Joe Rogan - I Don't Need Cashapp as a Sponsor

My thought is I'm in negotiation or in discussions right now, and I talked to you about this too, about building an app. And what I want to do with the app is have a set amount of money that you pay per month if you want to sign up for the app and you get the podcast with no ads. Right. So you could either get it from iTunes or whatever you Google play or Google podcasts, or you can get it from the app. And if you get it from the app, you pay X amount per month and you get the podcast with zero ads. And it'll stream live. I'm going to figure out how to wait to do both of those things. My thought going into advertising, when I first did the podcast, I've been doing the podcast now for nine years. When I first started doing it, there was no ads for the longest time. It just cost money. It costs money to, for bandwidth, it costs money to put it, but I was doing it for fun and I didn't care. And I had my, my revenue was coming from other sources. Um, a few years ago, uh, I decided what I was going to do was, because I was getting ad, well, the first ad request was Facebook was, uh, the fleshlight rather. And you were the first person to request to not have the fleshlight on your podcast, the first podcast that we did. Fucking pre Madonna. Sam Harris. Well, it made sense. I mean, they were disgusting ads too. I mean, we, we would get ridiculous and be really silly in those ads. It was just the juxtaposition. I just, just knowing that the mic would go hot. And then, you know, 15 seconds before it would still be ringing in their ears. You know, if you want to jack off with this fantastic device, you know, here's Sam Harris, neuroscientist and moral philosopher. The fleshlight experience, some pretty significant, uh, positive impact from that, I mean, their business went through the roof because of the podcast. I mean, they're really sold a shitload of fleshlights where they told me like some ungodly number, like 50% of the fleshlights they were selling was code word. Rogan. Yeah. No doubt. I don't want to picture too much. The armies of people using their product, you know? So word got around and then as the podcast space started expanding, then advertisers tentatively were dipping their toe in my philosophy and it still holds. Was it, that's like 2006 or seven or. Yeah. Jamie. 2012, 2011. Yeah. I wasn't the first time I was on here was 2011. Wow. I started basically at the end of 2009. So 2010 was all right. You were probably on before. Yeah. You're probably on around 2010 or 11. There was no other ads other than the flashlight with you. Yeah. Um, and then the flashlight dropped off when we started asking for more money. They're like, eh, I think we hit the point of no return, but my philosophy getting into advertisement was, uh, I'm going to do whatever the fuck I want to do a hundred percent and have no impact whatsoever on the content of my podcast. Like whatever advertisers that I choose, whatever advertisers that, uh, I, I, I make deals with, they have to understand that there's no way I'm changing the content of the podcast. Right. And if I lose them, I lose them. I don't care. And that was the thought process going in. So I never hit up a snag like this cash app, Jack Dorsey thing before where people think that the reason why I was easy with him was because of the fact that he sponsors the podcast. It's a very obvious, um, conflict of interest. Uh, but I would, but people have to realize that if they churn out off your podcast, you've got just an endless number of advertisers waiting in the line. Yeah. So I mean, the cash app is a very, it's like there's one way of looking at it that they, they buy a lot of ads. They do buy a lot of ads. We do have a good relationship with them, but I don't need them. If they went away, I have too many ads. And that sounds gross to say, but it is a fact. I have many more ads than I have spots for ads. So if they went away, it would not hurt me at all financially because I put a limit on how many ads I do per podcast. I also don't ever interrupt a podcast with an ad. I don't do that. And because I don't do that, that costs me money, but I just feel like the experience of listening to a podcast unbroken is so much better than listening to a podcast. We'll be right back with this word from Casper mattresses. You know, it just, it's, it feels gross, but in the beginning, I'm like, look, you know where it is, you can fast forward, but maybe you're into this stuff. Maybe you need stamps.com. Maybe whatever the fuck you need. The, those are the ads. They pay a lot of money. I'm going to take that money and I'm going to do whatever the fuck I want. And if these guys decide, Oh, you smoke pot or you're too controversial, or you talk about this or talk about that, we're going to drop you. Okay. That's my philosophy. And I've lost ads. I've lost sponsors. Okay. I don't care. But if I lost the cash app because I was too high, hard on Jack Dorsey, or if Jack Dorsey comes back and I'm too hard on him in grilling him about these people that have been censored, I hope he doesn't, but I like him. It's nice guy. I want to know what the fuck's going on there. I, in fact, I'm having Tim pool. Come on tomorrow. Tim pools and investigative journalist, independent journalist who was a, used to be with vice and he knows a lot about the censorship issue with YouTube or with, with Twitter rather, and he knows about YouTube as well, but with who is censored and why, who is removed, who's been de-platformed, why they've been de-platformed and where are the inconsistencies and you know, where, why, why is it skewing so heavily right where the people on the right of the ones who are getting banned, the people on the left are getting away with a lot of crazy shit. So we're going to, we're going to get into the weeds with that. And if the cash app hears that and they decide to drop me as a sponsor, I don't care, I really don't care. This is a major source of income for me, but it's only one source. It's one of the things of being a standup comedian, working for the UFC and having a podcast and I have a podcast with ads on YouTube and, and having ads that are on the regular podcast itself. I'm free in a sense to, I have plenty of money. It's not whether or not I'm starving or worry about paying my bills. I'm free to do whatever I want to do. Well, also I should be clear. Like I don't think, cause this can sound totally sanctimonious and it's not intended that way. I don't think my scruples around at reading ads on my podcast apply to you or Tim Ferris or many other people. I mean, like Tim is the ultimate example. Tim is somebody who's brand on some level is what I'm going to do is I'm going to go out there and find the best shit in the world. Right. You know, the best shirts, the best workout equipment, the best, and I'm going to tell you about it. So I want to know what Tim has found, right? Tim, if Tim is reading an ad for something, you know, that is totally brand convergent for him. And I think you're very much in a similar situation. If you're talking about on it or whatever it is, it's your own, you own part of on it. Right. And so it's like, I should also be clear that I say no to a lot of ads that I don't want. Like there was one, there was a Uber for babysitting. I was like, get the fuck out of here. What are you crazy? Actually, so that got recommended to me by somebody, but it sounds like, sounds like Craig's lows for babysitting. Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. There's been a few that I've said no to, like quite a few, some of them that are just boring. I'm like, I'm not reading that. I'm not selling that. That's stupid. But also you're a comic who can send up ads. I mean, so like, I mean, I think Bill Burr does this where he kind of trashes the ad as he's reading it. And he loses something because of that. He lost Nature Box because he told people to go eat apples. Yeah. Yeah. Really? He's like, go eat a fucking apple. So it's, I mean, that's totally like, and that's something, that's a tool you have in your wheelhouse that has effects down the list. Like it's one reason why you can stream live without really worrying about it. And I feel I can't like, so it's like, I mean, at the end of the day, like if things go completely haywire on your podcast, you can say, listen, I'm a fucking comic. What do I know? Right. You could like, you can just, you can just pull the rip cord and you're fine. Right. Right. I can't do that. Right. Like, so like, I can't say I'm a moron. Yeah. So I can't say that. I mean, yeah. I say that all the time. Yeah. So I mean, I can and there's certain circumstances where I should, but it's like, I should avoid those circumstances. Yes.