Connect with Russ on YouTube  https://www.youtube.com/user/russjohnsconnects/
Website URL https://russjohns.com/piratebroadcast/, and 
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​Russ Johns
What is going on? Hey, it's Russ.

Russ Johns
Let's get this party started. All right.

Russ Johns
Well, you know life has a way of adjusting your schedule for you.This morning we're supposed to have Gina Gardner on and I'm not sure if she's having technical issues

Russ Johns
in these days, you know, you wonder I hope she's okay. I just hope she's okay. And I'll reach out to her later on and make sure she's alright. However, as a result of someone not being able to join us today, I just wanted to jump in and talk about a few things that are really,

Russ Johns
I think important for us to understand is there's lots of things going on around us. And we've had a lot of shows talking about, you know, kindness, and the ability and the opportunity to actually generate a little more kindness around us have a little empathy for those around us. And I just wanted to share this time. And I have to tell you that I'm a little bit I'm still you know, I'm a little bit frustrated. And I'll tell you why in a minute.

Russ Johns
However, I'm thankful. I'm grateful. And I wake up with gratitude every day. I know that life is gonna evolve, I know that things are not going to be the same as they were. And that's a good thing. And I know that for some reason, there's, friction and change in the air. It just feels like friction. It feels like maybe frustration. Maybe I don't I'm not even sure what the right word is. What's the descriptor?

Russ Johns
If you have a great word for this feeling of angst or I don't know if it's fear, frustration. Excited excitement. what's what's a good word? What's a good set of words? So we can use for this process that we're going through.

Russ Johns
Hey, Gabriel's in the house. Thank you so much for being here, Gabriel. I'm looking forward to an upcoming show. I'm going to be on Gabriel show here pretty quick. I just really, I just really appreciate all the work that Gabriel has been doing and all the effort that he's been putting in to creating and building consistent content. He's, he's a machine. thank you for being here, Gabriel. I really appreciate it, man.

Russ Johns
Have an awesome, awesome Wednesday, happy Hump Day. you know, one of the things that I'm a little challenged by is, you know, the pirate broadcast is really been a place where I kind of share and highlight other people and You know, it's on YouTube, it's on Periscope, it's on Facebook, you can catch it anywhere.

Russ Johns
I just really, I love the fact that I can express some of these ideas and share these ideas across multiple platforms. And at the same time, it seems like you know, views are not necessarily going up. the traffic is not necessarily expanding. I think the relationships are going. The pirate community is amazing. I think there's a lot of activity in the pirate community and I love the fact that you're here. And sometimes notifications don't even go out

Russ Johns
for the pirate broadcast on LinkedIn and LinkedIn if you're listening because I know you are. I know you listen to this episode every day. So and it's and I don't know if they're thinking about evolving video to do something else. Or if it's just that, because I'm so consistent and shoot every day that, you know people see my posts and they become invisible.

Russ Johns
So therefore, it's not necessarily something new fun and exciting. I want to know what you see and what you observe in your stream. And if it's something that I need to think about consider or other people are doing. I know Brenda Miller is doing shows she's doing. she's doing I think her Tuesday show, Cher Jones does show you know, Randall constant does a show.

Russ Johns
You know, Roger Wakefield does this show. There's a lot of people that do shows and do lives. I don't get notifications for hardly any of these shows. And I, you know, and fortunately, right now, I have been incredibly busy.

Russ Johns
Thank you, Mel. Good morning. And yes, Gabriel is a machine.

Russ Johns
So, you know, a few, I don't know, a month or two back. LinkedIn actually suggested they were going to do stories like every other platform, and I'm just really kind of concerned about. They have a unique position that they can actually leverage on this community and a couple of tweaks, you know, like being able to schedule people and add a link to a live broadcast so you can share it out in advance and publish

Russ Johns
The fact that you're going live. And

Russ Johns
you know, I promote the show in advance, I tell people that it's going to do and it's been at 7am every morning. Arizona time, forever. I mean, literally, or ever. I think I'm coming up on 150 episodes. And so this is the kind of thing that I think about is like, Okay, well,

Russ Johns
I love the pirate community, and everybody in the pirate community is really supportive. thank you so much for being here. I think it's important that I continue to share interesting people doing interesting things.

Russ Johns
I'm just wondering what the logic and what this what the circumstance is that allows LinkedIn or

Russ Johns
what LinkedIn is actually considering in their design, when they're not supporting creators, and, you know, they're not doing some things that I would think would be beneficial. From a creative perspective, this is just my perspective.

Russ Johns
It's, like if you're showing up every day creating a platform, and you're putting content out there for a platform, and you're engaging in people on a platform, I would think that that's something that the platform would want to support. it's, for some reason this week, especially, I'm not feeling that supported. So and speaking of which, I'm going to go off on a little tangent here. I don't know if you saw this or not, and I'm not, I'm not in any way impacted at all. However, I just think it's interesting that right now in this period of time, that Amazon slashes their benefits to their affiliate programs.

Russ Johns
You know, a ton of creators are building, businesses around this idea. You know, you have an affiliate program, you don't have links to affiliate programs and it goes to Amazon and all of a sudden they cut it from, some of these programs are cut from 8% down to 3%. In this time when everybody needs a little helping hand, and as a creator, you know, you have an opportunity to actually generate some additional income by promoting things you love and having people purchase it for no additional cost of their own. And Amazon is making a lot of money.

Russ Johns
All of a sudden they slash their Commission's to all the affiliates that are pushing traffic to the platform. And I have friends that have lost businesses there. Businesses have closed by the practices of Amazon. And I'm just wondering what you're thinking about that? Or if, you have any thoughts about that, because it's really i think it's it's one of those things that we have to consider and how we, how we support other businesses.

Russ Johns
You know, how are you supporting businesses How are you supporting local businesses? Right now like restaurants, you know, I'm going occasionally and picking up food you know, there's no dine in right now. I'm picking up food and taking ordering takeout for local restaurants that I can support.

Russ Johns
And

Russ Johns
It's there's a lot of backlash because all of the larger corporations that got funding, they were actually funded and a lot of mom and pops and small restaurants they didn't see anything. And so I'm just wondering if you have any thoughts about that, or if and I don't want to talk. This is kind of turned into a rant show. So it's like, and I'm just thinking about these things that I'm thinking, our life is changing our our circumstances is changing.

Russ Johns
There at some point in time, people are going to start realizing that I'm creating, I'm creating something and I'm putting it out to the world. it's useful, it's valuable, It's informational, It's educational, sometimes it's even humorous.

Russ Johns
I think to myself, what's the what's the process that is required? Because here's what I observe is that you learn. A piece of algorithm, you chase the algorithm. And it's like, I would rather build relationships than chase an algorithm. However, if you are limited in the number of people that you're exposed to, because of the way that you develop your content, and you push your content out there, then you're, then you're not reaching an audience that might want to be engaged with you.

Russ Johns
So this dilemma goes back and forth. It's like, Okay, well, you know, not everybody I reach out to will listen to the show every day. And not every buddy that I reach out to, will even get notified. And the people you know, I crossed over 22,000 connections on LinkedIn this last week. Maybe I don't know when it was over the weekend.

Russ Johns
And I'm thinking to myself, uh, it looks like Gina didn't have luck getting in. So I'm not sure what the problem is. So sorry, Gina, we'll have to reschedule your event.

Russ Johns
So that's the dilemma the content creators are faced with today. It's the same with the people promoting Amazon products. It's that you do something that you're working towards and building on and creating and producing results. And all of a sudden that the rules change.

Russ Johns
And it feels like right now and this is this pandemic, that the rules are changing, things are evolving. Things are really taking turns at challenging our patients our ability to connect, I'm just wondering what it is that we need to do in order to accomplish the greater good and it's really one of those stories okay.

Russ Johns
So maybe we need to build an affiliate network where live streamers can post a promote guest set up a booking Porter like spot a guest, a streamer cooperative. I love that idea. I love the idea and you know, I have this little platform called pirate syndicate. And apparently, if I talk about the pirate syndicate, Gabriel

Russ Johns
I think maybe LinkedIn maybe I'm being punished because I talked about that because you know Part of the streaming qualifications is that we're not supposed to necessarily we're not supposed to promote our products and services.

Russ Johns
Which Let me think about this LinkedIn as a business community focused on building relationships to do business yet I'm, I feel punished. Maybe I'm just whining. Maybe I just got a little wine in the sauce, right? I don't know.

Russ Johns
Mel says I like the idea. It is frustrating for wait for the notification and never comes to see the video on LinkedIn. And that's why you can always go maybe I need to start streaming live these sites for podcasts. Why not live streaming? pirate syndicate just saying Just thinking it's like, you know, LinkedIn started out as something else completely different.

Russ Johns
Twitter started out as something completely different. YouTube started out as something completely different. Facebook started out as something completely different and grew into what it is today. So why not? I mean, why not? And I'm sure that if we were on the other side of the equation, there would be, probably there would probably be things that we would want to consider.

Russ Johns
From the larger perspective, it's like, I'm just one creator. I'm just one little old creator here, doing my thing day after day, creating lots of content, sharing lots of people. I mean, you know, I've highlighted over 150 people and it's, it's just really, this concept of, I want to help other people. Understand And what it is just like Gabriel in the integration process make them allies, not our enemies.

Russ Johns
Absolutely. And that's, you know, I'm not saying I, I want to know, co op petition is more effective. I would rather have lots of people to collaborate with Gabriel. I would love the idea of collaboration and I and yes, let's build a pirate syndicate. I love that. I'm with you there.

Russ Johns
Because, I mean the production the time it takes to build things, the you know, the time it takes to build graphics and put things out there and repurpose it and put the podcast out there. And everything, everything surrounding that is it takes time and takes effort and you know, these YouTubers out there, some of these YouTubers are out there and they shoot all day long and then they

Russ Johns
All night long. And editing takes time. And some of these videos are amazing. I mean, some of these productions that these people go through are incredible. And I don't know if you follow any YouTubers that are really producing amazing content, however, it takes time, and it takes effort and it takes experience and it takes talent to be able to produce this kind of stuff, day in and day out.

Russ Johns
Now I'm not saying I'm talented, I am experienced that I have worked in this industry a long time. And all of my skills have brought me to this location. And the reason I'm feeling frustrated is that it feels as if the harder I work, the more friction there is. And it's like, now you can't go out.

Russ Johns
You can't go to the Store, you can't go to a movie, you can't go to a restaurant, you can't go, you know, to social gathering it that it feels like friction. And I think there's a lot of that emotion that's in the air and so I don't want to and I will not. And I refuse to a coffee and head are you using stream yard? Hey, Barb, how are you? Yes, I am.

Russ Johns
I'm a huge fan of stream yard. So I also use, you know, I've used B LIVE e cam, other other platforms, BB but yeah, stay at home save lives. I love it. And what I'm talking about Barb is the frustration that exists between being able to expand your brand and have people see it. And some of the things that LinkedIn is really feels like friction. It feels like the more shows I create, the more content I produce.

Russ Johns
And the more promotion that I put out there the highlight other people, it seems like I'm being limited in my content. And I've talked to people about this much larger content creator. In fact, Ira Bowman is going to be on tomorrow for the second time. He's a second time pirate.

Russ Johns
you know, he has over 100,000 followers, and he understands what it takes to build an audience and expand the brand. You know, one of the things that he's suggesting is video is getting less and less respect. Can't get no respect.

Russ Johns
Anyway, and um, no, I don't want to come across as as whining as much as it's a curious observation. It's a it's a curiosity to really build this out and produce some results. And it's, it's funny that it would be limited.

Russ Johns
Because I would think that some content, I don't know, maybe LinkedIn, somebody LinkedIn said, Hey, this rust character, he's not very, he's not very appealing. I don't know. I don't know the reasons I don't I don't think I could take responsibility for that. I don't think I have that much authority in the world of LinkedIn. However, it's like, what is the what is the challenge that we have and what is the challenge? I mean, like right now, I'm just

Russ Johns
I'm logged out of LinkedIn, and my phone, you know, there must have been an update because it booted me out. So let's see. I don't even know if anybody's saying anything and LinkedIn. Let's see this. And Barb says, Barb says if you want some company message me link and join in. I would love to Barb how, however,

Russ Johns
it's a 30 minute show and I'm just about I am on the last few minutes of it and I would much rather have you be a pirate and join the pirate broadcast. So I'm not sure if we're connected on LinkedIn or not. However, if youwould like, I'd love to have you on the show. Let's do this even a video. audio quality is the most important

Russ Johns
Something like tubebuddy We should get a hold of Rob Balasabas this and see what he thinks about this and get get a few more people involved. So

Russ Johns
So yes, Barb, let's let's connect. I'll send you an invitation to be on the pirate broadcast. I'm, I'm booking out may right now. And let's do that. I love that. And I think I think we're connected over on spot a guest aren't we? I believe I've seen your name over there. And also in the stream yard, stream yard, choosing generation over from Periscope.

Russ Johns
Yeah, I'm in Rob's group as well. So Rob's better. Rob's been on the show. He's a pirate. I'm supposed to be on his show. Show and then they did a 24 hour thing. So I've been a pirate since 1967. I love that. So from Sydney it's a little late there, isn't it? Isn't it there Rafel. You don't even see video on LinkedIn. What I mean what's going on? It's crazy.

Russ Johns
I'm looking for it. That's asking me for two step verification. For some reason this hump days, just being a hump day. I love this though. I love the fact that we can sit here and talk about this notepad to be through Facebook stream yard. My work is on Facebook. I got you

Russ Johns
12:30am How is it over in Sydney? Tell us, tell us how you're doing over there. Give us an update. We're on a global update.

Russ Johns
Rafel, give us an update from Sydney, Australia. I want to go to Sydney, Australia. I want to, I want to check it out soon, one day when this thing is over. And Mel, you're saying that it's not even showing up on LinkedIn. Maybe I'm banned on LinkedIn. Maybe I did something wrong. Maybe I got banned on LinkedIn said too many posts out in a row.

Russ Johns
Maybe I offended somebody who didn't respond to their didn't engage in their posts. I don't know. I can't even get into LinkedIn. My phone right now. So I can't see I can't see comments. So. So I'm just sitting here and I'm going to wrap this up because it's a busy day. It's full day.

Russ Johns
I have client work to do. I have things that have to get have to get accomplished. And I wanted to share this with you, Gina, I'll reschedule Gina in the future and make sure that she's available and open to connecting. And she's a like a two time she had to learn how to walk twice in her life.

Russ Johns
And these are fascinating people. I mean, this is fascinating guests and I just really I'm looking forward to having more people on the show and understand some of the other perspectives that are out there. Because it's important for me to share these things and highlight other people around the around the world.

Russ Johns
it's nice to be able to be able to do this and get up in the morning out a little gratitude, put something positive in the world, and then go on about your day. So it's, it's not necessarily the end of the world. Even if, even if a few people saw this, it would be good. However, what's taking place though, is a lot more people are seeing this on YouTube, Periscope and Facebook.

Russ Johns
Which Oh, maybe maybe LinkedIn is jealous. Just saying Let's see. Anyway, I just wanted to wish you the very best in all your adventures all your day and everything that's going on, because it's really, it's really one of these things that we got to, you know, adjust and deal with, and I hope you're staying safe and sane and healthy. I want to make sure that you understand that, you know, it's like Barb's little message,

Russ Johns
stay home, save lives. You know, we we're all in this together. This is something that should not divide us. It should bring us together. This is a common. This is a common thread that we're all going through. This is a common cause that we can all understand that we need to work together to solve these problems. And there's no reason why we can't work together and come together as humanity to produce some positive outcomes,

Russ Johns
not everybody is going to have a positive experience from this. And it's not necessarily positive, there's a lot of side effects that are going to take place. And I just want it like I've said before in the past is there's a lot of people, that the biggest skill that they can learn the most impact they can have is the ability to be resilient. The ability to adapt to their circumstance, their environment, and the ability and the opportunity to actually do something.

Russ Johns
Positive while, things are going on around them don't get sucked up in the, in, in the, in the news cycle, that's doom and gloom and don't get sucked up in the negative and don't get sucked up in the the things that are taking place that you have no control over. Take advantage have the opportunityto learn something new, improve your skills on what you're doing, and, and be the best person you can be.

Russ Johns
So these are things that you can actually control. You can increase and improve. in the end just be a better person than you than you were yesterday. That's all good. That's, that's what we can do. That's what we have control over who we are right here, right here today. So, anyway, I'm going to go on about let you get your day started. I love you all, and I appreciate the fact that you're here.

Russ Johns
#kindnessesiscool. #smilesarefree and you #enjoytheday


Historically, pirate broadcasting is a term used for any type of broadcasting without a broadcast license. With the internet, creating your own way of connecting has evolved.  

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