Corey Dylan: Never Turn Down an Adventure

Tara Sands (Voiceover)  0:02  
The sound of podcast. The show about podcast and broadcast starts now.

Matt Cundill  0:13  
This week, Corey Dillon returns to talk about her next adventure. Her latest stint in radio at z 90 in San Diego is coming to a close soon, and she's already started her next adventure, full time content creation. Now, obviously she's been doing that for decades on air in the vocal booth as a voice actor and making cocktails on social media, but now she's pulling the curtain back on what she knows and is sharing what she learns about social media to the rest of us. This is designed for those of us over 40 who are jumping into content creation and are bombarded with growth hacks at work one week, but not the next. Social media algorithms change every day and depending on who you listen to. Well, you know what. It depends on who you listen to, and it's great to have someone in your corner to explain best practices for those who don't know that your Instagram has a green screen feature, or how much one can expect to make on YouTube alone? Spoiler, it's not as much as you think. And now Corey Dillon joins me from San Diego. What's your current status with radio and employment?

Corey Dylan  1:18  
So I am employed until December, 31 2025 However, my last paycheck is going to be split. I'm going to get paid on January 15 because I discovered something called the rule of 55 and as it turns out, I'm admitting this on camera, I'm actually going to be 55 late in 2026 honestly, I can't wrap my head around that, but the rule of 55 is an IRS thing here in the states that says that if you leave a job in the same calendar year that you turn 55 or older, you can take disbursements or the whole nugget, whatever the case might be for you from your 401 k of the job that you just left not tax free, but penalty free, so you don't have to pay A 10% penalty. You still have to pay taxes as though it were income. But you know, that's a lot of money. So you spent

Matt Cundill  2:08  
some of the time between 2016 and 2017 looking for work. I think you were close to two years out of work.

Corey Dylan  2:15  
Oh, Matt, it was two years and seven months. I left like mid 2016 and I got hired at what was Kix FM, kicks one Oh, 1.5 in Atlanta, February of 2019,

Matt Cundill  2:29  
so you have a little bit of practice in dealing with having a radio job. Yeah.

Corey Dylan  2:35  
I mean, that was significant, though. I mean, I'd already had some practice the time before. That was just six months, but I had six months severance, back when companies used to give you severance. And then before that, right before 911 I lost my job in Seattle. I was doing mid days at a CBS radio station, which doesn't exist anymore. And I lost my job right before and didn't work again for 10 months. And I thought that was a long time. So one or two of the times I did not collect employment, you know, like, but two and a half years, I don't even recall. I think I did, but I just went to work hustling, trying to get voice over work. I went to work for the Red Sox for a couple of spring trainings. I got some work with HSN, but not till about 2018

Matt Cundill  3:20  
so you also got some work with the Arizona Coyotes. I believe at one point

Corey Dylan  3:25  
I did. I had some voice work with the Arizona Coyotes and the Ottawa Senators as well. The key to that was that I had a very good friend that I met in Florida. He used to work for a university there. He worked for Disney. He worked for the Tampa Bay Rays, and then he was unemployed around the same time I was and we just built this friendship. And I'm telling you, sometimes your friends come through for you and they hire you, and not to say I wasn't up to the job, but times are tough. These things usually come from somebody that you know. One of

Matt Cundill  3:58  
the things you're good at is letting people know that you're looking for work, and I think it's something that a lot of people will just not do. They just would prefer to sit at home and then send a bunch of resumes. I did my work, but I think letting people know

Corey Dylan  4:09  
is a big deal. Well, yes, and letting them know in a way that you're not complaining. I see some people out there that you know, bless their hearts, they're still trying to get that big job in radio, and I'm just like the landscape has just changed so much. I mean, from year to year to year. I mean, I don't know, and I've just gotten to the point where I'm like, I really love where I live. I've built a little studio in my garage right here. I love where I live. I'm near family. I'm closer to family than I've been in 20 years, geographically. And I just, I see some people complaining about how long it's been since they've been out. Nobody wants to hear that. Nobody wants to hear somebody complain. I remember this quote, I think it's unattributed, but it said, The only thing complaining does is let people know that you're not in control. Why would you complain? I mean, who wants to hire a complainer? I ran into a gal. Her name is Micah Rotunda. She's. Part of the large, famous wrestling family that lives in the Tampa Bay area. She was in radio for just a hot minute, and I ran into her in a bar during that two and a half year stint that I was unemployed and I was probably being a little bit negative, and I'll never forget it, she said to me, she said, people don't buy negativity. They buy enthusiasm, and that's so true. You know, all this research that I'm doing for my YouTube channel trying to teach people how to use social media for their own brand and their own business, just to keep relevant in today's workplace. You know, everything I've learned just says, you know, keep it positive. People hire momentum. They're not hiring your history, you know. I mean, you have to have a resume, but what you say on your LinkedIn profile, the articles that you're publishing, the posts that you're making, keep it positive, keep it moving. Show people what you have to offer. Because nobody really wants to sit there and hear all about your history. They want to know what you can do for them.

Matt Cundill  5:55  
That's such an important thing to say, and that's a mistake a lot of people make, and that's your social media profile. Is it littered with negativity? Are you banging on people? I don't even think, even if it's a terrible person, the constant banging on terrible people that somebody might not find as terrible as you. But, you know, most of the time I look at people and go, Oh, well, what are you on about? And if you really can't scroll through someone's, you know, extreme blue sky stream. It doesn't really matter if we can't really figure out what you're on about, and if you're not on about a good thing, people aren't going

Corey Dylan  6:27  
to want to hang here. Yeah. And with social media too, you almost have to be so focused on what it is that you do, and putting that one message out there repeatedly and across various platforms, or whatever platform that you know your future employer might be looking at. Because first of all, your social media is not going to take off if you're about all the different things. And that's probably my my Instagram page, for instance, but my Facebook and my LinkedIn are now taking a totally new direction, because where I'm going, I believe that's where they will be looking.

Matt Cundill  7:03  
Yeah, it's kind of wild. I would connect with you through Facebook more often than not. But here you are. You're rocking it on YouTube as well.

Corey Dylan  7:11  
I'm trying, but it's but again, you just you have to have a certain amount of content. People are always talking about changing algorithms. You know, YouTube now has shorts, and they may or may not be pushing that kind of content, but you also have to be consistent, not just in your messaging, but in the repetition that you are posting. And I struggle with that. I'm not gonna lie. I'm I'm producing a lot of content. I have 21 episodes of my YouTube series called Social Media smart recorded. I only have nine of them post it, because I'm so backlogged trying to learn this new program, or new to me, called descript, and it's just I got a little arrogant. I thought with 20 years of audio and video editing, it would be a breeze, but it's using AI, and it's, you know, in my opinion, a little bit clunky. I don't have the professional version I have, like the whatever. It cost couple $100 to $300 version, it's just, it's frustrating. Everything is a learning curve, and especially when you're doing it all by yourself. Which I am shooting, I'm editing, have to do the hair and makeup. You have to do the lighting, you know, make sure your audio and video is producing quality audio and video. It's a challenge, for sure, and I've made mistakes. Oh, I'll bet

Matt Cundill  8:24  
you've made mistakes. And by the way, we are recording this with squad cast, and this will be shipped over to descript, where I'm going to dive in as well. So I'm on this journey with you in trying to learn, you know, this program. I was actually one of the early adopters of descript. It was September of 2019, somebody rang me up and said, Have you seen this? You can edit the words out of the program and it will cut the audio. And I said, Well, that's interesting. And then I think I sent an email to James Cridland, who then tried it out himself for an episode of pod news back in September of 2019, so I've been watching this program for many, many years. I was a longtime squad cast user. They were purchased by descript. And then I said, I guess I better learn this for real, and some of the terms, like overlays and project settings, and it's a whole new world in there. And you're right about studio sound, you know, the transitions. And I said, I guess I can't really use iMovie for this. I'm gonna have to level up.

Corey Dylan  9:25  
Yeah, well, I mean, and I mean, there are free tools. I mean, I also have a pro version of Canva. I don't know when that expires, you know, because without a paycheck, things are even more expensive. I know some people use, you know, Apple products, like you said, like iMovie, but what's the the paid version? Final Cut? Final Cut Pro, yes, Cap cut, which is a Tiktok product, but yeah, and even now edits with Instagram, which is it's very similar, obviously, to cap cut, because they're in direct competition, which is why YouTube now has shorts, because short form content. And in fact, you. What is it? Divine vine is coming back, the original six second short form video platform, you know? I mean, x bought it, right? Or Twitter bought it and then they, they kind of ignored it, but, you know, but for the pandemic and these outlying events that happen, maybe we wouldn't be here with tick tock and shorts and edits and things like that. But, yeah, all this terminology, I mean, I'm working on it almost every day. It's just the learning curve is, I don't know if it's because we've already been doing what we've been doing for decades. You know, with video and audio, we think it should obviously work like that, but it's not intuitive to me necessarily, with the overlays and stuff. But I'm learning, I'm

Matt Cundill  10:43  
glad you mentioned that about overlays. I had a chance to meet somebody from YouTube a few weeks ago at a podcast conference, and he shares some of the hacks and some of the ways, and there is an awful lot of science and chemistry that goes into, you know, the cover cards that appear in the thumbnail position on YouTube. And that's why you have Canva, is you want to make one that's appealing. And I know in one of your social media posts you say, like, Don't skip on the text. You want to have some text in those cards because it attracts people. And I did hear from this guy that in YouTube now you can do AB testing on which card is going to work better. Hey, listen this podcast that we're on. We're not going to get enough data to figure it out. I will make two cards, and I'll see if we can get a little bit of a b testing, and I'll feed you back what I know, but this seems crazy. It's like we're testing the cards.

Corey Dylan  11:35  
I know, I know. I mean, it speaks to how important that is, right? Like it is the first hook of what should be several hooks to get people to stick around, because that's what social media, what the entire algorithm is, right? With Tiktok, which democratized social media for everybody, right? You don't have to have, I have a little over 1700 followers on Tiktok. Big deal. But that doesn't mean I can't go viral and start, like, really going viral. In fact, the woman who captured the Coldplay concert, the astronomer CEO with his VP of HR, she only had about 1000 or maybe 2000 followers on Tiktok when that went viral. And I've, I've stopped paying attention to how many views and likes and comments it got. I mean, the last I heard, I know it was over 100 million people had seen it. But you don't have to be an influencer to go viral, but you need to have content, otherwise they're not going to follow you after that, right? Like, what are they going to get if they do follow you? Did I hear that if

Matt Cundill  12:36  
somebody had been a Tiktok creator and posted the video, they actually would have made hundreds of 1000s of dollars

Corey Dylan  12:42  
from it, but they did not, because on Tiktok, you have to have at least 10,000 followers, and I don't know how many watch hours, or at least a million views, or whatever it might be, which is why I prefer YouTube, where you only have to have 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours, or 500 subscribers. And I think it's, I don't know, I can't remember how many 1000s of watch hours for a different tier, but yeah, she would have made a lot of money. And in fact, with that money left on the table, the inability to monetize in that way, I believe she started to go fund me to help pay off her student loans, and I would not be surprised if she actually made that money.

Matt Cundill  13:21  
You mentioned you were using Facebook and LinkedIn a little bit differently these days. How are

Corey Dylan  13:27  
you doing that? Well, I do know that when you post even once a week on LinkedIn, that puts you in the top 1% of all LinkedIn users, which in turn, may get your content scene, right? And if you're unemployed, or going to be unemployed, like I am, that's kind of important. I also talked to a professional resume writer right before we started this podcast, and she told me that if you write articles, and there is a tab to write articles on LinkedIn that will help you get ranked on Google like one of her articles, and I don't know how many followers she has, she's highly decorated, award winning resume writer out of Texas that was recommended to me from a former radio lifer, and she she showed me that like her article, I don't know how many again, followers she has or connections she has, but her article was ranked number Two on Google. You know, I think it was about, if you're a grad in 2025 which we all know, they are facing the biggest uphill battle to find a job than anybody. They're just not getting the work. Unfortunately, despite their credentials or their graduated status, the jobs just aren't out there for them. And you know, with AI and what they threaten us with is more than 80% of jobs are just going away. So what are you going to do? Where's the money going to come from? How are people going to live? I don't know. I mean, everything I see, it's still the Creator economy, and that's what's booming. It's going to be $500 billion that the Creator economy is going to create for its. Content creators in the next two years, year and a half. So that's where I'm going,

Matt Cundill  15:06  
Yeah, well, I'm glad you're going there too, because I just set up a new television, and we're streaming. We're using apps from the television got an Amazon firebox. And what am I gravitating to when I go to watch? Well, I'll watch the football game, and that might be on Amazon, or that might be on de zone, or it might be on ESPN, but at the same time, I can also get YouTube, and I will turn on YouTube, and it could serve me up Spanish tapas, you know, things I like to watch. It could serve me up a radio story. It could serve me up your channel, and then all of a sudden, I'm watching in my living room your channel.

Corey Dylan  15:45  
More and more people, from what I understand in my research, and when I'm, you know, watching other YouTubers say more and more people are watching YouTube on their television. I mean, I have a smart TV too. I actually don't have cable anymore, so, and it's more than I need. Even still, there are some regular channels. There's like, at least 100 channels that I can watch for free, including local news and the national news. But I just, I just kind of, don't I, you know, I read everything on online these days, you know. So maybe I'll binge like, I'm, I'm finally on this stranger things bandwagon. I'm, like, this is pretty good, it's a good show. And so I'm, I'll just binge that every night, you know, or I discover they have a Dateline channel.

Matt Cundill  16:24  
How do you keep up on all the changes that might happen in Instagram or on YouTube? Like, for instance, YouTube just made an announcement, and that's they've got dubbing. And so the content you create can be picked up and dubbed into, you know, German or Japanese,

Corey Dylan  16:42  
yeah, you know, it's, it's difficult. I can't say that. I am 100% keeping up on everything, but there are websites like social media today.com, that is sort of a social media crowd sourced or, I mean, maybe it's not even crowd sourced, but it's articles about all the different platforms, what's happening, who's doing, what you know? What's the latest with Tiktok we still don't know. Like, when is the sale happening, or whatever is going on with that? There's also Adam moseri, M, O, S, E, R, I on Instagram. He is, like, the CEO. He's the big dude, and he will tell you he has asked me anythings just he'll check in, he'll answer questions. You know, here's what's changing. You know, like, for instance, when edits was new, use edits. I mean, that will help push your content up, too. And right now, they're pushing meta for AI on their platforms. They want everyone to use that. Have you tried blue sky? Yes, and I have a profile there, but I just, I quit x again. I just kind of lost my taste for it. It didn't serve me. And what I was doing, if I was still in news talk or politics or something like that, maybe I would. But it just it started to remind me of the later days of my space, right where it just became like a an anonymous back alley where people were just throwing barbs, and it was just, I don't know. I have no interest in it at this point, and I know that blue sky is different and all that stuff, but you can't be everything to everybody, right? So I have to pick my platforms. And right now it's LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Do you think I'm weird for liking threads? No, I don't think anyone's, I mean, listen, and I think the key is to really adopt believe in, dive in 100% into one channel, like whatever channel that is, because you can't be everything to everyone, right? Like, pick a channel, pick a platform, where your audience is, or where you believe they are, and go in and go hard. Do you have a website? I do have a website. Corey dylan.com, but I recently found out many of the articles. I don't know if it's because of the age of the articles or whatever, but they have disappeared or been taken down. So I've got to maybe, I don't know, go in. I've learned a little WordPress along the way. Thank God. So I can go in and sort of just tidy up things. But again, it's on the to do list. But yeah, I do have a website. Corey dillon.com, yeah.

Matt Cundill  19:06  
So one of the things I find that's very important for podcasters, you need a website, because I think you need an address on the internet, so that it's a Google address. This is where I live on the internet. This is where I play. This is where you can find out everything about me. And if you're going to be in the Creator economy, this is where you send your money, and this is where we will connect you with the people that will help make me money, and so on and so forth.

Corey Dylan  19:30  
And especially with AI today, you can just have a landing page, right with links to things or or not. I mean a very simple landing page. But one thing I will say that I've seen millennials and younger doing is creating a link tree. Do you have a link tree?

Matt Cundill  19:47  
No, I do not. I don't want one, because I really, really love my website, and I want all the traffic in the world to go to sound off podcast.com or Matt cundill.com and I want Google to know that there's. Traffic going there so that it will improve my SEO on those web pages are pretty much what would be my link tree. And for me, that would be Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and that's it.

Corey Dylan  20:10  
But if somebody were just getting started and maybe didn't have the money to create a website, or the wherewithal, or the knowledge, I mean, even though there are plenty of like wicks, I guess, and stuff. The only downside to that is that it will have a Wix attachment, or, yeah, I don't even know, yeah, until you pay for the domain, yeah, or figure out how to switch it over. I mean, but, but again, sites like freelancer or Fiverr, you can pay somebody, they're probably in Bangladesh or whatever. But you could pay somebody a nominal fee, or find a good college student that knows their way around a keyboard, you know? I mean, there are ways around it.

Matt Cundill  20:50  
You mentioned Fiverr. And I also know your your voice talent. You have a very nice microphone, I think.

Corey Dylan  20:57  
Thank you. I've got a microphone fetish. I think I've got plenty of them in all shapes and sizes. And, oh, the cupboard behind me is all full of them. Really, I love it. I don't geek out about much, but equipment to do content creation, yes, and to do it efficiently.

Matt Cundill  21:15  
So if it comes to voiceover work, there's a plethora of Fiverr out there. And by Fiverr, it's, you know, starts at $5 and the price goes up based on whatever else you're going to provide. You set the price. But also with AI, Does it worry you about the voiceover business?

Corey Dylan  21:30  
You know, the voiceover game, which I played for a long time, I never had a national commercial. Very proud of the work I did for two NHL teams, and, I mean, several museums, if you ever make it to the mob Museum in Vegas, which I did make it to Vegas, but I forgot my voice was in the museum, so I didn't go. You know, I'm proud of the work I've done. It's very difficult, I would say, to win in voice over. If you're already making a killing, that's when an agent will want you, and that's when you're going to get booked for the big national jobs. It's a challenge. I mean, the biggest job that probably would have changed the trajectory of my voiceover career, I auditioned for a spot on voice 123, I remember I got up one Saturday morning. I think I was unemployed, but I got up in the morning. I kind of had a even more gravelly voice than I do, because it was waking up, the wake up voice. And I read this script, and I didn't really think about, necessarily, think about the words that I was reading, which, of course, you should, because you're reading somebody's words a script and supposed to be acting something out. But it was talking about, you know, that feeling when you're over 100 stories up. And didn't occur to me that there really aren't that many buildings in the world that are more than 100 stories. It turns out it was an audition for One World Trade Center. I would have been the voice in the elevator. I think they went with a guy or whatever, and the agency said, Oh, we really love your audition. You know, you're our pick, but the client went with somebody else. So that would have changed everything. But that's not the path that my career took, and I just voice over is very challenging. I mean, I've heard it said that it's 20% doing the work and 80% marketing yourself, which is, I think a lot of things right, which is why social media is so important. I mean, you have to tell people in maybe a non braggadocious way, like, here's what I have to offer if you could use my services, great. Let's talk

Tara Sands (Voiceover)  23:24  
sound design of the sound off podcast is inspired by mega tracks, the sound of entertainment, providing music and sound effects for radio podcasts and media professionals. Mega tracks is your one stop shop for library and custom tracks. Start your music search now at Mega tracks.com the sound off podcast with Matt Cundill,

Matt Cundill  23:48  
I have a question that just poured in from somebody over 55 years old who has a social media question. And I can see that this question is obviously been passed along by old information, because, as we've already sort of talked about, the rules change all the time. What's the latest opinion of following people back? Who follow you? At one point, a social media expert told us in radio it was better the less you followed. It's all about them following you outside of the obvious people with entities we want to follow. Do we follow people back? Or does it matter? And for context, this person is starting a podcast next week, I will

Corey Dylan  24:24  
tell you, here's what I think about it. You know, I don't have any quantitative information necessarily to point this out, but with every platform, engagement matters, I think, more than anything, if you engage with them, if you make them feel seen. You know, I remember when I was working, for instance, for the news talk station, they wanted us to post several times a day. Yeah, we had 1000s of followers, but most people that follow you don't. So are you just badgering them with content and information? Probably, I just think it's far more important to engage with the people that engage. With you and on Z 90, right now, you know, I'll, I'll do a little follow for a follow on the air, because I have access to their Instagram page for the time being, and they don't seem to mind or care. And why would they? Why wouldn't you want to follow the people that listen to your station? It makes them feel seen, and especially, you got to reply to them. You know, when they comment, you got to reply to them when they direct message you especially. But it's still the Wild West, I guess, and people just want to feel popular. And I will say, when it comes to being popular on social media, there's still a lot of people that they may be an okay radio talent, but they're getting hired because they have this enormous social media following I just don't think these 60 year old guys in charge, get it,

Matt Cundill  25:47  
oh, yeah, that's not going to translate to ratings. That does not translate to ratings,

Corey Dylan  25:51  
no, but they still think it might. And they need it, because attention is currency today. I read that somewhere, and I I believe that wholeheartedly. They need that currency more than anything, and I suppose everybody does. But if you're just a podcast starting out, you need as many connections as possible. Why wouldn't you follow somebody back? Granted, hopefully it's a legitimate account. You know, you can be a little decisive on that. I mean, there are definitely accounts that, even on the Z 90 page, I don't follow back, because there's no acknowledgement or mention of San Diego. You know, even on, I don't know if it was Facebook, somebody that I have two connections in common with, which is kind of a red flag, too, and it's totally a fake profile. I've seen him a million times on Instagram or whatever, some widowed medical like a doctor in the military, you know, whatever I'm like, It's not real. So there's no value in that at all, as far as I'm concerned. But following the people that follow you and engaging with them, why wouldn't you?

Matt Cundill  26:52  
I love asking loaded questions. How do I know what social media platform I should be pursuing? What am I looking for? If I'm starting out, I'm on all of them. But how do I know which one to really double down into for my strategy?

Corey Dylan  27:09  
Well, part of it depends on what content are you putting out there? For YouTube, for instance, and across the board, all social media platforms, they may pay you out a nominal amount, but most creators are making their money from brand deals, from partnerships, consulting, making money on the side. They're just using these social media platforms as a funnel for their business, for whatever it is that they do. So if you are on Youtube, for instance, if that's the platform that you have something to share on. If you are a lifestyle creator, you will maybe make, you know, one to $5 per 1000 views. If you are in finance, you can make as much as $25 or whatever it is per 1000 views. I'm kind of in the middle, which is education. I'm educating people on how to use social media if they're over the age of 40, to stay relevant in the workplace or to better their brand and hopefully get them paid. But again, most people are not making money from the platform itself, so you need to have something that has some value to somebody like, what can you teach them? What can you share with them? Are you an expert marketer? There's a woman who is, she owns her own cleaning business in Florida. She's kind of a radio groupie, right? And so I see her posts, they're often very negative, I mean, and granted, you know, I'm not diminishing anything that she's been through. I mean, she's been through some hard things like cancer and, you know, just always chasing a paycheck, really. But I know that Tiktok or Instagram loves a good cleaning hack or a cleaning tip. If you have a phone, you put that phone in your face, or maybe not even. You don't even have to, necessarily, but if you just give a cleaning tip a day, oh my gosh, you're following, you would probably get clients. Your business would grow. There is no downside to putting what you know on the internet, I don't think in a professional manner, yeah,

Matt Cundill  29:04  
I'm really glad that you mentioned about the various types of categories and tiers that exist out there, because YouTube does have everything broken out into, I don't want to say little camps, maybe stacks. I know, for instance, there's a politics and civics stack here in Canada. You were talking about the financial side. And, yeah, there's a different CPM. There's a different cost per 1000 for every one of those categories.

Corey Dylan  29:28  
Well, yeah, and just to really kind of go back to what we initially started talking about before I derailed us, you know, how do you pick what platform is right for you? You know, the tiktoks and x is for thought leadership, right? And probably LinkedIn too. Thought Leadership. Are you? Are you an expert marketer? Are you into politics? Whatever it might be. Are you a business leader who knows how to start a business for quick tips and thought leadership? Yes, Tiktok and x i would say, I mean, yes. Blue sky. And or threads, for sure, you'll find your community, I guess is what I'm saying. But for long form content and now short form content, YouTube, Facebook, you know, people want to discount Facebook and say it's dead, or whatever, or any meta platform is dead. Facebook is still the most used platform in the world. So if you have a viral video, Tiktok will pay. I don't know you might make 20 to 40 bucks per million views. And I do know people that are making a few $100 maybe 1000s of dollars, on Tiktok. They've gotten several viral videos, but if you put that same video and it goes viral on Facebook, you might make a couple $1,000 from that 1 million views versus the 20 to 40 bucks on Tiktok. So I don't know, do a little research. You know, again, what is the content that you're putting out? Is it thought leadership? Are you looking for esthetics that would be all about Instagram, right? I mean, are you putting out great, clever videos, or are you, I don't know, writing articles. Are you it just it depends. And I actually have a video about that. I'll have to share that with you so you can link it. How do you pick the right platform? It was one of the first videos that I made for this series. Okay, well,

Matt Cundill  31:12  
I'll put that right on the episode page of soundoff podcast.com and that will drive some more SEO traffic for myself.

Corey Dylan  31:17  
Thank you. I appreciate that. I hope so. But yeah. So, I mean, you do need to put a little thought into it, obviously. And you know, I engage chat GPT all the time, but chat GPT and platforms like it are only as good as the prompts or questions or the parameters that you give it. I mean, put as much information into it as you can about your question. Tell them all about what kind of content you want to post. You know, what would be the best platform for me and things like that.

Matt Cundill  31:46  
It's true, because chat GPT knows things about you, and I know you did that little experiment that was making the rounds on radio and like, Hey, tell me something about myself that you know that I don't know about myself, and it knows you better than you think. And I'll tell you an example. Once in a while, if I have a speaking engagement, somebody say, can you send us a bio? I'm like, Ah, they're gonna ask me to write about myself. I don't want to write about myself. And I say, Well, you know, I did this. And of course, I tell us, I write it out. And I said, Wait a second. I'll just ask chat GPT. And it wrote out something that was 100 times better than I had put down on paper, and it also goes to on a podcast I never asked the guest, hey, so why don't you tell me about yourself? Because the person who's going to answer that question is likely the least qualified person to answer that question.

Corey Dylan  32:36  
Yeah, it's hard to be clear necessarily about yourself, but I mean, there are tells with chat, G, P, T and AI, so you got to be careful with that, because, I mean, it has to be your voice. You have to read it over. You have to make sure, like, take out the long hyphens, if it's your resume, take out the lines between whatever. But even the resume writer that I'm working with, she's like, Oh God, they all look the same. They all look the same, and you have to be mindful of that. It has to be your voice. So the

Matt Cundill  33:06  
fact that a person even looked at it at the other end, because the person applying for the job is using chat GBT, but then at the other end, the company receiving it is also using, you know, an AI tool to filter it out. So you've got the bots now trying to hire one another. Yeah.

Corey Dylan  33:24  
What is it called? It's called, like, the ATS, the applicant, something system, or whatever. I learned that the hard way too, because I thought, Ooh, I heard about this cool trick where you put all, you put the entire description of the job that they're hiring for in the tiniest, one point font, and you hide it somewhere in the document. They know. They know I wouldn't do it. Yeah, they figured that out.

Matt Cundill  33:48  
You're Gen X, I'm Gen X. I know. You know, Gen X people, by and large, are not the most comfy when it comes to cameras. We were probably the bunch that pushed back the hardest when program director said, Hey, we're gonna put a camera in the studio for your morning show, which basically means I can't wear my sweats and hoodie anymore and I have to shave.

Corey Dylan  34:07  
You guys have an evening. You don't have to do hair and makeup. Come on.

Matt Cundill  34:11  
Well, I'll tell you what. Then answer this one, because I know this is for real, and that's the inequality between men and women when it comes to producing video and video content, it's large.

Corey Dylan  34:23  
Well, yes, I'm sure, but it's also maybe a little unfair, because I don't want to be rude, but how many guys do you want to see like, Oh, here's my selfie. You know, not every guy has the same advantage of maybe a woman that can pimp her ride and put a little makeup on, or whatever you want to say. It is what it is, unfortunately, right? But ultimately, winning content is just that, like, there's this guy that he's doing, hey, get ready with me while we storm the Capitol, or get ready with me while we do this, or whatever. It just the first one I saw from him. He was doing a get ready with me while we rob the louver in Paris. That's what it was. And he was. Literally, like sticking like cheese to his face, and had, I don't know, beer can rollers and his wild, you know, mop of hair. It was hilarious making fun of the Get Ready With Me influencers and stuff like that. I mean, content will always win, right? If you're trying to be serious about Get Ready With mes as a guy. I mean, that could work too, right? What was that guy with the morning routine, which was insane. He was like, sticking his face in a bucket of water. He was putting on all the Cologne. He was working out like an animal in Miami. Like, good lord, it was crazy.

Matt Cundill  35:35  
Some advice for anybody who's Gen X who is overwhelmed by

Corey Dylan  35:40  
all this? Yeah, I get it.

Matt Cundill  35:43  
And maybe we should have put the question at the front, because we probably overwhelmed them all getting them to this point of the of the show. What do you

Corey Dylan  35:49  
suggest when it comes to social media or just staying relevant? Honestly, pick one platform. Hopefully it's maybe one of the more popular ones. But even if it's not, you know, there are people, I'm sure, still making money on Snapchat because they're trying to compete with Tiktok or Now YouTube shorts and all the other platforms, right? And everybody is leaning into video. I say, just pick one platform where you feel most comfortable, where you might actually enjoy it, and just start creating content, even if it's once a week, twice a week, just be consistent, which, again, is the hardest part, I think, because a lot of people just give up. You know, I have a former colleague who has influenced and inspired me. His name is Jerry Potter so candy, and Jerry his wife candy. I worked with them at kiss in Seattle CBS Radio, 20 years ago, they worked around the country in at least a few different markets as a morning team. Along the way, got married, had a couple of young kids. I still have young boys that are, I think, pre teens. And Jerry lost they lost their last job. They got moved back to Seattle by our former boss. They lost their last job there, and Jerry never worked in radio again. Candy did for a few years, but he kind of became almost a stay at home dad. She was working nights in radio, and he went to work for a small marketing agency, I believe, and he started a YouTube channel. His YouTube channel was called five minute social media. It has now evolved into something called done by lunch for entrepreneurs. He shares and teaches entrepreneurs how to use YouTube as a funnel for their business, essentially, and he now has nearly 160,000 subscribers. He's got the silver play button in his background. If you've got an award, proudly display it. You know he he has had speaking engagements, but even when he only had 100 subscribers, he was getting speaking engagements, etc. Yeah, there's Jerry, great guy. And he said to me, he's like, I think you have everything it takes to actually do this on YouTube, but you have to stay consistent, because most people give up, and he didn't give up. I don't know how long it took him. It was probably about a year before he was ever monetized on the channel properly by the channel. But again, most people aren't making money from the monetization of that channel. They're making money with either subscriptions, you know, super subscribers, either brand deals, content creation, UGC, user generated content. There are brands that will pay you no matter how many followers you have to create content for them. I mean, there's so many avenues, and I know it's it's a lot, but just get real focused, because that's the thing, focus and consistency. That's what's going to pay off for anybody. I do believe.

Matt Cundill  38:44  
I guess, the only advice I can offer is that if you're going to appear on camera and you're going to have audio, but you need to have good audio, please sound as good as Corey has today. So the right equipment. I've seen some YouTube shows where the microphones may be on, but the echo in the room is insane. I've seen some terrible, terrible audio. If your audio is no good, it doesn't matter

Corey Dylan  39:10  
what you look like, Yeah, especially if you're long, long form content, you know, honestly, and it can be done. I mean, they have so many there's a brand called movo that I've used. I do have some rode R, O, D, E, rode wireless mics, but the cost is so much better right now. I mean, I think for 100 or so dollars, you can get lavalier wireless microphones that you can connect to whatever camera you're using. I actually am using a webcam. They've come a long way too. But you know, even just the the camera on your laptop may be sufficient, or just, you know, a low entry cost, low cost webcam might help you out. It's so doable for just a few $100 investment to really make your content shine far and above the. Millions of people that are putting content out there.

Matt Cundill  40:03  
Well, I wish you all the best in your journey of learning descript. Any hacks you have you can share with me. The trap I'm in is I've subscribed to about four of these services, and I use 20% of each so I mean, that's a trap you can fall into.

Corey Dylan  40:17  
Yeah, dive in on just one of them, right? Just figure out one of them. And you know, master it become the master of one, as they say.

Matt Cundill  40:26  
Corey, thanks so much for doing this. It's great to catch up and talk to you again, and we've learned so much yet again.

Corey Dylan  40:32  
You too. I appreciate you so much, and thank you for doing what you do. Matt, the

Tara Sands (Voiceover)  40:35  
sound off podcast is written and hosted by Matt Cundill, produced by Evan sir Minsky, edited by Taylor McLean, social media by Aiden glassy, another great creation from the sound off media company. There's always more at sound off podcast.com you.