961 – Four Lads from Liverpool: Tom interviews Mike Stewart

Episode 961 – Mike Stewart
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute, the entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multi-millionaire Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody! It's Tom here with episode 961 of Screw the Commute podcast. I am so psyched today. I'm with my old buddy Mike Stewart, and we go way back at least 25 years that I can think of back in around 2000. He's the one that got me started doing audio stuff and taught me how to do it, got the equipment for me, dumbed it down so a dummy like me could understand and here we are again today, 25 years later. But we're going to talk. If you're a Beatles fan, you're going to love this. But even if you aren't a Beatles fan or you've never even heard of them, maybe you're two years old and never heard of them. This entrepreneurial journey for a product that's technically a product, what we're going to talk about today that Mike created out of thin air. So that's what we're going to talk about today. Now, hope you didn't miss episode 960. That was this was the final episode of my YouTube tips series starting at episode 944 to 960. These were tiny tips that you could implement instantly that would totally when they add them all up, transform your YouTube channel. Get you way more views, way more. Watch time, session time, all that. Those good things. Anytime you want to get to a back episode, you go to screwthecommute.com, slash, then the episode number. That series started on 944 to 960. And today I'm sure you're going to want to pass this one on to all your Beatles buddies. Um, hey, that's alliteration right there. Beatles buddies. This is 961. And also, make sure you pick up a copy of my automation e-book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree, and check out my mentor program at GreatInternetMarketingtraining.com.

[00:02:14] Mike, what's going on, man?

[00:02:16] You know, I'm just enjoying life. Um, the clock keeps ticking, and, you know, I can't stop that, so I better not waste a day. I just, uh, I want to I want to have. I want to get up every day. I'm grateful for the the day. And I love doing. And the reason I moved to Nashville, Tennessee, eight years ago is because I got back to my creative side of, of making music. And, uh, but also I like marketing and making money. Uh, starving artists has never been a fun thing for me. I like I like successful businesses, and I've learned quite a bit in the last eight years being around the music industry here in Nashville and a handful of things. So I'll tell you the whole the whole story. You tell me when you want me to start the story.

[00:02:59] Well, I just want to go back a little bit. I mean, eight years. It's been that long since you moved to Nashville. I think the only reason you moved to Nashville is because that lake of yours was a mud bed back in Georgia.

[00:03:11] Wasn't it? Well, the lake of mine in Georgia just got to be not a wise investment, you know? Uh, it was a big house, and it was just too much square footage that we weren't living in. And because of internet marketing, because I had online businesses and because I have so many things that has made me money and still makes me money to this day online, I realized I could live anywhere in the world. I didn't have to, you know, find a house in Georgia. If I'd had a local business in Georgia, then, you know you can't. You can't move away. Uh, but I didn't. I had a virtual business, and we didn't miss a beat when we moved to Nashville. Uh, and it was, uh, it was all from the inspiration, uh, I had, uh, I don't know if know if you remember Ray Stevens, who had. Yeah, yeah.

[00:03:57] Ray. The streak, the streak.

[00:03:59] And, uh. And everything is beautiful, you know, uh, an amazing artist. You know, Ray's 86 years old. But he's been very, very successful. And, you know, there's a lot of stories about Ray that that maybe I'll interject here, but, uh, ten years ago, Ray, we I was doing consulting, YouTube consulting for Ray. And in fact, I have to tell you this funny story. I'm in a meeting with Ray, and he says, he says, explain to me, Mike, why in God's name I'd want to put my song on YouTube. And I said, for traffic. And he says, oh, no, I don't want traffic. Have you driven around here? Uh, so that's a true story. I said, no, no, no, Ray, traffic is people finding you, and then you direct them to things that make you money. It's a real simple principle. So anyway, he had some viral videos that were very successful. Um, he set up monetization in YouTube, and this was ten years ago and raised at a lunch. He said, you know, there's a lot of people around here who could use what, you know. He said, they just don't know this stuff. And he said, But I'm going to tell you something right now. If you don't move here, you're never. I said, well, I can work with people anywhere in the world.

[00:05:06] I don't have to move to Nashville to to work with people in Nashville. I said, no, you got to live here. So I told my wife we were up here. This really ties in. We were up here seeing Paul McCartney at a concert that day that we had to lunch with Ray. And on the way back, I said, I want to move to Nashville. I want to be around the music industry again. I don't know what I want to do. I just know there's the music industry that I remember in Atlanta that has been gone forever, and it's in Nashville, and I want to I want to go up there and just get in the thick of it and find out, you know? And reluctantly she said, okay, because I basically said, I'm going. So you can either get in the car or you can stay here. And it's the best decision I ever made because everything I came up here intending to do, I didn't do because sadly, the music industry is still confused about the internet. But I ran across things that, um, couldn't have happened without being in Nashville. So I'll tell you the story of four lads from Liverpool. If you want to go there, have you got any?

[00:06:12] Yeah, yeah, I still want to get some background here because there's so many things we haven't caught up on. So we're going to do it in public here. But but it kind of reminds me with the moving to Nashville, is that, uh, that that old joke about the guy, uh, the wife said, if you don't get rid of them damn dogs, I'm leaving. And he says, boy, I'm going to miss her.

[00:06:34] Yeah.

[00:06:36] But now you still got your boat.

[00:06:39] Oh, yeah. Yeah. In fact, one of the.

[00:06:40] So there's a lake up there. You can still go boating.

[00:06:43] My prerequisite was before I moved, uh, from Georgia, I said, okay, where's the lake? And, uh, there's two lakes up here. There's Percy Priest and Old Hickory Lake. And we got. You can't own a house on Old Hickory Lake. So we're within four minutes of my boat so I can get in the car and be on my boat faster than I could walk down the hill. Oh, okay. So y'all know. Hey, you know, I got my priorities. I have to have a boat.

[00:07:06] Yeah, I know that's a lot of inspiration out there. And, uh, and I gotta brag on you a little bit, because when you talk about. Get back to the music industry, folks, uh, Mike has. It's either a gold or a platinum album. Tell em about that.

[00:07:18] Well, when I was in the music industry in the 80s, I was what's called a session musician, meaning I played with all kinds of artists in the recording studios making their records. You know, session musicians are sometimes the unsung heroes of records. Nobody knows who played drum on that record. They remember the song, they remember the artist. So there were a lot of Atlanta artists and, um, uh, because I was in Atlanta and I, you know, I'm a pretty good networker. I met if anybody had anything to do with the Atlanta music scene, I got in with it. And so Buddy Buie, um, and Arnie Geller were the, um, managers of the Atlanta Rhythm Section and a good buddy of mine, Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia. We had a band called Buckner Garcia. And, uh, in 1981, we did a record called Pac-Man fever, and it was a number one record. And I got a gold record for that album. Uh, we were on CBS records, and, you know, I said, okay, well, this is how it works. Well, I'm 25 years old, and, you know, we got a hit band. Uh, but I learned the music business pretty fast. And and just because you're a one hit wonder doesn't always mean you make money. So that's when I got into advertising and corporate communications, uh, which was a great experience. And, uh, I made a wonderful living for 20 years owning a recording studio. That's where my recording studio, uh, background came from is owning and running a successful recording studio.

[00:08:48] Uh, yeah, but that Pac-Man fever might come back just like YMCA.

[00:08:52] Well, you know, it could. It could. But, uh, you know, it's at the end of the day, it's, you know, the music.

[00:09:01] Was on a movie or something, wasn't it?

[00:09:03] Mm. Yeah. It was. It was in a movie. It was in, uh. Well, in fact, um, the producer of Wreck-It, Wreck-It Ralph, which was a Disney animation about 80s video games, was a fan of Pac-Man fever. And if it wasn't for the internet, they would have never found us. But they searched. They searched Pac-Man fever. They found us, and they said, we've got this song and we want you guys to do it. And we said, okay. And they said, we need it in two weeks. And we said, okay, but we did it. And that was 2017. So we we did the theme song to Wreck-It, Wreck-It Ralph. And uh, and that was that's a nice credit. But then I found out how. How. I'll call it, uh, frugal Disney is.

[00:09:44] Yeah.

[00:09:45] That's a that's putting it putting it nicely. So we didn't make a lot of money, but hey, you know, we got the credit.

[00:09:51] And yeah that's.

[00:09:51] Cool. And and so, so at any rate, I know the music business, uh, and the music business has changed. When I started, people bought vinyl, they bought CDs, they bought cassettes. And now streaming is, you know, the delivery of music. And the only monetization of music is live performance, really? And merchandise at a live performance. So, you know, uh, Taylor Swift makes a lot of money from streaming, but she makes a whole lot more money filling stadiums.

[00:10:22] Right. Exactly. Yeah.

[00:10:24] So.

[00:10:24] But one more, one more brag. And this is a brag on me to get a guy like you to do the opening and closing of this podcast. This is your your music you created for me. I don't know, 5 or 6 years ago when I started.

[00:10:39] You know, we've been friends for so long, you reached out to me. And, you know, I mean, I remember when you said you weren't going to do to do PowerPoint and you changed your mind. And I always I've been a I was thinking about it. I've been a proponent of podcasting for 20 years. And and then one day and I hope the podcast has served you well. I hope it's generated good business.

[00:10:58] For its top, top 1% in the world. Um, and, um, brought in millions of bucks. So I guess that's well.

[00:11:06] Then game accomplished. You know, that's.

[00:11:09] Yeah, yeah.

[00:11:09] That's what we want. That's what we want to do. You want to build relationships of people that know, like, and trust you and spend money with you. So. So at any rate, yeah, I know the music business because I've been around the corner a few times. And so when I came to Nashville, um, there just don't. The industry struggles with understanding how the internet and streaming really monetizes. Um, and so one of the things that happened to me is, uh, I had I had probably 40 or 50 Georgia friends that moved to Nashville, uh, when the industry kind of Shifted in Atlanta. Atlanta is a huge hip hop, um, music center. I mean, some of the biggest hip hop, uh, artists in the world record in Atlanta. It's it's huge. But I'm, you know, there's nothing hip hop about me.

[00:11:58] And, um, so now for me, I got plenty of hips.

[00:12:02] Yeah, I got hips, but not.

[00:12:03] Hip hopping anywhere.

[00:12:05] Or rap or whatever you want to call it. So, um, at any rate, uh, I contacted all those people because when the industry shifted in Atlanta, they all moved to Nashville, and they were old friends of mine. And, you know, I you know, I know here's a little tip. If you want to meet with an industry person, if you can get Ahold of them, say, I'll buy you lunch down on Music Row. Everybody will will meet you somewhere and let you buy them lunch. So I, I met with probably 40 or 50 people, and those relationships turned into all kinds of good things that that I didn't know would. One of those was a real dear friend of mine. Gary Talley was a founding member of the old 60s band The Box Tops. Most people don't remember the band, but they had a number one record. They had several top ten records. Uh, four of them, in fact. But the biggest record was Give Me a Ticket for an aeroplane. Ain't got time to take a fast train. Everybody remembers the first line. Nobody remembers the name of the song or the band. But at box tops, you can see we still we play. We got two cruises coming up this year, so I've been with them for five years, and I've been playing theaters with oldies acts all over America. And this kind of ties in to my business idea, uh, when you when, when you see these theaters that are everywhere, they're just amazing and they're gorgeous. They're old movie theaters from the 20s that have been refurbished. There's one in Staten Island that seats 1200 people, and they refurbished it, and it was just beautiful. And and one of the things that's common about these 500 to 1200 seat theaters, are they they're hungry For something that sells tickets. So pretty much half of what they book in those theaters is tribute bands. Now you know what I mean by a tribute band.

[00:13:51] Well, tell tell everybody. Yeah.

[00:13:52] Okay. Well, the Eagles are playing the Sphere in Vegas and they're, you know, selling 20,000 tickets. How many how many ever seats the sphere holds. But the Eagles can't play this beautiful theater in Staten Island because, you know, they can't make enough money. So they'll have a band that calls themselves the Eagle Maniacs or or or California, uh, California rock or something. You know, it'll be something relative. In fact, I'm in, uh, a tribute band here in Nashville called Twilight Train, which is a Neil Diamond tribute band. Tribute bands are popular all over these theaters. But what the tribute bands do is some people dress like them. Uh, the the artist and they sound like them. And so people love the music and they may, you know, they can sell $30 tickets as opposed to $1,200 tickets. You know, for the real thing. And the other thing about some of these bands that are tribute bands, uh, most of the band members are deceased. You know, the bands are gone. So the only way you're going to hear that catalog of music give you a great example. Chicago is touring America, and there's only three original members.

[00:15:02] Four of them are gone, but they still sell out. But there's a band called Leon Lloyd and Friends that's people have said is even better than Chicago. And they fill these venues that that want tributes. So if you want to hear Chicago catalogue done perfectly, it's a Russian band called Leon and Friends. So anyway, yeah, go to YouTube and look at their videos. I mean, if you're a Chicago fan, it's amazing. So there's Beatle tributes, stones, Fleetwood Mac, I mean, every journey. They're all they're everywhere. And then the other thing that they book in these theaters is 50 year old, uh, Broadway plays like Music Man and and uh, cats and uh oh, I can't remember what. You know, when I go to these theaters with the box tops, I always look and see what's played there and what's coming up, because I just, I'm studying the marketing. So at the end of the day, I'm sitting here going, okay, if you've got a show that can sell tickets, there are booking agents that would love to book you, because if you sell out of 1200 seat place, there's money for everybody.

[00:16:07] And all right, so I want to preface this a little bit for everybody because they're thinking, okay, well how does this apply to me? Well, the reason I besides Mike being my friend and this awesome idea he's come up with, um, he came up with this idea, he took his background experience and came up with this idea out of nothing. Just created it out of thin air. I think it might have had a little bit of impetus from that, uh, that show in New York. Uh, Hamilton, I think. Right. But, uh, but then he, uh, he made it. He created this, what I call a product, and then he's financing it with, uh, crowdfunding. And it's already over funded and and and now he can do way more. So this came out of nothing. So. So start us there where you got the idea and how you developed this thing into a real thing.

[00:17:04] fourladsfromLiverpool.com write that down folks. Obviously a reference to Beatles.

[00:17:16] Absolutely. Um, you know I saw a market, I saw a tangible live performance market and I'm a huge Beatles fan and I know more Beatle trivia than than you got time to listen to. And everybody that does Beatle tributes just dress up like the Beatles and play Beatles songs, and they're very popular. But I was listening to a Netflix documentary on Lin-Manuel, and he's the young man from Puerto Rico that wrote Hamilton, and he was saying he read the biography of Alexander Hamilton, and he said, I believe that will make an amazing rap hip hop musical.

[00:17:59] It sounds crazy.

[00:18:00] Yeah, well, everybody in New York, when he did it and he started writing it and creating it, you know, all of he, because he was very successful in Broadway, in New York. He was from New York, and he was connected with the Broadway world. And Stephen Sondheim, who was a friend of his, said, that's the stupidest idea I've ever heard. You're nuts. He said, you're going to hire African Americans to play slave owners. I mean, come on, that's nuts. That's that's politically incorrect. I mean, it's just all kinds of BS. But you know what? What I saw, he took him eight years and he followed through. His passion now to to say, I'm going to write a musical biography of a 17th century or 16 18th century, whatever year it was, uh, Patriot or whatever he is. Alexander Hamilton evidently did our money system, and I'm going to do it in the he. Why did he pick hip hop? Not because it fit. It's because that's what he enjoys. That's what he liked. And I said, why don't I? And I talked to a buddy of mine who's a great songwriter, Pat McManus. He's written hits for Reba mcEntire and the Oak Ridge Boys and all kinds. He's had written all kinds of great records. He's an amazing lyricist and a great songwriter. And it takes five seconds. Pat, I want to write a musical biography of the Beatles. Not using Beatles songs, but in original songs that sound like they could have been Beatles songs, but not the melodies or the chords or the lyrics. I want to tell the story in song, in original songs. Nobody, to my knowledge, has ever done that. And it was right before Covid. And it's easy to say you want to do something. It's another thing to finish it.

[00:19:46] Yeah.

[00:19:47] So, you know, we had other businesses that we were doing. I mean, I had all kinds of other things I was doing, and I was touring with the Box Tops and I playing 4 or 5 bands, and some days I just want to sit on the couch and do nothing and be a couch potato. You know, that's okay. But we finished it and we recorded it in my studio and we got demos of it. And so we made a show and we realized that we need funding to license photographs. We needed funding to pay musicians. I don't expect musicians to rehearse or, you know, play a live show and not get paid, because if we if we do the show and don't sell any tickets, we need to have the funding to pay everybody, even if nobody shows up. Now I'm not a negative thinker. I think we're going to sell out. But at any rate, I went with this idea of of trying to get investors. And I think I called you.

[00:20:46] You called me and I said, hold on.

[00:20:50] I said, what do you think of this? You know? And you said, why don't you do crowdfunding? And I said, oh, I know about Kickstarter. I don't know how to do it, but I, you know, I know there's people that have done movies and and albums, there's musicians, there's a lot of Kickstarter programs that people have raised amazing amounts of money to, to do their dream. And you said, hey, I got a book on it, you know, give him the link to where your book is.

[00:21:17] Uh, yeah. I don't remember offhand. I want to concentrate on this. Yeah, they can email me if they want to get that book on how to do this. Yeah, I wrote this a long time ago, but, uh, but, yeah, I thought that's going to be a what, much better way than just trying to get individual investors.

[00:21:34] Well, yeah. I mean, if we raise more, if we raise.

[00:21:37] Excitement.

[00:21:38] Go ahead.

[00:21:39] Yeah. More excitement, more people involved to spread the word for you and all that.

[00:21:43] Well, and that as well. And and more importantly, uh, the, the Kickstarter people have no ownership in the project. They, they're just supporting it because they they like it and they believe in it.

[00:21:54] Right.

[00:21:54] And and so, uh, you know, there's no guarantees, but the fact that you shared with me crowdfunding, I said, okay. And so I the marketing lesson here is I found a market I created, something that I believe can be monetized in that market. And I needed to raise funding. And, you know, I mean, in the past, I've gotten wealthy people to say, hey, please, you know, support my crazy, wacky idea. And they look at me, well, what's in it for me? I want 50% of it, you know, all kinds of crazy thing and I thought, I'm going to read Tom's book. So I did that, I took action, I read your book and I set up a Kickstarter, and I tweaked on it, and I tweaked on it, and then I launched it two weeks ago. And the thing that I learned about Kickstarter and crowdfunding, it's it's basically a sales page that needs traffic.

[00:22:52] Yeah.

[00:22:52] That's all it is in some sense. But the thing is, is, is that you may get traffic in the algorithm of the system, but I have been vigorously. Well, hey, that's one of the reasons I said, could we do a pod, do your podcast and talk about the marketing of it? But hey, if you're a Beatle fan, go to my Kickstarter. I mean, in fact, fourladsfromliverpool.com, there's a big green button says look at my Kickstarter. Even if you don't donate from a marketing perspective, look at what we did. And that's all Tom's guidance. Uh, you know, I'm the I'm the dummy that didn't know what to do, but, uh, and in fact, the video could have been better. But there just came a point of no return where I just said, okay, we're going to launch it. And, uh, we've already reached our goal. And so we still got another six weeks because we figured, okay, if you reach your goal, make a new goal. So we're we're trying to get even more money because last I heard, more money is better than less money.

[00:23:46] Yeah. Well, see, with Kickstarter, if you don't reach your goal, you don't get anything right.

[00:23:50] An all or nothing fund.

[00:23:53] Yeah, yeah, that's different than GoFundMe kind of thing.

[00:23:56] And, and there's, there's other, um, crowdfunding things. But GoFundMe I think is more for emergencies and people in trouble. And, and then I know there's some others, but I, I chose Kickstarter because I believe that was the best for what I was doing. And I got approved in it, and it's working. And and so our goal is to to get our money, which we're going to get as much as we can. Uh, I'll reiterate what we're using the money for is.

[00:24:22] Yeah, tell them, tell them. So you've you've totally fully funded, which that's a feat in itself, in itself, folks. A lot of people have pie in the sky goals and they never reach it and they get nothing. So. So he had a reasonable goal based on the money that he needed. And then he exceeded that almost immediately. And so now it's called Overfunding, right. And and now he can do more and more stuff, which he's going to tell you about for this particular project. But you would think about, well, what can I do with if I had more money. But you don't go for enormous amounts pie in the sky in the beginning and you don't get it. And then you look bad and the whole thing falls apart. So it's this was a very strategic thing that he did. So what you're going to do when since you've overfunded.

[00:25:12] Well, the musicians, uh, of which there are six, uh, are going to be $4,200 that, that if we sold no tickets, that will pay all the musicians for rehearsals and performance. So now the other thing was, is we need images of the real Beatles. And I went to Getty Images and they're anywhere from 200 to $400 an image. So if I get if I can get them down to $200 I need, I could probably use 100 images. But 100 images times 200 is to, you know, is $20,000. So so we're going to we're going to do the best we can with the more money we get, the most amount of, we're going to get the most amount of images licensed.

[00:26:08] Was that for a certain time period?

[00:26:11] No, it's we want to we want to license it for perpetual. What's the word?

[00:26:15] Permanent. Okay. Got it.

[00:26:17] And, uh, the people that make documentaries. Uh, what's interesting about Getty Images. I mean, there was 38,000 pictures of the Beatles in there. And so I learned about Getty Images. You create an account, you create what's called a board, and you just look at images and then you earmark it, and then it builds you a purged amount of images, and then you get a sales rep who will try to get you the best deal, because you can get a deal on a group of images. So the more money we make, the more images we can get. And then we probably need at least another 3 or $4000 for advertising.

[00:26:55] But I think there's going to be like projected behind you while you're doing the show or what are you going to do with them?

[00:27:00] So all of these theaters have, uh, big, big monitors, like when I played the one in Staten Island, in fact, at my Kickstarter, uh, I have a picture of from the stage of that, that venue. And the reason I know is in the box tops, I created, uh, videos that play above the band during the songs. So all of these theaters have, uh, video monitors above the band or to the left and right of the band. So if you if you go to concerts today, uh, like I went and saw Chicago, they have a huge monitor behind. I don't know if they bring their own monitor, but they, they have video production that is in sync to every song they do. So the reason.

[00:27:47] We're doing the original guys behind them or what are they, uh, projecting the original band?

[00:27:54] Yeah, they'll they'll have pictures of the original guys and they'll I mean.

[00:27:57] They like a montage kind.

[00:27:58] Of. Yeah, they'll do a montage and they'll, they'll show them 50 years ago. Like, that's what we do with the box tops. I mean, uh, we've got pictures. You know, people have taken from the, from the audience where they see the founding members today and they look at them when they were 18 years old up on the screen. And people love having that. And so what what I did with The, uh, videos that I'm producing is we wrote 17 original songs, but sandwiched between each song is the actual history that sets up the song. So? So, in other words, if you're not a Beatles fan, if you listen and watch everything, you will understand the history. Uh, I'll do it briefly here. Um, like in 1964, uh, the Beatles played the Ed Sullivan Show, and they flew back from New York to start shooting A Hard Day's Night. And they they took three months to shoot it, and they didn't have the money for color, so they shot it in black and white. And then the movie was a huge success. So they said they wanted another movie. This time they had a budget for color, and it was going to be called Eight Arms to Hold You. But then at the last minute they named it help because John had written a song called help and and so the Beatles made movies. The fans loved it, and then they did a few video projects afterwards, but they never made a feature film again. So that's kind of told in the story that shows. But the pictures that I'm using are all because I refuse to steal pictures.

[00:29:34] Right.

[00:29:35] And you know, you know, you probably could get away with it. But, you know, I don't ever want somebody coming back and and having proof that we stole pictures that we didn't have the license to. So I made some amazingly good photographs. And there's actually some of the I photographs that will be able to use. I went into Canva. You can put in a prompt and it will make a what looks like a real photograph. I said make a photograph of the front of Carnegie Hall in New York City, and the image it made looks like Carnegie Hall. So why would I license an image of Carnegie Hall when the I one looks great?

[00:30:14] Tell him. Tell him to make a photograph of Tom Antion skinnier and buff. It probably starts smoking.

[00:30:24] So? So at any rate, you know, we'll we'll see what budget we get and then we'll, you know, as the show performs in, in theaters and we get feedback and we know we got something that people enjoy, then you know, it will invest money back into it and get more photographs and more staging. And, you know, the show can launch the first phase, but we can keep making it better and better and better.

[00:30:48] Right.

[00:30:49] And, um, and ironically, here in Nashville, there's an organization called the International Entertainment Buyers Association. So in October, uh, all the buyers and all the theaters come to Nashville looking for shows to book in their theaters. So I've got a whole marketing plan, but it all hinges on I either had to get investors, put it on a credit card, which I didn't want to do, use my savings, which I definitely didn't want to do or do a Kickstarter.

[00:31:17] Yeah. And so on this Kickstarter. You know, crowdfunding normally has what they call perks. So, do you have perks attached to this?

[00:31:28] Oh, absolutely.

[00:31:28] Well.

[00:31:29] Kickstarter calls them rewards.

[00:31:31] Yeah. Rewards.

[00:31:32] Right. And so, like for $20, you could you it's it's interesting. Some people just put in an amount. I've had people put in $500. People put in $100, people put in $20. But one of my perks is if you want to downloads of all the songs, it's $20. If you want a ticket, it's $40. If you want two tickets, it's $100. If you want a t shirt and two tickets and all the downloads, you know, so you keep stacking the rewards. We have a reward that's $5,000. If it's two tickets and a plane ticket and hotel to Nashville and a weekend with us taking you around Nashville to all the fun stuff.

[00:32:07] Wow. So you plan on rolling it the first out in Nashville?

[00:32:11] Yeah. I mean, because we know we're already there.

[00:32:15] It keeps the cost down because the travel.

[00:32:17] Oh, yeah. Well, one of the challenges, um, with the, you know, this being in the box tops, I learned this business. I mean, when we play, we're playing in Chicago February 7th. I know I'm dating the podcast, but that's February 7th, 2025. So if you hear this later, that's when we're playing. Well, you got five guys and the plane tickets average 3 to $400. So that's, you know, round trip. Yeah. So $400 times five. So you got $2,000 in plane tickets, about another $1,000 in hotel, another $500. So next thing you know, you're $5,000 of your budget is going towards just getting there. Right, right. So if you don't book a book, uh, get enough money, guaranteed, you're, you're you're not going to make money. But, you know, we'll we'll figure all that out. Hey, if you.

[00:33:10] Know these theater things, do they usually book one night or a whole week or what?

[00:33:15] Most of them are just one night, sometimes two nights.

[00:33:18] Okay. Yeah. So, um. Yeah. So fourladsfromliverpool.com is where you go if you'd like to be involved in this. And um, so tickets would be for Nashville to start if they got the ticket level right.

[00:33:37] Right.

[00:33:38] Well they hold on to them if for until it comes to their city.

[00:33:42] Yeah. Well, the thing is, is when you book a theatre. The theatre has a database. Like we're probably. We hope to do it at a theatre here in in Franklin, Tennessee, which is a suburb of Nashville called the oddly, the Franklin Theatre. And we've done the we've got five shows booked there this year. Uh, and so they take a percentage, but they have a database and, you know, they put you up on their website, they have patrons. There's, you know, these theaters all have members and patrons that pay. They support the theater, but they get to go to all the shows.

[00:34:13] I see.

[00:34:14] So, you know, getting back to the music business, you build a show that people want to see. There's money to be made. That's what it boils down.

[00:34:23] What's what's that place in Missouri that all the old time guys get theaters there? Uh, you know, that's a big tourist. Branson. Where? Branson. Branson. Yeah. Is that a possibility or all those?

[00:34:38] Yeah.

[00:34:39] No, the the places are not the the problem, the convincing that you have a sell a show that will sell. Right.

[00:34:46] Right, right.

[00:34:47] But if you play a handful of theaters, we would probably start out with theaters within driving distance to keep the travel costs down. But like we, we played a theater in, um, Anniston, Alabama, and it was beautiful. I mean, it was amazing. Audio, video, lighting It was. It was, you know, it's a thousand seats, you know, and if you drove by it, you wouldn't even know it was there. But there those are the that's the market, you know.

[00:35:21] All right. Are you considering, uh, once you prove this. Excuse me. So right now, you know I have a documentary coming out soon, I hope it's been, uh, been in the works for years. So we're looking at streaming it on Tubi and, uh, Amazon Prime and all those kinds of places. So it seems like. And there is money to be had from those streaming services. Not as much. But you don't, you know, you have no travel, no nothing. Once the thing is recorded. So is that a possibility?

[00:35:55] You know, it's all about building the relationship with a decision maker. You know.

[00:36:01] Um, I thought that's you.

[00:36:04] Well, then I misunderstood your question. I mean, uh, when.

[00:36:08] You. I mean, are you going to try to pursue those avenues?

[00:36:11] Well, that's that's why pretty much all of these theaters in the country have agencies that service them. And you have to build a relationship with the booking agent. Sometimes maybe the theater would book you directly without an agent, but more times than not, you have to go through and there's hundreds of booking agents that book these theaters, casinos and whatnot. So, you know, you just have.

[00:36:37] I'm just thinking you could videotape the production and then stream it all over.

[00:36:42] Ultimately, you know, when it when it's right, the show's not right.

[00:36:47] But you get it where you really want it.

[00:36:49] Yeah. I mean, it's we're this is a bucket list lifetime project that it's a labor of love and, uh, you know.

[00:36:58] Well, then you can do a farewell tour like Cher for, like, 20 years. She's been to some farewell cities on her tour for 20 times.

[00:37:08] Well, you know, the music industry and the entertainment business is crazy. If at all. It depends on is the people interested in paying a ticket price to go see it. You know, and what's crazy about big famous, uh, artists, Cher, Eagles, whatnot, you know, their tickets run anywhere from 100 to $1000. I mean, I saw Taylor Swift was selling tickets for, you know, ridiculous amounts of money.

[00:37:37] Yeah.

[00:37:38] I don't even remember. I maybe one of them was 20,000. You know, I wouldn't give you $0.50.

[00:37:43] But you know, somebody would.

[00:37:45] But people people do. So with all that being said, you know this, the ticket prices are 30 to $40 for these kind of shows.

[00:37:53] Yeah. So affordable and but still adds up. Yeah.

[00:37:56] And you know, it's it's the age old thing that you know when Covid hit that's when Pat and I said, okay, we can sit around and do nothing or we Or we can finish this thing. And so we finished it and then go, alright, now what are we going to do. And it's just baby steps. But you know, thanks to you, the crowdfunding, you know, the crowdfunding model was implemented and it worked and.

[00:38:21] Well, it's still working. I have to say, I was the first contributor as soon as I saw it.

[00:38:27] And, and I, I sent you the link and yes, you were the first contributor and.

[00:38:31] I'm very grateful for that.

[00:38:34] So. Okay. There you go. One spot.

[00:38:36] You know, you can't expect the internet to do your work. You have, you know, I sent you a a link, maybe on text message. Uh, I don't remember, but, I mean, I'm still not done, but, uh, you know, for for a marketing lesson, go look at the Kickstarter page. You know, I'm not saying, you know, you that I expect everybody to go there, study what we're doing and know that it was it's just direct response marketing and it's utilizing, you know, I mean, I could have sent people to a website, but Kickstarter keeps me legal, keeps, you know, protects.

[00:39:09] Plus it's got its own credibility and it's got its own market of people that just look for projects that they they want to support, even if they never heard of you.

[00:39:18] Right. If you go to Kickstarter and you put in the word Beatles, we're the number one project for Beatles. So. So that, yeah, I'm pretty happy about that. And, uh.

[00:39:28] So there you go, folks. Uh, it's a created this out of nothing with his background. He just saw an opportunity and took steps to create it. And it's, uh. I can't wait to to tell Hamilton to go pound sand because four lads is kicking it out all the theaters.

[00:39:49] So there's room for him, you know?

[00:39:51] Yeah. Okay. We'll let him come in. Maybe a warm up act for you guys. So, um.

[00:39:55] Well, you know, I've got other ideas, and in fact, I have more shows, so I'm learning this process.

[00:40:03] And yeah, you do this one, the next one will be easier.

[00:40:05] Yeah. I mean we've got Pat and I have a whole nother show written and I have another idea for another show. So the thing is, is when you build something that sells tickets, the the songs are not famous, but the story is so people who are Beatle fans, they've proven they love the story. That's why when the Disney Channel put the, uh, rooftop concert, uh, called Get Back, uh, with Peter, um, Peter Jackson, I mean, p Beatle fans went nuts. I mean, it was 30 days of their story, and people watched eight hours of them doing what they loved. And and I watched it three times. Why? Because I'm an obsessed Beatle fan.

[00:40:50] Yeah, that's for sure. You've been talking about this ever since I knew you. Um, and you're going to have, uh, merchandise, uh, after a while.

[00:40:58] Absolutely. But it's. We have to have to get through the first steps.

[00:41:02] So. Got it, got it.

[00:41:03] Oh, absolutely.

[00:41:04] All right, everybody. So, uh, great. Uh, episode we've been doing like, a lot of YouTube tips lately, but this is a completely different thing. But it's a it's inspiring to see somebody. I mean, uh, me and Mike aren't spring chickens, but still creating things out of nothing, and, and, uh, this is a great project already. No matter how big it goes, it's already a very, very powerful good project. So. So go to four four lads, lads from Liverpool, uh, dot com and check out the Kickstarter campaign. And, uh, Mike, thanks so much for catching up with me, man.

[00:41:44] Hey, I enjoyed it as always. Thank you so much. Have a great day, buddy.

[00:41:48] All right. We'll catch you on the next episode. See you later.