:57 – 00:32:57

And so, like, that capitalizes on what's going on in the moment, you

Aaron

00:32:57 – 00:33:00

know, a little empathy for air and a little little empathy for air and a little bit of humor.

J.R.

00:33:00 – 00:33:01

And I yeah. I think we

Aaron

00:33:01 – 00:33:21

moved, like, 5 or $6,000 of courses that day. And so I just I don't know what I would do if I were sitting here thinking, what should I start from scratch? I think I would be overwhelmed. And I I you know? What how can I improve this thing that is good?

Aaron

00:33:21 – 00:33:29

I feel a lot of comfort in. I know all the ways I can improve it. I've been working on it for almost a year, so that gives me great comfort.

James

00:33:29 – 00:33:33

Has there anything over the last 4 weeks not going so well for you,

Aaron

00:33:34 – 00:33:37

own? No. Yeah. Tons of stuff. I mean, I don't have a job.

Aaron

00:33:37 – 00:33:57

So, like, you know, I got the letter I got the letter for in in America, there's a thing called COBRA. It's an abbreviation for something something like continuing insurance or whatever. You know, I the exact same plan that I was on at PlanetScale. And it was $37100 a month.

J.R.

00:33:58 – 00:33:59

Oh my gosh.

Aaron

00:33:59 – 00:34:07

And I yeah. I tweeted about that, and that one, that's my most viral tweet ever. I think I touched a nerve. And a lot of people were like, oh, that's yeah. That's not that bad.

Aaron

00:34:07 – 00:34:10

That's how much I pay in Germany a year. And I'm like, woah. Woah. Woah. Woah.

Aaron

00:34:10 – 00:34:12

Woah. Woah. Woah. Back up. Back up.

Aaron

00:34:12 – 00:34:30

That's how much I'm paying a month. And so that freaked me out. Like, that I was like, what the hell? How are we gonna do this? So, you know, COBRA is prohibitively expensive because it is meant to be a bridge and a and a stop gap.

Aaron

00:34:30 – 00:34:48

And I priced, you know, I priced plans on the open market, and they they're expensive, but it's not 37. It's like 19 hundred, 22100. And so it's like, oh, shoot. I still got I still got to make a lot of money, but it's not 3rd it's not 4 grand a month. Yeah.

Aaron

00:34:48 – 00:34:53

So that was probably the rudest welcome to the welcome to the outside world that I got.

James

00:34:53 – 00:35:08

So from the plans you've got with screencasting, putting the paperwork on your accounting course versus the client work. Mhmm. Where's your pipeline and your workload sort? How is it shaping up at the moment?

Aaron

00:35:08 – 00:35:31

This is another thing like, another strategy that I think gives, not my family, but in this case, Steve and I, a good buffer is that we're kinda like that developer agency that's like, let's build a product on the side. Like, we have clients. Let's build a product. Steve and I are like, let's get clients, and let's build courses. And so kinda is gonna be able hopefully, the plan is for it to to balance out and fill gaps, one or the other.

Aaron

00:35:31 – 00:35:49

Right? So right now, what we're doing is the sales process. We're having calls every day, like, figuring out what people need, circling back, following up, and all of this stuff. Meanwhile, there is work we can do that is productive towards income even if we don't have a client yet. Right?

Aaron

00:35:49 – 00:35:58

Yeah. And so the hope is that as things settle, the ebbs and flows can be buffeted by our in house courses

James

00:35:58 – 00:35:58

Mhmm.

Aaron

00:35:59 – 00:36:03

Of which, you know, there will hopefully be many, but the first one is gonna be

J.R.

00:36:10 – 00:36:30

you know, people say service based business are tough, but there's a lot of cash. Right? So if you do it right, you can get a lot of cash, but then you're also building an asset that's passing the checklist of, you know, making money while you sleep and Mhmm. Building something like that. And where where you're headed with screencasting is exactly what we talked about when you were on the show, which is, like, where you would head with it.

J.R.

00:36:30 – 00:36:36

So I love love love love love that you're finally doing that. I think it's amazing. I think you're gonna I think you're gonna do really really well.

Aaron

00:36:36 – 00:37:02

Yeah. I think this is the latent thing that is inside of me and I've wanted to, like, have expressed in the world is making this property more of an empire. And I was talking, I think, on on our podcast, and Adam Wavin was on. And he was like, dude, if if I didn't know you, there's a real scenario where I go to screencasting.com, and I'm like, oh, yeah. Per this is a company, and there are at least 12 people working on this.

Aaron

00:37:02 – 00:37:12

And I'm like, shoot. I need to make it so. Like, that's that's what it deserves to be is an empire, not just this, like, Aaron's course that he worked on on nights and weekends.

James

00:37:12 – 00:37:39

Yeah. Have you thought about how much work this is all gonna be for you in the future creating all of this content. You see a lot of YouTubers slash content creators burning out because of the amount of work it is, because pushy paycheck before. Have you thought about what you gonna do to make sure you don't burn out or overdo it with making so much this content?

Aaron

00:37:40 – 00:37:58

Yes. I I have only thought about how much work it's going to be. Yeah. I mean, I'm not on burnout watch at this point. I think there is a time where I could I could be on burnout watch, but at this point, I'm I'm do not go quiet into that good night.

Aaron

00:37:58 – 00:38:16

Like, I am raging against the dying of the light right now because this is my time, And I'm either I'm either going to make it or I'm not, and I would much rather make it. Like, right now, I have the energy. I have the drive. I have the motivation. And finally, I have the time.

Aaron

00:38:17 – 00:38:34

And so I think I would never forgive myself if I, that

James

00:38:41 – 00:38:59

options When when are you gonna have the blinders on for putting your shelves up, making your background?

Aaron

00:39:00 – 00:39:20

Yeah. So, you know, in here, I will have I will have, like, beautiful art. So it's just really intimidating to, like, decorate the set, but in here, I will have everything set up, and I'm of course, everything takes longer because I'm trying to film it as I go so we can do, like, a studio video tour. And it's like yeah. So while I'm on calls with Steve, I'm in here poking around, like, trying to organize stuff.

Aaron

00:39:20 – 00:39:36

And, you know, this physical space is a big part of the strategy. Like, everything is a story. Everything is a narrative. Everything is part of the journey. And, like, I don't wanna waste it's it sounds like I'm an insane person, but everything is content now.

Aaron

00:39:36 – 00:39:49

My whole life is content now. And so I need to be cognizant of making sure you get the content because you only do so many things. I'm not gonna make another studio in the next year. And so, like, gotta capitalize on it.

James

00:39:49 – 00:40:08

Well, Aaron, man, this sounds awesome. Good for you for capitalizing on this moment. I hope people can be inspired by what you just said. I've got a few messages about previous guests that they just inspired them on what they've said. And the couple of things you said at the end about blinders on, having the energy to do it.

James

00:40:08 – 00:40:28

I hope that inspires some people. And also the strategy you're putting in place to make your side projects work, to make, as a full time thing now, the actual strategy you're going to put in place. Everything is content. The YouTube videos, improving the course. It's something I myself need to follow for my own upcoming course.

Aaron

00:40:28 – 00:40:34

Alex I'm very excited about that storyline on the podcast, by the way. I need I need another episode that's James focused.

James

00:40:35 – 00:40:45

It'll be coming. But that every everything you said is the playbook. It's just the execution now. And I need a little bit of fire in my belly like you've got right now. Mhmm.

J.R.

00:40:45 – 00:40:50

It's it's gonna be fun to watch, though, Aaron. We're we're real we're all rooting for you, and we're here to support you too. So

Aaron

00:40:50 – 00:40:59

I appreciate y'all. Thanks thanks for having me back on. And, JR, you gotta bust James Chops on on the course. I I excited. I'm excited for him to launch it and have his own story.

Aaron

00:40:59 – 00:41:00

So you gotta keep him on the

J.R.

00:41:00 – 00:41:02

straight and narrow. Yeah. Absolutely.

James

00:41:02 – 00:41:04

Well, have you got any questions for us, Aaron?

Aaron

00:41:04 – 00:41:18

No. I don't I don't think so. I anticipate all of our courses being folded into the lemon squeezy empire, and so I'm just I'm just thrilled to death to be on here and to have to be friends with you all. So I appreciate

James

00:41:21 – 00:41:21

time.

Building side projects as layoff insurance

Transcript

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