Treasures of our Town
Embark on an exhilarating voyage through the heart of America's captivating towns and cities with the enthralling travel podcast, "Treasures of our Town." Join your experienced hosts, Craig (Seemyshell) and Joshua (Geocaching Vlogger), as they unveil the hidden gems and extraordinary treasures that lie beyond the surface.
Delve into a world of cultural exploration as our hosts guide you through historical sites, natural splendours, and extraordinary local experiences. All their travels are guided by their love of outdoor games like Geocaching and Munzee. Whether you're a seasoned globetrotter or a curious beginner, our captivating city tours and off-the-beaten-path destinations will ignite your wanderlust and leave you inspired.
Are you ready for an unforgettable adventure? Tune in now and prepare to immerse yourself in the allure of "Treasures of our Town." Let us ignite your curiosity, fuel your desire for exploration, and set your spirit free as we unravel the secrets that make each town a true treasure trove.
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Website - www.treasuresofourtown.buzzsprout.com
Email - treasuresofourtownpodcast@gmail.com
Treasures of our Town
The SHORTEST Travel Tours on the internet! - w/ John from Oneminutetours
Our listeners are in for a treat as we welcome John O’Sullivan, the mastermind behind One Minute Tours. John shares his journey as a tour guide and how he transitioned this experience into compelling short-form content that highlights the hidden gems of Minnesota and beyond. We discuss his approach to storytelling, the significance of connecting with local history, and the exciting launch of his new TV show, "Hidden Middle."
• Exploring the essence of quick storytelling in travel content
• The importance of humor and connection in tours
• John’s journey to becoming a content creator
• A dive into Minnesota’s rich history
• An introduction to “Hidden Middle” and its mission
• Encouraging community support for emerging media initiatives
One Minute Tours
Hidden Middle
SMS Productions
Do you believe in the Alexandria rune stone, the stone that was found on the field that makes us believe that possibly Vikings, real Vikings, came to Minnesota? Do you believe in it, or is it a hoax? John, what do you think? Do you love to travel? Do you love to travel?
Speaker 3:Do you love road trips?
Speaker 1:Do you love finding hidden treasures in towns all over the USA? Hi, I'm Joshua.
Speaker 3:And I'm Craig. Welcome to Treasures of Our Town. It's a podcast that explores unique and charming towns scattered throughout the United States.
Speaker 1:Guided by our love for location-based games like geocaching, join us as we venture into some of the country's most intriguing destinations, uncovering hidden gems and local secrets along the way and on today's episode, josh.
Speaker 3:This is. This is your guy. This is your friend. You've done collaborations with this guy too. His name is john and he does these what would you call travel tours of some degree, all within one minute. One minute. How do you get that? We're going to ask him actually exactly how he gets all that information down to a minute. But anyway, that's who's on today's show. Thank you, josh.
Speaker 1:I'm very excited. He's a great guy. He's a fellow Minnesotan. But get this, craig, he is also, for you, a fellow Australian. What How's? He a fellow Australian, australian. What how's your fellow?
Speaker 2:australian he has dual citizenship.
Speaker 1:He's, his wife is australian and he went through the whole process and he is also an australian so he's gonna understand me when I ask him questions. This is good. I hope so. I hope so. Yeah, I I believe his, his, his partner is an aussie, so wow, yeah, he's gonna, he's going to connect just great with you, I'm sure.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I'm going to ask you some hard-hitting questions, if that's the case then as well, like where is she from and her accent whereabouts it is? So that'd be cool. That'd be cool, mate, absolutely.
Speaker 1:First of, all, Craig, I want to say to you happy new year. Happy new year to you too, Josh. Happy New Year, Happy New.
Speaker 3:Year to you too, Josh.
Speaker 1:Happy New Year. It's 2025. And not only that, Craig, but this is our 50th 5-0 episode.
Speaker 3:It is too. 50 episodes, 50 episodes, that's a lot of talking back and forth.
Speaker 1:Josh, I know that's a lot of time spent together. Like each episode is like roughly an hour, so that's a lot of time spent together. Like each episode is like roughly an hour, so that's 50 hours. That's a that's a strong work week together not for australians.
Speaker 3:That's a work week and a half in australia, just let you know. Because, yeah, our work week isn't we? We maximum in australia 40 hour work weeks, 40 hours. Oh wow, what are you you have? You have got more hours here than you in the US.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, we work hard here in the US.
Speaker 3:Well, I wouldn't say hard, you work. But no, I don't know if it's hard or not, but anyway, mate, yes, congratulations, 50 episodes. What's your takeaway on the 50? Because I mean, let's be honest, If people, if they've been listening to us since the start, we everyone knows that josh really wasn't too keen on getting a podcast together, but now you've got a podcast, now you've got a microphone in your face and every two weeks I've pulled you aside and take you in just in a little podcasting world. Mate, how have you embraced the, the podcasting aspect?
Speaker 1:yeah, I was hesitant, but I do enjoy it, if anything, just to spend some quality time, some QT, with my good friend Craig. Oh, my, the bromance lives on. I think the biggest thing is I've said this before I'm so used to short form content I've been doing that for over 13 years so to have a platform where I can unpack more thoughts that I just never have time on the YouTube platform in the short form content and now even shorter form content with TikTok and Instagram Reels and all that stuff. So it is really nice to be able to talk a little bit more. It's, it's. This has become a little bit for me, a little bit of like behind the scenes of, of you know, trips that we've been a part of or geocaches I found, or experiences that I've had, or places that geocaching has guided us.
Speaker 1:Guided us. How about you?
Speaker 3:in officially at this date. Three, is it? Three podcasts right now. Three podcasts and I've got a finger in another, in another one as well that I'm not actually, uh, featured on. But, yes, three podcasts now, including this one.
Speaker 3:Mate, I'm just finding it easier and easier and easier to be honest with you, which is a good thing as well, um, but I will say this, josh, and that is with our podcast, this one here, treasures of our town, I do like you, I do like to you know, uh, think about the things that we've done. You know the times we've spent together, the places we've been, and talk it through, but at the same time, it's like I was reminiscing, but at the same time, I like to sort of push the, the video styles that you've done as well, to sort of, you know, so people can actually get the visual and then listen to us and get the backstory, as you said, the, the bts, of that, of that trip away that we did. You know things like you know, alabama always sticks out to me. That was a great trip, you know what I mean, things like that too. So, and then to have, like our last episode where we, we literally reminisce about the entire year and go over what.
Speaker 3:I find that was a lot of fun and and if you haven't listened to it, go back and listen to it. But what I liked as well is that in some cases I was like, oh hang on, what was that show about? So I went back myself and listened to those episodes that I was like a bit fuzzy with too. So, yeah, really, really cool.
Speaker 1:Really cool so hearing that you're not burnt out on podcasts.
Speaker 3:Oh, definitely're you're in the flow I am absolutely, absolutely in the flow. I've got things down now. Now, if people I've had messaged have asked me as well in regards to the editing of the process of what we do, let you know now, josh you, you and I both know it's very minimal, extremely unless, unless you know, goliath starts barking, or unless the kids walk in on you or something like that, we don't really edit at all. There's no editing at all. What you hear is you and I talking and discussing, and the same with my other podcasts as well. There's no edit at all.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's great, that's. That speaks to a lot about how we've grown, I think at least I'll speak for myself I've grown because this is a completely different medium, you know. Especially, it's a little bit more unfiltered because, you're right, there's not as much editing, no what. Just what you hear is what you get exactly. So, yeah, that's, that's a little bit different, but I, yeah, I've really been enjoying it. So happy, 50 up, 50 episodes. Hopefully we'll have 50 more, absolutely. But, craig, we've got to get to our delays and upgrades. That's right, jeez, I almost forgot.
Speaker 3:I almost forgot. Do you want to start? Do you want me to start, josh? I want you to start, okay, well, I'm going to start. I'm going to start with my delay and then build up to the upgrade. From there. The delay is going to be very quick because we don't normally talk about this. But the delay for me is that new jersey is getting cold, josh, because we don't talk about the weather. But New Jersey is getting icy cold, josh, like I'm talking about, whereby, you know, snow and rain and sleet, and, yeah, it is icy cold. So I don't know what's going on there. But that's my delay, you know. The only thing that means is I have to take more hot baths now, that's all.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a plus. Is that your upgrade?
Speaker 3:Well, that could be the upgrade, but no, that's not my upgrade. Kind of, but not really.
Speaker 1:Oh, I wonder for the holiday season. Did somebody give you the gift of a portable hot tub, or did you gift yourself?
Speaker 3:I wish, I wish that would be gold. No, my upgrade is actually does relate to the, the van.
Speaker 3:I got new bug screens for the van for the slide out door and the rear door as well, mostly for the summer months, obviously, with the bugs, um. But I did get as a as well, a a dedicated heater, slash air conditioner. So it's like a dual uh, dual air conditioner and heater for the van. So it runs separately to the van itself. So when the van is not running and parked up, I can still have the the heat on or I can have the air conditioning on, depending on the weather itself. So, yes, and a new video of that will be coming out shortly too, when I actually get it all set up and uh and show everyone what it actually is, how it works screen.
Speaker 1:That was screen video, yeah what about you, mike?
Speaker 3:what about you?
Speaker 1:you know I don't want to have to up one up you, that's okay. You know you talked about being cold in New Jersey, but everybody knows that I'm from Minnesota. Minnesota it is. It is cold here winter has fully set in we had. This is kind of a good thing to some people. I don't really care about it, but we did have a white Christmas. Oh yes, we did not have last year.
Speaker 1:So it is pretty, it is cozy, snuggling up on the couch with my best friend Goliath sipping some eggnog no-transcript yes like it's like you use like officially like 10 days, but it actually equals up to like 53 days yeah, exactly, we totally like game the system yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3:You take the like two days off in between if it's two long weekends, and you take the two days off in the middle. Therefore, you get, like you know, eight or nine days off, but you're only taking two days off actually work. So, yes, that's really cool, that's really cool.
Speaker 3:So and mate, yes, I have seen I have seen your snow in minnesota um with your b reels as well. You've been showing your b reels too, and so, yeah, I've seen the snow on that too, and I've seen that the snow plows have been out and they're scraping the roads. I'm just hoping it's not too cold up there as well. It gets icy on the roads, does it get icy on the roads? Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:But if you live here, you know how to handle it, and also we have the infrastructure salt plows, I mean, it's a thing, it's all in place, minnesota drivers, we know how to handle it and also our cities are fully equipped to handle it. So we got like five, six inches of snow last night. Wow, and it didn't. You know, schools didn't close. It's just carry on. Yeah, carry on. Exactly, all right. My affection delay. Then what's?
Speaker 3:just carry on, yes, carry on Exactly. All right, my fashion delay. Then what's your upgrade?
Speaker 1:if that's the case, Well, that was my upgrade. Is that I got 12 days? Oh, of course Of break. I'm refreshed, I'm ready for 2025. Yes, so that's great.
Speaker 3:What plans, what plans do you think you have in 2025? If people want to come and see you, Josh, for instance around the trips around the US, where can they think you may be this year? Just hints and tips.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, two things I know for sure. Yes, texas Challenge, Of course yes, which is in the Ides of March.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Mid-March. So both you and I are going to be at Texas Challenge in Floresville, texas, which is just outside of San Antonio, so I'm really excited to get down there in March. And then also we got the granddaddy of them all. We've got Geo Woodstock 21, where again you and I will be there, and we've got an incredible Airbnb, all ready, squared to go, and we're going to be live on stage. So that's happening for sure. Are you ready for some manifestation? Yes, at sea, somewhere warm at sea, with possibly other like-minded people at sea in hot tubs, finding geocaches, capping monsays in foreign lands yes, I'm putting it out in the universe that that might happen, although it might be just the planning of it.
Speaker 3:But still, either, either way, it's going to start this year, in 2025 it's going to start, whether it be the planning or the actual trip itself, and we've got to have her on the show as well. Josh um from uh geocaching adventures llc. Uh needs to be on the show too, and she's going to be coming on the show very, very soon, uh, to get things started and get the ball rolling and get the numbers rolling in as well, josh. So that's it. That's it All right. Did you want to lead into John? Yes, is John here?
Speaker 1:John is here. I want to introduce my friend, fellow Minnesotan and you will soon hear, he is from somewhere else as well, as we just stated Fellow Australian. Oh my gosh, this is so perfect. We have so much in common with him. Already he's a traveler, he's a YouTuber, he's a content creator. Please welcome to the show, john O'Sullivan from One Minute Tours. John, how are you doing? It is so good to see you and to hear your voice. How are you? I'm doing?
Speaker 2:great Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:Yes, are you staying warm in our lovely state here?
Speaker 2:Trying to. It's actually been beautiful with the snow it's been, you know, not making it as cold as it was a few weeks ago. It as cold as it was a few weeks ago.
Speaker 1:I was just saying that last year we had a brown Christmas. We had I'm going to say had, because when this is published it will be, christmas will be over we had a white Christmas, and that was just lovely.
Speaker 2:I've got a fun fact for you, because we had a brown Christmas last year. It's been an unprecedented mouse season in Minnesota. I just talked to an exterminator that I know who said they have skyscrapers with mice in them and have never been in there before, because when you have cold temperatures that's what kills off like half the population and they didn't have it last.
Speaker 1:So we're teaming with mice wow, my gosh, that is, that's kind of freaky. Have you ever seen the movie willard? Isn't it willard that has like the mice? Yeah, that's, that's fascinating. Well, I bet you, the the eagles and the birds and the hawks are are happy for that fact. Yeah, exactly, but I knew you, john. You know you're full of fun facts, especially as you share, uh, one-minute tours in Minnesota and beyond. I saw that you had Chicago week and you had New York week. But let's just first get grounded in your history, because this is a travel podcast and I'm really excited. For the first time this is our 50th episode, by the way, john. Hey, for the first time we have a real live tour guide that we're chatting with. So tell us a little bit about your history as a professional tour guide.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure. So I started my adult life after college in the global financial crisis, which I think a lot of us can relate to from my generation. So I couldn't hold down a job for the first year of my career. I lost two jobs, so I went overseas for one year just to do a little gap year journey of self-discovery maybe. And then 12 years passed.
Speaker 2:So I went overseas and I met two women who changed my life. The first was a tour guide who told me about this amazing job where I got to stand in front of a bus and give tours of drunk Aussies. And then the other one was my wife and the mother of my children, who happened to also be Australian, as the case may be. So I've been a tour guide for a better 12 years now. Started out on buses, I did boats, ferry hopping, foot tours, and then I started my own company in Melbourne, australia, which continues to operate to this day. It's called Depot Adventures. I've got seven employees down there and a general manager. Minnesota, where I found this new life as a content creator on the internet, where I now have I run the largest social video account in Minnesota about Minnesota, where I'm taking a lot of lessons I learned as a tour guide, but applying them to the place that raised me.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 2:Congratulations.
Speaker 3:Yes, well done, mate, well done. I will say too that when I'm go on tour cause I've recently been to the UK as well and I did a tour all through London itself and there was a I really remember quite vividly there was a what do you call it? A ferry, a ferry tour across, and this guy got on and at first you thought you know, oh, he's just one of the workers there, because he was pulling the reins and pulling the ropes and stuff as well. But then he got up and he said, look, I'm not really a tour guide. That's how he started. But you know, he definitely was, because he was pulling out these facts left, right and center. He was humorous, he was funny, made us laugh. Really.
Speaker 3:You learn a lot from a tour guide, and so my addiction to tour guides is this and that is if you're doing something and you're just going around, driving around a city and you've got nothing to tell you what's happening or what's going on, you don't know much and you don't learn much. But the tour guide for me is what makes that visit to the city. You don't only learn stuff, but it's also humorous as well. So tell me in regards to you, because I've seen some of your stuff as well. You were extremely humorous when you do these content creations on your one minute uh, one minute tours. Where did that come from with you? Is that natural for you or what's going on there with your humor?
Speaker 2:I mean, I had a formal training. So I worked for a company called bus about. They were like a sister company to contiki that's the drunk australians I was talking about before so, uh, over there they put us through a six-week intensive training course. There's like a boot camp. They drove us all through Europe and made us stay awake all day and into the night. Literally I'd be on a bus and they'd say Marty, tell us about Czech cuisine, john, get up there and give us an Italian history lesson, amelia, spanish language. And that's just how I operated. For six weeks we drove through Europe and learned this stuff. So that was the formal training. But that six weeks we drove through europe and learned this stuff, so that was the the formal training.
Speaker 2:But that was not the part that made me good at my job. It was a, it was an essential component. But I often say, like you can, most people can get to like 90 of where a tour guide needs to be. But that last 10 is what makes a good tour guide, which is, um, being able to relate to people and realizing that, like the facts don't matter, like they're something that you can give to people, that's not what they're paying for. They're paying for connection, they're paying for authenticity and a little bit they're paying for interpretation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot of times you can feel sheepish about having an opinion about a place that you go to. But then you have a tour guide be like I don't really like what they did here with Big Ben, it's not really that great. Here's why. And like a little bit of that permission structure for someone to say something provocative, you'd be like, no, no, I like this. And then you're having a dialogue and a discussion which is, you know, a much more like, you know, a long-lasting impression of a city. I think that, like when I go into those like pre-recorded tours and it's just like this was built this year by this person, it just completely misses the point, uh, of of exploring a place. To explore a place is to um, commune with it. It's, it's interactive, it's a, it's a discussion with you in a place that you're going to and the people in that place.
Speaker 3:That's very true, and to this day I still remember the parts. What I remember is not just the facts but, as you just said, it's the connection to it. So one of the guys he even said he said about the place the oldest pub along the actual River Thames itself. And then he talks about the oldest pub and he says about how he goes in there, you know, every Friday night, and then he walks out every Saturday morning. Oh, I mean, you know. So he really does personalize it too, and I remember that because it was humorous and that sort of stuff. But your humor, though, it's got to be off the cuff. You're very much off the cuff sort of guy, and so you do improv, or what happens with that?
Speaker 2:Not really. No, I mean, mean, I would like to. I'd like to be the kind of person I'm comfortable on a stage in front of people. I'm just I don't know that I'm funny. I think I'm just like able to listen and respond like I come. I did theater in college and in high school and stuff and I did improv classes there. But that's not, that's not really where it comes from. It's more than the listening.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of times even very experienced tour guides can get on their rails, right On the rails of like this is the train going in this direction and then this thing, and this is the oldest pub and this is the place where this happened and actually it's got to be. I was at this pub last night and Brad was a bartender and you got to know about Brad. He knows it's showing the tour guide, showing a a deep familiarity and lived experience in a place. Like I always tell my tour guides, I'm training them in like it doesn't matter if you tell them that melvin started in 1835, although that is true. What matters is that, you see, you tell them about sofia, the barista at this cafe you have to go see and ask her about the whatever like it's. Those, those human connections are what people are looking for, um, and if you just end up doing stuff about history, it's like nobody cares right yeah, that makes a lot of sense, this idea of bringing humanity, humanity, to the place that you're visiting.
Speaker 1:Because this joke, this uh podcast is about uh, particularly how location-based games like you know, john geocaching, stuff like that. You know, john geocaching stuff like that. Essentially we say geocaching is our tour guide, but there's only so much information that a geocache can give you about a location and so I guess, other than bringing that humanity, if somebody's thinking about, like I want to visit a new city or a new area, why should they consider? What are some other reasons they should consider hiring a tour guide or joining a tour?
Speaker 2:I think ultimately it's a matter of just making a connection with someone local. So if you have a friend in a town, don't hire a tour guide. You don't need to. I'm not here to try to win over people on my profession, but a lot of times you're traveling to a place where you don't know anyone and it's not a good use of your time to just go on this hop on, hop off sightseeing bus. It's like you want to talk to the person who has a perspective. Actually, an example of this Josh, you and I went out and filmed some content for our channels a while back now, like a year or two ago, and when I think of that day that we had out, you know what I think about.
Speaker 2:I think about that we went to a sculpture garden and there was a woman who was like an artist in residence, who told us how she had come from another place and she was staying there. And then we went to a state park and we had a cranky park ranger that we were trying to ask questions about. Like. Those things pop out in my head so much more than the actual places themselves, because that's how humans are we're social creatures.
Speaker 1:Right, I love that. Yeah you're right, those are the moments that we remember. We remember the people and the experiences, not always just like the facts. That is a really great point.
Speaker 3:I'm going to have to go back now. You realize this, john's brought it up. I'm going to have to go back now, 12 months ago, on my TikToks and actually have a look and search for this day that you guys went out together itself as well.
Speaker 2:It was a lovely day. We had a little bit of floats and everything. Oh, wow, I do remember I learned about Josh's knee joints and the strength of them because of that little pose that you do, where you squat and you put your fingers out.
Speaker 1:Oh yes, oh, my God, you have the sprightliness of a young man. My orthopedic guy told me I should not be doing 80 of those in one day. He's like that's too much, that's actually a true story, because I've had some knee problems. He's like how often do you do that A lot? That makes sense.
Speaker 1:This all checks out. Let's transition to how you have brought the tours to this idea, which I think is just an incredible like fantastic idea of bringing one minute tours to TikTok and to Reels and now to YouTube. What inspired you to start creating these one minute tours? Because I know, John, you still do walking tours, you still do that in person but what inspired you to this idea of this one minute tour?
Speaker 2:It was a little pandemic. It changed it all. The pandemic started and I had a company that had a staff and we did walking tours. Right, how the hell are we supposed to survive a pandemic? And so actually, this is a part of the story I don't often tell, but Jeff Bezos was my savior, because Amazon was testing out a new product called Amazon Explorer and they were looking for tour operators to help out with it.
Speaker 2:The idea was that it would be real-time, live virtual tours from around the world, so, from the comfort of your home, you could click a button and be in Tokyo and you would have an actual tour guide holding a gimbal, which is a device that stabilizes a phone with a headset on, and you'd be walking to Tokyo and if you wanted to go into a shop along the way, you could tell this tour guide. Because it's just a private tour, you could say, hey, can we go in that shop? And they'd bring you in there, and then you could click the screen and it would say, can I see that? And a person would pick it up like, do you want to buy that? And then they'd ship it over to you. What? Yeah, so it was this novel concept they had, and so in Melbourne, which is where I was living at the time, one of the most locked down cities in the world, outside of.
Speaker 2:China. I was living there but allowed to leave my house on a special work permit to hold a camera and walk through the barren streets of the city and all of it was like I mean, my company made hundreds of thousands of dollars off Amazon doing these tours and it was not profitable revenue, but it was enough to kind of sustain. And it also taught us this new skill. And the new skill was like how to use a camera, how to get comfortable with talking like this. These were two-way audio but one-way video conversations, so I couldn't see the other person, so I had to walk around like a putz in the street, like be, like, oh, look at this, I was gesticulating around, and all that because I'd be on camera and that got me comfortable with it. Then, as it was happening, tiktok was growing in popularity. Tiktok had a one-minute limit on their videos. While I was giving 45 minutes for Amazon, I thought you know what would be fun. Let's just do one-minute versions of these.
Speaker 2:I started doing those and it blew up, especially at a time when no one could leave their home. In fact, in Melbourne you could go more than five kilometers from your home for more than one hour a day. I was every day saying, did you know about this? And then also building up anticipation for the place to reopen. I did a series called it was Melbourne is reopening. Here are the bars you need to go to when it does. And I'd stand outside a bar and talk about it and this went viral. I about it, um, and this went viral. I got on a bunch of major national networks in australia talking about it and so, um, when I returned to minnesota in 2022, I thought let's do it again, and it's growing even bigger than that yeah, exactly, and and scott scott, what do I call you?
Speaker 3:scott josh, that's my, that's my other podcast.
Speaker 1:That's my other podcast yes and josh.
Speaker 3:You don't know this, josh, because you haven't been to austral. Josh has not been to Australia. I keep on rubbing it in. But Melbourne, I will say okay, john, I'm a Sydneyite. Okay, I grew up in Wollongong, just south of Sydney. All right, we'll allow Wollongong, that's real. Wollongong's okay, wollongong's okay.
Speaker 2:Not northern beaches.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, no, no, we're in the south. We're in the south and worked in Sydney my entire career as a police officer as well. But Melbourne, josh, melbourne has the best, the best coffee in the entire world. The coffee shops not so much, because literally some of them are just holes in the wall. Some of them try and be fashionable and put like a milk crate and you've got to sit on the milk crate because it's you know. Oh, this is trending. Milk crates are trending. You've got to sit on the milk crate, stuff like that, but the actual coffee is absolutely divine and to die for. Again, some trends aren't good. Some trends in Melbourne you have coffee out of an avocado shell, like with some bits of avocado.
Speaker 2:That's not real, that is real.
Speaker 3:Absolutely real.
Speaker 2:I had it in Sydney when I was in Sydney as well.
Speaker 2:The Melbourne place that's the Northern Territory is making fun of us. I have a deep and abiding love for Melbourne. In fact, I got my Australian citizenship earlier this year and so I had a big thank you. It was a big moment for me, but Melbourne is, like it's such a uniquely special place. It is for me, but Melbourne is such a uniquely special place that I just have deep affection for both because I lived there for six years and plan to live there again, but also because I went through COVID years. It kind of feels like I was there at this critical time and I had this moment, with five million other people, of going through lockdown and watching our premiere every day on the TV.
Speaker 3:And I will say again, josh, you don't know this, but Melbourne is part of Victoria, as the state Victoria was the most, the most locked down state in Australia, the biggest, hardest lockdowns in Australia. The premier at the time, which is you call them governors here. What do you call them here? I think you call them governors, yeah, yeah, yeah, we call them premiers the same same. Yeah, he's now. He's got so much flack from all the sort of stuff that he did and whatnot as well, but anyway, we get out of that conversation, congratulations for you.
Speaker 1:Let's come back to the United States. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:All Dan Andrews, all the time.
Speaker 3:That's all we're talking about now, just premieres of Australia, Exactly exactly. Speaking of one-minute wonders, anyway, John, you said before you started doing it, in Melbourne, et cetera as well. But getting back to the US, where do you pick? Or how do you pick the locations to do these little tours that you do on TikTok?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, that's the number one question I get. I never quite know how to answer it because I don't pick them. I go where my life takes me and then I'm like, oh, I have time to do a one-minute tour, let's do one. And then it becomes a creative exercise. It's like, well, what am I going to talk about here in this empty field? And I'll be in an empty field. I'm like, huh, that's interesting. We're in like a valley here.
Speaker 2:I wonder why it's a valley. So I'll open up Google and I'll look at it and I'll be like why is there a valley here in Google? Or I might look on the Wikipedia page to like about the nearest town, and I'll find, oh, it's the Minnesota River drain into. If you look at the western border of Minnesota, there's a little nub, so it's almost straight. There's a nub that goes out, that follows the river. That's what the lake drained into, and so the Minnesota River used to be much, much higher. That is also why we have a valley in St Paul, because that's Minneapolis is before the junction of the Minnesota River and St Paul is after. And so here I am in the middle of a field in southern Minnesota, but I'm talking about a prehistoric lake.
Speaker 2:So the answer really is I think that there is a story to be told about every single place you go in the world. And if I were to do it, like what are the top 100 stories I want to tell about Minnesota? I'd never do it because you, you have to go, travel there and set up and do all that stuff. So there are pluses and minuses to that. I think that my content is really biased, based on where I happen to live, which isn't necessarily representative of the city I'm in. I don't do a lot on North Minneapolis, which I'm trying to change, because that is the black neighborhood. We are one of the most segregated cities in Americaica, here in the twin cities, uh, but I don't go there because my social life doesn't take me there, and so, um, it's like, uh, that that's how I picked up, is that I don't?
Speaker 3:by the sounds of it as well, john you, you do these one minute tours, but it takes you what over over, well, over an hour of research, etc. People just do this to get it down to one minute, sort of thing. Is that what you're saying?
Speaker 2:If I start from scratch, yeah, but also I have 13 years experience as a tour guide so I can find tenuous connections, like, for example, there's a place in Minnesota called New Prague but it's spelled like Prague in the Czech Republic and I used to give tours in Prague. I used to give tour groups through there. So I went to New Prague and I kind of gently teased the people for mispronouncing the city that they were trying to honor when they made the name of the city but then also was able to talk a little bit about Czech history in there. So a lot of it is using the background that I have, so I don't have to do the hour of research every time.
Speaker 1:It is awesome. You will never run out of content because, you're right, everything has a story. It's interesting the parent company of our hobby, geocaching is called GroundSpeak and the whole idea is like, wherever you are, there is a story. And that's a part of geocaching, because we talk about the places it brings us and when we go to that place, there is always a story about that place and it's kind of interwoven with our hobby. Can?
Speaker 2:I say something about that for a second. Yeah for sure. There's a thing that Minnesotans do which is like we, and I think Australians as well, is that we go to Europe and then we say, oh my gosh, it's so good to be in a place with history, you know real history, real culture right Because like our history is like the 1820s and their history is the 800s.
Speaker 2:Right, but if you interrogate that a little bit longer, you start to see how problematic it is, because our history doesn't go back to the 1820s Like here in Minnesota. We have this rich and fascinating history from the 1600s of French voyagers coming from Quebec and doing commerce with the Ojibwe and Dakota people over here, and if you go 12,000 years ago, you have petroglyphs, pieces of art in southern Minnesota being made, and yet when they made the first version of the minnesota flag, they put a date on it to signify when minnesota began, and they said 1819. That wasn't when the state began, that was when the first permanent european settlement was, and so it's almost like we are continuing to propagate this, this untruth that history began in the 1800s here in minnesota. Um, and it's one of the things I enjoy about being here is like I'm able to, you know, push that false assumption that people have and say no, no, let's talk about 1790s in Minnesota here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. I have a follow up question with that. Do you believe in the Alexandria runestone, the stone that was found on the field that makes us believe that possibly Vikings real Vikings came to Minnesota? Do you believe in it or is it a hoax, john?
Speaker 2:What do you think? It is scientifically verifiably a hoax. It's not a matter of belief.
Speaker 2:We have proven we have carbon dated the thing.
Speaker 2:In fact, the reason that we have the runestone on display at the Minnesota History Center along with a Norwegian sword is that the Norwegian Institute gave it, lent it to the history museum so long as it was accompanied by a statement that there's no Viking ancestry here in Minnesota.
Speaker 2:But I think the more interesting part of that story is like how badly a people who had just come here wanted to have a tradition to follow. There's something in our humanity that wants us to be able to reach back into the generations before, and because you had all these Scandis coming here in the 1860s, they're all like well, what is our connection to this land? And then they find this myth, this mythology of a runestone. And so a farmer buries a runestone in a field and says, look, I found it here and people loved going along with it, to the point where we have our NFL team named after the Vikings here, in spite of the fact that there is no connection, because we have a desire to find a connection to the land on which we live, and so if we don't have that, we'll just make it up.
Speaker 1:Wow, I've never thought of it that way. That is really interesting and as you explained it, I totally agree.
Speaker 2:That's why you're so great John.
Speaker 1:You have the sense of curiosity about things that you just like dig below the surface, and it is amazing that you can often do it in less than one minute.
Speaker 2:Well, you've got me going now, because now I want to keep going.
Speaker 2:Now it's like so here's the thing right. So we want to make a connection, so we make one up. But there's an issue with that, because there is an amazing connection here. Like the Dakota tradition is fascinating If we go back to humans coming over from Russia and facing impossible odds and having commerce. The native tribes of this land had commerce with people in California. We have found seashells from the coast of California here in Minnesota because the indigenous peoples were trading with one another and yet, rather than indulge in that understanding and enjoyment of it and say this is our story of this land, like this land is hosting so many people, instead we say oh no, we're Norwegian or we're Irish.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's somebody else's story Exactly, and so it's this otherization of the story that belongs on this land, and so I love. Just I get fired up talking about it.
Speaker 3:Talking about it Exactly, josh, you did bring that up. I think it was two or three episodes ago. You told me about this Viking connection, the rune stone.
Speaker 1:So Josh was talking to me about it We've settled it here and now we've settled it.
Speaker 3:Like two or three episodes later, we've settled it. It is actually a hoax. But in saying that, John as well, here's another question that literally pops out as well, and that is have you actually discovered something whilst you're doing your research for these tours? Then, If it wasn't a rhinestone, what have you discovered? What have you discovered? Oh yeah, Something unusual.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I mean, every day it's something new and interesting. I mean to stay on the topic. Aren't that old in terms of how long they've been in Minnesota? They came here the same time the French did, and so there are two different groups of people in Minnesota indigenous people, the Dakota and the Ojibwe people. The Ojibwe came from the East Coast to what is now New York and they came around the Great Lakes at the same time as French Canadians were coming down the voyagers, and they were trading ideas with each other and so, like the voyagers, famously came on canoes. But those canoes were part of the Ojibwe tradition and they both arrived here about 500 years ago. Compared to the Dakota and I think a lot of what we think of the rest of the indigenous tradition, they're being thousands or tens of thousands of years old. The Ojibwe are, you know, relatively new inhabitants of this land.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, digging below the surface. Once again. That's impressive. So let's get back to the one minute.
Speaker 3:Oh, I hate the one minute tours.
Speaker 1:Do you find it challenging I've seen you in action, I've seen you in person, in action and do you find it challenging to get everything you want to say in short form content? And I think that, partially, I think that's the appeal. I mean, let's be real, a lot of people just don't have the patience to sit through a whole YouTube video, a long YouTube video, or to sit through a documentary about something that they're interested in. Tiktok has a platform where it just gets fed right to them and it's compelling and you draw them in and you have. You have a short amount of time. Now, of course, tiktok has expanded their time, of course, but, but the discipline, the idea of the discipline, at least when it was less than one minute, do you, did you find it difficult to to fit everything you want to say, or condense it, or summarize it in a way that's meaningful?
Speaker 2:No, I didn't, but that's because I had a decade of training to do it. Like everything in my career led to this, and this is the insight I had when I started One Minute Tours is that I created a channel that played to my strengths, and for years I had been on a bus with a microphone giving a night drive of Paris, and when we arrived at the Eiffel Tower, our bus was going to turn at the green light. When the light turned green, whether or not I was finished my story of Pierre Eiffel Right, and so I needed to find a way to quickly wrap it up, and, by contrast, if we didn't make that green light and had to wait another cycle, I had to just draw the story out that little bit longer, and so I learned to be very modular with my storytelling, and so the creative constraints of making it one minute I really enjoy, because it's not just a matter of putting it into one minute, it's also making the visual really exciting. So I think a lot of times on social video I think about uh, what is my moat, what are the ways in which I am different than other people on there? And a lot of people on social video are in the aesthetic that we are in right now as we record this podcast, like microphones, interfaces, dark room, like that's it. So I make a note like every video I do is on location in a place, because a lot of people are not comfortable filming themselves in public.
Speaker 2:I got over that because I used to give tours in Trafalgar Square and I told the story of Admiral Nelson fighting the battle of Trafalgar. I'd be standing up by the line in Trafalgar Square and there were tourists everywhere. What the hell is this guy doing, shouting in front of 40 people? But I got comfortable with that and so, yeah, yeah, I think the lesson I learned is like one minute tours didn't come fully formed. One minute tours was a creation of what my unique skill set was. That's my advice for other creators as well. It's like find what your version of that is. What is this thing that you are uniquely good at?
Speaker 1:yeah, and I agree, one of the things that is so compelling and I encourage everybody that's listening to check out John's stuff, but the one one-minute tour that just pops in my mind when it comes to you for some reason this is the one that stuck is your State Fair started the video in the kitchen and you walked all the way through the kitchen and then you walked all the way through the dining area and then all of a sudden you were outside and then you were out in the on outside the whole diner and you're talking the whole time and there's people and there's action around you. There was just something so compelling. You're right, like a talking head isn't particularly compelling, but when you have the, the location, moving around you as you're talking about it, it was just really cool. And I noticed that with a lot of your content, you're moving, you're moving through and you don't care what people think. That's very clear.
Speaker 2:well, this is also something that's changed. The creative process has changed, as I've gotten to be known here. Uh, that's hamlin church dining hall. You're talking about the oldest dining hall at the minnesota state fair, um, and the reason that happened is that a teenager recognized me. She's like oh my God, the TikTok guy, would you come in here? And at this point, like I have, I'm the largest social video account in Minnesota about Minnesota. My channel gets more views in the evening news, and so I get stopped in the street every day when I go out, and I've learned to play that to my advantage, because if someone stops me in the street just yesterday it happened and he was an attorney with the Hennepin County District Attorney and I said, hey, can I do a video there? And so I will use those invitations and try to get more access to more unexpected places.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's a part of it too is like you're not in your living room talking about this stuff. You're out there with the people and it allows you to connect with other human beings and inspire even new content.
Speaker 3:So well done I really enjoy that, and I think John as well. I will say this, and that is, you've inspired even people like myself and Josh as well, when we do videos and we've been doing for quite some time together now, but we Josh loves a walk and talk now.
Speaker 2:Like in the beginning.
Speaker 3:Josh was always, you know, no, I stand here, I center myself and whatever. But now he loves a walk and talk, which is yes and no for me, because I'm always walking backwards. I've got to make sure I keep him in frame.
Speaker 3:I've got to make sure he's steady because I'm his, you know, that's the thing too, so I know how different it is that way. But when it comes to, though, your content and I've seen a lot of your content as well your content isn't just about the educational side of things as well. You can't have an education content. I'll be honest on TikTok it's got to be funny or it's got to be humorous, or it's got to be entertainment as well. So how do you balance the entertainment side of uh, of the one minute tours, compared to actually giving decent information as well at the same time?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, it's actually. It's a prescient question right now because, um, I'm in the middle of, uh, we're developing a television show right now. We're raising funds for our community for it and, um, as a result, I'm trying all these new content styles on and one of the things that I've been made aware of by the production company is, like, i't appear one-dimensional on those things because it is a quick hit of history and I have some humor in there. I did a video today that got posted about which of the Great Lakes looks most like a part of the male anatomy. There's nothing historical about it, it's me just being silly.
Speaker 2:I thought it was just me being me, because that's just me. But when I showed it to other people, they're like oh, I wouldn't post that and I'm like why not? Like, well, people will get turned off, but just by the content, and your content's informational. And it was a surprise for me because I think I think that I mean myself in all my videos, but really I'm like snapping into informational mode, and so when I went a bit blue, a bit off color, you know, people are like ooh, that makes me feel uncomfortable and so we posted it in spite of itself. I haven't looked at the results yet today. I'll look after this call, I'm sure after this podcast. But it was interesting to be. Like you know, I appreciate you saying I had some humor, but I think that people don't get to see the side of me that's, you know, just talking like we're talking right now.
Speaker 1:That often Right, so let's let's talk a little bit about the big step you took. I know when we hung out that day, we were talking about like what? Even I, you know, I contemplate what am I going to do with this TikTok? What am I going to do with YouTube? I still have a day job. At that time, you had a, you had a different day job and pretty recently fairly recently you've taken the leap into becoming a full-time content creator. Yeah, what have you been learning about it? You and you also now have a team of people. What have you been learning about it? And you also now have a team of people. Yeah, what made you take that leap? And you're like I'm going to go for it and how is it?
Speaker 2:going. I'm not made for the corporate world. I worked for the corporate job for two years. It was my first grown-up job and you know it was fine. But, like, I really enjoy business ownership. I like being fully responsible for something. I like being fully responsible for something, I like having a team and being able to set the direction, and so it's been really great for me to do this, to be back in the helm at owning a business over here.
Speaker 2:I couldn't do it, though, until it worked financially, and so, with the size of audience I had, I had people reach out to me all the time saying can you come profile our business? We'll give you a few hundred bucks for it, and it was never worth it, Like you know, just the gas money of driving out there talking to them, posting it. They wouldn't be happy with it. They wanted to have me have three meetings the marketing department before to figure out what their strategy was going to be. It just even at three or 400 bucks which was real money it just felt like I don't know. I don't know if that's worth it. So I had one organization call me last January and say can you do this big campaign for our event? And I just threw out what I thought was a ridiculous number. I said, yeah, I mean, sure I can do it, for I think I said $5,000. And they said, okay, good, that's within reason. Oh my God, good, that's, that's. That's within reason, oh my god. And so that was that's why I did it a couple more times.
Speaker 2:It kept happening and I came to realize, like if I, just, if I just talk about this with the seriousness that another media organization would talk about the star tribune or wcco or the other that's a local cbs affiliate here, then, um, maybe I can start charging those rates.
Speaker 2:And so that's what I've done. Um, you know, we, our average like order value for our videos right now is like between five and twenty thousand dollars, which sure sounds like a heck of a lot of money and sounds like I'm rolling in it, but it's, it's not. When you have six staff, it takes that many people to support it. I have a sales manager, I, I have an office manager, I have four social media coordinators and then I have myself making the videos and all those people draw a salary. And so it's been an interesting journey building this thing up, especially because I'm not riding in very many people's wakes. This idea of being a full-time content creator is a really new thing. It'd be easier if I'd just gone into being a carpenter, because there's generations of knowledge about that. But here we are.
Speaker 1:Especially newer in what we call the flyover country, where you and I live John. I think you even referenced that out when you were in New York. You're like oh, I'm in Times Square. Look, there's oodles of content creators around me, right right. In Minnesota it's a little bit different. It's stark, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just want to say it's stark and it's something that's coming into contrast in the last few months something that's coming into contrast in the last few months, I mean for the second time in three presidential election cycles a lot of people have been knocked under heels by something they didn't think was going to happen with Trump's election. But I think a lot of that can be attributed to the fact that our medias they're so based on our coast and there's so much less media creation happening every day. I mean, I can tell you I can name four media organizations off the top of my head in Minnesota that have massive layoffs in the last year even, and I think that there are some consequences to that that we haven't fully explored. But I think that we're seeing it with a way that a lot of the country was surprised by the election result, when all the media they're consuming is coming from so far away.
Speaker 1:By the election result, when all the media they're consuming is coming from so far away. Yeah, yeah, that totally makes sense. No-transcript and taking that leap. So I might have to do some more hard work or just have a conversation, or maybe a pep talk, or maybe, john, you just hire me, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, let's work on that. Let's figure it out. I think I said this to you when you hung out a year or two ago. I'm like you can do more. We did this full time. Let's do it. Let's get out of here. Let's blow this candy stands. So I'm a phone call away when you want to figure it out.
Speaker 3:And, funnily enough, john as well. When I actually talk to people separately and they say you know, oh, they want to know more about Josh. They know Josh because he's following on social media, and they are surprised that he's actually got like a real job, like a real full-time job that he does. He's not doing this full-time. Not only is content creation full-time, and all three of us sitting here talking now, we all three of us know the time it takes to do content creation, from the filming or the ideas at first, then the filming, and then the editing as well, and then the publishing and posting, and then the promotion of that as well. So, yeah, good thumbs up to Josh. He's still doing the hard yards, really is, really is, and good to see that someone, though, is on the other side of Josh, pushing him a little bit to go. Josh, you know you could be valued more just saying so.
Speaker 2:Well, I just met up with a content creator a mutual friend of Josh and mine's, emmeline Childs, this week, and we were talking about this exact same topic, because there's a chasm, like you start out as a content creator and it's such an act of solitude, right, and then there's this gap between where you are now and where you need to be, which you can't possibly think of. How am I going to do a video every day and edit it and publish it and tell people about it and do the business deals and all that? Well, the answer to that is you don't go to that chasm. You hire other people to help you leap over it, right, and so that's that's the thing that people really struggle with is like releasing some control over it and taking on some management ability. But it's very much possible.
Speaker 2:I think the economics speak for themselves when it comes to eyeballs, because people talk about the death of media. Media has not died. People are paying as much as ever for eyeballs, right. It's just that all that money is going to Meta or to Google or that sort of thing. But we can jump in there and take some as well, but you need to have a support structure in place, because it's impossible to just do it all yourself.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm happy to say that I think, personally, I was one of Josh's first employees, so to speak, when he brought me on board as one of his editors way back in the 2020, 2021 days. So, yes, thank you for that, but meanwhile, though, I think Josh could be on a TV show as well. John just saying, and, of course, with your new TV show In the Works, tell us about that, your new TV show In the Works.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks. So the show is called Hidden Middle and there's a business reason it exists and a philosophical reason it exists. I mean, from a business perspective. Right now all of my content lives on other platforms where I don't have a direct relationship. But for the monetization model, Just think about when you're scrolling on TikTok. You are going from video to video to video to video, and then an ad pops up. But how does TikTok attribute that revenue to the five videos you watched before?
Speaker 2:It's a really opaque answer that doesn't lead to a lot of great things, Like the dollars they spend that they give the creators is so low you can't plan a business for it, and so you need to be on a YouTube to have it be a proper business model. So that's the business reason it exists. There's also a creative reason, which is just like I'm starting to get a little bit not tired of, but just like I'm not feeling as challenged as I used to be by one minute tours and so creatively I wanted to do something to challenge myself long form. But then I think there's a philosophical reason that exists in the world. So the idea of hidden middle is that it takes place in the hidden middle of America, so flyover country, as we referred to it before, and it explores the hidden middle between two disparate topics, often, which happen to be in the middle of America. So, for example, how does a naked John Lennon tie into the model of America? What's the connection between these two things?
Speaker 1:That's what we're going to explore on the show. I'm really curious now.
Speaker 2:I'll give you the deeper pitch of it, which is that Beatlemania comes from America and they're going everywhere. Eventually they make their way to the Midwest and they play one time in the Twin Cities. And where do they play? At Met Stadium in Bloomington, minnesota. Met Stadium is where the Twins and the Vikings play and, being a Scandinavian peoples, what do they have in the locker rooms? A sauna.
Speaker 2:And the Beatles, at a press conference, talk about using the first sauna they've ever used here in the Twin Cities. And then they go on. And then Met Stadium goes on as well. It gets torn down for the Metrodome which is built later, and now we have US Bank Stadium and Target Field, the place of the Metrodome. But do you know? What was built on that land Was the largest mall in the world at the time it was built, the Mall of America. And you can go to the main theme park in the middle, the indoor theme park in the mall, and see where Home Plate was. Well, using that, we're going to figure out from the original blueprints of Met Stadium where the sauna was, so we can go stand next to the roller coaster and be like dude.
Speaker 2:John Lennon was right here, but also in telling the story between how these two things are connected will also tell the story of how consumerism has shaped our country. Beatlemania leads to Ticketmaster of today. In the same way that shopping malls were something that changed mom and pop shops. Those are now gone because of Amazon. There's a few different levels that we'll be able to tell the story on. It's something that will need some more time. About 20 minutes or so is how long we're planning the episodes for, but we really want this thing to be supported by the same community that's propped up one-minute tours. I've shown that this economic model can work for Minnesota and I want to be able to prove it again with a TV show. So we have a Kickstarter, we're doing a crowdfunding campaign and we're trying to raise $60,000 to produce our first six episodes of this show from our audience, and so that just launched just this week and it's been a really exciting experience and of course as well.
Speaker 3:all these links, as well, will be in the show notes too, by the way. But before we move on, Josh, I've just got to say this, and that is see. I was listening to John talk then, and he was talking about the Mall of America.
Speaker 1:And I've been to the Mall of America.
Speaker 3:I brought you there, but he was talking about the home plate. Now I remember standing on the home plate and knowing about the home plate. Why Not just because of you, josh, because an adventure lab is also in regards to that. So the adventure lab took me around and did me my little tour as well. So this adventure, which is like geocaching, john Okay, it's a part of geocaching, it's these adventures.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I did that, Josh, I'm going to do that I had that on my phone, yeah yeah, yeah, we did that at the sculpture park.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so just by you now talking about that, john, and talking about the John Lennon, it just just geocaching that takes us to places, but also you know people like yourself as well, so it sounds really cool, mate. How else can then people get involved if they want to get involved in regards to this, and you just said, it was a link for your Kickstarter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just visit hiddenmiddlecom and that'll take you right now to our Kickstarter and a future to our show page. You know we're looking for people to be producers on this thing, so that means, like, be on our advisory board and help us decide what kind of episodes to make. Maybe you and I may come to your home and film a one minute tour about your family, but also people can get involved for like five bucks, like we just want to be able to show. There's a lot of people who support this idea of midwestern made media, um, and that's what we're doing, so hidden middlecom is where they can do it I can.
Speaker 3:I've actually got it open so far, John. You've got 63 backers and you've got 28 days, so let's get this thing started. Let this is get this thing going. So it sounds like really, really cool.
Speaker 2:That's actually really great Cause there was 52 when we started this phone call.
Speaker 3:So we're doing, we're not doing this live, so it's not us, but anyway.
Speaker 1:Oh, John, I wish we had more time to chat with you. We need to have you again on some other time maybe, especially when this TV show comes out, which is just really exciting. But, John, where other places can?
Speaker 2:people find you if they want to see you. Yeah, I mean, basically, I'll give them two URLs oneminutetourscom and hiddenmiddlecom. Those two places will direct you to the socials that you need to go to. So, one Minute Tours, uh, specifically about the minnesota it's, it's about our history here and it's a social video channel across all the platforms, from tiktok to youtube to facebook, um, but then, uh, hidden, middle of the tv show that will cover issues nationally and maybe even internationally. We've been talking today about how we can film while I'm in Australia in March and connect that story to the Midwest.
Speaker 1:Very cool.
Speaker 3:Very cool. I'm just looking up the sorry. Just quickly, josh. I'm just looking up the websites now. Oneminutetourscom. If you don't know how John actually does record, it looks like you do a little gimbal on a phone, mate.
Speaker 2:That's all you kind of do that's right. Thank you, DJI. Yes.
Speaker 3:Oh, dji, yes oh.
Speaker 1:I love DJI Gimbals.
Speaker 2:anyway, I'm now accepting sponsorships to DJI. If you're listening.
Speaker 1:Exactly. We're trying to get Miller High Life to sponsor.
Speaker 3:And Airbnb now as well. And Airbnb, that would be nice. Exactly All the corporate overlords are convention, that's right, Josh, we don't need, really we don't need sponsors. Why don't we need sponsors?
Speaker 1:Because of our patrons. That's right. But before we end I just want to say I tried to leave that in noise that segue was beautiful, but I forgot.
Speaker 2:The dulcet tones, the Australian accent, the Australian segue was wonderful.
Speaker 3:I'm not even writing it either, but anyway, but I almost forgot something, craig, and that is John.
Speaker 1:He's from Minnesota, he highlights our state, he loves our state, he digs deep, he finds the hidden middle. And you know why he does that. I bet it's because he's proud of his town, you know, and that's a rare thing these days. That's a damn rare thing these days.
Speaker 3:Go on, josh, ask him now. Ask John, ask John.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know you want to Do. You know what movie that's from John. He might be a little young it's Blades, fans and Automobiles. Every single episode of this podcast, I have to get that statement. He's proud of his town somewhere. Which part?
Speaker 2:of it. Is it in?
Speaker 1:It's when they're in Wichita and they're in the cab and the guy takes them the long way in the middle of the night and he looks at John Candy and Steve Martin looks at John Candy and goes he's going the wrong way. He goes, well, you know, he's proud of his town.
Speaker 2:That's a rare thing these days to take him the long way in the middle of the night. All my quotes from that movie are overshadowed by those aren't pillows?
Speaker 1:Yes, it was probably a scene later, right after that scene.
Speaker 3:Speaking Josh, speaking of rare things, I will say that, john, thank you very much, from myself as well, for joining us. And other rare things, and that is, our patrons. Some of them can be rare. Wow, if they want to get on Patreon, how can?
Speaker 1:they do it, josh. Yes, if you've been enjoying this podcast, learning about new people and new things that are happening out in the world, like John from One Minute Tours, we would love your support. This is a fully supported podcast. We don't have Airbnb, we don't have Miller High Life. We don't have any of that yet Yet, but right now, this is all listeners supported. So if you'd like to support us, consider joining our Patreon at patreoncom. Backslash. Treasures of Our Town.
Speaker 3:So how else can people find us, Josh? If they want to reach out to us, if they want to be on the show, if they want other information about the show, how can they reach out to us, mate?
Speaker 1:Feel free to reach out to us at treasurersofourtownpodcasts at g, or you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.
Speaker 3:So that's it for our show today.
Speaker 1:Please subscribe, rate and review on your favorite podcasting app and Josh, as always your travels always lead you to the most unexpected, amazing hidden gems, even if it's only for one minute, around the world. See you next time. Thanks so much, john. Thank you, john, bye-bye, good day.
