Loren Johnson aka LOJO Joins The Herd Has Spoken Podcast

 

Enjoy the conversation between LOJO and Brad

Brad  

Let's just dive right into this. So the way you describe yourself is you're a bearded outdoorsman. So I want to understand letter grades. How would you grade your beard right now?

 

LOJO  

Oh, man, that's a great question. So okay, so right now I'm looking at myself in the in the cam, so let me get a low vision. I mean, I'd give it a solid seven, I think maybe maybe an eight. Here's the thing, though. I've got the beard, but I don't really take care of it, like a real true beardsmen would you know what I mean? Like, I don't have a ton of products that I put in it. I just kind of keep the trend. I don't just let it go full, you know, Amish, like all the way down to my belly button. But I do think it's it's pretty good, though. I mean, you know, what do you think? What grade would you give it? I think it looks good. I think I think it looks good. Look, I it's tough to give a 10 for anything. So I would I would be a little bit Kinder here I'd give it probably a not a nine.

 

And just thinking like, yeah, you know, it could get even thicker, I can get even longer, but it's pretty damn good right now.

 

LOJO  

I appreciate it, man. It's a It's been one of those things I've just kind of had for ever, basically. But now it's become like a calling card for me and my channel and my social media presence. So yeah, I can't say that. I have to keep it basically forever. So people recognize me.

 

Brad  

Oh, it's it's definitely working. It's definitely working. You've come you've come a long way from from your six years in the Army. And we'll dive into that in a minute. But I'd love to maybe go a little bit further back. So I understand you grew up in a small town in Alabama about 60,000 people. What What was your childhood? Like? What was your experience growing up in a small town in Alabama?

 

LOJO  

Oh, and actually, I grew up at a even smaller town. I live in a place it's like 60,000 people now but actually grew up just like an hour South and North Florida with like, 2000 people, but Okay, thank you. We're in that area of the country. You can basically either way, but um, you know, small town, it was pretty typical. I mean, you know, they had a high school, you had one gas station, one fast food restaurant. And that was it. You know, everybody knew everybody else. You know, grew up with, you know, normal parents, I guess you could say, love to be outdoors, love and play sports, all that good stuff. Um, you know, went to high school did all that good stuff. I mean, my childhood was pretty typical, I would say I mean, I don't think that there was any anything crazy even to mention other than I had two awesome parents. I had a sister. And we were just like the typical Southern, you know, nuclear family. You're I mean, not not very much. Nothing really spectacular going on my childhood. Other than the fact that we just had a fun crazy family. We all love each other at that time.

 

Brad  

That's powerful. That's more than so many people can can say these days. So you made the decision. You mentioned high school you went to high school made the decision to go to go into the army directly out of out of high school. What made you decide to join the army?

 

LOJO  

Yeah, no, my senior year in high school. I was I was a pretty decent football player. I'll say that. I'm not gonna say I was good. Even though a lot of people thought I was good. I thought I was an okay player. But I was like captain of the team, you know, the most valuable player, you know, so I had a little bit of momentum to maybe try to play college football. Now we're not talking about big time college football because like I said, I wasn't that good. But I had a, I had a couple of things. I think I could have played like junior college or something like that. But to be really honest, I just didn't want to play anymore. You know, I had reached my ceiling in my senior year in high school. And I had always wanted to join the military was even when I was a kid, I just wanted to be a military, especially if the country was at war. You know, I mean, that's where I always used to say, I don't really know why it just was inside me forever. You know, my dad served in Vietnam. Maybe that was something subconsciously that was like, you know, hey, if you guys are ever at war, when you graduate high school, you should probably go fight like your dad did. Maybe subconsciously. That was a part of it. I don't know. But I just always wanted to do it. And that was really the driving factor. Why join the army? And specifically, why chose the job that I did, which was infantry, which are like frontline foot soldiers, basically.

 

Brad  

Yeah, that's, that's really interesting. So I grew up as a son of a Navy man, myself, my father was in the Navy for 30 years fought in Vietnam as well. And he definitely talked about the military a lot, but didn't really encourage me or push me to do it. What What role do you think your father being being a military man had in your decision to join the infantry in the army?

 

LOJO  

It's funny that you say that, because my dad was not exactly supportive of that decision. And that's probably because he had been through Vietnam. And if I seen some pretty bad things, I'm sure in his mind, he was not too excited about his only son going off and basically fighting war. So he was not he was not too happy about it. I mean, it was my mom. But eventually, they just realized that I was going to do it regardless. Because that's what that's what kind of person I was, you know, if I wanted to do something, I was going to do it, that nobody could change my mind. And but so once eventually, they accepted it. Of course, they supported me throughout the six years, I was in on active duty, but wasn't too excited about when I first told him he was, I'm pretty sure he had talked to me for a day or two. Because he was just he was not having it.

 

Brad  

It's interesting, you said one thing I want to dig in on, he said, that used to be the kind of person where if you had your mind set on something, you're going to do it and that was all there is to it. I'm curious if that's changed your view, still think that's part of who you are, and what makes you successful today?

 

LOJO  

I think it definitely helps, I don't know what you would even classify it as, like being hard headed, but or just being driven. I mean, who knows, you could classify it as, but you could, you could make it sound bad, or make it sound like a good thing. But now that I'm married, you know, I have three kids, three kids, I've settled down. Now my drive to succeed is still there and stronger than ever, but there's probably I probably have a little bit more bins on things, and I put up what to do, you know, I would look for more input from my wife, if I really want to do something, rather than just getting so stuck on doing it that nobody could talk me out of it. And there's really nobody else on the planet that can talk me out of anything except for my wife. But I think that's kind of how it should be, you know?

 

Brad  

Yeah, well, that's impressive. You've gone from zero people to one person. So that's actually an infinite game, people who could talk you out of something. Oh, I want to I want to ask you one more. One more question kind of about your experience in the, in the army, do you think it's a fair characterization to say, looking back, that you entered the army as a boy and left as a man,

 

LOJO  

a 100%. I said to people all the time, being a, you know, a football star high school or whatever, you know, you feel like you're a man's man, you know what I mean? And, and I've always been kind of big, you know, like, 61. Back then we'd like to 25 I had tattoos, I was strong. So you kind of feel like you're this man's man. But I was not a man because going through basic training. And then arriving at my unit, which I started with a very prestigious unit of 100 first airborne. That was like a basic training all over again for a year when I got there, because they just basically haze you into becoming this artist. You know, and then, and then to two years of combat deployments over the course of three years total. That kind of sealed the deal. It really taught me I guess, I guess what you could say what being a man is all about? Of course, it's different for different people, but for me, yeah, 100% transformed me into a name that and the beard Of course.

 

Brad  

The beard is definitely a physical representation of I'm sure what you learned that you couldn't show. All you were in the while you're in the army as an infantry man, but what do you think it is that about your military experience that transformed you into into being a man because I'm I'm guessing, you probably had to go through a humbling experience. Maybe it was the first day of basic, basic training. Maybe it was a moment, you know, when when you actually got out there with the infantry. And, you know, you start to learn what it is that you don't know. But, but I'd love to hear, you know, say, you go in as a boy, you come out as a man, what the hell happened in between that got you there?

 

LOJO  

I will say, I mean, the first two years, from the moment that I went to basic training to know that I was Afghanistan, because you know, I basic training is three months long, and you get to your unit, I was there for nine months, and then you're in Afghanistan, you're there, that quick. So it was just a two year long, humbling process. Because every time you overcome that piece of adversity that you've got, there's a new piece right behind it, you know, I mean, there's something new, it's challenging you, it's like, it's never, you're never done, you're never done growing, you're never done learning. Of course, that's just, you know, that's how life is in general. But this was very unique, because, obviously, being an infantry Platoon, that's, that's like the pinnacle of, you have to be on point with everything you do, or else somebody else's life to be a danger. And that's kind of what drives you to really be aware of everything around you. And it's just I mean, it just changed my life and more ways in one. And then the rest of the four years of my service, which included my second tour that really kind of just shaped me. But those first two years, man, I mean, that was just a two year long, humbling experience at one after another. But after that first tool was over, that's when I kind of had I think found my way really, you know, that that wasn't when my growth stopped. But that was when I think I could say I came a man at that point.

 

Brad  

I mean, yeah, absolutely. It's it's certainly going to work war for your country. I mean, it's tough to argue you're not a man at that point. But But as we both know, there's a lot of elements to being to being a man, and certainly one of those is starting to become comfortable with who you are. And I think to get there for most of us, it means you have to be humbled along the way is, is there any one moment that when you think about those, those two years, when when you're getting your your butt kicked a bit, and you're kind of going through things and, and learning and being humbled. Is there one moment that you think represents that that experience most strongly?

 

LOJO  

Well, as far as a humbling moment, there was too many to be able to remember just one. But I do I think I remember kind of the moment where it all culminated. And I at least I gained the respect of my, you know, platoon mates. And that was, you know, my first tour, the first firefight that I'd ever been in. And it was super quick. It was super, it lasted like 20 minutes, nobody, nobody got hurt. So that's a good day. But that when I survived my first encounter with the enemy, like my first real encounter with the enemy, who was trying to kill me, let's make no bones about it. They weren't trying to be friends, they were trying to kill me. And I survived that. I think at that moment, it was almost like a light switch has been flipped. And it was like, Okay, so that's why these people have been just beating me beating down my psyche for two years, because they were preparing me for this moment, because they know that you can't be weak in that moment. There's there's a lot of times when you can be weak and get away with it. But you can't be weak in that. So I did that day for Well, I think I don't remember the exact day. But I remember the day I remember the feeling. Now I remember how it kind of changed me forever.

 

Brad  

Yeah, I know that. That makes sense. I think for so many of us who have these, these small moments that you remember, and let's be honest, they might even seem seem bigger and bigger over time. That's just, that's just the way it works, whether it's a fishing story or anything else, but I mean, being in a firefight for the first time. That's That's no joke. I mean, that's a that's a very, very real thing. And there's a lot of really evil people out there in the world. And I think that's one of the one of the things that can be concerning is I think, people don't necessarily understand the extent of the evil that's, that's out there. And it's great that we're protected from that as Americans, but also I feel like that's, that's one of our biggest dangers as a as a nation so that it's an interesting juxtaposition, I guess you could say, for so many people along those lines. I mean, you've been in the army. You've been out of the army for a while now. What do you see is the biggest difference between a soldier in a civilian?

 

LOJO  

Oh, gosh, well, I mean, one of the things that really drove me out of the army was just how everything is so structured and regimented. I mean, you know, we've all seen movies, you know how it is, you're waking up, same time. You got to shave you got to dress a certain way you have to wear certain clothing. So you could almost say it's kind of ironic, because we always think of freedom. We think of soldiers like how soldiers fight for our freedom. Then when you're a soldier, you actually have very little freedom. Because you're so constrained with all the rules, and there's a chain of command, you have 50 people that are in charge of you all up this little ladder. And so I think, for me, I just kind of had it with that, sort of, I love being a soldier, I loved all that part, but the little things. So, you know, going from a soldier to a civilian, and regaining, like my total freedom, I feel like I have like total freedom over my life now, whereas in the military, you really you have some, but you're under contract, when you sign a contract for let's just say four years, I mean, you're there, you know, I mean, you're the only way you're getting out is through really bad means. And you don't want to go down that road with a dishonorable discharge or something like that. So, you know, being a civilian, I think, you have to worry a lot less about things like you said, you know, there's a lot of evil in the world, a lot of people walk through that with their eyes closed their whole lives, and they never see evil, and that's good, that's a good thing. That's why soldiers exist, because they kind of have a create, like a barrier between the really evil people and the people that don't even know that they exist. So but to be honest with you, you know, now that I've been in the military, now that I am am a civilian, quote, unquote, and I will be for the rest of my life. I don't know if I'll ever look at life, like a civilian would that had never been right in military. So, I mean, I don't really know I went straight from high school to this experience, and became a man and this experience and really shaped the rest of my life in the military. So it's, I don't know, if I'll ever know what it was like to just go from like high school to college, and then get a job. Like, I honestly don't know what that thought process is like for, you know, a normal civilian that just never gets to see that side, you know?

 

Brad  

Sure. And it's, it's a challenging process for I think anybody to grow up, and to go into one walk of life and transition into the, into the real world. But I think one of the hardest things out there is to transition from the military world back into the civilian world. I mean, we'll talk in a little bit about the goon squad. And, you know, Rob Terkel, obviously, part of the googan squad in and he's someone we've, we've, you know, had really deep conversations about his transition out of the military, and, you know, he coped with that a lot through drinking and alcohol and wound up being saved in a lot of ways by creating a YouTube channel. He didn't want to be drunk on camera, and, you know, that got him out of it. But that's, that's a really hard transition for for a lot of people. What was that transition like for you LoJo?

 

LOJO  

It was rough for me too. And, of course, I know, Robbie, will, we've talked about this before, as well, um, you know, the first the first year or even the first three months, it was just is really bad, you know, and I won't go into super details, but there was obviously alcohol there was drug use, what they call self medicating, you know, when you just remember what else to do. So you just put up you put something in your body that that helped makes you feel better for at least a little while. Now, of course, it fades away. But I really found myself a shame because I didn't get to the YouTube thing until a few years after that. So I found myself ation with exercise, you know, linked up with a couple buddies that had a little weight room in their house, and we start just pumping out everyday, which is something that I already loved to do. One of my other really good friends encouraged me to go down to the local community college and enroll, you know, kind of just see if I could start taking some basic classes, I didn't know what I wanted to do. So he just encouraged me to take some basic classes, see what my options were as a veteran because of course, we have the GI Bill. So we can make a little bit of money, get our classes paid for, which is a huge benefit to veterans, which is so important. So once I dove headfirst into, you know, school all day, I took it really seriously, like I you know, I was doing really well in college, you know, I had, like, you know, a really good GPA when I graduated. And then when I got done with school, I would be hitting the weights two, three hours a day, and that really consumed me I got into like powerlifting and, you know, just just taking it very seriously. You know what I mean? So those two things, they just occupied so much of my time in a healthy manner. I don't think my mind was able to revert back to the struggle portion. Although I did struggle with depression and guilt a lot throughout that time. Even though I was feeling better physically. My mind was still a little shaky. He sleeping at night was a huge problem for me for a year. I often tell people I didn't sleep for a year I don't need I don't need I literally didn't sleep for a year but for a year. I don't know if I ever rested. You know what I mean? Like I just I might fall asleep for a couple hours because I was heavily dedicated. But I've never really rested until finally I guess. I guess it just took time you know, and that's one of the things that when you're in depression You don't want to have to think about how it's going to take time to get out of it, you just want to get out of it quickly. But I guess time combined with other two activities that I really fell in love with, is what eventually just helped pull me out of it.

 

Brad  

Yeah, and it can be really hard when you're going through a challenging time like that. And, you know, my experience, you know, I've been through a divorce and, you know, my ex wife decided to end the marriage. And, you know, I was in a position where, you know, I just had to make a decision about how I was going to handle it, because I knew that was a moment where things things can go one of two ways. And I don't want to think about where they go on the, on the downside. And so I immediately went to physical fitness as well. And it wasn't because I was trying to get in better shape, it was like, hey, I need some some, you know, key Keystone activity to make sure that I'm going to stay in a positive mental mental state. And, and I went after, and it turned out great, but I mean, it's fantastic. You found that power lifting as as a way to do it and continuing to help yourself. I want to dig into one thing that you mentioned. And, and that is it, you also had a tremendous sense of guilt. What What was that sense of guilt from?

 

LOJO  

Oh, just I mean, very simple. And a lot of guys struggle with it. It's not even so much depression, it's the guilt of if, if you knew somebody who who passed away overseas, which I knew quite a few, but there was even more people that I didn't know, but I, I kind of knew who they were. And it just starts to get to, you know, you just you're home, you're loving and live, you know, you're hanging out your buddies. And then all of a sudden, that could just hit you. It's like, Well, why are you enjoying yourself when your buddy die? You know, you can, again, enjoy himself anymore. So this ideal it kind of wears on you over time, you know, even right now, it's hard for me to even talk about it. Because it's just like, there's still lingering thoughts like that, that just, you know, it's but but then you have to you have to get to a place mentally where you can tell yourself, yeah, okay, that's true. But your buddy, if you were here, right now, he would tell you, dude, you live your life, man, you know, be at peace. And that's what you try to do.

 

Brad  

Yeah, I think that's one of those things where you're good person, because you do feel a certain amount of that guilt, where it's like, Hey, no, there's guys that are still over there. And I can help them if I was there. And there's guys who aren't blessed enough to still be walking this this earth, and I've got no reason that I am and they're not. And that's, that's really, really, really hard to cope with. But at the same time, exactly. Like you said, if the situation reversed, they wouldn't want that there's, there's no one out there who would want you to feel that way. And to be able to come to grips with that. I mean, that's, that's hard. I mean, there's, there's no way around it, there's, there's no simple formula, it gets a little bit easier to accept with time, like so many things, we get a little bit wiser as we get older. But but that's, that's a, that's a really tough, that's a really tough thing. And I know there's, you know, so many guys out there that that are, you know, dealing with those sorts of sorts of challenges. And no, it's great to get a chance to hear a little bit about your, your experiences. And and so I'd love to maybe, you know, kind of continue to down down your path here. So, you mentioned that you're going to school, and my understanding is that you're going to school for physical therapy, but I screwed up your hometown, so not not confident in what you're going to school for.

 

LOJO  

Yeah, so that's okay. I mean, I lived really close to the town that you were describing, technically, my hometown. But so yeah, I went to school to be a physical therapist assistant, which is a you know, it was a local community college. And so you know, I spent a year doing my elector nonetheless, you know, the general studies stuff. And then I did a two year program to get to be a licensed certified Physical Therapist Assistant. And, you know, graduated did that for a while. Now, that was just kind of something that I fell into I really wasn't To be honest, I was really passionate about anything. My God army, just like, you know, what, what does an infantry man do? Like if you don't want to be a cop, which I didn't want to be a cop, you really don't have any avenues that what you did come in handy. You know what I mean? Like, it's like experience walking through the mountains, being on patrol, being able to use different weapon systems that really doesn't help you in the civilian world. So I really had no way to go. But one of my best friends was in the healthcare field as a PTA. And I just kind of figured healthcare was a really good field to go into because it's not going anywhere. You know, it's never going to go anywhere. There's always going to be a need for health care workers, especially where I live because there's so many elderly people, you know, people move further south when they retire. So being affected Will there be person in the healthcare industry? That's like being a nurse? I mean, like, there's never going to be enough physical therapy people nurses in the south, you know, we just, we have the calculation that's going to need it. So did that for a few years before we got to YouTube, which I'm sure you're gonna segue to here shortly. Yeah, well,

 

Brad  

let's just do it. So right so your your wife buys you a camera vysya GoPro says I don't I don't believe you all these crazy stories you're telling me LoJo about fishing, alligators, everything else? Right? She buys you the GoPro you start to you start to record videos, you put them out there, right. So what I'm what I'm really curious about is is the struggle like so you put out the first video, it tanks and relative to your standards today, you might have been happy to you know, see 510 views whatever that whatever the number was, but I what I'm what I really love to understand is what what was the moment where you're like, what am I doing? Like? Why am I still putting all this time into the videos and and maybe maybe that moment never existed? Maybe you just are like a rocket ship. But But I'm but I'm curious about where you felt like that, that rub along the way. And of course, if I screwed up the story again, please, please correct us. So people listening can know the real stir,

 

LOJO  

you got pretty much you got to pretty much down. I mean, that's the cool thing about being a YouTube creator. I guarantee you everybody has a different story, at least a little bit. But I mean, yeah, my wife bought me a GoPro. But when I started recording fishing videos, I had no intention, zero intention of putting them on YouTube, right like that. This was just purely, you know, her just humoring me. And being able to capture some of this stuff on video, that was all it was, I don't think I put out my first YouTube video four months after we made like six months or something I thought put out a couple videos. But yeah, like you said, they just tanked. They get like two views. And you're just like, Oh, wow. Okay, which is when I first put them out here. I was just like, this is a cool thing. I learned how to edit video. Okay, that's cool. And then you know, six months ago live, at that time, I'm watching some YouTube videos, like YouTube fishing videos, okay, I think I can do that. So you start tweaking your style a little bit, you start trying to put more effort into it. And like you said, You really don't see any growth or any like, future. Now I didn't really have a moment where I just thought I was gonna fail. But after about 18 months of putting videos out, and you know, visually, I'm putting out like three a week here and again, trying to grow and just not growing. Eventually, I had just, I just taken a job, right, I got a promotion, I was a rehab director at a facility, a nursing home, and I just, I hated it. so fricking bad, I hated being in charge. I just I hated everything about it. So three months in, I quit. I'm just like, I'm gonna do this YouTube thing, because I know enough, and I can do it. And God bless my life because it was a good paying job. And I walked away. And she had to have been thinking, this is frickin crazy. There's no way and, you know, I i'm sure I've doubted myself plenty of times along the way. But thank God that ended up working out but there but so that timeframe answer your question. At during that time, it was very tense, because there was a few months where my salary was going. And I had to make money on YouTube. And you know, it just it just so happened that it worked. But it was a hell of a risk on my part if I do say so myself.

 

Brad  

Yeah, that's, that's crazy about that being willing to walk away from that from that job and go after something when it at the moment you are generating a ton of revenue from it, but you know, just sheer belief, and and frankly, like hating your job, right, that those are, those are fantastic motivators, when you're going to make a big bet. I always like to say bet on yourself. And if you're not happy, and you're you're that miserable, like hey, like life is short. So those two things together, like, get after it. And it's it's wonderful to hear that that's been so successful for you.

 

LOJO  

Yeah, I mean, exactly right. I still, I, you always had a belief that I wasn't going to make money in the traditional punching the clock nine to five way I never thought I was going to have one job for 30 years and retire. And that's the people always ask me, what did you think you were going to do? I said, I have no idea. I'm just I know I'm going to be my own boss. I know. I'm going to be able to do something. I just had no idea what it was until I found myself in this position. But yeah, that's true words there have been spoken if you're gonna bet everything bet on yourself because you're you're alive. less likely to let yourself down. I mean, like, you're probably going to try really hard for yourself. And I'm just glad, glad and extremely thankful that I have the wife that I have right now. Because if I was single, or if, you know, if I wasn't in that exact circumstance, I probably wouldn't have been able to leave that job like I did. But you know, she was she had a good job, too. So that helped support us while I was in that transition phase. So it just goes to show man like, in life, to really do things big, you got to have some things go your way, you have to have some lucky breaks along the way. And for me, it's just been lucky break after lucky break. So truly blessed. So, you know, I

 

Brad  

say, you know, that's sort of effort and luck is what makes for success. So what would you What would you characterize as the percentage of effort versus luck on on your YouTube channel?

 

LOJO  

I mean, I don't want to sell myself short, because I work fricking hard, and that's, I know, there's a huge misconception about there's a huge misconception about YouTubers, especially I guess fishing YouTubers, like, Oh, you guys just get the fish and hang out all day. I was like, bro, you have no idea how hard I work. How hard like we were really lucky. I say we I work really hard. I guarantee you I put more hours in now than I was putting in at that rehab director position. I mean, there's no question. I mean, way more hours. Yeah. But of course, there's the benefits. But it was a question. I would probably say it was 5050. I mean, yeah, sure. I knew some people in the industry, which helped me a lot. They gave me a lot of tips, which helped me I had great support system, which was my wife. That helped me a time, but I definitely got lucky along the way. Because I mean, with my dealings with goon squad stuff that all kind of came about through luck. So it was I'd say it's 5050. And for anybody else to claim that they didn't have any help, like any good luck. We all know their full. Say, right.

 

Brad  

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, no, I'm waiting. So let's talk about that. So for those people who don't know, goon squad, goon squad is sort of the next generation of fishermen group of seven guys on online huge social media. I'll go ahead and say stars now. they'll sell bait now, soft bait, hard bait, in real estate, tons of tons of merchandise. So you guys are making things happen. But you know, goon squad has been around for a while. And logo is not always part of the goon squad. So how the heck did that come to be?

 

LOJO  

Yeah, actually the newest member and the smallest member as of right now, but

 

Brad  

in follower counts, definitely not in terms of beard. Beard or size,

 

LOJO  

or anything like that. Yeah, but, you know, I think the manager of the goon squad back in like 2017 or 16, something like that. Before I was, I was a nobody. He had reached out to me through like a DM or something. And he was like, Hey, you know, he was like, we're starting to kind of expand our operation. And we're looking for smaller channels that we believe in and, and so here's the here's the whole luck that so they The only reason I knew who I was, was because Rob that you guys know, he knew me for like Instagram because I was another military veteran who fish right? So he brought my name up in a meeting with the guys and Matt and or some some deviation, some form of that story is what happened. And that's what led the manager to contact me. And nothing really happened for a while after that. Like I said, I was a nobody. But basically it is reached out and said, Hey, we know who you are. We see what you're doing. We like what you're doing, keep doing what you're doing. That was pretty much it was no money involved, there was no sponsorship, it was just like, Hey, we see you out there keep grinding. But I took that. And that's what that's what kind of helped me with my decisions to keep on pushing me to quit my job and to pursue this. I just truly believe that with that. That was one of those little things that just happened that really pushed me but that's what started it. And then that kind of evolved into a bait sponsorship. We launched googan baits which is our soft plastic, you know, worms, prophets, invitations, that kind of real big bass fishing stuff. You know, I mean, like everybody has a pack of worms if you're a back bass fish, for sure. And so when Google started that, you know, I was one of the sponsors that they paid to use their words and their their baits and then I kept rolling the whole time. That's the thing you got to keep got to keep growing your app kept on kept growing, became more and more relevant in the fishing YouTube space. And then that led to you know, a full blown spotlight. Last year, and then that led to them letting me actually officially join the googan squad this year. So, you know, it was just a combination of them just knowing who I was. And then me just busting my ass the last three years to make sure I stay relevant and keep the views up, keep the content flowing and make myself a valuable asset to them, which I think I've done and I think they think I've done because they want to keep me around for a little bit.

 

Brad  

Yeah, there's no doubt about that. There's no doubt about that. I couldn't imagine the goon squad without you now and I feel pretty confident for a number of reasons saying that they everyone there feels the same way. I got one important fishing question for you. So if money is no object and your your, let's just say your bass fishing, what's what's the rod reel bait combination that that you're going to use?

 

LOJO  

Okay, let's see. Well, I don't know if you noticed or not, but we actually just launched googan rods which is a nice way for me to plug the fact that we just we make rods now but but we do make rods now that we collaborated with a company called catch code to make our rods so the fact that we make our own rods I don't want to use anything else you want to me because it's something that we help design aid so forget money. I'm definitely using a Google rod you know, but like let's just say a seven foot three medium heavy fast action. I don't know how into this you are but let's

 

Brad  

get let's let's talk details up.

 

LOJO  

So bait, I would definitely go with a Google baked slim shake one, not because I work for them. But because I have caught more bass on the Google baked slim shape form note no BS, I caught more bass on that day. And I've caught on any other bait that are used. I don't know what it is about that particular one. Maybe the shape, but I would not I mean year round, you can catch fish on that day. This is simple little Texas rig. And then real. I mean, honestly doesn't even matter. You know what I mean? Like you could get yourself a Shimano because they're nice. If money is no object, they're the most expensive one, but they're pretty dang nice. We are making real soon to you, by the way, but that won't be here for a couple years probably.

 

Brad  

Alright, so some people can look forward to something that's something to aspire to in the future here for sure. Well, just a few questions here. before we let you go here LoJo. So first question is, obviously you've been tremendously successful, we've talked about a lot of different aspects of that we've talked about, you know, being humble, we've talked about, you know, we're working hard, we're talking about being willing to take a chance betting on yourself. But what I want to understand from your perspective is, what is your defining personal characteristic that makes you you? So if you had to choose one personal characteristic, what would it be?

 

LOJO  

You put me on the spot here, Brad, that's that's deep introspective question. And let me just say, I hate I hate I hate I hate talking about myself. Like, as far as like, you know, I'm really good at this. I'm really good at that. I hate doing that. But since you asked a question, I would have to go back to something you talked about earlier in this podcast. And that was just, I don't know what you call it, you know, like, I call it being hard headed. But you could also call that being extremely determined, right? You could call that being driven, you could call you could you could put 100 different positive spins on the fact that I'm just incredibly hard headed. And so what that does, for me how that works, is because if I see something in the creative areas of my brain, I see some piece of content that I want to make, I can't rest until I make that piece of content. So what that does is it just allows me to just constantly be collecting, filming editing new content, that's really the name of the game with what we do. Um, I never realized that I had any kind of talent to be on camera, like how do you find that out as a person you don't know. Nobody wants to be in front of camera, right? Except for like actors in Hollywood. But apparently, if you put a camera in front of my face, I don't shrivel up and die. You know, I just kind of talk and have fun, and do whatever I'm going to do. So that helps me a ton. I never knew how to edit video, but I figured it out because I'm hard headed. And I wanted to learn so I taught myself how to do it. And so I guess just being driven this extremely driven man because I never satisfied with anything I do, whether it's a financial goal that I hit, or a YouTube growth goal that I hit and I've hit a bunch, but I'm not satisfied. I'm sitting here with you right now I'm not satisfied. You know, there's so much more I want to do, because I feel like I've been given such a crazy opportunity, but it's also a short lived opportunity. I feel like this whole YouTube fishing thing. Eventually it's gonna fizzle out and die, right? At least that's how I feel. You know, could be two, three years might be five. I don't know how much longer I can do this. So I feel like I've been given this gift but I have I have to work extremely hard right now. And we're cash yet, you know what I mean, so to speak. So I'm just frickin driven and I just every day every second, I'm just trying to think of ways to improve. And I really have to shut the old brain off to really enjoy my time with my family and stuff. I'm doing nothing, which I enjoyed that time too. But if it's Monday through Friday, you know, 6am to 6pm. I'm thinking about work, you know, for sure. You call that would you call it being driven? Would you call it hardheadedness? What would you call?

 

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