How Two Indie Authors Built a Sci-Fi Brand and Empire from Scratch – The Forbidden Origins Story
What if the secret to building a successful multimedia company wasn’t just talent, but persistence and collaborative storytelling?
Armani Salado and Eric Martinez started Forbidden Origins as a childhood passion project. Through sci-fi storytelling, collaboration, and strategic brand-building, they transformed it into a growing multimedia company spanning books, comics, and potential animated adaptations of The Old Universe.
But success didn’t happen overnight. Years of indie publishing, creative entrepreneurship, and relentless dedication—while juggling full-time jobs—taught them invaluable lessons about creative control, audience growth, and turning passion into a business.
Now, they’re sharing the wins, struggles, and key insights that helped them build Forbidden Origins from the ground up.
From Passion Project to Growing Business
What started as two friends creating stories has turned into a full-fledged multimedia venture. Their first book series, The Old Universe, explores themes of father-son relationships while setting the foundation for an expanding storytelling universe.
At one point, they realized they had so much content. Then they went viral for the first time and thought, "Let’s just see what happens!"
That moment wasn’t luck—it was the result of years of creative work, strategic marketing, and a willingness to take risks.
Actionable Insight: Start with a clear vision but stay adaptable. Consistency over time builds momentum in creative businesses.
Bonus: Spend 10 minutes today identifying a small, consistent habit that can push your creative project forward.
The Power of Creative Control in Indie Publishing
By choosing self-publishing, they maintained complete creative control over their stories and business decisions. They built their own platform, ensuring that contributing writers receive 100% of their royalties while fostering a collaborative creative environment.
"Those writers get paid 100% for their work." They’ve made it a priority to create an “official look” while keeping full ownership of the creative process.
Actionable Insight: Creative control means more responsibility. Identify one area where you can take full ownership of your creative work.
Bonus: Research an indie creator who successfully built their audience through strategic engagement.
Building a Brand & Expanding an Audience
Success isn’t just about creating—it’s about getting seen. Through targeted social media strategies, understanding algorithms, and consistent engagement, Forbidden Origins steadily grew its fanbase.
"Brand recognition is key!" It takes strategy and investment—"You got to spend money to make money!"
That investment—whether in marketing, design, or community-building—helped them gain visibility and traction.
Actionable Insight: Your audience won’t find you unless you put yourself out there. Post consistently and track what resonates.
Bonus: Set a goal to engage with 10 potential audience members this week across different platforms.
Balancing Day Jobs and Passion Projects
Turning a creative dream into a sustainable business requires sacrifice. The team behind Forbidden Origins juggles full-time jobs while dedicating every spare moment to growing their vision, proving that creative entrepreneurship is a long-term game.
"It’s a long-ass marathon, not a sprint." Building something meaningful takes time and certain sacrifices.
From late nights to reinvesting earnings back into the business, success is built on delayed gratification and long-term vision.
Actionable Insight: Don’t let a busy schedule kill your creative momentum. Block out dedicated time each week to focus on your project.
Bonus: Try the "Sunday Night Strategy Session"—spend 30 minutes planning your creative priorities for the week ahead.
Key Takeaways
- "Everything has to be intentional!"
- "You have to think like a business!"
- Passion fuels creativity, but persistence builds success.
- Indie publishing provides freedom and creative control.
- Brand recognition requires consistent, intentional effort.
- Social media and community engagement are crucial for growth.
- Creative projects demand sacrifice and business-minded thinking.
Turn Your Creative Vision into Reality
Armani and Eric didn’t wait for permission—they built their own path, one story at a time. Their success wasn’t about luck; it was about taking action, learning as they went, and staying committed to their vision.
If you’ve been sitting on an idea, wondering how to turn it into something bigger, this is your sign to start.
Want help growing your own creative business? Book a free strategy session at TheStandoutCreatives.com.
📌 Spots are limited, so grab yours before they fill up!
Transcript
That's like another w, like another win for indie publishing too, because we have no stipulations from anyone telling us or giving us the green light to write the book.
Speaker A:You know, we have no one saying, oh, it needs to come out now.
Speaker A:It needs to come out this day.
Speaker A:You guys need.
Speaker A:You guys can't write it.
Speaker A:We actually don't have the budget anymore, so we can do whatever we want because we know that nothing is going to stop us from putting the second book out, the third book, the fourth book, the fifth book, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker A:So, hell yeah, when you read the Old Universe and you don't like cliffhanger, it's too bad.
Speaker B:Welcome to the Standout Creatives, a podcast for creative entrepreneurs who want to grow their business without losing their passion.
Speaker B:I'm Kevin Chum, your guide to building a standout business.
Speaker B:Each episode I'll share practical strategies, real world examples, and inspiring stories to help you balance the business side with your creative pursuits.
Speaker B:If you're ready to turn your creative passion into standout business, let's get started.
Speaker B:What if building a successful sci fi empire wasn't just about great storytelling, but about persistence, creative control, and playing the long game?
Speaker B:Armani Salado and Eric Martinez started Forbidden Origins as a childhood passion project.
Speaker B:Now it's grown into a multimedia brand spanning books, comics, and even a potential animated series of the old universe.
Speaker B:In this episode, we dive into how they built their world from scratch, balancing full time jobs, indie publishing, and the challenges of growing an audience.
Speaker B:If you're a creative trying to turn your passion into something bigger, this one's for you.
Speaker B:Now, onto the episode.
Speaker B:Welcome to another episode of Standout Creatives.
Speaker B:Today I have on Armani Salado and Eric Martinez, who are the co founders of Forbidden Origins.
Speaker B: bidden Origins was founded in: Speaker B:They specialize in high concept, original intellectual property, and the company crafts compelling characters and stories across various mediums, including books, comics, graphic novels, and animation for TV and film.
Speaker B:These creations are rooted in the lore of the old universe, captivating audiences of all ages.
Speaker B:That's.
Speaker B:That's really awesome, guys.
Speaker B:Can you tell us a little bit more about what you're doing, how you got into this, how you met each other, all that kind of stuff?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Eric, you want to start?
Speaker C:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker C:First of all, thanks, Kevin, for having us on.
Speaker C:This is a really cool podcast to be talking about stuff like this.
Speaker C:So, yeah, that summarization was really good on kind of showing what we're doing.
Speaker C:When we first started Forbidden Origins, you know, just me and Armani, we did start it, you know, to self publish our story, but kind of to go into what we're doing now, we realized it's much more than just, you know, a book series.
Speaker C:It is a multimedia company.
Speaker C:But I know you're asking about now, but to put the story into it, we got to like, kind of go.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah, jump back as far as you want, give you the origin here.
Speaker C:So Armani here, he's my best friend.
Speaker C:He's been my best friend since I moved to Florida back when I was like, 13, and we met at a martial arts school.
Speaker A:Almost 20 years now.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:Nice.
Speaker C:That's crazy.
Speaker C:And we met at a martial arts school and, you know, we did martial arts together.
Speaker C:But then we realized we like to make a lot of short films, you know, martial arts, short films, stuff like that.
Speaker C:And that's when we both kind of had that spark of, like, storytelling, like making storylines and like, making cool stuff.
Speaker C:And one day when I was hanging out at his house, we were playing Soul Caliber.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Throws you back, right?
Speaker C:And then Soul Calibur had this mode where you can make your own character.
Speaker C:So we got like, super creative with that.
Speaker C:We were making characters with names and stories while they were fighting.
Speaker C:And then things started to, like, click and like, wait, let's like write this down.
Speaker C:And we go.
Speaker C:We remember this vividly.
Speaker C:We go to his sister's pink room.
Speaker C:It was like middle of the summer.
Speaker C:It was really hot in there, just on a normal, you know, Windows desktop computer.
Speaker C:And we were typing away for like four hours.
Speaker C:And then that was the first story of our main series or the first, very, very first draft conception of our book series that's out now, the old universe.
Speaker C:And that's like the center point for how Forbidden Origins got started.
Speaker C:And then kind of fast forward, we've always been adding to the story and this was just for fun.
Speaker C:You know, we were in high school.
Speaker C:We just thought it was a really cool thing to add to.
Speaker C:And so growing up the high school, like, oh, add this, add that.
Speaker C:And before we knew it, we had, like, enough content for an actual, like, book series.
Speaker C:And we always talked about, you know, maybe actually publishing it.
Speaker C:But, you know, as just life goes on, we.
Speaker C:We never really thought of it to pursue that yet.
Speaker C:We, you know, college jobs and stuff.
Speaker C:But as we gotten older and I guess when we kind of settled more into our.
Speaker C:Into, you know, what we're Doing and actually having a little bit of money and learning how to, you know, manage time.
Speaker C:And then of course, Covid came and that's when we really dialed down.
Speaker C:You know, we were at home, didn't have too much to do.
Speaker C:So we always, when we went back to it, we're like, look at all this content we have.
Speaker C:Let's make it a thing.
Speaker C:And we started writing out the official first book of the Old Universe story.
Speaker C:And then while we were writing it, we decided that this needs to be, you know, on our terms.
Speaker C:That, you know, there's always the publishing route, which is also very hard just to get published when you have your.
Speaker C:You can have an amazing story, but just because of the agents and the market or whatever, you know, they might even just decide that's not what they need right now.
Speaker C:So we decided to do self published because it's on our terms and it's actually out there, you know, and we know that because it's self published, we have to put in, you know, 400% work to push it.
Speaker C:But we were, you know, we loved.
Speaker C:We were so passionate about this and that's what we did.
Speaker C: , I believe the first book in: Speaker C:And now our second book of this series just came out this last year.
Speaker C:No.
Speaker C:And we do around the same time period or same month.
Speaker C: November: Speaker C:So two books of the main series are out and.
Speaker C:Well, I could, I could literally keep going because there's so much of like what we did.
Speaker C:But yeah, that's, that's like the main background of how the story started.
Speaker C:But there's a lot more that we've done to grow and expand on like what we're doing.
Speaker C:Armani, do you want to like add or add to that, like what we're doing other than like the publishing?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:I mean, Kevin, thanks for having us on.
Speaker A:It's really cool and interesting to be on this podcast talking about Forbidden Origins and talking about us as creatives on the indie side.
Speaker A:Eric kind of touched on everything that led up to this point.
Speaker A:We've been best friends for almost two decades now.
Speaker A:We came up with the Old Universe on a random sun summer day in my parents living room.
Speaker A:And then for the next decade we just kept adding to it.
Speaker A:Finally wrote down and wrote the first book and like what Eric was saying, instead of going the traditional route, we ended up going the indie route.
Speaker A:We self published it ourselves because we realized we had so much content and we wanted to be in complete control of what we put out.
Speaker A:And from there it's branched now into two books out, a short story collection.
Speaker A:Our first comic book comes out actually this month, January 28th, and it expands upon the lore of the old universe.
Speaker A:And it's really interesting to see how Forbidden Origin started as just a way for us to put the old universe out there, where now we're in talks with Disney for animated series.
Speaker A:We had pitch meetings with DreamWorks, we had pitch meetings with Saber Interactive and Funcom to turn the old universe into a video game.
Speaker A:So it's really impactful and humbling to see how they started off with just a way to publish a book series on Amazon to what it's turned into in such a short amount of time.
Speaker A:And that isn't.
Speaker A:That doesn't go without saying that that short amount of time was in, like, blood, sweat and tears.
Speaker A:I'm pretty sure I have literally bled doing this just from, like, the amount of typing I've done.
Speaker A:Picking, printing out paper, packaging books, getting a paper cut, literally crying with Eric on the phone at like 2am because something isn't going right with Amazon or KDP or a book sale.
Speaker A:Like, a book didn't reach its sale on time, so it got returned.
Speaker A:You know, like, I think.
Speaker A:I feel like a lot of people just think of indie publishing as, oh, yeah, like, you guys wrote a book and put on Amazon.
Speaker A:No, there's so much.
Speaker A:So much that goes into this on the back end that I think the average person will look at it and be turned off by it, honestly.
Speaker A:Because you're not just an author.
Speaker A:You're a marketer, you're an artist, you're a people's person.
Speaker A:You have to learn SEO.
Speaker A:You have to learn how to set up things on the back end.
Speaker A:In regards to coding, sometimes literally coding, Eric and I have learned how to rip images from the Internet and turn them into 3D models.
Speaker A:You know, like, it's.
Speaker A:There's so much that goes into this sort of thing that I feel like people underestimate and don't appreciate.
Speaker A:But, yeah.
Speaker A:Again, Kevin, thanks for having it up, having us on to talk about this, because I feel like we have.
Speaker A:We've had this bottled up for so long, and this is a good place to just splurge and let it out.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I think one interesting thing is always, I think you're talking to all these big companies.
Speaker B:You're making a video game and whatnot, a TV series potentially.
Speaker B:And it's really interesting because everyone sees that and they're like, oh, that's happened.
Speaker B:So quick.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:But no, this happened way back in high school for you guys.
Speaker B:So it's.
Speaker B:There's no such thing as an instant success story.
Speaker B:This has been building and building and building.
Speaker B:You put so many hours, all people see, as though you got two books, you got all these things coming to you.
Speaker B:People are coming to you.
Speaker B:But yeah, obviously that did not happen overnight.
Speaker A:Yeah, because I think people think the success happens overnight because we're so used to someone posting a video and it going viral.
Speaker A:And that's the case too.
Speaker A:But usually when that person goes viral on the Internet and you take a look at their content, they've been posting already for years.
Speaker A:Yeah, you have like your, your one in a blue moon.
Speaker A:Like you're one in a thousand who.
Speaker A:It's their first video or their first tweet or their first thread and then it goes viral and that's how they build their following.
Speaker A:Yeah, there's people like that.
Speaker A:But most of the creators you see out there who have a massive following now or who are finally getting into their groove, they've been at it for years.
Speaker A:They've been consistent, I guess that's the key word here.
Speaker A:They've been consistent with their posting, with their craft, with their work.
Speaker A:And that's what Eric and I have been doing.
Speaker A: launched forbidden origins in: Speaker A:Since, you know, we got the trademark, got the company copyrighted, put our own money into that, put our own money into getting the logo made, etc, like, we didn't have to.
Speaker A:Other people, it might seem like everything's happening so quick, but it has been a constant Monday through Sunday, 24, seven shift.
Speaker A:I guess.
Speaker A:Like, I think this is our second job, if any.
Speaker A:Like, we have our day jobs and this is our second one as soon as we clock out.
Speaker A:And I work from home, so I'm not even clocking out.
Speaker A:I'm doing Forbidden Origins and my day job at the same time.
Speaker A:So it's not a overnight success.
Speaker A:It's just a lot of consistency that has built up to this success we had so far.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:Erica, would you say.
Speaker C:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker C:Just.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:When you see those people, like Armani was saying, I think with a lot of stuff you see, like, it seems like, oh, they just do that.
Speaker C:But it's, it's just consistent.
Speaker C:It's, it's.
Speaker C:It's the simple answer, but no one likes to hear it.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:It's just consistent hard work all the time for a lot of things in life.
Speaker C:But, you know, people just think, especially I Think because it's on the Internet.
Speaker C:So Internet has, like, that feeling of, like, it's instant.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Like the content, you know, gets to you.
Speaker C:Instant and all that.
Speaker C:But whatever video or thing that you like on the Internet, there's 99.9% chance a lot of work just went into that just to even reach you and resonate with you.
Speaker C:So, yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Can you talk about how you knew this was going to be good enough or did you know that it was going to be good enough to be able to build this thing on?
Speaker B:How did you approach people for advanced copies?
Speaker B:How did you figure out whether or not this was going to work?
Speaker B:I guess no one knows if it will.
Speaker B:But who did you approach and how did you go about that?
Speaker A:I don't think we knew how far we'd come right off the bat.
Speaker A:I think we just as friends and as artists and authors ourselves, we.
Speaker A:We just loved our story.
Speaker A:And I think that's the first place to start.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Like, if you're not in love with what, your artwork, then how can other people like it?
Speaker A:So I feel like since we were so passionate about it, that kind of infected others to be like, okay, what is this about?
Speaker A:And, like, I'm not gonna lie, I think our tagline's pretty cool.
Speaker A:And, like, not just because we came up with it, but what we consider our big bang and start was actually the cataclysmic end to a war in the old universe.
Speaker A:I think that is infectious.
Speaker A:And what brought people in to be like, let's check that out.
Speaker A:And also, like, our passion.
Speaker A:Like I said earlier, Eric and I are literally obsessed with this.
Speaker A: if they're real people, since: Speaker A:So I think once we put that into our work and other people saw it, they were able to tag along and follow us on this journey.
Speaker A:And we didn't really talk to many people because this is our first thing We've.
Speaker A:The Old Universe.
Speaker A:Book one was the first thing we ever published as writers.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker A:We don't have, like, short stories on Amazon before that we don't have.
Speaker A:We weren't working for a magazine.
Speaker A:We weren't writing blogs.
Speaker A:No, we just wrote the first book.
Speaker A:We submitted it to Penguin Random House, and they put us in touch with an editor named Ann.
Speaker A:She edited the first book for us.
Speaker A:And I guess that's one thing we left out.
Speaker A:Before we created Forbidden Origins and went the indie route, we considered traditional publishing.
Speaker A:But once we realized we had so much Content and how big this could be.
Speaker A:Then we were like, okay, let's take a step back and create our own company.
Speaker A:So we used Ann the.
Speaker A:An editor that worked for Penguin Random House.
Speaker A:She helped us edit the first book.
Speaker A:And then from there we did find advanced readers, arc readers.
Speaker A:And the feedback from them was great.
Speaker A:A lot of them left reviews for us on Amazon, which was phenomenal.
Speaker A:So shout out to them.
Speaker A:And then from there it was just a snow roll.
Speaker A:A snow.
Speaker A:A slow snowball roll.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like we had a good launch day and then we were selling at least one or two books every day.
Speaker A:Every day, Every day.
Speaker A:And then finally last.
Speaker A: Not last year, in: Speaker A: Towards the end of: Speaker A:No, towards the end of Thanksgiving.
Speaker A:Yeah, 23.
Speaker A:I keep thinking last year was 23.
Speaker C:But I keep forgetting we're in 25.
Speaker A:At the end of 23, that's when we went viral for the first time.
Speaker A:One of our, one of our videos for the old universe on Tick tock has almost 2 million views now.
Speaker B:Oh wow.
Speaker A:Over.
Speaker A:I think over like a 200,000likes and just ton of oops, sorry.
Speaker A:A lot of comments.
Speaker B:It doesn't matter.
Speaker A:A lot of comments that people are just saying, yo, this sounds good, I just picked up a copy.
Speaker A:And that those, those like few weeks of that were insane because Eric and I sell the books multiple ways.
Speaker A:We sell it obviously through Amazon, on Barnes and Nobles, Walmart, but then we also have our Tick Tock shop.
Speaker A:So on our shop we have to sell the.
Speaker A:We have to send the books ourselves.
Speaker A:So getting those orders just coming in and coming in and coming in a lot of orders during that time and then packaging them and then putting them in the mail and then getting another one.
Speaker A:Having to go back the same day with like five more orders, it was so crazy.
Speaker A:But it was so fun and so rewarding to see all the work we put in for the last year finally reach that mark.
Speaker A:And then from there it's just been a slow roll up.
Speaker A:Like we've.
Speaker A:We sell like 10 books a day now.
Speaker A:We have new followers hitting all our socials every day now.
Speaker A:So yeah, we, we never thought it was going to be like this because we just wanted to do it for fun.
Speaker A:But since then it's.
Speaker A:It's been a huge success, at least for the indie side, you know.
Speaker A:What would you say, Eric?
Speaker C:Yeah, no, just to add to that, like when we knew this would be something like Armani was saying, the tap the whole tag and premise of our story of the old Universe.
Speaker C:Just for anyone who doesn't isn't familiar with the old universe.
Speaker C:It's a sci fi fantasy series.
Speaker C:The main pull point, and this is stuff we talked about with people, like even before we wrote the book, when we were just talking about the premise of it, is that this takes place in a universe before our own.
Speaker C:And it takes that theory of like a lot of people might theorize that the big Bang is what started everything.
Speaker C:Well, we kind of asked the question, you know, fictionally, what was before that?
Speaker C:And our answer is a grand sci fi fantasy world that takes place before our own and it's in.
Speaker C:Whatever happens in that universe leads up to the big bang.
Speaker C:So that's like crazy.
Speaker C:And everyone we told about, they're like, that is so cool.
Speaker C:Like a universe before ours.
Speaker C:That's like a cool premise.
Speaker C:And I think that was like a, a sign that like, okay, this is cool, like people are interested.
Speaker C:And then I think one thing that really helped in the beginning, once we had the story and everything, you know, we wanted to get the look.
Speaker C:We believe obviously it's a story and you know, you read it and you envision it.
Speaker C:But we've always been visual storytellers as well.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:So we really wanted to find the look for the old universe and everything it's going to be.
Speaker C:And funnily enough, Armani was just following this guy named Roberto.
Speaker C:Shout out to Roberto.
Speaker C:Roberto Cuevas.
Speaker A:Shout out to Roberto.
Speaker A:I am cued.
Speaker A:Instagram.
Speaker C:Instagram.
Speaker C:So he's like this super talented guy, graphic designer.
Speaker C:The stuff he makes looks like stuff that would be in like Star wars.
Speaker C:Like not even exaggerating.
Speaker C:He makes like that level graphics and cgi.
Speaker C:And what's crazy is he does, he does it most of this stuff on his phone and like.
Speaker B:Oh no.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker C:He's like the pioneer of that, of.
Speaker A:Like iPhone, of iPhone filmmaking.
Speaker A:He is literally the pioneer.
Speaker A:Yeah, sorry.
Speaker C:And Armani was like, let's, let's reach out to this guy.
Speaker C:Like, you know, make our book cover, make the look of like what the old universe is going to look like.
Speaker C:And we did the first call with him and it was like, it was like a five hour call because we were literally telling him like just the whole story.
Speaker C:And we were like, sorry, if you were going to read it, but we have to tell you the whole story.
Speaker C:So you know, like what this is and what we're trying to do.
Speaker C:And he's, he, but he reads the stories too.
Speaker C:He loves it.
Speaker C:And then he, he did the, the book cover and he does all our book covers now.
Speaker C:And then when we started previewing the book cover, you know, in the marketing, people were like, wow, I've never seen like a book cover like this before.
Speaker C:This is so.
Speaker C:This is so good.
Speaker C:It's very like, you know, space, but like deep.
Speaker C:Have you seen it?
Speaker C:Be a cool way to pull it up or something on the podcast or on Amazon.
Speaker C:Have you seen the COVID for the first book, Kevin?
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:I have.
Speaker B:I don't have it in front of me, but I can look again right now.
Speaker A:Oh yeah.
Speaker C:But yeah, I was just saying that that was another sign, at least for me, like when people were really into the book cover.
Speaker C:And of course, yeah, never judge a book by its cover.
Speaker C:Of course that.
Speaker C:That is also true.
Speaker C:But a good book cover does will help.
Speaker C:And then people were like, okay, this is dope.
Speaker C:Like, cool premise, really cool look, let's see the story.
Speaker C:And then they like the story.
Speaker C:And then, yeah, we were selling and like everything else Armani said, but that's pretty much how we kind of knew when we were getting there.
Speaker B:Yeah, I'm just looking and I see the first.
Speaker B:Yeah, these are amazing.
Speaker B:It's like imagine what is, what is the.
Speaker B:The DC superhero fighting game?
Speaker C:Injustice.
Speaker B:Injustice.
Speaker A:Yes, injustice.
Speaker B:Yeah, imagine injustice, but like in space.
Speaker B:Right, that's.
Speaker B:That's what this kind of COVID looks.
Speaker C:Yeah, we're very inspired actually by like DC Marvel.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker C:And stuff like that.
Speaker A:Especially when it, when it comes to like the fighting style.
Speaker A:Because a lot of our characters, we have a.
Speaker A:I guess you know how like an avatar, they're their abilities, their chi is, you know, the earth, water, fire, air.
Speaker A:And then in Dragon Ball, it's the Kamekameha and like the Super Saiyan powers.
Speaker A:In the old universe, we have a thing called spear energy.
Speaker A:And that's what gives like the life force to like across the.
Speaker A:Across the universe.
Speaker A:And a lot of people, a good amount of people can tap into spirit energy.
Speaker A:And when you can tap into it, it gives you the ability to fly.
Speaker A:You can shoot it out of your hands, like, you know, like power blast.
Speaker A:And when you can tap into spirit energy on that level, you can fly in space.
Speaker A:So we have a lot of space battles with ships and dog fights like you see in any sci fi.
Speaker A:But we also have like hand to hand combat in space too.
Speaker A:So you have like characters flying through like asteroid fields, fucking blowing through them, shooting blasts at each other, spinning around, throwing someone into a moon.
Speaker A:It's crazy.
Speaker A:It's crazy.
Speaker A:And we wanted to add that because that's like Things we wanted to see as kids, you know, like, we wanted to see something on that epic scale.
Speaker A:Just go crazy, go unbound.
Speaker A:And also, it takes place before the Big Bang.
Speaker A:So, like, we don't have to abide by any physics.
Speaker A:And that's what's cool about world building.
Speaker A:And like, being creative is when you create a world.
Speaker A:It's your world.
Speaker A:You can do whatever you want with it.
Speaker A:Don't be afraid of people going, oh, that doesn't make sense.
Speaker A:You won't believe how many comments we have of people saying a war before the big Bang.
Speaker A:There was nothing before the big Bang.
Speaker A:And in the past, I used to reply by saying, yeah, that makes total sense.
Speaker A:But just remember, it's not real.
Speaker A:It's sci fi fantasy.
Speaker A:But now I don't even reply back to them.
Speaker A:I just laugh because it's like you have people out there taking things so literal where it's like, bro, the book is literally called the old Universe.
Speaker A:It takes place before the Big Bang.
Speaker A:It's sci fi fantasy.
Speaker A:It's not real.
Speaker A:You can set aside the realism for a second.
Speaker A:But yeah, no, like the.
Speaker A:What Eric was saying about the COVID And then with just our, our log line, that's what really infected people and enticed people to come in, want to check us out.
Speaker A:And it's been working ever since.
Speaker A:So that's like a good little.
Speaker B:I think one of the most beautiful things is drawing inspiration from your favorite things.
Speaker B:Because that's, that's how you get excited about things, right?
Speaker B:You can't just be.
Speaker B:I mean, obviously a lot of people can make up stories completely from scratch, but it's not really.
Speaker B:Everything's been thought of before.
Speaker B:It's just like how you repackage things and how you think about things in a new way.
Speaker B:I think.
Speaker B:Yeah, because I think there's, there's not really anything original.
Speaker B:It's very rare.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker C:It's, it's, it's, it's how you present those ideas.
Speaker C:Because, yeah, there's, there's themes that go back.
Speaker C:Like if you want to get super deep, right?
Speaker C:Just there's mythological aspects.
Speaker C:There's, you know, it's, it's a part of the human nature.
Speaker C:We have, like, themes and I guess, I mean, what would you call it?
Speaker C:Like, stories?
Speaker C:There's just, there's just parts of, like, the culture of, like, humanity.
Speaker C:I'm like, getting deep, but it's funny.
Speaker C:It's perfect.
Speaker C:But it's like, there's, there's parts of that that are always going to show itself in our art.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And that's the reason why we almost see it as art, because us as people, we connect to it, we're like, oh, yeah, like, this makes me feel so.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Like, the main.
Speaker A:The main theme in the old universe is something that's, you know, as old as time, and it's father and son.
Speaker A:How many stories out there of, you know, about a father and son, whether it be a story about love, a story about hate, a story about envy, story about jealousy.
Speaker A:Like, we see it in Hamlet.
Speaker A:We see it in Oedipus Rex.
Speaker A:We see it in a lot of Greek stories.
Speaker A:We see a lot of.
Speaker A:In a lot of.
Speaker A:Within a lot of Roman stories.
Speaker A:We definitely see it within a lot of European stories and from the Middle Ages.
Speaker A:Something that always has to do with, like, a father and son, whether it be like a king or a prince.
Speaker A:And then we see that going into Star wars with Luke and Darth Vader.
Speaker A:We see it kind of a little bit in Dune with Paul and Leto.
Speaker A:You know, we see it in Lion King.
Speaker A:Freaking Lion King with Mufasa and Simba.
Speaker A:So the old universe, the main theme in the old universe is that struggle between father and son, because our main protagonist is the son and our main antagonist is the father.
Speaker A:The father's a bad guy and the son's a good guy, and that's what sparks the war between them two.
Speaker A:So, yeah, like what Eric was saying, humans always try to find that connection.
Speaker A:And I think that was another thing that resonated well with people.
Speaker A:As.
Speaker A:As well was it's.
Speaker A:It has a common theme of father and son, whether it be a good thing or a bad thing.
Speaker A:So, yeah, the old universe.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:How did you know when you had the first book completed?
Speaker B:Because obviously you can take it however long you want to.
Speaker B:How do you.
Speaker B:How did you figure out how you're going to split this whole series and whatnot?
Speaker A:That's actually a really question, because when we first.
Speaker A: ristmas, I think Christmas of: Speaker A: Yeah,: Speaker A:It's like, where you set up your books and set up your chapters, and we were planning on just writing the old universe as one big book.
Speaker A:You know, it's going to be a couple hundred pages from beginning to end, the entire story.
Speaker A:But as I was writing it, and then I would send the drafts over to Eric for him to review and to read.
Speaker A:I pointed out, I was like, what if we just End it here and then split everything up into other books.
Speaker A:Because that's one thing, too.
Speaker A:We didn't plan on doing a book series.
Speaker A:We plan on just releasing one book, one big book called the Old Universe, and then go from there, see what we can do from there.
Speaker A:But when I started writing everything out and I got to one point, I was like, let's.
Speaker A:I was like, eric, what do you think about ending it here and changing things around?
Speaker A:And then we branch, we continue in a second book?
Speaker A:And he was like, hell, yeah, let's do it.
Speaker A:And then that's.
Speaker A:That's kind of how we.
Speaker A:We realize, okay, this is where it.
Speaker A:This is where it ends.
Speaker A:This is when it's ready.
Speaker A:And then also with Anne, the editor from Penguin Random House, because we.
Speaker A:We had no idea how a book needed to be format.
Speaker A:We had no idea how a book needs to be edited.
Speaker A:We had no idea if ending a book on a cliffhanger was still a good thing.
Speaker A:And people even still liked that.
Speaker A:So it was just a lot of research and a lot of testing the field of, like, going on on forums and Reddits and posts online and just reading what the book community is talking about.
Speaker A:And that's kind of how we made the decision of, okay, let's end with a cliffhanger.
Speaker A:Let's end the book here and then get everyone ready for book two.
Speaker A:For sure.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think there's definitely a good use for cliffhangers, because then everybody's like, oh, what?
Speaker B:I can't believe it ended there.
Speaker B:Because that.
Speaker B:That leads them right into the second book, obviously.
Speaker B:So it's like, when you release the second thing, people are ready for it.
Speaker B:They've been waiting for it.
Speaker B:You can build up hype to it, and you're.
Speaker B:You're just building momentum for your next thing.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker C:The cliffhanger element, it makes sense as part of, like, when you're making a series.
Speaker C:And I've never been, you know, there's.
Speaker C:There's like, some, like, I guess, feedback on cliffhangers.
Speaker C:They're like, dang, why don't.
Speaker C:Why don't.
Speaker C:This is.
Speaker C:You know, why doesn't it have, like, an ending?
Speaker C:Why is it cliffhanger?
Speaker C:Well, because another book's coming out or because another chapter's coming out and there will be an ending.
Speaker C:You just have to be along for the journey.
Speaker C:I think.
Speaker C:I think a big part of why people.
Speaker C:And this is more with, like, I think movies or shows, they'll end on a cliffhanger, and then the next movie doesn't come out or the show gets canceled.
Speaker C:And that's.
Speaker C:That just leaves a bad taste in the viewer, which, you know, that might be out of their control, but maybe I feel like that's probably why there's some, some a little bit of like on the cliffhanger.
Speaker C:But I think it's great as you know, because it's also, for us, it's our story.
Speaker C:So we know the next book is coming and the next book is coming and we're gonna have the ending like that.
Speaker A:Yeah, I kind of want to build off that.
Speaker A:And that's like another w, like another win for indie publishing too, because we have no stipulations from anyone telling us or giving us the green light to write the book.
Speaker A:You know, we have no one saying, oh, it needs to come out now, it needs to come out this day.
Speaker A:You guys need.
Speaker A:You guys can't write it.
Speaker A:We actually don't have the budget anymore, so we can do whatever we want because we know that nothing is going to stop us from putting the second book out, the third book, the fourth book, the fifth book, etc.
Speaker A:Etc.
Speaker A:So, hell yeah, when you read the old universe and you know, like, cliffhanger.
Speaker B:Is too bad, read the second book.
Speaker B:Yeah, Just keep on reading, right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Literally.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And you can never, I think, satiate everyone's need for more story if they like it.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So that's why you're, you're branching out.
Speaker B:You don't need to stick to the business, just books.
Speaker B:You can do comics, you could do side stories.
Speaker B:You can build off different parts of the universe because it's like an endless source of inspiration, I think, and it lets people become super fans.
Speaker B:That's what I think the ultimate goal for every creator is, right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:To have like those super fans who like live, breathe and eat the content you're putting out.
Speaker A:And like that's.
Speaker A:That kind of enabled us, enabled us to create.
Speaker A:We have a blog called Archives of the Old Universe.
Speaker A:It's an in world blog.
Speaker A:So everything you read is coming from people within the store, within the old universe itself.
Speaker A:We have like things happening on different planets.
Speaker A:We have.
Speaker A:One of our writers wrote a blog series about a guy named Dino Nguyen who travels to the different planets as like a travel blog within the old universe.
Speaker A:So that's like another way to entice readers and just to invite people into the world we've built.
Speaker A:And I think that's one thing we haven't touched on yet.
Speaker A:But I'll touch on that later.
Speaker A:Like the team that we've built over the years.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, let's just go ahead and dive right into it.
Speaker B:When did you know that you needed to hire somebody?
Speaker B:Like, what are the things that you're thinking?
Speaker B:Oh, we, we could really use some help here.
Speaker A:So we, I.
Speaker A:We've always talked about what the old universe could be like.
Speaker A:We, we always had the end goal of it being some sort of visual story, whether it be animated or live action.
Speaker A:An animated film or a series, or a live action film or series.
Speaker A:But Eric, when did I hit you with the idea for Echoes?
Speaker C:Well, first we wanted a team, right?
Speaker C:We wanted.
Speaker C:We decided to like.
Speaker C:Because we noticed too, when we were growing on Tick Tock and putting our content, a lot of people were also saying, like, oh, I'm a writer too.
Speaker C:I'm a writer too.
Speaker C:Or this has inspired my story.
Speaker C:That inspired my story.
Speaker C:So we're not just connecting with like people who want to read our story, but people who have their own stories.
Speaker C:And then Armani want to work that he wants.
Speaker C:Why don't we maybe just like, bring some people on, like some passionate writers who are fans of sci fi fantasy.
Speaker C:Why don't they come and join us and write.
Speaker C:Write what they want to write.
Speaker C:Just, you know, within our world.
Speaker C:And, you know, we just.
Speaker C:Let's just see what happens.
Speaker C:And we, and we put the message out there on Tick Tock and we got so many.
Speaker A:Yeah, I made a.
Speaker A:I made a.
Speaker A:I made a Tick Tock video and I was.
Speaker A:It was like 90.
Speaker A:It was like 50% serious, 50% post.
Speaker A:And it was like, you guys remember the end of.
Speaker A:I remember this.
Speaker A:I was like, you guys remember the end of the Incredible Hulk when Tony Stark goes, I'm putting together a team.
Speaker A:Well, that's what me and my best friend are doing.
Speaker A:And we're looking for artists, writers and creators to come on board Forbidden Origins and help us expand upon the lore of the old universe.
Speaker A:And that video went crazy.
Speaker A:Went like super viral.
Speaker A:Like thousands of.
Speaker A:Literally thousands of comments of people saying, yo, I'm in, I'm in, I'm in.
Speaker A:And then what's cool about TikTok is that they have a form you can create, like a sort of application form.
Speaker A:So I created that and I put it on.
Speaker A:I put in our bio.
Speaker A:And people were just filling that up and sending us emails.
Speaker A: We got about like: Speaker B:Oh, wow.
Speaker A: icked six people out of those: Speaker A:So we brought on six writers to start.
Speaker A:And from those six writers, here's the timeline.
Speaker A:So Eric and I Published the Old Universe, book one.
Speaker A:And within the next year and a half, we published Echoes of the Old Universe.
Speaker A:So Echoes is a collection of short stories that take place in between books one and two.
Speaker A:So it takes place in between the main storyline.
Speaker A:And that book is completely written by the six writers we brought on.
Speaker A:And what's cool about what Eric and I do is we gave all the royalties from that book go directly to them.
Speaker A:Like, we don't take a cut.
Speaker A:Forbidden Origins to take a cut.
Speaker A:Those writers get paid 100 for their work.
Speaker C:That makes us no money.
Speaker A:And from there, those six writers have just been expanding upon the lore.
Speaker A:One of them, a few of them, added new planets to the old universe, New lore, new new planets.
Speaker A:A lot of them added a lot of new characters.
Speaker A:Some of those characters actually made it into book two, the main storyline that Eric and I write.
Speaker A:So it's, like, cool to see everything connecting.
Speaker A:And then last year we did another round where I made the same thing, new video, looking for more writers to come on board.
Speaker A:Because we were growing, we were getting bigger, we had more content to put out.
Speaker A:And we brought on three new writers.
Speaker A:And like, two artists that one of the new writers we brought on, he has an entire book series coming out this year.
Speaker A:The first book based in the old universe.
Speaker A:It takes place about 600,000 years before the first book even happens.
Speaker A:So his is way back there in the lore.
Speaker A:One of the writers we brought on, he's created.
Speaker A:He created the first comic book for Forbidden Origins or for the Old Universe, that comes out in the 20th of this month.
Speaker A:And with all the new.
Speaker A:With all the new people we brought on, we started realizing, okay, we have now a team of 12 people.
Speaker A:Let's start, like, making Forbidden Origins into a model of a company you'd see in the likes of, like, Disney, Marvel and dc.
Speaker A:So then we created, like, departments, right?
Speaker A:We have Forbidden Origins books, we have Forbidden Origins comics, We now have Forbidden Origins animation.
Speaker A:And I'll touch on that in a second.
Speaker A:So we brought in all these people that have.
Speaker A:That can see what Forbidden Origins can be and can see what the old universe can be as well.
Speaker A:Whether they're in writer, they're an artist, they're a linguist.
Speaker A:We have a linguist on board now.
Speaker A:He just created the official language for the old universe, a language people can write, speak, and even, like, study, because he went super in depth with that.
Speaker A:We have a composer.
Speaker A:His name is John Ander Rabel.
Speaker A:He's done films for the wrong turn shows for USA fx.
Speaker A:And I think he's done something with Disney.
Speaker A:He made a soundtrack for the old universe.
Speaker A:Book one.
Speaker A:So we have a theme song.
Speaker A:We have a theme song for the main protagonist, the theme song for the main antagonist, a lyrical song that Eric and I wrote, and he, John Ander, brought on a vocalist to sing the lyrics.
Speaker A:So all of this started with just Eric and I, with an idea, published a book, started making a few videos, looking for other creatives, and we brought them onto the team.
Speaker A:And now it's turning into what you read earlier, that multimedia company, and it's only getting bigger.
Speaker A:Like, recently, we just brought on a 2D animator, a texture artist and a 3D modeler, because we're now gearing up to start revealing the official animation style of Forbidden Origins.
Speaker A:Like, when you look at Disney, when you look at Pixar, when you look at DreamWorks, you automatically know, okay, that's Disney, that's Pixar, that's DreamWorks.
Speaker A:So with Forbidden Origins, we want to have that official look, so when we put out our animations, people can go, okay, that's Forbidden Origins.
Speaker A:So, yeah, that's.
Speaker A:That's where we're at now.
Speaker A:I can touch on that more, but I want to let Eric touch on it because I'm going to get some water.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:We have all these people now super involved and super passionate for what we're doing.
Speaker C:And then in terms of, like, with.
Speaker C:With the help, too, a lot of the stuff we're putting out now, and it's kind of a good process for us, is whatever those people create, royalty, if most, if not all, depending on who's doing it or how they want to do it, it goes back to them.
Speaker C:And then it's a good motivator to be like, okay, this is actually my thing, making money or, you know, getting that revenue.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Because, you know, there is the still business part of it, unfortunately.
Speaker C:You know how we are.
Speaker C:If in a perfect world, we could just put out a whole bunch.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:And movies and everything for nothing.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:But, you know, this is the economy anyways.
Speaker C:But that model works out for us and for them because it really motivates them to really promote it, because they know this is just going to go back to them and then this helps them produce.
Speaker C:And because we still have our books and the stuff we produce too, and because it's all in that brand and they're not just.
Speaker C:They're just promoting the work, but they're also promoting Forbidden Origins.
Speaker C:So it's just a whole big system where everyone gets kind of like what they're Working on, like, what they make to continue to grow and, like, do stuff.
Speaker C:And, like, the money.
Speaker C:We honestly, all the money that has.
Speaker C:We have made, like, just for Forbidden Origins, we have not.
Speaker C:We've never paid ourselves.
Speaker C:Yeah, Me and Armani still work full time, still investing into the company.
Speaker C:Everything.
Speaker C:We, we do have money come in, but we don't.
Speaker C:We want it to go right back in.
Speaker C:You know, I think a lot of business owners know that too.
Speaker C:Like, just because you own, you know, especially in the beginning when you own a business, you don't just, oh, yeah, I got a paycheck.
Speaker C:No, like, that is money to, you know, pay an artist pay, pay a writer pay, you know, get graphics, do marketing.
Speaker C:Like, it's just.
Speaker C:It's just more resources to expand.
Speaker C:Like, that's how I think most like, successful business people should go about it.
Speaker C:I think that's like the basic rule.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And like, right now, all we're really, like, we're really in the business of just brand recognition right now.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Getting the name out there, I don't care.
Speaker A:I don't really don't care.
Speaker A:Right now in this early stage of making a scent, I just care about getting the name into everyone's phones, everyone's house, everyone's bookshelf.
Speaker A:Like Forbidden Origins, the old universe for an origin.
Speaker A:The old universe.
Speaker A:To me, that's capital.
Speaker A:Because then the money will come afterwards, right?
Speaker A:Then people will be like, okay, I know, I've heard about this.
Speaker A:Let me go check it out.
Speaker A:Oh, wow, they have books.
Speaker A:Oh, they have comics.
Speaker A:Oh, wait, they have animations.
Speaker A:Okay, let me buy that.
Speaker A:Let me get this.
Speaker A:Let me purchase that.
Speaker A:So right now I'm 100% just focused on brand recognition.
Speaker A:That's why I'm posting on every social media app we have, like, five times a day with TikTok, post, like six videos on threads, constantly posting their Instagram sames, Facebook same.
Speaker A:We send like two, two, three emails out constantly to our email list daily.
Speaker A:It's just brand recognition right now for me, for us, because that's what's going to lead to, like, the capital to come in and allow us to keep creating what we've already been creating ourselves.
Speaker A:So brand recognition is key, like, for every, any person out there listening that's trying to start a small business in this sort of space to create creative space.
Speaker A:You're not going to see big bucks right away unless you just created, like, the number one thing everyone needs that's going to help.
Speaker A:Like, unless you like your cancer, you're not going to see the big bucks right away.
Speaker A:The most important thing is brand recognition, getting your name out there any way possible.
Speaker A:If it's one, like, that's fine.
Speaker A:If it's.
Speaker A:Eventually it's going to be 2 likes, 3 likes, 4 likes.
Speaker A:And it sounds so easy to say, but it's literally the truth.
Speaker A:I remember before we started this, I would listen to stuff like that, like to podcasts like this or videos or like TED Talks, and someone saying this exact thing and going, oh, that's bullshit.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:That's easy for them to say because they're already making it.
Speaker A:They already have their success, but it's so true.
Speaker A:It's just consistency and brand recognition.
Speaker A:And if your content is good and it's quality, you will see the success.
Speaker A:You'll reap the success after that.
Speaker A:That's like my two cents for that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Can you talk about your initial investment into this and how you decided, oh, I need to.
Speaker B:I need to put money into this in order to make it work.
Speaker B:Because a lot of creative people have this block thinking, I don't need to spend money.
Speaker B:The work should speak for itself.
Speaker B:Yada, yada, yada, whatever.
Speaker B:It's like, how do you know that this is something that money needs to go into in order to.
Speaker C:You know, I, I will definitely.
Speaker C:I'll go first on this one.
Speaker A:Can I say one thing, Eric, before you, Paul, because.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah, go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker A:Oh, that's one thing too.
Speaker A:I don't.
Speaker A:We have, like, we gave ourselves titles over here, Forbidden Origin.
Speaker A:So I'm cco, so, like the Chief Creative Officer and Eric's our cfo.
Speaker A:So when it comes to, like, it's so funny because whenever I'm.
Speaker A:I need to buy something with the company card or I'm purchasing an asset, I always get Eric.
Speaker A:I go, can I, can I do this?
Speaker A:Even though.
Speaker A:Even though I can, like, I am 100% allowed to just use the card.
Speaker A:It's funny that, like, I go to the cfo, I'm like, hey, what's our budget?
Speaker A:Like, do we have this amount of noble?
Speaker A:Can I buy it?
Speaker A:And then Eric runs the numbers and he goes, yeah, pull the trigger.
Speaker A:So it's.
Speaker A:It's funny we have it set up that way.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:It's like, I have a background in finance.
Speaker C:I actually graduated UCF with a degree in finance.
Speaker C:So when we made this business, just from that aspect, when we first started, I was, I was telling Armani because Armani does a lot of work with this company.
Speaker C:But I told him, money stuff, let me do It.
Speaker C:Taxes.
Speaker C:Let me do it.
Speaker C:Like, I will handle it.
Speaker C:That's not something you need to think about.
Speaker C:Let's just focus on what we're, you know, what we can do.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:Yeah, and that's why he asked because I, I have the bank accounts, I have the expenses.
Speaker C:You know, I, I could just tell him and let everybody know, like, this is budget.
Speaker C:This is what we got to do.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:But, but with, with your question.
Speaker C:Yeah, technically, right.
Speaker C:You can.
Speaker C:It.
Speaker C:We'll.
Speaker C:We'll start as like the book, right?
Speaker C:You can write a book completely for free, right?
Speaker C:You have a computer that you just own, maybe not even an invested computer, which you don't.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's fine.
Speaker C:KDP is free, right?
Speaker C:You can put on KDP for free, which is the biggest platform.
Speaker C:There's other platforms to look at, but kdp, I'm pretty sure when we publish anything on there for.
Speaker C:Through Amazon, the first channel, no cost, right?
Speaker C:So people.
Speaker C:Okay, like I can write and do this, and then if they, if they just put it out there and then, you know, talk to friends or whatever, they'll sell a couple books, which is great.
Speaker C:But then there's.
Speaker C:Because it's on the Internet, right?
Speaker C:It's just, there's so much content.
Speaker C:Like, I think, I think for people who don't want to spend money and they're trying to push content that's on the Internet, it's just gonna, it's gonna come and go if there's no, no push behind it.
Speaker C:And then that's where the first money comes in.
Speaker C:I think our first expense really was marketing.
Speaker C:Marketing is huge.
Speaker C:Whether you're doing ads through social media, ads through Amazon, and then your own marketing, right?
Speaker C:Which maybe, you know, you're making videos about or whatever, and that technically doesn't cost anything, but you're, you're putting the time and the work.
Speaker C:But I would say.
Speaker C:Yeah, when, when.
Speaker C:I think the first thing you would probably spend money on it in terms of creative works is to market it.
Speaker C:It needs to be seen, it needs to be shown everywhere you can.
Speaker C:And if you, you know, like we were saying, if this is something you really love, why wouldn't you put the money to really put it out there?
Speaker C:And the cool thing about a lot of this marketing, too, is there's, there's different types of budgets, couple hundred dollars, you can find the right plan.
Speaker C:We did a.
Speaker C:It wasn't.
Speaker C:I don't know the exact price, but we did like a digital promo for the second book that we did all kinds of marketing.
Speaker C:And this was a new one, like a digital promo place because we were looking at promotions and, and that one came out and part of the promo is we put the digital version on sale and we got so many digital sales and not just the investment from sales, but I, this community or whatever, I would, I would shout out the name, but I just don't remember right now.
Speaker C:But the people that read it were so engaged.
Speaker C:They were giving us Amazon reviews.
Speaker C:They were, they're buying the first book.
Speaker C:It's just.
Speaker C:It all feeds.
Speaker C:But I think, yeah, marketing, if you want it to be where you want it to be, like if you want.
Speaker C:A lot of people see it, you just have to spend money and then spend what you can.
Speaker C:I'm not, you know, say save money.
Speaker C:There's, there's so many different ways.
Speaker C:But yeah, I think if you're trying to make this a business or you know, have, have the right exposure that you want, it's just, it's just part of the equation.
Speaker A:Yeah, you gotta, like, what's that quote?
Speaker A:You gotta spend money to make money.
Speaker A:You have to put as much effort into this as possible, especially if you're on the indie side.
Speaker A:And that effort does come with some sort of financial backing.
Speaker A:Unfortunately, we're not David Ellison over at Skydance whose dad is the creative oracle, you know, multi billionaire.
Speaker A:We're not, we're not the owners of Leica Animation whose dad is still light.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Co founder.
Speaker A:Co founder of freaking Nike.
Speaker A:Like so they, they are spent, they are spending money to make money, but their money's in the billions and the multi millions, ours is in the couple hundreds, you know.
Speaker A:But that's still something.
Speaker A:That is still something.
Speaker A:And that's.
Speaker A:That little something is what's going to give you that extra push to take you to the next level.
Speaker A:You can rely solely on your work just being good and hope and hoping someone sees it.
Speaker A:On hoping maybe a bigger creator out there takes interest and reposts it and then their followers see it and then that snowball effect of reposting, reposting, reposting happens.
Speaker A:Like that works as well.
Speaker A:But if you do have some sort of capital behind you, if you have a day job, a hundred percent, you should be using some of your money to promote your business.
Speaker A:Like there's no doubt about that.
Speaker A:And there, there should, you shouldn't go any other route.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think there's the idea that if your work is good, it's going to be found.
Speaker B:But every, there's a lot of people who have good work and, but they also Spend money to get it out there.
Speaker B:Like, so you can do one and hope for luck or whatnot.
Speaker B:Go viral.
Speaker B:Even if you go viral like you guys, it's still not giving you the ability to, to work off of that alone.
Speaker B:You still need to do work.
Speaker B:You're still working on your day jobs, right?
Speaker B:You're going to make this thing work.
Speaker B:So you have to be willing.
Speaker A:It was about like, like figuring out where you're gonna put that money for, for marketing and for a budget.
Speaker A:Like, for example, on Tick Tock, like, we're not spending money on Tick Tock.
Speaker A:All you need to do is really just take a few hours of your day every day to understand the algorithm and then let the algorithm work for you.
Speaker A:Like you pick like how we do, we pick and choose where we're going to promote things.
Speaker A:For example, like on TikTok, we don't spend money on TikTok, but on Facebook, whenever we have a new product coming out within the old universe, whether it be books or comic book coming out Next on the 28th, we will do ads there because Facebook is a different, a different beast when it comes to the algorithm.
Speaker A:On TikTok, we can rely on hashtags, trending sounds and, you know, certain keywords within the video, within the caption to reach the audience.
Speaker A:On Facebook, their algorithm doesn't work on that that way.
Speaker A:And on Facebook, their ad, their ad system is fantastic.
Speaker A:So that's where we would spend money on like Twitter.
Speaker A:You're not going to spend money on Twitter.
Speaker A:You're going to re.
Speaker A:You're going to post something, use keywords that are the same as TikTok, part of the algorithm, and it will reach its audience.
Speaker A:So I think people just get a little taken, taken aback by, oh, I have, I'm using five different platforms.
Speaker A:They all have ad systems set up.
Speaker A:I need to spend money on each one.
Speaker A:No, some of most of these apps are set up for you to just learn how to use the algorithm and SEO to reach your fan base.
Speaker A:Some of them, yes, you do need to spend money on.
Speaker A:And the biggest one I, the biggest one and the only one I think you ever need to spend money on is Facebook.
Speaker A:That's the only one where you should be putting money into an ad for your book or your art, if you're selling commissions or something like that.
Speaker A:Other than that, get familiar with tags, get familiar with keywords, get familiar with SEO and let that work for you.
Speaker A:Though, like when you let those things work for you, you'll be working like, you'll be Working smarter, not harder.
Speaker A:Sound like my dad, Eric.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's really good because, yeah, Armani is like the main spearhead for this, for the social media stuff.
Speaker C:And you know, the work that you put into, it's just that with both of us, but like, especially Armani, he, he's learned so much about just how social media works and it.
Speaker C:And like he was saying, when, when you get the flow of it, you don't have to spend as much money.
Speaker C:You just now have your algorithm and then it just, it just grows.
Speaker C:And that should be a motivator too, like for, for other people who are trying to get into social media.
Speaker C:It is a learning curve and process.
Speaker C:But if you just stay on the path and, and you know, and you just improve, right?
Speaker C:You, you take what works, you throw out what doesn't.
Speaker C:That all comes to a head.
Speaker C:That all keeps growing and growing and then before you know it, oh, wow, I have a good amount of followers.
Speaker C:I can just, you know, post it and it'll go out everywhere.
Speaker C:I didn't spend money, but there's still, there's still.
Speaker C:It's not just about money, though.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:It's the time.
Speaker C:And I think at the end of the day, it's also time.
Speaker C:And you really got to put that time to learn these, these social media platforms or any kind of platform to make it work for you.
Speaker C:And that's all, that's all we do.
Speaker C:You know, like our money was saying, consistency on, into all of that.
Speaker C:And then.
Speaker A:One thing I want to stress.
Speaker A:I'm so sorry.
Speaker A:One thing I want to stress too, about the time is that a lot of people think this is what we do 24 7.
Speaker A:And it is what we do 24 7.
Speaker A:But a lot of people don't understand that.
Speaker A:We also have day jobs.
Speaker A:Like Eric and I both have a 9 to 5 that we have to clock into Monday through Friday.
Speaker A:But we understand that in order for this to work, we have to sacrifice sleep.
Speaker A:Sometimes we have to sacrifice getting vitamin D, seeing the sun.
Speaker A:You know, we have to make certain, certain sacrifices somewhere in order for the company we started to succeed.
Speaker A:And I think a lot of people want their company or their business to succeed without making certain sacrifices.
Speaker A:Like, I'm not talking about, like, don't talk to your family.
Speaker A:Like, that's something I do.
Speaker A:But don't.
Speaker A:I'm just like, don't, don't like, neglect the, the essentials to be alive and to be a human.
Speaker A:But there are certain things you are going to cut, like if you're an avid video game player, but you want to start a company, you might have to cut back some time on the playing and focus and revert that time to making your company.
Speaker A: e for example, In December of: Speaker A:Because our biggest following right now is tick tock.
Speaker A:Like, that's where we have most of our fault.
Speaker A:Like, we have, I think 16.5k followers on there right now.
Speaker A:And we also have our shop on there.
Speaker A:Like, we.
Speaker A:That's where we make most of.
Speaker A:That's where we make a lot of our money.
Speaker A:We sell a lot of books on Amazon, but Amazon royalties are ass.
Speaker A:Like, I'm sorry, Jeff Bezos.
Speaker A:They suck.
Speaker A:On TikTok, we sell a book for 15.99.
Speaker A:We actually make like 22 bucks because of shipping on Amazon.
Speaker A:We sell a book for 15.99.
Speaker A:We make $5 in royalties.
Speaker A:So you can see like that stress of like, oh, tick tock is going away.
Speaker A:Where can we go to now?
Speaker A:So we started using threads and I told Eric and I told the other guys that are on the team.
Speaker A:I was like, let's make it a game.
Speaker A:Let's see who can reach a thousand followers on threads before the end of the year.
Speaker A:And I've never, I didn't use threads before.
Speaker A:We obviously had an account because we had Instagram, so it was there.
Speaker A:So I logged into the account and I started figuring out, okay, what the.
Speaker A:How the algorithm works there, how the SEO works there, how keywords work there, and what was it, Eric?
Speaker A:Within, like two weeks.
Speaker A:We started using it in the beginning of December.
Speaker A:I wanted all of us to have a thousand on our separate accounts by the end.
Speaker A: ke week two, I got us to like: Speaker A:Right?
Speaker C:Yeah, it was pretty.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And that was just by, you know, going into the search bar, typing in sci fi, typing in fantasy, typing in books, typing in.
Speaker A:What else did I type in?
Speaker A:Like, certain things that have to do with animation that had to do with written origins in the old universe.
Speaker A:And then what I did was I started following a lot of people who had cool content.
Speaker A:And then I started posting about those things with certain keywords and tags on.
Speaker A:On meta they have.
Speaker A:You can only use one tag.
Speaker A:So the number one tag that I use was sci fi threads.
Speaker A:And at first I didn't start using posting about forbidden origin stuff.
Speaker A:I was just Posting about things within that genre.
Speaker A:So I will take clips of movies that I like, and I would use my own personality and be like, I can't believe they let Alita battle Angel fail.
Speaker A:Like, why didn't we get a sequel?
Speaker A:You know, like a cool clip?
Speaker A:And people would engage with that and I would engage back with them.
Speaker A:And then when they see that they're engaging with an actual human and not just a random page, they follow you, and then you follow them.
Speaker A:And that's how I build up that following.
Speaker A:And now that we have.
Speaker A: Now we have: Speaker A:So they can see, like, okay, this guy has cool opinions on things I like, but he also is making original stuff in the genre that I like.
Speaker A:So let's see what he's going to come out with.
Speaker A:Let's see what his.
Speaker A:Oh, he has a team.
Speaker A:Let's see what they're going to come up with.
Speaker A:Oh, this is dope.
Speaker A:They have a book.
Speaker A:Let's buy the book.
Speaker A:They have a comic.
Speaker A:Let's get the comic.
Speaker A:So it all, like, bleeds into each other.
Speaker A:And it all builds and it all builds.
Speaker A:So for anyone out there, like, you, like, literally have to make this your.
Speaker A:Your second day job, if not your only day job, if you don't, if you're unemployed, because if not, it's not going to go anywhere.
Speaker A:You literally have to live, eat and breathe this, your business, your passion, in order for it to reach the success that you want it to be at.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think I can attest to that.
Speaker B:I think that's where I found you guys, is through threads.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So your work is.
Speaker B:It's working because I saw.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah, this guy's just posting about cool stuff.
Speaker B:And then I looked at it and then I posted a thread.
Speaker B:And you were one of the people to respond.
Speaker B:I'm like, oh, cool happens, right?
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker C:That was actually my next.
Speaker C:I was going to ask a question for you.
Speaker C:Kevin didn't.
Speaker C:Just in terms of, like, brands and exposure, because I believe you reached out for us to be on.
Speaker C:And I was like, okay.
Speaker C:Well, I was kind of, you know, Instagram, but I was curious, like, where did you see us first?
Speaker C:Or, like, what caught your attention?
Speaker B:I'm pretty sure it was threads.
Speaker B:And I think it was one of the videos or one of the things like Alita.
Speaker B:I was like, oh, that's kind of interesting.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Then I looked up the bio.
Speaker B:I'm like, okay, these guys are doing a lot of Stuff.
Speaker B:Stuff like.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:And then it wasn't until I actually asked to see who was willing to talk.
Speaker B:And I don't know, I think it was probably you, Armani, that responded.
Speaker A:It was actually Eric.
Speaker C:Oh, okay.
Speaker B:Through Instagram.
Speaker A:I didn't even.
Speaker A:I usually get all the notifications, but I think since I was.
Speaker A:I think since you responded at a time where one of our threads was blowing up, I missed the Instagram.
Speaker A:Eric saw it and then Eric responded back, so.
Speaker A:Hell yeah.
Speaker A:That's dope.
Speaker A:That's good.
Speaker A:My, my.
Speaker A:My little theory worked then.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:It's just like being a human is like.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:People are most looking for.
Speaker B:And obviously if you're doing something that people relate to the most, that's where, like, the real connection happens, because anyone can connect with an author.
Speaker B:But when you have that, like.
Speaker A:Oh, when you have, like a personality, you have like a personality.
Speaker A:And like, we're also children of the Internet, so we.
Speaker A:How do I say this?
Speaker A:Like, we, we talk like, we know we talk.
Speaker A:We talk like if we've been on the Internet.
Speaker A:Does that make sense?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Before.
Speaker A:Before the relationship I'm in now, I was talking to this one girl and she got mad at me because she said I was speaking too much and meme speak.
Speaker A:Eric, you remember Brianna.
Speaker A:Sorry, I shouldn't be shouting her out.
Speaker A:She's cool.
Speaker A:We're cool.
Speaker A:So this isn't bad.
Speaker A:She said I speak too much like memes speak.
Speaker A:So I guess that that works because we know we understand the Internet and we understand how to communicate with other individuals that are fans of the genre that we write in.
Speaker A:So I don't know, it's.
Speaker A:It's all.
Speaker A:It's all like a science and a game, and if you play it well, you're going to reap the rewards.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think it's.
Speaker B:It's just like knowing who is most going to like the stuff that you.
Speaker B:You're writing.
Speaker B:Obviously, if you're looking to promote this to, like, the romance book crowd, it's not going to work because that's not who's trying to read it.
Speaker B:You know, you have to be in front of the people who want to read it.
Speaker A:Of course.
Speaker C:Exactly.
Speaker B:Can you talk about, because you both have day jobs, how you balance your schedules to make both work?
Speaker B:Because you're putting a lot of work into this.
Speaker B:You're making some money, but you're also dumping it back in.
Speaker B:So you're not really seeing the rewards, revenue wise, of.
Speaker B:Of what you're doing.
Speaker B:So talk about how you balance that and when do you think you're going to make the choice?
Speaker B:Is this time to go all in or is this, you know, when do you think that would be?
Speaker A: we have a really big plan for: Speaker A:Last year, towards the end of the summer, we be officially became signed and represented by Dan Bernard.
Speaker A:He's the manager for Aurlstein, the creator of Goosebumps.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker A:So he represents us now.
Speaker A:He's the one that got us the meeting with Dreamworks and we got the meeting with, with Disney, the pitch meeting and then the sec.
Speaker A:We have a second meeting with Disney actually this, this week, this coming Friday.
Speaker A:So with Dan on board now we are reaching that point, point where we can start, I don't know, taking, taking a look at how we can transition from our day jobs to doing this 100.
Speaker A:But I think that will happen when we're selling, you know, thousands of books a week or an animated series gets picked up by a major studio and then we working on that 100%.
Speaker A:That's how I see it playing out.
Speaker A:Eric, what do you think?
Speaker A:I mean, I don't financially.
Speaker A:Oh, sorry.
Speaker A:Go ahead.
Speaker C:Yeah, I mean at the end of the day when you're talking about the, the numbers, it's just, it's just a certain figure right.
Speaker C:That you.
Speaker C:Can you compare it to the lifestyle living now we don't have expensive lifestyles or anything but you know, especially nowadays there's bills are expensive.
Speaker A:I got a baby.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:As a new kid.
Speaker C:And so a lot of stuff, you know, is not cheap.
Speaker C:So you know, I think we're lucky to have the day job to, you know, support us and, and also have enough to also put into our business.
Speaker C:But yeah, in terms of like making that leap, it's just, it's just a matter of time when we hit that number, you know, when we, when we do the math and that number is okay, we don't need to be at our job anymore.
Speaker C:Let's transition and that, you know, that'll be amazing.
Speaker C:And that's just the day when it comes.
Speaker C:And then in terms of the balance, at least for me, it's, it's just pretty while I'm at work, you know, I'm always talking to Armani.
Speaker C:We're, we're doing double work.
Speaker C:What's going on?
Speaker C:He's at home, working at home.
Speaker C:He's doing it.
Speaker C:So there's that.
Speaker C:I don't know if you would call it a balance.
Speaker C:That's just how we, we operate.
Speaker C:And then when I get home, you know, work is done because I mostly work at the office, but then, you know, I'm done with work and then evening time, working on stuff with our money, working on stuff with the team.
Speaker C:And I think that's what.
Speaker C:What goes to our mind says.
Speaker C:The balance, to balance it you, or just to have that drive is you just really got to love it.
Speaker C:You really got to love what you're doing and you really got to believe in it because you have to do it or else who will, right?
Speaker C:And we just, we just go at it.
Speaker C:We go at it pretty much.
Speaker C:We're always doing it.
Speaker C:And the balance, in terms of balance wise, it doesn't feel like, like it's interfering with anything.
Speaker C:At least as of now, like it seems all good.
Speaker C:Like we're just doing what we, we got to do.
Speaker C:And yeah, of course there's stress and, and, you know, craziness, but it's been a ride, I think, I think it's better than not doing it at all.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And for balance, for me at least, I'm.
Speaker A:I'm actually very lucky and very blessed.
Speaker A:I work from home, so I work for a company that's based out of los.
Speaker A:That's based out of California, and I work remotely on the east coast division from home, from my house.
Speaker A:So I wake up, open my laptop and get to work.
Speaker A:So I have the ability to have my other computer open at the same time, doing forbidden origin stuff like keeping up with the analytics, keeping up with orders, making posts ready to go out later on in the evening.
Speaker A:Because, you know, as everyone knows, the best time to post is between 7 and 8 because everyone's just finished dinner and they're on their phone scrolling.
Speaker A:So I'm lucky enough to just be home getting everything ready for Forbidden Origins later on in the day, you know, because if I had to go to an office, it would be a little bit harder.
Speaker A:So Eric has to go to the office most, most of the days of, of the week.
Speaker A:Right, Eric, you would say, like Monday through Friday, literally, some days.
Speaker A:Some days he's home.
Speaker A:And then they.
Speaker A:On the days that Eric's home, ask him, I take advantage of that.
Speaker A:I call him.
Speaker A:Okay, you're home, you're home.
Speaker A:Put your phone on speaker.
Speaker A:We're working Forbidden Origins.
Speaker A:But on the days he's not home, he's blessed too, because his job is laid back enough where I can call him while he's at the office and I can talk to him for a few minutes here or there, get his opinion on something, tell him something I'm gonna make for later today.
Speaker A:And then talk about business for then for the following weeks and days after that.
Speaker A:So the balance is pretty good.
Speaker A:I think we have it intact now.
Speaker A:I just introduced a new baby into my life.
Speaker A:But he's pretty chill.
Speaker A:Like he's, he's a cool dude so he's easy to handle.
Speaker A:And yeah we just.
Speaker A:I just implemented him into the flow of things.
Speaker A:So the balance is pretty.
Speaker A:The balance is pretty nice.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:He's.
Speaker A:He's been implemented.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:You implemented your child.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:He's integrated.
Speaker A:He's integrated now into the workflow for.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean it's all about if you want this to happen, you have to make the effort to make it happen or else it's not.
Speaker B:Nothing's going to work on its own.
Speaker B:It all has to be like an intentional.
Speaker B:Yes first that you want to put into it if you want it to succeed.
Speaker A:100 it has everything has to be intentional and it has that have like an end goal.
Speaker A:Like when I post something online it isn't just a post.
Speaker A:It's either gonna have a link attached to the website.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:In my link is either gonna be just to check out the website or it's going to be a link to purchase the books.
Speaker A:But either way everything's filtering out and intentionally taking you to the brand recognition that I mentioned earlier.
Speaker A:Like if I don't want you to buy something today, I don't really care.
Speaker A:But you're gonna know what Forbidden Origins is today at least.
Speaker A:Whether it be looking at the website, whether it be watching our videos, whether it be me talking about a movie I like.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:You're gonna know you're gonna see something from Forbidden Origins every day for that brand recognition.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:It's just about being out there because people will forget.
Speaker B:Like and then you're also up to the whims of whatever algorithm.
Speaker B:Unless you're talking about email, you.
Speaker B:You got to do work with whatever they say you can work with.
Speaker B:That's why I think when you said you have to spend money on med ads just that's just the way it works.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:They're not gonna let you get there for free.
Speaker B:Threads is probably gonna head there at some point.
Speaker B:So it's like all about figuring out the best way to allocate your money.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:And look at.
Speaker A:And look at like inferior mp.
Speaker A:And I wanted to mention this earlier too.
Speaker A:Like when you ask the question of like thinking your work is good enough where you don't have to spend money.
Speaker A:Disney is a multi billion dollar company and they're still putting ads on social media.
Speaker A:They're still promoting their stuff, they're still spending money.
Speaker A:Like when, when you see something on your ad from Disney, it's not because of your algorithm.
Speaker A:If you look at the bottom left, it was saying bold or in a light grade shade.
Speaker A:Sponsored.
Speaker A:They paid for that because they understand that you have to make money.
Speaker A:You have to put money in to keep building that fan base, to keep bringing people on.
Speaker A:Like Disney is a multibillion dollar company and they're still spending money to promote themselves.
Speaker A:That's, that's just say, that's just say everything you need right there.
Speaker A:You have, have your issues of Disney, have your differences about the content they put out, what they believe in, how they operate as a business.
Speaker A:I have my own grievances with them as well.
Speaker A:But, but their business model works.
Speaker A:Their business model makes sense.
Speaker A:They know their niche and they know that even though they have millions of follow millions of followers on each of their social media accounts, they still put money into ads and sponsor them for other people to see them.
Speaker A:They're still growing constantly.
Speaker A:And if you're starting your business, if you're an artist, an Author, filmmaker, a 3D generalist, Tetra, whatever you are, you have to think like the people at on the Top because that's the only way you're going to get there.
Speaker A:That's the only way.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:You can either be like a creative artist and just have that be your outlet, which is completely fine.
Speaker B:It's fine.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Or you can say, I also want other people to enjoy what I'm making.
Speaker B:That's, I think, the biggest disconnect between an artist who does it for the art and somebody that wants it to, to be like a thing that connects with people is you have to be willing to, to let go of your qualms with whatever it is that's holding you back and you know, be willing to, to make that time investment, that money investment.
Speaker B:You know, you have to be willing to work with companies.
Speaker B:You may not believe in.
Speaker B:Like, but I'm sure we all have our qualms with the way that they operate TikTok, you know, it's.
Speaker B:Everybody's doing it for money, but you have to just work with what you're given.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:Especially if you're not a David Ellison or the owner of like, because those guys woke up and really ran a check for a quarter billion dollars.
Speaker A:Okay, go do what you want to do with it.
Speaker A:And I still give them respect because the stuff that David Ellison's doing with Skydance, you would think he was just gonna just be like a nipple baby who doesn't know anything about the business and it's gonna flop.
Speaker A:But like, this dude was able to acquire Paramount.
Speaker A:Paramount's been around for over a hundred years and I've read like, do you know, like blind.
Speaker A:What do they call it?
Speaker A:Blind.
Speaker A:Blind.
Speaker A:Blind Notes.
Speaker A:Not Blind Notes.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:I'm like pranking.
Speaker C:Was it like a production thing?
Speaker A:No, Blind.
Speaker A:Not.
Speaker A:Is it.
Speaker A:Am I saying it correctly?
Speaker A:It's the thing that people in the industry post online anonymously.
Speaker A:Blind items.
Speaker A:Blind Items.
Speaker A:Have you heard of that, Kevin?
Speaker B:No.
Speaker A:Yeah, There's a thing called Blind Items and I'm probably not even saying.
Speaker A:I'm probably butchering the name.
Speaker A:It's probably not even called Blind Items, but there's a forum online where people in the industry post and it sometimes is talking about someone, sometimes just making a statement about a celebrity or a producer, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker A:And all the ones that have come out of, from Ellison, the owner of Skydance, have been great.
Speaker A:Like the dude, the dude's like, actually like really timid and really shy and just likes the creative process and making good content.
Speaker A: the scene back in what, like: Speaker A:And now that he's acquiring Paramount and it's.
Speaker A:That sucks.
Speaker A:Paramount, you know, is a staple in the industry, but I think it's going to be in good hands just because the dude who owns it is.
Speaker A:Who now owns it, actually cares about content and creative.
Speaker A:So I'm not sure why I brought this up.
Speaker A:I think I brought this up because there's people out there who do have money at their disposals.
Speaker A:Disposal.
Speaker A:And sometimes they don't know what to do with it.
Speaker A:And sometimes with like, with Ellison, they do know what to do with it.
Speaker A:So I.
Speaker A:I appreciate that.
Speaker A:That he's not just like a napple baby playing with that with his parents money and not doing anything worthwhile.
Speaker A:He's actually doing something cool.
Speaker A:But I'm jealous.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, if you're born into the situation, you have no control over that.
Speaker B:He had no control over his dad being a billionaire or whatnot.
Speaker B:But it's what you do with your resources.
Speaker B:Anyone can work with the resources that they're given.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:I mean, it's very difficult when you're at the bottom, obviously, which is why you have to figure out what is it that I can do to make the best use of what I have?
Speaker B:I think oftentimes the best use of things that you can do is relationships.
Speaker B:It's not always going to be money because, like, this relationship, you know, you guys, whoever you're meeting with and whatnot, is going to help you build into the future.
Speaker B:Obviously, the agent that you got for R.L.
Speaker B:stein is obviously going to help you move to the next level.
Speaker A:Hell, yeah.
Speaker B:Can you talk a little bit about your team and how that works and how you figured out that you wanted to do the model where they would keep all their royalties?
Speaker C:Yeah, I mean, I can go into that.
Speaker C:So that's kind of just.
Speaker C:We.
Speaker C:When we created our team, the emphasis was always creator control or creative control to the creators.
Speaker C:Because we also see, I might say the wrong name here, but there are some, like, companies or comics.
Speaker C:Like for Marvel, for example, there's certain things where they have the writers and creators on if they created it.
Speaker C:That's Marvel's property now, which, it makes, it makes sense business wise.
Speaker C:But we don't want to be like that.
Speaker C:We want to be a little different with the creative control and we want to really give a lot more rights and features to the people that work with us.
Speaker C:And I think, I think highlight that is like, you know, we're not just a.
Speaker C:We're not.
Speaker C:We don't just want them to write stuff for us that we can sell.
Speaker C:Like, we want you to really be a part of what we're trying to do.
Speaker C:And I think that that has been a big pull for these writers and artists and creatives that we've had.
Speaker C:And yeah, the royalty thing, you know, that's obviously a big feature too, as, as.
Speaker C:As it goes on too.
Speaker C:When we do these royalty structures, we also also leave room for negotiation because some of them have expressed like, we want to help this too, because they know they've worked with us now for this long.
Speaker C:They're like, we want to help this build as well.
Speaker C:So maybe there'll be a royalty split where we take some of it and that's fine.
Speaker A:Yeah, I want to touch on that real quick.
Speaker A:For example, one of the new riders we brought on last year, his name is Luke, older guy.
Speaker A:He's older than Eric and I.
Speaker A:He's like, he's the oldest guy on the team.
Speaker A:Super well versed with riding like a phenomenon, phenomenal writer.
Speaker A:Super well versed with like the writing community online.
Speaker A:They're just like in a.
Speaker A:An extreme and like powerful assets of forbidden origins as a whole.
Speaker A:He was the one that gave us the idea for the blog.
Speaker A:He was like, we should create an in World blog.
Speaker A:I'll run it, I'll manage it.
Speaker A:So I gave him complete access to the website, he manages the blog, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker A:He's now creating a book series within the old universe that's gonna, the first book is gonna come out this summer.
Speaker A:And we were talking to him last week about everything leading up to that.
Speaker A:So we started the conversation about the book cover promo date, when we want to start putting this out there, getting the word out.
Speaker A:And then we got to the conversation about royalties.
Speaker A:And right off the back, Eric and I told him like, okay, royalty is how we're always going to do it.
Speaker A:Like, you'll take 100 of the royalties.
Speaker A:Every book sale that comes in on Amazon, Tick Tock, Etc, Barnes and Nobles, Walmart, all that money will go directly to you.
Speaker A:And he flipped a switch.
Speaker A:He was like, I actually don't want 100.
Speaker A:I would like to split it with you guys so that money can go into the company.
Speaker A:Because he, he said it himself.
Speaker A:I believe in Forbidden Origins and I know what this can be.
Speaker A:And I want all the money that's being made to go in so we can keep creating stuff.
Speaker A:And that was super humbling and heartfelt.
Speaker A:Like, this is a dude we met on the Internet.
Speaker A:This is a guy we met on Tick Tock, brought him on board.
Speaker A:We've only met face to face Vi webcam.
Speaker A:We have like, he lives in South Dakota, we live in Florida.
Speaker A:And he's telling two dudes that he met online like, I want the money that's going to be made from my work to go back into this company because he believes in it.
Speaker A:And that's kind of lets Eric and I know, like what we're doing matters and what we're doing makes sense.
Speaker A:Like we're showing our, our writers and our artists that we care about them and they're giving that and that's reflecting back on us.
Speaker A:Like they care about us as to as well.
Speaker A:And I think a lot of businesses don't see that because I think if it was anywhere else though, the person that is working under the company would be like, hell yeah, give me all my money, all my royalties.
Speaker A:But here they're like, nah, dude, let's put give me 50 or give me 70 and 30 will go back into the company.
Speaker A:That's fantastic to me and I love that.
Speaker A:I think we're still going to do 100 royalties to him.
Speaker A:I think just because he deserves it.
Speaker A:He wrote his own.
Speaker A:He wrote, he writes horror as well, outside of Forbidden Origins.
Speaker A:And his first horror Novella came out recently.
Speaker A:It's called Blood on the Snow.
Speaker A:Anyone out there, if you like horror?
Speaker A:Blood on the Snow by Luke Gelmacher.
Speaker A:So he.
Speaker A:He's writing horror as well.
Speaker A:He's writing stories for the old universe.
Speaker A:And it's cool to see that the people that we have working with us want to work with us to see how far we can go.
Speaker A:So, yeah, and it's one thing I wanted to touch on, too, is our team.
Speaker A:We call them the Originators, because our company's called Forbidden Origins.
Speaker A:So whenever we bring on a new person, they're now an originator.
Speaker A:So if you're an artist, a linguist, a writer, a composer, a 2D animator, 3D animator that works with the Forbidden Origins team, you have the official title of an originator.
Speaker B:How do your team meetings work?
Speaker B:Does everybody work independently?
Speaker B:Do you guys collaborate?
Speaker B:How does.
Speaker B:How do you keep track of, like, everything?
Speaker B:Because there's so many elements of this universe, right?
Speaker B:What.
Speaker B:How do you kind of deal with.
Speaker A:That on this, Eric?
Speaker A:Because I like to.
Speaker A:I like my PDFs and my Google sheets.
Speaker A:So when we first started bringing on the people or the.
Speaker A:Our originators in the team, it was, you know, we communicate solely through Discord, because the easiest place everyone's on there, we can do video calls on their voice calls.
Speaker A:But we have.
Speaker A:I have, like, a lot.
Speaker A:I have a massive Google Drive with different folders, and some of them just have clips of animations.
Speaker A:One folder has a whole bunch of PDFs and documents just of lore.
Speaker A:Like, if you need info on a planet, here's this PDF.
Speaker A:If you need info on a character, here, here's that, etc.
Speaker A:Etc.
Speaker A:And whenever someone comes up with a new idea, we have on our Discord server, we have a private chat called, you know, Originators.
Speaker A:And we're all in there, and usually one of them will either drop the idea in there or they'll ask Eric and I first be like, hey, does this work in the old universe?
Speaker A:Does.
Speaker A:Can I write a story that takes place during this time?
Speaker A:Oh, can it be during this?
Speaker A:Can it be this?
Speaker A:Can we incorporate this?
Speaker A:And 99.9% of the time, Eric and I are like, hell, yeah, that's dope.
Speaker A:Put it in the originator's chat so the other writers can give you ideas and pointers.
Speaker A:And then they do it, and then we build off from there.
Speaker A:So it was just one big collaborative team of everyone throwing out ideas and seeing what works and how to refine it and make it better.
Speaker A:That's literally how we Operate.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then from there.
Speaker A:Sorry.
Speaker A:And then from there we started bringing in the people who are actually going to make it.
Speaker A:So for example, we have one writer, one originator named Angel.
Speaker A:He's a writer.
Speaker A:He's gonna start working soon on a story within the lore that takes place on a planet called Rashlon.
Speaker A:So once he has the draft done and Eric and I read it, we'll bring in Dominic, who's our editor, our in house editor now.
Speaker A:He's one of the originators.
Speaker A:And Dominic will start editing the story.
Speaker A:And while Dominic's editing the story, Eric and I will bring in queued Roberto and Roberto, myself, Eric and Angel will start talking about the COVID and then we'll go.
Speaker A:And then that's how we operate.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Just to add to that, like with the team, everyone has their individual strengths and we, we try to highlight what works and what we can do to bring together.
Speaker C:Because yeah, even though maybe you'll have a writer that has like their own thing, which is.
Speaker C:And we really like it.
Speaker C:But then we're like, okay, well this person is good with the art.
Speaker C:Like Armani was sitting here, this person can edit it for us.
Speaker C:And they're all part of the team.
Speaker C:And I think it helps to.
Speaker C:The motivator too is like whatever everyone else puts out, if there's more stuff out there that's just more that can come back in and then.
Speaker C:Yeah, I mean we're the age of the Internet here.
Speaker C: everyone, everyone living in: Speaker C:It's only getting better to connect and why not use that, right?
Speaker C:Use that to your advantage.
Speaker C:It's easier now more than ever to connect and stay collaborative with all these platforms.
Speaker C:So, you know, we use that to.
Speaker C:As to our potential too.
Speaker A:And one thing I want to emphasize as well is that everything I just mentioned, we are learning how to do this as we go.
Speaker C:Exactly.
Speaker A:Like none of us went to school for business management, team management.
Speaker A:Like I didn't go to school for learning how to run a company.
Speaker A:I went to school for creative writing.
Speaker A:Like nowhere in creative writing does it teach you how to operate a business, operate a team, talk to multiple people, get things rolling.
Speaker A:At least we have Eric who went to school for finance, but Eric's also just super smart.
Speaker A:So with Eric's brain and my, I don't know, adhd, we're able to accomplish a lot of things quickly because we love to learn and we know that we have to do this because no one else is going to do it.
Speaker A:Maybe if we had a couple thousand dollars to spare, we can hire someone.
Speaker A:Like, maybe if we had a couple thousand dollars, we can hire a social media manager.
Speaker A:I wouldn't have to do that every day.
Speaker A:You know, we can hire someone to do the books.
Speaker A:Eric wouldn't have to do that every day.
Speaker A:We can hire someone to manage the discord.
Speaker A:We want to have to do that every day, but we don't have that ability.
Speaker A:So we have to learn everything in order for this to work.
Speaker A:Like, that's how we operate.
Speaker A:And I feel like when we do get to that level where Eric and I don't have to be as hands on, I don't think that's ever going to change.
Speaker A:I think we build a team and we built a community where being hands on works.
Speaker A:Even though we're the co founders of the company, they call us like one of Noah, one of our originators.
Speaker A:Every time he communicates with us, he goes, what's up, bosses?
Speaker A:Like, even though we're the quote, unquote bosses, we're never going to put that out there.
Speaker A:Like, we're the boss, you're the underlings.
Speaker A:Do this, do that, we'll step back and then you let us know we're ready.
Speaker A:No, like we're there 100% of the process every time.
Speaker A:Because that's.
Speaker A:I feel like that's the only way to do it.
Speaker A:Like, if you're not part of the process, if you're not part of building your baby up to where it should be, it's going to collapse.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Can you talk about.
Speaker B:I want to talk about pitch meeting meetings, because that's a very interesting topic, I think, for a lot of creators who definitely aren't at that level.
Speaker B:So how do you prepare for one of these?
Speaker B:Like, what was the process of that?
Speaker B:How did you go about, you know, figuring out what you want to do there?
Speaker C:Oh, yeah, I'll start with that.
Speaker C:I know Armani has a lot to do, but I'll just, I'll add kind of what.
Speaker C:It's so interesting because I guess this is where it's a little, I would say, not typical with, with where we're at, but we kind of just got like thrown into it.
Speaker C:And that's what I was mind saying.
Speaker C:You learn as you just go along.
Speaker C:You know, with Dan interested and signing us, that was already, you know, a huge thing.
Speaker C:We're like, wow, we didn't expect something like that.
Speaker C:You know, just at this stage.
Speaker C:But of course, we're so lucky and blessed, and we want to work with this guy, and he's.
Speaker C:And he's pretty prominent.
Speaker C:So he.
Speaker C:The manager, right?
Speaker C:He reaches out to the executives, development people at all these studios, and then we'll see.
Speaker C:And then he.
Speaker C:And we provide him all the material.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker C:Like, exactly what the old universe is just, just for one case of it is we're.
Speaker C:We're formatting it as an animated show.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:Something akin to, like, Legend of Korra or Arcane, that kind of style, but in the sci fi world that we've created.
Speaker C:So that's like, what we're trying to pitch.
Speaker C:We give that concept to Dan because he has the connections to the people, and he was reaching out.
Speaker C:And then, lo and behold, for the.
Speaker C:One of the first pitches was DreamWorks.
Speaker C:Out of everybody, you know, we were like, okay, maybe some other studio, but literally DreamWorks was like, yeah, let's listen in on it.
Speaker C:So in terms of like, okay, now we have to pitch, like, we kind of just went in on that.
Speaker C:Dan gave a lot of good pointers on it, and we learned.
Speaker C:We.
Speaker C:We made spectacular.
Speaker C:I'll just say it.
Speaker C:Spectacular pitch deck.
Speaker C:Roberto was a big part of that, telling everything.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker B:You.
Speaker C:I think when you want to pitch, this is for people.
Speaker C:I guess if you talk about, like, pitching a show, you want to give them what it's about.
Speaker C:The characters.
Speaker C:Armani can add more to this too, but the characters, the stories, and everything that just goes into the components of an animated show and how it looks and concept, and that's like, the first part of it.
Speaker C:And then we also planned, like, how we're going to present this, because we're going to go through the pitch deck with this development person, and then us, like, putting our words in on, like, what it could be, who it appeals to, what the market is.
Speaker C:But, yeah, it's just something we learned along the way.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:Like, when you.
Speaker A:When you pitch, you want to let the studio know what the story is, but you also want to let them know, unfortunately, how they can make money off of you, how they can make money off of your story if it has the potential to be a huge ip.
Speaker A:So that's like another thing that we put into our pitch deck.
Speaker A:And what's cool is that everything we've been doing leading up to this meeting, to these meetings, we've already done.
Speaker A:So we didn't come into these pitches with just an idea.
Speaker A:We came into these pitches with three books out, a comic book Coming out, a tabletop RPG in development, original animations.
Speaker A:We already made IP that's already coming out, already in development, that's slated for next year and the year after.
Speaker A:An original language and merchandise and a video game in development.
Speaker A:So we're letting them know, like, hey, we already did all this for you.
Speaker A:All you need to do now is just say, cool, let's do this.
Speaker A:Or no, it's too big, we're going to pass.
Speaker A:Because what a lot of pitch, what a lot of creatives do when they're pitching something.
Speaker A:They have an awesome idea.
Speaker A:Like they have a really, really cool 5 to 10 second elevator pitch that's captivating and that gets them into the door.
Speaker A:And that's usually the case, like with Stranger Things.
Speaker A:Any other show that you can think of or movie you can think of 99 of 99.9% of the time that person, all they had was just a tag, our log line of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker A:We had that plus everything else that they would make when they say yes.
Speaker A:So we already cut their production time 50% and 50% in half by saying, we already have original animations, we already have visual art made, we have a language, we have physical merchandise out here.
Speaker A:All we're needing now is just for a studio on your capacity to say yes, bring us on board and we can make this with your money.
Speaker A:To get to that point, to get to the point where we found Dan.
Speaker A:And this is one thing that I do, and Roberto and Eric always laugh at me.
Speaker A:I have IMDb Pro and I use LinkedIn and I downloaded this thing called Scrapio and it gives me the emails of people on LinkedIn.
Speaker A:So if I go into a LinkedIn page and I click Scrapio, it's like a plugin, I can see their email.
Speaker A:So what I do is I find every develop director of development from every studio, every production house, every producer that works, that worked on a film or a TV show that's similar to the old universe.
Speaker A:Every single person in the industry who can make this happen for us, I find their emails.
Speaker A:We craft an email saying, hey, where are Eric and Armani and Roberto, co founders and co creators of the old universe.
Speaker A:Our log line, here's everything we've done so far.
Speaker A:You can watch our original trailers here.
Speaker A:This is all the stuff we have coming out.
Speaker A:If you want to chat, we can send you over the pitch deck and hop on a call, copy and paste that 150 times a day to all these different emails and hope for a response.
Speaker A:Sometimes we get A response, someone saying, hey, yeah, this sounds cool.
Speaker A:Let's set up a time.
Speaker A:Sometimes we get a response of someone saying, now we're not looking for anything new right now.
Speaker A:And then sometimes we don't get a response.
Speaker A:But that shouldn't be in.
Speaker A:That should just, you know, that shouldn't turn you off when you don't get a response.
Speaker A:You just keep doing it.
Speaker A:You can keep going, keep doing it.
Speaker A:And that comes back to the consistency.
Speaker A:And that's how we found Dan.
Speaker A:In the summer of last year.
Speaker A:We were looking for a manager or an agent because sadly, in the industry, in order to talk to the people who can make this happen, you most likely need to be represented by someone to build that bridge and that connection.
Speaker A:So it was working for us.
Speaker A:Like, we were able to talk to some people within the industry who were producers or directors of development at some.
Speaker A:At some major studios, but most of the time they were saying, hey, this sounds awesome, but I don't want to take any quote, unquote, unsolicited material unless you're represented.
Speaker A:So we were like, okay, let's find a manager.
Speaker A:So I did my.
Speaker A:My blueprint, found a whole bunch of managers and agents, found Dan sent them the email.
Speaker A:He responded the same day.
Speaker A:We set up a meeting.
Speaker A:We t.
Speaker A:We talked.
Speaker A:He really, he found what we were doing super cool and enjoyable.
Speaker A:And he rep, now he represents us.
Speaker A:So that's like that where it comes.
Speaker A:I think that's like that other side of the business too, where you have the creative side going, but you also have to have, like, that strategic business side where there, there are going to be people in this street that you need in order to help you do this.
Speaker A:And those are the two things that, like, we're balancing right now.
Speaker A:Like, we have our creative team that's building everything on our end, but we're also starting to build connections within the industry of people who are already there to make this happen.
Speaker A:And that's another thing that you have to put 400 into as well, because a lot of these people are busy.
Speaker A:A lot of these people really don't care who you are, but if they can see that they can make a quick buck on you, off you, unfortunately, then they might be interested or they're going to be like, we love what you have to offer and we can make a quick book off of you as well.
Speaker A:So it's two sides of the same coin, basically.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think it just talks to the needing to be the most prepared that you possibly can be.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:You have to have Something great.
Speaker B:That's like the very start.
Speaker B:That's like, if you don't have that, there's nothing.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:That's like just to get into the even discussion of it.
Speaker B:And then you have to, like, be prepared with what is in it for them, because obviously most people are just in it for themselves at this point.
Speaker B:That's just the way the world works.
Speaker B:So you have to be prepared to say, this is what we're working on.
Speaker B:We have all this stuff.
Speaker B:This is as prepared as we can be for this reach out.
Speaker B:And then you have to.
Speaker B:It's just a numbers game, right?
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker B:People have to be prepared to just get out to as many people as possible.
Speaker B:Just like with marketing, it's just like you need to have all of those elements in need of.
Speaker B:To get just one.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:You have to.
Speaker A:Like, your.
Speaker A:Your pitch deck really needs to be.
Speaker A:You can have a cool idea, but the deck that you actually make needs to represent that idea and be super high quality.
Speaker A:Like, it can't just be no word document with times New Roman and some pictures you found on.
Speaker A:On Google.
Speaker A:It needs to be, you know, super esthetically pleasing, because you're sending this to people who are getting hundreds and hundreds of pitches a day in a week.
Speaker A:You know, like these producers that we're talking to, these directors of development at these studios, they're getting pitches daily and weekly.
Speaker A:So yours needs to stand out to the point that where they see it, they look at it and go, holy shit.
Speaker A:Like, I need to get this to my boss asap, because I'm going to be the one that's going to make this.
Speaker A:My team's going to be responsible for this, and then my show is going to be made.
Speaker A:So you need to make sure your pitch deck represents you as the creator, your story, and needs to stand out.
Speaker A:I think once we're out of that stage of pitching, and we either are with a studio that's going to make this for us, with us, together, or we do this ourselves, there is a possibility where we're gonna post our pitch deck online.
Speaker A:Kind of how, like the roost.
Speaker A:Like the Rooster Brothers.
Speaker A:Not the Rooster Brothers, the Duffer Brothers did with Stranger Things.
Speaker A:Their pitch deck is online.
Speaker A:Like, people can go look at that and see how they decorated it, how they organized it, and we can do the same for other people, like, out there who want an example.
Speaker A:I'm an.
Speaker A:I like looking at examples.
Speaker A:I'm a visual learner.
Speaker A:So if I can help other people out there who are visual learners as well, that's a win.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I think just standing out is like the bare minimum.
Speaker B:Again, like, you just have to be so good that there'd be stupid to say no.
Speaker B:And I think the best way to do that is just to be passionate, to be prepared and just to put in the extra effort that.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker B:And makes it something people want.
Speaker A:And now and you saying that like they had to be stupid to say no.
Speaker A:Listen to this.
Speaker A:So when we had our first pitch meeting or yeah, our first pitch meeting with Disney, we had our meeting with the vice president of Disney TV Animation and he said those exact words to us.
Speaker A:He said, I want to let you guys know that if Disney doesn't pick this up, whoever does is going to have gold on their hands.
Speaker A:The vice president of Disney Animation said that to us.
Speaker A: in my parents living room in: Speaker A:Like, he didn't need to say that.
Speaker A:You know, he could have just been like, yeah, this is cool, we'll chat again soon.
Speaker A:But him saying those words like, it really resonated with us.
Speaker A:Whereas, okay, we are doing something correct now.
Speaker A:Let's keep doing this, you know, let's keep doing exactly what we're doing.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:It's just.
Speaker B:Where do you, if you had the ideal budget and whatnot, everything.
Speaker B:What, what would you like to see out of this?
Speaker C:Oh my gosh.
Speaker A:Oh, well, if we had the ideal budget, we would have like, we're already, we're already doing our ideal version of.
Speaker A:Version of this ourselves.
Speaker A:But if we had like the budget that the studios have, where we can like $100 million and, and I'll touch on that later, but let's say we had $100 million.
Speaker A:Like the budget that most of these films and animated series have.
Speaker A:If we had that, we would have already have had an animated film out at least a season done.
Speaker A:Not if not one, if two, maybe two, two seasons done of the Animated Series, of the video game would already be in probably post production.
Speaker A:Like the, the possibilities will be endless.
Speaker A:And it's crazy that I say a hundred million dollars because you don't even need.
Speaker A:We wouldn't even need a hundred million dollars to do that.
Speaker A:The artists that we've brought on board, so like the 3D modeler that we have, the texture artists we have, and the 2D animator we brought on board, these people are industry level, like quality.
Speaker A:They just haven't been given the opportunity to work at these companies, to work at Activision, to work at a line studio, to work at, you know, a Disney TV animation.
Speaker A:They haven't been given the opportunity.
Speaker A:But their quality and their work is just as good, if not better.
Speaker A:And yeah, I'll say it, Disney and like the people we work with might just be better than the guys you work with now.
Speaker A:I'm kidding, but I'm not actually.
Speaker A:So we wouldn't even need $100 million to make something.
Speaker A:If we had even like a fraction of that, a fraction of the budget these studios are using to make their projects, we would have the same quality, if not better, out already and done.
Speaker A:Because our people with us, we work fast, we work quick, and we work efficient.
Speaker A:We pay the people what they're worth, if not more.
Speaker A:And when you're paying people what they're worth and when you're giving them the time and the creative space to make their art, they're gonna make their art because that's what they want to do.
Speaker A:That's what their passion is, that's what they like doing, that's what they love doing.
Speaker A:And when you give them that space and that creativity and that money to do it, they're going to do it for you.
Speaker A:So yeah, if we had the ideal budget, we would, we would have everything out.
Speaker A:Eric, what do you think?
Speaker A:I saw you laughing when he asked that question.
Speaker C:Look, I also think a part of the question was like, if, you know, money wasn't an option.
Speaker C:I believe you're asking just how it would be, how it would look maybe, or how, how we would see it.
Speaker C:Like Armani said there would be a grand epic, you know, animated film, if not series.
Speaker C:But if money wasn't an option and we really had everything locked down, we would also really like.
Speaker C:It just has to look right.
Speaker C:But like a live action movie saga similar to basically like Lord of the Rings level.
Speaker C:Yeah, but Lord of the Rings level with like Zack Snyder kind of action.
Speaker C:That's like the idea.
Speaker C:We always say that Zack Snyder is going to be like our cinematographer for the eventual movie.
Speaker A:Yeah, say what you want about like Zack Snyder's writing.
Speaker A:I know there's a lot of Zack Snyder writer haters out there in regards to his writing, but one thing everyone agrees on are his visuals.
Speaker A:Especially in man of Steel, like I just finished, I think it was like Two or three weeks ago, Eric is on the phone with me.
Speaker A:We were on actually was Discord.
Speaker A:We're sharing screens.
Speaker A:And one thing we've been trying to recreate for at least a year now, right, Eric or no, over a year.
Speaker C:Is I think ever since we learned.
Speaker A:Yeah, ever since we started learning how to animate in Unreal and using Blender, we've been trying to recreate the spin in the fight between Superman and Zod at the end where Superman shoots Zod into the sky and they're like circling each other in the air before they start fighting.
Speaker A:We've been trying to recreate that.
Speaker A:And we finally did like, we finally got the camera work down.
Speaker A:We got the motion blur correct.
Speaker A:We figured we got a good technique where we have the character spinning in place.
Speaker A:Yeah, I'm going to reveal secrets.
Speaker A:We have the characters.
Speaker A:Character spinning in place, but the background, the city, that's what we animated to move.
Speaker A:So the characters are in place.
Speaker A:They're not moving.
Speaker A:They're only spinning.
Speaker A:They're not moving our forward or backwards.
Speaker A:The city is moving backwards.
Speaker A:And that was Eric's breakthrough because we were trying to figure it out.
Speaker A:We were like, what's a good way to do this?
Speaker A:What's a good way to do this?
Speaker A:And Eric was like, why don't we put the.
Speaker A:The model of the city into the keyframes and move that back really fast?
Speaker A:And once we did that, it looks, it's.
Speaker A:It's phenomenal.
Speaker A:So, yeah, if we had the ideal budget, Eric's correct.
Speaker A:We will make a live action film with that sort of quality of, like, visuals, but with like the epicness of Lord of the Rings.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:I think one thing that a lot of creatives can do is you can look at the end result and work your way backwards.
Speaker B:I know I want to get this done.
Speaker B:And what is the way to do that?
Speaker B:And I think it starts, obviously with the first, you know, big project with a animation studio or whatnot to get a show or what.
Speaker B:That's like the first piece.
Speaker B:And then from there, obviously, you build momentum, you get bigger audience.
Speaker A:I think that's like the end goal and the end game or the end goal with these pitch meetings.
Speaker A:Like, if we can get in the door with a DreamWorks and we can get in the door into the door with a Disney or a Legendary or Warner Brothers, any one of these studios, if we can get into the industry that way and make an animated series or an animated film and use the money that comes in from that to build out our own studio, and then now we'll be standing on two feet, and then we'll have the money to do whatever we want.
Speaker A:That's, like the idea.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:That's like the realistic goal.
Speaker A:Another goal that we have, which is.
Speaker A:Which will be harder and a little bit longer, is to still just do it ourselves.
Speaker A:Where we're already building the team with our artists, with our animators, our texture artists and our modelers, where if for some reason these meetings with these studios don't pan out and they.
Speaker A:They shut the door down and say, hey, you know, we're not ready for this right now.
Speaker A:That's okay.
Speaker A:It's not the end for us.
Speaker A:We already have our team being built.
Speaker A:It'll just be more money that Eric and I have to put in ourselves.
Speaker A:Money that we take from the book sales, and we put that into making our own animated film.
Speaker A:That's the plan B.
Speaker A:So we like how we say we have two paths.
Speaker A:Have you seen Dune Part 2?
Speaker B:Not yet, no.
Speaker B:I need to.
Speaker A:But there's.
Speaker B:My wife doesn't like to watch those movies, so, you know, it's like a back burner thing.
Speaker A:There's a.
Speaker A:There's a scene where Paul is like, I see a path.
Speaker A:There are many.
Speaker A:There are many paths, like.
Speaker A:But I do see a way.
Speaker A:So, like, what we say is that we have two paths, right?
Speaker A:We have the path of going the studio route where we keep doing the pitches, we keep doing these meetings, and then the other path is we build our own studio from the ground up with our artists.
Speaker A:And then at the end of that path is an animated film that will submit to film festivals and build out the name that way.
Speaker A:But what's cool is, since we are the owners and creators of this company, no one is telling us that we can't walk those paths at the same time and see if at the end, those two paths meet.
Speaker A:No one is telling us.
Speaker A:I think everyone's always thinking, okay, you have to put all your eggs in one basket.
Speaker A:You have to go 100 here or you have to go 100% there.
Speaker A:No, we're in the.
Speaker A:We're in the.
Speaker A:We have the ability and the bandwidth and the capacity to do both.
Speaker A:We can have these meetings and we can also work with our artists on our own end.
Speaker A:So those are the two paths of working.
Speaker A:And if we did have that ideal budget, we wouldn't go down the studio path.
Speaker A:We would just do this our own and go from there.
Speaker A:Like 100.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's part of the end goal too.
Speaker C:Just.
Speaker C:We started this Whole thing as like that we do it, it's our thing, you know, independent.
Speaker C:So just with that budget itself, the unlimited budget goal as we were talking about it would be Forbidden Origin Studios.
Speaker C:We would be rivaling, you know, Paramount and all of them.
Speaker C:Like this is our studio, this is our, you know, production houses, these are our artists, our directors, all that stuff.
Speaker C:So yeah, we really like the, to keep our control.
Speaker C:I think that's, that's a big driver in everything that we do is that we're in control.
Speaker C:And for anyone else who's doing the business, like to take know that that's an advantage for sure.
Speaker C:And that's a big motivator that this is you.
Speaker C:So whatever happens, bad or good, it's you.
Speaker C:So all you got to do is just do your best.
Speaker C:And like we've been saying consistent, it's just keep working.
Speaker A:And it is, and it is risky.
Speaker A:Like you are of course putting all your time into this.
Speaker A:You are putting majority of your money into this.
Speaker A:Obviously after all your bills are paid, like pay your bills first and then put your money into this.
Speaker A:But there has to be reward at the end.
Speaker A:You know, like usually people who put 110%, 200% into something, something is going to come out of it, whether it be major success, medium success, success, small success.
Speaker A:But success will happen.
Speaker A:And success doesn't have to mean the same thing for everyone.
Speaker A:Success for us looks like having our own studio and having different branches on the Forbidden Origins.
Speaker A:And that's kind of what we're already doing.
Speaker A:Like Forbidden Origins, the name of our company, that's how we like, we have it like as an umbrella.
Speaker A:Forbidden Origins is the main company.
Speaker A:And under Forbidden Origins we already have separate divisions.
Speaker A:We have a division for our comics, we have a division for our books, we have a division for our online content.
Speaker A:Actually, angel, one of the hosts of Forbidden Radio, he gave us an idea a few months ago of like online content, like videos, reactions, something for him to do on Twitch and YouTube.
Speaker A:And we were like, okay.
Speaker A:And that's another brand recognition because right there we created a name for it.
Speaker A:It's called Origination.
Speaker A:And that ties into the company name, Forbidden Origins.
Speaker A:And from that division of the company is just online content ranging from all sorts of things of pop culture.
Speaker A:And when you're watching stuff like that, it might not have anything to do with Forbidden Origins content itself, but at the end of each video you'll see Origination and then you'll see the Forbidden Origins logo.
Speaker A:And if someone goes, oh, what's Urban Origins, they'll Google that.
Speaker A:Oh, and like I said earlier, oh, they have books, oh, they have comics, oh, they have animations.
Speaker A:Oh, they have a series coming out.
Speaker A:So it all just bleeds in that brand recognition, that post con, posting consistently online and just building and building and building.
Speaker A:And if you're like a person who's starting a company or a business or just anything, like a multimedia company, having everything split up into its own divisions, at least for me, makes the most sense.
Speaker A:Like, if you have everything under one umbrella, it can get a little bit confusing.
Speaker A:But if.
Speaker A:How do I.
Speaker A:How do I phrase this?
Speaker A:Because with Forbidden Origins, we have another IP coming out later on this year that has nothing to do with the old universe.
Speaker A:So for us, divisions work.
Speaker A:But if you're a smaller company, maybe divisions don't work.
Speaker A:But if you're someone that wants to be like a Marvel, be like a dc, be like a Disney, then having everything broken down into its own divisions and its own segments is the way to go.
Speaker A:And that's something Eric and I like.
Speaker A:Like I mentioned earlier, I have.
Speaker A:I'm in love with PDFs.
Speaker A:I send Eric PDFs every day about it.
Speaker B:Cool.
Speaker B:I do have some closing questions for both of you.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Do you know anyone?
Speaker B:I know you guys are going to have a lot of people, but maybe think of one.
Speaker B:Do you know anyone personally who also runs a standout creative business and what do they do to stand out?
Speaker A:Eric, that's a good question.
Speaker C:I actually listened to one of your podcast episodes.
Speaker C:I think you asked that standout creative business that we know.
Speaker A:I was going to say your cousin.
Speaker C:Antonio.
Speaker C:Tony.
Speaker A:No, funny.
Speaker A:But it's not really creative business, but it's a business.
Speaker C:Yeah, it's.
Speaker C:It's a standout business.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:My, My cousin Stephanie.
Speaker C:A lot of my family is in Chicago.
Speaker C:That's where I'm originally from.
Speaker C:And also there they.
Speaker C:There are a lot of second, third generation generation immigrants.
Speaker C:So a lot of them have just been working so hard and kind of just.
Speaker C:They also kind of have that spirit of like, just start your business, make something happen.
Speaker C:And like, her mom owns her own flower shop.
Speaker C:My dad had a huge drywall company.
Speaker C:My other cousins learned drywall from him.
Speaker C:And, and they don't.
Speaker C:They.
Speaker C:They take their skills and they don't just work for somebody, they start their own thing, which is really a cool thing.
Speaker C:And my cousin, I guess what makes her so cool, she started a bartending service and like, party planning service for like the whole city of Chicago.
Speaker C:But it's creative, like There is creativity in that because she.
Speaker C:She has like a logo.
Speaker C:Logo.
Speaker C:And like, especially because of, like, a lot of events now, they really like to have cool looks.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker C:Like, there's.
Speaker C:There's a lot of art to it.
Speaker C:I think that also comes from her mom who ran a flower shop or her.
Speaker C:Still runs a flower shop.
Speaker C:So there's.
Speaker C:There, you know, she knows how to decorate and stage.
Speaker C:And I.
Speaker C:I want to shout, I think it's called.
Speaker C:And it's a Spanish name, Impeda too or something.
Speaker C:But look it up.
Speaker C:I'll definitely want to shout them out in Chicago.
Speaker C:Impera2.
Speaker C:And I think they're on Instagram.
Speaker C:And also look up Stephanie Islas.
Speaker C:They're doing a whole bunch of really cool stuff there.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Thanks, everybody.
Speaker C:That was a good one.
Speaker A:I thought she.
Speaker A:Oh, I thought she.
Speaker A:I didn't even know about that.
Speaker A:I was talking about the.
Speaker A:The food that she.
Speaker A:I thought she had like a food thing.
Speaker C:Yeah, that was part of it too.
Speaker C:She did.
Speaker C:Yeah, she did like chili candies.
Speaker C:That's very popular, like, within the Mexican community.
Speaker C:Yeah, with Mexican.
Speaker C:Because I'm.
Speaker C:I'm half Mexican.
Speaker C:My dad is Mexican, so.
Speaker C:And that's like a lot of her market too, because that's just where she is, like her proximity.
Speaker C:A lot of Mexicans and Spanish people, they love these, like, chilies that she's made herselves creative.
Speaker C:Like candy foods and then bartending service, party planning.
Speaker C:Really cool.
Speaker C:Really, really cool stuff.
Speaker C:She's younger than me and she did all that, so super proud.
Speaker A:Sick.
Speaker A:I don't really.
Speaker A:That's the thing too, because we live in what.
Speaker A:We live in such a.
Speaker A:A strange place here in Central Florida where not that many people are starting their own businesses or doing something creative.
Speaker A:I feel like if I was in LA or like New York, I would know more creatives.
Speaker A:But honestly, I think in our inner circle, at least the people that we know personally, Eric, there's really no one doing something like this.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:The only person I can actually point out that is part of the team.
Speaker A:Roberto.
Speaker A:Roberto, the guy.
Speaker A:The first.
Speaker A:The first person Eric and I met on this journey who is not even an original.
Speaker A:We don't even call him an originator.
Speaker A:He's more of like the third head to Eric and I.
Speaker A:Like, we're.
Speaker A:We're Hydra.
Speaker A:We're the dog.
Speaker A:We're the dog from Harry Potter.
Speaker A:And Roberto.
Speaker A:Roberto is the third head.
Speaker A:No, literally, like, he.
Speaker A:He's there with us with all the pitches, all the meetings with Dan, our manager.
Speaker A:Like, he.
Speaker A:He's the third head of Forbidden Origins, he has this company called Invari Art and it's for vfx because how we mentioned earlier in the podcast, he's pioneering literally, like mobile filmmaking and mobile editing.
Speaker A:So everything that you would do on Adobe, on After Effects, on Unreal Engine, Blender, he's doing all this on his phone and his iPad.
Speaker A:And it's quality that you will see coming out of like ILM or Lucasfilms, you know, and it's ridiculous how it's on a phone and not.
Speaker A:And what's funnier too, it's not even a new iPhone.
Speaker A:He has like an old iPhone.
Speaker A:And he's doing all this and he's doing it on like a really old like iPad gen, like gen 2.
Speaker A:And the quality of work he's putting out is phenomenal.
Speaker A:And he's.
Speaker A:It looks better than the stuff that I do on my PC that's like meant for this, you know.
Speaker A:So Roberto Cuevas and very art, that's another standout creative business.
Speaker A:100%.
Speaker A:Like, he's going to be on the scene soon with mobile VFX and just VFX in general.
Speaker A:And then I think the last one I will point out is not necessarily a creative business or a standout business, but it's just, you know, good to say.
Speaker A:It's my dad.
Speaker A:My dad.
Speaker A:I think this entrepreneur spirit definitely comes from him because he.
Speaker A:My parents are Dominican, moved to Boston, I was born in Boston and he started his own real estate company back when I was like a child, probably like five or six.
Speaker A:And from there he's been able to guard like, he owns like 36 properties now.
Speaker A:And he's been doing this since he was in his early 20s.
Speaker A:Just selling houses, buying houses, flipping houses.
Speaker A:Like, he.
Speaker A:Real estate is his thing.
Speaker A:That's his niche.
Speaker A:And his company is called Pond View Properties.
Speaker A:And that's like where I guess my drive to make Forbidden Origin something big definitely comes from him.
Speaker A:So shout out to you, Ralph Raphael.
Speaker B:Cool.
Speaker C:Yeah, I.
Speaker C:I also just wanna.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Adding to Roberto, everyone follow him on Instagram.
Speaker C:I am cued.
Speaker C:I.
Speaker C:I will literally spell it out.
Speaker C:I am C U E D.
Speaker C:You will not regret it.
Speaker C:It's the coolest create.
Speaker C:He's also making super cool, like creative videos on his process.
Speaker C:So just want to shout him out.
Speaker C:He deserves like all the follows, whoever's listening.
Speaker A:Yeah, like, not even like, no cap.
Speaker A:No, no, no.
Speaker A:Like, we're not getting paid to say this.
Speaker A:This dude is.
Speaker A:With the amount of talent he has and the amount of creativity that this dude pours out.
Speaker A:It's surprising that he's just in Virginia doing this in his house.
Speaker A:Like, with no studio backing, no money backing, nothing.
Speaker A:He's just an amazing, talented artist.
Speaker A:We literally would not.
Speaker A:I honestly think we would not be this far, Eric.
Speaker A:100%.
Speaker A:I think so.
Speaker A:We wouldn't be this far because he designed the Forbidden Origins logo.
Speaker A:The book.
Speaker A:Book cover introduced us into Unreal Engine.
Speaker A:Because when we wanted to, when we were publishing the first book, I proposed the idea.
Speaker A:I was like, it'll be cool if we can make an animated trailer.
Speaker A:And he was like, oh, have you guys heard of Unreal Engine?
Speaker A:And we were like, what is that?
Speaker A:Like, I was like, what is Unreal Engine?
Speaker A:And that changed my life.
Speaker A:Like, now I'm addicted to it.
Speaker A:Like, he ruined me.
Speaker A:So, yeah, shout out to IMQ'd Roberto Cuevas in Variart.
Speaker B:Cool.
Speaker B:What is one extraordinary book, podcast, documentary or tool that has had the biggest impact on your journey here?
Speaker A:This is an awesome question because I can answer two right off the bat.
Speaker A:The Steven Spielberg doc on HBO Max and the Industrial Light and Magic documentary on Disney plus.
Speaker A:For me at least, if you haven't, if you are an artist, store or storyteller in any capacity, you need to watch the Industrial Light and Magic documentary on Disney plus.
Speaker A:It's the story on how George Lucas, when he was creating Star wars, met a bunch of people in the industry who were either just starting in the industry, had been in the industry for a long time, or were just a random artist or random engineer, not even in the industry.
Speaker A:And how they came together to make Star wars in a shitty factory.
Speaker A:And that turned into Industrial Light and Magic, the biggest VFX company we know today.
Speaker A:Like any movie you see out there is made with.
Speaker A:With the team from Industrial Light and Magic ilm.
Speaker A:Like all the effects from Transformers, Mission Impossible, Pacific Rim and Lita Battle Angel, Jurassic Park.
Speaker A:Literally any movie that includes cgi, they're coming from ilm and it's the kind of similar.
Speaker A:Not even kind of.
Speaker A:It is similar to what Eric and I have done.
Speaker A:Forbidden Origins, where we're all just a group of guys and girls who came together with a passion of storytelling to make the old universe.
Speaker A:If you are a storyteller in any capacity, watch the Industrial Light and Magic documentary on Disney plus and the Steven Spielberg documentary on HBO Max.
Speaker A:Max is fantastic as well, because he just goes through his process and how he became literally like one of the greatest filmmakers of our generation.
Speaker A:There's one part of that documentary where he wasn't even an employee at Universal Studios.
Speaker A:And he would go on the tours and sneak away from the tours and spend the entire day on the studio lot, just like sneaking it through the lot, sneaking through the studios while they were making films.
Speaker A:And at one point, he snuck into a tower and made himself an office there.
Speaker A:And no one knew for months.
Speaker A:They called him like the Phantom of.
Speaker A:The Phantom of Universal.
Speaker A:Like a goat.
Speaker A:Like, literally.
Speaker A:So, yeah, those two documentaries, the Steven Spielberg doc on hbo, Max in the Industrial Light and Magic doc on Disney plus for me, while you, Eric.
Speaker C:Yeah, so there's been a lot of things that's been drawing inspiration, but I think I want to call on to something that I've been more recently, like, watching.
Speaker C:And it's.
Speaker C:There's.
Speaker C:There's these YouTube channels.
Speaker C:And of course YouTube is like a whole thing in itself.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:But it's.
Speaker C:It's such a weird, like, I guess, topic that I just been so drawn.
Speaker C:I don't know why, but there's all these YouTube channels that talk about the origin and either success or failure of theme parks.
Speaker C:How Universal came to be, like, the theme park, how Disney came to be.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And all the crazy things that they did to, you know, make it work.
Speaker C:I mean, the cons, if you think about it, the concept of the theme park is kind of crazy.
Speaker C:Like, how do you make something cool enough where people spend way too much money and spend all day in there, you know, and have it, like, work as like a successful thing?
Speaker C:So to highlight on that, a really cool.
Speaker C:I now shout out this YouTuber.
Speaker A:He's.
Speaker C:He's pretty popular and his videos are just amazing quality.
Speaker C:It's called Defunct Land.
Speaker C:I don't know if you've heard of him, but he does really cool stuff about theme park ideas and, like, what they've done, especially focusing on Disney, of course, Disney and then just Disney itself.
Speaker C:And I'm talking about Walt Disney.
Speaker C:Like, that dude.
Speaker C:He was.
Speaker C:He was on some other level just in terms of, like, his vision.
Speaker C:I think he's a huge inspiration too.
Speaker C:And of course there's criticism of it and everything, but you cannot deny, like, the vision he had to do what he did with Disney.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:I would say it's like, it's otherworldly.
Speaker A:Yeah, no, like, to build off Disney from what Eric was saying.
Speaker A:There's another documentary on Disney plus, of course, about Walt Disney.
Speaker A:Like, and again, say what you want about Disney, the company, but Walt Disney and even say what you want about Walt Disney because I know he has his skeletons as well, like, that's a whole other podcast we can talk about.
Speaker A:Yeah, that dude, he did have his issue, but the creativity.
Speaker A:That man had to do what he did, like with the failures that came from certain things that he took because it shows how like the Snow White movie was.
Speaker A:It was a failure.
Speaker A:And all the movies that came after that are like Disney icons now were legit failures.
Speaker A:Almost bankrupted the company.
Speaker A:But that didn't stop him.
Speaker A:And the passion that he had, like goosebumps talking about it.
Speaker A:The passion he had, like when he would talk to his team of animators who would make the, the first Disney films, he would act out the entire movie for them with his hands as puppets.
Speaker A:He would stand in front of a group of animators and act out the entire movie that he wanted them to make.
Speaker A:So, yeah, what Eric was said, that dude was otherworldly.
Speaker A:Like legit otherworldly.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:I wonder if his head actually is frozen.
Speaker A:I need to tap it.
Speaker A:I need to.
Speaker C:And I just want to highlight that with this YouTube series I was talking about with Defunkland.
Speaker C:And they like, he said he does a lot of stuff with Disney.
Speaker C:One thing that's just so crazy and it's the most recent video, he did a full living history on the animatronic.
Speaker C:You know, like an animatronic, like what they have at Disney park, like a realistic looking robot.
Speaker C:It's crazy because that it, it's, it's such a, such a niche little topic that came to that and how everything built.
Speaker C:It's so inspirational in the terms of like how previous works come together to make something new and revolutionary.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:Because a lot of the, it's, it's interesting.
Speaker C:A lot of the first animatronics were birds.
Speaker C:Because birds, how they move already, it's very robotic.
Speaker C:And so those were easy to make and look cool.
Speaker C: onic birds made from like the: Speaker C:And he's like, that's kind of cool.
Speaker C:I want to do something like that at my theme park.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:But when Walt Disney runs with that idea, their animatronics, they revolutionized like what that even was like not even just talk about theme parks.
Speaker C:I'm just talking about straight up, like technology.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:And he, they.
Speaker C:One of their first debut projects was they.
Speaker C:They did a full animatronic of Abraham Lincoln that looked very.
Speaker C:And this was in like the 60s and it looked just like him.
Speaker C:And there was controversy they thought, like, it would be.
Speaker C:It would be, like, at this.
Speaker C:Because it's the first time they're, like, animating someone who was dead.
Speaker C:And people thought it was going to be terrible.
Speaker C:It was going to be a disservice.
Speaker C:But when, you know, Disney, Disney, he always just comes back and he knows that this is going to be different.
Speaker C:And when it came out, the show actually came out, the main consensus was just all like, we've never seen this before.
Speaker A:This is crazy.
Speaker C:And then in one fun fact about that, to.
Speaker C:To make their animatronics more efficient, they use technology from the new.
Speaker C:From the US Nuclear program.
Speaker C:I don't know how that works, but Disney literally had someone in the government and said, like, whatever program they had that was helping them with, like, the nuclear missiles.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:He used that in his animatronics.
Speaker C:So just insane.
Speaker C:Like, I.
Speaker C:That.
Speaker C:That YouTuber, he's amazing.
Speaker C:And then just Disney himself, like, such crazy inspiration.
Speaker C:Just like, creativity and what it can lead to.
Speaker A:I kind of like what you said about how it took old technology to make new technology and then just advanced it to.
Speaker A:And advanced it.
Speaker A:That ties into ILM with the Industrial Light Magic documentary, because they were doing everything with models.
Speaker A:They were doing everything on models.
Speaker A:Like, computer CGI wasn't a thing yet.
Speaker A:Computer CGI came from Industrial Light and Magic, from the company George Lucas founded.
Speaker A:And I feel like a lot of people don't give George Lucas his flowers because the dude created Star wars.
Speaker A:He created Indiana Jones, and he created the number one VFX company in the world and then was like, okay, bye.
Speaker A:Like, and now he pops up like a cryptid at random.
Speaker A:Theme parks, that meme where, like, you could take a photograph at a theme park and you might see George Lucas.
Speaker A:It's so true.
Speaker A:So many people have photographs that they taken of their family at theme parks, and George Lucas is in the background.
Speaker A:He just, like, pops out of nowhere.
Speaker A:Yeah, he's a crypt.
Speaker A:He's a cryptid.
Speaker A:He's a theme park cryptid.
Speaker A:But, yeah, I really like that comment Eric made where, like, technology from the past colliding with new things to create technology for the future.
Speaker A:Hell, yeah.
Speaker A:And yeah, that was beautiful.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:Theme parks.
Speaker A:I'm watching right now, I think.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, there can be a whole podcast itself on.
Speaker B:Oh, Obviously there's a YouTube channel.
Speaker B:It could be.
Speaker A:One last.
Speaker A:One last thing to mention for this question, this podcast right here.
Speaker A:The standout creatives with Kevin Chung.
Speaker A:There you go.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Just talking to you in these questions.
Speaker C:It really does just bring that out of the really affirming what we want to do and like at it.
Speaker B:Awesome.
Speaker B:What do you think makes a creative business stand out?
Speaker B:And what is a piece of advice that you would give somebody, based on your experience on how to make theirs stand out?
Speaker A:Don't wait for anyone to give you the green light.
Speaker A:Especially if you're a creative business, like doing this on your end.
Speaker A:You aren't waiting for anyone to tell you no or to tell you yes.
Speaker A:Like, this is your baby treated as such.
Speaker A:And if you're not giving that 110, don't expect to see anything.
Speaker A:Just how you see bodybuilders working on a specific muscle to get it right for their show.
Speaker A:That's the same kind of energy you have to bring to this.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:That, that sounds so Sigma mindset, but it's, but it's true to a certain extent.
Speaker A:Like you have to treat this like any other business, like any other passion, any other project, any other hobby, where if you're not giving 100% of that energy, you're not going to see any results.
Speaker A:That's literally, that's all I can say.
Speaker A:I think what we've been saying for this entire episode, this entire chat points back to our original, our original statement of consistency.
Speaker A:Right, Eric?
Speaker A:I mean, I think that's really it.
Speaker C:Yeah, I want to add too, I guess.
Speaker C:Yeah, we've been saying a lot of little pointers just like in what we're doing.
Speaker C:But I think another thing, just what I think and it, it's, it's a.
Speaker C:I don't know if it's a common thing, but it's definitely been said before.
Speaker C:But, you know, don't be afraid of failure.
Speaker C:Of course.
Speaker C:And actually I would say expect failure.
Speaker C:Expect failure to come and to learn from it.
Speaker C:I think, I think a big deterrent for a lot of people, especially with like, business or doing something on their own, like that first element of failure, because it's going to come, it's going to come in everything.
Speaker C:Because some people still think that.
Speaker C:They think that they just do it and it works.
Speaker C:Like, that is so not true.
Speaker C:And so you have to be, you have to know that there's going to be an aspect of failure coming and you just need to, you know, accept it and, and hopefully learn from it.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:That's.
Speaker C:That's the greatest gift of failure is to know that you can kind of hopefully see what you did wrong and what you can improve on.
Speaker C:Because I just, I feel like there's a lot of people who really want to do something and it's really cool and they have the passion.
Speaker C:But then when that first failure comes, it like destroys them.
Speaker C:And, and it's, it's okay like when it's your first thing or whatever to feel that way.
Speaker C:Like it does, you know, you can be like maybe one day like, oh, this, everything's, I'm done with this.
Speaker C:It's okay to feel that that's normal.
Speaker C:But then, you know, if you wanted to keep going, then give your time for some perspective and be like, okay, maybe I did this wrong or maybe I'll do that.
Speaker C:And then, and then what about.
Speaker C:We've been saying just consistent.
Speaker C:But yeah, definitely expect failure and you.
Speaker A:Know, learn from it and to build off the failure.
Speaker A:One thing I've learned throughout this process is patience as well.
Speaker A:Because I know, I think, I don't know, I don't know where I get this from or why I'm like this, but I want everything done.
Speaker A:I expect things too quick, I think.
Speaker A:So when I don't get it that quick or that fast, I feel like I haven't achieved what I'm supposed to achieve.
Speaker A: ting with Dan to go over some: Speaker A:Dan's our manager and we had just gotten off, you know, our meetings with Disney and DreamWorks and I called Eric and Roberto after we spoke with Dan and I was like super bummed out for no reason.
Speaker A:And then I had to remind myself like, we've already reached, we've already gotten so far.
Speaker A:What's coming next is going to take time.
Speaker A:And I think, I'm just, I think I know that it's, we're going to get there, but I want to be there already and it's not going to happen overnight.
Speaker A:Like this business that we're in of multimedia and animation, books and creativity, it is literally not a sprint.
Speaker A:It's a long ass marathon.
Speaker A:And it's probably gonna be the longest marathon we've ever taken.
Speaker A:And that's something I always have to remind myself of because even though we've have, we've had a good amount of success, I do have my moments and I call Eric about it like at least once a week.
Speaker A:Where that self doubt does come in, that it does creep up and those negative thoughts of like, oh, is this gonna be, is, are we gonna be reached there?
Speaker A:Is this going to be successful?
Speaker A:And you really just have to tune that out.
Speaker A:Really, really have to tune that out.
Speaker A:And it's just, and it's going to be normal to have that self doubt and where Eric was saying about like the failure, once failure does failure, once failure comes and it will come, you just have to push past it and let in focus on the goal.
Speaker A:Like, okay, there's a setback, but it's not the end of us.
Speaker A:So yeah, I think that's what like we would say to people out there who are trying to do the same thing.
Speaker B:Yeah, I mean, yeah, everybody at some point in their journey is gonna find failure.
Speaker B:It's inevitable because you're not in control of everything.
Speaker B:I think that's the main thing that we need to all just realize is you're not God.
Speaker B:You can't control everything that's happening to you.
Speaker B:There's outside forces, there's stuff that the people that you're talking to can't control.
Speaker B:There's always a hierarchy.
Speaker B:So it's like realizing that failure is just a result of being a human in life and business and everything that you're doing.
Speaker B:So it's just being prepared for that and just seeing if there's any way that you can take that lesson from failure and use it to, to pull yourself forward.
Speaker B:Essentially.
Speaker A:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker C:Awesome.
Speaker B:Can you guys give a chance challenge to the listeners that they can take action on right away?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Make a chat.
Speaker A:Like set a, set a goal for yourself, for your social media, on reaching a certain follower.
Speaker A:Because I feel like a lot of people want to, when they post, they have the intention of just going viral and that's not the case.
Speaker A:You should have an intention of just engagement and posting yourself out there for people to see whether it's one person or two people or 10,000.
Speaker A:So a goal I would like to set, because I said it with our originators is make look at the following count you have and set a goal for a month to reach a certain number.
Speaker A:And if you can reach a certain number by the end of the month, then do that the next month and do that the next month and build your community that way.
Speaker A:That's my goal.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So a challenge, I think for people listening and who have a creative venture, I think a cool challenge would be.
Speaker C:And this kind of helps as motivation too.
Speaker C:If you have something going on that you think is really could be something, but maybe you're not, you know, fully committed yet or whatever, or maybe you are, or you're just starting something and you're like, okay, what else can I do?
Speaker C:I think a really cool thing, whether online or in person, share it.
Speaker C:Like literally talk to people about it, say, hey, I'm doing This, like, what do you think of that?
Speaker C:That, like, talk to your family, talk to your friends, and then talk to random people if they're interested.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:And then just kind of see what the reaction is.
Speaker C:And I think.
Speaker C:I think it's really beneficial if you want to make it a challenge.
Speaker C:I would say try to talk to 50 people about what you're doing and see what.
Speaker C:See what they have to say.
Speaker C:Just.
Speaker C:Just to get that.
Speaker C:Like, I think feedback is also super important and just.
Speaker C:Just to hear it from all these different sources, whether they're just, oh, that's really.
Speaker C:Maybe it's just basic, like, oh, that's really cool.
Speaker C:That's.
Speaker C:You keep doing it.
Speaker C:Sometimes you really need that.
Speaker C:Like, oh, wow, okay.
Speaker C:Someone, like, really likes it.
Speaker C:Someone might be like, oh, that's cool, but maybe you should do this.
Speaker C:And then you're like, oh, well, maybe.
Speaker C:Maybe that's something to write down.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:I think just as.
Speaker C:As we are, like, as.
Speaker C:As people.
Speaker C:And then just in this creative business, you need to have that connection.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:You need to keep cycling out, like, what.
Speaker C:What people want, what you want to do.
Speaker C:But yeah, my challenge, to talk to people about your passion, about your passion project.
Speaker C:Just put a number at 50 people, reach out, see what they say, and then it'll really motivate you.
Speaker B:Awesome.
Speaker B:One funny thing about both of your guys things is reach out to people.
Speaker B:But everyone wants to go viral.
Speaker B:But if you think about it like 50 people or 50 people really like that.
Speaker B:That's like a big classroom right here in, like, school, and you have 50 people in there.
Speaker B:That's packed, right?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:So it's like your expectations need to be at the level of where you are in your journey.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:You can't just compare yourself up, up, up, up, up.
Speaker B:Obviously that helps in where you want to go, but you can't say this needs to go viral.
Speaker B:It needs, like 10,000 people to like it.
Speaker B:That's not like a realistic expectation unless you get very lucky.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker A:Like, if one person likes.
Speaker A:If you post a video and one person likes it, that's one new person.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:Find yourself that found your content interesting, and then tomorrow do it again.
Speaker A:And it might be two.
Speaker A:As two people that found it interesting.
Speaker A:In a week, that number might be 10 people who found it interesting.
Speaker A:And then you just keep growing from there.
Speaker A:And that's really cool what you said too, Kevin.
Speaker A:Like, a lot of people want their daily, I don't know, stats or analytics or just posting to be at the level of at the top, but not Focus on the level that they're at now.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And then I think that's where that disconnect comes from.
Speaker A:And I think that's the issue I have sometimes where I'm like, I know we have cool quality, our content.
Speaker A:I know we have dope stuff.
Speaker A:Why isn't it reaching the masses yet?
Speaker A:But it's like we're not.
Speaker A:We're just not there yet, you know, but we do have a good following, so let's just cultivate that, and then the more people will come, more people will follow.
Speaker B:Well, it's been really amazing talking to you guys.
Speaker B:You're up to some really awesome work.
Speaker B:Can you let people know where.
Speaker B:Where to find you online?
Speaker A:Yeah, you can hit us up on our Discord, which is Forbidden Origins.
Speaker A:So our company is called Forbidden Origins, and if you want to find us on any social media site, it's literally at Forbidden Origins.
Speaker A:That's a good thing about our name.
Speaker A:No one has ever taken it.
Speaker A:So we don't have to make abbreviations, we don't have to add underscores, we don't have to add numbers.
Speaker A:Wherever, whenever you type in Forbidden Origins on any social media site, if you see it, if you see a page, it's us.
Speaker A:We're on threads, we're on Facebook, we're on Instagram, we're on TikTok.
Speaker A:We're on Lemonade now because we thought TikTok was going to be banned, so we made a Lemonade account.
Speaker A:We're on Clapper, whatever that is.
Speaker B:Red.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:So any social media site, Forbidden Origins can visit our website, Forbidden Origins dot com.
Speaker A:There you'll find our books, our comics, lore, character bios, planet descriptions, and so much more.
Speaker A:Join our email list because we're updated.
Speaker A:We're always sending stuff out, promotions on, like, free books, free comics.
Speaker A:You can join our email list by visiting Forbidden Origins.com.
Speaker A:follow us on YouTube.
Speaker A:Same thing.
Speaker A:Forbidden Origins.
Speaker A:Anywhere, everywhere.
Speaker A:Forbidden Origins.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Just to add.
Speaker C:Just to add, because I'm just.
Speaker C:I would just repeat it.
Speaker C:But yeah, Forbidden Origins is the name.
Speaker C:You just got to reach out what's really cool, too.
Speaker C:If you literally just Google Forbidden Origins.
Speaker C:Yeah, we're the first thing that comes up first.
Speaker A:Three pages, actually.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Armani worked really hard.
Speaker A:And you don't understand, dude.
Speaker A:Like, where's that?
Speaker A:One of our originators, Noah, he always says the devil works hard, but Armani works harder.
Speaker A:Yeah, we are.
Speaker A:We are the first three pages on Google.
Speaker A:When you.
Speaker A:If you just type in Forbidden Origins, every search that pops up on those first three pages is us.
Speaker A:So you.
Speaker A:We're easily findable.
Speaker A:We don't have, like, a weird name that's going to be, like, jumbled up with 50 or 100 other people.
Speaker A:Just Forbidden origins on everywhere and everywhere.
Speaker B:Awesome.
Speaker B:Oh, I feel like we could talk forever on these topics, but.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:But thanks for coming on.
Speaker B:And we should meet up in person.
Speaker B:We all realize we're in central Florida.
Speaker B:I'm in central Florida too.
Speaker B:So we should just meet up at some point and maybe we can do, like, a all together in one space kind of podcast thing.
Speaker A:Yeah, that'd be fun.
Speaker B:You're recording.
Speaker B:Thanks.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:Thank you, Kevin.
Speaker C:Thank you.
Speaker B:Creativity isn't just about building worlds.
Speaker B:It's about having the guts to transform your wildest dreams into something real.
Speaker B:And as Armani and Eric showed us, persistence is the real superpower.
Speaker B:If you've been sitting on a story, concept, or dream that feels too big, too weird, or too impossible, the real magic happens when you stop waiting and you start building.
Speaker B:Imagine what could change if you had the strategy, the creative control, and the confidence to turn your passion into an actual Universe.
Speaker B:Head to thestandoutcreatives.com to dive deeper into how you can rewrite the rules and unlock the potential of your creative vision.
Speaker B:Your multimedia empire might just be one bold decision away.
Speaker A:Let's make it happen.
