Life Liberty and the Pursuit

LLP #118: Beyond the Term "Influencer"—Finding Authenticity in Content Creation

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What does it really mean to be an "influencer" in the firearms community? Eric and Matt tackle this controversial topic head-on, stripping away misconceptions and revealing the realities of content creation in today's digital landscape.

With nearly two decades of experience creating firearms content, Eric shares candid insights about the evolution of the industry and why he's never been comfortable with the "influencer" label. The hosts explore how authentic content creation differs from manipulation, comparing it to a helpful store employee rather than a pushy salesperson.

The conversation delves into the substantial behind-the-scenes work required to produce quality content, the ethical considerations when partnering with brands, and how truly valuable content creation serves viewers through honesty and transparency rather than persuasion. Through real-world examples like SIG fixing drop safety issues and PSA implementing the "MAC bracket," Eric and Matt demonstrate how content creators actually help improve the products we all use.

Perhaps most revealing is their discussion of the "crab pot theory" - explaining why successful creators often face criticism from those trying to pull them down. It's a fascinating look at human nature that will resonate with anyone who's faced jealousy or resistance while pursuing their goals.

Whether you're a firearms enthusiast, content creator, or just curious about how digital influence works, this episode pulls back the curtain on an industry that impacts millions. Subscribe to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit for more straight-shooting conversations that cut through the noise with honest, thought-provoking analysis.

Speaker 1:

Welcome back everybody. This is Eric and Matt and this is Life, liberty and the Pursuit, your beacon of freedom and the American way of life. Tune in every Monday for a new episode as we dive into the world of liberty and what makes our country great.

Speaker 2:

Welcome back everybody. This is Eric and Matt here with LLP. I hope everybody's having a great day and thanks for tuning back in. This is your home for all things sane in a world of craziness, your beacon of freedom in a world gone mad. I kind of like that.

Speaker 3:

It makes complete sense.

Speaker 2:

I mean, we are the guiding light, yeah maybe we might be the guiding light to somewhere people don't want to go. But hey, the reality is we got to do what we got to do. A ticket to fun town? That's right, the ticket to fun town? That's right, the ticket to fun town. Some things are unfun but, uh, I really enjoy the podcast y'all and I appreciate the, the comments and uh, you know the, the words of uh, of support from you guys and uh it I really love doing this and it's it's been great. And I do want to give a quick little update. This is kind of a rolling channel update, uh, unrelated to the podcast. Uh, I haven't been cutting a lot of range videos and things like that. I apologize, don't think that I'm not getting back to normal content on the channel. Um, I've just had a lot of crap going on. I've been doing a lot of home repairs. Matt knows, oh, yeah, man I've been fixing up the house a bit.

Speaker 2:

So, uh, I do apologize for my absence. We will get back to cutting range videos. I've got a ton of awesome stuff to show you guys. Some stuff I can't talk about because it's super secret squirrel. I'm going to show Matt off camera. He's going to be like whoa, but lots of neat stuff You're going to love some body armor tests, five guns videos, gunsmithing content. I've got so much crap. I've got a giant whiteboard of content written down that I promise it's really good stuff. I've been looking through it. You're going to love it.

Speaker 2:

Anyway, today's show we're going to be discussing the online influencer paradigm and you know Matt and I were discussing this a little bit before the show to just kind of get our brains wrapped around what exactly that means and you know this term influencer gets thrown around. We're going to discuss a lot of things in today's show, but that's the sort of nucleus that we're going to revolve around. Is that subject matter? But I do want to hear about your week, how, how things been going. You said you, you whooped up on some, on some kids in the in the jujitsu ring, you know with the jujitsu training.

Speaker 3:

You know, unfortunately I would say fortunately for them, unfortunate for me you know, we do have, uh, some students in there that are significantly younger, and those younger guys come with a bigger gas tank, much faster. Um, you know, I still can get the better of them, but it's it's much harder. I'm older, um, and I just came in with some little lower back issues today. So it's like, uh, it could be a little difficult, but it's always rewarding, it's always fun and hopefully the younger guys just keep getting better and better and faster and they, you know, if they can eventually start winning those rounds, then good for them. It's just kind of like handing off the baton to the next batch. Well, that's the whole point.

Speaker 2:

You got to be hard on them so they learn.

Speaker 3:

Exactly.

Speaker 2:

You know, just like you know, our NCOs were hard on us and, believe me, they say spare the rod, spoil the child.

Speaker 3:

That's right.

Speaker 2:

And you know what. That's how training is. Training has to suck, it's got to hurt, because it's in those moments of pain that you realize, oh, I have to improve my process. Hey, if I'm losing, why am I losing?

Speaker 2:

I had a really crummy day in the gym today, benching. So we've been doing a lot of support work. I won't spend a lot of time talking about the show, but I've been doing a lot of support work for tendons and everything for my bench and I haven't really been doing a lot of flat benching. Well, I got on the flat bench today after taking almost a whole month off. My bench went to absolute crap, and that's just how it goes sometimes. And the bench is probably the one compound lift that is gonna probably go to crap the quickest. If you don't do it enough, you know it can really. Your bench can go, can turn into absolute trash, probably quicker than anything else. Your deadlifts and squats are always going to generally be there and you build that good core strength, but your, but your bench. You got to stay on top of this are you, are you?

Speaker 3:

so you're still doing barbell benches, yeah, okay, so I kind of I do some barbell benches, but I really switched to the dumbbell bench. Just, you know, a little bit less strain on the shoulders, because man, I I'll get in a bad way and it'll just pop that shoulder and I get it.

Speaker 2:

well, the thing is like the big three compound lifts, or you know, your squat, your deadlift and your bench and those are all you know, barbell?

Speaker 3:

Well, you're competing in that, I'm not.

Speaker 2:

So I don't want to put the cart before the horse, but I do have a new show coming up on we the Free. Big shout out to my brothers, john and Sir Michael, over there. They're doing a great job getting that network going and I will have an exclusive show on we the Free very soon. That's going to be dropping. We're going to start filming that, hopefully within the next month or two. There's a lot of things that have to happen, but it's going to be exclusive content just for that network. So just a quick plug for my friends there we the Free. So before we get into today's show, actually, this is a great chance to shout out our first sponsor in the show. Since we've been talking about lifting and competing, we're going to talk a little bit about chalk.

Speaker 2:

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Speaker 2:

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Speaker 3:

Chalkcom, llp, Heck, yeah dude, I will tell you that will. It will change your world. Just, I mean, that was the best thing that I ever did in my life, Um, you know, just getting healthy, worrying about yourself, getting to a place where you can start lifting and working out every day. Game changer.

Speaker 2:

Dude completely changed my life. Dealing with testosterone, no matter what someone does. I know we've talked about this and the last thing I would ever want to do is beat a dead horse, but I'm assuming a lot of people that follow what we do here on the podcast are probably same age as us or or whatever you know. Maybe you're in your forties or possibly older. So, uh, I know we talk about it, but when something changes your life for the better in that way, you can't help but talk about it.

Speaker 2:

I mean, imagine the I don't know the first time you did something, something that you maybe now you take for granted like the first time you drove a car. You know we drive cars now. Everyone knows how to get in the car and go drive, like it's just a common thing. But imagine the first time you drove. Imagine the first time that you had you were 16 years old, had your learners and your parents are waving, go all right and you're.

Speaker 2:

You're off on your own in your car for the first time and remember how that felt to turn that key and know that you can go anywhere, that car will take you, and that's a really kind of odd feeling of freedom that that people are, you know they get used to for the first time and we'd take for granted later.

Speaker 2:

I kind of feel like it's how the testosterone is, like you don't take you do you take being young and healthy for granted and being full of testosterone and energy, like remember when we were in Iraq, it's like we were just full of piss and vinegar and that mindset, you know you lose that as you get older and you kind of chill out. You get more stoic and it's crazy Like war becomes this, this kind of up drug that like you, you know it's a drug, like it literally sort of you know, gives you this experience like a psychedelic in a way, like you don't come back the same person that you were when you left. You know you're on the plane going over there and everyone's all excited what they're going to see and what they're going to experience and like the plane ride home, everyone's kind of quiet.

Speaker 3:

You're just like you're just sitting there.

Speaker 2:

You're like stoic and there's some kind of strange transcendence that occurs there, whether it's spiritually or mentally or, uh, it could be for the better or for the worst, depending on what your experiences were, but it was a really odd thing to witness for me and that was a breakthrough moment in my life when I realized, coming back on the plane, that I wasn't who I was when I left.

Speaker 3:

It's true, man, like you nailed it. I remember when we were leaving and everybody was like lining up and you're in your chalks to get on the little jingle bus to go to the airport and jump on the plane and you could hear a pin drop because everybody's just reflecting Like the whole time. You're like, oh, this is the last time I'm going to see this place. This is like. You know, I've experienced it. It was just, it was a very, very stoic experience. You're going home but you're not. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Very, very weird experience. But I equate that to the testosterone, because it's like you kind of rediscover that, that zest and um, it really does change your life. So we are going to get into, uh, today's subject and that's talking um a little bit. Oh, one more thing. All right, I gotta just, I haven't discussed my week, we've been talking about your week. I want all right. So all right, your crummy bench press week? Yes, okay, so my crummy bench press, that's, that's all good.

Speaker 2:

But, uh, now squats are out of control. I squatted uh 540 for for reps on monday, so the squats are out of control and I'm benching tomorrow, but anyway. So, uh, we got a puppy. From the last time that I did podcast, we've gotten a new puppy, uh, a doberman puppy, and uh, everything's good. You know, I mean, who doesn't like a puppy, right? Well, I come home from the gym today and I'm going in the closet to get everything ready and I'm sort of preemptively letting you know something that I'm going to get in trouble for. You know, y'all are going to know before she does. Well, I go into the uh closet and little girl decided to grab one of mommy's gucci loafers here. Oh boy, she is gonna be so pissed off. Yeah man, she is gonna be angry. I have no ideas what these cost, but she's gonna be pissed it's a significant amount I'm sure, yeah, yeah, I mean that's, that's gucci.

Speaker 2:

So I'm pretty sure that's. I'm trying to talk quietly because she's upstairs, she's gonna hear me, she's gonna come down here I'm like why are you whispering me? Yeah, yeah, so I owe her a pair of shoes. Um, anyway, just to prove that I'm not making that story up that's definitely.

Speaker 2:

I knew who the who the culprit was. The minute I saw that shoe on the floor, I'm like oh hell. I looked at it like I'm in so much freaking trouble, I'm gonna be in so much she is gonna be so freaking mad you don't mess with a woman in her shoes no, no, no, not, not Gucci either.

Speaker 2:

so, um, I want to get into today's subject and, um, you know this is something that I've thought long and hard about and really wanting to kind of talk about this influencer paradigm that seems to exist and you know I've always hated the term influencer. When you hear social media influencer thrown around as a term, matt, what comes to mind for you? I mean, it seems obvious, but what do you think about when you hear the term influencer?

Speaker 3:

So, honestly, when I hear the term influencer, I kind of cringe a little bit, because it reminds me of the person going into a restaurant with like 500 to 1000 followers demanding a free meal so that they can like in, like, show off to their followers. Uh, on you know, ig or youtube with a very small follower account, I, that's just what pops into my head. And because you see those, you see those videos all the time, like, well, I'm so and so and I'm going to do a review on your food, so you should give it to me for free. And I love the ones where the manager is like no, they just straight deny them and they're like what do you mean? No, like, no, you're not getting the food for free. Like, pay for the food eat it.

Speaker 2:

An over-glorified sense of self-importance? Yes, all right, that would be one, one trait. What might be some other traits that, when you hear the term influencer, what do you think of Dishonesty? Maybe? Maybe they're just being paid to?

Speaker 3:

Well, just the term in general reminds me of like, or it lends itself to like sales, or trying to sell something like. Just think of the term influencer. You're trying to influence your audience to buy something so they can make money. I mean, it's a very, very popular um aspiration for the younger generation. A lot of the younger generation see what you know a lot of people have right now as far as youtube and instagram, um, and even like tiktok is huge man like that's. I know people that are making tons of money, but you know that's, they see that and they want to, they want a piece of it and they're willing to do whatever they can to get it.

Speaker 2:

Matt, that's an extraordinary point. The whole influencer paradigm as it exists does encourage people to seek it out as, let's just say, a vocational type of application Like, hey, I want to be an influencer. They see people who are popular and they go, wow, they're making lots of money, so I want to go into this to achieve that goal, yeah, To make to to make a living.

Speaker 3:

It didn't, it was, it wasn't something that you did to make a living before.

Speaker 2:

That's what I want to talk about.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it wasn't something, it was just something that you did and then then it turned into. Let's try to make a living out of it.

Speaker 2:

I'm not a big fan of the term influencer. Okay, know, for me, when, when the industry and I say the industry, what is the industry? What? When we say industry, when the industry started using it, everybody says that it's industry term yeah, industry. So you know, our country runs on capitalism, right? We run on consumerism. We run on people spending their hard-earned money on some product or service. And you spend money, you receive value for your money and some exchange for your money and the company makes a profit and you get something cool and everybody wins. And the idea is that, you know, when the industry says you're an influencer, it means that that's the value they see in you and their relationship with you. And I always kind of took that as being a little bit of a of a letdown for me because I don't want to be called an influencer.

Speaker 2:

I've been doing this long before that term ever existed, ever existed. You know, early in my channel I got started out just playing around with guns in the field and just making videos and just having fun with it. And over time, yeah, someone realizes that you know, wow, you know there's a demand for this sort of stuff and hey, we can make videos, we can make money making videos. We can charge companies for making videos. So after a while, yeah, you begin to realize like, okay, wow, we can actually do this for a living. This is actually a job and it did become that for me. It did become a job, but it never lost that sense of discovery. Like always genuinely am interested to just see what's going to happen when I make my videos, like if, if I take a new shotgun out. How many times have I seen a two liter soda blow up with a shotgun? Or a watermelon, or a freaking piece of drywall or a ballistic shell block? How many, how many ballistic shell blocks have I shot? My career?

Speaker 3:

How many have you made?

Speaker 2:

A lot, a lot. And you would think that once something becomes a job, that people no longer have passion for it, and I think that's the separation. That's where people think, oh well, this person, they're just doing this because they make money doing it and there's no love or passion or real you know, they don't really care about what they're doing, they're just doing it for the money, and that's not necessarily true. Like every gel block, I shoot, every piece of armor. I shoot every 12 gauge load that blows up something you know downrange. I'm just as happy as the first time I ever did it and, uh, I feel lucky and privileged that I get to do what I do for a living. Yes, I shoot guns for a living. Yes, I talk about guns for a living. Yes, I give political commentary, sometimes pissing a lot of people off, for a living. That's my job. That's what I do. I produce YouTube content. That's my job, and it wasn't always a job.

Speaker 2:

And I suppose the industry decided to use this term influencer and so many people ate it up because I think that it appeals to someone's narcissism. That's why I hate the term so much, because it appeals to the narcissist. It appeals to someone's narcissism. That's why I hate the term so much, because it appeals to the narcissist. It appeals to the person who takes the selfies. It appeals to the person who goes. Oh yeah, my voice matters. I have influence. I can sell this to someone. I can get someone to buy something. Well, if you work at Home Depot, matt, are you shilling? Are you a shill for Home Depot? Because you help a customer in Home Depot?

Speaker 3:

No, you are an excellent employee.

Speaker 2:

Well, okay, what if you're working at Home Depot and someone walks in and they say I've got to paint my shed, can you tell me where the paint aisle is? Okay? And you go hey, the paint aisle's over there on aisle six, let me know if you need anything. And they go and there's a million choices to choose from in the paint aisle, they're probably going to buy some paint. Whether they buy the $8 thing of paint or the $30 thing of paint, they're buying paint from your store, right? You know what I mean. Like you're simply guiding them to where the option is. If they want your help making a choice with that option, then they'll consult you. They'll ask right, if someone pulls up a YouTube video of a gun review, for instance, they're wanting an opinion. They're either seeking some confirmation bias for a purchase they've already made right right.

Speaker 2:

How many people have bought a new gun? Let's use guns for an example, because that's what I do, that's my lane. How many people have bought a new gun and then looked up every video they could find on that gun just to see what people were saying about even though they already purchased it? That's confirmation bias. By the way, that'sirmation bias is fine, because people want to feel like they made a good purchase. Now, if they pull up a bunch of videos and someone has something bad to say, they're going to go oh man, I feel so bad about buying this. Or they have not purchased the item yet and they go.

Speaker 2:

Well, let me consume all the content I can and get an overall opinion about what this product is. Right. Is this a good gun? Is this a bad gun? Is it trash? I don't know. I'm going to figure it out and I'm going to use these YouTube videos to provide context, along with blogs and mags or whatever they're going to read or study, to make an educated and informed purchase decision.

Speaker 2:

And generally, if you say whatever model of gun it might be, I mean, let's not use something good and popular like I don't know. Glock 19 is kind of like the Honda Civic of guns. Let's use an example like a Taurus Judge. Okay, so you know, people have they think what they think about the Taurus Judge versus the Smith Wesson governor, which I find to be a far superior gun to the judge. But is the judge still an OK gun? Yes, it is. So they're going to watch every video on the judge that they can find and some people are going to say good things about it, some people are going to say bad things about it and everything in between, and then, when you consume all that content, you're going to have an overall synopsis of how the bulk of people feel about that product. So one person might say something good about it, one person might say something bad. Maybe the person that said something bad about it got a gun that went out on a Friday at five o'clock when everybody was ready to go home.

Speaker 3:

That's right.

Speaker 2:

You never know, any gun company y'all is capable of putting out a lemon. I don't care who it is and I'm not going to name names. Well, perhaps I will name names. Okay, I've had CZs that I've had to send back for for minor problems. I've had FN pistols that I've had to send back for stuck safeties. On the FNX tactical I've had multiple safeties over the years that I've FNX 45.

Speaker 3:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

Great gun, very high-end gun, very expensive gun, but I've had issues out of FNs. So is that to say that just because something is expensive can you have a problem or not? I know a customer had to send a Barrett M107 back for a bad barrel. Now the folks in Murfreesboro they made it right, of course you better believe they replaced that barrel no questions asked. Okay, hey, sometimes something happens, there's a manufacturing defect. Any product can have a problem. Have you seen Ferrari welds? Have you seen how bad they look? Those cars are premium, high-end, sports cars. You look at the frames it looks like it was welded by a toddler.

Speaker 2:

So you cannot simply say because something is expensive or high-end or because some influencer talks it up, that it is good or isn't good. You have to use your brain and you have to be logical and you have to think for yourself. Don't listen to me, don't listen to Hickok, don't listen to whoever you're listening to. Listen to what your mind is telling you, what your heart and your gut instinct is telling you. Right, you should never look at an influencer in the gun world and say, well, they're the end, all do all on this given subject. You know, if they say they're the end, all do all on a given subject. You should definitely not listen to what they say, because I feel like true influence, matt, if we really want to use that term in that way. I feel like true influence is the lack of influence. That's where I like to be.

Speaker 2:

I don't say I'm a subject matter expert. I don't say I'm the best. I don't say I'm the best shooter. I don't say that I'm the best at anything. I simply put out my opinion and people can agree or disagree, they can like it or not like it, and that's simply where I leave it. I don't tell someone hey, go out and buy this, this is the greatest thing ever. Very rarely do I do that. Very rarely do I actually endorse a given product. If I do, it's because I really believe in it, but I always just put the information out there.

Speaker 2:

Like the Home Depot employee on the paint aisle, I say, hey, here's the aisle with the pistols on it, here's a pistol. You might be looking at other pistols, you might be looking at this one, but here it is. This is my opinion. We're going to shoot it, show it off. Here's what happened and that's it. I'll leave you guys to it. I'm not trying to influence anybody. I do not care if you buy a single dang thing that I do a review on. I do not care if you buy it. Just like the Home Depot guy who told you the paint was on aisle six, he doesn't care if you buy any paint. He's getting paid either way to show up and do his job. He doesn't care if you buy paint that day. He's going to direct you to the paint aisle and if you need help you can ask him. But his paycheck is going to clear just the same, whether or not you buy the paint that day.

Speaker 3:

That's right.

Speaker 2:

And that's my job. That's my job is to direct you. Hey, this exists, here it is. If you want to do something with it, that's up to you. You're all big boys and girls. I'm not going to hold your hand.

Speaker 3:

That's a great way to look at it and I would take it even one step further and say that you know I don't like the term influencer, but the marketing companies and the brands themselves that want to use those influencers to market their wares in this particular case, firearms or tactical gear those influencers are small businesses. So those influencers are small businesses and that's kind of where they separate the divide. So while that employee at Home Depot is sending you to the correct paint and he'll answer any questions you have, he doesn't have any stake in Home Depot, so he doesn't really feel the urge to sell you the best paint versus an influencer, say, for example, firearms. We're going to keep beating on farms because that's what we do here on this channel. You know that influencer is a brand, he has a small business. So while he might not make money off selling you the actual firearm, he's still representing his brand, his loyalty, his morals, his values while presenting this firearm. And if he really thinks that's a great firearm, is he getting paid? Probably. But I know lots of influencers and gun tubers and even other you know industry influencers that if that product is subpar, they just won't. They won't do it, they will not show the product, or they won't attach their brand or their name or their channel to that product. They're willing to not accept that particular job per se because they don't want to compromise their values or their morals just for the sake of a paycheck. Are there influencers out there that are willing to compromise their morals and their stance? Yes, there's probably more than less, but that's where the difference is. So while let's say, for example, that influencer is showing off a particular firearm, they like it. They can say good things about it. They're going to tell it to you straight. They're going to give you the good, the bad Guys.

Speaker 3:

If you're watching a piece of content and it's nothing but just glorification of this weapon, there's nothing wrong with it or they have no criticisms about it whatsoever. You might want to dig a little bit deeper and get multiple views from other channels, because somebody has to have something that they didn't like. Maybe this guy's hands were smaller so the grip didn't fit, or maybe he didn't like the way the slide kept giving him slide bite on his hand because he had big old mitts, and so just keep digging. But the the end result is the influencer represents a small business and the small business has to make money. So when you say to shill, you guys understand that it's not shilling, it is business, it's a job per se. And if you choose to watch this content and you choose to, you know, digest the content you have to be willing to listen to the shill per se.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I agree, and you know, look, I've been doing this y'all for almost 17 years. Youtube just celebrated their 20th anniversary. So, guys, I've been doing this a long time and I've been doing this way before the term influencer ever existed. This was never a job. When I got started doing this, it wasn't. I created the job and I'm not trying to, you know, toot my own horn or be some freaking glowing narcissist, cause you guys know me, that's not me. I'm not that kind of person. But, guys, I've been doing this a long damn time and I can tell you that I've seen people come and go and everything like that, and I'm just, I've been here. I'll be here when they turn the lights off and I'll be part of the cobwebs if they ever turn the lights off and look, I can tell you that you just have to just be honest and truthful and if you're looking at a piece of content, it doesn't necessarily have to be a piece of gun content.

Speaker 2:

A lot of people don't know this. I actually do reviews on music gear as well. Yes, not to. I mean, I hate to shout this channel out because I haven't produced any content for like two or three years. It's been a while I'm behind on it. But I have a channel called guitar arsenal. Okay, we do reviews on guitar equipment effects, guitars, you name it and I went down a really deep and dark rabbit hole with that channel. I spent a lot of damn money on music gear because I wanted cool stuff to show off, to build the channel and I was really enjoying cutting those videos and everything and having fun. And that was a channel I started really just as a creative outlet, just to have fun and with no inhibitions.

Speaker 2:

So after all these years of doing YouTube stuff, matt, I turn around and go well, I'm going to start some new channel related to something completely different than guns, and I really haven't told anybody. I don't really make a big deal about it, and I have all these people show up in the comment section. They go wait a minute, are you that guy that makes the gun videos? I get that a lot. So I think it's funny that there's some crossover between the music people and the gun people. There's always going to be crossover. But the funny part about that is I treat the reviews that I do on like effects, pedals, guitars and amps and all this stuff the same way I treat my gun videos.

Speaker 2:

I talk about the features, I go through the settings, I listen, you know, allow, you know, play some sound samples so people can hear it. I give my opinion, talk about what I like and I don't like, and then I, you know, I leave people to their own devices. You know, if someone watches a piece of content on a firearm, let's go back to firearms. Or it could be an effect pedal or a guitar or whatever. Someone watches a piece of content on an item from, let's just say, let's make it an even 10 content creators. So there's 10 different people producing content on the same piece of gear, be it a car part, a gun, piece of music gear, a watch, et cetera. You guys get the idea, some sort of consumable right, and all 10 of those people have a pretty positive opinion of the product.

Speaker 2:

And let's say you go and you read all the comments in the comment section below the video and the people are like oh man, yeah, I bought my, you know, whatever watch, I bought my, whatever widget you want to put in there. And there's a lot of people giving good comments down below. They're agreeing with the, with the influencer, all the influencers come to a general, a mutual consensus. That is a, that is a universal group confirmation bias. That's what you got there. Okay, now, I'm not some psychologist or anything like that. I mean, look guys, I'm just a redneck with with too many cameras. I'm a redneck with what they gave money to.

Speaker 2:

That was probably a big mistake. But listen, all that really did at that point was give you something to go on. But you're still going to make the decision about whether or not you're going to spend your hard-earned cash on that product. It's still up to you to pull the trigger and go all right, I'm gonna buy this now or I'm not. Did those people influence you? Yes, they did.

Speaker 2:

Some might go out and say, well, this is my job to review this and, and I'm trying to convince you of why you should get this product, that's influence. But I think that the industry tends to just coin that influencer phrase as all right, what do I get out of this? What does the industry get out of it? Well, it's the influence. So, of course, they're going to call you an influencer. They're not going to call you a I don't know subject matter expert or a content creator or a video guy, or just I don't know. I don't know how you would say that. I mean, does sports right and wheaties puts you on the box. Well, are you shilling for wheaties because you've had a bowl of wheaties and wheaties said hey, we'll pay you an exuberant sum of money to put your your face on a box of wheaties according.

Speaker 2:

According to the comments section yes, yeah, I mean, is that somehow wrong to be paid like? No, I mean that anyone would would accept an exuberant sum of money to have their face on a box.

Speaker 2:

That's a dream of, of almost every single athlete, the dream, yeah, to be on the box of wheaties, man right who wouldn't so, in my mind, if, if, if I accept the golden apple, but I do it in a way that doesn't compromise my morals, my values, doesn't compromise, you know, my integrity, then by all means heck. Yeah, you're damn right that I'm going to review that Olight flashlight. You're damn right, I'm going to review whatever they put in my hands, as long as the underlying consensus is that, hey, you're paying me for my time, my effort, you're paying me to edit this video. You're paying me for everything I've worked hard for to build this platform. And I'm going to say what I want to say.

Speaker 2:

You're not paying for an opinion, You're not paying for a positive opinion. You're paying for my time to produce the content. That time can be for sale to anybody, as long as the integrity is in place. Now, if a company ever came to me and they said, well, we're only going to do a video with you If you will say something positive about the product, I'll shut that down instantly. I will never have that type of conversation with a person.

Speaker 3:

I've seen it happen.

Speaker 2:

And it does happen, but it ain't going to happen with me, because that's one thing that I've always believed in. Hard is like I'm gonna tell people exactly what I think good or bad, and if a company cannot accept that, then I just simply won't do business with those people. So let's say, if there's some popular product wink wink out there that you don't see a video on on my channel, okay, and chances are it might be a group of people who's tried to get me to talk, you know, talk them up and I refuse to do it. Yeah, so y'all can do the math there if you want, but it's there, just look through the videos. I mean that's. I mean, that's just the bottom line. There there are companies that are very adamant about not wanting something negative put out about their product, even if you think something negative, and they're not afraid to voice that. Oh well, we can't have. You know, you send a draft of the video and they go well, we don't like that. You said this, you have to remove it. No, sorry, glock.

Speaker 3:

We don't do recuts.

Speaker 2:

I'm not taking the Glock 42 video down to this day. I'm still not. I'm not doing it okay, and I discussed that in a previous video. I'm not going to get into into all the weeds on that, but there's a reason that I don't do videos on certain types of products, because you know there's been some questionable ethics involved that I don't agree with. Now I could do. The low low hanging fruit would just be to take the money and shut up and just do the job. That's the influencer talking.

Speaker 3:

That's right.

Speaker 2:

Would be to just take the money and just do the damn job. And who cares? Oh, if they're dumb enough to buy it, it's their fault. No, that's not how I am.

Speaker 2:

A firearm is a very important tool and I take very seriously what I say about those tools. If we're talking about something, matt, in historic context, a vintage gun, I can talk about why I like the AG-42 Jungmann more than the Hakim. Okay, if someone buys a Hakim or a Jungmann, am I pointing them in the wrong direction to say that I would buy the Jungman over the Hakim? If they buy either one, Well, I seriously doubt they're going to carry a 1942 service rifle as a protection sidearm or something like. You know what I mean? Like someone's not relying on their life for that. That's more of a hey, they want my opinion because I collect these things.

Speaker 2:

Now, if I say some hot new carry pistol is the greatest hotness and it's not, that could cost somebody their life, what if it's a piece of garbage and I say that, hey, this is good, and then someone uses it? Or let's just say it fails or has some sort of a problem and I failed to point that out. Or worse, let's say that I gave an opinion that actually didn't line up with the facts. Now that's a problem and that's something I will never do, because I take that very seriously. That's somebody's life you're playing with there, you know. If something's not good, you need to, you need to tell them absolutely.

Speaker 3:

And I think what we run into more or less in the firearms industry is you do see, you know some failures of product, some you know failure, failures to perform to the standard that the company wants, those I'm pretty sure every gun tuber has experienced that I think a lot of people aren't aware of. You know you have companies out there that a certain group or a certain segregation of people do not like morally, which would be like the Colts or the Springfields or the Daniel Defenses for certain reasons, like, oh, the CEO might have said something negative about're anti-2A and they switched CEOs or whatnot, or they donated to a Democrat PAC. So you're going to run into those issues and you know what can you say. You vote with your wallet. If you don't, if you don't like the company, don't buy the product. But the product still has to be shown Now whether you agree with that a hundred percent.

Speaker 3:

You know how did the, how did the actual weapon perform? You know it's up to you to buy it. All right, so you can choose to take with that information to go buy that particular firearm. If you don't agree with the company, don't buy it. But the person that's producing the content is just putting it out there. It's like a buffet. If you go to the buffet and you don't like chicken, don't pick up chicken, keep going, like, pass it and go pick something else. You're not going to blame the buffet for putting the chicken out, they're just offering it to you. The choice is still yours to make. I agree, you just have to kind of like the amount of mental gymnastics that you see people go through to cause, uh, any type of conflict within the community. Is it's mental to see that they're just like jumping through so many hoops to cause a little bit of conflict, like, ah, it's a little bit overwhelming?

Speaker 2:

let's talk about sig for a minute. Oh my well, look, look and and no, no, we're, we're not. We're not throwing anyone under the bus here. I want to be fair, okay. So when the sigs, you know people started dropping the sigs and they're going off and things like that. You know sig apparently has worked out the problem. I'm not here to throw trash at sig. I love sigs, um, but remember when you and I shot the thousand round test on the 365, you know I remember people.

Speaker 2:

okay, I remember early on that those guns were having a primer drag issue and some people were experiencing some malfunctions. Um, I know that tim at military arms channel was having a few issues and he did a test and you know, it seems like as they upgraded, did some rolling changes, um that the pistols seem to, you know, not exhibit that issue anymore, but we did have an early one. So we wanted to perform the test and I think we got 3,000 rounds with no problem. I think there was a one round, I think a few you might've rode your your hand up. That was self-induced.

Speaker 3:

That was self-induced. The video. That was self-induced. I was.

Speaker 2:

I was a little high on the that was the first time you ever made a video with me.

Speaker 3:

Yes, yes.

Speaker 2:

You came out and helped me do the 1,000-round torture test. We shot 1,000 rounds through that .365 and did fairly well, other than a few self-induced stoppages which, by the way, the Glock 42 video that Glock wanted us to take down had self-induced stoppages in it. That was just a malfunction because of human error and nothing to do with the gun.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, the guns are so small and you have big hands.

Speaker 2:

They are tiny guns right and if you ride that slide stop, you can occasionally lock the slide to the rear and that's what happened to you. Same thing happened to the Glock 42. The point that I'm making is that the problem was presented from a wide variety of different influencers oh, I used the word influencer. A wide variety of different content creators brought this problem to people's attention. Right, what happened? Sig fixed the problem. Right. People started doing drop test videos on SIGs. What'd they do? They went back and went holy hell, we have to fix this. They fixed the problem right when the what is it? The Palmetto State Armory AKV. When that gun first came out? Right, what happened? Nine millimeter brass was getting stuck in the action from time to time and Tim at Military Arms Channel said hey, we should weld a little bracket in here to prevent those cases from falling down in the action and deadlining the gun. What did they do? They installed the MAC bracket.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, they named it after.

Speaker 2:

And they named it the MAC bracket. So people tend to get lost in the minutiae and the argument of oh, this person's a shill or whatever. But the truth is we discover problems in guns and we actually help the company make the gun better by giving them feedback, valuable feedback, now granted. Okay, yeah, a company might be paying us to make a piece of content, but we're also kind of doing some market research, we're doing R&D, we're doing testing and, as much as I hate to say this y'all and look I'm I'm being completely transparent and truthful with you guys. Ok, when we talk about rolling changes in guns, you know, especially firearms. Firearms are a culprit for this. Sometimes they will read through comment section and they'll go wow, this seems to be something that people are addressing and, believe me, that data is extremely valuable to a gun company, whether or not you're actually selling firearms for them or actually moving the needle for sales. That may not even necessarily be what they're trying to go for. They might actually just want to read through all the comments and know what people have to say. That is valuable data to a gun company. Imagine you're a small fledgling gun company trying to get off the ground and a big content creator makes a video and you have I don't know a decent amount of views and you've got a bunch of comments to read through. Say you've got 150 comments. Well, that's 150 people that are theoretically giving you some feedback on your product. That is incredibly valuable data. All right, and say you own a gun company and you're reading through the comments and let's say 60% of the comments are I love this gun, but it's overpriced. All right, what does that tell you? And maybe you need to work on your pricing structure. Maybe you need to work on making the gun a little bit less expensive. Now, I'm not going to say which company, cause I don't want them to get angry at me, but it's a company that I've done some stuff with in the past. They have a popular rifle out, right.

Speaker 2:

And what did they do? They read through a lot of comments and they realized like, wow, people really love this gun, but they don't like how expensive the top end one is. Well, let's make one a little, a little cheaper. Let's change some things. Hey, maybe it doesn't need this feature, that feature. Let's make it a little cheaper and make a little bit more available price point that lines up with what people were wanting. Let's give the people what they want. They say they want.

Speaker 2:

Hey, if five or six, you know, I don't know if 50, 60 people say, well, if this rifle was $1,400 instead of $2,100, I'd probably buy it. Ding ding, ding, Now you go. Okay, can I make it for a price point that people are willing to pay? Ding ding, ding, now you go. Okay, can I make it for a price point that people are willing to pay? Or is this a pipe dream? Or is it only going to be a gun that is never going to break under that $2,000 price point for a rifle? I mean, look, that's just the reality. Y'all Companies use this content to help them make decisions on what to continue making right. What did Glock announce at NRA? They announced that they're going to stop making some Glock models. Why do you think that is Well, they know from sales numbers if something is selling or not.

Speaker 3:

That's right.

Speaker 2:

But they also know from reading through comments and looking through social media if people have the demand for it or not, if people are asking for it or not. So all of those things come together. So a piece of content is a mutual collaboration between my viewers and me. My viewers are giving their feedback, I'm giving my feedback, and anyone is welcome to open source, read through that feedback. It's there for everyone to see. I don't hide comments, I don't pin anything. I just let the comment section go crazy. I don't pin anything. I just let the comment section go crazy and guess what? Everyone can read through it. You know what my fellow viewers are thinking, you know what I'm thinking and it's there. It's just all out there in public, right there for everyone to see. I can't think of anything more transparent than that.

Speaker 3:

That and you know it allows the companies to stress test very quickly, because very, very few people are going to shoot 1,000 rounds out of their CCW. Most people they go to the range every once in a while. They might shoot through the ammo that they've had in there for like a year and they cycle it through, but they're shooting it in a very sterile environment. A year and they cycle it through, but they're shooting it in a very, very sterile environment. It's you know gun range. They might pop you know 25 rounds, reload, go home, do whatever with.

Speaker 3:

When you come out to content creators, they're taking that thing through the gambit, like we did. We did that video. We put a thousand rounds through it in a day, three different shooters, different mags, different ammo. You know we were able to get some uh some malfunctions, some not. They're able to get all that information, all that data in a very short amount of time and that would. That would simulate what you would get from shooting from three different shooters with three different ammunition types and all stair conditions it's's windy, it's cold, it's rainy so you do that across the board with a lot of other content creators and then bam, you have a very big sample size to view and comments that you can kind of look through and see what the issues are.

Speaker 2:

At the end of the day, the cream is always going to float to the top and, you know, if you consume enough content, you're going to get a pretty good idea of what is going on with that given item, and we are going to talk a little bit more about that, but before we do, I want to give a quick thanks to our friends at Undertak. Look guys, I'm not kidding, their stuff is freaking awesome. When it comes to gear that can handle anything, there's no better choice than Undertak, designed for and tested by an elite special forces team in africa's harshest conditions. Under tack is made to perform when it matters most, whether you're navigating through terrain or just tackling your day. Their underwear, socks and shirts keep you dry, comfortable and mission ready. Made from premium materials like modal, which is 50 more moisture wicking than cotton, under tack offers tactical performance that goes beyond the basics. From the ultra comfortable boxer briefs which are my favorite, by the way to the american made battle weave merino socks, you'll feel the difference. And don't forget the hoodies and edc t-shirts rugged enough for anything, yet comfortable enough for everyday use.

Speaker 2:

Go to undertackcom that's Undertakcom. And use the code LLP20 for 20% off. Site wide. That's Lima. Lima, papa 2-0, undertakcom it's spelled U-N-D-E-R-T-A-Ccom. Whether you're gearing up for an adventure or for everyday life, you can trust Undertak to have your back. Plus a portion of the profits support veteran-run organizations fighting human trafficking. Now that's a no-brainer. Visit undertackcom and use the code llp20 to get 20 off site wide again. That's code llp20 and get 20 off site wide today.

Speaker 3:

Get yourself some new under bridges, y'all guys, amazing products, dude like we use them very, very soft. Um, I mean, if you're not in the active lifestyle, you know you can still wear them, but if you happen to be in that active lifestyle, they're perfect, man right so what did I just do?

Speaker 2:

I read an ad in a piece of content I'm trying to sell you a product. I'm trying to sell you some Undertak underwear. Go buy it. And you should go buy it. Now that's me being an influencer is for me to say, hey, go buy this underwear. Yes, undertak supports this show, but we use the product. Yes, we use the product. We can make this show because Undertak helps us out. They pay us. They pay for the promotional spot to put them there to you know. So they support us. We use their stuff. It's a win-win. You know you support them, it's supporting us. So that's the way to think about it.

Speaker 2:

Don't overthink something. If an influencer I use that term lightly, but it is weird, I hate to think of it that way but if a content creator gives a plug or something, you can ignore it if you want or if you really love what that content creator does. When you purchase products that they're promoting on their show, that directly supports that content creator to continue putting out the content that they create. They're not putting those plugs into their content for their own health. They're not doing it for their own good. They're doing it because they have a financial relationship with the, with those people. But also it is on each content creator to go. Well, I'm not going to discuss a product I wouldn't use, I wouldn't buy, that I wouldn't, personally at least, endorse as being a solid product or company or yeah.

Speaker 2:

So let's say that if a company came to me that I didn't agree with their mission or ethos as a company or maybe I don't even like their products or use their products I would never accept money from them to do a plug in my show, if it's not something I would use.

Speaker 3:

That's right.

Speaker 2:

I would wear undertaxed underwear every day. They could put an Ivy 88 logo on the butt. If they want, with a cherry under it, I'll wear it. I mean because it's good underwear. It has nothing to do with the show. I love their underwear.

Speaker 2:

Yep they got some really cool pullovers too. Yeah, so go buy some. Damn it. There you go. Am I being influencing? Am I influencing, matt? I think you're just being. Is that? Am I being influencing? Is that? Am I influencing, matt? I think you're just being honest. Yeah, am I influencing here? I mean, that's the truth.

Speaker 2:

Um, we are kind of getting on, uh, on time for the show, but I do want to discuss how, in various industries, matt, you know, it is so crazy how some content creators will put out content that purposely bashes a product. So sometimes the needle moves in the other direction. You're going to see people who maybe they make a video glorifying a certain product. You'll also have people that make videos saying, oh, this gun sucks, or it failed, or it's awful, or hey, we did some torture tests and here's what happened. So there's so many things on that spectrum of what a gun is capable of, what it can do, like such as our meltdown videos, like when we do our full auto meltdown tests. What are we really proving? We're not really proving anything. It's just kind of more of a like wow, I would never do that to my gun. You know, someone's going to watch that video for confirmation bias. They already own whatever gun that I'm killing in that video. They just want to see how well it does when a crazy redneck in a in a in a freaking suit, uh, melt it down till it catches on fire.

Speaker 2:

Yep, it's not about whether or not you would do it. It's about that confirmation bias of huh. If I did do it, this is what would happen. It it's about that confirmation bias of huh. If I did do it, this is what would happen. And sometimes that's fun too, so it's. It's not really meant to be super educational, it's just more like a hey, y'all watch this Like.

Speaker 3:

It's just what would happen? Hold my beer.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, hold my beer, I mean. And some content is just like that Um, such as some of the extreme mud tests. I know you've seen probably uh, ian and some of those other guys have done some uh mud test videos. You know that's interesting to see. Am I going to drag my M1 Garand through the mud and get it super muddy? I'm going to try to avoid that scenario, right?

Speaker 2:

I wouldn't put my body down in the mud willingly. Why would I put my rifle in there? So is the average person going to get caked in mud?

Speaker 3:

No.

Speaker 2:

Or sand? Probably not. They're going to avoid that scenario and I always tell people like would you do that? Would you put your body in that? If you're in the field, you're an infantry soldier. Are you going to go around the giant pit of mud if you can, or are you going to walk through it? You're going to go around it Like you're not going to go out of your way to get in that?

Speaker 3:

I'll tell you and you know this as well as I do as an infantry reformer but you may have to. Yeah, you will have to, but I will tell you. The first thing that you are doing is protecting that rifle. You jump in the water rifle goes up if you're in the mud. You're on your back shimmying the rifles in the air, like you are doing everything humanly possible to keep that rifle off the ground, out of the dirt, out of the mud, out of the water. Um, it would be a you would have to be in a very, very austere place to have some of that stuff happen. Like throwing mud into the chamber and like riding the bolt forward with mud inside, like where are you at? Like I've seen footage in ukraine.

Speaker 2:

That's not that bad, I mean geez and uh, and I will say that a lot of the stoppages that I've seen in firearms on the battlefield in Ukraine have been really from just lack of maintenance and some of them have been ammunition related failures, such as some of their drug and knobs. They were using commercial wolf ammunition of a heavy grain weight and they're having some issues in some of the drug and knobs and the SVD. You know the SVDs using commercial ammo and they were stopping up and having, you know, some chambering issues. Another issue that I saw was that some of the ammo has a lacquer primer sealant and as the guns heat up in full auto, that sealant melts and it can create enough of an obstruction to hold the firing pin back and the gun will fail, won't go off.

Speaker 2:

You're in the field every day getting shot at every day. You may not have time to scrub your bolt down or maybe you don't think about it or make the time. So when we talk about in the field and having a problem with it with a firearm in the field, like what would you see in ukraine? Um, those 74s, like a lot of them, they're running them suppressed, with suppressors and all that extra back pressure and that type of a weapon system. Yeah, the gun fouls up quicker.

Speaker 2:

You get way more crap in the bowl corrosion and in the corrosive ammo and and over time I mean yeah, you're going to start to experience issues. So I would say lack of maintenance is going to give you a problem with your rifle in a theater of combat way quicker than exposure to the elements. Now, exposure to the elements is a factor, but I think the use of the gun and neglect of the gun through the course of everyday use, and if you neglect it, that's going to cause way more of a problem in the longterm than any amount of exposure ever will. I mean, think about Iraq. How all that sand everywhere. How many times did you have a failure of your rifle because of sand?

Speaker 3:

Zero.

Speaker 2:

Right. How many times did the Ma Deuce choke up because someone was too lazy to clean it?

Speaker 3:

More often than not, and that was exactly the case with the 240. Every more often than not, and that was exactly the case with the 240. Every time I got, I never took somebody else's 240. And the one time that I took somebody else's 240, I spent the entire time scraping that bolt off, getting all that carbon off of the bolt, because they just refused to clean it. I was like never again and I know who it is. I'm not going to say who it is. I was very, very upset because when I needed it, bro, when I needed it, I had to shoot single action. I was like this is ridiculous. I was just pulling the bolt back, firing single action, and then after that it took me probably a good four hours to clean that thing out and I was like, whoever took my 240, I'm going to get it back.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know who you're talking about too. I'm not gonna say his name, but I that's crazy after 20 years, I remember, I know, I know the guy's name bro, it almost cost me my life.

Speaker 3:

Man like that's a, that's a, that's a royal mess up right there, man.

Speaker 2:

I agree, but overall I think that we really covered that influencer paradigm pretty well. Um, you know, I I just had some thoughts I want to share about that, because I feel like people really get it twisted and I think there's a lot of hate attached to it, and I don't know if that hate just comes from a place of jealousy. Maybe they see what you're doing and they see you're successful at it and they're jealous that they're not doing it. Or they're jealous that they didn't think of it. Or they're jealous that they didn't do it in the beginning like you did and grow like you did. Or maybe they just despise that you're successful. I mean, look, there's a lot of that, there's a lot of that out there.

Speaker 2:

People some people don't want to see someone successful. They hate the idea of someone that they view being like them very much, being more successful than them. If people look at my content and they see me as an everyday guy but yet I live like a guy that's not an everyday guy Well, all of a sudden they're going to be like well, damn, you're not an everyday guy, you're, you're, you're some person who puts themselves on a pedestal or something like that. Or maybe you have some over glorified sense of self-importance, and those things simply aren't true. I don't really look at myself like that. I've always just considered myself a well-known average person.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and that, well, they have a name for that. It's called the crab pot theory. Really, what's that? If you ever watch, if you go crabbing and you catch your crabs and you put them in a five-gallon bucket, right, the crabs all pile up and there is going to be a point in time where the crabs on top can climb up. They'll reach up and they'll grab the rim and they'll pull themselves up, but the crabs below them will reach up and pull them back down, because if they can't escape, you can't escape. So if you look it up, guys, it's the actual thing, is called crab pot theory and like that's the same.

Speaker 3:

If people can't be successful, they want to drag you, they want to pull you down, they want to tear you down because they don't want you to be successful either, and it's literally called crab pot theory. What? Yes, you're kidding me. No, it's. It's a real thing, man, and that's why you get around people Like some people are just negative all the time, like we've all, we've all been around those people. They're negative, they're always talking bad. They're always talking bad about somebody else this person, that person because they're not as successful or they're not as good as that person or anybody else. So they, all they want to do is just pull you down. Misery loves company. That's like the prime example of that.

Speaker 2:

What a, what a great, great way to end the show. I mean that is so cool. You know and I want people to realize too that it takes a lot of dang work to produce content that you're putting out on the internet, essentially for free. Remember in the early days when I was putting out videos on my Sony CyberShot? If you look at some of my early content, it's literally just a little like four megapixels Sony CyberShot camera, like a literal tiny little digital camera that I was making my videos on because that's all I had. And I leave those videos up because I think it's just important for people to see the progression. But, like in those early days when putting out content, there was no rhyme or reason, it was just I don't know, we were just making videos. It just felt like something cool to do, like to document things that we happen to already be doing, and I still kind of treat it that way. Yeah, it's stuff I would already be doing and some of it has some promotional potential where, yeah, a company might be paying me for my time to give an opinion on a certain gun, but it's still always under the guise of something that I would be doing. I would be going out to test that gun anyway. I might as well film it and show what's happening while it happens. That's right, and I just think people tend to undervalue how much time it takes for a content creator to film and edit and syndicate and deal with all that stuff. I mean, it is a job. When you do it at the level that a lot of us are doing it at, and do it on a full-time basis, it's it's quite, uh quite the job. Um, so we are going to end today's show. Uh, before we get rolling too far in the show, though, I want to give a shout out to our friends at Strikeman. All right, folks, listen up.

Speaker 2:

If you're serious about improving your shooting skills, saving money on ammo and training anytime anywhere, then you need to check out Strikeman. This is the real deal for dry fire training. Look, we all know that ammo prices aren't getting any cheaper, and hitting the range as often as we'd like just isn't always practical. Whether it's time, money or just finding a good spot to train, it can be a hassle, but what if you could get in real practice reps from the comfort of your own home? That's where Strikeman comes in. It's a dry fire training system that lets you train with your actual firearm, no live ammunition needed. Their laser cartridges drop right into your firearms chamber and every shot is tracked in real time through their app. You'll get instant feedback on accuracy, shot placement and reaction time. It's an absolute game changer for anyone looking to tighten up their skills, whether you're a first-time gun owner or an experienced shooter.

Speaker 2:

And check this out strikeman offers full training kits with everything you need, including targets, phone mounts and their precision laser cartridges. If you're a revolver guy, they even have a six-pack of 38 special 357 magnum laser cartridges so you can fully load your wheel gun and get that continuous trigger pull practice. Plus, there are no subscription fees. Their app is completely free to use. Train anywhere and wherever you want.

Speaker 2:

Now here's the best part because you're part of the iv8888llp family, strikeman is giving you 20 off your order. Just head over to strikemancom and use the promo code IV8888 at checkout to claim your discount. That's 20% off. No gimmicks, no nonsense, just a great deal to help you train smarter and save big on ammo. Don't wait Get yourself a Strikeman system today and take your shooting skills to the next level. Again, that's strikemancom, and use the promo code IV8888 for 20% off. Train hard, shoot straight and, as always, stay free. Now the Strikeman stuff's pretty legit. I do like their. You know, it is so crazy how the training world has changed so much with the amount of technology that we have available now.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Like it is not just dry fire anymore Now, like they can work out issues with your trigger press. They know if you're healing, they know if it says so many like some of the data points that make us such better shooters now than what we used to have. The training aids are so amazing, and what we have now it's.

Speaker 3:

It is crazy the amount of information you can get. You used to have to shoot and go look at how your shot group looked like and then you have to try oh, am I slapping the trigger? Am I healing it? Am I, is my grip not good? Am I, you know, not breathing correctly? Now, dude, you can shoot three clicks on a dry fire and it'll tell you everything you need to know.

Speaker 2:

It is crazy, like how well that stuff works for helping out with your shooting and everything. So you know, I think we covered things pretty well and uh, is there anything else you want to add before we leave today's show? Matt?

Speaker 3:

No, I mean, I think you, you, you explained a lot. And guys, you know, if you ever wonder what makes Eric able to speak on this particular subject, I mean he's been doing it for the better part of 15 years. One of the youtube partners, um, you know, 2.75 million subscribers. That is enough. Imagine having a subscriber base big enough to fill 24 nfl stadiums. That's crazy, man, like to have like roman coliseums, just them. You know, just a large amount of people. That is a lot of experience and it's a lot of honesty. And if you guys enjoyed the show, you know, keep tuning in, leave us some comments and, you know, let us know how you feel.

Speaker 2:

I really appreciate you guys supporting the podcast. Matt and I are super excited to bring this back and, uh, thanks to all of you who leave comments and everything, we will be taking on some questions in the next show. So make sure you follow me on Twitter. Iraqveteran8888 on Twitter. That's the most direct way to engage with me on a regular basis. I also give some political commentary over there. That might be a little spicy, very spicy.

Speaker 2:

If you want to follow some of my spicy commentary, uh, feel free to tune in over on twitter, and sometimes I will drop tweets and ask you for your questions, so I'm more than happy to answer questions on the air. Also, let us know how you like the podcast here in the comment section below. We post on youtube, uh, every monday, so you'll see the show come up video form. Some of you, I know, are downloading the podcast in audio form, uh, so if you want to see our ugly mugs in person, you can follow us over on YouTube. So have yourselves a great day. Many more videos on the way and more podcasts on the way. We'll see you soon.

Speaker 3:

All right, Bye everybody.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to Life Liberty Pursuit. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, spotify and anywhere else podcasts are found. Be sure to leave us a five-star review. We'd really appreciate that you can support us over on Ballistic Inc by picking yourself up some merch and remember guys, dangerous freedom. Have a good one.