Ep134 - Amy Fleming and Gary Dawson

Transcript

Hello. This is your captain speaking from the Red Click control room with an important message. Whether you're tired of jumping through hoops for car insurance or just looking for the best deal in town, remember this, insurance that's easy, insurance that's quick. Whenever you need us, you just need to click. For our latest offers, visit redclick.ie. Redclick, insurance that just clicks. Generali Sigors Iraegis SAU Trading as Redclick and Generali is authorized by the general directors of insurance and pension funds in Spain and is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland for conduct of business rules. This isn't your average business podcast, and he's not your average host. This is the James Altucher show on the choose yourself network. Network. Today on the James Altiger Show. I sent out bikini photos and they invited me out to LA for a test shoot. I get a call 3 months later saying that my test shoot shoot was approved and they're publishing it for October centerfold. I'm like, oh, okay. How much do you get paid for that? I think it was 25,000. So you get $25,000. Everybody has seen you naked in this magazine now. What happens next? I wanted to do acting, so I started doing acting classes, and then I moved out to LA. And then was like, I need to find a manager and an agent. So I had a bunch of meetings. Every meeting, they were like, oh, you're branded as a playmate. You shouldn't do acting. That's what you are. You made the point that in one of your quotes, maybe you misquote a little bit, but you said basically, you can't talk s**t until you've lived through s**t. Mhmm. On the surface, it seems like everything you've ever wanted to happen has happened pretty easily. So what's some of the s**t that you've lived through? Are you hiring? Do you know where to post your job to find the best candidates? Well, finding great talent, as I well know, can be tough. Thankfully, with ZipRecruiter, you can post your job to 100 plus job sites with just one click. Find out today why ZipRecruiter has been used by businesses of all sizes to find the most qualified job candidates with immediate results. And right now, my listeners can post jobs on ZipRecruiter for free. That's right. Free. Just go to ziprecruiter.com/james. That's ziprecruiter.com/james. One more time, to try it for free, go to ziprecruiter.com/james. Special thanks to our sponsors today, The Power of Moments. Chip and Dan Heath, the New York Times best selling authors of Switch and Made the Stick, return with a groundbreaking new book, The Power of Moments. The Power of Moments explores why certain brief experiences can jolt us and elevate us and change us and how we can learn to create such extraordinary moments in our life and work. To download the first chapter of the book for free, visit the power of moments.com/james. Amanda Cerny, I'm so happy to have you on the podcast, but I have a confession to make. Oh, tell me. You're probably the ugliest person I've ever had on this podcast. I I don't know if people say that to you. It's like All the time, you know, and it sucks because I, you know, I thought, you know, you're somebody new. You're probably nice. But You probably want to impress me. Yeah. It comes back at me again. I dressed up for you. So It just doesn't work. Backfires. I need like, what do you what can you do? Does it look better? Nothing, apparently. So you have, there's so many different directions I can go, but I'm gonna start off with you got a you're a black belt in karate at the age of 11. That's a good start. Yeah. Does that mean we're gonna get to all your other stuff because it's really impressive. But does that mean at the age of 11 I mean, certainly, you would be able to beat me up at that point. I was But, like, would you could you beat anybody up with a black belt in karate? I thought I could. Like, you're you're not what I would consider, like, the Chuck Norris of karate people. So what could you do that like, what what what could you do if you ran into someone in the street and he was, like, threatening? I learned a lot of, defense and pressure points and board breaks. I'm sure if I can break a board, I probably could break something on him too. So Can you break his tables of, Yeah. We will try it after, for sure Good. With my head. So no. We don't wanna do that because you're actually incredibly smart, and I'm gonna describe why. You have 17,000,000 Instagram followers, which is huge. I have 34,000. So So good. It's 34,000 people. 1 is 2% of yours or less. I forget the percentages. My I gotta go back to math. You're okay at math. That helps. You have millions of YouTube followers, millions and millions of YouTube views. You had you really became a huge hit on Vine with tens of millions of views on your Vine. And a lot of it is because you would just do these funny comic Vines. Like, you're a comedian at heart. You got a comedian's soul, but at the same time, of course, you're extraordinarily beautiful. You were play you know, miss October 2011 in Playboy. Mhmm. So you have a lot of different directions you've gone, and I feel there's a cohesive strategy to it. Like, you it in articles and stuff, you always say, oh, I just started modeling as fun. But then that led to the Playboy, and that led to Instagram, Vine, YouTube. And now you're using all of this social media following to help in efforts like Puerto Rico or, other, you know, hurricane torn area areas, women's empowerment areas. And so what's going on? What do you do? Yeah. Well, I was And then I wanna find out how you did it because I it's not just looks. A lot of pretty people don't have 17,000,000 Yeah. No. Instagram followers. That was actually a big obstacle for me was being a pretty girl on trying to do comedy. You know? And, like, like like, the elephant in the room? Like, people say, oh, it's just because of Yeah. It looks. Yeah. Yeah. But then, you know, it's not true. So, you know, it's just people saying that because, like you said, there's so many beautiful models and girls out there that, you know, don't have that also. So I think it's finally I really started to grow when, you know, I was making consistent content and doing more comedy where people were tagging their friends and sharing it with their friends because it made them feel good and really just showing my personality more. Yeah. And I think I think you do it. So I've watched, a a lot of your videos, obviously. And, like, you have this one, freezing time. I forgot the title. When Oh, yeah. When you can freeze time. Mhmm. And, you freeze time because you're late for something, then you catch your boyfriend cheating, and then you you do all these things to make the YouTube video funny. What do what do you do? What's the what's the process? Like, you're you're it seems like you're creating every you're you're a creative. Right? So what do you do to create every day? Well, it's a lot because I'm producing content for Instagram, so that's, like, one minute comedic skits, and then one a day for my YouTube vlog channel, and then one a week from my YouTube main channel, which is longer form comedic skits. So that's, like, anywhere from 5 minutes on. And then I'm also doing content on Snapchat and Instagram story. Oh, you're you're, like, a top 5 influencer on Snapchat? Yeah. I don't even know what that means. Well, it's What's an influencer on Snapchat? It's somebody that has a lot of, you know, fans on the app. I started using Snapchat for my fan base more than I was using it for my friends. I was just doing, like, improv bedtime stories that were just ridiculous, so I started doing that every night when Snapchat first became a thing. And, then my audience really started to grow because Snapchat is one of the hardest platforms to grow on just because it's hard to discover people. It's hard to use that. To one rather than one to many. Yeah. Exactly. So but then I managed to grow a large following on there, and then I moved it to Instagram also, all starting on Vine. So I kind of, like, branched off into different categories. But And Vine, just so people don't know, was is a a a video platform where you can only have you only have 6 seconds. It was acquired by Twitter at some point. And, and now it's kind of been winding down. Like, I don't even know if they Oh, they they deleted it. Yeah. It is. It's all gone. But you could see collections of your Vines on YouTube though. Yeah. So how do you how do you be funny and creative in a 6 second Vine? Yeah. That was hard. Because you build up millions of followers, so, obviously, you're one of the best. So Yeah. I wanna be funnier. How do you do it in 6 seconds? It's just getting to the making sure there's a hard punch on it. Like, you tell a little bit of a story in the beginning and make sure it punches really good at the end. I've noticed for a lot of social media content, people have a lot of ADD, so it's you have to keep them entertained through every second of it. And if you do that though. Like and what you said about story, how do you tell a 6 second story? Yeah. It was actually video. It's, you know, it's like having a back and forth dialogue, almost like, a quick conversation with somebody, and you can do that in 6 seconds. There's actually it makes such a difference too. I remember when I was editing on Vine, and it went from 6 seconds, and then we found out that we can actually have 6.4 seconds, and that made a huge difference. That made our jokes even funnier, like, on the app. And people expected a certain type of comedy on the app too, so they didn't need a whole backstory. It has to be something very, like, either relatable or just ridiculous that people can laugh at. So So so, like like, right now, if we were to say, okay. Let's conceive of a 6 second video to do, that would be funny. Like, what would be the first things you'd start to think about? Well, Slapstick always works. So, I mean, like, we talk if you try to Yeah. Get a table. Yeah. With the karate, I could break the table and people will be entertained. So That would hurt you though. Yeah. Probably. But I've gotten hurt for Vines before, so it's okay. This is all over. Let's let's start at the beginning. Mhmm. You started modeling around age 15. Mhmm. And you've said repeatedly that you were just doing it for fun, but then, obviously, it turned into so many other things. Yeah. What happened? Like, how did I go to to Playboy? So I was actually at college at Florida State, and, you know, I was I had, like, 2 jobs at Florida State. I had to pay for my own college, and I was just I was a bartender and then also a waitress. So Did every single guy ask you out at the bar? Actually, they were all just drunk. I was in a college town, so they're all just wasted asking for drinks more than my number. But, and then I was at Florida State. There's so many beautiful girls at Florida State. But I was at at my apartment, and 2 of my friends at the same time, they randomly, like, out of nowhere, maybe they were together because it's so weird, they were like, oh, you should, you know, post for centerfold. And I'm like, what? Like, what is that? You guys are crazy. Like, that's not even on my list of things to do in life. And then I remembered, girls May I ask what did you wanna do in life? I wanted to be in the CIA. Why how come? Just because that's you know, my mom was involved in certain things when I was growing up and then, you know, it kind of inspired me just to be a part of the government. I probably watched too many action movies. So Hold on. My phone is ringing. I gotta shut it off. See, before, I made sure my cell phone was off. You're a pro. I don't even know how to turn my phone off is a problem. Yeah. I don't even know. Is that Samsung? Yeah. Alright. Hold on. We're keep by the way, we're recording this because my mistakes are Classic. Processes are. That's true. So That's true. Organic. So okay. So you sent out your photos? Yeah. So I sent out bikini photos that I had, and then, they emailed back, and they invited me out to LA for a test shoot. And it was my first time ever going to California. I've always wanted to go. So I was like, alright. You know? What what the heck? I'll go to LA. And if anything, like, we take test shoot photos and they don't use them because I won't get picked. And then I come back to Florida State after, and then I get a call, like, 3 months later saying that my test shoot was approved and they're publishing it for October centerfold. I'm like, oh, okay. And do you get paid how much do you get paid for that? I think it was 25,000. That was so amazing. Like, you were, like, a bartender. Yeah. So I was like, this is awesome because I was running starting to run low on my money too because I saved a bunch in, high school because I worked, like, 3 jobs when I was in high school. And I had a bunch saved up, but then I invested some too. So I was running low on my my bank account, so I needed to, you know, get some money quick. So that actually really helped me. And so you get $25,000. Yeah. You're on everybody has seen you naked in this magazine now. What happens next? You're walking around campus. I call dad. I'm like, I just flew out to LA, and I, they are publishing my centerfold. He's like, what? I thought you wanted to work for the government. And then I'm like, yeah. But, you know, things happen. So here we go. And then my mom was super stoked. So I ended up, I was ahead in college at the time, so I had, like, a semester left. But then I left to go to Miami just you know, I'm like, I'm not gonna do that goal of working in the government anymore, I don't think. So let me go to Miami. And you're like, I agree with this, but you didn't finish college. No. Because what's the point? Yeah. So I was international business. So, I mean, I learned I actually learned so much more outside of college than I did when I was there. Like, when I was there, it was partying or going to the gym 2 times a day and working just some Two times a day? Yeah. Because The gym? I was in Tallahassee. What else are you gonna do? I I need to start going once a day. Oh, well, join me. Gotta start. We'll go today after this. Alright. And then so you moved down to Miami? Yep. And then I started doing live EDM event hosting, so I'd be, like, the one at the live festival just on the stage hosting EDM events and stuff. And I was like, that's not really for me, so I wanted to do more acting. So I started taking acting classes, and then this is like, when is it, 2017? So this is like 6 years ago. And then, so I started doing acting classes and then I moved out to LA because I was already back and forth so much for work. And then when I moved to LA, I was like, I need to find a manager and an agent. So I had a bunch of meetings, and then every meeting, they were like, oh, you're branded as a playmate. Like, shouldn't do acting. Like, that's what you are. And I'm like This is this is a huge problem, and and I know you'll agree, is that gatekeepers, almost by definition, they they do their job and they pay their bills, and they have to and there's a role for them, but they're not gonna get what you do by by definition because what you do is gonna be creative and unique. Yeah. And they're gonna they know what they can monetize. They don't know that you're beyond that. Mhmm. And so you have to that's when you have to sort of choose yourself how you're going to create a dynamic career that's unique to you. Exactly. No. It taught me a lot that, you know, you can't rely on others to help you. You have to kind of, like, do it yourself, and then from there, you'll attract people around you, you know, that'll help elevate. What was so so you realize that. Were you sad? No. I was kind of, like, inspired a little bit just to, you know, prove people wrong. I it's such a cliche thing, but it's true. You know? People tell you no. You're like, oh, okay. Yes. I'm gonna do that. But they basically and I didn't have, like, a proper reel, so I had friends that did, YouTube, and was like, if you need me for anything, for any of your skits, anytime of the day, just let me know. I'll be in it. I'll work for free. I don't care. And, there was an app also coming out at the time before I could shoot, like, the YouTube skits, and I started making, like, content on the app just because I didn't really know how to edit. So Vine was perfect for me. It was just editing within the app. You can't edit outside the app. You had to post on the platform. So I just started making these silly videos all the time, and then people started to actually enjoy them and watch them. I mean, I look back at my first videos and What was the first one that, like, totally took off? Oh gosh. I think it was one about breaking up with your boyfriend. So it was like me posting on Twitter, I just broke up with my boyfriend, and then all of a sudden, there was, like, a guy next to me. There was a guy with, like, you know, an oversized boot next to me and the guy, like, popping up behind me just, like, all, like, coming in and just, like, invading my space because now I'm single. So it's like a relatable thing Yeah. That you make, you know, comedic. So And and, you know, as you're you're building this so suddenly now I mean, like, the average TV show maybe gets, I don't know, a few 1000000 listeners or views or or watchers. Mhmm. And suddenly, your Vines and and then your YouTubes were getting, you know, millions and millions each one, and you could just produce them whenever you wanted. Yeah. So, suddenly, you're bigger than any TV show out there, which is what you had been initially aiming for. Mhmm. You kinda proved that picking your own way is the is the right way. And then and then, of course, you switched that to Instagram, which I think now is probably I mean, maybe Snapchat is for you, but Instagram seems like so much engagement versus any other platform right now. I agree For sure. I mean, Snapchat used to be the largest for, you know, just posting stories, like, content every day that disappears in 24 hours. Like, that was Snapchat. But then, of course, Instagram comes along and makes it, you know, bigger, better version of it. So, of course, that audience is gonna be way bigger than the one on Snapchat. So, I mean, I post on Bo Sail just because I still have a large audience on Snapchat, and I don't wanna neglect that, but I focus a lot more on my Instagram. And, then it seems like you then you're always leveraging one thing into the next Yeah. Based on your own interests, and you and you do seem to have, obviously, some some business sense. Like, you created, or you worked with somebody to create, an agency on how you can use this newfound influence, and other people can use their their newfound social media influence to sort of spread messages or be hired to spread messages. Like, how did you come up with that? Yeah. Just because I've had a lot of friends even and just people coming up to me and just, hey. Can you put me in your video and help me grow? I wanna be a singer, or I wanna be a chef, or I wanna be this. So I'm like, alright. This is something that I work so hard on every single day for the past, you know, 5 years, and I just and literally every day working. But now it's like, okay. If I put somebody and I've noticed too. If I put somebody on my platform, they grow a lot, And I'm completely fine with doing that and helping people, but there's such a business in that as well. And, you know, finding super talented artists, whether it be, like, a street artist or, you know, a musician, and then giving them a platform to grow on, whether it be my social media, a whole network of influencers, and then a team on the back end to help them grow traditionally and grow their business and really help them get a proper team around them because that was, like, one of the largest struggles I had in, you know, growing so fast too was that I didn't know who to put on my team. I didn't know the difference between manager agency fully. I didn't, like, have the best, like I didn't have a videographer. I was doing it all on a tripod. So now I can be more productive with my time, and it's helping influencers with that as well. And how's how's it going? Great. Yeah. We started, like, 3 months ago, and there's a lot of people submitting to be a part of it, so it's exciting, and it's kind of my own casting process now. But, it's cool because now I get to even involve my friends that are super talented also. Let's stop to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Are you hiring? Do you know where to post your job to find the best candidates? Well, finding great talent can be tough. Thankfully, with ZipRecruiter, you can post your job to 100 plus job sites with just one click, then their powerful technology efficiently matches the right people to do your job better than anyone else. That's why ZipRecruiter is different. Unlike other job sites, ZipRecruiter doesn't depend on candidates finding you. It finds them. In fact, 80% of employers who post a job on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate through the site within just 24 hours. No juggling emails or calls to your office. Simply screen, rate, and manage candidates all in one place with ZipRecruiter's easy to use dashboard. Find out today why ZipRecruiter has been used by businesses of all sizes to find the most qualified job candidates with immediate results. And right now, my listeners, that means you, can post jobs on ZipRecruiter for free. That's right. Free. Just go to ziprecruiter.com/james. That's ziprecruiter.com/james. One more time, to try it for free, go to ziprecruiter.com/james. Chip and Dan Heath, the New York Times best selling authors of Switch and Made to Stick, and now they've got a new book, The Power of Moments. The Power of Moments explores why certain brief experiences can jolt us and elevate us and change us in how we can learn to create such extraordinary moments in our life and work. Research in psychology teaches us that our memories are not like films that we can simply rewind and watch from beginning to end. They're more like snapshots or snippets, fragments. And we cling to particular minutes or hours that rise above the surrounding weeks months, tending to remember only the best, worst, or last moment of an experience. These defining moments in our lives are often just the result of accident. So why leave our most meaningful moments to chance when we can actually create them? What if a manager, for instance, knew exactly how to turn an employee's moment of failure into a moment of growth? What if you could create memories that matter for your children? To download the first chapter of the book for free, visit the power of moments.com/james. That's the power of moments.com/james. One thing I learned from your experience is you also bring yourself up when you're around other people who are constantly trying to bring themselves up. So you, like, even live with a group of people who are up and come not even up and coming, but they're superstars on YouTube already. Yeah. And you guys cross pollinate and do videos together or or you know, how did that come about? Well, that was, like, just by friendships. Like, because on Vine, there was a top 50, and everybody knew each other because we see each other's content on their popular page every day. And there was, my friend Logan Paul lived in Ohio, and he was like, I wanna come to LA. We never met each other before, but we see each other every day on this app, and we all keep in touch and post and talk about, like, complications with the app or whatever, so we all would communicate. And then so he just stayed in my guest bedroom for 2 weeks, went back to Ohio, came back, stayed with his dad at my apartment. His dad slept on my couch for another week looking for a place. So it becomes like this community of people, and then my my best friend, King Bach lived in this building in 1600 Vine, ironically. It wasn't planned. He lived there for, like, 6 years already, and then, we would always go there and shoot. And he was, like, at the top of Vine at the time, so everybody and he he's just awesome. So everybody would come and collaborate, and then, eventually, all of us just started moving there because it was more convenient. And then we had pretty much like it's, you know, a production going on in just the entire building to the point where the building doesn't even allow anybody to film anymore or take pictures or, like And I think it's so dumb because we branded that entire building, and so many new influencers have moved in just to be able to make content with, like, the influencers that live there. And, see, that's such an interesting, huge world now, this world of influence on these social media platforms. Like, if some random TV show on a random network were to call you and say, hey, can you play this bit part? You would probably say no. Like, why would you do it? You're already huge in every in all these different platforms. That's the interesting part because I started because I love acting, and that's, you know, something that I was passionate about and really wanted to do. And now, in the beginning with being an influencer still, I had another, like, obstacle to get over was, oh, you're just a social media influencer, like, talentless social media influencer. We don't care about you guys. Why do you think people feel the need to say, oh, it's just because you're a playboy, whatever, or, oh, it's just because you're on social media. You didn't really pay your dues. Yeah. You know, why do people why do you think people feel the need to do that? I think it's because it's out of the norm. Like, it's not you know, especially the the Internet is, like, the Wild West for content. So right now, it's companies are moving more and more into the Internet and becoming way more accepting of influencers or talent that has, you know, became relevant online. So, like, 3 years ago, when I would meet with directors or producers just, you know, because I had, like, 4,000,000 on Vine at the time. I was like, okay. That's a lot of people. Like, you know, let me meet with these producers. Maybe they'll wanna put me in their movies because I have, like, a whole network of people behind me. And then at that time, everybody was like, no. We're good, but here's a a link to our movie. We can pay you to promote it. And I'm like, that's dumb because, like, people like things that are organic. Like, if you put an influencer in your movie, then you have them promote it, then the audience is gonna come. But and so it started off like that, but now it's to the point where production companies are now giving me budgets to produce my own series or, like, pitching a pilot to Netflix. So it's like Would you even do that, though? Because, like, you could do a pilot on your own YouTube channel. It's so true, but it's it's a bit confusing though because there's I have my own channel that I'll always produce content for because, you know, I've had fans that have grown with me from the beginning, but then also there's a whole other fan base on, say, Netflix that they that they have. So it's almost like a collaboration. Right. So the more that I do with brands that are going to grow my brand and elevate me, then, you know, I should. Like, even now I'm doing a campaign with Guess. And instead of, like, starting my own athletic wear, like, I'm partnering with Guess, and we're launching this, ath athletic wear campaign, like, in February. And so then you'll use your various platforms to kind of you'll be wearing the clothes and Yeah. Doing things. Yeah. Because I've always wore the brand, and I genuine genuinely love it. Like and now I get free guest clothes too, so I'm stoked. Like So so in one of your quotes, I'll maybe misquote a little bit, but you said, basically, you know, all there's a lot of, I would say, fake social media influencers. They they I'll be one of the haters for a second. Like, they kinda got up there through through various means, and they have 20,000,000 whatever. And but you you've made the point that you can't, talk s**t until you've lived through s**t. Mhmm. And what did you mean by that? Because on the surface, it seems like everything you've ever wanted to happen has happened pretty easily. Mhmm. So what's some of the s**t that that you've lived through? Well, I think, you know, I have been able to reach my goals, but I think it's being able to put up with the s**t. You know? It's like seeing it, not getting depressed or discouraged by it, and letting it instead just inspire you. So How do you do that? Because, like, most people, when they get rejected, they they throw all their hopes, like, oh my gosh. I hope this x y z, you know, big production company says yes to me. And then they say no, and they get depressed because they thought that was their only outlet for success. I think it's just knowing that there's never one outlet. Like, it's just That's key. Yeah. Because this one person will say no, the next person will say hell yes, or then one person says no, 10 other people say no, and then there's that one person that'll believe in you. Or even just yourself. I mean, now we're in a time where you can make your own company. You can grow your own business online. You can you don't you can be your own boss. So it's, you know, something I'm really excited about because now I'm able to control my content still. I haven't sold myself to anybody. I'm still in charge of every single platform, so and now I get to work with others as collaborations that are larger companies. So working with others that it's a 1 +1 equals 3. We're in every situation. Being able to not get discouraged with the gatekeepers so that you can go off and find like you say, there's many there's always another outlet, and and finding the ways to be creative in that outlet. But not just one. Explore all of them. I think if you just did one, you would have been in trouble. Because if you had just relied on Vine, and now Vine's dead, where would you be? You kind of always leveraged from one to the other. That's why I was actually, your your answer on Netflix is really good. That okay. That's a whole new audience. Happy to explore that. Mhmm. And there's gonna be new platforms that haven't even been developed yet that that you'll probably eventually think about. Then leveraging that on a business side to say, okay. Well, I can I realize I can help create, and others may put you almost as a gatekeeper, but why not? If that's you know, you have that experience, why not help people and and make money off of it? So it seems like you're always doing you know, building up an expertise and then leveraging that into the next thing. Let's say I'm sitting at let's say I'm sitting at a cubicle listening to this, and so I'm thinking to myself all the usual things, which is, okay. Well, she's young, and she had a lot of time. She had that Playboy experience which launched her, which is not gonna happen to me. She has time every day to get up and create 4 different videos for each different platform, and then, launch the careers of one of her friends or whatever. What would you say to somebody who's what what would you say to me? Okay. I'm I'm 49. I would like to make a bunch of videos and start building a following. And I already have something based on this podcast, but not obviously yours. So what what is the next step for anybody who wants to start? Well, first, I would say it's putting down the excuses. Like, there's always everybody has an excuse for anything. I've been told no for pitching ideas, like, still, and I don't let it, you know, be like all that stuff. Time you were told no? Probably, like, 3 days ago. What what happened? Well, it was about I had this idea where I wanted to do this show but have it based around, like, in in Europe, and I pitched it to different producers and stuff. And then we had a conference call, and they were like, no. Concept isn't good. Not doing it. And I'm like, well, like, alright. But you could easily launch your own Yeah. Thing and For sure. But it's nice to have some it's always still nice to have someone say yes, give you a little bit of money, make it easier, get their production team in, and so on. Yeah. But now it's like now I'm working, but it's also a learning process. Like, if you're going in thinking that you know everything and that you're perfect and, you know, you're the best, like, yeah, have that confidence, but also know that take critiques from people and constructive criticism. Like, if they're telling me no, I'm gonna be like, okay. Cool. Like, but why? Like, tell me Did you ask that? Yeah. And for sure, it's it's so helpful. Like, every step of my career I've asked or I've gotten opinions on my videos from friends. I'm like, tell me the truth. Like, what do you think of this? Like, be harsh with me because it's and then I read all my comments on social media, which are the biggest critiques sometimes, but now It's so hard to do because who I used to read stuff, but then you ask yourself, who's the kind of person who's commenting on a YouTube video? Yeah. But I guess maybe it is sometimes use you're the first person I ever heard say it's actually useful to read those. I love yeah. Well, I love it because, I mean, you can get angry. You just have to kind of just silence the the hate on there and just only look at the things and and not just look at the love on there, but, like, look at, you know, well structured sentences on, like, you know, what I could do better because people are actually constructive on there. Like, they'll be like, Amanda, I love you, but this was s**t. Like, you know, it's like And what have you learned? Like, what's what's some of the biggest things you've learned in the creative process Mhmm. In these videos? Timing is everything. Making it entertaining, all the What does that mean? Like, just for me because I do comedy. Sorry. Yeah. I should've specified. I do comedy, so comedic timing, and the punch. The punch always has to be the biggest and the largest at the end of your video. Like, it can't be like a a traditional movie where you have, like, the climax in the middle and then it's just like so it's it's a little different. But then also, being true to your own voice. Like, I was getting so busy to the point of, like, creating all these ideas every day that one day I was like, I don't have an idea for today. Like, I'm like, what do I do? And then I was like, okay. I'll just maybe work with some different writers and stuff. That way I can, you know, be more productive with my time. I did that for, like, a week and it was the worst experience ever just because for my content, it's short form and it's super organic to, you know, myself, so people can tell if it's, you know, if it's not me and if it doesn't punch the same way and it's a different style of writing than that, like, TV series would be. So it just it didn't work for me, so I had to What's a good example of, like, a punch at the end? I don't know. Maybe, like, a punch at the end is, like, your strongest joke. So it's either heightened energy, like, that helps too. Like, you should have the most energy at the end or just, like, awkward silences always work too. Just it depends what your your comedy is. I like that awkward silences work also. Yeah. They do. Okay. So if you were gonna do this is a stupid idea. If you were gonna do what we talked about earlier, like, use your head to, like, break open the I'm not gonna ask you to do this, by the way. If you were gonna use your head to, like, try to break open this table, what would be an example punch at the end there? I get knocked out. I mean, that's classic comedy, though. I I try to do stuff now too that has, like, you know, a a double punch, like, or a twist at it, like, you know, not what the audience would expect. And I think that's so important. Like, you know, if I were to hit my head on this table, the audience would expect me to just be knocked out. But if I hit my head on this table, a piece of the table flies up, hits you, you get knocked out, and I'm fine and oblivious to it. You know, the audience wouldn't really expect that as much. But Okay. So the the unexpected at the end. Yeah. So we've talked about kind of this very direct, you know, go from platform to platform, build up, and then business, but you also have various charitable efforts happening. Like, you're doing stuff for Puerto Rico given the the recent hurricane. What's Yeah. What are you doing, and how do you do it? Well, yeah. I've just I mean, I got inspired because I was watching CNN. I was like, holy s**t. Like, it is bad over there. There's they're without power. There's hospitals hospitals being run on generators with no fuel. I think a generator just they completely ran out of fuel, and 200 people in the hospital died. Like, it's it's really bad. And So many homes destroyed. Like, a lot of homes were just shacks and just entire portions of Puerto Rico are just, like, gone. I know. And I I'm from Florida, so the keys got hit really bad also, but, you know, Puerto Rico is just a whole another level of just, like, horrible. And they're not getting, like, the help that they need, but now people are finally starting to contribute. The government's helping, like and people are really inspired to help. And, you know, I got inspired when I was watching one of the mayors speak on CNN, and she was just in tears just, like, begging for help. So I have a strong platform. I have, like we said, 17,500,000 on Instagram and across all my other platforms too. I'm posting and I get, like, 3,000,000 opens on my Instagram story of posts. And so it's like I have a lot of people that are seeing my content, and I was like, yeah. I should go around New York City and just, like, take pictures all day and, like, post, like, fun content and cool photos and do a comedic skit in the in Times Square or something. But then I'm like, or I could just make take a selfie video right now, tell people to go donate, have meetings with, you know, the right people here. And, like, I have me some meetings set up today to deciding on, like, how we're gonna, like, invest the money or, like, spend the money in into charitable causes, whether it's partnering with, another organization or bringing volunteers out there, even me going there. So it's, like, just figuring out the best way to spend it once you raise all the funds. So So let's say people are listening to this and they wanna help. What's the best way to directly help through you? The best way is just going to www.gofundme.comforward/powerangels Puerto Rico. So that'll bring you to the GoFundMe page. You can put a donation there. All proceeds are going directly to the cause. Nobody's making money off it. It's super safe. Like, I have a bunch of celebrity friends and other influencers helping me promote it as well, and we're gonna make this awesome compilation video and just, like, do something good with the power of social media because it's so strong. Have you considered, living in Puerto Rico? Not right now. No taxes? No federal taxes? That would be amazing because California is Crazy. 13%. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I'm like, can I be a Florida resident? So I need to go to Florida more. I'm going to. I gotta visit mom more. So so, Amanda, thanks so much. Well, this this podcast is a little shorter than usual because, we're both was late. Well, I got I got here late as well. We're gonna blame it on Steve, the producer, because Oh, great. He should've told everybody to start getting here an hour earlier than they did. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's your fault. Your fault, Steve. You. Yeah. There he is. Do better. Yeah. Steve, you heard it from her. She she just told 17 and a half 1000000 followers that you need to do better. I wanna do a project with you somehow. We gotta figure that out. What are you next to New York? I don't know. I can come whenever. I mean, a 4 hour flight 4 and a half hour flight is nothing for me. So set it up. Do do stand up comedy? No. Well, I own part of a stand up comedy club. You should do stand up there or try, and it'll be great. Oh my gosh. And then we could do that as a benefit for Puerto Rico. See now yeah. Now I have to do it. That is so intimidating, by the way. Respect. I go up 6 times a week. That's amazing. Sometimes. That is confidence to get on that stage and I But you but you do it too. So are you doing a video every single day? So you're engaged in the process, and not every video is gonna be great. You're gonna have some that don't work out. Yep. And are you able to balance the hate when it doesn't work out? Do you feel do you ever feel like, that video didn't work out, or 5 videos in a row didn't work out? I I losing confidence. Well, there's a plus, a positive, and a negative to this, but, I post content every day, so people are consuming so much content every day. I'll have a video that'll get 25,000,000 views in, you know, a few days on Instagram and then That's incredible. Yeah. It's it's exciting, but that means that I did that video well because people are tagging their friends as being shared more and featured. But then depressed if you do a video that you thought was good, but it only gets 1,000,000 views? Not depressed. I'm like, oh, well, that didn't work. Like, it's more of, like like I said, the learning process, and that's what keeps me motivated is to know that I'm always learning. Like, if I do one and it didn't work, but I still thought it was funny and I still think it's funny, I'm gonna keep it on my page. I don't really delete anything. So I keep it up there and then I'll get feedback, whatever it's even if it's negative feedback, people forget about content or situations so easily. Like, if I post a video that people don't enjoy as much, the next day if I post a video that's amazing, everybody thinks is hilarious, they're gonna forget about that video I posted the day before. So just because there's so much content happening online. You know, that exact advice I heard from only one other person is a YouTube rapper, Mac Lethylf. Do you know who he is? No. He says he's really super fast raps. He's been on Ellen Ford. He did, like, the ABCs of rap. You you almost can't it's almost like a 1,000 tongue twisters he raps right through. Wow. And he gets millions of views on his YouTube videos, and he said that too. He said, sometimes I do one that's bad. I worked really hard on it, but everybody forgets that once you do the next thing that's good. Yeah. Because that's what he just focuses on. Mhmm. So what's one more piece of, like, creative learning that you've experienced along the way? Yeah. I think be supportive also. You know? It's such a community once you get more and more into the entertainment space and the creative world. Like, there's so many people that are doing acting or doing, you know, I don't know, doing charities, but instead of being in competition with those people and, like, negative competition, you can totally be in competition with those people, but, you know, support each other at the same time. Like, even now, like, I'm doing my charity, but I have my friends doing another charity called Love Army, and I I've helped with them in Somalia and, like, now we're doing stuff in Mexico. So I'm doing my own also, but I'm still supporting theirs. So for me, I've noticed collaborations help so much and it's just building relationships with people and being kind, being honest, and being genuine and organic with your work is what's really gonna get you far. What do you mean by organic with your work? Just staying true to what you like to do, what's fun for you, and what you're passionate about. Because the minute you start to do something just because everybody else is doing it, you're never gonna grow. Like, if you're doing, I don't know, say you're doing action videos and you wanna be a singer, like, you're not gonna grow because people are gonna see right through that and be like, okay. She's like you you can only do that for so long and it can't be consistent. And being a comedic actor seems to be a passion of yours, and you're able to create it using your own outlets, essentially. So what what who are your who are your influences on, like, comedy and acting or writing? You know, these things. Or Well, I was my best friend, King Bach, he's amazing. Like, he's really funny, and he's taught me a lot too when we were back in Vine days when we were, like, making all the videos and stuff. He was always super helpful. Back in the day, 2 years ago? Yeah. Well, I think I was, like, 4 years ago. Yeah. Maybe you're right. Yeah. It's getting Beau Burnham also. Great, Yeah. He's videos. So Great Vines. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He was on Vine too. And Chris, Delia. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. And he's hilarious also. I mean, a lot of people were doing Vine and Shawn Mendes was doing it, and now he's he's like this an amazing singer, and he's very well known solely for singing now. So and it's funny. People Vine was such a strong, app at the time that people even still now call the videos that I do. Oh, I love that Vine you did on Instagram. It's amazing. I'm like, it's not really a Vine anymore because the ad's dead, but How long is the Instagram video? 1 minute. 1 minute? Okay. So this gives you a lot more Yeah. To play with. Maybe too much. Maybe now it seems like forever. That's like an epic. Yeah. But it's actually it's addicting because now it's like you want more time to play with. So Okay. But here, like, given that, it's only a minute, and let's say you have a story to tell, sometimes that might be a too little time. Yeah. How do you really express a whole story in a minute? It's the editing process. It's cutting it down, and it's like after you make so many too, you know how much of a storyline you can get in. So it's you kind of plan for it. Okay. So if I make a bunch of 1 minute videos, will you give me commentary on them? Yes. And then I'll do an extra podcast just about your commentary. That'll be fun. Yes. Well, Amanda Cerny, check her out everywhere. I don't even you could you just Google, cerny Amanda. You're gonna find all of her platforms. No problem. Including ways to donate to Puerto Rico and other causes. I'm gonna donate, so I'm gonna take the proceeds of this podcast and donate them. So Amazing. Thanks again for I it was very short notice that we got you on, so thanks for coming. Yeah. Will you come on again? For sure. Excellent. Definitely. And I forgot to say, rest in peace to Hef because we did talk about, you know, you being a Playmate, that happened recently. Well, then I wanna ask you. Yeah. How did you given that you were, you know, miss October 2011, how did you stay out of the scene that many women get caught up in around the Playboy Mansion? Yeah. I didn't live there, so that helps. Did they want you to live there? No. I mean, they like, whenever I was coming back and forth between LA and Miami, they're like, oh, if you ever wanna, like, stay and you could be here, but for me, it's like I've that was, you know, kind of a platform that it helped me come out to Los Angeles. Didn't necessarily help me in how I've grown myself in acting. It kind of was more of an obstacle, if anything, but it helped me get to LA where I I need to be. So So sometimes you need that foot in the door Yeah. And then you need to know what to do with it. Exactly. So because they're not gonna they're not gonna do it for you. No. I've yeah. I immediately I started with the company and immediately did the most elite thing that you could do, and there's not much growing from there. Gosh. You know, I wish we have so much I have I have other questions for you. So, okay, I have a a daughter. She's 18. She's she's just starting to study acting, but she did it all childhood. What should she do? I keep trying to tell her, ignore the gatekeepers. It's not the standard path anymore, particularly when 100 of millions of your peers are in all these other outlets except movies and TV. I mean Yeah. I watch YouTube videos every day. I never go to the movies anymore. Nobody does. No. So what what should a young person do who's listening to this? Well, if she your daughter wants to be an actress? Yeah. So I would say, you know, go to the film schools, find people around her that wanna be DPs and wanna be directors and wanna and create a team around yourself that you can make solid content, a community of people, a group of people where you can do skits with. It's like it's like an SNL almost, but even if she wants to do more dramatic stuff, make that content with a team of friends. I love that, creating your own SNL, which is essentially what Lorne Michaels did, but he had the platform of NBC to do it on. Mhmm. But that's essentially all he did is he just got his friends and and put together this show. Yep. Now you to do that too, though, you need a certain amount of charm and charisma and persuasion. So that's those are important skills to learn. For sure. You have to convince people to buy into your vision. Or just find a friend that's convincing. Yeah. And be like, hey. I wanna do this. Can you convince people to do this with me and be a part of it? And then the convincing friend will help you. Well, you convinced me, so thanks once again. Of course. Thanks for having me. For more from James, check out the James Altiger Show on the choose yourself network at jamesaltiger.com, and get yourself on the free insiders list today. Hey, everyone. Thanks so much for listening to this episode. I really hope you enjoyed the show. Before you go, I wanted to just say thank you to everyone who has rated and reviewed this podcast on Itunes. It means a lot to me and I'm grateful for your support.