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Episode 10: Tariffs and Travel (Anyone Else Getting 2025'd?)
120 Plays22 days ago
How are tariffs affecting amp builders? Do we deserve Mike Judge? How do you like to travel? These are just some of the topics hosts Chris Benson of Benson Amps, Bryan Sours of Soursound Audio Works, and Charles Henry of Silktone Amplifiers cover in this week's episode of Amplified Nonsense.
If you'd like Bryan, Charles, and Chris to answer your question on an episode of Amplified Nonsense, call (513) 334-3803 and leave a voicemail.
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Transcript
Introduction and Hosts
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Amplified Nonsense a podcast that is technically about amps but is driven by your random voicemail questions. Your hosts are Chris Benson of Brian Sowers of Soursound Audio Works, and Charles Henry of Silktone.
00:00:22
Speaker
My name is Emily. I'm the producer of this podcast and before I get too far into this episode, can call in and leave your own voicemail question 334-3803.
Tariffs and Economic Impact
00:00:33
Speaker
That's are y'all doing? Sweet. Blah.
00:00:38
Speaker
time to turn it over to the guys ah y sweet
00:00:43
Speaker
Really good. Every day is better than the last this year. Are you lying? I was also lying. yeah As I've said probably 17 times today, are you getting 2025? Because I am super 2025 right now. Yeah, it's just another day in 2025. Let's go.
00:01:02
Speaker
I'm not dead yet. Yeah. Every day is worse than the day before. but Like office space. Yeah. Yeah. No more China tariffs I saw or some something about that. i i don't know.
00:01:16
Speaker
It changes every day. I don't know. I've heard that like 14 times in the last year. Here's the thing about that. People were, I've talked to multiple people today who are stoked about, oh man, they lowered the China tariffs.
00:01:31
Speaker
And I said, they did this week. Yeah. Yeah. But they keep going up and down and that's what actually makes it impossible to plan. Right. Like you can't plan around that. And here's if I can get on a little soapbox here.
00:01:44
Speaker
Oh yeah. The American consumer has been the only constant thing that has buoyed this country since the second world war. That's been just the fricking that's been the number one single.
00:01:56
Speaker
Like that, that has paid all the bills that has brought so much success. That's something that people can bank on. And if people are getting cold feet about buying things and i don't know, man, I feel like they're undermining consumer confidence and that's, that's bad for everyone.
00:02:12
Speaker
There's also no realistic reporting of what consumer confidence or consumer viability actually is because you have things like the stock market being propped up by what what if was that Bloomberg article of all things that was apparently the same $1 trillion dollars is being passed around by three different companies. And that is effectively the American economy as of today.
00:02:33
Speaker
Is that same dollar, that same dollar getting passed around? And the economy is so often weighed by like company progress and stuff. And all I read lately is how corporate profits are at an all time high. You see all these stocks soaring through the roof. And then you hear about Amazon laying off 50,000 people to replace with AI and like that. And it's like, Oh cool. Stocks are great. But now who the
South Park and Social Commentary
00:02:58
Speaker
gonna buy anything?
00:02:59
Speaker
I talked to my folks today and my mom does people's taxes. And she said, you should try to sell stuff to 60 to 70 year olds because they are making a killing right now market.
00:03:10
Speaker
Yeah. And i was just like, that that may be true. I'm sure it is true. But like every, everyone I talked to, who's actually still in the economy, it's not having a good time. Not having a good time at all.
00:03:22
Speaker
I know you see all the reports like best economy ever. And it's everyone I talked to everything is down. Nobody's buying. Everyone's bummed out. Sales are bad. like It's, it's interesting.
00:03:33
Speaker
I absolutely love this concept of the people who are, quote, still in the economy. still yeah That's like implying I was a business owner, but my business is no more. It is not in the economy. Have you guys seen the the South Park episode?
00:03:49
Speaker
I think it's the Margaritaville one. and they Randy Hillard goes on a tangent about... The whole episode's about like the mystery of economics and the economy and stuff like that.
00:04:01
Speaker
I vaguely remember that one. I kind oft remember that. It's funny. That might have been when they started giving their writers more leeway. And then they got kind of preachy, but not in like a way that you could really discern what they were actually getting at Wait, as opposed to now? which like Would you say that the writers don't have leeway now? I think they do. like With South Park, man, I know we all have watched so much much of South Park.
00:04:27
Speaker
i so I think maybe 10 years ago, the episodes went from pretty genius, like pretty simple idea, you can see what they're getting at, and it was hilarious, to almost like morality plays that me as an educated man who has seen a lot doesn't really understand.
00:04:46
Speaker
Like it kind of reminds me of some of the articles like in the Seattle Weekly's like The Stranger where this it seems like you're trying to be opaque but you're using all these cool dog whistles at the same time.
00:04:57
Speaker
Do you have an episode in mind when you're thinking when you're talking about that? Gosh, it's been like every episode for the past five years other than this last season which has been a amazing. Yeah. Well I think... I think like your your commentary is like another way of describing, in my opinion, of of describing like how their storylines, not that we intended in the podcast episode today discussing this, but you know ah since we're here, how their storylines for a while were all internalized storylines.
00:05:27
Speaker
Whereas like what's always made the show, I mean, vastly enjoyable to me. I mean, that stuff's funny, but like the social commentary aspect of it to me is is what's actually hilarious. And this season obviously is focusing less on, you know, the internal growth of Cartman as a person or what have you, as opposed to, you know, ah the president's penis.
00:05:50
Speaker
So does that get a, does that deserve a car horn, honk? Nah. like Can I say penis? You can say penis, but you can't say Trump. Okay. there
00:06:05
Speaker
Yes. I mean, I did avoid the T word, so, you know, don't come at me, bro, or something. That's funny. um Yeah. Regardless of your political affiliation, I'm pretty sure if it's clear that small businesses are struggling. It's not as fun as it once was, you know?
00:06:24
Speaker
You know what's wild is like, I don't want to go on too much of a tangent about this, but I'm sure you guys have talked to other people that don't own businesses about tariffs and stuff. I have some people in my family that that are in support of that idea for for interesting reasons. But um their whole thing is like, yeah, we should be charging these other countries money.
00:06:45
Speaker
ah money finally that we've been they've been getting a free ride for so long and i'm like whoa whoa whoa like hold on it it's it's everyone here that's paying the tariff it's all of us it's it's you i can show you the bill like i'm getting billed like when i order parts for the tariffs and stuff like that and they're so rigid you you know i i like didn't actually believe that there were people who thought that Yeah, no, the f*** up part is, I've i've i've had, I'm trying to be careful with my words here. It's essentially a massive sales tax that Americans are paying.
00:07:21
Speaker
Right, exactly. And i I try to explain that to them and they're like, no, I think you're wrong. and That's not the way it works. it's ah It's the other countries. And I'm like, no, no, I can literally show you the bill. And I've gotten bills out and been like, see, look, here's the tariff fee. It's passed on to me and I can choose whether to eat it or not or pass it on to the customer.
00:07:40
Speaker
Most people are passing on to the customer and that's why prices are going up and then you're paying it. They see this and I show them proof and they still go, no that's not the way it works.
00:07:51
Speaker
it's What? I mean, all Americans are just, you know, displaced ah economists at heart, right? We're all internalized financial experts. oh Yeah. Yeah. is that Isn't that where
Manufacturing Challenges
00:08:04
Speaker
we're that's it right there.
00:08:06
Speaker
We're each individually a displaced millionaire and a financial expert with no job. That sounds like some Vonnegut or something. Yeah, I might have been channeling my Slaughterhouse-Five.
00:08:21
Speaker
i haven't read any of that stuff in a long time.
00:08:25
Speaker
i'm sure I'm sure everyone's enjoying all of this. um I was in a band ah named after the Harrison Bergeron story, actually. I don't know why I just felt the need to say that. I get what you're talking about, Chris. I understand you.
00:08:39
Speaker
that's That's it. All right. Should we talk about tone?
00:08:46
Speaker
Should we each define our own version of tone? I'm kidding. I literally talked to a producer who found, I shouldn't even say this, but he somehow found my personal phone number online today.
00:08:59
Speaker
He had run into like some guys who work for me at the pedal show in Brooklyn. He's a producer, legit guy. but but But no joke, his first name was Tone.
00:09:11
Speaker
You know, that's my dad's nickname. Well, it's my stepmom's nickname for my dad, Tone, which is like short for like ah a Tony sort of thing. Dang. My dad is is ah not Italian at all and is named Gregory. yeah But, you know, Tone is his nickname.
00:09:33
Speaker
but That's cool. Really wild. Yeah, he has eights on his strat the last I played it, so lots of tone. That Billy Gibbons tone. Did he play eights?
00:09:44
Speaker
Yeah, he plays eights. If not sevens. Bummer. My dad smoked a J with Billy Gibbons one time, I'm told. Billy Gibbons once gave me marriage advice when I ran it into him at a Chewy's in Nashville.
00:09:57
Speaker
And he wouldn't let me leave until I mimed to Rick. Because this whole thing was to never say I love you, but only say I love you and not bad advice, but he
Musician Anecdotes
00:10:08
Speaker
wouldn't let us leave him at the bar to go eat our food.
00:10:11
Speaker
Until i to in his opinion, adequately said, Rick, I love you. And, and at the end he said, you mother got a lot to learn.
00:10:22
Speaker
Was it solicited advice? No. That was an awesome So unprovoked. and Well, Rick was, we had just gotten engaged and Rick was really excited and he was telling everybody, which is, I love that. And one of those, somebody's happened to be Billy Gibbons.
00:10:40
Speaker
Yes, it was. hey you bearded guy i just got engaged well rick had a big huge beard at the time so he wanted to talk beards with billy and then he's like oh and my fiance is over there we just got engaged and that's how that that started but then later he came up to us at our table so i just want to make sure you guys knew that i was just with you right
00:11:03
Speaker
My favorite thing about that story is that it took me and an embarrassingly long amount of time to realize that when you said you ran into Billy Gibbons at a Chewy's, that you didn't mean Chewy's, the pet food supply place online.
00:11:21
Speaker
No, I mean Chewy's, the Tex-Mex restaurant. I was as very much convinced that you both were like you know shopping for dog food at the time. and I still think that. That's the truth of it. I will always remember that story that way. Well, we had to go get our dinner, you know? Yeah. I just watched the King of the Hill episode where ZZ Top is in it and Hank is related to Dusty.
00:11:43
Speaker
ah and but Oh, and that's pretty good. That's i don't i recognize that one Oh, yeah, I remember that. Yeah. Man, that show rules. I really like the new season. i mean Yeah, it was great.
00:11:54
Speaker
has a little bit of the feel-good vibe to it. yeah like No stress, just good times. But I actually really liked it. I liked it. but The crazy thing about that season is might all the guitar stuff is a monarch. Oh, yeah, you told me. Whenever there's a guitar playing, my ears are like, wait.
00:12:11
Speaker
what
Idiocracy and Cult Classics
00:12:14
Speaker
wait that rocks that's super cool i don't i think it's really good i don't think it's as impressive as the new beavis and butthead seasons which are fucking yeah those are fun brilliant but uh but but it's good i think mike judge is on fire right now we don't deserve mike judge i'm glad he's still doing stuff We really don't. You guys have all you guys all seen Idiocracy, right? watched it a couple weeks ago for some reason.
00:12:41
Speaker
I mean, have been talking about 2025, so... Dude, it's...
00:12:46
Speaker
dude its yeah If anyone hasn't seen that in a while, go watch it again. or don't. Just turn on CNN. Yeah. Everyone's in crowd. I mean, we we're going to have a UFC match outside of and a solid gold or whatever ballroom. I mean, all we need is just, you know, some like people shooting ARs into the and the crowd there and we're good to go, right?
00:13:15
Speaker
Yeah. I'm Camacho.
00:13:19
Speaker
Dude. i think they, didn't they try to bury it when it came out because they didn't know, like, they're they're like, oh, wait, this is literally making fun of all of our customers and the corporations that we partner with.
00:13:32
Speaker
I was under the impression it was a flop. So the burying that you're talking about might have been unintentional. um No, I think, like, part of the reason it was a flop was Oh, was intentional. Oh, because they didn't promote it or anything. Like there's no marketing.
00:13:49
Speaker
um There's no press screenings. they They were like omitting like promotional materials. Like it's kind of crazy. But I think they they didn't realize what the guys had made.
00:14:00
Speaker
so yeah I think this is usually the point in the podcast where Emily chimes in with the ah hard facts about it. You want me to look up why Idiocracy bombed? I'm so surprised that you haven't already done it.
00:14:13
Speaker
i looked it up halfway through my little monologue. oh you did? Yeah, it does say a lack of promotion and sabotage. No trailers. and Oh, yeah you' are you just reading the AI overview?
00:14:27
Speaker
How am I going to Google it like two seconds? I literally typed it in If you don't
Tariffs and American Steel
00:14:33
Speaker
read the AI overview, with all those people lost their job for no reason. Okay.
00:14:40
Speaker
Look, the water's been wasted. You better read it
00:14:44
Speaker
It's literally the third paragraph on the Wikipedia. According to Cruise, the film's depiction of corporations made the film financially unviable, while Mike Judge attributed Fox's decision to negative test screenings. Judge, ah he he knew that it would develop a cult following. And it did.
00:15:02
Speaker
But it only made a, oh my God, it made a fifth of its budget back at the box office. That's really bad. That's so bad. Yeah, but back then a movie cost like $100,000 as opposed to the million it now.
00:15:14
Speaker
2.4 million, which is not a lot of money, no. It's actually more than I thought it would be. someone has to pay Terry Crews. Those Costco scenes, man, like, I'm sure that costs a lot of money.
00:15:27
Speaker
Welcome to Costco. I love you. Oh, can I had a really good thought on this tariff thing. Can I say something and you can splice it back in where were we were talking about tariffs? if Don't splice it at all. Just leave it exactly like this.
00:15:40
Speaker
I'm leave it exactly like this. Yeah. I think that's perfect.
00:15:45
Speaker
I was going to say, I was thinking the other day, and you know the most messed up thing about the tariffs is the whole thing is supposed to bring production back to America because you're charging more for overseas parts and overseas everything.
00:15:58
Speaker
This is the first time I've ever considered moving from America to overseas because of the increased cost of everything. Like, even with the tariffs... All of my suppliers in America, all of the costs there has gone up too because they get raw materials from China or they get some, something they use gets tacked onto the bill and it the American prices are already higher than everything else.
00:16:25
Speaker
And now it's driving them over the edge to where if I went directly overseas, even with the increased tariffs, I would hit just with tariffs alone. It would still be drastically cheaper than anything here.
00:16:39
Speaker
So, well, it isn't even just about material costs either, at least in my experience, you know, like I've, uh, so I was talking a while back earlier in the year when the tariffs were actually weren't as bad.
00:16:50
Speaker
um with one of my steel suppliers. And that company has a program that had a really funny name, I can't remember, but it's basically a program within their ah buying and quotation system that is designed for ah military contracts where they're legally required to only buy materials sourced and made in America.
00:17:14
Speaker
And they do that, do it for other companies too. So, you know, I, I rope into that, you know, I want my steel to be American steel. And, you know, part of that also is, you know, trying to, make sure I don't pay tariffs. It's just like money that goes not, you know, nowhere to me.
00:17:29
Speaker
But anyway, the point is, is that we had a discussion about it. And what started happening was not long after that was that the American steel mills providing American steel ah started raising their prices.
00:17:43
Speaker
And now, and they were originally 30% more than sourcing overseas stuff. Well, it was it was like the greed inflation thing all over again. People are just raising the prices because like, oh, all of a sudden, like i more competitive. Well, it's supposed yeah, exactly. That's where I'm getting with this is that because they can. So the American mills started raising it up even more and more.
00:18:06
Speaker
And their turnaround time has gotten terrible. You know, like some of these mills, it's like 16 weeks turnaround. Like some of the custom stuff I get made is now 16 to 18. Costs twice as much as it did before all of this, which was already 30% more than the imported stuff, you know? And I stick to it, but I mean, it's it's just, yeah, it's intense.
00:18:30
Speaker
are critical For critical components, like for the amps and stuff, I'm like, yeah, i'm not going to I'm not going to go source new Transformers. I'm not going to go source new, you know, anything. Most of the shit already. Yeah, you better not. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:18:41
Speaker
But like um my metal chassis and stuff, for instance, I get it from a local metal shop. And the cost since the tariffs have gone up, even though it's American steel, they're like you just said, their costs have gone up. The
Ethical Manufacturing Practices
00:18:55
Speaker
stuff they sourced comes from, again, the raw material processing and stuff like that. I've heard a lot of the American plants aren't even allowed to do so.
00:19:03
Speaker
At some point it comes from overseas. So everyone's cost goes up. My chassis costs so much money now and that for the first time ever, I'm like, why am I not just getting this from a shop in China and having it all shipped over to reduce my cost on something ah hundred dollars instead of eating it?
00:19:21
Speaker
You know, I have a pretty funny story about that. Let's do it. This week I had a supplier from China reach out to us that emailed me. I get these emails all the time. i whether it's like chassis, magnetics, powder coating, finishing, whatever.
00:19:37
Speaker
The one this week was really interesting because they just said, hey, we we can make you chassis. And they sent me a picture of one of my competitors' chassis that apparently they had made. did you do did you know what company?
00:19:52
Speaker
ah Yeah, of course I do, but I'm not going to like... Well, right, right. But that's my point is that you could see it in the photo. I could see it in the photo, like the logo and everything. Oh my God. Like that is crazy that you sent this to me.
00:20:04
Speaker
Right. It's like outing someone. That's terrible. Like we got our chassis made locally, but like if I was looking to get chassis made in China, why would I give my business to this company? That's going to turn around and take a picture of my chassis. Yeah.
00:20:19
Speaker
and said it Just imagine if like the PCB manufacturers were doing that with like your guys' circuit boards for products. Like, hey, look what we can do. And it's literally like the traces for like a Benson pedal or something.
00:20:35
Speaker
Oh, I've seen that with PCBs. yeah I've seen that with potentiometers, with switches, all sorts of like, like they just don't really think about it over there. Maybe it I don't know. That's the only thing you can think of because they're literally showing me that they're, they're not going to be discreet about anything.
00:20:52
Speaker
I mean, maybe it just works. And I i will admit to something publicly. um The labels that we use, I found out about those because of exactly what you just said, is I found a company in Washington that ah does metalized ah printed metalized labels. And obviously we write on them, but the base label is is metal. it's It's actual aluminum that's been ah ah laser printed on.
00:21:20
Speaker
And they have a coil audio sticker as their product sticker for in that. money And I was like, oh, coil uses these? Huh? Well, they must be at least somewhat decent, right?
00:21:32
Speaker
but So I ordered a sample and that's how I started using them. like oh my God, they're like a third of the price of what I was using before. And they're like 10 times better. They're so much better. Yeah, send me that supplier.
00:21:44
Speaker
Yeah, no problem. Like Quill probably has some good stickers. So it works, man. It works. As soon as I start seeing, you know, chassis that have Benson logos on it, that's where I'm buying them.
00:21:57
Speaker
I don't buy chassis. Yeah. I don't know. I might do it. I'll let you know. I don't think I care whether the chassis is made here or, or wherever. I mean, I think it depends. like There's there's you know things about keeping it local and you know having tighter control on your suppliers and stuff. But you know at this point, like everything is so expensive. If it means that you can you know pass that savings on to a consumer, that's an important thing to consider. Well,
Production Costs and Business Stability
00:22:24
Speaker
at the same time, for some reason in the last year, with so many of my suppliers,
00:22:29
Speaker
Like you said, the lead time is shot way up and it seems like the quality has gone down. and The cost and lead time are through the roof and the quality has been down and it's been an issue.
00:22:40
Speaker
it's it's It's crazy. i don't know I don't know what causes that. I think they're struggling to make money, so they're cutting corners where they can, I guess. I don't know.
00:22:52
Speaker
don't know. Just to they out save money. Everyone's trying to eat. Everyone's trying to eat, I guess. There is like a general... ah admitting this more about my life, I think than anybody else's, but I, I think this is true with everyone is that there's a a mental load that is just harder for everyone for everything right now, you know? And so like,
00:23:13
Speaker
You don't think you know you you utilize a mental load you know driving to the grocery store or like, I mean, I do because then I'm around people and I freak out.
00:23:24
Speaker
But ah but but you know simple things, everything requires some sort of like energy, exhaustion, and mental load. And I think that like just how things are right now for all the things that we've discussed so far,
00:23:38
Speaker
The general baseline mental load for everybody is higher. Like I try to cut people slack, but you're not wrong, man. it's It's hard. It's hard to just like order the same stuff you ordered a year ago, you know? Right.
00:23:53
Speaker
And i think I think the struggle is real, like no joke. It's just real for everybody. And it's more real right now. Everyone's getting twenty twenty five dude. Totally. I hate raising prices. i hate it. I don't like doing that to people. i don't want to see my stuff slow down. I don't want to make people pay more for something that costs yeah something different. So I've been eating it until now. And it's like, the only way to avoid it at this point is to reduce costs somehow.
00:24:19
Speaker
And it's like, yeah. So it's just the question of, okay, do I raise the price and keep everything the way it is? Because people would rather... you know, pay for a chassis that was made in America or, you know, reduce the cost somehow. I don't know.
00:24:34
Speaker
But I think that's a question a lot of companies have been asking lately. Well, I don't think my prices have really gone up for metal. um And we've had good consistent quality. So if you're looking for some suppliers,
00:24:49
Speaker
you know, we can help out. Yeah. Hit boy up. Cool. Yeah. I'll hit you up. Eli, said Eli at two rocks said the same thing. He was like, Oh dude, we got, we got someone great. So, but, um, Have your ordering quantities gone up?
00:25:04
Speaker
Oh, um, like do you order less batches per year, but order larger quantities per batch? Cause that would make a lot of sense into keeping prices stable. we Do tend to order like at least 100, if not 200 chassis at a time for each model.
Travel Habits and Experiences
00:25:19
Speaker
Mm, that's good. I'm surprised your your cost hasn't gone up. Dude, I think they're just eating it because they're trying to be competitive. Yeah. Maybe. You know, the only thing, actually, i lied.
00:25:30
Speaker
The only piece of my amp that has not gone at up in price ever has been my speakers because Warehouse is a rad company. Do you all want to take a call?
00:25:42
Speaker
how about this one? this has This is from Dave Jordan. How do you guys like to travel? Do you bring a book? Do you bring snacks? What kind of snacks do you bring?
00:25:54
Speaker
Do you travel with like a switch so you can play video games or what? You just raw dog it and just sit there the whole time. Do you hope you sleep?
00:26:08
Speaker
know. Just kind of curious how you guys travel. I miss Dave. i want to hang out with Dave. Yeah, that rocks. It sounds like he means like while you're on the plane or train or whatever.
00:26:21
Speaker
um Not so much your whole trip. I can't sleep on planes. I've been i've been flying a lot lately. And I've been having these crazy like 12 hour flights. And for the life of me, whether I take volume and a few beers or whatever to try to, you know, calm myself down. I've tried to do anything I can to sleep on a plane.
00:26:42
Speaker
and I cannot do it. Chris is tracking. ah that That just reminds me of my Sweetwater trip. Yeah, dude, I can't do it. I've, I stayed up the first time i went to Japan, i was set to land there.
00:26:57
Speaker
So the flight left at 1am from San Francisco and it arrived in Japan 430 the morning. but it was, you know, time difference and stuff. So it was like a 12 hour plane.
00:27:10
Speaker
So I stayed up, I woke up like 6am that morning and stayed up until, you know, midnight when we went to the airport and I was already exhausted. I was almost falling asleep at the airport.
00:27:22
Speaker
We got on the airplane I drank way too many beers and couldn't sleep a wink the whole time. And we got off, we got off the plane at 5am and had to wait to check into our hotel at like 3pm.
00:27:37
Speaker
And I was just a zombie walking around Tokyo ah with without a wink of sleep. It's it's insane. like That's the worst waking up in another country with a hangover. Yeah. It's the worst.
00:27:49
Speaker
I mean, there wasn't any waking up. It was just being there with yeah with the hangover. But ah it was wild. So now i um i did buy I did buy a switch to bring on the plane to try to distract myself while I'm not able to sleep.
00:28:07
Speaker
I can definitely sleep on planes. It's one of the benefits of basically not having a sleep schedule. can just lights out. As soon as I feel ah little propulsion behind me, um I'm out.
00:28:20
Speaker
damn lucky every single time that's great so that's not me here's the question do you guys take your shoes off yes yeah i do too absolutely especially international flights like i get the swollen feet i'm a i'm a clean i'm a clean person i know my feet don't smell i'm gonna take the shoes off sorry they're coming off do you guys put them back on to go use the bathroom yes Most definitely.
00:28:47
Speaker
Yes. I don't. and Oh, buddy. but Well, I guess you do you and ah you suck. I don't know. I got
Sweetwater Presentation and Performance Under Pressure
00:28:58
Speaker
thick socks. But here's here's an exception to my oh a sleep rule.
00:29:02
Speaker
When I went to onboard with Sweetwater, I didn't sleep at all for about 72 hours beforehand because one of the things they have you do is give like a big brand presentation to like 800 sales engineers.
00:29:21
Speaker
And I was very nervous about it. And I had my PowerPoint presentation and everything. I was just like, cool. I'm all prepared as long as I get sleep on the plane. And the night before the presentation should be good to go.
00:29:35
Speaker
I did not sleep for 72 hours. And the last leg of the flight, it was like three different, it was a flight with like three legs to Fort Wayne. Why? i do Because it's impossible to get there from Portland. These days, I just fly to Chicago and then drive. Wow. But I didn't know any better. So, you know, I went to like, i was in Dallas.
00:30:00
Speaker
And then I ran into Robert Keeling the airport or something. And I was like, dude, I haven't slept at all. And he was like, hey, man, you look great. wow And so I got i got first class classes.
00:30:13
Speaker
um seats for the Dallas to Fort Wayne. i was like, i'm I've got to sleep on this flight. This is like three hours, four hours. I have to sleep on this flight or else I'm just going to be dead.
00:30:25
Speaker
Yeah. So what I did was and I'm not a big drinker, But I drank two glasses of red wine because they were complimentary. i just. Yeah. not on a plane. creepy time Yeah. I tried that too.
00:30:40
Speaker
And I was drifting off. like it worked. It was like knocking me out. And I was kind of the the lady next to me was super nice. She's like, Oh honey, you know, hope you get some sleep or whatever. And I like, thanks.
00:30:52
Speaker
um I ended up waking up and puking about like right after I fell asleep into a puke bag.
00:31:04
Speaker
but Oh, you didn't even make it to the restroom. No. Oh, man. and she You are a champ. Wired awake, so embarrassed for the rest of the flight, and she 100% stopped talking to me.
00:31:20
Speaker
and the And then you would think that I would have slept when I got to the hotel room because the presentation was the next day. But I didn't. I just stayed up all night. And i don't smoke cigarettes anymore, but I went and bought a pack of cigarettes at like 4 a.m. I was like, this is ridiculous, dude.
00:31:40
Speaker
It's like probably one of the most important presentations of my life. And... I'm just like completely like just burnt. Like I look like a crazy person.
00:31:51
Speaker
Were you solo on this? Like, did you have Ryan there or someone else there? um Dan Phelps and Sarah came with me. Okay. And they were just do you remember the presentation? Yeah, I did. I did well. I do well under pressure like that. Like apparently I get funny.
00:32:07
Speaker
Like laughing for some reason. can see it. Same thing has happened at funerals where I've been asked to speak. Like, wait, you're funny at funerals? I guess so. That's the best. I mean, that's the skill.
00:32:19
Speaker
I don't remember any of it, but apparently that's my way of coping with like intense stress is being funny. But the presentations went fine. And then I also with no sleep shot like my very first Sweetwater onboarding video. And I thought I did a really good job with that too. But at one point, that guy Mitch was interviewing me with like this like star producer.
00:32:43
Speaker
I'm like in between them showing off the product line. And at one point, Mitch asks me like a very simple, like a next interview question. And I full on just completely ignore him accidentally.
00:33:00
Speaker
And just started talking about like a delay puddle or something like that. And he was just like, okay. Yeah. Dude, I can't go 24 hours these days. If i so if I'm up for 24 hours, i feel like my bones are breaking and and I'm made of glass. 24? I can't do it. I'm at like 16.
00:33:17
Speaker
sixteen I can't do, yeah. I can't imagine 72. I've done it before. it was really gnarly. That's messed up. I can't imagine doing something like that as an adult.
00:33:30
Speaker
You know, 10 years ago, sure, but like, not now. No way. Well, I don't even know about 10 years ago. Yeah, yeah. I think we ended up having like a steak dinner at like 5, and then I was just like, absolutely just family guide, like in bed. It was like, bang, out for like 14 hours. so You get to a point where you're so tired that it becomes more difficult to sleep.
00:33:53
Speaker
Like, I've tried to lay down and just felt super manic because my head is spinning from no sleep. So really you just need to play video games on on the flight.
Coping with Sleep and Travel Anxiety
00:34:01
Speaker
That'll knock you out. Yeah. Knock you out. You know, Philippe from ah Caroline Pedals told me a couple years ago about this technique that you can, um if you can't sleep and you're you know all keyed up and you can't relax your body and you know anyone who hasn't been able to sleep has experienced to this,
00:34:22
Speaker
If you physically get out of bed and just do like an intense stretching, it really helps. Like you you'll, I've done this a few times and it really works.
00:34:33
Speaker
you You'll just like to do full body stretches, you know, quads, hamstrings, whatever. and yeah And then somehow it like tricks your body into ah letting you sleep.
00:34:45
Speaker
I've tried guided meditation videos. Jess always tells me to do the just always tells me to do the vagal nerve reset stuff, which is probably kind of a similar thing in a way to what you're saying about stretching.
00:34:58
Speaker
But like the obvious one is the one where you like dart your eyes off like into the corner. And then you like really fast move to the other. least that's how I do it, which probably looks completely ridiculous. Me like in bed, all tense, trying to sleep. And then my eyes are just darting back and forth like a crazy person. but Sometimes the worst is just crank one out.
00:35:20
Speaker
ah Under a bridge, right? that's what That's what you do under a bridge. Getting back to our roots here, I guess. Yeah, seriously. Chris, did you, Chris or Emily, did you did you guys ever
Authenticity in Marketing
00:35:31
Speaker
see the... Not um not on a plane.
00:35:34
Speaker
you guys have That's a good thing to add. Did you ever see the Silk Tone marketing video where Charles... You know, why Charles tell the story? I mean, you are the man, the myth, and and honestly, the legend.
00:35:46
Speaker
I told it and yeah for eternity on the internet. You can go watch it if you want to Well, just watch the Micronaut video. You get a good dive into my personality. Yeah, you might think this is like kind of odd, but I mean, this is on brand 100%. Pretty much. Silk tone.
00:36:03
Speaker
Tone. I'm concerned ah about which part of that conversation prompted Brian to bring that up. well Were you not listening? Were you Googling? Carl he was goingnna he he likes to crank them out. yeah it was that that spurred the conversation thought i thought that was probably it yeah someone asked me ah where do you take my ma where do you take this where do you take like yeah what's yeah what is the yes and yeah this is where you take another question you don't you know you don't exactly yes and ah i didn't explain
00:36:38
Speaker
you know, I love you, but... In this in this video that Brian's talking about, ah it's the Micronaut demo video. And everyone told me, half the people told me, don't do that in a demo video. And other people were like, yeah, dude, be yourself.
00:36:51
Speaker
I went the be yourself way. So um in the Micronaut video, I'm being interviewed and someone asked me, what what would you be doing If there was no silk tone, you know, what would you do without silk tone? And I said, I don't know, probably jacking it under a bridge somewhere.
00:37:06
Speaker
ah And ah it was a lot of people's favorite part of that video. I actually, i remember that. Yeah. You know, be yourself is what Amanda Knox's lawyers told her before her first trial. And everyone admits it was a terrible mistake. Amanda Knox to be herself when she was 19 years old.
00:37:29
Speaker
oh Good times. Brian, how do you travel? That's the thing. I don't really travel that much now. Um, I would say that I travel with high anxiety, usually just like yeah like spinning out in my head. like I need to get off this plane. I need to get off this plane. like Yeah, I mean like true, true, true. Like my my anxiety goes like completely out of control. um And it feels weird to like augment it. like i don't drink or eat anything on planes. Like i definitely wouldn't drink alcohol on a plane. it would just...
00:38:07
Speaker
give me a headache cause it just like totally dries you out. um make me feel terrible. But ah back in the day touring, like with hardcore bands, we always had a loft in the van.
00:38:18
Speaker
And this is like me, ah like age, like 18 into 20s. ah You'd always have a loft in the van and I would always go for the loft.
00:38:30
Speaker
So I'd literally like hop in the van, go up in the loft, put on like an eye mask and put earplugs in and just pass out just completely asleep. um And I've done huge drives where I've been awake for, you know, less than an hour of it.
00:38:46
Speaker
um Wow. That was my whole thing back then. And I've always tried to kind of revisit that in my later years as traveling, you know, sleep on a plane and what have you.
00:38:57
Speaker
It's so, so difficult.
Future Travel Plans and Episode Conclusion
00:38:59
Speaker
So difficult. Yeah. Try to do the, like, bring an iPad, play games on your phone sort of thing. No, uh-uh. International flights of like watch movies, but really just sleeping, sleeping was like the number one way to get through it.
00:39:13
Speaker
yeah I think it's the sitting up. I can't do it sitting up. I just sleeping or the the cran i can't sleep. I can't sleep sitting up for the life. Okay. Like I, I scored a, um, I'm super stoked.
00:39:26
Speaker
So my, I'm doing another Tokyo trip, uh, in the middle of next year, I'm doing a few, but middle of next year, I have one where I scored with my credit card points, a first class flight.
00:39:39
Speaker
Um, um, That's wild. The credit card points for those are insane. um It would normally cost like $15,000 and I got it for like $750 worth of credit card points.
00:39:51
Speaker
So ah that's like lay flat and everything. So I'll, I'll see if I yeah do you can sleep. Do you want to sleep for that? I mean, like it's such a high class experience. Yeah. yeah yeah I thought about that too.
00:40:03
Speaker
Why would I waste it? should want to enjoy it. And there's a, there's another cranking joke in here somewhere. Yeah. the There's a Florida ceiling walls.
00:40:16
Speaker
ah Unbelievable. but No, they bring you champagne and slippers and stuff. But yeah, I was joking that it's ironic that that's going to be the one time I can sleep and I'm going to waste it and not even realize I was in first class the whole time. But is that is that a direct to Japan?
00:40:32
Speaker
Yeah. Okay, so it's an incredibly long flight. 12 hours. Oh yeah, you'll you'll use it for sure. Yeah, yeah. If I could sleep like four, that'd be crap. Thank you for listening to this episode of Amplify Nonsense.
00:40:45
Speaker
Our goal is to release a new episode every other week, so please subscribe wherever you listen. If you have a question for Brian at Charles and Chris about amps, pop culture, or relationships, please call five one three three three four three eight zero three and leave a voicemail If you enjoyed this episode of Amplified Nonsense, please leave a rating and review.
00:41:09
Speaker
Thanks again and we'll see you soon.