Maybe this is more of, like, a metaphorical,
but what would send you into the underdark?
I think what would make me
go down there and adventure
is just discovering the unknown. Like, why not?
Why not go down there?
And now what's down there?
Curiosity, then.
I don't like to.
I really don't
like to live in the what ifs. Like,
I really don't like. It's like,
I will never be. I'll never,
luckily be that person that's like,
what if I would have started that business? No,
I did it.
It could have been scary.
It could have been my underdark.
But it's just like, no.
Keep it nerdy.
Keep it real.
Real nerdy nerdpreneur. You know,
I love my work. Life's a game,
so I'ma take my turn.
Nerds deserve to put their passion first,
so let Em rap averse so they can all be heard.
Yeah. My nerdy passion, basically, is drawing.
I'll let you guess.
But, yeah, D and d. I do a lot of that.
Correct. I'm a breeder of tarantulas,
importing tarantulas and some other critters.
I am a small,
independent board game designer.
I wanted to make props for D.
And D.
I am a larper.
I dress up in funny clothes
and pretend to be other people and
hit my friends with sticks sometimes.
Nerdpreneur, you know, I love my work.
Welcome to Nerdpreneur,
where we have fun conversations with people
making money with their nerdy passion.
My name is Chris, and as always,
I am joined by my co host, Frank.
Hello.
And today we have a very special guest.
Her name is t.
And welcome to the show.
Hi. Thank you for having me.
Excited to be here.
My name is t from
until over at Instagram. And, yeah, that's me.
Keep that short.
Awesome.
Well, t, what is your nerdy passion?
Minority passion is making fairy wings.
Fairy.
That is crazy.
I went into this very cold,
not knowing much at all about
what we were going to talk about,
and that is fascinating.
By fairy wings, do you mean, like,
costume pieces for
people to kind of wear or, like, how's that?
Yes, they're wearable costume pieces, so, yes.
Nice.
And how do they attach? I mean,
I can see what's behind you,
but for, like, our listeners, you.
Know, for the listeners, yeah, yeah, you can.
If you are a person that wears a bra or corset,
you can just slip them behind that.
Or if you are a person who does not
like wearing bras or corsets there
are little attachments in the back of
the bracket that you can strap on ribbon
or elastic and put them on, like a backpack.
Cool. And you've got
a bunch of different styles. I mean, we've.
I've seen a couple on your website,
and they look awesome. I mean,
they are so, like, they're
so magical. The way, you know, some glitter,
some kind of look like flames, and you.
So you've got a really nice variety. And how.
How do you typically put them up? What is,
what is your kind of. Your rhythm?
I typically take about two weeks,
and I try and kind of make a batch of them,
and then I do a drop a month.
I don't ever have a specific date because
I do work full time aside from this.
And I also have a part time
job at my gym where I teach boxing,
so I do what I can.
Wow, you're busy.
I am busy.
I'm looking at the website right now,
and I'm seeing how each of them have, like,
a lot of texture to them, too.
And they are shiny,
and there's some that look almost, like, fiery,
like they're moving on their own, like, okay,
I said that.
Chris, where were you?
No, I know.
Just said the same thing.
No, no,
I'm going somewhere with it, though, man.
Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Ruined the flow. Go back. I'm wonder.
I'm wondering, just like, okay, first,
what's it actually made of?
The way that it gets
those reflections is it's cellophane,
so it's opalescent.
It's catching kind of the light,
as well as whatever
colors I decide to spray paint.
It also kind of reflects those colors as well.
So that's what's going
on there with the fun colors.
And I feel like, like,
instantly I thought about, you know,
festival season and lots of
people going out to wear fairy wings,
because I may have seen a few
of your fair on people. I played, like, okay,
burning man or shambla or any of these kind
of ravy type electronic musical festivals
where people wear bright lights and
fairy wings and all sorts of cool costumes.
And so would I be correct
in saying that that's kind of a market.
That is totally a market that ren faires,
all those comic con,
all of that stuff.
Nice. I know a lot of people
that would love this stuff, which
is one of the reasons that I was, when I saw,
when I saw what you were posting,
I was like, oh, my gosh. Like,
there's so many people I know personally
that would just go nuts for these I.
And being that Chris and I are very
much in the dungeons and dragons world,
it's also very appropriate,
so really cool.
Well, you make them all by hand, right?
Yes, they're all handmade.
Do you have a history in, like,
clothing making and stuff,
or is this just sort of something
you picked up out of necessity?
Did someone say, like,
how did you get into making fairy wings anyway?
I know, yeah.
Not out of necessity because I work full time,
but it was more of imodel with my friend joy.
She's a photographer,
and we were getting a job for enchanted living,
and they said that they
wanted the theme to be fairy themed.
And so I had a lot of on her hands
to make other props and things like that.
So she said, hey, would you mind, like,
helping out and maybe seeing
if you could make a pair of wings?
She sent me a YouTube video, made a pair,
and then somebody asked me, hey,
do you sell these?
And I didn't.
But then I kept getting, hey,
do you sell these? And I'm like, well, why not?
Why am I not selling these?
Yeah.
So I was like, okay, yeah, I sell them.
Now do you want to buy them?
So that's kind
of where it just took off. Very accidental.
I guess that's often what we hear, too,
is that sometimes
people are making something out of.
Out of passion or out of.
And when I meant to necessity,
it wasn't necessarily financial necessity.
It was out. Like,
I needed this thing
for this project I was doing,
or I was just messing around with things.
And so that's what I guess what
I kind of mean by necessity. And, like, we had.
We had someone on who makes
what we call mimic books. And it's like, again,
just was doing it sort of out of fun,
but then had so many people start saying, well,
can I buy one?
That's so cool.
Or do you sell these? Like,
that's a good indication that you're
probably finding something people
will want to spend money on and also
that you could create into a business.
When did you kind of take the leap to saying,
I'm going to really
make this a regular monthly thing,
that I'm going to put these
out and do a drop every month?
That happened
more like during COVID 2020. I said, oh,
I'm going to do this and sell them. And
then I started taking it a bit more serious,
and then I was like, no,
my name's attached to this, first of all.
So now it's not just,
I'm going to sell these. I'm like, no,
now the packaging needs to be on point now.
The marketing needs to be on point now.
It's a brand.
It's not just a casual thing.
I need to schedule monthly drops.
I need to get my name out there.
I need to get on podcasts and socialize
and just get out there and
engage with all kinds of different people
from all different niches and all that, so.
And also,
I'm kind of competitive.
Nice.
If I. If I.
If I'm being honest with myself,
I'm kind of competitive.
So I was like, oh,
it needs to be better. Like, what
can I. I'm like, no, no, no. Better. Better.
Yeah. Chris. Chris. And I understand that.
That vibe of, like, okay,
it's time to level up.
And so I'm very curious. I mean, Chris kind of.
Chris kind of touched on this,
but the idea of when that moment happened,
do you remember that specific moment and
what was going on when you realized, okay,
now's the time to level up?
Zachary. I think what it was is when I actually
saw them out in the wild, out on people,
people wearing them,
people making tiktoks,
people wearing them.
And then I was like, no,
these need to be better. Like,
if my name is attached to this, like,
this needs to be better.
So it was the moment that
I saw someone actually wearing them,
because sometimes you don't really connect
with the buyer until you see them
using your product in their hands, and totally,
as they say,
out in the wild.
So that's when it really, like,
connected with me.
And I'm like, uh oh.
Oh, well, I bet there's a whole bunch of, like,
making that leap into a business
is definitely not only a mental leap,
but there's a lot of
things you wind up having to do. Like, you
mentioned packaging and branding and investing.
Can you talk through
a little bit about what you.
What choices you wound up
having to make there and maybe some.
Some other challenges
or insights you wound up finding.
Yeah. So the first year of my business, I mean,
they're still handmade,
but I was hand cutting
them out and hand everything,
every step of it was by hand.
And then when I decided to take that leap
and kind of make it a bit more scheduled, I
invested in a machine to cut out the stencils.
I still do the designs,
but now I don't do the designs on paper.
I do them on
a tablet and make PNG files, like images,
like vector images and all that.
I had to learn all of that.
I didn't go to graphic school or anything.
I didn't go to any of that.
So I had to like YouTube
and learn and YouTube university. Okay.
Yeah, that's right.
Self teaching is so important. Right.
It's so powerful too.
But luckily I'm able to just visually
learn and it works out really well for me.
When you have
a business that you sell products in, you
have to have a bunch of different suppliers,
especially if you buy from Amazon.
A box could not be available
next week with that same seller,
and it could be $20 more.
Yeah. Nowadays, it's nuts.
Oh, yeah.
Did you learn that the hard way?
Yeah, cuz. Cuz then
the next month I'm like, oh,
just go put my order in, thinking
my boxes are gonna be $60, they're $120. Whoa,
that's just packaging and that's exactly,
that's just packaging.
And it's just like, are you.
And then you have to
make the choice as a business owner,
are you gonna raise your prices up
that one month because the box was
higher that one month? No, you have to. It's
like a loss in a way. It's working, but yeah,
those are the things that
you have to take into account. Packaging.
Make sure you have
multiple sources for your materials.
I wanted to ask,
you had mentioned investing earlier,
like an investment into your business.
Aside from you had already mentioned
some software and some other tools.
What kind of investments did
you make and are you currently making?
The sort
of investments that I've made, as I mentioned,
the software machinery investment in my.
The education of running a business time.
Right.
Yeah.
And also learn.
Learning things like talk and reels and like,
you really have to move with the
way that social media is moving or
you will get left behind in a second.
In a second. But luckily,
there are ways that you can make reels.
And for me personally,
I don't like to dance.
I want to mouth words to song.
That's hella corny to me. Like,
I don't want to do any of that.
So I do what's comfortable for me,
and I encourage other business owners,
do what's comfortable for you.
But you have to use the tools that people work.
People are watching tiktoks,
people are watching reels.
You have to be where the people are.
Yeah.
Learning all of that and just getting
over that hurdle and getting over the.
It's more of a mental thing, like,
because it's like I watch it
back and then I cringe and I'm like,
but they want to see this.
So it's in my head when you.
Started, because this
is funny when you talk about, like,
the idea of getting yourself
not only into a business, but also, like,
out there online, it's
really putting your face and your, you know,
brand and everything out there. A lot
of people have challenges around just, like,
putting themselves out there,
making that mental leap to creating, say,
their first TikTok video or their.
Their first
post on Instagram. It's vulnerable, right.
How did you make that transition?
And was it something that was tough,
or do you have any tips for
people looking to make that transition?
Let me try and think of a tip,
because it wasn't that much of
a hurdle for me because I was already.
I was doing magazines and modeling,
and I was already center.
Here I am. Criticize me.
Say whatever you want.
You know what I mean? Like,
I was already exposing
myself to potentially being mocked,
made fun of. It's. It's art.
It's kind of nerdy art because it's fantasy.
So it's just like,
it's open for opinions and criticism.
Yeah. Nerds never get
opinionated about their stuff.
Actually would not have points like that. They
would actually be shaped like butterfly knots.
You never know.
You really never know. People come out.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think my tip would be make sure that you
are in the phone now and making sure you
have a real life outside of the socials. Like,
make sure you have
a partner time with your partner.
Make sure you are grounded
with your peoples. Like, this is. It's a.
It's social media. People are really,
truly only showing what they want to show you.
So just take it with a grain of salt.
Don't take it too seriously.
Put it out there. You never know. I
put up a reel the other day, and it had, like,
a hundred thousand views, and I'm like,
what is this?
Is this.
How did this happen? What's.
And then it.
And then I'm like, okay,
how do I do this again?
Yeah.
And then I don't.
I can't figure out.
So I posted so many after that, and, like,
they have not done that,
so I don't know what it.
Sometimes it's just putting things out
there and you really don't understand. Like,
I remember what my most popular reel ever is.
Me rolling a dice,
and it happens to come up one,
and it got over 100,000
views for some reason,
because people thought it was funny.
I don't even understand exactly why,
but the algorithm is a mystery, right?
And I always say to people that the algorithm
is there in some ways to give you opportunity,
but also to protect you. Like,
if your content sucks,
no one's going to see it,
so don't worry about
putting yourself out there that much.
Right. Like if
a couple of people see it, that means,
and it's embarrassing.
It's like only a couple people are
going to actually see it unless
it's embarrassing in a really good way.
You know what I mean? In which
case then there's no bad publicity. Right?
Like a viral horrible.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm curious. So one of
the unique things about your business
from the other people we've spoken to is
it's very much a materials heavy business.
What you're doing is you're,
you're getting from different suppliers.
And right now it's a crazy time. I mean,
we kind of talked about that in packaging.
And so I'm wondering if you can
share some tips for some folks that,
that might be either looking to get
started in a material based business
or if you know that are in it and
some lessons that you've learned around.
I have some
great tips on that, actually. Oh, cool.
Awesome.
I would say that if you're looking
into some kind of material based
product where you will need various
materials to create that final product,
as I said before,
make sure you have
multiple sources of that material. Like,
don't just count on Amazon to make sure
they're going to have that box for you,
that buyer for you,
whatever the material is you need.
Make sure you have multiple sources.
And also make sure you check
for something that's called lead times.
Lead times means if you place your
order today and they said 14 days out,
that means 14 days out,
then they'll ship it.
Right.
So pay attention to those things.
Lead time comes in more
when you're ordering things in bulk.
It doesn't happen when
you're ordering one item, one item, things,
smaller batches, that's easier. But still,
try and make sure you can source
that material from multiple
suppliers because especially right now
with shipping and everything, gas prices, it's
going to take longer. It's just, it's just,
it is what it is.
But try and stay on top of
it before you end up like
totally out of stock of some material. And then
you have an order and someone's like, actually,
do you do rush order?
And then you're like, like I do,
but I can't because I
don't have the materials to make it.
So it's just like,
you never want to be in that, in that bind.
Yeah. You'll miss
out on that opportunity. Totally.
Do you like when you film?
Your Instagram
is pretty awesome with like, reels. And
I love that you have a bunch of, well, I just,
I really like the way
that you've got all these cool, like, you're
behind the scenes in terms of, like, this
is how I'm making it and all that stuff. Like,
that's really cool. You
also have some really good visuals, obviously,
like the tone and branding. Like,
is there sort of some principles behind the
strategy in your Instagram around, like, okay,
this is the style that
I go for and this is my branding.
And, like, when I post that kind.
Of thing, not for me. Not for me, but I'll
take the compliment that you think is cohesive.
Sometimes I think my
stuff is all over the damn place.
I think I just try and keep it simple.
I try not to use too much color,
like what I'm wearing.
I try and keep it basic. Like,
sometimes I don't want to say unfortunately,
but there's this misconception that I'm
down here in some kind of gala fairy
dress or something and I'm working on,
I'm not dressed in a fairy outfit all the time.
I'm very casual. I wear hoodies,
I'm wearing workout clothes
because I was working out today.
So I really do try to
film myself in my natural environment. Like,
I'm not trying to put up a front.
I don't wear corsets and that's not me.
I do see some people that
do that and in my head I'm like,
is that practical? I'm like,
are you really, I'm like,
are you really doing this on the daily? Like,
come on now. But, oh,
I'll take the compliment.
But I try purposefully
not to make it too cohesive
because I also want to be realistic. Like,
that's not realistic.
Yeah, well, the thing about social posting
is if you're going to do it regularly,
it has to be maintained. Right.
And I think regularity with posting
is one of the most important
things that at least one I see,
I've seen and also that
I've heard from many creators is just,
you have to find something to post every day.
And if every day you're having
to put on a corset, fairy wings, makeup, like,
get a whole professional photo shoot together,
it's just like,
it's not sustainable
nor is it actually realistic.
But I guess what I noticed in
your content is that it is authentic.
And one of the reasons why I think
that marketing nowadays is very
much tailored towards what is authentic.
It's one of the most powerful things we have
in marketing now is our authenticity. Because
people are so used to being marketed like,
one of the phrases I've heard said is,
scrappy is the new perfect.
People don't want things to
be too polished or too that way,
because then it feels like some
company has been working on
this to make it targeted towards you,
whereas you're just like, hey,
this is what I'm doing today. Check this out.
This is great.
On top of that, it's, like, authentic
because it's you and you're, you know,
it's what you're wearing that day.
It's what you're doing that day. It's like,
here's what's coming up.
And it keeps people engaged
in somewhat of your story. Right. You're like,
you're part of your brand.
Yeah. Especially short form videos,
I find are super on that vein. You know,
whether it's YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram.
And that is definitely.
I agree with what Chris is saying.
Your content's definitely tapping into that.
I try and just keep it.
It's pretty real and simple.
Speaking of keeping it real and simple,
that does nice little segue there.
And something I wanted to ask you,
which was about your business.
What are some of the core values around?
Because when you
have your own entrepreneurial venture,
it's an opportunity to really push,
what do I want to put out in the world?
What do I want to manifest?
And so I'm curious for you,
what are some of the values
that you like to manifest?
Okay. For me, I would say I wanted to
create a product that everybody could wear. And
what I mean by that is everyone of every size.
So specifically for my products,
I offer brackets and small, medium and large.
And if in the future,
I need to expand the sizes, I can do that.
Because I'm a small business,
I make my own molds here.
I make everything in house so I can
quickly make those decisions that a
bigger business probably couldn't make
it so quickly because they have to go through.
A whole approval process or something.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's a whole thing
for a bigger business. But for me, it's like,
if somebody's like, hey, could you
make this in a bigger size? Of course. Why not?
Everyone should be able to wear them.
So for me,
I'm making a wearable
product that is inclusive of.
Inclusive of everyone's size,
which is really important to me. It's like,
you can't say you want inclusivity and fantasy,
but you're not putting out
products that keep that in mind.
So that's what I'm trying to offer.
And fun designs, of course. And
things that get people excited and inspired.
And I also try and make sure, like,
what are some colors you like?
And I'll take feedback in and I'll paint
them those colors that people are saying.
I have no problem with that.
But that would be my,
what I'm preaching here, inclusivity.
For real? For real. Let's, let's be inclusive.
Yeah. Yeah.
And that's what I was, I was actually,
that leads into a question I was wanting
to ask is if do you take a custom orders?
Or if someone says, like,
you beat me, do it. I'm sorry.
It was a perfect segue.
You set it up. But yeah.
Are you doing anything, like,
if I said I want like, I don't know,
bat wings or if I want like reddish color
wings instead of pinkish or purple or like,
do you do custom orders?
I don't do commissions this year,
but I will be doing commissions next year.
I paused it because I was
trying to get a schedule going,
which I'm trying to
do every for the rest of the year.
And then once I get the group going, I
going to open back up for commissions. But yes,
I will be taking commissions and you can
come to me with inspo photos and it is
a slightly higher price because I have to
design it and get you a vector file and
all that fun stuff and it's not impossible.
And I'm so excited to start doing that
sort of stuff next year because you'll
really have something that's super unique.
I do want
to ask about pricing, too, just because, like,
I think a lot of artists
ask us or I've heard, sorry,
let me rephrase that.
I think a lot of people who are artists are
looking to start making money off their art,
have a tough time
knowing how to price something.
And is there a philosophy around
what you followed to be
able to find pricing for your products?
I think at first I was under pricing
myself because I was trying to get a foot in,
but I knew how much
I was supposed to be pricing, but I'm like,
there's no way that I'm gonna price it
at that much when nobody knows who I am,
when no one knows the quality of my stuff.
I have to kind of build
reputation before I can price it,
what I was actually comfortable pricing it at.
So I would say,
obviously you have to factor in material cost
and how long it takes you to make it.
Like you need to get paid.
Yeah, right.
I. And then, I mean, at the end of the day,
name your price.
If the people see your quality,
they're going to pay for it, then, like,
be selfless about it. It's. If they.
If they're not.
If that's not in their budget, they
can go elsewhere, really. I mean, there's just.
There's just no way around it.
I think people are afraid to get backlash
if they price at a certain price point,
and then when they end up pricing it at that,
people will pay for it. Really?
Up to you at the end of the day.
Yeah. Yeah. I like that. It's, you know,
you as the business owner,
you're gonna find an audience. You know,
it's not so much the idea of, oh, my gosh, that
one person or those two people said, I'm too.
My price is too high, I
better change everything about my money making,
and I'll starve
in order to sell these. You know, it's
more so you'll find that audience somewhere.
I'm curious,
who do you follow that sort
of inspires you or keeps you motivated?
Oh, I get this question a lot, and then
I feel like I don't have the
best answer for this. I mean, inspiration wise,
I feel like my friend and photographer, Joy,
she inspires me
a lot from the witching hour. Photography,
enchanted living,
always inspires me because they
post so many other people
on that I can go and I'm like, oh, who's this?
And discover different people from them.
But I don't really have specific. Like,
I don't really have another
wing maker that I could really.
You're the first one I've ever seen.
So it's like, I mean, I. They're out there.
I follow some, but I can't. Like, I actually,
what I do is I intentionally
use their pages because I
don't want to accidentally get inspired.
I don't know
if that makes sense. Like, it's like,
I love you guys, I support you, but, like,
you're so fly that
I don't want to end up copying you.
Do you know what I mean?
Yeah. Yeah. You sound very
self driven and motivated.
Where does that come from?
I'll take it.
I think that,
I don't know.
Sometimes when you're not given very many
opportunities and you just kind of see one,
you snatch it up real quick.
I run with it.
I ran with it.
My husband says I have a lot of energy.
My day is very full.
I work full time, I work out,
and then I come down here,
I work on things and be social,
on social media,
and I don't know,
I feel like it's very rewarding when
I get a really great customer review,
or if somebody saw a photo that I was modeling
and they send me a message and say, oh, my God,
my daughter looks just like you.
And she was just so inspired.
And so when I'm making those little life
changing moments for other people, it's like,
how could I not have this drive?
How could I not want to
keep going and doing what I'm doing?
When you are, you know,
when you have been.
While you've been building this up,
what is one of the harder things
that you find to pursue this passion?
I think an obstacle at first isn't anymore,
but it was at first when I was starting,
it was maybe getting criticism, as in, like,
not specifically criticism,
but when I would get requests
of designs that weren't my own, I would
kind of feel insulted, like, oh, my stuff.
Maybe they don't like what I'm doing.
You know what I mean? Yeah,
but then I was like, no,
maybe they just want.
It would be a simple butterfly design. But I.
But to me, I'm like,
I would never make a basic,
but basic butterfly.
But.
But now I'm like, no,
it's actually a positive thing. Like,
they want to buy that basic butterfly from me.
It doesn't matter if
it's a butterfly or something else. Like,
at the end of the day,
they wanted to buy it from me,
but I didn't see it like that. At first,
it was kind of insulting,
but now I'm like, oh, they just,
they just want to buy it from me.
Even if I'm making the basic butterfly design,
they still just want to buy it for me.
That's a really interesting point.
And I think, you know, there's.
There's a great lesson in there about not only.
Not only finding that, oh,
they want to buy from me,
but do you find that it's a.
It's also a good education moment?
I'm.
I'm trying to phrase
a specific thing in a question,
and I'm trying really hard,
and it's not coming to me. So,
basically what I'm trying to say is,
does it feel like
a chance for people to tell you, hey,
this is what I want, and then you say, oh,
there's a demand for this.
Exactly. You got there eventually.
There was a question. Unfortunately,
it was a leading question.
A very leading question.
Yes, exactly. If you just
stop yourself from a second,
for a second and remove yourself and think,
wait a minute,
it's not just that
they want this basic butterfly.
It's that there's a demand for it.
People want to buy it.
They want to buy it from you.
I guess you better
start making those butterfly wings. I mean,
it's kind of like, at first,
it would have felt like I was selling out,
but now it just feels like, no,
this is what the people.
I have to give the people what they want.
That's so silly of
me to think I'm not making that.
I'm too good for a butterfly. No,
I'm not too good for anything.
I'm making those damn butterfly wings.
Forget about it.
Yeah.
All I'm thinking about now is, like,
should I go as the monarch
from venture Brothers for Halloween? Exactly.
You should sound so cool now that I.
I now have a hookup
for butterfly wings. Like. But, like, honestly,
I keep thinking about that. I'm like, man,
if someone wanted to do that and, like,
was willing to put
some time and investment into it, wow,
that would be a really,
really cool cosplay for
going to comic Con or something else. And
I haven't seen too many people doing it. Like,
most cosplays are kind of played out.
But the monarch from venture Brothers.
And if you don't know that, go google it.
It's pretty hilarious.
I have to google it.
But I could say, chris, I can.
I can see you rocking a corset, man.
You know what?
I think I did go to theater school,
and I won't say it would be my first one.
So.
Yeah.
Yeah. Corsets and tights. Yep. That.
That's all, like,
in the package of being a theater kid.
That's all.
So, when you're running your own business,
sometimes it tends to get hard mentally,
or there's a burnout or a
fatigue that comes from being the
person who drives everything forward. Because
you're an army of kind of one, right? Like,
you're that entrepreneur
nerdpreneur army of one.
What do you do to kind of get
past that or get yourself going again?
When those feelings of fatigue
or stress or burnout come around, I think, for.
Me, I give myself grace. Now, at first,
it would really frustrate me,
because I was against my nature,
my drive to want to keep going.
But then it's just like,
if I keep going like this,
I'm going to want to stop,
and I'm going to want to stop forever.
And so it's just like yourself, that grace,
and take the time
back on socials when you're ready.
Sometimes it takes me a couple
days to just shut it all off,
and then I can hop back on. Sometimes
it takes me a week or two weeks. It's fine,
but definitely it happens to everybody
and it's just like your time disengage,
shut it all off,
stay away from it,
and come back nice and refreshed.
It's kind of
nice what you're saying about the, I mean,
because your business is very much,
it benefits from social media,
but it doesn't rely on it.
And that's really nice because, I mean,
your products are the physical wings,
the wings that you make.
And so having that, you know,
being able to take that space and that time is
really nice because, you know, like, hey, look,
I'm just gonna, like, disconnect.
I'm gonna make the wings.
And when I'm ready, I'll post,
I'll post and I will then eventually
post that there's stuff on the shop,
and that's a good,
that's a nice balance to have.
What I really like about what you said as
well is it's really not just what I'm
going to keep, what's sustainable, you know,
because you said, like,
if I keep going at this pace,
I'll want to quit forever. And
that's not really what you want to do. Know,
it's very easy to
sometimes get wrapped up in something,
get so excited, and then, like,
wind up pushing and pushing and pushing.
It's like working out too hard, right? Like,
if you do that,
then you're not going to do your next
day at the gym or the day after that,
or even the day after that.
And then you wind up having less done by the
end of the week than the person who would have
just done a little bit every single day.
And so there's that ability to, you know,
whatever you're going into
as an entrepreneur or a nerdpreneur,
you really need to balance that
sustainability for yourself so that you're
making progress and not just focusing
on perfection of getting everything done.
It's cool that you're doing that because
it's taken me a lot of
times to learn that the hard way.
Yeah, it's a lesson
learned through experience, I think, too,
when you step into bigger parts
of yourself and outside your comfort zone,
you all of a sudden realize, like, oh,
this growth thing,
it takes time and it eventually becomes easier,
but we have to be kind to ourselves.
And I'll just say that so many
of our podcast guests have
had that lesson and shared that advice.
And I love when we get to
hear that lesson again and again
from different perspectives of that, being
kind to yourself to take a break, you know,
get back to it. Um, and and just, you know,
be kind to yourself in that process.
Speaking of growth,
where do you see it going from here?
I know in about a year or within this year,
I want to go. I mean,
I've never been to a rent fair or a comma
con or a comma nothing. Yeah, like, I've never.
They're coming back.
I know, and they're all coming back. So, like,
I'd actually
want to go get dressed, wear wings,
and go and experience one and then
kind of scope out how it is to
be a vendor there and all this stuff
and get all that kind of information.
In the following year,
I'd like to actually set up and be vendors
at events and things like that. This year,
I'd like to scope it out and
see what's going on on the ground.
That's pretty
fun research, too, right? Oh, yeah,
go out there,
you get to rock your different wings and, like,
go see all the other vendors. Like, that's.
That's the really fun part of, like,
doing the entrepreneurial thing,
going out there and research.
Do you have any conferences, conventions?
Conventions is what they're called, right? Do
you have any conventions that you're like, man,
I can't wait to go to this, or,
this is a dream convention to actually be at.
I mean, I really
wanted to go to Black Friday this year,
but I'm not gonna make it. It's in Georgia.
I'm in Massachusetts renovating our bathroom.
Things are expensive right now.
It's just not gonna happen.
But I I really wanted to go. Other than that,
I think that's as far as I know.
There's a few in Connecticut,
but other than that,
I'm going to keep it local where
I can drive and I can save some bucks.
And, yeah, there's so many local
things that go on nowadays, too, that, uh,
like we talked to our first episode
was with a board game designer who,
he got started in the board game
industry by going to conventions as well.
And he literally just did a
couple around his area and then
eventually made the jump to be like, okay,
on my next one,
I'm gonna go out of state, and
then I'm gonna go across the country for one.
And then eventually you just became, like,
this household name in the business.
But you think about that. It's like that, that
process of getting out there on live events.
It's, I think, a real vehicle for people
to really get noticed into an
industry and was taken away for a while.
Right.
This is really exciting that it's coming back,
and I think it'll
be a big game changer. For one,
I think your business,
but also many businesses out there,
if you can find the live events and
local events that happen in your niche,
what's some really bad advice you got in your
niche or in your business as you were growing?
I would say that some bad
advice was to post every day.
That's some really bad advice
I would often see and be given. Like,
you need to post every day.
You need to use this many hashtags. You
need to post twice a day at different times.
And all this stuff and the
obsession with the posting was just not,
it wasn't good advice.
It was just like,
that's not sustainable for me.
I work full time.
There's no way I can post that many times.
And then when you
do see other people posting that much,
it just discourages you because you're like,
I can't keep up.
I can't keep up with these people. Like,
I just can't do it.
I can't post every day,
so I'm not going to go anywhere. Not true.
Yeah. Imagine our brains
go to that place right away. It's like, well,
if I can't do what that very
successful person over there is doing, well,
then there's no way I can
even conclude I can't have success.
Right?
That's, that's not true, right?
I mean, no, like,
there's so much to do with making, again,
progress and not
just focusing on perfection. You know, there's,
there's some
saying that people say that, you know,
compare yourself to where you were
yesterday versus where someone else is today.
I like that.
Yeah. So I'm curious, when
you first started down this,
we talked a bit about, you know,
people reaching out and asking
you for something and then realizing, like, oh,
maybe I should do that. But what about, were
there people that reached out in the beginning
that were critics and, and, you know, what,
what were they saying?
And how did you,
how did you wrestle with that?
I can say that I'm
lucky that I have not gotten that.
I've not gotten, like, yeah,
I've not gotten critics
or anybody being rude or anybody,
anything like that.
I have learned along a
very good lesson in customer service,
I'll tell you that. But nothing, no,
no one's ever been, like,
nasty or anything like that.
So you have a, like,
you have experience
in customer service prior to this?
Yeah. Or with this, I've experienced
customer service and
just the nature of customer service. Like,
I see it's a product,
but it's a very service based thing, like
when somebody's asking for a specific color
or being able to customize something. Like,
I guess I have the
bad habit of being very available. So, like,
if I get a message and I'm sleeping
and I feel that phone vibrating, I'm. I'm up.
Dang.
Because people are in different time zones.
So then I'm like, no, this is. I'm like,
customer service.
Oh, wow.
While the iron's hot, too.
Yeah, yeah. I'm like, oh, oh. What colors?
I don't have it. I'm like,
let me go buy the colors right now.
But that's just the
way I am with the customer service.
It's like they're.
They do say the customer's always right.
They kind of are. But, I mean, sometimes
you just gotta let them down a little gently.
But for the most part,
they are always right. And
you do try and service them as best as you can.
Because one bad review, it's over, folks.
Whoa. That's quite the feeling.
I bet that's like thin ice.
It feels like it like when somebody's messaging
you on Etsy or via DM's on Instagram. Like,
you are on thin ice. Like,
you need to be nice with an extra cup of nice.
And if you're feeling
like you're about to answer something,
this is a tip.
If you're feeling like you're about
to be a little nasty in the message,
put the phone down. Walk away. Walk away.
Do not answer customers emotionally,
it is not going to benefit you. Walk away.
I totally, man,
I just got a second that with, like, especially
with comments on social media, so. And, like,
I managed YouTube channels, and I. One
of the comments that we get from my day job,
one of the comments I remember,
I really got me upset because
I was very passionate about the video. Like,
I really believed it.
And then they were bashing
pretty much our stance, and. And I,
and my partner,
she read what I was saying, and she's like,
you need to walk away. Like,
this is not okay to say to them. Like,
I hadn't hit enter yet, and.
So now I saved you.
Oh, she totally did. She totally did. Um,
but now it's those moments. It's like, okay,
if I have enough, like, hatred
for this person festering inside me. Yeah,
I gotta put it down. I'll walk away.
I'm surprised that you're so available. I mean,
that you know, it. You're
willing to be woken up by these messages.
I'm not, but I have to be.
Wow. I just put my phone
on silent I say, like, no, no, I'm there.
I'm there.
Wow. Wow. How do you feel?
How do you feel about that?
Does it feel like.
Makes me excited.
It makes me feel like I'm, like, on fire.
I don't know if that makes sense, but, like,
the progress and just being
able to be available for people, I'm like, oh,
I got this. I got this.
I can do this by myself for, like,
maybe a couple more years.
I'll probably need some help,
but I'm also able to,
if I do have employees in the future,
instill that in them. Like,
make sure you're on top of it.
Make sure you're servicing these customers.
Make sure you're not being nasty in those
messages and walk away and have a coffee.
If you're getting upset,
don't put it on them.
Maybe they're having a bad day,
is what it is.
Yeah, that's that nerdpreneur fire.
I think, like,
you're excited about what you do, too.
And it's clear, like,
if it's my work, you know, hopefully
my work isn't listening to this, but, like, if
it's my work messaging me at 11:00 p.m. right,
I I'm less excited to answer
that versus somebody who is like, yo, can I.
Could I hit you up for
some professional dungeon master advice?
Because I think that would be really cool. I'm
all in to talk to the person about that, but
it's a little harder for people who are, hey,
I need this report, or, hey,
do you have an answer to this question?
When it's not in my passion,
that's that nerdpreneur passion.
Switching on that, I think, is really cool.
You're willing to put the hours in
outside of what it is because it's
for your passion and you care about it,
and that's apparent.
How do you explain to
people what you do in regular life?
Does this come up very often,
or is it one of those things so weird?
I just have to do it.
I just have to do it today at the gym.
I go to the gym every day, and I work out,
but I teach once a week.
So today I was like, you know,
if you guys don't send
me once a week out of the month,
it's because I run an Etsy shop and I do
my drops during and during that last week,
I prepare all my listings, and
I have a lot of prep work to do for the drops.
So I'm not here during that week,
and they're like, so what?
Do you sell on etsy?
That's a nice little plug.
And I'm like, fairy, fairy wings.
And they're like fairy wings.
And I'm like, yeah, you know,
people wear them in cosplay and
all these costumes and fantasy stuff.
Fairy wings, fairy wings, you know,
and they're like, oh, okay, okay, yeah,
let's work out. Let's move on.
Yeah. At that point they've got nothing to say.
I'm like, wrap it up, let's go.
Does it feel a fairy workout at all?
Oh man, I can that, that
I can feel like that would be a bad
comedic skit right there. Just like, all right,
let's flap our wings like facepalm big time.
I was just going to ask, what
kind of things are you nerdy about outside of?
Outside of, you know, fairy wings.
I feel like that came from somewhere.
You kind of told us the
story came from modeling and whatnot.
Are there other things maybe around
that or maybe not that you're nerdy about?
I tell you guys,
I think I'm failing you.
I not as nerdy as I guess
I would like to say for this podcast, but no,
aside from that, I mean,
I work full time for a candle
company and then are candles nerdy?
Did I win there? I mean,
everybody likes candles though.
Everyone.
Yeah, people love candles. So this does touch
on one of the other things I wanted to get at,
which is how you might define a nerd.
And this is not a trap.
This is not a trap.
You can say whatever you want.
You could say the host of nerdpreneur.
That's basically probably the best.
I feel like we talk to people.
In the dictionary right next to nerd.
Yeah. How do you spell nerd?
F r a n k. Yeah, exactly.
I guess,
I guess for me,
if I had to describe a nerd,
it would be somebody who's so
enthralled into their passion that they
are like horse with the blinders on. Like,
I remember in middle
school we'd be playing ub oh cards. And
we were so enthralled in those damn cards that
like people would have their lunch around us.
We wouldn't even have lunch.
We wouldn't eat lunch.
The table was just full of cards. And
it was things like that where it's just like,
it's that nerd passion. Like
when you get so hyper focused on something,
you don't even realize that it's not
cool or it's not the most popular thing.
That would be a nerd. Like you don't.
And sometimes like because of it. Like,
social cues are kind of weird
to you because you just
focused your whole life into that thing,
that you're a little socially awkward,
then it also makes a bit nerdy in that aspect,
but it's because you're so.
Is are focused on that activity
or that thing that you love so much.
That's what I would say a nerd is.
I think the socially awkward thing
is very interesting because I
definitely sound socially awkward
when I talk about what I'm nerdy about,
and I consider myself socially competent.
But when I start talking about, like, dungeons
and dragons or something else, you know,
that I'm nerdy about,
it's kind of like I trip over my words.
I fail to really explain things clearly.
Well, there seems to be so much context needed.
Sometimes when we talk
about nerdiness or nerd things,
I feel like there's just a passion
that's inexplainable for people
when they get into their nerdy passion
and there's a language behind it.
There's things that other
people won't understand or
appreciate because you've gone deeper
on that subject than others. And, I mean,
we found this when we were talking
to a tarantula breeder in one
of our other episodes where it was like, he
knows everything about tarantulas, for example,
and we really knew very little about it.
And it's
kind of interesting to see, like, okay, well,
the thing he loves that needs some
explanation as to why he loves it, right?
A little bit.
You hear that initially, and it's like,
who likes tarantulas? But actually,
as you dig in with him and start
to feel a little bit more of the
understanding and why he likes them and all,
there's so much more context around the.
The love of it that
people get excited from that passion.
And I think that when you're saying, oh,
it becomes socially awkward,
it's because we're trying to convey
the level of depth and excitement
that we have in this brief
moment for you. Like, hold on, d twenty's.
You got to roll them all the time.
You don't know what a d 20 is. Hold on.
Let's go back.
Yeah, let me explain what this thing is.
You know,
it's a game
that's in your head, but actually, wait. No,
you don't understand it.
It's more like imagination,
and we're all collectively sharing it, like,
just trying to explain D.
And D is its own, like, viral
TikTok video because people do it so badly.
Have you ever played no
joy from the witching eye photography.
She says she has a game
night every Saturday of the month,
and she had invited me, and I'm like,
what is it? What is it? And she's like,
it's kind of like chess, not.
And I'm like, huh?
It is hard to explain.
That's not a good sell.
And she did the
same thing that you just said. Like, you know,
she was trying to explain it, but, like,
she was confusing me with her.
She turned me off to it because her explanation
was kind of like a chess. And I'm like, well,
why would I want to sit around and play chess?
But then she's like, but it's not.
And I'm like,
you said it was.
Yeah, I would say it's a weird
cross between so many things.
But you mentioned a passion
previously for Yu Gi oh cards.
And when I was a kid, but not anymore.
Well, that's okay. I mean, I'm not. Hey,
you know, no. No nerd bashing here.
But if you know, the.
I would say that there is. There is a.
There's some carryover.
I never played Yu Gi oh.
But I understand the concept. You know,
you're protecting yourself,
and you're trying to collect these
cards in your hands to win, ultimately.
And that, you know, there
is an element of that in D and D. There's this.
There's a lot of this, like,
you get caught up in this world
and these concepts and these things,
and you see them, and you imagine, like,
I play this, and you're like, I cast fireball.
Like, she showed me the cards.
She showed me the cards,
and I thought there were yu gi oh cards.
Okay.
I was like, are these yugioh?
And she's like, no, it's dnD. I'm like,
what is that?
But they look like yui oh cards.
Because that's what I was a kid,
I would play with and Pokemon, too,
and all that stuff.
But it's just like, like,
isn't it the same? And it's. It's not.
And I like the cards. Yeah. Like,
I like the graphics and stuff,
so it kind of interests me, that.
Aspect, because I like art magic the gathering
is definitely in that vein as well. I'm. Did
you ever play magic the gathering? No. Okay.
Because very much like,
you've heard of it, right?
No.
No. Oh, my gosh. Okay.
Because if you did Yu Gi oh.
And Pokemon like magic,
the gathering is the number one
best selling card game. And, like, Yu Gi oh.
And Pokemon are coming.
Cardboard crack is what it's referred to.
Oh, yeah. You crack a pack.
You crack a pack just to, like.
Feel very addictive for some people to play.
Yeah.
But anyway,
beautiful art on that as well.
So that's why I mentioned it.
Yeah, but this is. I always say that
if you do get invited to play D and D,
give it a shot. Just go.
Not try to know too much about what it is,
because it's like,
it's D and D is like love.
It's hard to explain.
It is just something
you have to experience, you know? That's.
That's my explanation.
Clearly a romantic.
I guess I will try it the next time.
I mean,
but given that you are.
You're such a busy person,
you've got so much going on.
I could understand how it might be tough.
That's a hard sell.
It's like two to 3 hours sitting down at least.
At least, right?
Because she said they go.
They go the whole night.
6 hours.
Yeah.
Once or a
year sometimes in game. So it's. It's like,
that's too intimidating for people. First off,
I always tell my advice to people is don't even
tell them you're playing D and D. Just like,
we're having a board game night. A
bunch of people coming over and then hand them.
Hand them character sheets and be like,
this is what we're doing tonight.
Here's some dice.
We're gonna have fun now.
You know the red flags, t. Yeah, exactly.
If you ever get invited
to a board game night at Chris's,
you better believe it's going to be D and D.
I have a question.
If you had a million followers,
what advice would you give them?
I think that if I had a million followers,
I would say to them,
if you're on socials for
how you're consuming social media,
make sure you're curating your following.
Make sure you're curating
the people you're following,
because it's very easy to get influenced,
maybe by the not most best people.
And it's your job as the owner of that
Instagram account to curate what you see.
So I guess that's an advice I would,
especially young people like yours.
So as the influencee, make sure, yeah,
you're taking that in and curate
your feed and curate what you see
every day because it does affect you.
What you see every day. Like,
it affects you whether you.
You're relating it or not.
It's a tip I'd give to people.
That's a good,
that is great advice.
And I had noticed as well, on your instagram,
you only follow 88 people, which
is like the complete opposite of my instagram,
where I think I follow, like, 3000 people.
So. And I constantly go through
it and take people out.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like, I'll keep it. Never goes
past 100 because I'm like,
I don't like what you're posting.
Not necessarily my vibe. I don't wanna.
Protecting your psyche is really, really smart.
Yes. And as a business owner, too, like,
these are protect your mental.
My mental is gentle.
Sometimes I get stuff and I'm like,
I don't want to go on my feet
and then see more sad things or see,
I just think I don't want to see.
I really like what you just said there.
Gotta protect your
mental and your mental is gentle. Like,
that had a really nice flow to it.
And I totally vibe with that.
That was Kanye west, by the way.
That was not mine.
Okay.
I stopped listening to Kanye about, like.
I know, I know. He's a hot mess.
He's a hot mess,
but it was him. He said,
I'm gentle with my mental.
Yeah. Okay, well, I love that. Okay, well,
okay, fine. Thank you, Kanye. But, like,
thank you for bringing that up. I really.
I really like that point because, yeah,
we totally are influenced. I mean, I
recently just removed TikTok from my phone and.
And because it is,
not only is it a time sink, but
so much of the stuff that comes up. Meanwhile,
while I did curate what I would look at,
it's still just like, oh, my God,
there's so much of this happening.
How do these people.
How do they post like this?
How do they live like this and etcetera.
Do you think that there's
going to be a point where there's, like,
a diminishing loss of return on
these apps being so good at being
addictive that people become the opposite,
where there'll be a revolt
against it and people will just say, no,
I'm just going to delete the app,
like what you just did.
Because I'm hearing that more and more,
and these apps are so curated
to be addictive that it is like, you flip
it on and you're like, ten minutes, 20 minutes,
30 minutes has gone by.
You don't even notice.
And people start to realize at some point
in their life how damaging that can be.
Do you think there's going to be a point where
the addictiveness of these apps and, like,
the tailor ness and the psychiness
is actually going to turn
on them and make them less powerful.
On the apps themselves or on the people?
Like, I think people will kind
of revolt against the idea, even of, like,
I'll just delete social media,
or I'll just delete Facebook.
I'll just delete Instagram.
I'll get rid of
all that because I can't. It's like. I mean,
for lack of a
better example, but, like, heroin, it's like,
I'm not gonna do it because it's very,
very dangerous in my life
and because these things
have been so tailor made to be, like. Like,
brain heroin in some ways. How.
I just wonder if it'll.
If it'll switch around.
I like this question because I. I. Personally,
I have TikTok,
but I'm not on it.
My notifications are shut off from it.
I don't really go on it.
I posted a few times on it, but I.
It's pretty much, in a way,
just a ghost app on my phone. I don't use it.
I don't go on it because it is a sinkhole,
and it's. To me, it's weird. Like, I'm like,
how can you spend hours
just going like this all damn day? Like,
that's so counterproductive
to me as someone that's running
a business and has so much going on.
Like, I don't have time to be
on TikTok scrolling like that. That's so weird.
It's so weird to me. I'm like.
But then I can see, like, for us,
the people that are now
getting more and more turned off by it,
I can see them quickly adjusting something else
that's gonna suck us in somehow. Like, there's.
There's science behind the way that they.
They do it.
There's science behind the way that
the videos are so short and capture
you and kind of suck you in like that. I'm sure
they're gonna figure out another way to do it.
To us, maybe it's new podcasts.
Everyone and their mom has a podcast.
It's true.
There's a lot of podcasts out there. Yeah.
And I love podcasts. That's my.
That's my brain juice right there. I'm like,
give me all the podcasts.
I love just listening to people talk,
and I'll work on things and listen to podcasts.
So maybe that's ours, our thing.
But for the younger people,
they love the TikTok. They're on it.
That short attention span, it's.
I mean, it's taking advantage
of that and marketing it to younger people,
although there's some content
on there that is questionable for
younger people to be consuming, but whatever.
Yeah. Not a lot of. I mean, that's a
perfect example
of technology advancing faster than, you know,
safety guidelines or regulation.
There's laws and all of that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Quicker than evolution, for sure.
Yeah. I mean, there is a lot. I mean,
touching on that social
media being a dangerous vice. You know, there's
a lot in there about just how, you know,
it is tapping into the fact
that we are such short attention
span creatures. And, in fact, you know,
school is an example of trying to
hardwire us into being better at focusing,
and it doesn't.
It's not very inclusive because it doesn't
take into account people who biologically.
Neurologically
can't focus as well. And so, you know,
there's that issue. But damn.
Social media is doing great
to keep everyone's attention, and they're.
They're making it
harder for people to focus, me included.
Should we move on to the
random roles and do some of the.
The rapid fire questions?
I think we should leave a little
time for that and get through a few.
So you got that.
That link I think I sent in the server when.
The server.
Yeah, it's called brockjones.com, which is a.
Weird name for a dice.
I did not realize that was the URL.
I just thought it would
have been, like, internetdice.com or something.
Let me see.
Maybe I'll just
pull it off on my phone. That's funny, though.
Yeah, definitely does. It sounds more like.
What did you say was rock? What?
Brock Jones.
It sounds more like porn star. Really? Yeah,
it doesn't.
It definitely doesn't sound like.
Okay. Brock Jones. Oh, I love that.
That was the first actual
thing that came up. Brock Jones. Dice roller.
There we go.
And then d. Well,
there's a lot of D's. Really gross.
Different side of dice. Yeah.
Especially after the whole porn star comment.
I know.
So you're gonna want to do
the one all the way on the right. The d. 100.
Oh, 100. Okay. 53.
This is interesting.
So this is a Star Trek question.
Do you have any
context on Star Trek? No, no, it's actually.
I shouldn't really even frame it as, like,
a Star Trek question,
because I think it's. It's.
It's less Trekkie than you might think.
But in Star Trek,
there are six divisions.
There's science, medicine, command con,
which is communication, security,
and engineering.
If you had to choose one of those to study,
which one would you have chosen?
Engineering.
Engineering totally
makes sense if you're someone
who's building and crafting things. Right.
Yeah. Right.
Make. Make a make a better wing. I think that
totally lines up with engineering right now.
What? You wouldn't. I wouldn't
expect you to know this,
but in the star Trek world.
So I'm the Star Trek guy, obviously,
but in that world,
the people in the engineering department
usually get very angry with the
machinery because it doesn't quite work. Yeah.
How do you manage your stress and your anger?
I go to boxing.
There you go. You hit stuff. That's.
There we go.
You are qualified.
I work out.
That's why I work out so much.
Okay.
If you work out every day, how much
less stress will affect you, too, right? Like,
you burn off that energy,
then you can kind of take it on, right?
Yes. Recommend it if you can. If you're
able to body abled all that good stuff.
Work out. Please, people, move. Move.
Yeah, yeah.
I keep talking
to Frank about that. It's like, what? I
don't move, dude, we're gonna. We're gonna get.
You know, I'm like,
I don't go out ever.
I know I look that way. Thanks, Chris.
I'm just hazing you.
He's just hackling me. Okay,
so go ahead and roll the d one another.
One more time. One more time.
66.
66. This is a very D and D focused question,
and I'm wondering.
Wondering how much if the.
I think I said a way to.
I think I have a way to do too.
I think I do, too.
Here you add on if I missed something.
So there is a realm in
dungeons and dragons called the underdark,
and it is literally underground, and
there is a lot of life under there, actually,
but you have to go, like,
miles under the surface to find it.
And it's typically a very scary place.
There's a lot of unknowns because the
people on the surface of rely on light,
and there's not much down there.
They have this, like, thing
where they can see heat and all that. Anyway,
I'm going a little too deep.
It's okay. I'm picturing it. All right.
Very.
Yeah. We're experienced, um, dungeon masters.
So what would send you?
Maybe this is more of, like, a metaphorical,
but what would send you into the underdark
if you had to go somewhere where people
typically don't tread from where you live,
I would say, what.
Is your metaphorical call to adventure?
Okay, sorry.
I know that's my pretentious, douchey way.
That's not. Okay.
All right.
We can go that route too. Yeah, sure. Yeah.
I think what would send me.
I think what would make me go down there,
and adventure
is just discovering the unknown. Like, why not?
Why not go down there?
And what's down there?
Curiosity, then.
I don't like to.
I really don't like
to live in the what ifs. Like,
I really don't like, it's like,
I will never be. I'll never,
luckily be that person. That's like,
what if I would have started that business? No,
I did it.
It could have been scary.
It could have been my underdark.
But it's just like, no.
You know,
I'm so glad that we actually asked this,
because it really touches on you.
It brings back to something that you
said earlier about how you started this. You.
You really did just, you
kind of tried it, and you realized, hey, like,
if this thing came
up and it seems to be successful, they're like,
there's some promise here.
I'm gonna hold on to that.
And if I would have
never went to that underdark,
I would have never had a successful business.
And all this stuff, like, it's like, no.
Yeah.
Those leaps, people.
And that's.
That's so cool, because that's. That's
the true sign of an adventurer. And, yes,
that could be, like,
lord of the Rings adventure,
but in this real world,
you are an adventurer.
These nerdpreneurs are adventurers.
They are going out for sure.
And if there's anything I love,
it's an overextended metaphor. So, like,
you all have your own underdark
that we have to pursue, right. And, like,
what is in the underdark? It's that unknown,
fearful place that we get to. You know,
we can stay comfortably on the surface,
or we can boldly go into the underdark.
I like that. That was cool.
I'm glad we unearthed that.
Uh, she didn't know where
the heck I was gonna go,
but I'm glad we went there.
All right, now, next section. Oh, well, I
was thinking let's just move on to rapid fire.
You want to do one more, Chris?
Let's do one. Let's
do one more. These are great.
We got a little time, so. Yeah.
Okay.
I'll roll one more. I got 42.
Well, you can't do that one, man.
It's.
It's magic, the gathering.
All right, here.
Let's do 43. Okay.
Actually, there is definitely
a metaphor here, as well. There's definitely,
if you want to help, Chris,
but you got this.
No. To explain all the
colors of magic gathering.
I feel it too much right now, but I actually,
I think 43 is a really cool question.
It hasn't come up yet, so
I want to ask that if that's cool. We're gonna.
We're gonna plus one it.
So if you were able to learn
a skill like neo from the makes matrix, like
the way he learned kung fu almost instantly,
what skill would you choose?
I have seen that, yes.
All right. We got you. Yeah.
What skill would you choose
to learn extra fast like Neo did?
Math.
What level of math?
Exactly. It's a basic skill, but
I'm not the best at math,
so I would love to learn really
advanced math to the point
where I wouldn't even need a computer.
I could just code straight out the dome.
Nice.
Like, super advanced math that would just.
Leave people like these.
These wings are exact
specifications to Fibonacci's sequence.
In case you were wondering, the golden.
Rule or golden ratio. Not golden rule.
That's something different. Golden ratio.
Wings like a spiral.
You can take that one. That's free.
I'm taking it.
Do it.
You're done.
All right, well,
let's go ahead and move on to rapid fire.
So these are going to
be quick questions and quick answers,
and if you say something interesting or wrong,
we will dive into it.
That's a joke.
Best Spider man actor.
The one before Tom. Damn.
Oh, what's his name?
Garfield.
Yeah. Andrew Garfield.
Andrew Garfield.
We got one
vote for Garfield so far. That's great.
I'm in that boat. Totally. Like,
I love him as an actor.
I like Tom,
but I grew up on the other one.
Yeah. Garfield is a great actor. I'm with.
I'm there with you. He's good. He's good.
I'm a Maguire guy.
Toby.
Ew.
Yeah, I know. Ew. Come on. What's wrong with.
Sorry, sorry, that slipped out. Whoops.
All right,
what are your favorite three pizza toppings?
Jalapenos, sun dried tomatoes.
Oh, yes.
And, like, garlic. Like, garlic chunks.
Uh, what's it, uh, roasted garlic chunks.
I mean, they get roasted anyway, but, like.
Yeah, like, roasted
garlic with the better. Like, in olive oil.
Yes, yes. Oh, my God. Did you. Okay, did you.
Have you ever tried, um,
you take the arlok. Wow.
The garlic you, like, chop off, like,
the first half an inch from all the top.
You cover it in aluminum
foil and put it in the oven.
Have you ever done that?
No, but is that the thing that, like,
spreads like butter afterwards?
Yes, yes.
Yeah. Put it in for, like, uh. You
want to put a little olive oil,
oil and salt and pepper on it.
Oh, that's right. That's right.
Yeah, yeah. Make sure. You
put a little olive oil supposed, seal it up,
and then just
let it cook for, like, 30 minutes, and. Oh,
it comes up great.
It's amazing.
Yeah. I mean, especially since, you know,
on that vein,
because you were saying earlier that taste
is the one that you couldn't give up. Yeah.
So what is your favorite meal of the day?
Like, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
All three?
No, no. Which one? Which one of, like,
which one could you, like, never
get rid of? Like, breakfast, lunch, or dinner?
Dinner. I love dinner.
I don't really eat breakfast,
and sometimes not even lunch. I don't know.
Just my natural metabolism.
I just eat a big meal, and I'm good.
See, I always say brunch, but. But he seems
to think that's not a valid answer to this.
No, brunch is fine, man. It's just not
one of the three options I gave.
I love brunch.
So what do you think?
You know, I wouldn't
actually think brunch is a choice, either.
I'm kind of on frank with this one. Like,
I think brunch is something
you do with family and friends.
It's a special event.
Yeah, I don't consider that, like, a meal time.
It's an event.
I guess it depends on if
you're willing to have brunch every day,
and I think I would be
just some eggs Benedict. Every day? Yeah.
I skip breakfast. I don't know. We'll see.
It's a dream world.
It would make it less special for me, but, yes,
I see it.
I was trying to ask,
what is it about dinner that you like so much?
I think it's the coming together.
Sitting down at a table, unwinding,
talking about the day and having
your meal with your partner, my husband,
in this case,
that whole aspect of it.
And obviously the food.
But for the most part,
it's just that whole winding
down aspect of dinner versus lunch.
And sometimes you eat lunch in a rush dinner.
You sit down,
you have that wine,
you sit town and have dinner.
You don't have to rush dinner, which is great.
You have to rush breakfast,
you have to rush lunch.
Sometimes I think that's a really good fact.
I've never thought about it.
No one rushes brunch, you know?
And, oh, my God.
Because brunch,
you've usually waited 90 minutes
to get into the damn place. So you're like,
I'm gonna sit on my ass and
enjoy this fine experience
and make all of them wait 90 minutes.
I love paying $40 for eggs. It's great.
Yeah. Pacific Northwest is pretty gross.
It might be the same pricing over there,
but it is not cheap over here.
How many cats is too many cats?
Oh, I want to get the cat community on me.
It's okay.
We already have them on us. It's okay.
Okay. I think. I think there's
no such thing as too many.
As long as you can keep them clean and cleanly
and all well taken care of. They're not.
If they look unhealthy and they're
flea bags and they just look nasty,
you got too many cats,
all animal control to come grab some.
But if you have to,
if you have 15 and they
all look healthy and clean
and they're all eating well, okay, whatever.
Have your damn 15 cats. That's my answer.
I like that. That's great.
I only have two, but.
And I don't think I'd get more because
I wouldn't be able to take care of more,
but if you can.
Right?
All right.
Yeah. Two cats is. I mean,
I don't really have cats.
I never really have,
but I have a lot of friends that do,
and they always talk about
how two cats is the perfect spot, because that
way they get to keep each other company, and I.
That really makes sense to me.
I agree.
I wanted to ask,
given your day job, candles or incense?
Candles. Like incense?
Yeah. Is it the too much smoke?
Uh huh.
I get that
incense has weird associations with, like,
college dorms and stuff too, I think,
but I like what?
I'm surprised it's college dorms. I mean,
I thought you were gonna say hippies.
Oh, yeah, maybe. But there's
always a college dorm hippie.
I grew up in a hippie community,
so now if I burn some incense, I'm like, ah.
It's like home takes me back.
I never think of a dorm room.
I always think about, like, because
I think the first time I ever smelled incense,
because my parents hate incense. Love candles.
They were much more on the candle side.
But when I was in college, people,
there was always, like,
that one hippie in
the dorm who always burned incense,
and then it would stink up the halls and stuff.
And so everyone's like,
that's why I think about incense. I'm sure
they weren't trying to cover anything up. Oh,
I was gonna ask if.
Is ping pong a sport?
I think it is.
Not technically,
but in your opinion?
I think it is.
I don't know if it technically is,
but I think it is. I mean, anything
that you're putting hours in and practicing,
and that's a sport. It's like,
people that say NASCAR is not a sport.
It's a sport practicing.
Are you practicing something?
It's a sport, right? People
have ping pong coaches, don't they? Like this.
It's a sport.
I don't know. I bet.
Okay, I bet, probably.
Yeah. Yeah. I think if you're able
to be coached in it, that makes sense. Yeah.
Who is cooler,
Indiana Jones or Laura Croft?
Shit. I don't know who Lara Croft is,
so I'm gonna say Indiana Jones.
She's tomb Raider.
Oh, no, I take it back. I take it back.
Not Indiana Joe.
No, no.
Was. Who came to mind when I said tomb Raider?
Who was the face?
Not the face, but the outfit.
Oh, really?
Like her. Her joggers and, like, the whole.
And the two guns.
Yeah. Her whole tank
top of some kind of tanks. Yeah, like a.
Like a tank top and just, like,
looking like a badass. So definitely her.
Yeah. It's funny.
I rewatched the movies. Not, okay,
it was a couple years ago,
but seeing them as an adult now is like,
what was the wardrobe person thinking? Like,
Angelina Jolie, you know,
she can pull off any outfit, but, like,
the outfit that they gave
her in the second movie was like,
this is so not like
some millionaire billionaire wardrobe.
What is going on here? But anyway,
the movies are fun.
I am with you, though. Lara Croft,
hands down, like, amazing character.
Going back to food, what
would be your favorite munchie or snack food?
I like salty foods.
Salty and savory foods.
I'm not much of a sweets person,
so I would say, although
I'm giving up meat slowly, I would say,
like a really spicy slim Jim.
Whoa.
Slim Jims,
that's not common up in Canada. But, man, when
I go down to the states, they're delicious.
I know. My mouth just got watery too,
thinking about it. Yeah,
like a really me too spicy slim Jim.
If there was a zombie apocalypse,
what would be your weapon of choice?
Machete.
That's an effective one.
Close friend.
And then if you need to, like,
run away and get through some weeds and shit,
you can put your path.
Multipurpose tools.
Multi purpose tools.
Yeah.
Where can people find you and
maybe get some wings from you and
support you and all those great things?
People can find me over on Instagram
until they can also
buy wings over@creaturesofcraft.com on etsy.
And you can also find me on Facebook.
Creatures who craft.
And I think, yeah, that's it.
My socials are pretty short. I mean,
if you happen to find me on TikTok,
it's also at Tpimentel,
but I don't really post there too much.
Yeah. After what we just talked about, like,
I'm not.
That. I'm not consistent there, for sure.
Yeah.
And I just want to point
out that's t with t e e, right?
Yes. Yes.
Tee pimentel. Sorry,
how do you spell that?
Pimentelp and tell.
Well, thank you so much. This has
been so fun and so awesome. Yeah.
So cool that you make this,
and I'm so glad that we
found you and that this happened.
Thank you guys so much for having me.
Keep it nerdy.
Keep it real, real.
Thank you for listening to Nerdpreneur.
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