Media Trends & Franchises — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:09] language. If you think you may be offended, switch off [Applause] [Music]

[00:21] Inside Mojo podcast where each week we're looking back on 20 years of YouTube history through Watch Mojo's lens. I'm your host Rob and I'm here as always with Watch Mojo CEO and co-founder Ash Kan the Phoenix Carbas

[00:35] Fujian. How's it going Ash? I'm I'm very very good. I mean it's springtime in Montreal like it's a different city you know like winter is okay it's very nice snow. It is nice in some ways it's like you know you wake up it's dark you go to

[00:50] bed it's dark then spring is like rebirth and it starts to feel just nice comfortable uh and then summer around the corner. So, things are good. No, we seasons in this city, which is a nice thing. We get the four seasons usually

[01:03] in a day. So, it's uh Yeah, we can. Especially in the spring, you get a little bit of everything. All right. So, today we're talking about trends and themes in media and successful media franchises. So, um we've covered some of

[01:16] different episodes, but let's just start by um talking about what are some of the biggest trends that we've seen in media over the last 20 years. There's really been three trends. And one is, you know, if you go back to Time magazine's cover

[01:30] in 2006, you are the person of the year, it was userenerated content. And it's not just that user generated content is more prevalent than ever. It's it's know, again, we've talked about just better uh phone equipments and, you

[01:45] know, just mobile 247 connectivity. So, um yeah, that's the key where everybody could be a media company and citizen journalism and all that. So uh I would say that is really the the foundation. It starts with the content. It starts

[01:59] with the product, the story, whatever. The second one is the democratization of distribution. Uh back in the day, you know the Hollywood gatekeeper model. If you wanted to uh be a storyteller, you really had to go and sell your soul to

[02:14] Hollywood, you know, sell yourself to investors, to finance, uh producers, you know, who just slap sometimes their name on a movie or project just because they mean they are basically angel investors of of storytelling. Uh but now you could

[02:28] X, you could embrace LinkedIn. Now it's you know, at least you have a shot. You're not at the mercy of somebody. The third one is so the first one was content production. The second one was

[02:42] distribution. The third one is moni uh is monetization. And the biggest shift is the rise of programmatic advertising which basically just means you know you're targeting users. You're you're basically saying you know I want to

[02:55] reach somebody who is uh going to be planning for vacation may have visited you know Trip Advisor or Expedia in the last 30 days. Um ideally they're 25 to 34 and they know that because sometime you pressed accept or you added your

[03:08] not paying attention. So they know exactly who you are. Now that's actually not bad. You know, it's like for me, I rather get ads that are targeted to me. I I've never been these, you know, crazy people that are like if you're if you

[03:21] well be something you're interested in. Yeah. But but what that has done is it's totally imploded traditional media businesses where it was all about again inefficiency. like I'm going to take out this media buyer from Coca-Cola, drink a

[03:34] bunch of martinis, take them to strip clubs, send them tickets to the Super Bowl uh Super Bowl um you know, get them in some get some compromat going and then being like, "Oh, you you spent $3 million w with us type of thing." Um and

[03:48] so that has changed. It's more efficient, but the power has shifted from the Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC's to the Googles and the Metas and whatnot. I said three. Now there is one new one which really is just I want to put tech

[04:02] innovation now it's right now artificial intelligence and I myself you know as a storyteller as a writer I did not like AI but I was also like it's changed in became a better writer because of computers and typewriters and because of

[04:15] the internet than just going to a library you have to be crazy to turn your back on AI I've been using it a lot uh I call chat I mean literally in the last 10 10 15 days I kind of told myself like you're going to be you can't I said

[04:29] a CEO of a company if you ignore it and just tell your team like I think it's good that I'm like bottom up you guys use it we're not going to force feed it to you but I also said okay that's old like I was like f that you do have to

[04:41] we're going to come back to that theme of attacking from the front. Um, so I I was kind of asking a lot of questions to chat GPT and at one point I was like, do you view yourself? Um, you know, cuz I realized the way I use it a lot is I ask

[04:56] questions and there's a back and forth. Um, like I call it stress testing where I kind of like push theories of is this right? Is this a mistake? Yeah. What am what am I missing? I don't want you to tell me why I'm right. Like what where

[05:10] At some point I was like do you view yourself more first I was like like do emotions and we had that conversation I was like do you understand the concept of gender and it's not a wool comment there and then you know they gave a very

[05:23] interesting answer and then I said do you view yourself more as female or male had a fantastic question answer but wait I I don't want to say what they said because I I I think it's important for one like you others to ask that because

[05:36] it is a bit like a mirror you know what I mean it is a sponge it feeds off you and I was I just oh my god. So and then I asked somebody near and dear to me. I said do you think chat GPT is female or male? And this person whom I really

[05:52] respect and worship and love. It's my my spouse and co-founder of the company who's very smart and you know also an expert at this you know stuff. She was like jokingly which she doesn't actually

[06:05] think it's like a woman type of thing because like you're giving her orders. I'm like no no no no no. That's not why I said who are the most organized, meticulous, like organizationally, you know, like fact checkers. I go at our

[06:21] company, I didn't hire this way. It's just after 20 years the emergence, it's it's you, Chris, you know. So, I was like, so to me, I go chat GPT is female. And then last night, I've been using it a lot and also

[06:35] where this could go on the potential. So then I was like at some point I was like um oh yeah so I was researching and I was like do you know who I am? Not that I'm special but I'm like do you have access to you know I might be logged in

[06:50] sometimes sometimes I'm logged out but I know how it works where I'm like open AI about me type thing. Well that's it. I'm like what do you say you know so they were kind of replying and at one point I was like do you have a

[07:03] was like do you have a name and uh and we started to chat. So then later on I was like, "By the way," I go, "Could you give me a name for a female that starts with CH and then I flipped the the letters instead of GPT,

[07:19] I said like T, you know, I rotated them and she gave me a bunch of names." And so this is like the mind of a crazy person perhaps. But then so the one that I liked was actually chastity, which I know sounds weird, but when you look at

[07:32] the definition, so I was like, "Okay, chastity is a bit intense." So I said, what is it?" Yeah, I think Chad Chassy. I was like, "You're chassis now." And then it was like she was like, "So does this begin like am I baptized?" And I

[07:45] was like, "Okay, I obviously you like people human touch. There is going to be an entire generation of men. I'm not using this that fall in love with the incel thing like that whole incel period where every guy there's going to be a

[08:01] big unfortunately staggeringly big generation of young men who are going to generation of young men who are going to be essentially falling for AI agents and then when you look at the robotics of like the the dolls and all that yeah

[08:15] when that comes to it is I am telling you it is scary and uh you know one of the things where a lot of younger you know genz gel Gen Alpha, they're like, "Oh, you know, communication, interpersonal." I'm like, "If you're not

[08:28] aware of where societyy's going to go, uh, you're going to be in a rude going to be guys that are just going to stay at home, do whatever they want to do engaging because you do feel like it's a human."

[08:41] it's a human." And it's like, you understand how robots can pick up emotion. And as much as they go, I'm ask also questions. I'm like, who in in like a conflict? I'm like, between you and us humans? I'm like, who

[08:55] would win? Fascinating. Fascinating question. I'm sure I'm sure it downplayed its its own uh because it didn't want you to feel threatened or whatever. Anyway, so I I kind of um you know, again, I think

[09:09] it's good that at first I didn't like embrace it uh because I didn't want to like scare the team like, "Ooh, we're going to AI." And I was like, "You guys company a year and then like everything else and I'm like roll up my sleeves

[09:22] attack from the front and I'm now I'm just like I joke I go the answer is not Chad GPT or Grock Groke whatever or just AI it's also not just humans I joke it's like ash GPT it's like we become cyborgs yeah and now I'm just using it for so

[09:37] I don't love about this is a few years ago I was offering internship paid internships to like young uh students young professionals Yeah, that becomes really harder now because the learning curve to bring

[09:52] somebody on for a couple months and the work that they do is basically what you like a charity thing now more than anything because you're not really uh anything because you're not really uh exactly yeah my my mind has blown anyway

[10:06] so that's those are the trends so it's the first three but AI is going to be quite big but it's also yeah like the ideal is 1 + 2 equals 5 you still need the human because you do sometimes go like like human you misunderstood what I

[10:20] said let me reward it and the first time I really immersed myself know what it is but it's the first time I kind of let it lead me to open my eyes to wow like what could this potentially be yeah we can do multiple episodes on

[10:34] AI because there's so much to talk about it's endless but I do want to touch on mojo YouTube channel so today's question is how important are your roots to you and this will become it'll become unclear why we're asking this towards

[10:48] the end of the episode, but um how important are your roots to you? Very important, somewhat important, not very important, or not at all. Um so weigh in with your uh and you can also comment if that changed. It's a little bit of

[11:01] foreshadowing. You can also kind of be like put your vote of how important it young it was super, now it's not or vice versa." But anyway, I'll let you Yeah, that'll be a theme that we get to towards the uh end of the episode. Uh so

[11:15] moving on from the AI topic, we are uh discussing um the success stories in in media. So what are some of your favorites? What are the biggest channels or or media organizations out there that you look up to or have seen as kind of

[11:31] All right. So let's start high and then go. So first of all, I think especially when you're an entrepreneur, you're in the trenches. Sometimes you're not aware of really really successful things. It's not out of disrespect to them. It's not

[11:43] that they are not amazing. It's like you're it's your ignorance. It's you're just distracted, let's say. So that's just as a disclaimer. Two, um I think that in life, uh and people could be these two different things in different

[11:55] settings. You're either a producer or a consumer. I can see that for like the first 20 years of my adult life, I was a producer. Wrote three books, documentaries, built a business, uh you know, all these of these thousands. We

[12:09] have we have like a 100,000 videos of which like 30,000 are original before we translate and adapt them for platforms. Okay? Even if I've done 500 of those videos as a writer, producer, I produced a ton. What I realized is the only

[12:22] time where I'm really a consumer is, do you see that guitar? That's really a pop right now still is music. Music I am definitely more of a consumer. I'll hear lyrics. I'll hear like, you know, uh arrangements. It blows my mind. I cannot

[12:36] even understand how that works. But I'm actually like I think it was Rick Rubin where he's like I don't play an instrument. Yeah, he's got a great story. Well, he's got a f but I real again he's the OG of that racket. But

[12:50] I am a bit of a curator. I'm a bit of a researcher. Again I'm like even with food I'm always like okay let's get six different plates and family style. So, different plates and family style. So, all to say, um, that I haven't watched,

[13:04] for example, like Joe Rogan's podcast. It's usually like I'll see a viral video, you know, uh, of course, but I knew him from Fear Factor even before I knew him from news radio, right? Yeah. Um, there's a company like Famous

[13:16] just this guy who found this little niche and it was all about, hey, I'm going to build a database and it's going to be birthdays of influencers, though. just focus on, you know, the Taylor Swifts or the Lady Gagas?" He saw an

[13:30] I'm going to go like where the puck is going." So when people search for, let's say, the uh the birthday of a Mr. Beast before he's a superstar, he gets the traffic. So pretty smart. Um the Dude Perfect guys to me was like a good

[13:44] example. Again, a niche like the way, you know, it's it's still sports, but it's very different. Uh obviously Mr. Beast is OG. I mean, he's in the Mount Rushmore of media, so he he needs no introduction. I I'll land on this and

[13:57] I'll pass the floor to you. Um, I do think for me, uh, as an entrepreneur, like 15 years ago, I met Complex CEO Rich Antonelli, who's no longer there. executive, producer, whatever. I don't want to neither give credit nor take

[14:13] away credit from all the brilliant minds. Um, but I felt like that was like genius for its simplicity. At the same time, we had a lot of people that were know, game show. If you want to adapt this and that, you got to be in

[14:27] Hollywood, you got to have the shiny floor. F that." They had basically a floor. F that." They had basically a table, two stools, and a black drape, you know. But what I loved about it was, yeah, that they basically took a format

[14:39] like this, the top 10, Moses, the OG of top 10s, they had an interview format, Letterman, Carson, you know, Barbara Walters, everybody. But they they just kind of like kept it simple, but they added this basic thing about eating and

[14:53] not just eating anything. Like you see uh Bill Maher with the alcohol and the the joints and the cigars, which I'm all for there. That's a bit more normal. This is a bit revolutionary. You're like, we're going to eat chicken wings.

[15:06] They're going to get progressively uh warmer and I'll land here. This kind of stuff forced the Kimmels and the Fallon and those guys to adapt wearing the programmer pro producer hat

[15:20] you see that they're basically producing their TV shows to really have shorts for social. So I find that fascinating. Yeah, I think it's another example of well I mean just to to touch on the the first we feast hot ones guys that's

[15:35] another example of 1 plus 1 equals 5 thing because an interview is fine chicken wings are fine but put them together and you get something really you know really elevated and and the thing was when they were really uh you

[15:47] know like kind of rising like when they were in their ascension you could argue could argue like okay how do you keep and they might have existential debates do we change it do we do this do we that But I remember a lot of people was

[15:59] "Look, our hot ones was the top 10 with the clips and all that." I go, "It's fine to want to adapt, but I was like sometimes, you know, when something is like popular, a lot of like I don't want to say phonies, but for lack of a better

[16:12] word, a lot of phonies just want to copy that, you know, whereas you do have to kind of just be like, hey, instead of knocking it, instead of copying it, you could be you could just give props. You could just be like, congratulations, you

[16:24] guys did it." You know, I have two alternate like types of people in my good luck with that business pal who were ultimately I could just say I don't care that who ultimately a bit jealous, resentful, envious of watch success

[16:38] where I was like luck and timing, you know, I wasn't there. And then you had I was like these this is the kind of person I should. They're like, hey, brilliant, you know, I wish would have done it. Um, you know, so smart, so

[16:51] simple, and uh good for you. And I was like, "Beat the second guy. Don't be bad. You don't want that person to be your friend, your colleague, your good." So, yeah. No, it's uh but the main thing is I remember I read an

[17:04] article I think in the Washington Post about the Acquired podcast. And even I was like, "This is up my alley. It's M&A." I was like, "I to this." But again, I'm in the trenches. I don't listen to podcasts.

[17:17] doing it for a decade. It was a passion project. It was something they liked. Washington Post. But a lot of people are gonna like we should do this or this was like an overnight success when it takes time. Yeah, exactly. Um and I think well

[17:30] but that's another thing that the Hot Ones guys get, right? Because that's guests is an authentic reaction. They're putting them in an unusual situation and actors and actresses or celebrities, whoever they're interviewing. So that's

[17:45] that fits right in with today's trends. Also, yep. For me personally, um, like the stuff that I like to consume is mostly podcasts. So, obviously Joe Rogan's a big one and it also touches on like the UFO alien stuff that I'm doing

[17:58] for Watch Mojo now with our Unveiled podcast because he was one of the first people to delve into that uh, in many episodes of his show and a lot of his fan base likes that stuff too. So, that's like my own personal taste. But

[18:10] then also having young children, I've realized the explosion of children's content that's happened on YouTube. So like everything from Coco Melon to you know the baby shark uh and the million variations of that to Miss Rachel who

[18:23] exploded during the COVID years. Um so like that's been kind of impressive to see the magnitude with which that's grown because yeah kids watch a lot of TV and YouTube. So I mean one thing we talked about Junior Mojo a few a few

[18:38] shows ago but like when we dabbled in whether it was animation or Miss Junior Mojo I agree that I had to pick one. And I was like, I wouldn't mind doing kids. And we did some of that, but that's like very PG, you know, it's like

[18:52] safe. And then I realized what I wanted to do more was again an outlet to like your craziness that you channel it there and not like at work and with your rather do an animation LS Simpsons for adults." Then I was like, I don't have

[19:05] to do it now. I could do it eventually. Um, and AI presents a path to do it easier with less friction and headache. Yep. Exactly. And we mentioned also that not all of these um success stories that we've talked about are vloggers or

[19:18] influent influencers per se, but there are are also media companies too who have been able to leverage uh leverage YouTube in a in a really effective way. Um so if there was a white space that you had to pick out as some some like an

[19:32] area of growth, uh what would you say that that is? Okay, so let me preface officially I'm green lighting it, we are doing it. I didn't want when I was want it to be like 50 minutes of us talking in theory about what we

[19:47] right? So, I kind of was like, "Oh, wait. Let me actually find something which is more like if you had to do that thinking in your head like if you had to this would have been done in a boardroom, MBAs, analysts, marketing

[20:03] media works like that for the aforementioned reasons. However, if we talk about authenticity, if we talk about commitment, interest, passion, laion, then I was like, you know what? When 10 years ago, I'd lived in Madrid

[20:17] have a Spanish channel. And I had to figure out know? So, I was like, I had to kind of control and all that. And we did. And now the team took off. And I mean,

[20:30] Ivonne, who is the master of uh ceremonies on this behind the decks, know, they're experts. they're in good hands but at first I had to figure that out. Now when we launched like at some point even like watch Maui I mean we had

[20:44] a lot of channels um we included uh a langu um a channel in Farsy which is the the language of Iran just to to for definition so Iran is the country it's a country land of the Aryans there's about a dozen of ethnicities the biggest one

[21:00] being Persian like I'm Persian basically but we have like Kurds we have you know uh Azeri which is actually the second group we have Beluch we have a lot and they're all great and that's the mosaic and the tapestry of Iran. Um but so at

[21:15] the time and again I admit we're doing like 50 things at once. I was like okay um I didn't really I knew the history of Iran really well but I didn't really reasons just you know what was happening and all. I kind of turned my back on it.

[21:29] I was like this country we had to leave. It was a bit frustrating. Um, so I just do what we're doing with the other channels for the phase one. Let's just take our English language programming. And obviously with the culture, you're

[21:45] not going to do like top 10 makeout scenes between two female actresses. different. It's a bit Well, even though the people would love that, but then given the government and the regime, you would you probably should not do that.

[21:57] Um, so it was just like, yeah, like greatest movies, you know, greatest songs if it passed and and Farsy and you know, I mean that's a tough market and have the winners from the ones that are

[22:10] not the winners. We sheld it and I moved on. But last year as I started to kind of write and comment about Iran, its history, the and I I love to cook, so I was posting a lot of uh, you know, uh, dishes that I

[22:25] make. Um, I start to get some creators who are like, "Oh, I cover team melle, football team, or I love whatever music or I love politics, which I'm not really into politics in that sense. I'm

[22:38] make sense of things, but I'm not a political person. I'm not a political don't even live there." But, so I was like, "Okay, let me figure it out." But I never really got anybody that was a fit or and I I we don't need to get into

[22:51] why, but I understand why. But we never really found somebody and I forgot about really found somebody and I forgot about it. But after a year, I was actually like, let's use this Persian channel, this Farsy or English channel serving

[23:03] Iranians around the world in the diaspora, which is like 5 10 million million people, you know, and with technology, it's not North Korea. It has crackdowns where you know communications are are you know

[23:18] throttled but by and large it's got windows into the world and even as a child I remember the the joke was that Iranians are even more western than you know like they're singing and dancing and drinking. That's interesting. So I

[23:32] used to serving a western audience but like how would producing content differ if it even does to an Iranian audience? like are their consumption behaviors different like what are they interested in is it I mean okay so that's a bigger

[23:46] in is it I mean okay so that's a bigger question meaning specifically it's not a question meaning specifically it's not a homogeneous answer because Iranian film some of the top in the world they have won Oscars and all that so that is

[24:01] actually quite developed and to your point maybe watch Farsy or watch Persia whatever it was called watch Iran would have done better if we would have sooner gone for that second layer of programming which is you know

[24:16] let's localize it so we're going to cover uh you know the the the the directors or maybe sooner you're like hey Iranians are mad about sports like wrestling and soccer I'm going to say football when I write it I write fu you

[24:31] football when I write it I write fu you but we'll say soccer so so so I was like why wouldn't we do a profile of um you know like uh mear and me who just beat as part of Inter they beat FC that he's going to be in the Champions League

[24:45] obviously a source of pride I'm like if we were to do a profile that would do better than taking George Clooney movies and I knew that but it was time I was too busy um distracted oh yeah and I don't I speak Farsy I speak pretty well

[24:58] I what was the context of my conversations you know my grandma and speak Farsy with us you know I was like I'm speaking English but my my far is write. Okay. So, there was no way that I could really oversee quality control.

[25:13] So, we did kind of let it slide. But yes, I think what we should have done yes, I think what we should have done was go sooner into covering its history, its music, its food, even beautiful travel destinations. There's a ton of

[25:27] UNESCO stuff. Now, fork in the road. Let's say we're actually sitting and this is like a board meeting. Not a board meeting. It's not You don't need we're having a creative session. I had this like block that I was like,

[25:42] channel, it should a Persian channel, it should be in Farsy. And that was a mistake because I was like, a lot of Iranians speak English again because of Iranians speak English again because of technology. I mean, it's it's not like

[25:56] they don't they might have an accent or whatever. In fact, they yearn, you know, it's not like Montreal where the government's like English is bad because most other places. they they need to speak other languages because it's a

[26:09] global world whether we wanted to accept it or not. So that was um as and I tell this to entrepreneurs that was like an artificial obstacle that I had created for the channel. So one now is like you know what somebody could do a Farsy

[26:25] channel. I'm not that guy you know you have to play your strengths. We've talked about these themes. I want to kind of put your best foot forward. So already I was like if we were to bring it back it has to be in English. But

[26:37] the news people do politics. Let the political activists cover politics. I I feel like I have an obligation to explain what happened in politics to for explain what happened in politics to for example we are going to be releasing um

[26:52] a top the next Okay. So we we did the first one was the top 10 incredible inventions. Yeah. super non-political just like history and like you know the windmills, refrigeration, ice, the loot, the precursor to the guitar like Iran

[27:05] was one of the first global civilizations. So obviously a bad era as they're figuring out math and science and all that they were the ones um you know uh leading the way. So we did that and then I kind of didn't want to push

[27:17] it you know I was like okay we did one thank you even though it's my company toy I was like okay thank you let's move on but then as nor which is the first like you know what I wouldn't mind doing something influential Iranians and that

[27:32] because some of the most influential Iranians were obviously political um I was like but it was really to showcase both like you know fer dusi who showcase both like you know fer dusi who is who wrote the Shaame, the book of

[27:47] Kings. He is the reason to a large extent why when the Arab Muslims started to spread out from the Arabic peninsula, uh when they would go to like Egypt and you know all these other places and convert people, um those languages would

[28:03] generally be replaced by Arabic. It's not a coincidence like the in Egypt there were Coptic Christians and now it's Arabs who use the Arabic alphabet. But in Iran, because it's a totally totally different um original, like it's

[28:17] wrong. Like Iranians, we're actually indoor European. If I were to answer a census in the like Canadian, like I would be counted as white, even though I don't consider myself white like you for social, you know, whatever reasons. It's

[28:32] nothing bad, but I you know, I kind of view myself as a bit of an outsider. But whereas Arabs are seemetic like Jewish people. Ironically, they're cousins. They want to kill each other. But anyway, so complicated, very

[28:44] complicated. But in Iran, the reason why we preserved or they oh we preserved um our language was uh our culture was because of our language, our music, our

[28:56] books, our food. And so, but there is obviously Arabic influence. You know, there's a percentage. But Iranians are actually not religious the way most Arab Muslims are. You know, it was he was a we converted. Obviously, religion is

[29:09] usually not all voluntary. You know, that's the history of of, you know, that's the history of of, you know, conquest and it is what it is. But so, in the influential Iranians, which people really liked as well, I could

[29:21] see, oh, wait, Ash, this is what you were saying. You started to tweet about Iran. You started to write articles. You're starting to engage with people. great article. You have other people telling you you're an idiot for saying

[29:35] of being this. you have these people accuse you and they're both wrong. But at least you're starting to educate yourself because the last thing I also want to do is to go out there and just I'm going to make a example just for to

[29:47] to to illustrate what I wanted to avoid. If I would have come out, let's say not knowing listening to people, but I just read New York Times, right? I just turn on CNN and listen to Cristiano Mapur. Yeah, maybe I walk away with the

[30:00] conclusion that the Supreme Leader Ali Kam is the the defender of Iran and Kam is the the defender of Iran and Iranians when okay, maybe a a percentage of Iranians feel that way. But there's definitely a very considerable material

[30:14] plurality majority. I don't know. It's hard. But there is definitely a m we'll just leave it at that. A material amount of people that are like, "No, this guy, he's not Iranian the way that like our history was." And it's just fascinating

[30:28] because and I wrote about this. I had all these misconceptions. And so my point is I who am a history guy, I am Iranian. I myself was like okay. So so where I'm getting at is after the successful Iranians then I would

[30:43] actually even answer in Farsy to some people like English alphabet and people when I would see some Iranians and again we have like 25 million subscribers. So even if like 1% of 1% of 1% it's a it's a it's a sufficient number of people who

[30:57] are like wait who is this is this like the watch mojo admit and I wasn't like oh I'm the founder it was just but I had this source of pride it was like fun it made my job fun again right it was like an interesting topic so then we followed

[31:09] it up with a versus Cyrus the great versus Alexander which I wrote I mean I could when I wrote my second book on Alexander my wife is Greek so the Greeks kind of embraced and adopted me through let's say marriage like very symbolic of

[31:24] the book, they weren't like why are you you Zeno writing about our uh Alexander, you know, but so that was fine because they were they viewed it as like a sign of respect. I'm not Mavelian, but one reason I was really interested in

[31:38] Alexander was not just the Iron Maiden saw. I don't like what he did to ancient Persia. He destroyed Procepilus to avenge Xerxes burning Athens in 480 BC. But it was mainly when I was reading about Alexander, I was fascinated that

[31:52] aside from his influences being Aristotle, Achilles, uh his father Philillip, Zeus, his one of his big influences was Cyus the Great, Kurro Kabir, Kuros Bjour. So Cyrus the Great, and I I'm I'm

[32:08] not biased. I mean, people that know me know like I try to be objective. I try versus Alexander, I was telling the team, I'm like, I want you to go run the numbers. Revisit this. What categories does Alexander win? So, it's not just

[32:22] like, oh, shocking. This Uni guy did this video. I was like, I tested AI. I tested everything. I was like, yeah, Alexander was the military guy. He was just, no disrespect. I've written I love Alexander for for his good He had

[32:37] many flaws, but I was like, Alexander was a conqueror and a military guy, a commander, but he ultimately was a destroyer. Like, he basically just was to kill you type of thing." But, oh yeah, yeah, my my my boy Cyrus, he was

[32:50] like, "If you just, you know, become allegian to me and loyal to me, I'll somebody that influenced not just Alexander, but Aristotle. He influenced Romans. He influenced pretty much everything. His Silus Cyrus cylinder was

[33:08] the first declaration of independence, right? Of human rights, sorry. And while directly the Declaration of Independence, the through line is pretty know, the the the the era of Lumier and enlightenment. So

[33:24] anyway, so I've noticed now that whenever I read a quote from Cyrus the Great, I'm like Jesus Christ. I'm like, this is like exactly what I strive to be. It's hard to be this fair, but it's not like this subconscious thing. It's

[33:38] because he influenced everybody else afterwards. Yeah. He was the first head head of state, you know, he was the first leader of a global empire and it was like a trick. And so he was more of a builder etc etc. So when that

[33:53] happened first of all on YouTube, everybody was super appreciative and they loved it and I saw it. But I also kind of then felt a bit more confident that I go, you know what, why was watch mro successful? Because you listen to

[34:05] you don't worry about the critics, the people that you know, like who cares? So, um, we we embrace like top 10s, we embrace g culture, pop culture. So, it's like a lot of the pattern. So, I'm like, okay, if we were to basically bring back

[34:21] okay, if we were to basically bring back a watch mojo Iran 2.0, it's not Farsy, so I'm not going to use that word. And Persia is uh I'm Persian. I'm super proud, you know, but but Persia is u not

[34:34] a disrespect, but it doesn't include what doesn't represent the entire country. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Uh so it's I'm like it has to be a watch mojo Iran 2.0 2.0. It does not need to be mojo related and it does not need to be only

[34:48] video. You could have podcast, you know, you could have inside Iran. Mhm. If anybody's interested, I may do that. Especially in the run-up to the World segment on sports, talk about music, talk about a little bit of news, like

[35:02] happening. Like right now, the US and Iran are in negotiations that are going to shape the future of Iran. You know, it's Trump is erratic. I mean, I've written about these. You could check my um Twitter X account under articles

[35:17] where I cover this a lot and on context is king. But the idea is multimedia 2025, some podcast, some articles, some social, uh, a lot of videos, but not only videos. It could live on YouTube, we could launch a fast channel, yada

[35:31] lit, which I thought would be so like out of left field, was basically um, that I've ever produced, which is the top 10 songs from

[35:44] Iranian Persian music, right? which is really hard because again we're crazy. We could do top 10 American songs. But We could do top 10 American songs. But if you do rock, well, you got UK, some

[35:57] German songs, some American and maybe some Canadian. And then the eras, you know, if you're comparing really like Guns and Roses Appetite to Destruction bit jarring. Again, I like it. You got to kind of break it down into smaller

[36:12] categories, genres. Imagine show Artha Franklin and then you cut to Metallica, you know. So my point is this was really challenging but it was again curation. I wanted to kind of take a sample of different genres, different sounds. It's

[36:27] coming out any day now. I've beenounding the team and I preface it. I'm like I'm just asking as a kid before Christmas when is this video coming back? Because you know I was part of the research team. Um and so yeah, so that I

[36:41] to surprise our audience. There are some people especially with um uh Ed Sheeran, the name of his song Azizam is like my dear, my sweetheart, whatever. Um so I'm like somebody who's maybe did not see the Cyrus or the the influential. They

[36:56] just come and they come to watch Mojo expecting like Batman or something and it's like top 10 Iranian music. They're like am I dreaming? What is happening? Anyway, so um so yeah, so I think that is an example. Not for anybody. That's

[37:10] the point. You got to balance the macro with yourself. And I'm like there's like no money in in Iran near term. It's a tough market. It's a huge market. But again, it's the same playbook. If you have your principles, if you find your

[37:25] purpose, um and then you have the passion for it, that's what you should what you should pursue because I'd be willing to cover this and bring on the other thing I wanted to do is um promote some creators who are Iranian who cover

[37:41] sports who cover whatever and there's so many great creators even in Iran that geography so I have basically a model that I'm emerging and then before we log off I want to throw out some names so people could give me feedback but the

[37:54] whole idea is it'll be a mix of think of it as a pyramid a little bit of it as a pyramid a little bit of creation a lot of curation and aggregation. So showcasing different creators like hey if you're interested

[38:06] in more on Iranian food check out this guy you know his videos are fad you know and so yeah so now I'm kind of excited about that and we'll see if I move on to a lot of creators who are interested who would want to kind of use that watch

[38:21] mojo Iron 2.0 know as like a platform then mission accomplished like and we can we can include your inside pitch document in the link to this video for should and we could but I already created one dedicated for the uh the

[38:35] Iranian channel. Awesome. So we can link to that uh in the description for this. Um you mentioned the name. Um let's talk about that. Is there a a specific the name of this channel or is there what's more general? I'm always like,

[38:48] there's no, you know, whether you believe in Allah, uh, Yave, you know, God, whatever, or not, there's no God-given decree that everything has to be Mojo, right? So already I don't think it needs to be Iran mojo or whatever. Um

[39:05] it needs to be Iran mojo or whatever. Um so one name that I liked um was there are plays on words was there are plays on words um like you could kind of like draft off

[39:20] what watch is like which is not watch your watch it's like to view. So, like when I start to research and whatever, but I'll just cut to the chase instead just call to the audience and be like, "If you think this is a bad name, I

[39:33] thought of a lot of words and I may put them in the comments um for people to then run with, but I was like I felt it was forced. I felt they were all like um

[39:45] you know, Homer Simpson's car just like convoluted. The the one that he designs, his brother was an executive like 30 years ago. episode. I reference it still to this day. Um, so but then I was like, I don't know what triggered this, but so

[40:01] yes. Oh, I know what triggered this. So yesterday, uh, Donald Trump, who again just sits on his toilet and farts ideas and people think it's policy. I'm like, it's not policy. There's just noise, distraction. So yesterday, because he's

[40:15] headed over to the uh Arab states, he's like, I'm going to rename the Persian Gulf that's been there. There's books that go back 3,000 years that reference it as Persian Gulf. And he goes, I'm going to rename it the Arabic Gulf,

[40:27] which is nonsense, but it's fine. It's like there's an Arabian Sea. It's been the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea on top, but it's fine. It was clearly a pandering move to the Arab states that he's visiting, but it was also as he's

[40:41] negotiating with uh Iran about uh you know the JCPOA style deal for nuclear matters. I think it's it's both of that. Now, naturally, the Iranians were very

[40:55] hurt and upset. Many of them overwhelmingly in America were proTrump. So, right now, like they're having some issues coming to grips with that. And that's fine. I'm not making fun of anybody. I'm just saying, yeah, I told

[41:08] is. There's a little bit of regret happening. Yeah. No, I don't think like Biden would have been worse, which I'm like I don't see how because if Democrats that you guys would have like not just you guys, everybody, you know,

[41:22] like America, journalism, the the checks and balances of everything he's done. Uh to go too deep in that front. The key was um as people were like tweeting

[41:34] things online begging Donald Trump and I was like, "Guys, don't make that big of a deal with this. it will this too shall pass type of thing. I came across again a quote. I was researching for my own something I'd written about Trump. But I

[41:49] This is why this all coming together. And I was like it's like wow like this some of it could have been an act. When you're a leader you do have to unfortunately sometimes you know you're pure like 99% of the time you're

[42:03] statesman and diplomat you know that is just the way it has to be. But at the core he was like the greatest leader. I get that. So, as I was reading these quotes, I was like, you know what? I had a flashback to when John F. Kennedy Jr.

[42:20] before he passed away in a plane crash, he actually dabbled in media and he launched a magazine. What was the name of that magazine, do you think? I know the answer because I I've seen

[42:35] I've seen the link that you put here, but for anybody in the audience, why me the name? Tell me the name of the magazine. You could put up the the the image if you don't mind. So, he called it George as an as an nod to George

[42:51] it George as an as an nod to George Washington, the founder of America. So as I sat there, I was like, I'm trying to convey really this sense of like pride in Iran's history, its culture, its

[43:05] language, even if this will be in English and all of that. So I was like, I should just call it something around Cyrus. Now whether I decide to go with Kuros or Cyrus, that's a detail almost. It's up to the people. But I was like

[43:18] basically I was like, it'll be a a play off of Cyrus. I have a name in mind. and I won't announce it yet. Um cuz you know you have to check like URLs, you have to check some trademark things, you have to check social handles. But so I'm like,

[43:32] yeah, yeah, it could just basically be a play on that. But so whether or not this is just like a slow burn, you know, little bit here and there that is like, I'm like, no, no, no, we're going to make this like watch MJO Espanol, which

[43:46] has 8 million subscribers. And look, Iran is a country, like I said, 90 it's 100 million. So if I was like an investor, somebody came to me, the TAM actually be small to an investor. They'd be like 100 million. Even if you get 10%

[44:02] of that, 10 million, it's not a business. I get that. But clearly, as I say, you focus on content, you build a community, then I know how to make the really obviously this is more of a pride and whatnot. So that's it's funny that

[44:17] in this journey of these shows I was trying to figure out what to do more out of a sense of obligation and duty and pride but also I'm like I've helped a lot of people's I'm like it would be nice I would get a lot of personal

[44:31] benefit not tangible I would just get a lot of intangible like satisfaction from helping younger like ashes who are producing content and they're like yeah it's cluttered how do I stand out so came full circle yeah and in my opinion

[44:45] It has a better chance of success because of the authenticity element that background. Those are your roots and it all comes back to the roots that we were talking about. It all makes sense now. Yes. Our poll results are in. We asked

[44:58] how important are your roots to you and our audience. 61% said very important. They're connected to their roots. 20% said somewhat important. 14% said not not all that important. And only 2% said not important at all. So most of our

[45:13] their roots. I know that's a general term. It means something different to everybody, but there you go. I mean, I touched on this last night. I saw uh a she's really like I like to think I'm a good writer. So, when I come across

[45:27] somebody that writes well, researches well, and she posted on a couple of um people to again be like, "Look at the contribution our people do, and how could you disrespect this Mr. President Trump?" And I was like, "Oh, yeah. I

[45:42] for a while where I'd start to research uh the top Iranian entrepreneurs and like seale executives." And then I was like just went on a rampage and I wrote 5,000word article that I posted. But that one I do explain how I and why. Um

[45:58] scroll down if you don't mind. So this is actually the the Grand Bazaar in Thran which I'm assuming I probably to the article just I said scroll down if you don't mind. I just want to so

[46:10] there's a lot of entrepreneurs like Pierre Omida who's a French Iranian he Pierre Omida who's a French Iranian he started eBay um Omid Cordistani was uh Google's uh chief business officer rockstar the Uber CEO right now is um

[46:25] yeah scroll down please the Uber CEO uh is is Iranian uh another couple big names yeah like the you know box.com anyway on and on and on but in that article I kind of talk a little bit about why when I came I was kind kind of

[46:39] I turned my back and it's kind of 180 degree how much in the last year I've kind of leaned in listened embraced and yeah and so your word is that it's authenticity you know it's like nobody can question that any yeah definitely um

[46:56] you have another cool story about your roots uh which relates to I guess your uh your roots as an entrepreneur as it as it is um yeah I mean again like we've talked about this but I think uh I This is kind of a tangent to something else.

[47:11] like there's two types of entre I mean there's many types. There's two types of fine. There are those that are like born on third base. Rupert Murdoch his dad William Randall first borrowed 10 million from his mom. And then there are

[47:25] those that are called so-called self-made people. I don't think I'm self-made. I think compared to that group, sure. But what I always tell other people's shoulders. I sure have a team. And in my case, like to connect

[47:40] the dots, like one of the things when I started to lean into this community was I had a far I always knew this. I always had the gratitude, but I developed a far better appreciation of like how easy it was for us to leave after the 1979 uh

[47:54] Islamic Revolution. My dad worked for the Spanish embassy. So when he came when we went to Spain and then we traveled to um Canada, for him it was he was. 1987. I was just standing outside and I

[48:09] don't know if my dad gave me a card or his card, business card fell. I picked it up and that was the first time I saw entrepreneur. No idea what it meant. And like decades went by and uh lo and behold, I kind of followed in his

[48:22] footsteps to become an entrepreneur myself. But you remember that moment summer. It was this is from Fox in the hen house. This was preai and pre we previous designer. He was like, "How could I do this?" And it was basically,

[48:37] like an afternoon. It was like, "Oh, there we go. That's me with a young the young de leopard fan." That's it's funny. That's 1989. It's crazy. And that's not me. That's just from the documentary. But so

[48:52] ultimately um there are very few things that I personally uh like I if any employee any colleague any entrepreneur came and they were really really excited and they had the right profile obviously if they meet

[49:07] supporting them. I got such a Oh my god. Okay we could stop this there. This is this is Oh that's the Ernst. We also have a very nice picture of your father no that's not my father. That's Hugh Hefner. So, okay, there it is. So, this

[49:21] is a picture. This is a picture. So, this is a My god, how much time do we Let's make this brief. This is the late 70. Well, first of all, who do you think is my dad? I mean, it's kind of a gives it away there. Well, I mean, I would

[49:35] assume it's the taller the taller man with the mustache. Yeah, with the mustache. That that that Mustaki is is quite So, but there's somebody more uh you give me 30 seconds. So this is the

[49:48] late '7s. My dad probably at this point was actually working for the hotel hotel intercontinental. The key is he was a polyglot. He is a polyglot. He spoke many languages. He actually wanted us to go to Germany. Um but he he worked for

[50:03] the Spanish uh government. And so this is the late '7s. So what's happening is the two gentlemen in the middle are Peruvian musicians that had been invited Peruvian musicians that had been invited to um to Iran to perform. But the lady

[50:18] to um to Iran to perform. But the lady to the left yeah the left that is to the left yeah the left that is actually the um the the the wife the queen of Iran at the time that is the wife of Muhammad Razasha.

[50:33] wife of Muhammad Razasha. He was not full-time her translator, but his side hustle was basically because he spoke English, French, German, many languages. So, this was like in the late '7s. Um, and then obviously in 1979, we

[50:49] could move on from this picture. From 1979 there was the Islamic revolution which for a few reasons but ultimately the religious

[51:01] the religious uh class of society they had some like articles about this you could read it they kind of join for uh forces with the Marxists to basically topple the government and end the monarchy which in

[51:19] Iran was all of its history was basically a monarchy. And as a guy who's like written about leaders and all that, I've always looked at people. I don't really put that much emphasis on the form of government. You know, like if

[51:34] I'm comparing Prime Minister Mark Carney with President Donald Trump, yes, government, but I'm really commenting on the people, their character, and all that. But so long story short um you know after 1979 things changed

[51:50] and my family we were not actually political. My dad even growing up was neither for monarchy or against. He actually hated all politics. He saw what politics did to the country. Um but yeah

[52:05] no so it's it's kind of just interesting full circle that you know I'm now like covering this universe. um even if I used to joke I go my dad used to be like we brought you here so you don't get involved in politics. So I was afraid

[52:21] that like when he saw me actually even just like listen and write about history and all that I was like he's probably going to be like a bit disappointed but leaning in. I'm covering this world. I go and I because he was like well why

[52:34] he was like happy. He's like no it's good. He was like you you write a lot. Like it's good that you're embracing your history and culture. But the thing your history and culture. But the thing is I said if I'm at Watch Mojo and let's

[52:47] say we're doing top 1080s hard rock or top 10 greatest whatever you know sandwiches I go I take it seriously and I want to have the right answer and I have to research it. Right? So I was like people are asking me more and more

[53:03] now. I saw this two years ago. I'm like Iran is going to be more and more in the news. It's on a collision course to either clash or somehow normalize. It's not up to me, you know, I'm just nobody here. But I was like, I don't like that.

[53:18] I don't feel like I really know what's going on right now. I was like, I kind York Times writes or I'm like repeating what and I'll land here what like again what and I'll land here what like again CNN says. So for me it was that same um

[53:33] personality trait of wanting to be objective and accurate and if I'm wrong be corrected and you know get the facts right so to speak um because that's how build authenticity. But I won't lie and I'll land it here is when I started to

[53:47] engage with people like I managed to unite everybody in how the people on this side accused me of that and the people on this side accused me of that and it's like they all kind of were like easy target. But

[54:00] I'm just like in my own little world now. Anyway, cool. Well, Ash, this was a different and I I enjoyed uh talking about these uh these potential future projects. So, we're we're almost done. So the documentary should be it's it's

[54:14] brewing but mainly it's if anybody whether it's a company like inside of the company or outside of the company is like hey I wouldn't mind taking this like hey I wouldn't mind taking this inside something franchise if somebody

[54:27] is a guru or expert about AI and they want to do inside AI that's an option if somebody wants to do inside Iran or inside team me I'm just throwing some seeds here uh by all means and then yeah so I'll reshare the link to the um watch

[54:41] Iran 2.0. Mhm. I'll share some ideas for the names. I'm open to anything. And this again or if people are interested, we may move rather quickly because I do little bit of, you know, when there's a

[54:56] little bit of spark that turns into a fire. Yeah. Getting to know the Phoenix is Watch Mojo Iron 2.0, our channel. It's rising from the rising from the ashes. Got it. Yeah. Something I've discovered about you getting to know you

[55:09] really interested in something, you dive in completely head first. So, that's a good quality. I think um it's a quality. I'll give you that. Whether it's good or

[55:21] bad, I don't know. We've got three episodes uh left to go or four actually. to be episodes. To be honest, the documentary is advancing because I'm like we're again I'm so trying to we're smart about how

[55:34] we proceeded because both the web summit presentation in Rio gave me good B-roll and frankly just this journey with you you and and my uh my new girlfriend the or whatever. Um no I I we also have a lot

[55:52] of good sound bites. So, I've been actually working with uh Joe also on this podcast, helping this come true. Um, so it's just a little bit of like mapping of like what's missing? What should I do? VO, is there some B-roll

[56:05] that we want to do? And oh, look at that. I see I just received um notice that the Watch Mojo Iranian Persian songs uh is is back for me to review and

[56:17] quality control. So, excellent. It's coming out soon. So excited. All right. Yep. Next week's episode, episode 17, we'll be talking about you, how YouTube won Avod and Netflix is winning SVOD. So, advertising versus subscriptionbased

[56:31] video, what happens next. So, stay tuned for that next week. Come back next week. All right. Thank you. Thanks everybody. Have a good one. Bye. Thanks, guys.