Plate 74 - Vf1SNSX - featuring Jhae Pfenning of Hard Parking Podcast

PLATE 74 - VF1SNSX - with Jhae Pfenning of Hard Parking Podcast

Full Episode Transcript:

VF1SNSX

[00:00:00] Trista, Host: This is Trista polo and I'm here with this week's plate story. Today, we're spending some quality time with Jhae Pfenning of Hard Parking Podcast. His car and plate have been iconized as a collector's item. And we'll hear the story today about why. Jhae works in IT by day and is a podcaster by night. We will talk about the start of his podcast as well as his own origin story, growing up in south Dallas. Whether you are into cars or not, you will enjoy our conversation. Jhae is a dad, a husband, and like his podcast, he's a non-automotive automotive guy. We'll hear his story and his thoughts on many things today.

 But first, some plate story news. It's the beginning of the year. And so lots of states, DMV offices have received open records, act requests from news agencies. Everyone seems to want to know which vanity plate requests their state rejected last year. 

Of the state's reported Colorado seems to have the most at more than 23,000 rejected requests. They really don't like it when you try and put your favorite state attraction on your plate. So VAIL and ASPN are out. But they also don't like references of food and beverage. OVEN PEAR and SOUP being examples. 

Pop culture is also not allowed. So TOOL WHACK and LOLZ LOL Z. were excluded. I mean, maybe it's just because they aren't hip enough to approve. And a whole host of others. I can't really figure out why they were rejected. Including GOAL LOVE and BOBA three plates. I would actually love to have on my car. 

Ohio and Missouri reported that nearly 400 plates failed to pass approval of each of their states. For many reasons, including if the plate would present an unreasonable danger to the health and safety of the applicant. HTPCKT hot pocket. And QANON are both examples from Missouri. Oregon rejected almost 300 plate requests. They include any vanity plate request that refers to illegal acts alcohol. 

And apparently bodily functions, three examples are BUUURP TOOTZ and M3RLOW Georgia rejected about 200 plates, including pandemic plates, sports plates, and anything with a S like VEGANAF. Connecticut rejected about 80 plates, including the plate. IH8CT, which stands for, I hate Connecticut. I mean, would you approve a plate that said it hated you? I probably wouldn't either. 

Every state reported that Biden and Trump plates were on the list and were rejected. They also all said, if a plate is found to be offensive after it's approved, It'll be recalled and the car owner will be required to turn it in. So hold onto those plates while you can everyone. And let's go chat with Jhae Pfenning. 

Hey there. I'm so excited to have Jhae Pfenning of Hard Parking Podcast from Phoenix, Arizona with us. His license plate is VF 1 S N S X. Welcome Jhae. 

[00:03:17] Jhae Pfenning: Thank you, Trista is exciting to be on the show today. 

[00:03:23] Trista, Host: It's exciting to have you on the show. Now, before we get into your plate story, I have to say that I've been connected to you since I kind of got into the podcast world, we connected on a Facebook group, I think.

And you were, can I just tell you you're the only four star review I ever got on my podcast? 

[00:03:44] Jhae Pfenning: Are the rest of them five stars. 

[00:03:46] Trista, Host: Yes they are.

[00:03:48] Jhae Pfenning: Okay. Here's the, here's the thing on that? I'm like a teacher sometimes, right? And my mindset is it's like how you, you have to give somebody. Something to shoot for, because I think we live in a world where, especially in podcasting, right.

Because especially on some of these pages, like for like review for review and some of the people, they have no interest in listening to your actual podcast. So let's those two at one and a half, two times the speed, or they're just skim through it and say, oh, best podcasts in the world. Five stars. Keep doing what you're doing.

It's like, no, I want to know, you know, if it's good, is this something you would tune into every day? Do you want to be part of the conversation? Maybe? Did you really like it? But it's not your thing. You know, give me something to shoot for now. I don't want to give up, get a freaking one, you know, but like most people, if I really, really liked the podcast, you're going to get a solid four.

I'm like a hard grade teacher. And then I broke it down. 

[00:04:52] Trista, Host: Yeah, you did. You did. And this was I'm actually right on apple podcast reviews. Right now. I pulled up. Oh, no, it was March 24th. And I think my first episode came out around the seventh or the 12th of March of 2020. So this was my very first review.

So I'm a new podcast. I'm a new podcast or after a five-year break. And I got four stars. I got to say it, it, it I've never forgot you. It left an impression, but here's what you wrote. A fresh approach. Really enjoyed this podcast. Every vanity plate should have a story behind it. Trista has taken a golden opportunity and seeking out people to hear and share their stories.

This podcast is refreshing and will only get better. So there's that like room for improvement, you know, shoot for improvement.

[00:05:44] Jhae Pfenning: You know what, here we are over a year later and yeah, I wrote you down on my little book of people to eventually connect with. It's like, okay, I got to get Trista on Trista on interest, this plate story Trista's plate story. So I'm glad you asked was like, Hey man, we doing this or not. 

[00:06:00] Trista, Host: Yeah. Well, I like to I'm I've gotten very good at followup followup used to be my least favorite skill and I've really worked on it.

So now I'm about average to a little bit above average, but I just couldn't step over that. I had to bring that up since it just always stuck with me. You've been part of my journey from the beginning because of that. 

[00:06:23] Jhae Pfenning: So even though it was four stars where you like that sob I'm going to get him, or like, that was actually a really like what, what were, what were your thoughts?

[00:06:31] Trista, Host: My response to, it was like, where's my five stars. First of all, like, how come I didn't get five stars? And then the fact that you said it was refreshing and will only get better, like that really stuck with me. I'm like, okay. So he sees room for improvement. He liked it, but it can only get better. I mean, how can you expect in your first couple of weeks of something to be the best you'll ever be at it, then where are you going to grow from?

Right. I think that we're always growing. So I said, okay, I have room for improvement, but what am I going to improve? I don't know yet. You know, like it's been, it's been part of my, my tapestry of my podcasts since the beginning. Like would, would Jhae think this is better? Would he think this has improved?

Did it go where he thought it was going to go? I. You've been part of my inner monologue about my, my podcasts since, since the beginning. So even though I really wanted five stars, I wanted five stars. Like who does it? What five star, five stars. But I got what you were saying. I respected it. Like, clearly you listened to it.

You didn't just phone it in, like you're saying. And I appreciated that and we did stay connected. And now here we are a year and a half or so later, and I was just recently on your podcast. Now you're on mine. And that's just amazing. So we let's get into your plate because if I was to see this license plate in a grocery store parking lot, I don't know if I would realize this was a vanity plate.

So tell me the story behind V F 1 S N S X. 

[00:08:09] Jhae Pfenning: So the story behind it, it's, it's a really long story, but I guess that's why we're here on the podcast. In short. Well, I just said, it's a long story. I'm telling you the short. So VF is used in the military and I'm not military. I've always kind of wished I wished had, had joined at some point.

But when I was a teenager or preteen, I don't know, middle school, somewhere in that, there used to be a cartoon that I used to like a lot called Robotech and it's actually, you know, people can't see it right now, but it's my car behind me on the zoom call and the fighter jet, they were called VFs for variable fighters, actually in the cartoon, they were Varitek fighters, but the Japanese version was variable fighters.

And what that meant was they could do more than they weren't autonomous. They still needed a pilot, but they can change different modes to go from jet to kind of like a guardian where they have legs, but you're still the pilot inside the cockpit. Or there is a battleoid mode where it looks like a, a humanoid it's a robot that's being piloted by a person.

You know, we've seen that with Pacific Rim and a bunch of those movies now, but the reason why it was in the cartoon is because the earth was in an all out global war. Shocker. And a giant alien spaceship crashed in the middle of the ocean. Everyone stopped fighting. They went to investigate and we find out that there were 50 foot tall aliens.

Humanoids, of course, what else? I guess, by the way, these movies, every alien looks like a person. Like how do we know? They don't look like French fries with legs, it's like, how do we know that? 

[00:09:53] Trista, Host: Well, because then you'd have to get French fries to play them in the movie. And we just sent humans to play them in the movie.

[00:09:58] Jhae Pfenning: Right. So these people, you know, they w they were 50 feet tall. They were all blue or green. And they were preparing the United or the new United earth government was preparing for their return one day. So that's why these robots existed. And, you know, obviously from that point, the cartoon went in a direction where the aliens came back and there was this all out war between the humans and these is Intrado and you know, you're supposed to be paying attention in class.

Right. But no one really does in middle school, especially a loser kid like me from the suburbs, you just stare out the window. I was like, man, if the earth was being attacked right now, I wish I had a Varitek outside. I'd go out there and save everybody in the school. That'd be a hero. You know, they just became like my favorite cartoon then once I got into high school.

So right now I have an accurate NSX, 1997 Acura NSX, which is for people who like cars pretty iconic. But I saw my first one. This was years after I cared about Robotech and I fell in love with the car. Super long story. Short, 20 years later, I got. Super long story short. After several years of ownership, you know, I used to go to these different car shows.

I'd look at other people's cars, cause I'm an artist by trade. Or I used to be, I thought I was going to go on to design cars, design shoes, design, all sorts of stuff. And I would go to different car shows. I'd look at cars that were wrapped, like fighter jets, and I'd get up close to him. I look at him, I go, oh, that's pretty cool.

But I would do that different or that doesn't look right. It's pixelated or you know, every, every thing that flies has more than one type of screw, there's probably like 50 different pieces of hardware. This is if I ever did it, I'd do it better. You know, never had ever designed anything in Photoshop.

Right. You know, you have a lot of, if you have passion and you have confidence and your confidence drives your passion and your, your final product is always better. So I decided to, I was like, well, if I'm going to design a wrap for my cars, I wanted to change it up. Maybe I'll do a fighter jet. Sure. Why not?

And then I really started thinking, I asked my friends, I go, Hey, what if I did a Robotech Chet, a Varitek fighter, a VF is what they're called. And I'd be the leader. The leader is the skull leader, which is the VF one. And then the S is for scoliosis. Now, historically speaking, traditional and real world, real world war.

They have the jolly Rogers at fourteens w you know, the fighter jets from the, from the seventies. And they had the skull and crossbones on the rear and they kind of flew them. It was kind of a, like a victory squadron type of deal. It was a whole squadron of them. The VFS is, of course the cartoon did the adaptation.

So I was like, okay, I'm going to design a VF one S and then NSX, which is my car. So ultimately that's where VF one S NSX. And there's the

But I have the S the school leader. 

[00:12:57] Trista, Host: That's awesome. So that makes perfect sense. And your, your podcast, the hard parking podcast. The description of it, I think is quite interesting. The non-automotive automotive podcast, where society and culture come first, and the car talk comes second.

You describe yourself to me earlier as to somebody who's not a car guy like myself, you're a total car guy, but to a car guy, you're not really a car guy. So can you talk about, like, where do you fit in that whole the whole tapestry of car guys? 

[00:13:30] Jhae Pfenning: Well, if I was better at it, I'd be pulling in Joe Rogan money probably, but you know, I always described the car person as

to people who aren't into cars at all. And you, and you kind of are a little bit because we had a conversation and I think more people actually are that aren't, but they just kind of categorize car person as one type of person. And there's so many different, but for any hobby you're into there's, so many of you, if you enjoy the outdoors, like what does that really mean?

Right. There's so many different ways to enjoy the outdoors. And it's the same thing with, with cars in my opinion. So I think to be a car person, all you're doing is you're walking into the door, the front door of a giant flea market swap, meet shopping mall, where you have 300 different places you can go.

And some of them, you know, like clothing stores or, you know, you have a hundred clothes with 15 clothing stores, but they don't all sell the exact same thing. So you can be into import cars, but you could also hate the store next door. You know, hate's a strong word, but you know, we're not all the same, but people think we all are so I'm sort of the casual car person.

I love cars. And I was little kid teenager. I used to know everything about them. I don't really know much about them anymore. Now my family probably say, yeah, right. But, you know, as I tell my son, when he calls me, I was like, look like one day, he said, Hey dad, do you think auto zone would have these breaks in stock?

And I said, I don't know, why don't you call him and ask him, like, I don't know who has what in inventory? And I also tell people, look, I'm not an a, you know, and a certified mechanic here. I can do basic stuff, but that's the reason why those things is this. But you know, I still love cars. Of course, I guess I know a lot about them, but not as much as people think I do.

Like, I don't know what the, the newest hypercar is. I don't care. And there was one time that I did, but I don't, I don't care anymore. Like I like cars and. I like $18,000 cars and I'm like $1.8 million cars, you know, kind of the same. Cause they're all kind of cool and unique. So that's, that's kind of where I am.

And with the non-automotive automotive, that's kind of a loose, I kind of stole that from one of my favorite podcasts, a sports podcast called the Dan Libertad show was two gods cause they're the non sports sports show. And so they still cover sports, but they have a lot of fun. And when he has conversations, he has guests on, you know, they like to, he likes to talk about both sides of the conversation.

And I'm really big on that too, being both sides of the conversation. So my, my approach is, well, I'll get guests on and we'll talk about, you know, their car a little bit, but then I want to know what they're into, you know, does traffic drive them crazy? Don't they hate it when you know, you're, you're walking into the grocery store someone's kid is, you know, doing cartwheels down the, you know, down aisle six, because those are the things that whatever drives me crazy probably drives everyone crazy. So it's kind of fun to share those moments with people and like, you're not alone in thinking that these people are nuts and you know, what's going on on TV.

And what do you think about mask? What do you think about this? What do you think about, you know the twin cities, you know, last year, obviously the George Floyd thing. And I think that people like the podcast, because I try to offer a non-scripted perspective. I don't always go with what's the popular thing to say.

I just go with what I personally think. And if I don't have enough information, I'm not going to make a judgment. And then I try to pull that out of my guests. And then we talk about cars. If there's time 

[00:17:01] Trista, Host: yeah, I think you're the only person that has ever asked me during an interview about my car. And it was kind of fun.

Cause I had just bought a car and it's a car that nobody's ever heard of it. So it was kind of fun to talk about my car with you, even though I'm not a car person, I like having a car, I enjoy driving so I can see what you're saying. And I like how you described it because you're right. I sort of have a car person description in my head and it is just a certain type of person who cares a lot about cars, knows a lot about cars.

Talks a lot about cars, goes to car shows, but you're absolutely right. Just like anything. There are so many facets to that. Just that one thing. How long have you had your podcast? 

[00:17:45] Jhae Pfenning: I think I hard parking podcast. I want to say it was a mid 2019. I have to think about it in the context of work because I wanted to.

Well, I had a F well, I guess I wouldn't say hat, but I have a friend who a few years ago he goes, Hey, we should do a podcast together. And I was like, I don't really know, man, like a year later, I said, Hey, you will still want to do that podcast. I wanted something to do when I was on the road, which by the way, you know, you, you start recording your episodes from the hotel room every night.

You don't really understand the controlled space and how different, you know, your sound can be. If, you know, sit there and record it all at once, get home at the end of the week and you start editing it. And you're like, oh, this sounds terrible. So it was terrible. And that's just, you know, my opinion on it, you know, but, but so that was when I was working in New Jersey on my second tour is what I call it because I'm on my third tour working for that client.

So yeah, mid, mid 20, mid to late 2019. 

[00:18:39] Trista, Host: Yeah. And you had a cohost, I've had podcasts in the past. I have. Two different podcasts with a co-host. And I have to say, when it didn't work for our schedules anymore, the podcast went away, but you kept going. So tell me kind of the the origin story a little bit and how did it end up being just you and guests?

[00:19:00] Jhae Pfenning: Yeah. You know, and Brando is his name. It's a good guy. We don't talk that much. It's almost like a breakup where you're still, you're still cool with them. You know, you take the kids on this day and I took kids on that day, you know, so we're not, you know, going opposite directions when we see each other parties type of relationship, but, you know, he, he let me down and he knows it and I never called him out on it, you know, but you know, our plan was to record and you've probably gone through this exact thing.

We're supposed to record like five or six episodes at once and just do like a release. I go, okay, well, let's record one a week. And then six weeks from now, let's just go ahead and release them every week. And then we can figure out after, you know, people's feedback, what we're going to. By the third episode, I felt like I was pulling teeth, getting him on.

And our just our, every week we had takeaways next week, I was going to bring something to the table. You bring something to the table and you just got too busy. You didn't want to leave the house and people, the da. And I was, I decided I was kind of having fun doing it. And so probably I think it was, I want to say eight or nine episodes before we, he kind of went his separate way.

I think it was the tacos and Hawaii was the last episode that he was on regularly. But somewhere around the fifth or sixth episode, I kind of pulled myself to the side and said, you know, is this something I want to do? There's a very realistic chance that Brando is just going to fade out. He's kind of already fading out.

Yeah, sure. I only want to get better at this. I'm having fun with this and you never know where it's going to go because like, I wouldn't say like many people because some people do, but like some people. You know, you get into podcasts and to kind of share a story, entertain people have people share their stories.

And for us specifically, it was like, man, if we get good at this, maybe we can get media passes into car events that we usually have to pay for, you know? So that's why we kind of jumped into it. And that hasn't really happened yet, but it could like, like enough people know if I said, Hey, I'm the host of Hard Parking podcast, especially with local people.

Oh, okay. Yeah, we'll get you in for media, but that's kind of why I decided to do it. And then on a, not on a really sad note, but I, and we could talk about a little bit later too, but you know, I, I was adopted when I was younger, went through several families before the adoption. Well, in my mind, right, you have your birth family, your foster, and then your adoptive family.

But I think I've always felt like I needed to validate my existence in a way. And, you know, I've been, I have a wonderful family now I've been married. We just had our 17 year wedding anniversary, but I still feel like my wife tunes me out after five seconds and kids don't listen to you because you're a parent.

So you never have anything good to say. And it's like, I started getting feedback from people that would respond to my podcasts. I'm like, wow, these people are actually listening. I have a, I have an audience. I have, even if it's 10 people, I have people who care about what I say and offer me feedback. And so that's why I kept going because it's almost therapeutic for me.

[00:22:07] Trista, Host: Yeah. Well, you know, I've, I really think that all we really want, all we really want is to feel heard, not listened to too, but like really heard. So I can very much resonate with what you're saying, but you have quite a following now. Right? Like I know your, your Instagram has like 15,000 followers. So you have a pretty good following for your podcast these days.

Right? I have 

[00:22:32] Jhae Pfenning: a decent following, you know, I. So that was one of Brando's things. It's like, Hey, I got this. All right. How he talks, you know, like I got like, you know, 50,000 followers and you got whatever, man, that's going to be six. This'll be easy. And it's not, you know, as you know, it's not. And I kind of compare it to selling candy as a kid.

If you had the Cub Scouts or girl Scouts door to door, and you know, your family's always going to buy your stuff and your next door neighbor. And once you get two or three streets over, you know, you're going to find out if they like your candy or not. They're not being nice. That's the bottom line. And it's also, people always remember you on how they know you last, because I will see people.

I mean, 15 years ago I used to work at the bars in Michigan. I was a bouncer. Believe it or not. And I'm like, oh Jhae hi, how you doing? Good. Good. What have you been up to? IT you married? Yeah, I'm going down. Hey, you still working or no? No, I'm not still bouncing. No, I'm in healthcare IT. And so, you know, I say that to say that it's, you have to go out and you, and you have to find new people because the people who already knew you don't know your for being a podcaster.

And then when you start off with that big crowd, it's, it's kind of, there's a pro and a con to it, right? The pro is you already have access to all these people who already have access to you. The con is if you're still trying to figure out what you even want to do and how you want to do it, those early episodes don't really sound like your, once you start getting into the groove.

And so yeah. So to answer your question, yeah. I have a a big following of my page because of my car, I would say more so than, than the podcast. I tried to grow the podcast on my other page. And I said, you know what? I'm going to take advantage of the fact that I have enough followers that I can put actively.

You know, in my stories, whether I'm trying to help sell a product or promote my podcast or promote somebody else's podcast. And so I just shifted everything over to my car page and people could take it or leave it. 

[00:24:33] Trista, Host: Yeah. And I love it. And it's a very active page. You do something really fun. I'd love to know the origin story of this one drink Wednesdays.

I need to know about this 

[00:24:44] Jhae Pfenning: one drink Wednesday is a lot of fun and I, you need to jump on there with us. So west Tankersley is another podcaster that I met around the same time as you actually. And, you know, we kind of pulled over into like a little mastermind group. There was probably six or seven of us that broke off from some of these other crazy groups, as you know, and I think through the pandemic era, at least the first part of it, cause we're still in it, you know, you just started connecting with people and leaning on people.

And you know, our daily conversations became less about podcasting. I mean, we were like, you know, what can we do and stuff, but you know, as four of us got in Brian sail. Even five with Jason, had his own thing. And then one guy Zach who lives over in Germany, he's a professional baseball player over there.

And so we all just kind of built like this mastermind group. And then, you know, Wes and I were like, Hey, you know, we should all hang out one day. He came down here for spring training. We went out had a couple of pops. He played golf. And then since then we're like, we'll just do a virtual drink, one drink Wednesday.

And we describe it as every Wednesday. And you know, right now at seven o'clock Pacific time, we'll get on Instagram live, you have your drink. I have my drink. And it's like meeting at the same bar. And if people join, they can come up on stage with us. If not, maybe, maybe the only one was in the bar and that's okay.

And that's where one drink Wednesday came from and we have a lot of fun. Sometimes we get some pretty cool guests, whether they're just random everyday people or kind of celebrities. 

[00:26:06] Trista, Host: Yeah, I noticed you have people that are not planned guests join you for the conversation. And I thought that was fun. I haven't seen that before where you have planned thing, but then other people can pop in and join you for the discussion.

And I thought, I thought that was really unique and cool. And it sort of reminds me of how you can watch a TV show or a movie together on like a Netflix or whatever. And you're all in your own houses, but it's Simon streaming or something 

with 

your family. Yeah. Yeah. So it sort of reminded me of that, but in a much much cooler hipper social media sort of way.

[00:26:47] Jhae Pfenning: I don't think I've ever been me myself. Cool. And hip all three of them, I don't think has ever been in the same sentence at the same time. 

[00:26:55] Trista, Host: The, I think that's so funny because I find you very cool and hip, especially your voice. You have just the perfect podcast voice with that really just amazing timber.

Yeah. I don't mind a little on the higher range, but yeah, I, I just enjoy your voice, just listening to your voice. So that's awesome. So what's in store for you. You have a great podcast, you have a great following. You're you're doing some great stuff, but clearly if you look at things like always improving, always looking at what's next.

So what's next? What do you have in the works? 

[00:27:36] Jhae Pfenning: You know, I, I got to tell you that usually when, when I'm looking at things, if the podcast numbers are down or I've never, I never run out of content, which I think is pretty fortunate. And I mean, you really wouldn't either, you know, with your, your vanity. But after to sit back and evaluate it, say, okay, what could I be doing better?

You know, what should I be? Should I be doing better? Where have I let myself down? And I think, you know, one of the things is I could be more organized. I think I mentioned on the last conversation that I ordered a, a desktop calendar, which I have right in front of me at this time. Excellent.

Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. I would love to get my website up. Finally. It's almost a year past due and I'm working on that because it's, it's, it's one of those things where we have to ask ourselves when things aren't going exactly the way that we imagine they go, which is most things in our lives.

What could we have done differently? Or what could we be doing better to help that? Because at the end of the day, if you do everything that you set out to do, and you've given it your hardest, your best as anyone ever say, given your hardest, if you've given it your best. Or what you think is your best and it's still not where you want.

At least you could say I gave it my best, but if you haven't given it, your best is not where you want. And there's no, really you have to look at yourself, what could I be doing better? And there's things I could be doing better. There's things I don't do now than I did last year. I was like, okay, well, I've dropped those habits, you know?

And you can tell them the numbers, you know, I'll have friends that say, well, you know, I got, I got 15 downloads a day. I'm like, oh, I have no idea how many downloads I got today. And I have no idea how many followers I've lost on Instagram. You know, I just have to keep moving forward. And I decided to, even with Instagram is like, look, most of that's because of my car.

I stopped caring about that eight or nine months ago and started posting pretty much whatever I want. I mean, I'm still staying on brand, but before it was just all my car and now it's reels. It's, you know, one drink Wednesday. It's no one's going to do for you. Like you're going to be able to do for you.

Really it's, it's just continuing to grow. 

And as far as the podcast goes, you know, just continuing to work on that long list that I have of people. And I got, I mean, I was really lucky. I think I was lucky. I think it's lucky. I don't know if it's fate, but one of my podcasts idols, I was able to have a conversation with the other day and it was one of those pipe dream type deal type of deal.

I was like, Hey, you know, I would love to have this person on the show. Would they? And they were on the show. Yeah. One of my dream guests, you know, that's the thing they always ask you. Right? Like who are your dream guests? Yeah. Yeah. And so I think that's, yeah, that's, that's good for the soul. And I 

[00:30:25] Trista, Host: mean, I'm involved in so much, I guess 

[00:30:29] Jhae Pfenning: I didn't want to have to use your name, but you know, there's so much truth to that, but I'm involved in so many things.

And then it's, it's one of those things where people are like, holy crap, Jhae like, how do you do it? And I, from the outside world, it probably looks like I'm busy all the time and maybe I am, but again, I could do more for my brand because I don't count my regular nine to five job as being busy. I mean, it is busy.

We've talked about that before, sometimes busier than I ever planned for it to be. But you know, one thing I learned in the pandemic era is, you know, I was out of work for five months and you know, you have to find other stuff with the whole paradigm shift in how the world is performing business. You have to find other things to maybe sublet your.

Your ambitions, maybe, you know, you may make some money off it, or maybe you don't have to work as hard at one job and you can even itself, even your work-life balance off. If you have something else that's fun to do with it helps pay for stuff, I guess. 

[00:31:31] Trista, Host: Yeah. Well, the millennials today, they always keep telling me you need seven income streams to be a millionaire today.

I don't know where I, I don't know where they all read it, but they've all said I've had like, you know, eight or 10 different millennials tell me this. Very true, very important fact. They have nothing to back that up, but that's what they keep saying. They must've all heard it on the same podcast 

[00:31:55] Jhae Pfenning: Rogan or something.

[00:31:56] Trista, Host: Yeah, probably, probably. You said that earlier that you could maybe have been a Joe Rogan, if you knew more about cars, is that an aspiration of yours to be one of the top podcasters, huge moneymakers, huge following. 

[00:32:14] Jhae Pfenning: I, I mean, I I've, I kinda said it in jest, but you, you kind of dug to the root of it.

I think we just want to be heard. And one thing that I would tell that I tell other podcasts is just getting started. I go, look, don't even look at your numbers, but if you're going to look at them, think about it as think about it as you're doing a weekly, just say Bible study or book club every week, you do a book club on Tuesdays and you have 13 people that show up every week.

So if you decide not to do the book club, those 13 people, you've just let down, they're going to show up at that door and the door is going to be locked. Some days you might have 10 people because two people could, two or three people could make it. Some days you may have 25 people cause they invited their friends for as long as you have people showing up to your book club thing, keep doing it.

As long as you're having. Sure. If this thing blew up and I was getting thousands and thousands and thousands of downloads per episode, it would feel kind of cool, but it's only cool to the point where you can actually make some real money and retire off of it or retire off of your day job, then it's something special.

But until it gets to that point, you know? Yeah. Just keep having fun. And I'd like to see that growth. So instead of going, and, and I do more than 13, but if it's 13 today and tomorrow, then next week, I want to see 14, you know, and I had some of those types of goals for this year. And I think across the board, or maybe it's just me and I'm trying to find a way to make it sound better, but you know, across the board, I think that listening in general is down and, you know, I switched to a weekly show to see, cause that's one of the things out there that we should do it every week, you know, statistics show.

And they said, these are probably the millennials with the seven, seven streams of income statistics show that the average person listens to 20 minutes. So if you do one every week, then your numbers will go to the roof. Well, I have more listeners on my longer episodes. I do my short ones, which you know, every other week, so 

[00:34:16] Trista, Host: actually get more.

Then the shorter ones, which seems counterintuitive to me. But I think that 20 minutes comes from how long does it typically take you to drive somewhere? And that number is out the window. Cause a lot of people haven't been driving, but I think that social media platforms like clubhouse really started that audio, that listening where you're on there for just, I don't know if you're on clubhouse, but when you go on there, you can get on there for hours and hours and hours.

And that's listening time that you'd be spending, listening to audio books or podcasts or whatever else you used to use to listen to. 

[00:34:52] Jhae Pfenning: Are you, I mean, you brought up clubhouse. What is your thought? You know what, I'm going to save that. I'm going to say that one for the end. Yeah. I'm gonna say we just 

[00:35:01] Trista, Host: got a new question.

[00:35:03] Jhae Pfenning: We just got a new question. Yeah. I got a new question. 

[00:35:07] Trista, Host: So you mentioned that you were going to be an artist, a graphic designer. It sounds like for sneakers. And then what happened? 

[00:35:17] Jhae Pfenning: You know, it was, I I'd said the passion word earlier and you know, I, when I put my mind to it, I'm pretty good with the pencil and the pen or I was, you know, and it's all relative, and this is what I, this is how I always explain this because you know, when you're in middle school and you're one of the artists on your elementary school, you're one of the artists.

And then you go to a magnet school. It's what I went to. And then you're, you're in a room full of other artists. You're no longer the best person in class. There's people that are just naturally talented. They could draw you out of a draw, the hell of it. And then you get to high school and it's more, a little more dispersed.

It's not focused anymore. So then, you know, everyone's thought was, you know, Jhae, you have all this talent. You're going to go on to be a great artist, but not to put. Like my parents or anything, because I didn't do very good in high school. And then it's funny, cause I didn't skip class either. Really. I just sucked at everything except for art and, and I just thought I was going to go to art school and I never knew anything about it.

I just thought like, like a scholarship, I just thought scholarships were just given. I had no idea. And then my parents probably didn't really, you know, and I would probably wasn't the most fun teenager to deal with because of my history. So, you know, I probably shut them out or they gave them my wishes or whatever, but I always thought I was going to be an artist on some capacity and, and I was getting a little off here, but what the point is, I liken it to football or sports.

You could be all city and then you go to high school or you gonna be all city junior high. You could be a star of your high school football team. You're lucky if you can get into Juco, you're really lucky if you can land in division one, And if you can do that, you're one of 105 people on the team.

Chances are, you're not making it to the NFL, but everybody who's not the athletically gifted thinks you're just the best person in the world. And it's all relative. And I think with art, once I got to art school, I learned how to draw a little better, but I quickly realized that, you know, it was never my artistic skill.

It was my focus and my passion for whatever it was. I was drawing. And, you know, I went to a school of this called and I went for industrial design, Kendall college of art and design in grand rapids, Michigan, and everyone there kept telling me, you know, what are you doing here? You need to be in an art center or you need to be able to CCS in Detroit because I kept drawing cars.

So first off I was in the wrong school, but then I realized it was, my gift was more communication than pure skill because when I'd get up there and do a presentation, you know, we had people come over from companies and they were ready to buy my product. And I hate sales too. I'm not a person. But there's like a certain conviction you have when you believe in something I think is what it really is.

And, you know, I decided that I don't want to spend you learn about the design process. I don't want to spend eight to nine months designing the next ergonomic coffee cup. There's nothing in there, you know? Exactly. Cause that's what industrial design really is, you know? And that's the design process. I go, I feel like I have whatever it is.

I have something else to offer the world. So then I realized I really wasn't that good of an artist. I was okay. But I think pure art, wasn't my calling. But every once in a while I get an opportunity to, you know, use that skill. And I mean, like the VFDs NSX, I designed every square millimeter of that wrap and I took a year to learn how to use Photoshop while I did it.

And I'll probably never design another wrap again. But it's validating when you know, you go to a huge show called SEMA. And it's I think the world's largest aftermarket manufacturing event, it's in Las Vegas, hundreds of thousand people come, but when you're in SEMA and you have people coming up to you, that that's what they do for a living design wraps and things.

And they say, wow, this is really good. This was your first. This is amazing. Especially for somebody who's never done it before. The validation is pretty cool. So every once in, while you get an opportunity to do stuff with, with your skills, whatever they are. So, you know, pursue those. I mean, I'll design stuff every once in a while still, but it's not my bread and butter.

And I knew it wasn't going to be, but some cool stuff has happened because of the VF one S NSX. So, 

[00:39:39] Trista, Host: well, I I'd like to hear more about that, but I wanted to just underline what you were saying. I thought it was so cute. It was when you were drawing something that you were passionate about, you're an amazing artist, but it was your passion for the thing you were drawing and not the skill that was being channeled there.

So cars, you did amazing wrapping your car. You did amazing, but you know, the coffee cup or whatever, like who cares not interested at all. So maybe your skill wasn't there. So I think that, that, that passion that was there in some things and missing and others, I think that's just so, so key.

[00:40:23] Jhae Pfenning: People would commission me to draw stuff for him. And we're talking like high school. Well, no one pays anything. I'll give you 30 bucks for that drawing that you spent eight hours, you know, doing. But I would look at someone else. I was like, wow, that's pretty good, but it's not that good. Why? Oh, because I don't care about the Dallas Cowboys, you know, so yeah.

I realized that within myself that, you know, I wasn't sitting at an art show and staring across it, the first place person and said, well, I got second place. I suck. It was more or less sitting back and watching the things that weren't judged. And I was judging my own work. 

[00:40:57] Trista, Host: Yeah, for sure. So you were going to say a little bit more about where it's led.

Can you share more about 

[00:41:03] Jhae Pfenning: that? Oh, the car I keep looking over because I have it as a wallpaper. I commissioned someone to do it like a full of fun, little drawing of it, but the car was in a magazine. Which has for a car person. That's like our thing, you know, it's like, oh, wow. I mean, I didn't make the magazine cover, which is really cool.

But I had a cool article inside of PAS MAG which is performance, audio and sound magazine. But, but I was in a show called anime expo in 2018. So I wrapped the car in 2017 for SEMA. I got an invite from a random person on Instagram. I know it sounds like catfishing or something, but you know, the person did not have a very big account, but they had mentioned this, the show called anime expo, which is a big deal for the anime guys, you know, anime crowd in Anaheim.

And so after exchanging a few conversational bits, I said, okay, I'll, I'll put my car in the show. And I did. So I was at anime expo and I was one of two cars that were there that year. They had. The panels, they had a bunch of panels. They're speaking about all sorts of different things. Like this is a big deal.

So harmony gold, which a lot of people who were in the MACRA, which is the Japanese version of Robotech hate, they're the, they're the studio that brought Robotech to the United States. So that's what I watched one teen in the early to mid eighties. That's what inspired the dreams, the daydreams of the VF1SNSX. They had a panel there and I had communicated with them online a few times. I sat in the back of the room during the panel and they're like, Hey, there's even a guy here who has an NSX, you know, based on our cartoon, I was like, yeah, that's me. So they came and they checked out the car and the creative director sat in the car and he just loved it.

He loved it. The CEO of the company loved it. They invited me out to their studios. We say, Hey, one day when you come to Los Angeles, come up to this. You know, and you can bring your family, want to bring a couple of people. And so we did that. So I got to tour the very studio of the thing I used to watch in the eighties.

And to me, it was awesome. You know, full circle. It's a hundred percent, that's like on the same wavelength, there that's exactly how it described. It's like coming full circle. So not only did I get my dream car, but I also am driving around in my fighter jet. And I got the attention of the company that inspired at all.

And that's not even the only thing. There's a you know, there's the companies in China that are always making stuff. Right. One day I'm sitting there on Facebook and a friend messaged me and he says, Hey, did you, did you know about this? It says me linked to eBay. Some companies making little miniatures of my car, like exact miniatures of my car, had all my decals on there.

It's like they shot it with the shrink gun has the license plate. VF1SNSX. And so I was like, oh, heck 

[00:43:59] Trista, Host: no. Where, where where's your residual checks? Where's the royalties? 

[00:44:04] Jhae Pfenning: Well, here's the deal because a lot of people said, well, you know, welcome to getting screwed. You know, you should be honored that someone's, you know, ripping you off.

I'm like, well, there's a pro and a con to it. Number one, I'm not a major corporation. I'm just a regular person. Number two, man. Wouldn't it be neat. If I could look back one day and see all these cars, you know, that was my stuff. I did that. And number three, I wasn't screwed because I was in good with harmony gold, which is known for being incredibly litigious.

They will Sue the pants out of anybody who uses any of their intellectual property. I had their markings on my car, but it was a fan thing. And my relationship with them, they didn't care. And I talked to them. To the creative director. And he said, Hey, let us know what you want us to do you want us to wipe off the planet?

Yeah, because they're like, they're in China. You can't reach him. I go hold my beer. And I had a, I had a, I have actually a pretty good Hollywood friend. His name is Joseph GAT. And he sent me a message and said, Hey, I want to talk to you about your car. Let's turn this into an opportunity. And I said, okay. I gave him a call and we talked for 45 minutes and we were kind of thinking the same thing.

He said, you know what, instead of asking for money, how about use this as an opportunity for branding? I said, well, this is what I'm thinking. How about they put my name on the car? So I will forever have credit. You know, I want to, I want them to give me a few of them so I can give them away to family and friends.

And then I want one, I don't want, have to buy my own car. And so I was able to work out a deal with them and it's on every package. I said, Hey, I want to help design the final product of the car. I want to design the packaging. I wanted to say Jhae Pfenning's VF1SNSX. I want my Instagram on there, which used to be in a two NSX, but now it's just my name.

And I'm going to put a signature, play it on there, a little, a little plaque. And so I sent them exactly everything I wanted. They, they complied, they made it. And you know, there's, there are, there are out there. If someone goes on eBay and they searched Jhae Pfenning, they're gonna find that car probably that's actually one of two cars.

So actually I have two miniatures. They're kind of the same story. Somebody wanted to copy it. And we turned it into an opportunity and I've made money off of them because I've bought some for costs and I've turned around and sold them. And my thing is, Hey, you could buy them from these people out there that don't know me.

I get nothing from it. Or you can buy it from me and I can make a couple of. But what I did is I turned it into a kind of a fun marketing thing. I autographed all mine and numbered them. And so people were just buying them. And so right now I actually have three miniature cars out there. One's a pen, that's worth a lot of money, but it has nothing to do with me.

It's because the maker of the pin really wasn't popular at the time when there were so few of them now he's popular and he sells thousands of them in five minutes, a hundred made of mine. And he only had 20. 80 I kept and gave to family and friends and sponsors. But now those pins are worth over a thousand bucks, which is crazy.

And it's not because of me, it's just because it's a limited edition pin. But at the end of the day, it's still my car on that pin. And so that's, I've told everyone because of all those things that have happened, I'm kind of playing with house money. So I'm okay with it. And I still have more stuff coming out with the car and the car is not even wrapped anymore.

It's just black sitting in the garage, 

[00:47:41] Trista, Host: chilling. Oh, is that right? It's not wrapped anymore. 

[00:47:44] Jhae Pfenning: It's just in the garage. 

[00:47:47] Trista, Host: Oh, that's such a cool story. I'm so glad I pulled that thread. 

[00:47:50] Jhae Pfenning: Yeah. And I mean, I would have been screwed if these people didn't want to work with me, I could have got them shut down. But, you know, I knew there was super fans out there of my car, not me of the car. And so I felt like if I had these things wiped off the planet, then everybody would lose at the end of the day.

Yeah. As long as we're able to work together. And I got like, I got more coming out, so it's pretty cool. So now the VF1SNSX actually means something even more so, yeah. That's my VF1SNSX story. 

[00:48:24] Trista, Host: Beautiful. It's so, so good. So there's another thread I wanted to pull. You had mentioned earlier that you were adopted, and then you made a comment about your parents and art school and, and scholarships and things.

I'd love to hear a little bit about your coming of age story. Anything you want to share about that? 

[00:48:44] Jhae Pfenning: I, I think being adopted and I'm 45 now, so I had a closed adoption. Which for most people who are under the age of 30, that's not even a thing. You know, you can go and meet your parents and meet your family.

And that just wasn't a deal in my day. And I don't look anything like my parents or my brother who has Asperger's. And you know, when you're trying to find your identity, you know, you're getting a lot of trouble punching walls, acting out, you know, and I think I was such a handful. And I think back, I wasn't that bad, but this is my parents' first rodeo.

If you don't my mom's from a small town, you know, my dad was from the military. And I think, I remember my father had told me that I think when I was in ninth grade, I told him to stop telling me what to do and let me make my own decisions. And then so they did, which I think was kind of a mistake looking back because 

[00:49:52] Trista, Host: in ninth grade, 

[00:49:53] Jhae Pfenning: yeah, I would agree.

I mean, I turned out okay. But I don't know if it's them just letting me make my own decisions. The reason why I didn't know about anything that could have advanced my life immediately after high school, or if, because maybe they just didn't know what to do to advance my life. So I got in a little bit of trouble, nothing too bad, but just things that kind of derailed, you know, and I started hanging out with some of the wrong crowds, but I've always been kind of a curious person.

And so there were times when I knew I wasn't hanging around with the best people, but there were people who accepted me. And I was just kind of curious to see what had happened, but I had one or two, two scares one time I had just bought a brand new car. It's my first brand new car in 1998, accurate GSR entry-level car, iconic car.

And we were driving to the very bad part of south Dallas. Now one could argue all of south Dallas is bad, but at the time I don't think all of south Dallas was bad, but we, we drove around a corner and my friend. Stuck his arms out the window. This was a night and he said something, Hey, what's up mother be, you know, and all his cars, his friends were there, but he was just kinda surprised them.

Trista. These people came running from all different directions and they had guns and I hit him. I said, Hey man, you better say something like, that was my very first like, Hey, yo, spirit of say something. It's like, Hey, it's just me. It's me. It's me. And they're like, oh man, you can't, you can't play with us.

Like that. What had happened was, I guess earlier that night, someone drove by and was shooting at the house. Oh my God. So we got out of the car and we were just hanging out because we were still knuckleheads. Right. But I remember thinking I was kind of sitting back and kind of look at the situation.

Every time a car would come around the corner, everyone would run and duck behind something. I didn't even have a gun. So I thought, man, how am I going to explain this car? Getting shot? Maybe that's a car guy in there. Not if, if one of my friends gets killed, how am I gonna explain that? And I was like, man, if this brand new car gets shot, how the hell am I going to explain that?

And we only hung out a few more times. Those are still my friends, but I've only, I only one of the guys I'm in contact with, but you know, we never had a falling out, but I stopped putting myself in that situation. I said, you know what, this, isn't it. I mean, I'm, I'm fighting here. I got stuff out of this situation.

And so I did, I removed myself and then a few months later I applied for college. I didn't get accepted. I didn't get a scholarship, but I got accepted to the school. And that was my one opportunity to get out of the state, get out of Dallas and just learn, move somewhere else. But I wanna, I wanna bring up something I'm supposed to be a good artist.

I was literally, I was two drawings away from being accepted into a an art gallery. At the ballpark in Arlington where the Texas Rangers used to play, I think they've torn it down. And the reason why the two pieces that I, the two pieces that I needed, couldn't be used as, cause I wrote the players names on there kind of in a stencil.

One was Michael Jordan. One was Scottie Pippin. And since it actually said it on there, then it became a rights issue. Even though there were one was wearing Nike's and they said Chicago bulls. And like, none of that, I guess, and sports art, there's like a gray area, but I had crossed the gray area. So I was that close.

So when I got the letter from the college, you know, one of the things I'll never forget it. It said you have to carefully reviewing your artwork. We have decided that, you know, you're not eligible for a, a for a scholarship, but we still like to offer you admission to our school opportunity. And at first I was kind of like. You guys have never even seen my art. This is BS. Screw you guys. But sitting back, it's like, okay, well, this is my only job. This is my first opportunities for school I applied for.

I want to get out and see the world we out and see the rest of the United States. And so I took that opportunity. So I, I say that to say that, you know, we're always going to have those re those semi rejections, but like Jim Rohn not Jim Rome, if Jim Rohn had said, you know, the same wind blows on us, all, it's a setting of your sail that determines your outcome.

And so I chose to set my sail to go right to school, even though I didn't get what I thought I deserved at the time. And at the end of the day, I didn't do illustration anyway. But, you know, it's kind of one of those things where I just kind of came of age and decided to get my life together. And you know, here I am now, many years later, not drawing it.

[00:54:28] Trista, Host: And still having a good life anyway, still 

[00:54:31] Jhae Pfenning: having a good life. 

[00:54:32] Trista, Host: Yes. Yeah. So I think this is the perfect time to ask you the question I like to ask all of my guests, how has self-worth played a role in your journey? 

[00:54:44] Jhae Pfenning: I think self worth has played a role in my journey because there's a fin. There's a thing called pride, which never hurts.

It only never helps. It only hurts, but it's coming from the beginnings that I came from, rejections, not ever having really the girlfriend that you want growing up, you know, not really being in the, in-crowd not being in the sports. You feel like you have to prove that you belong here and it's not being fake to, it's not getting where you fit in, but it's, it's like, look that has, I think driven me to, to work harder.

To be known. I've always said with my job, it's like, look, I'm not interested in being employee number 88. I want to be Jhae Pfenning for better, for worse. And I want to do my job the best that I can to where if I'm sick tomorrow, people notice. And on the flip side of that is it's easy to say, well, you just have to be the star of the room.

You have to be on the spotlight. No, it is not that I don't like the spotlight, regardless of what my car looks like and everything that's kind of come along with it. That's actually in its purest form and expression of my art. That's all that really is expression of my art. My passion. When I come to a car show, I will park my car and I will run.

I don't stand there and say, Hey, does anybody have any questions? Can I help you with anything? And there's nothing wrong with that person, but that's not me. And I would always say that I would love to be the person, the dependable one, the one that helps, you know, Trista, Paula. When the lifetime achievement award for whatever reason, but I don't want to be on stage with Trista polo.

I'll be over there with a smirk on my face. Like, yeah, we did that. I mattered to Trista. And to me, that's what matters to me the most. And so those are the types of things it's just, and I guess it comes back to the family and feeling no one ever listens to me here, but the podcast people do. So I'm I, and I know, I matter to my family.

I mean, I obviously do, 

[00:56:47] Trista, Host: but after 17 years you don't stay in a marriage for 17 years by accident. 

[00:56:53] Jhae Pfenning: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even with the kids, you know, everything, it's just, that's what keeps me going, you know, that's what keeps me going is, is proven that I belong proven that this podcast is, you know, should be up there based on feedback and you know, what can I do again, back to me, what can I do to get it to where it needs to be?

And if it does, if it never gets there, I'm fine with that. As long as I didn't sit back and just wonder what happened, knowing that I could have done. 

[00:57:22] Trista, Host: I love that answer. So I have to ask because of how the whole conversation today started, how did you feel about what I shared about your review and everything?

It kind of created for me in my podcast journey,

[00:57:38] Jhae Pfenning: it felt like I made a difference. You know, I, I say when we do our charities not to pull on another thread, but you know, make a difference or don't, you know, I could tell you what you want to hear. This is the world's best pie and it's really freaking good. This is the world's best podcast. I don't know how it's, you know, not, you know, getting a million downloads.

This is so awesome. You're the best, don't change a thing because I know I need to change things. So if I need to change things, somebody out there has to change. You know, whether it's, you know, audio, maybe it's fixing my room, you know? So, you know, I, to know that you've held onto that and used me for better or for worse sounds like for better as kind of something to strive for.

That's that's freaking cool.

[00:58:27] Trista, Host: Yeah. And it is for better. So, anything else you want us to know about you? Because this is about you, obviously it starts with your plate and I love everything you shared. Is there anything else about you?

You want us to know 

[00:58:42] Jhae Pfenning: I'm very even keeled and a lot of people see that as either not approachable or don't, or not caring or uptight, but I told you before, and I'll share it with the listeners that I also have another vehicle with another vanity. So there's a little bit of dark humor to me, but in a good way, dead panty.

And I think that plate shows it to people. So do you mind if I share that with the listeners and what that plate is? That's what this is, right story. So I have four us car people. We have our cars and we have our daily drivers. And so my daily driver is an Infiniti SUV. It's an FX 50 S which they only made for a few years and infinity decided to change it to QX 70 S but what's unique about it is it's a 5.0 5.0 motor, which that vehicle is the only infinity that ever had this 5.0 V8 motor.

And it's the S is it so there's, these cars are known for their bulbous shape. And so my license plate is MYFATX. So people think it's a, it's a relationship thing right now, MYFATX. So it's, I have a lot of fun with it. 

[01:00:04] Trista, Host: That's just such a great plate because of course, people are going to make assumptions about the terrible person you used to be with that you would put that on, 

[01:00:15] Jhae Pfenning: or the terrible person you are 

[01:00:18] Trista, Host: like, what did they do to you? 

[01:00:22] Jhae Pfenning: And both of my cars are technically Xs because it's NSX and FX. That's 

[01:00:29] Trista, Host: the fatter, that's the fatter of the two Xs.

I love that. That's awesome. Well, you know, I like to turn the tables and see if you have a question for me. So what's your question for me, Jhae 

[01:00:41] Jhae Pfenning: my question for you. Thank you for asking, what is your thought of clubhouse in general? Because you had mentioned it earlier and I've gotten kind of gone back and forth and I found some rooms I liked.

And then I found some rooms where all they're doing is giving each other high fives and telling everybody in the that they don't bring into the conversation to follow the people on stage. And I have these notifications and it's the same people I'm like, geez, don't these people have anything else better to do?

It's it's so-and-so is on stage. Someone shows talking. I'm like, what the heck? So I've kind of gone full circle, I think on clubhouse at first. I wasn't sure about it then. I kind of liked it now, personally. I'm a little unsure about it. What is your thought about club? 

[01:01:26] Trista, Host: I have so much to say about the club and it's funny, you said, oh, that's what I'm going to ask you about.

And I've sort of had it in the back of my mind. I'm like brow. I really do have a lot to say. So I'll just start at the beginning. I found out about clubhouse from a friend who was on this thing I'd never heard of, but she was on it like 80 hours a week. Like every time I wanted to have a conversation with her, she had to work around her clubhouse time.

So I finally asked her like, you know, can I get in on this? Because I've always felt like if I could find the next big social media before it was big, right then I could do something with it. I keep getting involved in these social media platforms way at the end, I'm trying to catch up and learn everything.

Everybody already knows. I'm just trying to still figure out Instagram. Now you want me to do lives and reels. I'm so overwhelmed and confused that I just, you know, a confused mind can't make a decision. So I end up doing not enough or nothing. Here's this thing that's new. I can get in, you know, quote unquote, ground floor.

So she adds me on clubhouse and I'm like, I do not understand this. You go into a room and it's a bunch of people talking about themselves and each other, every single profile I read now, this was in January. So it wasn't right at the beginning, but it was pretty, you know, it was pretty new. It was, it was apple only.

It was invite only. It was waitlist only. And every single profile, they were billionaires who had a zillion followers and had been a TEDx speaker and had 16 books on bestseller. And I'm like, I am in over my head. Like these people are all way cooler, way more successful, way, bigger deals than I am. I'm just this, you know, entrepreneur who is, you know, living my best life over here, doing my best that I can, but you know, my friend, I know her off clubhouse and I figured if she deserves to be there then so do I even coach her on some stuff?

You know, I train her on some things. So if she's got something to say, I must have something to say too. So I never dove in as deeply as other people have. And I don't have 5,000 followers. I probably have 650 ish followers on clubhouse, which is a lot 600 

[01:03:56] Jhae Pfenning: more than I think I have. 

[01:03:58] Trista, Host: Well, considering that people only follow you after they've heard you speak and liked what you say and would listen to you again.

So a follower on clubhouse is a lot bigger deal. Not to minimize other platforms, but people don't just follow back on clubhouse as much as they do on other platforms. So I started a club for my company, which is I woke up. Awesome. I believe that we all woke up and just as we are, we're already perfect.

There's nothing to fix or change about you. I think that is a message that is not talked about enough. I think self-worth is the core of everything. So if you have a low self-worth the goals that you're creating and the dreams you have and the classes you take and the books you read, they will all be diminished.

If your self-worth is low, because you'll sabotage your own existence, your own results. So I think that message deserves to be talked about. And I think clubhouse is a great place to do that because I don't know if I could take on another podcast, to be honest with you. One at a time at this point is about all I can muster.

So we have some rooms throughout the week. But I have to say, I don't spend as much time in other people's rooms.

And maybe that sounds like egotistical or elitist or whatever. But I have been in so many rooms where either they've been around for a long time and there's this amoeba personality that's been created by the people that are always in there. And I'm not part of it. And so it's like this whole community that I don't understand, I'm not there talking about things.

They've been discussing over such. It's like going into a TV show at the last season, before it gets canceled. And you missed all the previous seasons and you have no idea who these people are, what's going on, how those bigger rooms feel. Yeah, yup. A hundred percent. And then I've been an I when I have to talk about this one room.

So I went in this one room. I liked the topic that she was talking about. You had to like agree before you went into this room that you would not promote yourself, your business, whatever. Like it was to be sharing information only, no promotion. And I swear, every other thing she said was promoting herself in her course and sign up for this.

And I'm like, I don't, I don't understand. Did you forget about the pop-up that you made me agree to before I came in this room? Or are you so like one sided that it has to be all about you to be in this room? And she invited me to her club and follow me on Instagram and all this other stuff. But I was like, you know, that's just, it, that's just not the vibe that I'm into.

, but here are some cool things. The the experience on clubhouse, first of all I am connected in my company with a big influencer. She has lots of followers, very successful blog. She's a billionaire like literally legit, not exaggerating. Yeah. And I got onto clubhouse and I said, where is she?

She needs, this is her venue. This is where she sh why isn't she here? And, you know, at the time you had like five invites, so you were hoarding them. Like you couldn't just give them to anybody. And I'm like, she has people on here that know her. Why hasn't she been in? She needs to be here. So I reached out and I said, Hey, do you want to be on clubhouse?

And she said, yes. So if you go to her profile, She was nominated for membership by me. I think that's super cool. Yeah. The second cool thing about clubhouse. I was in some random room. There were a zillion people in the audience, and I don't remember what they were talking about, but I was listening. Next thing I know Tony Robbins is in the audience, listening to the people on stage.

And that was the coolest evening of a playing field I've ever seen. Like some random person I've never heard of is talking about some random thing that was mediocre at best. And there's Tony Robbins in the audience listening, not calling himself up on stage, not being invited, just being in the audience, listening to whatever they had to say and getting whatever he got out of it.

I just thought that was amazing. And then the third cool thing about clubhouse, and this is the last thing. Is I got to listen to Elon Musk in his very first appearance on clubhouse, which was at like one in the morning. Cause it was Pacific time at 10:00 PM or something. My husband wanted to hear it. I wanted to hear it.

So he stayed up and woke me up because I'm definitely not a night owl. And we just listened to Elon Musk on clubhouse, just sharing and talking and being interviewed. So that's my answer about clubhouse. I would love to hear your reaction to what I shared cause I was sort of all over the place.

[01:08:45] Jhae Pfenning: No, I mean, to be fair clubhouses all over the place, because you know, the, the, the three, the 1, 2, 3 that you really like about it, I will agree. Or the best things about it. I mean, you have access you're in the same room as people, but there's so many. Bad rooms. There's so many rooms of people trying to sell you stuff.

You know, the latest Instagram algorithm is just released, come in here and we'll tell you all about it. Send me a DM and I'll share it with you. And you're like, Hey, what's up? They're like, Hey, go to here and sign up for my, I was like, screw you. Nope, not clicking unfollow block, you know, but you know, I've had, I've been in a few rooms that were kind of fun, you know, and one of my favorite rooms, unfortunately fizzled out, it was called the podcast lunch hour and there was five or six.

Yeah. Yeah. Those, I mean, I still keep in contact with some of those guys and I follow all the regulars and they even let me like substitute moderate at one day. But yeah, but now it's, it got moved to every Wednesday and now it's just not going on at all, even a Wednesday. And that's the one room that I kind of looked forward to because it was a smaller group and everybody was bouncing ideas off each other.

It kind of reminded me. You know, going through this last year and the pandemic or where there was just this rebirth of all these new podcasters. And then usually I just miss them and there's a few car ones that I get into, you know, but it's, it's so few and far, and I'm just curious on, you know, what the future of that platform is because you're right.

It's just another thing. And there's some excellent networking opportunities within those. Just a lot of people that just kind of want to sell you their stuff and you have to kind of sift through it. And I don't know. I mean, I don't, I mean, clubhouse is something you can jump in and out of, I don't do the, I call it the Tik TOK machine just to make myself sound like I'm really old, but you know, that's another platform that people just love, you know?

And I was talking to a guy in the local senior of the day and he goes, oh man, I have, I'm just needing a few more to get 3 million followers. I'm like, holy crap, dude. That's pretty cool for you. Like. I well, my personality, I would suck on TikTok. I can't be silly. I just, it's just me and just me in a 22nd clip is absolutely not very interesting.

So, 

[01:11:06] Trista, Host: well, I like what you said about the podcast platform piece, because that is the fourth thing I do like about clubhouse is if you're part of a niche like the podcast or community, I'm currently writing a novel, you can find people in your tribe really easily because there are clubs and there are rooms and, and you can go and just be part of that conversation.

I don't have anybody around here to talk to about podcasts. I wouldn't even know where to find them, but on clubhouse, I can just go hang out with podcasters and podcast rooms. I'm sad to hear that the, the lunch hour thing isn't happening anymore. 

[01:11:45] Jhae Pfenning: The same thing struggling lately. Yeah. 

[01:11:47] Trista, Host: Yeah. Well, cause there were three guys I'm remembering Tanner.

And I'm forgetting the two other guys' names, but they actually created a company, the three of them, and they created a website and a community and all kinds of training and stuff. And I thought that lunch hour was part of their situation, but I don't really know what happened with it. Yeah. 

[01:12:09] Jhae Pfenning: I haven't been around long enough and I mean, it could be the same lunch hour.

There could be 30 lunch hours, you know, it's, that's, that's clubhouse. 

[01:12:21] Trista, Host: That's true. Well, I have had an amazing time and I appreciate the extra time because we've gone over our typical hour, that was in your calendar. So thank you for that. And in the spirit of longer episodes, get more listeners. I think I'm going to leave this long and see what happens.

[01:12:40] Jhae Pfenning: Oh no. Oh no. Yeah. It's been a pleasure being on here. 

[01:12:45] Trista, Host: Yeah, I've really enjoyed our conversation and I will, I'll continue to strive to see how I can improve because you know, it does. It's true. Like, what else can you do? What's next? What, what can you improve? How can you, how can you grow in this area? So thank you for that inspiration, right from the beginning.

Thanks. Yeah. Thanks so much.

Thanks for listening. Please subscribe to Trista's plate story podcast, share it, or leave a review. If you would like to nominate a license plate to be featured in a future episode or you have an interesting plate story news item to share with me, leave us a comment or visit plate story.com. That's P L number 8. story.com and give me all the details. 

This is Trista polo wishing you well on the road to your next adventure.