Dec. 28, 2022

TRAINER'S EYE #18 - "All Aboard The Raid Bus!" ft. PhilofAustin

In this Pokemon interview, we have PhilofAustin, a pioneer in the Pokemon GO community who started his own Raid Bus in Austin, Texas. We'll be discussing his experience with Pokemon GO and how he transformed his passion into business.

PhilofAustin is a passionate Pokemon GO player who turned his love for the game into a successful business venture. He founded the Raid Bus in Austin, Texas, a unique service that takes players to participate in Raid Battles across the city.

PhilofAustin offers some tips for anyone interested in starting their own Raid Bus. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the local community, building strong relationships with players, and creating a unique and memorable experience.

Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay

Connect with PhilofAustin: Discord | Reddit| E-Mail: ployd89@gmail.com

Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay

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Your next Pokemon adventure begins here!

Chapters

00:44 - Introduction

02:27 - Interview with PhilofAustin

27:31 - Thank You For Listening! :)

Transcript

WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.479
My name is David Hernandez and you're listening to As The Pokeball Turns.

00:00:45.017 --> 00:00:47.926
Welcome to the episode of As the Pokemon Ball Turns.

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Today is episode 18 of Trainers Eyes.

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A segment where we get to hear from you, the community, on how your Pokemon Go journey started, where it has been, and where it is currently going.

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With the new year on the horizon brings feelings of change and possibilities.

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Phrases like"New Year, new Me" or"Day one or One Day" float around Social media circles inspiring the idea of self-improvement.

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This idea is far from new and its origin can be found by our very existence.

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While yes, new chapters begin, it also means that other chapters must end.

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If we are honest.

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New Year's not only represents the possibility of change, but it also presents us with the realization of our own mortality.

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Each year may signify new beginnings, but it also inches us closer to death.

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It's this realization that drives change and stirs people's call to action.

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When we look at this in the scope of Pokemon Go, one day there will be a time where we don't pick up this game anymore, whether it's out of frustration with Niantic, life changes, or simply a desire to pursue other adventures.

00:01:53.090 --> 00:02:02.950
For my guest today, July 6th, 2016, was not only the start date for Pokemon Go, but also the catalyst for the start of his business that would eventually be known as the Raid Bus.

00:02:03.246 --> 00:02:10.217
Just as it sounds, it was a bus that would take people around the city to do raids and had reached many cities across the U.S.

00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:17.330
However, due to the pandemic and some self-reflection, the RAID bus has reached its final stop in today's episode.

00:02:17.629 --> 00:02:24.030
Here's his origin story into the world of Pokemon Go, and both the start and end of the Raid bus.

00:02:24.326 --> 00:02:26.287
This is PhilofAustin.

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Today I'm joined by the former owner of the Raid bus Phil.

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Phil, welcome to the show!

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Hey, hey, how's it going?

00:02:35.832 --> 00:02:36.973
It's going pretty good, man.

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I know we talked before recording that you have a lot of experience regards to just doing RAID buses.

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I think for maybe some of our listeners, that might be a little bit of a foreign concept because we're in the age of remote raids where people play at home a lot.

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But the RAID bus was unique in regards it was just a way to bring people together under one bus and traveling, raid to raid and you did that across states?

00:02:55.939 --> 00:02:56.530
Yes, sir.

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So before we do get started, we gotta start with how it all began.

00:02:59.862 --> 00:03:01.723
So how did your journey in Pokemon go start?

00:03:02.325 --> 00:03:06.705
So actually the bus started in 2016, right whenever the game came out.

00:03:07.009 --> 00:03:10.969
I was just driving around with my nephew in the car and he had the game up.

00:03:11.060 --> 00:03:14.629
He was, what, what the hell are you doing Catching Pokemon.

00:03:14.933 --> 00:03:23.070
I was like,"all right, that's dumb." And then like a day later, I'm right in the back seat with him like,"all right, I'll play it with you." We're driving around playing Pokemon.

00:03:23.368 --> 00:03:32.049
I was like, all right, all right, seems fun, but I kind of don't like walking around to do it because I didn't have any spawn points from where I was living, so when you open the game, there's nothing around you.

00:03:32.346 --> 00:03:33.635
Instantly, you get bored of it.

00:03:33.931 --> 00:03:38.611
So anyways, I was like, all right, this is obviously a game for driving, but I can't drive and play.

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I need someone to drive me around.

00:03:40.561 --> 00:03:41.503
Let's, book a bus.

00:03:41.830 --> 00:03:44.651
Let's see how many people can get on a bus and just play the game together.

00:03:44.955 --> 00:03:47.056
Originally it was just for catching.

00:03:47.056 --> 00:03:47.746
Pokemon.

00:03:48.075 --> 00:03:50.205
Raiding wasn't around until the next year.

00:03:50.506 --> 00:03:54.075
So it was not as popular as you'd imagine.

00:03:54.376 --> 00:04:01.545
But since it was like the hype of when Pokemon Go came out and everyone was talking about it, I did end up getting on the news, which was kind of cool.

00:04:01.850 --> 00:04:04.770
We just tried going to catch Pokemon and it was a tourism thing.

00:04:05.074 --> 00:04:07.804
So it was Pokemon Go City tours to start.

00:04:08.104 --> 00:04:11.223
We tried that for a while, didn't really go anywhere and then, gave up.

00:04:11.524 --> 00:04:14.824
The next year Raiding came out and was like, okay, now people are into it.

00:04:15.123 --> 00:04:19.173
Now there's an even better reason to get on a bus and now it's because, you need people.

00:04:20.254 --> 00:04:20.673
Right?

00:04:20.973 --> 00:04:22.113
Especially for these tier five raids.

00:04:22.314 --> 00:04:22.514
Yeah.

00:04:22.815 --> 00:04:24.946
Oh yeah, everyone was just so pissed.

00:04:25.242 --> 00:04:31.951
I'd be on Reddit and everyone was like trying to coordinate groups to get together and just getting pissed off whenever no one showed up.

00:04:32.249 --> 00:04:41.362
So it just made sense starting the raid bus originally or like after at this point, I revamped the concept, changed the name to Raid T X.

00:04:41.665 --> 00:04:47.545
We started doing the Legendary Birds and those were just wildly popular and it just kept growing.

00:04:47.848 --> 00:04:51.718
After like the second bus we did in Austin, I started getting requests from Dallas.

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So I was working with a few organizers there to put it together.

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That took off.

00:04:57.918 --> 00:05:00.978
It was selling out buses immediately, then it just kept growing.

00:05:01.276 --> 00:05:06.130
I went to Dallas, I went to Fort Worth, went to San Antonio, I went to Corpus Christi.

00:05:06.430 --> 00:05:08.860
I was just looking at the list because it's hard to remember.

00:05:09.161 --> 00:05:13.271
Uh, we were in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that one was fun in New Orleans.

00:05:13.571 --> 00:05:15.730
We did a couple buses in Biloxi.

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That's Mississippi, close to New Orleans.

00:05:18.476 --> 00:05:24.226
Then we went out to Charlotte, North Carolina and Raleigh, had some in Houston.

00:05:24.521 --> 00:05:27.670
Oh! And we did a couple in Jacksonville, Florida.

00:05:27.966 --> 00:05:30.786
There may have been one in Phoenix, Arizona, I can't remember now.

00:05:31.091 --> 00:05:43.721
But it was just steadily growing, it was kind of crazy time, like I was just busy outta my mind trying to organize all these buses and working with volunteers to run them cuz I couldn't be 20 different places at once.

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So yeah, wild times.

00:05:46.033 --> 00:05:50.803
And this expansion wasn't like all in one day, this was like over a couple years I would imagine, right?

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Whenever we first started doing legendary raids, so it was like 2017 July, through September like I was running in five different cities like every weekend.

00:06:01.591 --> 00:06:02.190
Oh wow.

00:06:02.581 --> 00:06:03.240
That's a lot.

00:06:03.540 --> 00:06:04.021
Yeah.

00:06:04.021 --> 00:06:04.350
And

00:06:04.771 --> 00:06:10.980
Did you go to visit, I know you didn't go all at once, but did you ever try to go to every single area at some point?

00:06:10.985 --> 00:06:14.701
Or was it just like you kind of relied on the volunteers to make sure the buses ran well?

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I did try.

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That was one of my goals because, part of the reason why I loved this business of just, you know, running raid buses was like,"all right, I have an excuse to go and travel." I got to go to all the ones in Texas, all the ones in Louisiana, but didn't make it to Mississippi or Raleigh.

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I wanted to go to Raleigh for sure.

00:06:32.836 --> 00:06:33.225
Right.

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Those always sounded fun.

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But Louisiana was probably like the party bus.

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You go to New Orleans and you'd be led by Officer Jenny.

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She would go up in costume.

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Really, somebody would go out, dressed up as offer Jenny, and she would lead the bus.

00:06:46.971 --> 00:06:47.360
Oh yeah.

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She was so into it.

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She got into character, but she was in costume.

00:06:51.591 --> 00:06:52.761
She looked like Officer Jenny.

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Also, I don't know if this was legal, I was kind of like worried about it, but they also like gave out jello shots in Louisiana.

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I was like, well, it is New Orleans.

00:07:01.283 --> 00:07:02.303
I guess that's kind of normal

00:07:04.194 --> 00:07:04.613
Right.

00:07:05.213 --> 00:07:06.024
Well, that's very cool.

00:07:06.024 --> 00:07:17.754
So it's amazing how it started as a concept to where it was just to do spawns, and it wasn't popular of course, based on what you said, but it sounds like it evolved mainly due the raids and you've got to go to different states.

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Did you ever expect it to get to that point when you first started in Austin?

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Oh no, absolutely not.

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I mean, after the first year of like really struggling, it's like, all right, we got on the news, but that didn't really help there just wasn't the product market fit where people didn't really see the need to go and catch Pokemon in a bus when they didn't need people.

00:07:36.930 --> 00:07:40.230
So whenever Raids came out and we're like all of a sudden, yeah, that's it.

00:07:40.380 --> 00:07:41.401
That's a great idea.

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That's all get on a bus.

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Do you remember what your first bus was like doing the legendary raids?

00:07:46.649 --> 00:07:47.309
Oh my God.

00:07:47.309 --> 00:07:47.879
it was a party.

00:07:47.879 --> 00:07:52.975
It was like, So I was running that with, Pogo Plate 12 here in Austin, like the local Discord.

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You know people would donate to pay for the bus and then anyone could come and get on.

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And as you can imagine, there was a lot more people that wanted to get on than we had room for.

00:08:01.874 --> 00:08:05.204
And it was a literal party bus, like there was like standing only.

00:08:05.500 --> 00:08:07.841
There may have been like a stripper pole in it somewhere.

00:08:08.411 --> 00:08:08.771
Yeah.

00:08:11.531 --> 00:08:12.540
Austin knows how to get down.

00:08:12.540 --> 00:08:13.040
That's for sure.

00:08:13.341 --> 00:08:15.805
Well, when you're getting a party bus, you get a party bus, actually.

00:08:15.935 --> 00:08:16.896
Ooh, I do remember it.

00:08:17.196 --> 00:08:22.766
It was this bus company here in Austin called Fly-Rides and they don't have AC in their buses, and it was the middle of summer.

00:08:23.555 --> 00:08:24.425
Oh my gosh.

00:08:24.425 --> 00:08:25.956
I must have been sweating in there.

00:08:25.956 --> 00:08:28.596
It was so sweaty, but no one really cared.

00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:29.975
They're just having such a great time.

00:08:31.670 --> 00:08:35.803
it just sounds like you mixed Pokemon Go with bar hopping in Pokemon Go, if I could say that.

00:08:36.100 --> 00:08:37.000
Oh, yeah, definitely.

00:08:37.596 --> 00:08:39.361
Do you remember when you started to branch out?

00:08:39.666 --> 00:08:42.150
I'm assuming Dallas was the first one, or was it a different city?

00:08:42.750 --> 00:08:50.541
It was actually Arlington, and it may have been, just a strategic choice because like, all right, we have requests in Fort Worth and we have requests in Dallas.

00:08:50.836 --> 00:08:55.371
Let's split the middle and do Arlington cause that's like dead center in DFW.

00:08:55.969 --> 00:08:56.298
Right.

00:08:56.601 --> 00:09:00.831
So how would you go about trying to get people to do a bus in Arlington since you were in Austin?

00:09:00.831 --> 00:09:01.672
How would that work?

00:09:02.269 --> 00:09:08.448
So I had a one pager for like zero to take off how to launch a raid bus in a week.

00:09:08.746 --> 00:09:13.517
All of these buses, we didn't have any time to organize them because we were on pogo time.

00:09:13.817 --> 00:09:17.206
They just announced another bird and it's only gonna be around for a week.

00:09:17.506 --> 00:09:20.626
So, okay, we have to just really get moving and schedule this thing.

00:09:20.931 --> 00:09:27.423
So if you break it down by seven days, Monday, like you just found out, you need to organize this event.

00:09:27.721 --> 00:09:37.256
I was trying to work closely with Discords, so PoGo512, make friends with people there, ask around like if we were gonna run a bus, who would be interested.

00:09:37.557 --> 00:09:45.746
If there was enough interest, I'm like, all right, let's do it, and while you're gauging interest, you're also trying to find people who would want to volunteer and help run the bus.

00:09:46.047 --> 00:09:48.986
Basically you're just trying to make sure the event would even be feasible.

00:09:49.283 --> 00:09:58.703
Like Yes, we have interest, yes, we have people who run the bus and then those that are interested in running it, you know, would give us some like, ideas on where we would want to pick up.

00:09:59.004 --> 00:10:05.515
Someplace with good parking, obviously You know, part of town that has plenty of stops and gyms around, that sort of thing.

00:10:05.818 --> 00:10:08.879
So after that, Tuesday start promoting, get the event up.

00:10:09.178 --> 00:10:15.028
I was using Eventbrite to start, which I think still is probably the better solution cuz they do all the marketing for you.

00:10:15.331 --> 00:10:29.649
Wednesday still promoting, giving out reminders, coordinating with The volunteers, the organizers, trying to coach them into how to run the bus from when you pick up helping passengers on things like that and like, giving directions to the driver because he has no idea what's going on.

00:10:30.547 --> 00:10:35.647
There's also like stops in between because people can't sit on the bus for eight hours and not go potty

00:10:36.937 --> 00:10:37.267
Yeah.

00:10:37.326 --> 00:10:39.067
Kind of need some, uh, leg stretching at that point.

00:10:39.067 --> 00:10:39.966
Oh yeah, of course.

00:10:40.264 --> 00:10:42.899
I think I've ran over, 300 events.

00:10:42.899 --> 00:10:43.688
That's a lot man.

00:10:43.989 --> 00:10:48.583
I want to ask about the volunteer part real quick about people, you know, eventually you brought onto the bus.

00:10:48.883 --> 00:10:56.832
Did you have an ideal experience that people who came on your bus that you wanted'em to have, and how did you communicate that to them?

00:10:57.429 --> 00:11:00.519
Yeah, so the ideal experience is a community experience.

00:11:00.825 --> 00:11:10.421
You're getting together with others in your community, you're gonna make friends along the way, you're going to exchange friend codes, trade Pokemon, and of course level Up.

00:11:10.717 --> 00:11:18.182
Cuz a lot of this is like, all right, I can play Pokemon Go alone and it's kind of fun, but I can't actually get past a lot of these hurdles.

00:11:18.482 --> 00:11:24.238
You know, all these challenges and catching these Pokemon, catching a shiny legendary was really difficult for a lot of trainers.

00:11:24.538 --> 00:11:30.868
So yeah, excelling in your, gaming experience and also just relaxing, having fun, meeting people.

00:11:31.471 --> 00:11:35.551
Definitely, and it sounds like you had a lot of fun, especially with the early Austin bus is that's for sure.

00:11:36.148 --> 00:11:38.488
I mean, it did get progressively better.

00:11:38.791 --> 00:11:42.360
After the hype of Legendaries, coming out, we had to get a little bit more creative.

00:11:42.658 --> 00:11:48.269
The little things inside of the events that I learned along the way started making it an even better experience.

00:11:48.572 --> 00:11:52.412
At some point I started connecting my laptop to the monitors.

00:11:52.725 --> 00:11:58.306
We would get these 56 passenger charter buses, and some of them come with, an H D M I input.

00:11:58.601 --> 00:12:05.491
So I'd be playing Pokemon movies or music videos and just keeping everyone entertained, like to the max.

00:12:06.096 --> 00:12:09.636
So, when you started doing the raid buses, what kind of challenges did you face?

00:12:09.636 --> 00:12:12.006
Were there any kind of hiccups that you didn't expect to encounter?

00:12:12.604 --> 00:12:13.754
Yeah, for sure.

00:12:14.057 --> 00:12:16.756
You know, I can't be in all the buses you know, all the time.

00:12:17.062 --> 00:12:26.865
I guess I take for granted like parts of hosting a bus that maybe I just have too much experience and I don't see how it's difficult but like keeping the tour going like at a manageable rate.

00:12:27.167 --> 00:12:30.206
We were hitting like four legendaries an hour, right?

00:12:30.508 --> 00:12:35.097
That takes a lot of juggling and you have to be on the scanners if those are even still around.

00:12:35.400 --> 00:12:40.201
But looking for legendaries, plotting a course in real time can be very challenging.

00:12:40.500 --> 00:12:44.490
It's really hard to communicate and help future organizers, to get that.

00:12:44.817 --> 00:12:46.856
They just have to be doing trial by fire.

00:12:47.159 --> 00:12:50.460
Any new organizer's gonna run through that, trying to do everything all at once.

00:12:50.761 --> 00:12:55.226
We started doing a division of labor, so there'd be three team leaders on board.

00:12:55.529 --> 00:13:00.750
So you get one person who's just in charge of finding legendaries, and giving directions to the driver.

00:13:01.053 --> 00:13:03.573
If you don't have a navigator, then you're not really getting anything done.

00:13:03.990 --> 00:13:04.549
Right.

00:13:04.990 --> 00:13:05.549
right.

00:13:05.549 --> 00:13:08.279
And then, someone who's the party leader is what we said.

00:13:08.580 --> 00:13:12.389
Someone who's on the mic, entertaining people, telling them what's going on.

00:13:12.693 --> 00:13:17.344
Just being an entertainer and then having a third role that fills in the gaps, like a support leader.

00:13:17.647 --> 00:13:24.631
You know, maybe they're doing contests throughout like raffles, checking on people, just helping out where we need it.

00:13:24.934 --> 00:13:27.394
So having those three roles really helped.

00:13:27.698 --> 00:13:31.869
Oh, what to do whenever you go down the wrong road and you get stuck.

00:13:32.168 --> 00:13:33.668
That's always a good challenge.

00:13:34.328 --> 00:13:36.698
Would that happen pretty often or is it kind of depend?

00:13:36.698 --> 00:13:37.359
Oh god.

00:13:37.418 --> 00:13:38.019
Um,

00:13:38.019 --> 00:13:38.499
That often.

00:13:38.558 --> 00:13:38.828
Okay.

00:13:40.479 --> 00:13:43.234
I mean, whenever it does happen, it's just kind of traumatic.

00:13:44.230 --> 00:13:51.009
I remember I got a call from, Arlington, or maybe it was Dallas and they were stuck under some bridge

00:13:52.480 --> 00:13:53.049
Oh wow.

00:13:53.529 --> 00:14:01.720
Oh, the navigator was telling'em it's right there, it's in there, and they had to go under this like bridge and the bus couldn't make it and got stuck.

00:14:02.799 --> 00:14:03.789
Oh my gosh.

00:14:03.789 --> 00:14:04.629
So that was fun.

00:14:04.929 --> 00:14:05.080
Uh,

00:14:05.080 --> 00:14:05.620
I bet.

00:14:06.017 --> 00:14:13.282
But thankfully, and part of the reasons why I never bought my own buses is I don't want to deal with the insurance policy that goes along with that.

00:14:13.684 --> 00:14:15.544
If anything happens on the bus, it's their fault.

00:14:16.142 --> 00:14:17.581
I gotta ask real quick about the bus drivers.

00:14:17.879 --> 00:14:22.438
I'm assuming y'all didn't really have a route cuz you're kind of reliant on the spawn rate of the legendary raids.

00:14:22.741 --> 00:14:25.892
Did you ever like talk to the bus drivers or were they pretty chill about it?

00:14:26.188 --> 00:14:29.698
That they would be going in random directions at the moment's notice

00:14:30.303 --> 00:14:32.974
Once we got into a cadence and we were doing this like every weekend.

00:14:33.269 --> 00:14:37.649
The bus company would know who we are and prep the drivers accordingly.

00:14:37.947 --> 00:14:43.466
And the ones that really liked us and like having the chaotic nature of it, were gonna pull up to a stop.

00:14:43.466 --> 00:14:51.297
And sometimes like, just put on your hazards, pretend like it's broken down for a minute and move on to the next one, do it again.

00:14:51.596 --> 00:14:55.557
When we started, it was eight hours long, so it was like a marathon for them.

00:14:55.767 --> 00:15:00.417
But some drivers actually liked that, others complained and we never saw'em again.

00:15:01.234 --> 00:15:06.063
it sounds like he had a very good relationship with people who ran the buses cuz it was a third party, correct?

00:15:06.659 --> 00:15:07.169
Oh yeah.

00:15:07.169 --> 00:15:12.625
I mean, I had just a Rolodex of bus companies because you can't depend on just one.

00:15:12.924 --> 00:15:16.264
You know, we'd have some like Mewtwo raids that are happening.

00:15:16.568 --> 00:15:20.798
Meanwhile, there's a music festival going on and all the buses are taken.

00:15:21.744 --> 00:15:23.808
So then do you have to just call around?

00:15:24.109 --> 00:15:30.889
I mean, if anyone ever needs a bus company in Austin, Dallas, or any of the other cities they were running in, like, let me know.

00:15:31.184 --> 00:15:32.095
I probably know someone

00:15:33.099 --> 00:15:33.969
Well, very cool.

00:15:34.351 --> 00:15:40.219
Now I gotta ask so, at first Niantic would do legendary raids, I think on a monthly basis, which made it pretty easy for you.

00:15:40.514 --> 00:15:44.384
But eventually they kind of decreased the time to like either biweekly or weekly.

00:15:44.687 --> 00:15:49.902
Was that a challenge for y'all to be able to advertise that quick of a turnaround to the buses and to try to gain interest?

00:15:50.504 --> 00:15:56.205
No, actually whenever it was too short, that was perfect because it's a lot easier to fill a bus if the hype is there.

00:15:56.504 --> 00:16:00.195
But we had more of a challenge whenever the Legendaries were around for like three months at a time.

00:16:00.195 --> 00:16:00.674
Really?

00:16:00.975 --> 00:16:01.424
Oh yeah.

00:16:01.729 --> 00:16:03.198
Well, I mean we already did that one.

00:16:03.859 --> 00:16:07.514
why would I get another bus ticket?" But that was probably us being.

00:16:07.514 --> 00:16:08.684
over zealous a bit.

00:16:09.011 --> 00:16:19.511
I'm like trying to do every weekend, but a lot of people are doing it for different reasons like, you know, there was the hardcore gamers that were already level 40 and just holding out for whenever they're gonna double the level cap and all that.

00:16:19.808 --> 00:16:28.269
I would say like the bulk of the people who would come are more casual like, all right, I would go out raiding, but I don't wanna deal with the bullshit just take me.

00:16:28.572 --> 00:16:32.981
But those same people don't want to redo a legendary they've already caught, you know?

00:16:33.278 --> 00:16:38.938
I mean, some people are excited, like, every weekend, let's go, come on, but that's maybe 20% of the people who would come on.

00:16:39.538 --> 00:16:45.818
Right and you had to go with the times where you could get people to fill the seats, cuz obviously, you know, you're not paying this out of your pocket all the time.

00:16:45.818 --> 00:16:46.298
Oh yeah.

00:16:46.298 --> 00:16:54.313
and that honestly was the crux of running the raid buses where it's not possible to do it if you don't have a certain amount of people.

00:16:54.610 --> 00:17:06.490
I had a great formula that was all right, if we sell out half of the bus, which is 25 seats, then we can run it and it'll be paid for." And then I thought that was a decent goal to have, but some weeks it was really hard.

00:17:06.787 --> 00:17:13.537
Yep, cause unfortunately, not every Raid boss is as popular as others like some people will love to raid Mewtwo until the cows come home.

00:17:13.817 --> 00:17:18.326
When it comes to Pokemon, like maybe Registeel, uh, you might be pushing your luck a little bit.

00:17:19.047 --> 00:17:19.467
You're right.

00:17:19.467 --> 00:17:20.156
Everyone hated that

00:17:22.777 --> 00:17:23.656
Poor Registeel.

00:17:24.057 --> 00:17:25.919
I love it, but I'm probably one of the few

00:17:26.518 --> 00:17:31.248
Yeah and just to close that crux down like a lot of people would ask like, why don't you just get smaller buses?

00:17:31.548 --> 00:17:36.738
Why don't you just get like a 12 passenger sprinter or like a half size charter bus?

00:17:37.038 --> 00:17:38.209
Well, here's the thing.

00:17:38.509 --> 00:17:39.888
It's gonna cost exactly the same

00:17:40.794 --> 00:17:41.419
Really?

00:17:42.078 --> 00:17:42.469
Yeah.

00:17:42.538 --> 00:17:43.429
It's ridiculous.

00:17:44.020 --> 00:17:44.500
That's crazy.

00:17:44.500 --> 00:17:54.913
So it'd costs the same price to get like a small 12 seater compared to like what you had were like, I don't even know what to call'em, like they're regular size buses really and they fit like what, 50 people?

00:17:54.913 --> 00:17:55.213
Yeah.

00:17:55.518 --> 00:17:57.258
Those are just charter buses.

00:17:57.554 --> 00:18:04.243
They're more now after Covid, but if you're gonna get a smaller size one, that's 30 passengers at maybe like a hundred dollars an hour.

00:18:04.545 --> 00:18:14.005
And then if you get a Sprinter van, that's$80 an hour, but if you're trying to sell tickets to it, because no one wants to pay for it all themselves, you know, the price per passenger goes up.

00:18:14.307 --> 00:18:19.978
So it's just not realistic and I feel like anyone paying more than 20, 30 bucks is kind of getting ripped off personally.

00:18:20.577 --> 00:18:21.087
That's fair.

00:18:21.087 --> 00:18:27.421
Cuz around that price, then, yeah, you could, might as well just be Raiding by yourself or just getting a group of friends at that point, but maybe that's the power of convenience.

00:18:27.724 --> 00:18:31.464
People are willing to pay more for something as simple as just riding around on a bus

00:18:32.067 --> 00:18:37.535
yeah, I really tried to make it, you know, something reasonable that you can go to the movies or you can go get on a raid bus.

00:18:37.832 --> 00:18:42.001
I didn't want it to be like something you do maybe once a year, cuz that's not really fun.

00:18:42.298 --> 00:18:45.508
You wanna create the community and have a place that you can always go to.

00:18:45.508 --> 00:18:46.387
but it's, a challenge.

00:18:46.684 --> 00:18:50.890
You have to get a large group of people and whenever there is a large group of people, it's so much fun.

00:18:50.890 --> 00:18:53.049
but whenever it's not, it's like really hard.

00:18:53.650 --> 00:18:58.569
Now speaking of community, so I think you mentioned it earlier, you had some regulars with this raid bus.

00:18:58.866 --> 00:19:00.991
What was the community aspect like for the raid bus?

00:19:01.592 --> 00:19:02.132
Oh yeah.

00:19:02.136 --> 00:19:07.382
I mean, there was people that would show up every weekend, you can count on'em and everyone knew them by name.

00:19:07.682 --> 00:19:10.265
There's this guy Bob, he showed up every weekend.

00:19:10.563 --> 00:19:21.757
We actually ran a community day bus and had like special prizes for that one and one of them you know, it was Eevee community day and he ended up winning like most Eevee caught and got an Eevee hat.

00:19:23.055 --> 00:19:25.897
Every bus after that you will not see him without this hat.

00:19:27.472 --> 00:19:28.327
That's his trophy.

00:19:28.327 --> 00:19:30.238
I know, Eevee Bob.

00:19:30.535 --> 00:19:31.255
There he is.

00:19:31.557 --> 00:19:38.577
There was so many people, there was a family we called the Deadpool family that drove in from Corpus Christi every weekend up on the bus.

00:19:38.577 --> 00:19:39.087
Austin?

00:19:39.387 --> 00:19:40.528
Yeah, in Austin.

00:19:40.528 --> 00:19:40.738
Wow.

00:19:41.008 --> 00:19:41.367
Okay.

00:19:41.367 --> 00:19:42.268
That is a hike.

00:19:42.268 --> 00:19:42.327
Yeah!

00:19:42.327 --> 00:19:44.157
And especially if we're doing it every weekend.

00:19:44.458 --> 00:19:47.097
You know, we'd have at least one bus on a Saturday or Sunday.

00:19:47.402 --> 00:19:51.392
Real quick, correct me if I'm wrong, I think it's about what a two and a half hour drive between Corpus and Austin.

00:19:51.392 --> 00:19:52.682
I think it's like four hours.

00:19:52.682 --> 00:19:53.011
Okay.

00:19:53.011 --> 00:19:53.612
I wasn't too sure.

00:19:54.632 --> 00:19:56.132
I mean, it's, it's on the ocean.

00:19:56.434 --> 00:19:58.055
I know that's a bit of a drive.

00:19:58.352 --> 00:20:00.511
Just trying to get some insight to people who may not be from Texas.

00:20:00.511 --> 00:20:01.261
That's why I was asking.

00:20:01.291 --> 00:20:01.902
Oh, right.

00:20:02.201 --> 00:20:05.051
So they would drive every week from Corpus to Austin.

00:20:05.051 --> 00:20:05.352
Yeah.

00:20:05.352 --> 00:20:08.380
That's some dedication! But why were they called the Deadpool family?

00:20:08.978 --> 00:20:17.022
Well, the dad loved Deadpool and really he was the one that really wanted to go on all these buses and he just drug his family all along and they were just having family time.

00:20:17.022 --> 00:20:17.623
Oh wow.

00:20:17.920 --> 00:20:28.410
Yeah, man, I met so many people like it's hard to believe like I've been on over a hundred buses myself and then we've run 300 plus just between all the cities like it's hard to keep track.

00:20:29.012 --> 00:20:33.272
I mean that's the most impressive part is that this isn't just within Austin, this isn't just within Texas.

00:20:33.569 --> 00:20:37.500
You went across state lines and you were able to expand your reach out there.

00:20:37.797 --> 00:20:47.027
And to me that's just so impressive on not only your drive, but how much thought had to go into it because you don't cross state lines and have some form of success by accident.

00:20:47.329 --> 00:20:51.375
That takes a lot of skill, takes a lot of preparation, that clearly you had.

00:20:51.972 --> 00:20:53.347
I appreciate you think that.

00:20:54.384 --> 00:20:55.704
I do development, right?

00:20:55.998 --> 00:21:08.508
I do product management, so my goal was to build a system that works and we tested the model in Austin, it worked, and then I was just trying to share with others and really all you need is a Discord Channel with Pokemon people.

00:21:08.811 --> 00:21:14.855
You know, talk to the organizers, just throw out the idea like,"do y'all wanna get on a bus and like, maybe have a fun time?" And that's it.

00:21:15.157 --> 00:21:18.884
I'll put up an event, we'll sell some tickets to pay for the bus, so, I mean, it's, really easy.

00:21:18.884 --> 00:21:20.144
It's just, I don't know.

00:21:20.144 --> 00:21:23.954
I feel like a lot of people, at least early on, there's just so many blockers.

00:21:24.744 --> 00:21:26.640
like, oh, we need to have an llc.

00:21:26.640 --> 00:21:27.329
It's like, why?

00:21:27.329 --> 00:21:28.650
You haven't even done anything yet.

00:21:29.247 --> 00:21:35.096
You know, don't get caught up in all of the, like, money and, whatnot like all you need to do is organize an event.

00:21:35.393 --> 00:21:36.532
What needs to happen for that?

00:21:36.829 --> 00:21:43.400
Get some money to pay for the bus, find a bus, find a location, find people who can help you run the bus, and then have a good time.

00:21:43.696 --> 00:21:46.067
It's really not as complicated as people might think.

00:21:46.663 --> 00:21:57.752
It may not be as complicated, but I think for people to kind of see it that way takes a certain mindset because you know, yes, it's simple, but not everybody can do it cuz otherwise it'd be a whole bunch of raid buses everywhere.

00:21:58.346 --> 00:21:59.037
Oh yeah.

00:21:59.126 --> 00:22:01.343
No, I know it, just a step by step process.

00:22:01.640 --> 00:22:10.430
If you get past like step two of finding enough people who are interested like you're already halfway there like put up an event, sell the tickets, and then host an event.

00:22:10.434 --> 00:22:11.089
It's gonna be fun.

00:22:11.392 --> 00:22:14.537
I'm still available to help anyone who wants to go on that journey.

00:22:14.836 --> 00:22:19.541
I'm not doing it myself anymore, but I do have a lot of knowledge and can answer any questions you might have.

00:22:20.141 --> 00:22:24.364
Well, very cool, so you've already alluded to how, you've stopped the raid bus at this point.

00:22:24.661 --> 00:22:26.641
What made you want to have to stop it at this point?

00:22:27.243 --> 00:22:30.304
Well, I didn't make the decision at first.

00:22:30.607 --> 00:22:45.338
It was 2020 and we had a bus in February and then we had something scheduled for March in Austin, but, COVID happened and I remember thinking like well, that's not really gonna be a thing, like they're not gonna shut down South By Southwest for this flu.

00:22:45.919 --> 00:22:46.719
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:22:48.128 --> 00:22:50.078
It's like, oh, that's never gonna happen.

00:22:50.682 --> 00:22:53.082
But it did, and everything started shutting down.

00:22:53.382 --> 00:22:56.082
So it's like, well, I guess we should actually cancel this bus.

00:22:56.082 --> 00:22:56.402
Huh?

00:22:56.704 --> 00:23:04.055
2020 shut down everything, but yeah, so after that we were just on standby and a month turned to a year and then two years.

00:23:04.654 --> 00:23:07.095
Covid really just stifled everything.

00:23:07.394 --> 00:23:14.291
But to be honest, at this point, I had been running the raid bus for three, like four years, I've been doing Pokemon entrepreneurship.

00:23:15.288 --> 00:23:19.009
And I was feeling burned out but just plugging away anyways.

00:23:19.305 --> 00:23:22.575
Whenever Covid happened and I like had to shut down, I was like, maybe it's a good thing.

00:23:22.878 --> 00:23:25.759
Maybe we needed to like press pause and reevaluate.

00:23:26.058 --> 00:23:30.858
I thought that time was really good actually, just to take a break and pay attention to other parts of my life.

00:23:31.160 --> 00:23:40.130
Shortly after that, I reconnected with this girl I was actually dating in high school and she was looking for a place in Austin, I just happened to have a room available.

00:23:41.509 --> 00:23:46.529
I was like, well, if it's not awkward, you could stay here and then things just evolved and um, now we're married.

00:23:47.599 --> 00:23:49.380
Aw, congratulations.

00:23:49.380 --> 00:23:53.039
Yeah and also with twins on the way in a week or two.

00:23:53.345 --> 00:23:54.424
Twin girls, man.

00:23:55.234 --> 00:23:56.015
Mave and Juniper.

00:23:56.845 --> 00:23:58.295
Mave and Ju knew the world.

00:23:59.204 --> 00:23:59.694
Yeah.

00:23:59.894 --> 00:24:05.204
Yeah, that's a very fun way to tie up, your experience with Pokemon Go to where you kind of move on to a different stage of your life.

00:24:05.204 --> 00:24:12.250
I think a lot of people get scared leaving Pokemon Go, and I know you haven't officially left, but there's next chapters beyond a video game is what I'm trying to say.

00:24:12.250 --> 00:24:13.029
Yeah, of course.

00:24:13.035 --> 00:24:20.650
But also like I've, feel like I've, I've seen a lot of people come and go and it'll be like a year later I'll see them like, whoa, what happened?

00:24:20.650 --> 00:24:21.910
Like, I just needed to take a break.

00:24:22.212 --> 00:24:30.192
Like, good for you man! good for you like a lot of people just don't have the power to do that, but you shouldn't be a slave to a video game.

00:24:30.492 --> 00:24:32.548
It sucks the life out of it sucks the fun out of it.

00:24:32.910 --> 00:24:34.859
I'm probably gonna come back and do it at some point.

00:24:35.162 --> 00:24:36.122
It's been a good break.

00:24:36.182 --> 00:24:38.642
I still at times feel like I'll open it up.

00:24:38.942 --> 00:24:40.261
I mean, I do still open gifts.

00:24:40.261 --> 00:24:41.402
That's like the one thing I do.

00:24:41.701 --> 00:24:43.384
But yeah, it's been nice to take a break.

00:24:43.685 --> 00:24:46.506
It's going to feel really good to come back whenever I feel ready.

00:24:47.105 --> 00:24:51.335
So it sounds like your story's not a the end, but a two B continued kind of thing.

00:24:51.934 --> 00:24:57.575
Oh yeah! Honestly, in that gap in time, I started getting really into crypto and NFTs.

00:24:57.874 --> 00:25:00.814
So I'm just holding out for Pokemon NFT.

00:25:01.713 --> 00:25:02.814
When's that happening?

00:25:03.153 --> 00:25:03.544
Niantic?

00:25:04.624 --> 00:25:04.804
Right?

00:25:04.804 --> 00:25:06.574
Well, it'd be the Pokemon company has to do that.

00:25:06.574 --> 00:25:08.733
So, but yeah, that could definitely be true.

00:25:08.733 --> 00:25:09.903
That could definitely be a future.

00:25:10.500 --> 00:25:14.161
Hey, I can't think of a more collectible NFT than a Pokemon

00:25:14.715 --> 00:25:18.115
Hey, don't, don't give them ideas they get enough of our money as it is.

00:25:18.596 --> 00:25:18.895
Right.

00:25:19.892 --> 00:25:21.932
Congratulations moving on to the Married life.

00:25:22.229 --> 00:25:24.328
Congratulations on becoming a father.

00:25:24.625 --> 00:25:26.425
It's a wonderful experience I've heard.

00:25:26.721 --> 00:25:29.301
You know, you're gonna be busy nonstop with twins on the way.

00:25:29.602 --> 00:25:35.332
I gotta ask you this real quick like looking back at your experience with the Raid bus, was there anything you wish you had done differently?

00:25:35.933 --> 00:25:36.469
Ooh.

00:25:36.469 --> 00:25:38.118
Not doing every weekend.

00:25:38.422 --> 00:25:40.612
Actually, when we started, it was Saturday and Sunday.

00:25:40.909 --> 00:25:43.128
We were running eight hour buses both days.

00:25:43.426 --> 00:25:47.777
Just 16 hours every week really killed it and I shouldn't have done that.

00:25:48.497 --> 00:25:55.317
I wish I had just done one event and then like let the hype build before doing the next one instead of trying to like do too much all at once.

00:25:55.615 --> 00:26:02.941
Every week is really hard, especially like with volunteers like I was paying people in Pokecoins because, like, I wasn't even really paying myself.

00:26:03.244 --> 00:26:10.329
Just paying off the bus, any slush funds just was holding out, in case, there was not enough people to run a bus and cover costs.

00:26:10.630 --> 00:26:13.119
It just would've been a lot better if it was maybe once a month.

00:26:13.721 --> 00:26:21.201
If somebody was interested after listening to this episode of doing like the Raid bus tours or picking up the mantle, if so you will, what advice would you give them?

00:26:21.800 --> 00:26:22.250
Ooh.

00:26:22.611 --> 00:26:29.403
I would say try it out, but post into your local discord, try and get some hype around it, like get interest.

00:26:29.703 --> 00:26:33.453
Don't just organize this event without talking to anyone cuz you don't know if anyone's interested.

00:26:33.758 --> 00:26:36.817
You know and then you've wasted all of your time and then you're all bitter and whatnot.

00:26:37.121 --> 00:26:40.270
Reach out to the community, make it a community event, and not about yourself.

00:26:40.567 --> 00:26:43.748