PODCAST. The ADHD Song with Ryan “Sad Nuggie” Thompson & “Brave Dave” Frank.
@officialsadnuggie Adhd Anthem 😅 Original audio by @Brave Dave #relatable #sadnuggie #adhd #adhdtiktok #millenialsoftiktok #anxiety #funny ♬ original sound - Brave Dave
Unleashing Creativity and ADHD Awareness: A Conversation with Brave Dave and Sad Nuggie featuring “The ADHD Song.”
In this episode of ADHD Wise Squirrels, we dive into the world of creativity, mental health awareness, and the power of artistic expression. Our guests, songwriter, and performer "Brave Dave" Frank and animator Ryan "Sad Nuggie" Thompson, share their insights and experiences in raising awareness about ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) through their re-mixed collaborative work. Join us as we explore the intersection of art, music, and advocacy.
Episode Highlights:
Meet the Guests:
“Brave Dave” Frank, a talented songwriter and content creator, is known for his viral video for "The ADHD Song."
Ryan Thompson, the creative mind behind Sad Nuggie animations, created his animated version of Brave Dave's song.
This was the first time Brave Dave and Ryan met!
The Birth of "The ADHD Song":
Brave Dave's journey of self-discovery with ADHD.
The inspiration behind the song that went viral on TikTok and YouTube.
Collaboration Between Music and Animation:
How Ryan "Sad Nuggie" Thompson discovered Brave Dave's song and decided to create an animated music video.
The power of visuals in conveying the message of ADHD.
Mental Health Advocacy Through Art:
The importance of raising awareness about ADHD and mental health.
How music and animation can serve as platforms for sparking conversations.
The Impact of ADHD on Creativity:
Brave Dave and Sad Nuggie share personal experiences of living with ADHD.
How ADHD can influence creativity, both positively and negatively.
A Glimpse into Brave Dave's Work at White Flag:
Brave Dave's role as Chief Content Officer at White Flag, a mental health app.
The mission of White Flag is to provide anonymous peer-to-peer support.
The Role of Creativity in Coping with ADHD:
How creative outlets, such as music and animation, can serve as therapeutic tools for individuals with ADHD.
The idea that channeling energy into artistic endeavors can help manage ADHD symptoms.
Understanding the ADHD Spectrum:
The conversation evolved to talk about the diversity within ADHD, emphasizing that it's not a one-size-fits-all condition.
They discussed the evolving classifications of ADHD and the concept of neurodiversity.
Challenges of Time Management and Focus:
Both guests shared their personal struggles with time management and maintaining focus, common challenges for individuals with ADHD.
They touched on the concept of "time blindness" associated with ADHD.
The Impact of Social Media and Digital Creativity:
How digital platforms like TikTok have provided a space for people to share their experiences and creativity related to ADHD and mental health.
The significance of online communities that bring together individuals who may be dealing with similar challenges.
The Importance of Proper Diagnosis:
The discussion emphasized the importance of seeking a proper diagnosis for ADHD.
They highlighted that some individuals may self-diagnose, which can have limitations.
Open Source and Remix Culture:
Mention of the open-source and remix culture in the digital world, drawing parallels to how creative content can be reimagined and shared.
Reference to a documentary called "Rip: A Remix Manifesto" and its commentary on the benefits of openness in creativity and medicine.
Corporate Engagement and Mental Health Awareness:
Sad Nuggie's experience in engaging with corporations for mental health awareness events, where he conducted a coloring hour for Spotify.
The conversation touched on how companies are increasingly recognizing the importance of addressing mental health in the workplace.
In this captivating episode, Brave Dave and Sad Nuggie take us on a journey through the world of creativity, mental health advocacy, and ADHD awareness. Their collaborative work, combining music and animation, has not only entertained but also educated millions about ADHD. They remind us that art has the power to break barriers, create empathy, and inspire conversations about mental health.
Join us in celebrating the unique perspectives and talents of these two remarkable individuals who are making a difference in the world of mental health awareness, one song and one animation at a time.
And now it’s time to sing along!
Sing along with the song. Here are The ADHD Song lyrics by Brave Dave.
A deficit of the attention and hyperactivity is in the name
But you can be one or the
Other cause it doesn't have
To be one in the same
Hyperfixation and
Procrastination &
New ideas every day
Depression or issues
With our motivation
And not hearing what you
Will say
We will be motivated if
What we are doing is
Important, engaging, or
Fun
Organization.
Prioritization, will
Typically struggle a ton
We pace & we fidget with
Every digit & have a hard
Time sitting still
We hit the canteen for a
Cup of caffeine cause it's
Like kinda like taking a pill
There's uppers & downers
& over the counters & anti
Depressants galore
But everyone thinks that
We lie to the shrinks so
That we could just get us
Some more
There's the train of our
Thoughts on it's own
Getting lost & we are
Forgetting to eat
Our brains never stop with
The cyclical thoughts but
We struggle with cycles
For sleep
We’re sensitive to all rejection
but we can forget that person exists.
The same thing can happen with every day items
they call it object permanence.
We’re loud and we finish your sentences
and we will argue with you for the fun.
You call us annoying but you’re just boring
and so is your conversation.
There’s destructive behavior and imposter syndrome
and some of us struggle to read.
Brain fog is common but we’re problem solvin’
and dealing with all the mood swings.
We’re prone to addiction and it’s a fiction
to think we don’t pace not the phone.
If we body double we’ll stay outta trouble
cause we suck at working alone.
We’re prone to anxiety thriven variety
adventurous in the bed.
Our memory sucks, so it would be our luck
that we keep random facts in our head
-
0:00
You call it the ADHD song is that right? Lea Ada, I spent a long time trying to think of something clever. And I was like, There's no need. It says it right there. You know, first of all, it's hysterical. And it but also like, highly, highly accurate. So you did a very good job, kind of summing it all up. And then and then Ryan, will get to you in a sec about the animation aspect of it. Because, of course, I probably wouldn't have found it if it wasn't for that. And your animations are fantastic. So David, really quick, just maybe introduce yourself and then maybe share a little bit about your, what you do and your experiences with ADHD. And then we'll get talking about the song itself, too. Yeah. So my name is Dave, I go by brave David on my socials. And initially, I did a lot of parenting content, because I found that my whole life I've used humor to defuse situations and my own insecurities and anxiety behind the things that I'm trying to do for the first time we're trying to at least appear like I know what the hell I'm doing, right.
1:06
And that's what I wanted to do for parenting initially was let people know that the weird insecurities I had, and this crazy thing sir kids did, we're not. We're not a singular exclusive experiences that other people felt that way as well. And at a late diagnosis with ADHD in my 30s, I definitely felt that way. You know, I always said prior to diagnosis, that's like, I know, I'm smart. But I feel dumb. So when I had that information, when I knew about it, I said, I'm going to do the same thing, which is try to introduce humor into what for me was a very long and non foreseeably ending road of trying to figure out how the previous life that I lived of confusion and frustration, was, you know, fixed with a diagnosis to be able to focus on myself and learn how to deal with an ADHD brain, which I'd never had to do before. So that was, that's always been the goal as mental health, ADHD, parenting, addiction and recovery is to defuse that otherwise, very serious tension that many of us have had to deal with with humor, because it's just, there's enough serious talk about it all. And we need a way to feel comfortable in our own skin with what we're going through. Yeah, no, that's that's an excellent day. Ryan, what about yourself? What's your what's your background? And and yeah, how do you fit into this Wild, Wonderful World? Yeah. So I, I've been kind of in the online space for Well, since like high school, basically. But I didn't start taking it really seriously until I was about 1920. And I've always struggled with depression and anxiety, that's kind of where I'm coming from. So hence, sad McGee.
2:49
He's always on the verge of a mental breakdown. So I wanted to kind of what Dave was saying, Make it humorous, but also educate people through character through, you know, it doesn't have to always be serious. You know, we don't take ourselves too seriously. But also it kind of gets the word out about it. People are comfortable talking about it with other people. So when I did start, it said it last year, and I've just been rolling with it. It's been doing really, really well. And I'm just super excited, where it's gone. But yeah, I'm all about raising awareness for mental health, all aspects of it, not just anxiety and depression, but you know, ADHD to even like autism spectrum, schizophrenia, all these things, even if I don't suffer from personally,
3:35
I'm out there to just spread it. Yeah. And you're you're working, you have a charity or nonprofit or you donate some of the money you make. Is that right? Yep. So I work with, I'm based in Ontario, Canada. So I work with a lot of local charities around where I'm from around London, Ontario, and then also the CMHA, the Canadian Mental Health Association. So we donate post some proceeds at the end of the year to kind of disperse them around. So like,
4:03
that's great. That's great day, where are you based? I'm out of out of the states. I'm in Kentucky.
4:09
I've been here my whole life and thought we were gonna go somewhere. But you know, working remotely pretty much took on everything and realized I didn't have to, I didn't have to go anywhere. If I wanted to do the fun stuff I wanted to do so. I mean, look at us now.
4:23
I know.
4:26
Well, it's actually kind of fun. Because I am from Ontario, Canada, and I live in the US down south, south to you Dave, I'm in Nashville. So what I'm from Toronto originally, so I'm kind of a bit of both of you, I guess in that way, which is kind of cool. I did a I did a road trip when I was a kid my first road trip ever from Toronto and my two two buddies and I jumped in the car and we just decided let's go stout and see where we end up. And we ended up in Kentucky and
5:00
Yeah, we were camping and stuff along the way. But we stopped in Kentucky. And we're like, what do you guys want to do? We had no idea. I mean, I'm dating myself, but you know, is pre smartphone, pre pre internet. But it was like right at the beginning.
5:15
It was pre I was 94. So what we did, without really any knowledge of Kentucky was, of course, we went to Kentucky Fried Chicken.
5:25
And so and then we went home to tell people that hey, guess what we did? We went to Kentucky and went to Kentucky Fried Chicken. It was also our first biscuit. And we were quite delighted I have to say, Oh, yeah.
5:37
No, now my world's completely delighted because poutine, which is a French Canadian dish, loved by Canadians everywhere is now like on all the menus in Nashville, while when I go back to Toronto, I find hot chick Nashville hot chicken on the menu there. So. Right? Yeah, very strange. Very strange. So yeah. Dave, tell me a little bit. Tell us a little bit about like, how the, how the song came to be? And did you write it? Like in one setting? Did it take you months? Tell me Tell me a little bit about that. Yeah. So
6:13
when you make content about mental health, or any kind of diagnoseable condition or disorder, you are always walking in a minefield of people telling you that you're being too specific and excluding other conditions that you're being not specific enough and being misinformation on AI, they say that it's, it's, it's bad for the community to talk about something or your you didn't mention something that's good for the community. That is, it doesn't matter what you do, right? There is a group of people there to explain how you are somehow harming the very thing that you're trying to help, right.
6:51
And I got that a lot, especially because you only have so long and short form content to relay a point and somehow be a good content creator, where you can do it in an effective and fast way to keep the viewers attention.
7:07
So it's hard to do educational content in a short amount of time. So you tend to focus on one or two things. And the thing I got a lot was well, that's not all ADHD is, you know, everybody says, it's just this, because that's the keyhole opening they have, to my perspective on ADHD at the time, right was that one thing that I was discussing, and I got so tired of it,
7:32
I'm just, you know, and it's fine. What they're saying, I understand comes from a good place, but I'm like, you know, what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna find a way to say as much shit about this as I can in the shortest amount of time. And
7:44
for whatever reason, like that, that was always in my head, and then Yakko Warner, that the countries of the of the world song had graced my for you page, and like, that's it. That's what I'm going to do. So I went and I went and pulled a background track to it, I was like, we're gonna, we're gonna write out as many different things as we can think of grouping them all together and find a way to make them rhyme. And just, we're just gonna hit every point that we can. So it came, it's kind of came from spike just a little bit. But in the end, it ended up being very fun. And just a way to discuss not only all the things that are not even necessarily symptoms of ADHD, but just part of the human experience and having ADHD
8:30
where people can look at the end of it and think, maybe I should look into that. Maybe that's something I should explore on my own. Because that's what happened to me was it wasn't people educating me directly on what ADHD was, it was the massive accumulation of human experiences that people with ADHD experienced that anyone could experience but specifically ADHD. That led me to think okay, there seems to be a correlation between my deficiencies as I am now and what these people are explaining. And I wanted to provide that in one cute little package. And that you did. Naturally we hit the canteen for a cup of caffeine because it's kind of like taking a pill clearly out on a lot of coffee today.
9:14
Dot 1.1 definitely hits hits home, Ryan. So tell tell me a little bit about your animations and creations. Yeah, so sad. Nagi. As you know, he's a sad chicken nugget that is doing his best. So that's he's always on the verge of a mental breakdown, but he's still doing doing his thing. So that hits a lot of people on a relatable level. You know, like Dave said, the human experience. We're all we have our bad days. We have our good days. And we're all suffering one way or another, some worse than others, but we try to find that little bit of joy in the day or things we love to do. So when I created a chicken nugget, the reason he's a chicken nugget Well, it just hasn't been done before. And everyone knows chicken nuggets, so
9:58
it's true. I have yet to meet
10:00
Someone who doesn't like one.
10:02
So when I go online, I usually spend like half my day just searching for audios that I can use the nugget with. And when I came across Dave song here, I, I listened to this probably a week after you uploaded the original video, and I thought I'm gonna do some with that Sunday and then, you know, I put it on the backburner. And I was like, This hits everything that you know everything, to the point where I thought maybe I should get checked out.
10:30
I was like, Okay, this is me. And it was just, every time I heard it again, I it would just hooked me in for the full whatever it is two minutes or so, which is a long time to hook someone on social media. So listen to it all the time. I'm like, Hey, enough is enough. I'm doing something with it. And it was just a actually came pretty quickly other than copying all that text over.
10:56
Other than that, I was done in about an hour. And I'm like, You know what I kind of threw up there. I'm like, people are going to love this. But sometimes the algorithm just isn't in your favor. And I think I can remember what it's at now. But this song match with the nugget has hit millions like it's it's still fun. You been
11:14
asked me now.
11:17
I was like, this has to be shown and then I was like, this song is too good not to share. So yeah, I don't come across a lot of song like parodies this long and this accurate for mental health or ADHD in this sense.
11:32
So it was really awesome to hear and such a fun tune, obviously from Animaniacs. So it was
11:40
well done, Dave.
11:44
This was the first time you guys have met Right? Or is it? Yep. Yep. Yeah, that's so cool. Yes.
11:50
I've been a sad Nagi fan for an incredibly long time. Really? Very long time, Ryan, and then that video came out and that there's some creators that I'll be like, Hey, thanks for the duet. I appreciate that. And I like your stuff. And then there's others that are I almost consider like untouchable. Like I'm that he probably has a team of people that run the account. I'm not even gonna bother wasting my time typing out a DM to say, Dougie because. And so I internally I was like, It's okay. If he made a video with me, then that's cool. I'm cool with that act like you've been here before Dave.
12:30
Well, it's funny, I do all this Instagram and Tiktok is me. I have I have a couple team members. But no, it's all the I like the animation stuff is coming from me. So always, you know, I always make sure not only to use the audio, because Instagram will show the audio and Tik Tok, but then I like to make sure that tags there too. So people are like, you know, they can click on Dave's link if they want and, and then yeah, we've been talking a bit on email. But other than that, no, that's the first time we've connected, really. So.
12:59
That's awesome. If you can tell people leave a comment and they'll say, look, Dave, you've made it. That Negi got you and I'm like
13:12
Oh, that's awesome to hear. Yeah, that's amazing. And to your point, Dave, you know, kind of raising awareness. And, you know, to your point, Ryan saying like, yeah, and not that maybe, you know, maybe I do have ADHD,
13:25
you know, and even, you know, obviously, not a medical professional, but what I'm learning along, along my own adventures in learning about ADHD in myself, and in general is, you know, I experienced I kind of saw therapist a couple of years back, and I was kind of diagnosed with sort of low grade depression and then higher anxiety,
13:49
but not ADHD. And as a, since being diagnosed with ADHD, learned, how both can be symptoms of ADHD. So it's interesting. So it's, it's great to be able to help people learn about this stuff. Dave, you have a favorite line or lyric and the song.
14:08
For me, probably everybody thinks that we lighted this shrink so that we can just get a some more.
14:15
It's It's hard enough to decide if you want to be medicated. And if you do, what route you want to go.
14:24
A lot of people with ADHD have a history of substance abuse as a huge commonality between substance abuse and ADHD and addiction. So right off the bat and most of us either aren't qualified for or have no interest in stimulants to begin with. It's a very rocky road on neurone from the get go. And now to have an influx of ADHD diagnoses, which in my mind, rightfully so, that's what happens when you bring awareness to for living generations worth of people about something and it becomes less taboo is you're gonna find that more people are
15:00
Aren't we have that thing.
15:02
So with all of that, we finally start getting diagnoses from professionals. And then those professionals say, I don't know about medication here we have a lot of people that are urine. I mean, like the whole thing, to have this huge resurgence of people that now are discovering ADHD. And there's a shortage not only of medication in general, but of trust and patients from medical professionals.
15:28
Especially depending on like, the area that you're located in in the country, and will depend on whether or not you're approved for medication for something he just found out about.
15:38
That was a big deal to me. I was like, We gotta put that in there. Because we have this huge Zeitgeist awakening of people learning about themselves and why they function differently. And everyone thinks that we're trying to pop it away.
15:55
You know, it's like, how does the magnitude of this big of a movement match up with people trying to snag out a raw, you know what I mean? Yeah, I had a really interesting conversation with a doctor a while back, who was talking about, about the shortage of stimulants, especially, and how a lot of college kids get their hands on these sort of ways to cram for a test or stay up all night and work on something, and then they get a taste for it. But I don't mean that in an addiction kind of way. There's a lot of people out there who have ADHD, and it hasn't been diagnosed. And so for those who who do get their hands on it on illegal drugs, but they get their hands on them illegally, and they use them and find them, Whoa, these actually help. And then they try to continue getting their hands on it illegally without a diagnosis. It's an interesting sort of phenomenon that that is causing at least part of the shortage of supply. It's not so much about don't want those stinking college kids getting crazy, but more people that are undiagnosed who are maybe getting their hands on it the wrong way. What about you, Ryan? Are there lyrics in the song that stand out to you? Yeah, I guess for me personally, I'm a big fidgeter. So the fidget with every digit and have a hard time sitting still.
17:14
That's always me. I'm always talking my hands. And something's always either like, chewing on something or I got my hands, like when the fidget toys or whatever. And then the organization and prioritization, we struggle a ton.
17:27
That's me. And so with running a business and social media and all that stuff, I'm like, my hands in every, like 1000 different projects, and then I never finished one. So always, like, start a bunch. And then I'm like, Oh, crap, it's been a week. I need to get posting more. Whatever that Yeah. So those two for sure. I mean, the whole song as a whole? No, it's just, I could probably relate to every section and on song one way or another. Yeah, yeah, me too. We always like I find myself to just like watching a movie. And then I'll go to my phone, and then I'll go back to the computer, and then I'll play video game. And then I'm like, oh, it's three in the morning. So I better go to bed. And then I take my phone to bed and then I'm up till five.
18:05
Right? It's a cycle. Yeah, the time blindness is also part of ADHD that some people experience too, that I've learned about and certainly, yeah, I'm there to the fidgeting thing is interesting, too. As I swing this pen, in my hand, I was reading your brains not broken. Pretty early on after being diagnosed. It's interesting with you know, I would talk to other people like other adults with ADHD, or people my age or whatever. I talked to you about this. And so often I would hear, like when I went on, I went on Facebook right away when I was diagnosed, and also through my email list and social and just kind of, I joke that I sort of like came out of the Mental Health closet, so to speak, to tell everybody Hey, guess what, my everything. But I got a lot of private messages from people saying, you know, I think I have ADHD, but I'm not hyperactive. And I'd say, Yeah, but what I've learned is that, that hyperactivity is shown differently in adults, and even in girls to an extent it might be through, like, I chew my lips chronically, like I'm always chewing the inside of my mouth. And I do this, I've said it on the show, before I do this weird thing, where like, if I wear like an old t shirt that's really soft, I'll kind of like, do that with it in my hand. And to the point that, like, if we're sitting down at a table, I'll do that under the table so that it's more discreet, but not like it's this weird thing and my wife has always been like, You know what's weird, but it's all these ways of showing like hyperactivity but But Kurt like kind of curving that in a different way and sort of learning coping kind of mechanisms without even realizing why you you're doing what you're doing. I find it interesting that we went from having a DD and then we realized that we wanted to classify as ADHD and then like, Well, okay, so now you have two polar opposites of ADHD that we need to specify which one is which? And now there's three classifications of ADHD and like how many years and versions of this
20:00
DSM are we going to go through before we can just say that there's a spectrum there? Yeah, like how many classifications do we have to have between, you know, inattentive and hyperactive before we can say these are the traits. And you can fall anywhere in this spectrum. And that's why I started focusing on neuro divergence, which is not, that's not even like an official, you know, diagnoseable term to be neurodivergent. But it is, it is recognized as being, you know, a divergence from, you know, typical brain function and thinking, because I have trichotillomania I pull my hairs out sometimes, and I had, it's gotten a lot better, but it used to be really bad. It's probably the reason why I have like patches in my beard now.
20:41
You rubbing the tablecloths and rubbing your your shirts and stuff I have, I have facial tics, I have a tic disorder, all of these things I could list out all of the time. But there are so many little things that most people if they have autism, they have ADHD, you know, if they experience some of these, some of these experiences, there's so much happening there, they need to be able to know that they can kind of settle into this world of neuro divergence and explore what all of that means for them, because there's so much interconnectivity between it all
21:14
that, that would make them probably feel a lot more at ease, instead of having to say Alright, well, you are not hyperactive ADHD now, go run with that. And don't ask any more questions right now. You know what I mean? Yeah, it is interesting. And I don't know, the background story. But I do know that that, at least in my own research here that like ADHD is the consensus. It's called ADHD now, but it is confusing. Yeah, because it was add for so long. And then they added the age, they're not really doing themselves a favor, I think I think that's a big part of this is helping educate people, but also under, you know, help them understand,
21:51
you know, what it is and what it's called. And I think your song did such a good job in animation did such a good job at kind of illustrating all these different traits that are associated with it that people can understand? Yeah, I think that's what's so good about this song in particular is the awareness is spot on, where it's not just a someone likes the song and moves on, there's a whole, there's 1000s of comments across the songs now. And people are dreading it. And other just people everywhere from around the world are coming together just on this one song, and all relating and creating, like a comfort zone for each other. Talking about it. I know yeah, there's always those people that say it doesn't exist, this is a made up thing, but you know, it's online, what are you gonna do? Majority though, 99% of people in there like, get, it's new to them. Like, I think I have this, or I do have this, and it's great to see everyone talking about it. Yeah, that's why I have that link on white squirrels to that assessment, just so people can, can take it and just see as a starting point. I mean, obviously going to speak to a doctor obviously is where you get diagnosed, not just from like an online assessment or self diagnosis or something like that, since we're talking a little bit about like, digital creative content, and, and this kind of thing and being sort of myself kind of early adopter being online it mentioned podcasting forever, and things like that. And I'm curious where your minds are on, like, open source was such like a cool thing back in the day and Creative Commons licensing stuff that you you would choose a Creative Commons license, like a pot date musician to to make their music available for free for anyone or to remix. And of course, with licensing and all the all the things associated with that. What are your thoughts on this world of remix things dice? Look, it's the Wild West, I think it but it's got its pros. Like I was heavily in the music industry for 10 years prior to settlement. So I have been kind of down the road of the copyright and all that people taking music and monetizing it on their own channels without licensing. And so there can be some like bad things happening if it's malicious, not everybody's malicious. But I think in terms of like what Dave's done here with the song and all the other parodies online, it's great content. I think no band should be upset about that.
24:06
Especially when it's bringing the attention to millions and millions of people. So because there will be someone to say, hey, like, what's this from? I remember, it's from a TV show. And like, oh, it's Animaniacs like, right, so you know, it's, I think it's great.
24:22
Yeah, there's gonna always be bad people. But for all I think it's amazing how easy it is to make and share. Now Yeah, I one of my biggest regrets for that song is normally on the parodies. I remember to put like an opaque gray box at the top that says parody artists in song I normally do that. And I forgot to do it. So I put it in there in the comments. I was like, Hey, this is a parody of you know, something such and I felt so bad because I don't like I have such strong opinions on the giant gray sea of a line that is established itself on so
25:00
Social media. But Robin Lawson comment that Jaco Warner the voice of the guy who did the song commented and said, Wow, this is great. And I was like, Okay, I feel slightly better if he's
25:11
a lawyer, you just wait. So if he liked it, I was okay with it. But
25:15
like what Ryan does is so massively different from the problem that I have with what other people do.
25:23
First of all, it's totally normal, to use the sound of somebody else's, and then make your own version that's not only normal, but highly encouraged and expected. And Ryan's got this massive contribution visually, that helps people in so many ways.
25:39
But the level of things that people do wrong, whether they're just ripping the content, and then using the sound, and not critically crediting the original user, that all the way to, I mean, just straight up copycats of accounts, I have probably 10 Brave Dave's that are not brave Dave's floating around pulling my videos and re uploading them. I have videos where I say I'm donating the Creator fund the money that I get from this video to charity that they re upload and are not going to do and it's just incredibly infuriating. I've seen more sad and Dougie content come from not Ryan's page than I can count. And that's just, it's it's just an accepted casualty in your profession. You know, that's just the way that it works.
26:28
It's, it's different for like, you know, movie stars and major musicians because they have a label and a production company that goes after those people and removes it. You know, Disney doesn't care that it happens because they just snuff you out and an incident if they don't like it, we're just left to do something for ourselves, you know, a majority of the time. And there's many instances, I don't know, in Ryan's case where the accounts that are posting my stuff, their videos on my thing are doing better than mine did. It's incredibly infuriating, but you, it's never gonna go away. So you just have to focus in on yourself and what you're doing and appreciate people that
27:11
are not stealing, they are contributing, and making that community. That's why I got so excited to see his video do so well. I'm like, I hope it gets 3 million more likes than mine. If it's going to do that. Well, like go for it.
27:25
You know, what I like about Ryan stuff is it's his own take on other things. There's a community a culture called Content curation, which is they always say it's like it's the ADHD community come and watch all the best ADHD videos. And they're literally just pulling all the videos from the best creators of a particular niche, and uploading them and they're saying, this is like our, this is like, the best of page and you're gonna get a lot of exposure, because you're on there. Well, I'm not nobody is when they're on there. What they're doing is they're taking all of the Best Bets from everyone sites that you know, did all the hard work to see what worked and what didn't compile it together, and then reap all the benefits from the best things that people have done.
28:08
So I just thank you, Ryan, so much for doing things in like, a real way. And using your talent, to to work with others to bring this kind of stuff to life because it made that song so much better. It really did.
28:25
Yeah, I thought the nugget needed to get in there. And when I heard that, I'm like, well, actually, I didn't usually I just tagged the Creator, but this time of like, brave day, this is amazing work like
28:36
this is like brave day, brave day, I got so many memes actually. Even you Dave, you've messaged me on Facebook and said, I love your song. I said it's actually brave Dave song. And yeah. So I always make sure to tell people to go the right direction. Because like you said, Let's build each other up, not steal each other's content. Right. Yeah, happens too much.
28:57
Yeah, and you know, what Dave mentioned about like, exposure, like, yeah, it's hard to beat the kids with exposure. You know,
29:07
you know, keep the lights on or whatever. But and then same can be said for these YouTubers, if they're savvy enough to like, or whomever, whatever, you know, tech talkers or whatever. If you're ripping, if you're savvy enough to be able to rip a video off YouTube, let's say that you're definitely savvy enough to create a public playlist from other people's billing. And instead, you know, if you're curating great ADHD content, then why not do that with a public like with a playlist that actually takes the links from the creators and then then you can feature that playlist on your website embedded on your blog, whatever, posted on social but the plays and all the big exposure gets back to the actual creators of the content back to them.
29:53
Yeah, in a perfect world, right. Yeah, there is a great movie by the way, it's an older documentary
30:00
As an artist as a DJ named girl talk, he basically mixes like one of his songs will have samples from like hundreds of different songs. And what's great about it is it's really a crowd pleaser because he'll have like samples of Beyonce and then Taylor Swift, but then he'll have Husker du or like black flag or whatever, like all through the bizarre, Run DMC, I don't know, like all sorts of weird mixes. And there's a documentary that you can find actually the full thing on YouTube, not rip, but if it was, the irony would be there.
30:34
The documentary is called rip,
30:38
rip a manifesto, I think it is. And it features Girl Talk as sort of the subject in the film. You know, it's kind of follows him and his dealings with lawyers and all that stuff. But the idea of like re mixing content and creating new content for that, in the name of art, Austin Kleon, has a great book called Steal Like an Artist, which is worth checking out. But that documentary at the end of it makes a really interesting point about patents on medicine, and how pharmaceutical companies if they were more open source and appropriate or world again, we would have cures for everything, because one pharmaceutical company probably is sitting on top of the thing that it mixed with, if this chocolate is mixed with this peanut butter, cancer gone, but because they're all so siloed and, and secretive, there's no telling you know, how each thing is made. And you know, all that stuff. So anyway, I just rambled a lot about that. So I will shut up. I like where we wait, no, it's good.
31:40
There, guys, let folks know how they can get a hold of you learn more and share very quickly what what you what you do what the day job is. So I work with a company called white flag. They saw my content, discussing mental health and ADHD and said, Hey, your, we like your stuff. Why don't you make some content for us? And I was curious about what they were. And it was like a, it was a mental health app where people can talk to each other. I was like, Sure, that sounds nice. So I made these videos. And I was like, okay, cool. There we go. And normally, that's when you just go on, you're done now. But the stuff that they showed me like the inner workings of the app, and what it truly was, and the kind of people that were helping in the testimonials, it made me realize why flag was doing its free, anonymous peer to peer support. You get on the app, you fill out a profile explaining the kind of things that you suffer from whether it's ADHD or autism all the way to schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, trauma, sexual abuse, whatever it is, that you've experienced in your life, things that you've recovered from, if you are sober, things like that. And then if you ever need help, you just raise your white flag, and people can see you on the app and converse with you anonymously. And you can help other people as well. That's come a very long way, a very long way. Since we first started, we have a very large community over 100,000 downloads, still growing. And I'm their Chief Content Officer now. And it's my life really, you know, outside of the fun stuff I do for brave Dave, what I do on there is really life changing. It's been it's been great to do it iOS, Android. Both is on both.
33:22
Yep. So it's very important that we run both right? Right off the bat, you gotta be on both. So we're on both platforms. We're in the US and Canada. And it's just country by country. We just push forward until we're worldwide. All right. That's awesome, man. And Ryan, what about yourself? Yeah, so my day to day is mainly set and setting that gives my life right now. So that's, I'm kind of wearing all hats for that. I just incorporated this past July. I've only been doing it since last August. So instead of he's only been around a year.
33:56
And so I'm doing everything from orders, customer service, marketing, sales, you know, just everything you can think of content creation.
34:05
So it's a never ending thing, but it's all fun. It's, yeah, you get burnt out. But it's it's fun. It's something I enjoy doing. I've always like working for myself. So yeah, yeah. So I mean, you just type inside unagi online, you'll find suddenly he's he's everywhere, right now. So we're, we're let's future for setting up those we're doing. You know, some more talking stuff like even with like corporate events now was setting up
34:32
Shopify, for example, in October, so it's really exciting to see where this little nugget is taking me personally. So
34:41
I might be the face of the business but the brand is Negi. So I'm because all my videos, you know, this is the first time people are gonna really see me other than I'm like LinkedIn. Right? So it's just the Negi and it makes my life easier. So I don't have to, you know, make sure I look good. I can just get my camera. Take a picture of the nugget.
35:01
That's, that's a bonus. But actually going back to Dave's white flag, I signed up on it when he emailed me about it. And it's it's been amazing. I've only been on it for about a month, but it's awesome. So that's it's awesome to see other creators too with the mental health awareness, really push, push for the advocacy and helping people. So good work with that.
35:22
Yeah, that's amazing. That's awesome. And tell me. So you know, my day job, I do a lot of presentations and public speaking. So I do.
35:33
My favorite places on stage making a fool of myself, but teaching the audience
35:38
new skill around communication, which is a topic near and dear to my heart. Yeah, I was a speaker for Google for five years. And during that time, we were doing stuff with Shopify, but which is cool to see like Bronto, a fledgling startup out of Toronto, for the home team, doing well, but tell me a little bit about you know, knowing that I shared that because I'm curious, like, what, how does a corporate gig work with Nagi? I thought the exact same thing when they reached out I'm like, What on earth do you want for me? And they had seen one of our tic toc lives and we did like a color. We have a coloring book for SAT unagi. And we were just coloring it. That's it. And one of the people who works in like, like the employment Wellness Department, I think, I don't know what the actual title is. But it's all about employees. They are hosting a mental health awareness event this October. And they're like, just you to kind of talk to our employees while doing a coloring hour. So I guess I'm just nice. People. So it's really interesting. How people are taking Negi and just using him for their own stuff. And it's awesome. Like, I just want that nugget out there. So
36:50
for future clients possibly listening to this. Would it be in good taste or poor taste if they cater with chicken nuggets? Oh, perfect case.
37:01
It's want to make sure that chicken nuggets? Yes, yes. Yes. Strangely, I'm craving some nice stuff right now. All right. Well, guys, this has been so much fun. Let ya let people know how they can get a hold of you find you. Check out your music. Check out your animations inside.
37:19
Yep, so sad, Negi you can literally google.com is the official website, everything is on there. I always have Lincoln BIOS across all socials. So it's not hard to find me or the team or the Nagi himself. You can even talk to them directly on Discord. So
37:35
he's got his own Snapchat. He's got his own Discord server. So it's everywhere. Nice. Nice day. Yeah. So I'm brave dot Dave dot official across all platforms. Most places, depending on where they have the time do I'm on most platforms. White flag you can find in the App Store and the Android store US and Canada. Our socials are white flag app. Ryan, I want to say in case I don't get a chance to that. I have shared your stuff with people. And it's an in the thing that takes me hours to come up with a good idea. It's very long time to film, I have to push it all out there and speak to people all of these words. Do you do that in one photograph? And when you send an IV to somebody and they say LOL, you know, absolutely. What they're saying is I know exactly how you feel. So they say a picture's worth 1000 words, and you literally do what takes me 1000s of words to do with one little chicken nugget.
38:34
It truly makes a difference to see what I'm trying to do, you know, on my platforms happen with something like Nagi as well. So it was a really, it was just a pleasure to get to talk to you guys today. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Thanks, guys. You know, yeah, thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah. So now you got to animate this whole conversation. Yeah.
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