Thomas Green here with ethical marketing service on the episode today, we have Tim Branyan, Tim, welcome. Hey, thanks so much for having me thomas. It is my pleasure. Would you like to take a moment and tell the audience a bit about yourself and what you do. Yeah, I would love to. Um so again, my name is Tim Brandon. I’m the founder of a platform called True fanz (with a Z) dot com. Uh basically, just to give a quick short synopsis of what that is, we’re very similar to only fans or Patreon. The biggest difference is that we don’t allow adult content were invite only, we pay more, we pay faster, we just launched instant payments and uh yeah, we’re really excited about what that’s doing for creators around the globe, um external of that kind of the same niche. I own a software development company, so we do various apps and platforms for solo entrepreneurs, startups and the large companies and and just now tiptoeing into the municipalities and various federal level contracts, which is exciting and uh yeah, I’m a dad of two awesome, beautiful kids, husband of of an awesome wife and just really excited actually, the mastermind event right now, I don’t know if video will be out there or not.
I’m at a mastermind event in SAN Diego plugged into my hotel room so I could be here and um just excited about where, where things are going, living present in the moment and just just full of gratitude man, So thanks again for having me and that’s that’s my kind of quick story, Thank you for the introduction. Um you mentioned your business. I think that a fair amount of people do know, should we say only fans, I think that’s it. Um but there are some people who don’t, so can you should say talk about your business in terms of what it looks like and who it’s for sure. Yeah, so we are for we are a membership management platform where technology that helps content creators get paid to post. So it’s, it’s almost like, so for somebody that has no experience whatsoever with, with, with these types of platforms, it would be like running your own paid for, uh, you know, social media channel.
So basically you have content, like whether you’re a musician, whether you’re an artist, whether you’re a, you know, you name it, there’s there’s a whole array of different types of content creators. Um, we’ll just take a fitness influencer as an example, let’s say you’re a fitness influencer And you’ve got an audience of 50,000 people, 100,000 people, 10,000 people or whatever. Uh, and you want to start segmenting them, basically, you would post your best workouts or your best fitness nutrition advice or the last 10% of your podcast or your most exclusive, blogs. um, internal of your true fence channel and then set up a subscription price where people can only view that content can only engage in that community, can only interact and experience the internal functionality of the platform. If they subscribe and take it a layer deeper. So ultimately what it’s doing is it’s allowing content creators to segment their audiences And monetize through about nine different um, features to help them do that, whether it’s live, you know, going live to your, your your inner circle, whether it’s a private messaging encrypted messaging, whether it’s to an individual or mass messaging.
Uh, the the paradigm shift is that there’s no, there’s no ads, there’s no limitation on your reach. So whether somebody has 10 or 10 million people, they all get notified, uh, us as a platform, it’s within our best interest to help creators get their reach out there, help our users get reached. So hopefully that that’s a decent job of explaining it. But basically, you know, in short, we help content creators get paid to post all sorts of them. So why did you go into that business? Yeah. So, you know, I’ve never set out to have like a good idea. I’ve always been pretty good at seeing what sucks. I’ve always been pretty good at, you know, seeing seeing what a problem was and utilizing technology as the solution. So, uh, you know, long story short, I mean, we looked at right now, people, you know, they’re getting, they’re not getting the reach, they should get their being demonetized creators notoriously have been undervalued and underpaid. Uh, you know, since the longevity of most of these platforms and uh, you know, people right now are being censored and canceled and it’s just a, it’s a radical time and all that sucks, right?
Um, I think everyone would agree. So we looked at our competitors that were in this similar space and we had a high level belief that we could be the best, we could be the most logical choice and we set out to do just that? It was two years ago today? Um we have 200 and some odd 1000 users now across the planet. Um, we’ve allowed in right at 1200. Some odd creators don’t quote me on that. Um, like I said, we’re 100% invite only and that’s to avoid the things like the adult, uh, you know, world because we’re a home for folks that would love to have a Patreon and only fans but don’t want the stigma of adult. So we became that that home so that, you know, we just looked at, okay, what’s going on out there? What sucks, What exists? How do we, how do we create an offer that is better or that is um, you know, desired. Right. And I don’t think anything else like that existed when we first launched. And then we kind of got lucky in a way with the pandemic, became like a home or a life preserver if you will for a lot of creators that had to transition online, um that were now keen to that mindset of, okay, I can do both or I should be doing both online and offline events.
Um, yeah, but that’s really it man, just, just being aware, being like looking around, listening, watching and you can do this in, in a bunch of different industries and I recommend any entrepreneur, you know, don’t, don’t set out to have this wonderful idea set out to solve problems. So have you got a kind of like an ideal client, who is your typical person that would really benefit from your service? Yeah, my my ideal client is someone that has experienced the pain of the platform they’re wanting to build. So some app software, somebody that’s that’s real world, seeing, feeling, experiencing or knows about uh the solution that they want to provide, there’s no uncertainty, right? It’s this will do this. I know it because I’m living it, I know it because I’m seeing it and the reason why they’re an ideal client and they can be small, they could be, you know, large first financials, etcetera. Uh the reason why they’re ideal is because they don’t lack any direction, we can help them extract a prototype, we can help them draw up the idea and, you know, get a measurable quote and they’re they’re excited because they know the results of what they’ve got.
Um so, so those are the people that are invested, I think as well, and in the most interested because they have a vision and how did you go about the tech side of this business? How did you sort of have a solution for that, because I think most people have a good idea, but their ability to implement is the thing which stops them, so how did you go about that? Yeah, no, that’s a great question, Thompson and I was no different, I failed enthusiastically. Um I have zero, just so everybody knows like I own a software company, but I write zero code and you know, I do that, I’m a product project manager, I know enough now, after I’ve been in the industry about eight years now, 8.5 years, um And I failed, I failed for hundreds of thousands of dollars, I was scammed initially, my first build ended up being, you know, it got scammed for $27,000 and that was an experience, a learning experience, and the next one, you know, I was brokered between a guy that was selling software services to a development company, so there was miscommunication, there was this middleman, if you will, that communication went through and he didn’t want me to of course know as developers, so that that was the whole experience that that ultimately led me to my team now and, you know, my, my guys at Logic Square, I’ve I’ve been with them for years and years, we’ve built some really cool stuff and but ultimately I I had to um seek and I had to learn and I had to not quit because that is a really hard part is finding, you know, good people in finding honesty and integrity and finding someone that can actually ship quality software and so if I was to do it again, I think what I would do, I wouldn’t change anything about my story, It’s helped me, you know, it’s still helping refine me, but if I had to give someone advice, learn faster than me and reverse engineer, go out, go talk to somebody that knows how to do this or has a live platform and just ask, hey man, who do you use to develop or hey, you know, who, who should I talk to most most of the time, you know, if you can get with a founder that has a platform, they’ll tell you, um, you know, or they won’t, but you’ll be a little bit closer than than going through the wide open seas of fiber or up work or linkedin or wherever you try to broadcast this net or talk to a friend that you heard no software.
It’s best in my opinion to go after somebody that, that has an existing infrastructure and has a team. It’s great advice. And I’ve had, I’ve had a couple of people on the show where they’ve said they’ve openly said, you know, I lost $100,000 on my first attempt or something like that. And not, not only did they lose the money, but they also lost the time it took to build essentially something which didn’t work. So that was the Stinger man. I remember being in tears just in tears the whole year went by and you know, I felt at the time I had nothing to show for it. But I took away some valuable lessons which you will, if you let tough times refine you instead of define you. So you know, I hope, I hope entrepreneurs, maybe somebody’s going through a struggle right now, let’s rewind this and play what I just said again, it’s the honest truth. You let tough times refine u verse define you and you’re gonna take that new knowledge forward, you’re gonna put it in your pocket, you’re gonna put in your backpack, whatever you got in this analogy and press on and you’re gonna be better for, it will be a better leader for it and you’ll watch out for those holes um you know, in the future your answer, some sort of reminded me of a quote that I was going to ask you about and it is work your job, but mind your freedom, what does that mean to you?
I love that. Um so I say that, I actually, I think I say that often uh and because I think, you know, for folks that are working a full time job right now, there’s a lot of weird like stigmas and entrepreneurialism, I remember when I was young, let me back this up a little bit when I was young, I used to think that you couldn’t work a job while trying to be an entrepreneur, it was like you almost were a failure and I think that the job or your income is going to add fuel to what you’re doing and maybe speed it up or add some comfort in your life. So you can think a little bit more as you’re in the weeds of developing something or as you’re in the weeds of, you know, I’ve got a wife and kids. Um, so I, you know, I think about, I’m not just if it was just me man, I could sleep on the rocks, I could sleep under the sun. You know, I had to be just fine. I’d figure out a way, but I got a wife and kids, I have to be a little bit more strategic. And so I always recommend folks. If you’re working a job, work your job, do the thing that’s paying you with a great attitude and the characteristics that you’re gonna, that are you, they do a great job there.
But mind your freedom in a sense that you’re working on something, you’re building something, you’re sharing your music to the world that’s ultimately going to help you set up for your own ideal freedom. Um, and, and freedom in, in, in some capacity does come from monetary game. If you have, you know what, whatever your freedom number is, that’s a variable, that’s different to everybody and, and wealth is a ratio it’s how much you make versus how much you spend. You know, you can be super rich off off 50 grand if you live in a region of the world where, you know this, it’s cost way less to live their southern California where I’m at, there’s no way, you know, But, but anyway, I think work your job in mind, your freedom is simply that work, your job, work your job well, you know, put your boots on, do do what you need to do. But ultimately your passion project, like what you’re doing outside of work or what you’re doing in the middle of your day that you can, that’s setting you and your family up for freedom, um or this vision that you’ve got that’s way more important to the world, would you say that’s what you’re doing now?
Oh, definitely. Yeah, my passion might, so just so you know, and I’ll just be fully transparent the technology that we’ve built with with true fans, I imagine it, you know, going from profit to purpose in a sense that we can equip a missionary organization, a nonprofit, a large, a large, you know, group that already has, you know, people going out and doing projects in the world and changing the way that they not only collect income globally, but how their supporters see the results of their income shared. That makes sense. Their their donations. It’s it’s an interactive kind of donations platform that I’m imagining. And uh, so if my voice echoes out there to somebody that’s got homies that are nonprofits or organizations I would love to get in touch and just give them a demo of what we’ve got and why I think it’ll change, it’ll revolutionize how, how, yeah, income is generated and how impact is made through nonprofit organizations. So is it one of your goals that you’re looking to Teresa going at 100% of the time or are you just not thinking about that right now?
Uh, I’m just throwing it out there. I mean, I can see it. I know it’s gonna happen, it’s just a matter of time. But right now my my focus primarily is the, as the founder is just to listen with the intent to engineer and really just put the right people in the right spot right now. Um, we’re at a cool, cool place where we’re scaling and growing our processes and systems and uh, you know, we’re putting the right people in the right place to hit new milestones. Um, and those new milestones I think are gonna increase the likelihood of us getting in touch with the right people as well. Well, congratulations on, on building something and, you know, taking your time as well because I think that I think with some tech startups, they’re like, you know, how quickly can we get this up and running and, you know, we’ve got a burn rate. And and if you’ve got that sort of, I don’t know, it’s like a well being thing almost where you’re like, okay, let’s just get it right, let’s work on the product and like you say, your invitation only one thing I was going to ask you about, because you mentioned, um, people being demonetized are those do you approach those people who maybe they’ve just lost their ability to earn any money, even though they’ve got a big audience, definitely.
So, you know, we see it all the time, people have content taken down, or they get kicked off a platform where they’re they’re typically angry, so they’ll make a post afterwards when something happens, and our outreach team, which is just dedicated to finding talent and ideal people and setting up calls and manually, you know, showing them the platform and figuring out who they are. Um, you know, they definitely do that, and uh, we’re excited to be a life preserver for those folks, or be, you know, be a home for people that have been looking for something like this. Um, and we often find that they are, you know, there’s a lot of people like man, you know, I can’t believe you guys are reaching, I was just thinking about it, I wish something like this existed, etcetera, and here we are. So that’s part of, you know, my goal now is to is to build a personal brand give as much away as I possibly can. I’m a total open book. So if somebody asked questions or if, you know, I just want to give as much value as I can, while, while showing the world this is Tim Brandon, and this is what we do.
I’ve never really done that before, man, I’ve been behind the scenes have been, uh, you know, in the trenches working, or I’ve got a business partner, his name’s Logan, he’s phenomenal on camera, he’s an editor. He’s, he’s typically the guy out on Front street, but it became important to me and, and this is something for entrepreneurs get out of your own way anytime there’s resistance, um, or a feeling of uncomfortable most of the time. That’s the thing that you should be working on. The same thing is true at the gym. If you don’t like doing leg day, it’s probably because you got skinny legs that you need to work on. Um, we tend to not want to do the thing that we most often, no, we should do. So, you know, chase those opportunities to build yourself in the discomfort of progress and uh, yeah, so that’s what I’m doing now, man, I’ve just been just been, you know, finding more opportunities to meet guys like you, thomas and, and hope to be a value. So, um, well, yeah, thank you for the answer in the instance where let’s say you bring on a client who’s just been demonetized, um, what would that look like from their perspective, in terms of, let’s say they don’t they no longer have their revenue anymore.
How do they then get back, get that back by using your platform, Right? So there’s three steps once we are invited only. So in the event that they’re invited um or they apply in their granted access step one is sign up. So that’s just a verification process. We determined that they are, who they say they are through our technology um that gives them the opportunity to then process global payments, um everything’s compliant. Right? So the next step is setting up, right? So they’ll take their content, this this uh you know, visionary person will take their content and start uploading it in the system. They’ll they’ll dedicate or decide what’s pay per view content, what’s subscription content. Um They’ll create a vault which evolved basically allows them to create folders of a bulk amount of content and sell it for a one time price or whether their coach, teacher or trainer model, various, you know, all sorts of different creators. Uh they basically set up their channel and then the third step is just launched. They promote it to their existing platforms, whether it be youtube linkedin instagram, it becomes a strategy of new client acquisition.
So there’s a lot of different ways to do that and we go into layers helping them to, that’s why each person we get on a call with and we figure out who they are what their goals are because somebody that that wants to make $1000 a month for somebody that wants to make 50 or $100,000 a month is gonna need different, a different infrastructure, different strategy, different work effort. So, you know, we we make that very realistic, we give them whether it be connections to pr we help them with uh you know, opportunities to to get on different platforms, maybe platforms I’ve never even heard of before. And uh you know, we come up with a routine if you will and things that they could be doing consistently, that will drive more traffic to ultimately get them to where they want to be at the end of the day. We are in infrastructure and it’s within our best interest to help our users get to their goals. And I think that’s how we become the logical choice as we go, you know, even further layers than what what some of our competitors can or will have you got any thoughts on working with, let’s say, controversial creators.
So this is separate from the from the adult thing that you mentioned, but if it is the case that let’s say that they’ve been demonetized, maybe it’s the case that they are controversial. Do you, what are your thoughts there that come up? Depends on what the controversy I mean. So, you know, there’s no there’s no drugs on the platform, there’s no distribution of drugs, right? We gotta we gotta watch out for crazy stuff. We’ve got some ai in place like, you know, terrorism, um some of the crazy stuff of course, but if somebody is controversial in like a political sense, you’re more than welcome to come here. Like I I am a firm believer in freedom of speech, freedom of dialogue. I feel like we go backwards if we can’t communicate with one another. Even if we’re passionate about our ideas, ideas are made to be edited, they’re made to be dissected and picked apart. You know, if you like apples and I like oranges and I, we can’t talk about that. We lose as human beings, we lose progression, we lose, um, you know, and, and we’ve, I don’t know where when it happened or or if it’s happening.
Um, but it seems like a lot of folks aren’t able to have tough talks. And uh, I grew up in a home where that’s just what we did. Nothing was really an off limits topic. We didn’t sweep things under the rug. We didn’t, you know, pretend like there wasn’t an elephant in the room that we just we hashed it out. And sometimes, you know, you could leave that conversation and still disagree, but there was a level of mutual respect. And you know, never once in my life until really 2022 have I experienced just being shut down or or you know, eliminated due to a perspective or an idea that’s new for, I think all of us. And uh, I don’t like it won’t ever stand for it and I would encourage other people not to as well. Um, that’s where I’m at interesting. So the you’re opposed to uh the cancelation approach and it’s the would you say it’s the driver for why the business exists progression?
Yeah. Yeah it is. I mean we want to we want people to be able to express themselves. You know, we want people to express their ideas, we want people to be able to congregate a group and and have discussions with their own group and be able to talk with them. I think that’s an okay thing. Right? Well congratulations on creating a cool company. Is there anything that I should have asked you about today? No, you asked phenomenal questions and uh I think we got everything everything out for the most part. I went down a few rabbit holes. So hopefully people people are able to keep up with my A. D. D. So what your goals, whether it be personal or for your company. So we want to do uh some big numbers this year. I don’t like to speak on like the number of goals. I just like I want to do it. It’s one thing I don’t know man, I don’t know if superstition but we’ve got a big numbers goal that we just got into the details of. Let me say this to the entrepreneurs to because this this is something that I’m still learning getting into the details of your numbers will help you get creative and tactical, not one of my strengths.
You know, not one of my strengths is not getting into Excel and extracting exactly what we’re doing. I actually get really fearful of it in the weirdest way I’m working through it, but I think somewhere along the line when I was growing up in high school or something, I just decided to make an agreement with myself that I wasn’t gonna be good at math or numbers and that’s all bullshit. So I’m trying to like relearn and reprogram, you know, my, my responses to it, but anyway, getting to your numbers and knowing the details of what it’s gonna take for you to hit your objectives that are going to ultimately align with with what you want and where you’re going is this huge thing. So if you’re like me, uh you know, and you’re pretty good at being creative or or using your imagination, if you add the details component to it and what I call a mind map or a vision plan, it’s gonna help you accelerate that and I’m just not really discovering this um alongside some of the vision and the drive I like to draw ideas out to, but bringing them into the physical world through Yeah, I think that that’s that’s big.
So are our goals, is it, you know, bigger goal, we want to become the most logical choice platform for creators around the planet. We want to give them a home that isn’t saturated in the adult and ultimately we want to align with a purpose driven, you know, platform or company and help empower what they’re doing through our technology. Those are some big plays, Thank you for that sounds like a good goal, anything personal. Um, I’m, I’m always so I balance, you know, I’m a dad, right? I’m a dad and a husband, so I’m, I’m working on those pillars as well. We spend so much time like seeking out on our businesses and seeking out and how it can make, you know, income and things like that, but, but very rarely do, at least for me, you know, do we pick up a book on marriage? Do we pick up a book on dating? Do we extract information about being an awesome dad and how to listen, and, you know, these various other pillars of life, you know, so I’m looking at wealth and overall kind of sphere, it’s like wealth is friends and family, you know, wealth is time freedom, wealth is a great relationship with your spouse or loved one.
Uh, you know, it’s, it’s these rich things, its experiences and money can help open doors for those various things, but it’s important that you work on those things as well, and, and these pillars of your life that are important to you that you’ve kind of defined? So that’s my thoughts on it. I’m working on all of those pillars to, you know, really, I don’t want to just be rich monetarily put it that way. I want to be rich and abundant on all pillars and you know, so friends, it’s a big one for me and uh, people that have your back, I don’t want to make money with the wrong people. Um, and I don’t want to become that rich guy that’s unhappy. That’s, that’s something that I want to avoid. So I’m putting things in place well, knowing that going in is probably, shall we say, more beneficial than where most people are at, So well done there. Have you got any closing thoughts for us today? No, I just, I want to, you know, I want to be of encouragement if somebody is in the process right now and they’re building, don’t give up, keep working your business and network, get in the way of opportunity, um, always be testing, you know, find out things that work.
Uh it’s awesome that you’re listening to this podcast right now, you person that’s, you know what I mean, like going after your, your stuff, information will change your life and the reality is, you can, you can do it whatever your business is. I’m a firm believer in that, keep adapting and solving puzzles for the people that you’re serving. You can do it is a very good, very good place to end. So thank you for the affirmation there. If people want to try out the platform or maybe connect with you, Where do they go? Yeah, so it’s true fans with a Z dot com. Um there’s an application page there that they can, you know, and they can learn more about the platform, watch the video kind of look at some of our creators, they can, you know, there’s all sorts of stuff on true fans dot com. They want to connect with me. It’s Tim Brandon dot com, that should be done this week, this weekend. Um it’s Tim Brandon dot com. That’s where all my my links are at. And uh yeah, thomas I’ll actually send you, I’m gonna give you access as well. So if if people reach out to you um you can actually be the bridge or the gatekeeper.
So if they just get in touch with you, they want to kind of expedite entry, I’ll make sure that you get access and then you can invite them um as long as they, you know, kind of meet the criteria. Right. All right, well, thank you for that. Yeah, that’s it Tim Brandon on google I guess to you could google. Well, thank you for your contribution and also for being a great guest tim. Thank you, awesome. Thanks thomas.