I have Tim Branyan on the line from TrueFanz LLC. And what we’re going to be talking about is the creator economy. And for most people listening, you’ve probably heard of creators. These are the people who either are bloggers, podcasters, famous Vloggers, or YouTubers, et cetera. But the thing that Tim and I were talking about, the Pre show, which I think is a really interesting idea to unpack, is how people who are currently creators, in many cases either are or are in the process of becoming entrepreneurs or business people because of course, they need to work on things like legal entities, tax consulting, etc. And many people who are professionals at some point in their career will need to become creators because just the way that the current environment works is that the corporate career training for most people ends at some point before they are done with their ability to be economically productive. And in that case, a lot of people end up going into business for themselves. And if you’re in some kind of business or consulting capacity and you want to generate authority and get your name up, you have to become a creator. You have to publish, otherwise nobody will know you exist. And so, Tim, just take the podium for me. Don’t let me talk because I have a tendency to do that.
No, I’m a talker too. First off, thank you so much, Doug, for having me on here. I’m grateful to be here. And as I said before we even started the podcast, I’m excited to become friends and build a relationship. And anytime I can be a service man, don’t hesitate to reach out. I will hope to be of service to the audience listening, too. So again, my name is Tim Branyan, but again, so my name is Tim Branyan. I’m the founder of TrueFanz.com and my story started as a military veteran. I did that. I served overseas and then went to some good places, went to some bad places, never intended on getting into the tech space. It just became this really restlessness and discontent ended up where I’m at aggressive curiosity and just a desire for true freedom was this itch that I wanted to solve. Technology and apps in this realm that I’m in now made the most sense to me. So through trial and error, through hundreds of thousands of dollars, literally in loss and learning, we’ve had some great wins. And we’re excited about the future. One of our platforms, like I just mentioned, I do in a tech company. But one of the ones we’re really excited about is TrueFanz, because it’s helping content creators flip the switch and become that hybrid between content creator entrepreneur and helping them get paid to post, helping them turn their influence into income. And just to kind of like preface who we are and what we are and what we aren’t. We are very similar to our competitors. Right. People have probably heard of only fans, Patreon. The biggest difference is that we are invite only. So either have to know somebody that’s in or apply and be vetted. And we pay more, we pay faster. We’re USA based, veteran owned. Right. And then the biggest kicker is we don’t allow adult content, we don’t allow porn. So we had this idea that we could be the logical choice for creators and become a really great platform with features and functions, but also be a home for folks that would love to have an only fans or member site, but didn’t want to be directly associated or connotated with the adult industry. So that’s a little bit about this, man. And it’s been really exciting and I’m excited to dive into more into this topic and kind of helping people flip that switch.
Got you. Well, first of all, I want to say thank you very much for your service. I myself, I didn’t end up overseas in my service, but I was in the Marine Corps Reserve for six years. I won’t say the years. You look a little younger than me.
So it’s probably got a devil dog.
But I don’t want to necessarily assume. But yeah, one of the things I’d like to just kind of talk a little bit about is just sort of how the creator economy works. And then also for a platform like True Fans, how does it relate to a platform like Patron or like Mighty Networks? Because at least what I’m seeing is that all kind of included TrueFanz sort of in that I would call it the I would almost think it as the private community type of market, which is where there’s a lot of people who are frustrated with, like, say, Twitter, Facebook or whoever, because they track literally everything about you. And all of that data is rapaciously monetized to bombard you with advertisement. Now, on the other hand, if you’re a marketer, you absolutely love the fact that the Facebook tracks everything about everyone, because then you can just hammer people with ads nonstop. But if you’re talking about, if you’re a creator and you have a community, there’s a growing group of people who are saying, hey, look, I don’t want to be dependent on Facebook, for example, for my community. I want that to be something I own. I want that interaction to be something that I own. It seems like there is an ecosystem about five or six different solutions that are out there. I’d like to hear your thoughts on kind of both that movement and some of the differentiation between the different solutions.
Yeah. So really, people are kind of pissed, man. Like, as far as users go, and specifically, like, the mega users influencers the people that are really moving traffic and really rely on that to communicate with their people, to connect with their people, to disseminate information, to entertain, to pay their bills. And really, that’s why we started TrueFanz, because of all these pain points that are existing today. I mean, people are being demonetized. People historically haven’t made enough money. In my opinion. The creators are heavily undervalued and underpaid in a lot of cases, and they’re not really given any of that control. For instance, if you ask for your email list from other providers, good luck on that. They’re not going to give you that. That’s their digital asset. Whereas I look at it like if you brought the traffic, it’s yours. We’re here to facilitate that as a platform. We’re here to facilitate the growth. And from an algorithm standpoint, we don’t limit your reach ever. It doesn’t make sense for us to do that in a partnership. We want you to get the most possible views and attention and engagement from everything that you do. Whether you have five people or 5 million people, it’s within our best interest to help you reach every single one of them and give you the tools and systems to do what you do, whoever you are, whether you’re a musician, whether you’re a model, whether you’re a fitness coach, life coach, a nonprofit. There’s so many different people that fall into this realm. Anybody that has a community really could benefit from segmenting that community and putting and monetizing some of the value of the results that you’re able to give as an individual. So we were built because of the problems and the belief that we could be better. Okay. Can I answer the question? Because I think I totally went down a tangent.
First of all, one of my governing philosophies is that I completely encourage tangents as long as they don’t take too much time. So you can spend up to 30 seconds on any tangent you want. There’s a word for that. And it’s called interesting. If you stay completely on top of those shows are boring. You have to go on a few tangents. Otherwise you’re showing
If you have, like a Bell or something or a Horn? Just hit me with a Bell or Horn.
But you may have given me an idea for the file, I think one that I’d like to kind of think about or talk about a little bit along the lines of what you were saying is your observation, what does that process look like for going from. Okay, I have an idea. I have a few people. Let’s say I’m starting at five. I have five people who think what I’m doing is kind of cool. How do I kind of go from I have five people who think what I’m doing is kind of cool, and I’m a hobbyist to, hey, I’m a creator that’s generating legitimate value, and this can even get to an adult type of career. grown up type of thing to do.
Yeah, I know a lot of it, man. Is just giving yourself permission. So many people don’t give themselves permission. When you’re a creator of any sort, your product creator, your service provider or coach, I think many people the first step is to give yourself the title. You know what I mean, Doug? Like, you are a professional podcaster. A lot of people that are doing what you’re doing right now don’t even like speak that. They don’t write it out. They don’t believe it yet. So that’s step one, I think. Go ahead.
I’d like to unpack that a little bit because I think you’re absolutely right. Because, for example, say you talk about podcasts, by the time this episode airs will be well north of 100 episodes. Thank you. The thing that’s right. In the real world, your qualifications don’t need anything. In the real world, it’s your results and what you produce. And so the thing that makes you a professional podcaster is if you release podcasts, the thing that makes you a writer is if you write the thing that makes you a content creator is if you create whether you get paid for it is actually irrelevant. And in a lot of cases, there’s a time lag between when you produce and when you monetize. But I think my favorite example here pretty much of all time is Tony Robbins, one of the most recognizable names on the face of the planet. If you were born anytime in the last quarter, in the last half century, you know who he is. He’s pretty much the top of the top of the top of the mountain in terms of motivation, self development. And you know what his qualifications are? Nothing like literally nothing. He walked out of a six month NLP course because he said, hey, this is taking too long. I want to help people. Now. He just went out produce results, and everything went on from there. So I think what you’re saying is really important because
if you create results, if you create, your qualifications don’t mean anything. What matters is the content you create and the results you produce.
Exactly. I love that. So the results is actually what you put the price tag on, too, for anybody that’s out doing consulting work or creative work in general. But one of the hardest things that I at least I’ve personally seen people don’t know, what do I charge for this? How much am I worth? And it’s kind of like writing your own resume in a way, like that, same sort of feeling where it’s like, am I? It’s strange. But what I tell folks to think on when they’re onboarding with us or there’s people that I’ve met in walks of life from consulting, whatever, I first extract what is the result you’re providing somebody. So as a fitness, I talked to a fitness coach a few months back and she helps people get in shape. Right. And in the front of the service, you see workout routines and leg routines, various routines, but getting into the weeds of what does that do for someone’s life. Right. What is the result? Are you helping them stay out of the hospital again? Are you helping them fit into a wedding dress? That’s a really important thing. And if you have the ability, capability and track record to get somebody results for that category, it’s worth probably more than $10. And when you’re really good at that and you know your value and you know the results, you can get somebody that’s when you say, okay, my course is five grand. And when you invest in that and you get a different market of people, too, that are really serious, because the truth is,
If you get something for free, in a lot of cases, we don’t tend to really value it as much. But if you’re paying for something that’s high level, most of the time, you get a different filtered crowd that’s dead serious about what it is they’re doing.
Yeah. Well, I’m going to put a little bit of a hook into what you’re saying also, which is that okay, if you are purchasing something or if you are selling something, in some cases, you actually in order to generate client results, you actually have to make it a little uncomfortably expensive. And here’s why it’s because if you don’t invest a lot into something enough to make it sting, it’s easy to just kind of say, oh, well, I’ll get to it later. On the other hand, if the amount that you paid hurts, you’re saying, okay, I better make this work because it almost forces you to pay attention. And because I think that was a mental block that it took me a really long time to come over. So I’m like, why are people charging so much money for this information when you can just get it online for free? I’m like, you’re not charging for the information. You’re charging for the motivation to make that information work because you paid so much for it. And part of it. Okay, what you’re really doing by making that cost sting just a little bit is you’re creating that internal motivation to say, oh, no, okay, I’m going to make this work because otherwise I will be throwing my money away.
Right. Yeah. And who you get to through the door when you have a different price point, you see this everywhere you go. You go to a really expensive restaurant. You got a different caliber of people that have made it to that level of experience. Same thing with hotels, private jets, who do you think you’re meeting on a private jet versus things that cost more? There’s different levels of things. And not to say that these people are better or worse, whatever, I’m just saying I think the biggest thing is
believe in yourself, become worthy of that title that you’re going to get and focus on the results.
You can get someone where do you get belief, right? I think belief happens in the process of chopping the tree down. Like if you’re out doing the damn thing, you did 100 episodes of this podcast, you are not the same person you were at episode one. Guarantee it talking about that, how is doing this effort? How have you morphed. Right.
I think there’s one quote that I don’t generally like to quote Wolf of Wall Street, but there’s a Jordan Belfort quote that I just can’t get over. And that is the only difference between where you are now and where you want to be are the BS excuses inside your head that are holding you back. That’s something that I try to tell myself on an almost daily basis because it’s completely true. I was going to say, just because the guy was indicted for securities fraud doesn’t mean he was wrong in this regard,
Doesn’t mean he was evil in everything.
Yeah. That’s the thing. Every person has downfalls and every person has some redeeming characteristics. You just have to look hard enough to find it. But that’s really the truth.
The difference between where any of us are now and where we want to be is completely inside your head.
And so once you unwind that, I’m not going to say the rest will take care of itself because you’re still going to have to do something. But the rest of that kind of thing, you will find the internal motivation to Bumble through it until you find your path. I think that’s the part that a lot of people really trip up on is that almost nobody goes to a straight line from, hey, I have an idea to oh my God, I’m a huge financial success. Normally you need to knock your head into a few walls, fail, just get completely humiliated, try over to say, okay, you know what, I don’t care what it takes. I’m going to figure this out. And your third or fourth time through that iteration. That’s when you get to the other side of the line. And I think that there’s a tendency to whitewash that experience. And people say, oh, hey, I had a great idea, and $100 million later we’ll try success wise. It’s like, okay, well, I forget the fellas, the guy who Instacart just went public and the founder. I think Instacart was his 17th trucks swing of the bat. 16 failures, 17 one just hits it off, hits it out of the park. It’s worth like seven bills now. But the thing is, how many people are going to endure one failure, much less 16?
Very few.
Yeah. And how many people don’t even try.
Yeah. They don’t even get out of the idea phase. No, you’re 100% right. One of the things that you’re talking about was learning from people. My dad told me a quote a long time ago. I don’t remember who it actually is from, but it’s of every man I’ve ever met in some way is my superior in which I can learn from him. I believe that’s a wonderful quote. Wonderful quote. If it is him. And I’ve taken that my whole life. Whether it’s the janitor, whether it’s a homeless guy, whether it’s, dude just got out of prison, whether it’s due to military vet, whatever walk of life. It’s like, I
look for things of value that people will educate you if you listen and filter and learn.
You don’t put people in boxes. So that’s been huge. And then what you’re talking about, about the mind and your belief and what you say about yourself, that was, that’s been a long road for me. I think it’s a lifetime thing for me. Dude, if you would have told me four years ago that I would be making the type of money that I’m making now on a residual basis, I would have been like, no, I didn’t believe it. I didn’t think I was worth it to unpack that. It’s information. You have to really start looking at the information that you’re putting into your mind. Like it’s got a nutritional value on where you want to go. And I didn’t know that for the longest time I’m listening to music. That’s bullshit. Like, I’m watching shows on TV. That’s nonsense not helping me get to where I want to go. It’s actually wasting my time. And it’s someone else’s narrative. And then the same thing, just like someone else’s narrative. The people I was associating with early on and before I started getting intentional about where I wanted to go and who I was going to be, I didn’t regulate that. And it’s not like I don’t love, I love everybody, but there are some people that aren’t serving you. They aren’t growing you, and they’re not sharpening you or making you better. In fact, there’s a lot of people that are pulling you down. That’s a whole mental paradigm shift. And it’s very hard. And most people won’t get started in that. They won’t actually filter. They don’t filter their diet, let alone filter their mind on topics, because it’s hard. And I don’t blame you, dude. If people could really see what it takes to be successful, most people would opt out before it begins. And I hope that’s a challenge to some of your people that are listing, that are actually like the real deal one percenters. You guys are hard chargers. They’re going to get it done. I hope that that’s a challenge to be different. And bro, you, Doug, you thank me for my service, man. Just in the nuggets that you’re giving out on this segment of people like, thank you the best way that you’re thanking me, bro. And I’ve said this to a couple of people that I’ve been on with, and I mean, it the best way that you’re thanking me is being you and being courageous enough to do this crazy shit they call entrepreneurial so thank you.
Yes. And I appreciate that. And it’s interesting because we’re a tribe of people who either decided this is what we wanted to do or went through some sort of a traumatic career experience and said, all right, I’m not going back. That’s actually what happened to me because in April of 2020, I was working for a tech company. I’ve been about 20 years in the tech industry. I was the director for the program management office. Okay, big title, career, all that kind of good stuff. And then we had a new chief information officer come in. The guy who hired me, he gets pushed out, you guys get parachuted, and I just get fired like that because he did the Silicon Valley move, which is to say who’s in the other guy’s inner circle. I’m getting rid of them and bringing my people in. And so then hit the street. April 2020, which I don’t know if how many people remember, but that week, there were 25 million new unemployment claims. And so I put in literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of job applications. Nothing, ghosted. And that was kind of the point where I’m like, all right, I got to figure something else out. This is not the way I want. This is not what I want out of my life. And so I think that’s some people just start from there. Other people get there through either through a mindset evolution or through some kind of abrupt career trauma. One of the other things we were talking about in the pre show, too, is to really think about what is the goal, because of course, I’m a Gen X, I’m a lead Gen XR. But of course, your Gen Xers are all brought up on the work hard, make lots of money, try to retire early, and pretty much it’s. Basically, we were brought up on essentially the baby boom generation, but only more so, or at least I noticed. But I’m like, okay, you know what? I don’t want to spend 40 to 50 years of my life doing something that I despise working with people who are really not rather not associated with. To me, wealth is not money because statistically, the people with the most wealth are the people who, generally speaking, are the oldest and in the worst health and are thus least able to do enjoyable things. To me, wealth is discretionary time to be able to do what I want with the people I want. And that’s actually one of the reasons why I do this podcast, Interestingly enough, is because I get to talk with really interesting, engaging people and how have mentally stimulating conversations. On a side point is that a lot of the people who I follow, whether it’s like the Jordan Peterson, whether you’re talking about Robert Kiyosaki, all those types of folks, right, they all have more money than Got Grant Cardone. They have more money than God. They have no need to do anything ever again. All of them have shows. Every single one of them have shows where they talk to people. Why? Because people like to talk. They like to engage with other like minded people. That is a fundamental human need. And when you take that away, people go crazy, which I think is a part of what you’re seeing with covid. Not oddly enough, it’s the topic of our conversation. But that’s one of the things that platforms like TrueFanz addresses is that there is a fundamental need to be able to interact with like minded people where you don’t have to explain yourself, where you don’t have to avoid the taboo topics, where you don’t have to keep everything kind of on a straight narrow on the Thanksgiving dinner agenda or on the corporate water cooler agenda, where you can just be yourself think there’s a real need for that. And unfortunately, I think social media and mass media has kind of squashed that in a lot of people’s lives.
Yeah. It’s definitely necessary connection. And I think even external of tech, like connecting in real life is this thing that I think will make a strong comeback, and it already is in some areas where there aren’t these aggressive mandates and such. I won’t go into that topic. I feel very strongly about this to keep that alone. But in those areas, you see a mass amount of people just wanting to get together. People are craving just for freedom. And I love that. I think everybody deserves and everybody deserves to have somebody they can connect with real friends and relationships. If you don’t have that, pray for that. Put yourself get in the way of having friends and people that have your back. And I call them people that will stab you in the face, not in the back, like real friends that will let you know you got a booger on your face if you’re walking down the hallway or something. They don’t feel. Yeah, I can’t tell him those are real homies.
Outstanding. Outstanding. All right. Well, Tim, give us one or two nuggets to finish off with, and then let us know where people can find out a little more.
Yeah. So
for the entrepreneurs on here, you belong exactly where you choose to be. Hear me very carefully. You belong exactly where you choose to be. And wealth to you doesn’t have to be a picture of everybody else’s.
Get very clear on what are the things, even external of money that you find value in relationships is that peace of mind is a tranquility. You can have luxurious things. There’s nothing wrong with having stuff. But I think what a lot of people discover is stuff doesn’t fill all your voids. I think that we’ve got a spiritual pillar. I think we’ve got a mental pillar. We’ve got a family and relationship pillar and really envision what your amazing life looks like and then start taking action in the behaviors necessary to align with that just like the gym. What workout routine should you be doing if you want to get that six pack? So the same alignment there I think and to connect with me it’s pretty easy. You can Google my name Tim Branyan. B-R-A-N-Y-A-N my website should be done next week. We’ll see knock on wood it’s just Timbranyan.com LinkedIn is Tim Branyan and YouTube Tim Branyan and TikTok I just made so I’m really coming out of the seams. I’ve been behind the scenes a lot and it’s growth for me and uncomfortable again pushing through the uncomfortable but yeah, TrueFanz stuff. If you’re a content creator, if you’re somebody that’s looking for a way to monetize and reach your audience and you want to learn more go to truefanswithsey.com and you can apply for access there and then I think that’s it right. If you want to build app software, stuff like that my website will be done but logic square is my team there. But you’ll see all that on LinkedIn got you.
Got you. All right. Well hey Tim, really appreciate your time today.
Likewise brother. I appreciate you having me on and good luck as you keep progressing you get 1000 episodes and I’m pumped for your audience, man. I know you’re making waves in their life which is salute to you, bro.
Alright. Thank you much.
Alright. See you, man.
See ya.
