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Talkin' with Garth Lyerly
20 Plays1 year ago
Dylan and Steve chat with their friend Garth Lyerly about community, Discord servers, farm animals, and being old on the internet.
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Transcript
A Weasel Walks Into a Bar
00:00:00
Speaker
So a weasel goes into a bar and the bartender's like, I've never seen a weasel in a bar. What what can I get you? Pop goes the weasel. That is something I'm going to put in my database. On your LinkedIn profile. Yeah. I've been really enjoying general subversions of the such and such walked into a bar joke lately. It's sort of part like Ghostbusters Afterlife when Phoebe, you know, is talking to Zule. He's like Grasshopper walks into a bar. The bartender looks at him and goes, we've got a drink named after you. The Grasshopper goes, you have a drink named Steve?
00:00:40
Speaker
Yeah, the other one I like is the priest a um I don't know somebody else some other thing and a rabbit walk into a bar and the rabbit goes I'm a typo. Yeah Yeah, that's a solid one. There's so many dumb jokes. I love them jokes.
Podcast Hosts Introductions
00:00:56
Speaker
Anyway, I'm Dylan. I'm Steve. Oh Hey Garth and we are nervous Oh
00:01:24
Speaker
Oh, that's great. We have to do that with with all of our guests. We just don't warn them that that's how we're going to do the intro and just wait and see how long it takes them to realize they're supposed to talk. And it's funny every single time. I think just the fly by the seat of your pants interview style podcast. I mean, I literally just got this link in Discord of all places. What?
00:01:47
Speaker
five minutes ago. Yep. Yeah. So yeah, ill prepared, not ready for an interview. Was up until 2am pitching international clients on stuff and feel like I have a hangover just because I stayed up past 10pm. Yeah. Perfect. And this, this podcast is going to be
Garth's Tech Journey
00:02:05
Speaker
all about you. So Garth, tell our audience a little bit about you. Um, well, um,
00:02:11
Speaker
I'm a dude that likes technology. I have always been doing something with tech, whether it was destroying it and taking it apart as a kid. Yes, I was one of those. um To you know getting my first word processor and treating it like a computer and then actually getting a real computer and then understanding, wow, this is pretty awesome. I grew up in you know the 80s and the 90s.
00:02:34
Speaker
um you know, I went from that that phase of like still pretty analog to a digital world. um So I've got to experience that shift and in technology um in the last what, 40 years has been pretty profound. And so I've really kind of always been one of those people to just jump on the edge of everything, right? Be it, you know, website design or, you know, hardware or blockchain, AI, you know all these really shiny objects and have always kind of tinkered and and been there. And I've created a career out of it. I've been doing this for almost 20 years now. It sounds really, really weird saying that. I've had some breaks in between right where I tried to do other things just because I was like, yeah, maybe this isn't it for me. um But you know digital is just like this massive gravity well that just keeps sucking me back in um because of all the new stuff that comes out. right
00:03:35
Speaker
What I like about this intro to Garth is Garth is like, I've worked in technology for 20 years and Steve and I are like, we've been entertainers for like 20 years and now we're in tech. yeah I feel like that's a safer transition than the other way. I worked in tech for 20 years and I became a street performer. right Or maybe you became homeless.
00:03:54
Speaker
yeah Yeah, I mean, I've done other things like in between there, right?
Lone Consultant Challenges
00:03:58
Speaker
Like sometimes you would get really burned out or I would get really burned out, you know, working the agency life and, you know, kind of be like, fuck this, I can go do this on my own, right? And then I would have to go get my own clients. And then I became, you know, the dev, the designer, the copywriter, the marketer, the project manager.
00:04:16
Speaker
the personal therapist, the account manager, the accounts payable, you know all of the different roles that you have to play as a single you know a lone wolf consultant gets pretty pretty tiring. So um you know I would go back and forth and then finally just be like, you know what? Fuck it. Maybe I got to do something else. Maybe maybe I'll find something else to do. I did take a break for, I guess it was almost like two years.
00:04:42
Speaker
And I got into like acquiring land for cell towers, for cell phone towers. I had some friends in the business, incredibly lucrative, and they needed a bit of a nerd to kind of come in and help with some technology pieces and like you know develop process. And that's something that I was you know very keen to do. um And yeah, so we developed this really incredible process where we would spot and highlight certain pieces of land in certain areas
00:05:14
Speaker
based on municipal codes and zoning um that met the criteria and met the desire for T-Mobile, AT and&T, or TowerCo, um and find the person that owns that land through like you know very different ways. I mean, almost like a almost like how you would fleece somebody or like case somebody if you were doing like some sort of like fishing expedition, right? I had it go like public record search, yeah look at like titles, find out who actually owns it, find out who has the rights to certain parts of it. yeah I just want to let everyone know that this podcast is still about community. It is. We're just doing the intro part here.
00:06:01
Speaker
I mean, I've had some weird careers inside hustles in my life, but like snaking land for cell towers is gotta be one of the strangest fucking hustles I've ever heard. It was cool though. Like it was really, it was actually very lucrative for you know the people on the other side, especially if they just have raw land sitting there or we could you know slice off a piece of raw land. It paid you know over a 20 year period in some situations and it was pretty negotiable in terms of like what the rate was.
00:06:31
Speaker
um There were escalation clauses. There was you know you know pretty awesome opportunities for a lot of people, um especially in like rural areas where you know the land might not be farmable or you know there's no like you know mineral rights to the property and it's just raw land that no one's ever going to build on in the first place. so Why not monetize that somehow? When it's usually in a weird spot, you know it'll be like this half acre in the middle of this 60 acre cow ranch,
00:07:01
Speaker
And I did that, right? like yeah In fact, I got into some pretty dodgy situations with a cow months before, but that's another another story for another day. We talked about community and what I do now. There we go. We're totally putting that on your fucking grave, man. I got into some pretty weird situations with a cow once. Yeah. I mean, it was all- you know, more normal situations. Sure. Sure. Yeah. Backtracking now. Uh-huh. As someone who grew up in Florida, I can just tell you, yes, we've all gotten in some pretty dodgy situations with farm animals. Yeah. Well, that's, that's Florida for you. Oh man. I love that farm animals are a very equalizing thing for people who are not used to being around them. You know, like I have cousins who raise cows, like that's what they do.
00:07:50
Speaker
So they were like three years old going out like smacking cows to get them to move like no fear. And if I encounter like a cow by myself, I'm like, I'm probably going to die because I'm an idiot. And that's what's going to happen. I even grew up in a town that was probably surrounded by hundreds of thousands of cows, but still is like a city kid. I was like, I don't know about cows. I don't trust them.
Understanding Discord
00:08:10
Speaker
So Garth, why don't you tell us what discord is in just a quick thing like if you're explaining discord to my mom who still doesn't understand what i do for a living i'm trying to come up with ways to explain it what the hell is discord well first of all for me it's like a technological feat it's very difficult
00:08:29
Speaker
what they've done and what they've developed. But for a regular user, I think it's a great place for people to come together to talk, to share, to contribute, to build, and doing that through voice and through text in a way that we don't get on a lot of other platforms.
00:08:47
Speaker
and ah in a cohesive way. right I think there's bits and pieces. like You can clearly talk to people um on stages or spaces on Twitter, but it lacks that after-the-fact conversational element um through being able to communicate bi-directionally in real time. right You can clearly tweet at each other, but i mean let's let's get real. That gets lost in the sauce pretty quick.
00:09:10
Speaker
Um, so yeah, I mean, I think it's just a really versatile platform, but it's also provides us a lot of different avenues for communication. And I think communication is a really, really important thing in today's world. And, um, having platforms to be able to do that globally is pretty, pretty cool. It is, it is. So do you prefer a sort of walled garden community like discord to broadcast social like Twitter?
00:09:37
Speaker
i but I think there's an opportunity to build like richer connections with people. I feel i feel like when i'm like when I'm on Twitter, the terminology or X, whatever you want to call it, like we follow people, but I really feel like I subscribe to people more. right it's like this this mailer that I get every day of some you know somebody that I've looked at their profile a hundred times or liked or or retweeted their there's stuff so it gets thrown into my algorithm because that's what X thinks I want to see.
00:10:09
Speaker
But I don't have like any real connection with that that person. you know I can tweet at them and they can tweet back, um but that's usually you know a fleeting moment. right There's no consistent connection there. I do prefer the you know opportunity to have a conversation with someone or anyone at any given point in time if they're active in a server somewhere. and I think you know that's a huge advantage. and You know, there's a lot of people that I appreciate um for various reasons. and And these people do have discords. And to be able to hop in and and just say what's up and then get a response back um is a pretty pretty good feeling, pretty profound feeling and in some regard. And I think that that's a pretty special thing that Discord offers that these other platforms don't.
00:10:52
Speaker
There's been a lot of conversation lately in like various avenues. I've been hearing a lot about people talking about the pitfalls of like parasocial relationships. Do you think that discord is kind of like a good antidote to that?
00:11:07
Speaker
o I mean, maybe, I think it just depends on the human. I think it depends on the, I guess, social status and, and I don't know, like the world is changing so, so quickly right now and in terms of how we communicate and operate, you know, with each other. And I think, you know, COVID taught us a whole shitload about, you know, virtual communities and how we connect with each other. So I know that's a really good question. I've never really thought about it um in that regard. What are your thoughts? Love to hear what you think.
00:11:38
Speaker
Well, I mean, for me, I mean, it it seems like broadcast social, right? Like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. it's it It's almost engineered to create those kinds of parasocial relationships where you feel like you have a relationship with somebody, but the reality is that you don't. You're just consuming whatever content they've curated and pushed outwards.
00:11:59
Speaker
whereas with discord i mean there's obviously the pitfall of that because you know anytime you're talking like digital to digital communication you can always curate and kind of bullshit outwards right you can always believe you can always engineer things in such a way that it looks like more of a human personal relationship than it actually is.
00:12:20
Speaker
But with with something that's more like conversational, like Discord, it always feels to me like, yeah, you could end up with a creepy, unhealthy, parasocial relationship, but you almost have to intend that from the start because the platform isn't necessarily slanted towards that kind of human interaction.
00:12:43
Speaker
So for me, it it seems like a more honest way to start an online relationship with somebody. Yeah. And it's that point and kind of what I said earlier, I mean, I think it really depends on the people engaged in that and the activity of socializing, right? It's like, you know, if if I'm a reply guy,
00:13:03
Speaker
on Twitter, you know, I get my kicks out of not really building relationships, but just having that flex that my reply got, you know, 18 million views and 3000 likes, right? yeah um And that to me, like, it doesn't really matter about like the the relationship I have with, you know, you know whomever I replied to, it's more or less just like that flex and that ability to kind of be on ah a stage for a moment in time.
00:13:31
Speaker
I think it's the the clout chasing that happens on broadcast social media that makes me nuts where it's oh I replied to Chevy and Chevy replied back or liked my comment or whatever and it becomes about like farming that reaction versus being inside a server where you can be like, you guys should really put white walls on all your cars again. You know, and someone from Chevy being like, that's a dumb idea or whatever, but it's that direct communication and it becomes more about that versus the getting a reaction. Yeah, I agree with that too.
00:14:09
Speaker
And me personally, like i'm I'm way more guarded and you know quiet and more of an observer and a lurker on Twitter. I kind of use that as my like can like my feed for consumption versus like you know I find other people that want to have those reciprocal relationships rather than one-sided relationships.
00:14:30
Speaker
And I find that more so, and I feel more comfortable having that conversation in a server of 5,000 people um versus this massive audience you know publicly on the internet. um So me personally, you know I'm i'm kind of more of one of those, I prefer to actually develop the relationship and make it a reciprocal one rather than a very one-sided one-sided one.
00:14:54
Speaker
Last question for you, Garth, before we wrap this up, so we're not in a four hour long podcast.
Starting a Discord Server at Work
00:15:01
Speaker
What would you say, or not not that, what is your recommendation for someone who is trying to start a Discord server at work? At work. Good question. ah What's the job?
00:15:19
Speaker
I'm assuming like ah um not a CMO, but like ah a marketer of some level who's like, we need another channel to engage with our fans. So what what would be a recommendation for them on how to either get that started or what are like three things they need to know going in? I mean, number one, like who just like anything else, who's my audience? Who am who am I going to want to talk with? Who are the people that I want to be in the same room with every day and have conversations with?
00:15:50
Speaker
um I think that's often overlooked and it's kind of just, you know, anybody that joins a server, please join, right? And I think there's a lot of stuff that we can take from, you know, marketing tactics and strategies around like audience development and persona development, really defining like who it is you want in your server and setting it up as the next thing, right? And making sure that it is designed for that type of user, right?
00:16:17
Speaker
um I see that you know happen a lot too where there's this kind of stamp or this mold taken from other Discord servers and it's just the same thing over and over. There's no diversity in the architecture. It's not really set up for a certain type of like you know level of communication. It becomes very mundane and very boring.
00:16:38
Speaker
right Um, so, you know, I think the next thing is like, you know, who do you want to design it for? And what are you designing it for? Are the two big questions that I think somebody should ask themselves before doing it. Um, and then like, really like what type of commitment are you willing to put into it? I think that's often overlooked. I think like anything else, you know, platform wise, people will expect to just put something in place and, um, it kind of just does its thing, which is, is true. And and it can happen that way. It's, it's.
00:17:09
Speaker
Um, it's possible, but I think, you know, building community and using discord as a tool to do that versus like Slack or something else, like everything is going to take a little bit of nurturing and love and involvement and participation. Um, if it's something that you want to own, um, as a business or as a brand or, you know,
00:17:29
Speaker
as anything, right? um And I think a lot of people just think like, oh, I can just put a discord in place, and invite a bunch of people to it, and it'll survive. But there has to be a shared goal and objective and and idea, right, to keep it alive. That's awesome. All right, cool. So everyone, that was Garth, also known as Garth. Today's podcast has been brought to you by Garth and the letter Arth.
00:17:54
Speaker
art Thank you, Garth, for joining us on this crazy stupid podcast that we have, aka the Nervous Podcast.
Podcast Wrap-Up
00:18:01
Speaker
Remember folks, tell your friends about us. Make sure you like and subscribe. Yeah, thank you for ah DMing me out of the blue and giving me five minutes to prepare.
00:18:11
Speaker
I admit I've spent a lot of this podcast DMing a bunch of other people to see who wants to be on our podcast. So I think this is a great plan. Just so happened to be on ah Discord. So there you go. Yep, exactly. Exactly. Well, thank you so much. Check us out, nervous dot.net. And thanks again. Cheers, dudes. Thanks.