Thanks a million times over to Martin for joining us in this episode, and please forgive the every so slight audio delay between Mac and Martin.
Thanks a million times over to Martin for joining us in this episode, and please forgive the every so slight audio delay between Mac and Martin.
00:00
welcome aboard the my cigar pack podcast
00:03
express for episode 14. aboard the
00:06
express is martina yes cigar reviews
00:10
this youtube bro has been in the game
00:12
for three years now and he's also
00:14
collaborated with us to have a sampler
00:16
on the site on cigar yard that is uh so
00:20
join us cause it's gonna be a lot of fun
00:23
martin how are you feeling
00:27
what's going on everybody it is oh wait
00:30
this is not my channel i'm sorry what's
00:31
going on mac
00:33
yep i'm mac that's my thing uh not to be
00:36
confused we do look a little bit alike
00:38
so much alike
00:40
we're different shades of brown but
00:42
we're still brown
00:45
you know actually uh i'm
00:47
more so uh levantine than than hispanic
00:51
my uh my ancestors are are
00:53
yes my name is in spanish but that's
00:55
just like
00:56
one-fourth of my ancestry most of it is
00:59
levantine so
01:01
uh
01:02
so basically the levant is basically
01:05
north of the arab peninsula south of
01:09
turkey and russia and all that where
01:12
lebanon is
01:13
yeah where lebanon is right now yeah so
01:16
yeah uh different shade of brown for
01:18
sure
01:19
you think you're not from uh what is it
01:22
kazakhstan
01:23
no it's like
01:25
that's very much to the east but uh you
01:28
know ethnically there might be uh a
01:30
little bit going on there yeah so i
01:33
might go i might have a little bit of
01:34
borat
01:36
now
01:37
i have no idea what i'm gonna cut this
01:40
wait hold up gotta put product showcase
01:42
mode on on this little camera thing but
01:45
i have no idea what to cut this uh la i
01:47
see in the first growth with what are
01:49
you smoking while i figure out what to
01:51
cut that with
01:53
i've got um
01:55
the very last cigar
01:57
that was available
01:58
in the quorum sampler from my cigar pack
02:02
um this thing was part of the factory
02:04
direct
02:05
volume 17.
02:07
um can't believe we've been doing this
02:09
for so long i mean but these cigars were
02:11
freaking delicious
02:13
and i think this cigar in the toro which
02:15
was the
02:16
habano toro
02:18
was my absolute favorite cigar in that
02:20
pack
02:21
which surprisingly was not the one that
02:23
i actually reviewed
02:25
when you're smoking it here now
02:28
found something to cut with maybe a
02:30
little overkill
02:32
maybe a little overkill but it does the
02:34
job just fine these are bark river
02:37
knives they don't sponsor this but they
02:39
are such amazing knives
02:41
uh
02:43
perfect cut
02:44
no guillotine can do that
02:47
i've recently gotten into knives but i
02:49
don't like i just like that it's sharp i
02:51
mean not necessarily the brand or who
02:53
makes it as long as it's sharp and it
02:54
cuts i like it yeah that's the whole
02:56
point of a knife now the cool thing
02:58
about uh getting into knives and
03:00
figuring out how they're different is
03:02
that you realize that
03:04
geometry cuts
03:06
but steel says how long or how long for
03:10
so
03:11
and now now you're going to get into
03:12
okay so do i want this steel or that
03:15
steel then you get into the handle
03:16
materials do you like something natural
03:18
something synthetic and then you just
03:20
become a knife nut and all of a sudden
03:21
you're 25 knives deep two thousand
03:24
dollars
03:25
set back but you're still
03:26
but you're happy about it
03:28
i don't know but all that i mean
03:30
the cigar game is a little uh it's a
03:32
little pricey on its own
03:34
i mean
03:35
luxuries do have their you know they do
03:38
have a price
03:39
uh but
03:40
as you can tell like look at this sheath
03:42
i've taken this thing up and down and
03:44
around the block this knife is beat to
03:46
hell
03:47
uh
03:49
but i love it i've i've gotten i don't
03:51
remember how much i spent on it
03:53
pretty penny right but
03:55
uh
03:56
it's been worth it for me so at the end
03:58
of the day nothing's too expensive if
04:00
it's worth it for you is it
04:01
exactly
04:03
yeah as long as it serves its purpose
04:05
and you like using it all the time and
04:06
you use it pretty much for everything
04:09
it serves its purpose and it does its
04:11
job
04:12
now i want to ask you a question martin
04:16
are you here to be interviewed
04:19
i'm here to talk to mack the media pro
04:22
oh well
04:24
if you check out my instagram i'm the my
04:26
cigar packs marketing bro but
04:29
de facto media bro yeah i do more media
04:32
work if you see something cool on the
04:34
youtube channel
04:35
uh chances are that uh
04:38
i sprinkled it with my magic touch
04:40
because that's how it works it's good
04:42
because i made it not because i made it
04:45
i'm just no that's not how that's not
04:47
how quality works that's not how quality
04:49
works and you should listen to that
04:50
because the cigar industry is full of
04:52
people who will
04:54
say otherwise
04:57
but
04:58
in any case uh i'm
05:01
as i mentioned earlier i'm smoking a
05:03
warped la hacienda first growth tiny
05:06
cigar that packs a lot of flavor in a
05:09
tiny package you're smoking one of the
05:11
factory direct quantums
05:13
uh from january from january and uh
05:15
you're loving that aren't you
05:17
oh yeah yeah awesome and uh this episode
05:21
with martin is all about learning what
05:24
it's like to be a youtube cigar bro and
05:28
the inaugural interview question from
05:30
any respectable
05:33
interviewer would be which animal would
05:36
make the best type of president if the
05:37
animal kingdom ever rises up and takes
05:39
over
05:41
tiger
05:42
tiger it is the year of the tiger so
05:45
yeah
05:46
i was born with your tiger so like the
05:49
tiger is like my spirit animal i don't
05:51
know what it is
05:52
it's just and i'm not i'm not even
05:54
really into cats like big cats but the
05:56
tiger is just a [ __ ] awesome animal
05:59
you know what i'll give it to you yeah
06:01
because tigers they roar don't they
06:03
they're the ones that roar i think so
06:07
they don't i don't i really don't know
06:09
oh you're not a tiger bro i really don't
06:12
cut you dead in your tracks that was a
06:14
trick question lions roar tigers meow
06:23
all right so
06:24
that question probably won't break the
06:26
internet but
06:28
if you were to
06:30
come to the
06:32
if you were to hypothesize something
06:34
that would break the internet what would
06:35
that be
06:38
oh i don't know
06:42
oh that'd be
06:44
i think it got me there
06:46
i got you both times
06:48
yeah
06:49
i think you did
06:54
did you know this might break the
06:56
internet
06:57
did you know
06:58
that texas
07:01
the great state of texas has frozen over
07:06
well i was gonna say this year but no it
07:08
hasn't really frozen over it's just
07:09
pretty [ __ ] cold here in texas i
07:11
don't know if you know that but it gets
07:13
it gets down to the teens sometimes in
07:15
celsius anyway
07:17
um i mean fahrenheit
07:19
um it's
07:21
it's about 23 degrees here in texas
07:23
right now and we just got last night we
07:26
had a
07:27
like freezing rain and uh now the ice is
07:31
uh the roads are very icy and slippery
07:34
and as you can see as you can see i'm
07:36
kind of sitting in a parking lot here
07:38
um
07:40
but
07:41
yeah texas is really [ __ ] cold right
07:43
now what is it over there is it is it
07:45
pretty or it's horrible we have 76
07:49
degree weather it's so hot i can't stand
07:52
it
07:55
oh my camera had overheating issues
07:57
because my my room's a hot box
08:00
uh
08:01
right now are you hotbox
08:04
it's it currently is a hotbox because
08:06
we're shooting the podcast plenty
08:08
there's plenty of room in the room
08:10
fortunately so it's not like what do you
08:13
keep your green cigar yard packs what
08:17
talk about hot boxing what do you keep
08:19
in your green cigar yard packs
08:22
sick arms
08:25
well by hot boxing you know exactly what
08:27
i mean there's just no way out for the
08:29
smoke fortunately there's plenty of
08:33
room for the air to go but uh i had to
08:35
close my window because it's raining and
08:37
uh
08:39
i don't usually uh smoke with the
08:42
window closed but it had to be done this
08:44
time around i think i'm gonna get
08:46
an
08:47
extractor installed in here it might be
08:48
necessary
08:51
okay
08:52
is there uh is there a lot of humidity
08:53
in there
08:54
it's like
08:56
humidity or clock all the time we have
08:58
two although we're in the dry season
09:00
right so you might think that
09:03
there are four seasons in the world but
09:06
that's not entirely true
09:08
in the tropics
09:10
um
09:11
first of all around the equator you
09:13
pretty much have one season year round
09:15
because
09:16
climate doesn't change all that much
09:18
but in the tropics you have humid season
09:21
and dry season and that doesn't mean dry
09:23
season is dry necessarily it just means
09:25
it's less humid sometimes it is dry
09:28
right now we're in the dry season
09:30
so that's one of the reasons
09:32
temperatures
09:34
even drop but don't feel
09:36
uh
09:37
too too cold because there's less
09:39
humidity in the air which is odd because
09:42
it's raining outside it's 100 humidity
09:44
now uh but usually
09:46
it gets a lot more chilly here even
09:48
though the temperature doesn't drop too
09:50
much
09:51
uh especially compared to the rest of
09:53
the year it's just not enough humidity
09:54
in the air to make you feel that cold
09:57
uh or
09:58
to hold any warmth
10:00
if that makes sense
10:02
so what you do is you have pretty chilly
10:04
nights and still warm days
10:07
which
10:08
and now you get an idea there's not
10:10
enough moisture in the air to retain the
10:12
temperature
10:13
uh that you had at the hottest or
10:16
coldest point it just changes a lot
10:18
throughout the day
10:22
dude that's our spring and fall
10:24
like in the evenings it kind of cools
10:27
down in the afternoons it warms back up
10:30
and
10:31
kind of [ __ ] with your allergies too if
10:32
you have any allergies oh um
10:35
like i've not i've noticed when it gets
10:38
uh hold that thought cause i need to
10:39
take my headphones off and i hate to
10:41
interrupt you but you said allergies and
10:43
i just have to show this off
10:47
uh-oh
10:50
what is that
10:52
clarity
10:53
it's claritin clear
10:55
so
10:57
so bro okay
10:59
so i'll have nose please every random
11:02
spring or fall
11:04
but claritin now that you brought that
11:06
up claritin for some reason even though
11:08
it's non-drowsy that [ __ ] puts me to
11:10
sleep
11:12
it's can you believe that non-drowsy is
11:14
still drowsy dude come on
11:18
not i mean non-drowsy like okay i'm good
11:21
like i only take claritin when it's like
11:23
really bad my allergies are burning my
11:26
eyes and runny nose and all this crap
11:29
24 hours later
11:31
i'm out like i'm just falling asleep
11:33
falling on the floor i cannot stay awake
11:36
i don't know what it is about claritin
11:37
but that's the only allergy medicine
11:39
that does that to me
11:41
zyrtec you got yourself a new customer
11:45
oh
11:46
surtek i use zyrtec all the time
11:49
but clairton puts me to sleep
11:54
but wait is this supposed to be a cigar
11:56
it's supposed to be it's it's literally
11:59
cigar
12:00
you might as well change it to
12:02
bros talking while cigaring
12:04
the you're the first ever guest of the
12:07
massive rpac podcast
12:09
yeah
12:10
we're only 14 episodes deep bro
12:15
uh what happened though
12:17
i mean good timing
12:19
so i can go one by one
12:21
episode one was like talking about
12:24
it was actually my my first day on the
12:26
job
12:27
so
12:28
it's basically talking about the
12:30
[Music]
12:32
joining mcp
12:33
and uh
12:35
where i came from i used to work at
12:36
laura told that story blah blah and then
12:39
episode two was we went to austis
12:42
factory and it was hot or that was three
12:44
and something like that and then just
12:46
something comes up every once in a while
12:47
and we've released a weekly episode ever
12:49
since uh or at least as close as we have
12:53
to releasing a weekly episode ever since
12:56
because this isn't an exact science in
12:59
the sense that
13:01
um
13:01
we can't really schedule shooting a
13:04
podcast the exact same day the exact
13:06
same time all the time because
13:09
it unfortunately isn't our top priority
13:11
we'd love to sit back and talk about
13:13
cigars all day but that's just not how
13:15
uh it's not this is not how it works
13:18
but yeah so it's just talk talk about
13:20
whatever you want
13:26
i have another question for you
13:29
and it's not really a cigar related
13:31
question if you might have assumed
13:35
if you could know the absolute truth and
13:38
total truth to one question
13:40
what would that question be
13:44
oh man you're killing it with these
13:46
questions
13:49
okay okay i'll start with
13:51
um
13:53
if george washington
13:56
could ever actually lie
14:00
has he ever really told the lie or has
14:03
he
14:04
uh told the lie and someone else covered
14:06
for him that's that's a good one
14:10
you know
14:12
i don't
14:14
is it said that george washington never
14:16
lied
14:18
he's never told a lot
14:21
his thing was
14:22
uh he said that i can never tell a lie
14:25
so
14:27
that was his thing and i halfway believe
14:30
it but then okay so i think i know what
14:33
he meant by that he might not have meant
14:34
it too literally it's more like
14:37
he meant it in the way that i have to be
14:39
honest because if i tell a lie
14:42
history will punish me for it
14:46
maybe that's what he meant
14:47
and he and it was his way of
14:50
staying as honest as he humanly could
14:53
for as long as possible
14:55
that does make sense to me
15:00
wow
15:01
we're getting deep on this continent
15:02
yeah
15:03
yeah i mean that's that's how it should
15:05
be
15:06
like one of our episodes was called bald
15:09
something like that that was ball's hot
15:11
ball's hot never mind
15:14
okay
15:16
maybe this was forrest gump
15:19
i've got a good one what ridiculous
15:21
thing has someone tricked you into doing
15:23
or believing
15:28
um
15:30
i don't know i mean i'm pretty gullible
15:32
so
15:34
all right i can't really think of one
15:36
thing at the moment joining this podcast
15:37
isn't that thing
15:43
yeah you're right there you go
15:45
oh man
15:47
i'm on fire
15:51
no phone now all right
15:53
i'll ask you a couple more then we'll
15:55
just have a more relaxed conversation
15:57
what's the funniest joke you know by
15:59
heart
16:04
um
16:06
god man i'm not much of a joker
16:09
um okay i um
16:14
there was one story
16:17
that um
16:19
kind of
16:21
has always like it's always been in my
16:23
head all grown up because of the way
16:24
that someone told it so
16:26
um there's a it's a it's a bit of a
16:28
scary story but it's a little little bit
16:30
of a joke at the same time so there's a
16:32
there's a haunted house and there's a
16:34
haunted hotel and this hotel room could
16:38
never be
16:40
rented out because the uh
16:43
the the people who came to the room said
16:45
that it was haunted and no one ever
16:47
believed them but you had three people
16:49
who would uh
16:50
three different people who would go into
16:52
the room and you would hear from coming
16:54
from the closet or somewhere around the
16:56
house i'm gonna get you i'm gonna get
16:58
you
16:59
no one could figure out what that what
17:01
was
17:02
what was going on until
17:05
um this brave man had gone into
17:08
the uh into the room
17:10
and uh
17:12
he says nothing can scare me i'm gonna
17:14
go in this room i'm gonna figure out
17:16
that noise so he's walking around this
17:18
uh hotel room
17:20
and um
17:21
he hears this you hear the you hear that
17:24
the the voice saying i'm gonna get you
17:26
i'm gonna get you
17:28
so he gets closer and closer to the
17:30
voice finally opens up a closet
17:33
and there's a little monkey in there
17:34
saying i'm going to get you i'm going to
17:36
get you
17:38
gotcha
17:41
[Laughter]
17:45
what though
17:49
[Laughter]
17:53
i was told that story as a kid
17:56
and uh it was during like
17:58
scary stories night and uh
18:01
and then it turned into something funny
18:03
i'm like what
18:04
that whoever told that was genius
18:06
because they definitely got they got
18:09
everyone everyone was experi expecting
18:11
uh
18:18
the punch line
18:20
actually i've got a good one i've got a
18:21
good one
18:22
right uh there's this uh high school
18:25
there's prom
18:26
and all the kids are getting ready to go
18:28
to prom
18:29
and uh
18:32
and you know there's this kid called
18:34
dave and he's out with his date sally
18:37
and uh they're dancing and dancing and
18:40
dancing
18:42
and
18:43
at one point sally's like
18:45
you know what i really want to go for a
18:47
drink and dave's like you know what i
18:49
got you
18:50
and
18:51
he goes over and
18:53
wants to get some punch and then he gets
18:55
there and realizes there's no punch line
18:58
and gets back to dancing
19:03
you didn't even get my joke i'll tell
19:05
you what you wanna hear a dirty joke
19:08
oh it's genius yeah i did there is no
19:11
punchline
19:13
[Laughter]
19:15
but hey do you want to hear a dragon
19:17
joke
19:20
a white horse
19:21
fell in the mud
19:28
[Laughter]
19:30
who would win in a fight
19:34
and you're gonna love this
19:37
a dozen chicken-sized elephants
19:40
versus an elephant-sized chicken
19:42
or vice versa a dozen
19:46
elephant-sized wait i don't know where i
19:48
was going with this
19:53
[Laughter]
19:59
chickens
20:00
elephants or elephant sizes i wouldn't
20:03
try it
20:04
i wouldn't try yeah
20:07
probably
20:10
probably the chicken
20:13
is it is it a chicken like a chicken
20:15
don't tell me you want to see 12 a dozen
20:18
elephant-sized [ __ ]
20:23
gotcha there
20:25
how do you feel about pineapple on pizza
20:34
i love it okay
20:36
okay okay okay
20:40
i can't do
20:42
pineapple on pizza
20:45
but i'll eat anything with jalapenos
20:49
so if you add jalapenos to a pineapple
20:52
pizza i don't care i'll still eat that
20:53
[ __ ]
20:54
okay
20:57
you know what i'll give it to you and oh
20:58
this is a good one because that one does
21:01
have an answer in the dominican republic
21:04
if you
21:06
let's say
21:07
if peanut butter can't be called peanut
21:09
butter anymore and you are tasked with
21:11
renaming it what would you call it
21:19
uh
21:26
i don't know
21:29
so peanut butter cannot be called peanut
21:31
butter
21:34
i mean it's made out of peanuts
21:36
crushed nuts
21:37
crushed nut butter
21:40
okay
21:41
you want to know what it's called in the
21:42
dr
21:51
oh you wouldn't it's it's uh never heard
21:54
that
21:55
yeah
21:56
it's mamba
21:58
all right last question
22:02
oh but i i don't know which one to ask
22:04
you because these are so good
22:12
actually two more two more how's that
22:17
okay we'll do that
22:27
okay now i've got a good one if you
22:28
could write one law that everyone had to
22:31
obey what law would you create
22:38
three cigars for everyone
22:41
i think that's law in cuba
22:46
so why don't you just head over to cuba
22:48
you want me right
22:55
so
22:56
care to change your answer
22:58
are you still sticking to it
23:02
[Music]
23:04
oh i don't know
23:06
one law
23:12
hmm yeah i mean
23:14
i'm not really big into cubans either so
23:32
think about it
23:33
is there really that much tobacco in
23:35
cuba that they make a cuban bureau all
23:38
the time yes
23:40
here's well yes and no
23:43
yes but it's not necessarily good
23:47
so
23:48
you know that there are numerous
23:51
uh
23:52
growths of the leaf
23:54
so you plant a tobacco seed it grows
23:57
into an adult plant you harvest but more
24:00
more leaves will come out there's a good
24:03
chance they're using some of those
24:04
second and third growths into your
24:06
premium cigars for cubans
24:13
okay because a little birdie told me
24:16
it's a very popular famous
24:19
factory in nicaragua
24:21
that sells to cuba well
24:24
why can nicaragua produce enough for
24:26
them and the rest of the world but cuba
24:28
can't
24:34
i don't know
24:38
i don't know
24:41
but think about it
24:43
i mean it's a
24:44
possibility well i know that uh
24:48
dominican factories buy cuban tobacco
24:51
so they've got enough to sell yeah they
24:53
don't use it for products because
24:55
there's not enough products with but
24:56
it's certainly enough to experiment with
24:59
and also
25:01
to base new seeds off of every pretty
25:04
much every
25:05
every filler seed we use most of them at
25:07
least
25:08
yeah most of them are there there's some
25:11
uh derivative of cuban c so let's not
25:14
kid ourselves cuban tobacco sucks
25:19
in general
25:20
okay let me go back i didn't say that
25:22
cuban tobacco
25:28
cuban tobacco
25:29
uh
25:31
has needed to evolve a lot because it
25:34
it's really struggled it sucks at
25:36
surviving let's just leave it at that
25:38
that's why there's so many variations
25:40
coming from from tobacco and i heard
25:42
that from someone in the industry who
25:45
kindly asked me to keep his name
25:47
uh
25:49
far away from this conversation but
25:52
the the truth is that one of the reasons
25:54
cuba has so many seed varieties is
25:56
because they struggle a lot dealing with
25:59
plagues
26:01
and with seasonal destruction and all
26:03
that so
26:04
uh
26:05
i don't know how the full story sort of
26:07
i shouldn't
26:08
probably shouldn't be talking out of my
26:09
ass because i don't know the full
26:10
picture but ultimately it's one of the
26:13
reasons that we have so many cuban
26:15
varieties
26:16
is that they've struggled to keep one
26:19
consistently
26:20
because they just hardly manage to
26:22
survive
26:25
that's
26:26
more or less where it goes
26:32
quick question
26:33
last one
26:35
last question from the interview because
26:36
we've still got some stuff to talk about
26:38
i need you to tell me about what it's
26:39
like to be a youtube pro
26:40
if you could ask
26:42
any advice
26:43
any piece of advice from any historical
26:45
figure
26:46
who would it be
26:48
what would you ask them
26:50
and if you're indulged why
26:56
no oh man you should have prepped me for
26:58
these
26:59
[Music]
27:01
yeah you should have prepped me for all
27:02
these
27:05
oh man
27:12
i don't know
27:19
that's a tough one
27:21
i think you stumped me
27:24
come on any historical figure
27:42
okay so
27:43
any historical figure ask him any
27:45
question
27:46
and then what any advice any piece of
27:48
advice
27:53
advice okay
27:55
um
27:57
so there's a gentleman
27:59
by the name of
28:05
oh i can't remember his name now okay so
28:09
there's a gentleman who was
28:11
a veteran
28:14
and it's going to come to me because i
28:15
can already feel it coming uh there's a
28:17
gentleman who was in the military a
28:19
retired veteran
28:21
who had lived to be
28:23
uh
28:25
113 years old he was a native to texas
28:29
he was uh lived in austin texas
28:33
um
28:34
my question to him
28:36
would be
28:38
what was his secret
28:40
to
28:41
life
28:42
like what was
28:44
the
28:46
what kept him happy throughout life and
28:48
what was it was that richard overton
28:54
he said i was smoking cigarettes mr
28:56
richard overton
28:58
oh man
28:59
i wanted to i wanted to meet him because
29:02
he's he was so clean he was about three
29:04
hours away from me
29:05
and uh he would just always sit down and
29:09
enjoy cigars
29:11
like on his patio
29:13
but i know that he just he just lived
29:16
his life
29:17
very
29:19
calm by himself and just
29:22
that was it like it just seems like a
29:24
very
29:26
calm lie
29:28
i i heard you drank a lot of whiskey
29:31
yeah maybe
29:34
i think that
29:37
he he
29:39
i'm not sure who interviewed him but he
29:41
says like
29:42
he didn't he never
29:44
he never bothered with
29:46
with keeping up with the times
29:49
in the sense that he wasn't after
29:51
replacing his truck he was driving an
29:53
old truck he wasn't after replacing his
29:55
radio his radio was fine he would just
29:57
use things until he stopped working and
29:59
he wouldn't worry about this stuff
30:01
so i think his trick was simply that he
30:05
hardly ever worried about anything
30:11
okay
30:12
yeah at least not worrying about richard
30:13
over trouble
30:19
nice
30:20
yeah it
30:24
not giving a [ __ ]
30:26
that's gonna be my uh that's gonna be my
30:28
catchphrase when uh people ask me oh
30:30
what's the what's the secret to life not
30:32
giving a [ __ ] you know something that's
30:34
almost across the board for veterans in
30:36
general i've met uh
30:39
when i was working at laura we had a lot
30:40
of tours and a lot of veterans went down
30:42
because veterans seem to be into cigars
30:45
very frequently
30:46
and that's something i learned a lot
30:48
from from veterans uh american veterans
30:51
danish
30:52
guys from the french foreign legion
30:53
which is crazy they just don't give off
30:55
especially those that have
30:57
deployed to combat zones they just don't
30:59
give a [ __ ] about these petty first
31:02
world problems that we
31:04
amplify
31:06
you know
31:08
they've been through worse they know it
31:10
and they just don't care about
31:12
any of this [ __ ]
31:14
they're just
31:16
they just focus about
31:18
their focus is where it needs to be
31:20
that's it
31:22
and
31:23
you can't help but want to to
31:26
emulate that it's
31:30
obviously
31:31
there there is this thing about uh
31:34
veterans which is
31:36
uh
31:38
that
31:42
that that mentality
31:44
that
31:45
focus on what matters mentality isn't
31:47
popular among
31:49
the civilian population in large and
31:53
you see it in the news a lot of veterans
31:56
commit suicide because
31:59
ultimately the environment they return
32:01
to sucks it's full of people bitching
32:03
and complaining all the time about stuff
32:05
that doesn't matter
32:08
and
32:09
ultimately i think loneliness catches up
32:12
to them
32:13
and they succumb to that
32:15
and it's and it's kind of it's really
32:17
sad because a lot of these veterans are
32:20
better men than
32:22
than many of us could ever dream of
32:24
being just because
32:26
their metal has been testing tested in a
32:28
way that ours never will be
32:31
that's something i think about a lot
32:34
right
32:35
and that went deep very fast
32:41
yeah
32:42
i mean i do i wouldn't say i'm an older
32:44
thinker but i do a lot of deep thinking
32:46
uh
32:47
i i've read a lot of books on stoicism
32:50
that
32:51
that i've tried to model into my life
32:53
and uh
32:55
and that stoic composure i see a lot in
32:59
veterans in general that's that's sort
33:00
of why it stands out to me
33:02
uh
33:04
not much else to it than that it's not
33:06
it's just that it's quite simple
33:09
uh
33:10
oh i mentioned i didn't mention the
33:12
dutch commandos there was a couple of
33:14
dutch commandos that i gave a factory
33:16
uh factory tour to
33:19
and those guys were
33:21
pretty badass
33:27
but yeah uh
33:30
man that that that's
33:32
that's a bit of a
33:34
of a heavy note to end the podcast on
33:36
but
33:37
i mean the the the interview on because
33:40
now
33:41
i'm gonna i'm gonna give you the floor
33:43
and i'm gonna let you
33:45
go on a
33:46
self-indulgent rambling monologue about
33:50
what it's like to be a cigar bro
33:53
youtuber
33:54
like tell us everything about it
33:57
what people think it's all about what it
34:00
really is like
34:01
uh
34:02
is it all fun and
34:05
stuff or is there more than meets the
34:07
eye of course there is but i want to
34:09
hear from the horse's mouth
34:14
nay for me babe calling me a horse
34:17
maybe
34:20
oh god
34:23
oh
34:24
okay so where do i start
34:28
so i started this
34:30
youtube thing as a way to
34:34
i guess
34:36
keep myself occupied
34:38
um i felt like
34:40
home life and work life was missing
34:43
something
34:44
so i wanted to do something i wanted to
34:46
be able to start a youtube channel and
34:48
make it somewhat of like a
34:52
not not necessarily a popularity contest
34:54
but i wanted to get my name out there
34:55
and kind of help people in the same way
34:59
i didn't know what i wanted my youtube
35:00
channel to be i just kind of just did it
35:03
and a lot of my videos i just kind of
35:05
wing it
35:06
and people know me like that because
35:08
that's just what i do
35:09
um
35:10
i love making videos i love smoking
35:12
cigars and why not just mix them both
35:14
together right
35:15
so
35:17
i'm not i'm not narcissistic to where i
35:19
like talking to myself
35:21
because outside of the youtube
35:25
screen
35:27
i kind of keep to myself which is kind
35:29
of weird because i am a i'm very much an
35:32
introvert
35:33
um but being
35:36
in the people's eye on youtube
35:39
has kind of
35:41
it's kind of helped me be
35:45
a little bit more extrovert like i was
35:47
always like right there kind of sort of
35:49
extrovert introvert more introvert it's
35:51
kind of like help me get out and be able
35:54
to meet new people talk to new people um
35:57
but um
35:59
going back to the whole youtube thing i
36:00
mean it is a lot of work
36:03
um i pump out three videos a week
36:06
um
36:07
and
36:08
my videos are about 15 to 25 minutes
36:11
long depending on the video
36:15
that what people don't see is
36:18
the hour to hour and a half that i spend
36:21
smoking the cigar
36:24
the time it takes to edit the video
36:26
which is about another
36:28
um hour to hour and a half
36:31
um uploading it to youtube
36:33
uh once it's uploaded
36:36
um i will have to go through the youtube
36:39
back office and do update all the um
36:42
description the card links
36:44
um
36:46
the end screen the uh the pop-up cards
36:49
that come in
36:50
it's a lot of work so from start to
36:53
finish
36:55
probably takes me about a good
36:58
four
36:59
to six hours depending on the video
37:02
each video
37:04
it's a part-time job
37:06
um
37:07
so
37:08
just knowing that i mean yes i break it
37:10
up
37:11
between the editing the recording the
37:14
youtube back office
37:16
i spread it out during my free time but
37:19
it ultimately takes about a good six
37:22
hours for four to six hours to complete
37:24
one video
37:25
three times a week
37:27
so
37:29
um
37:30
people don't realize that when they say
37:31
hey i want to start a youtube channel uh
37:33
it looks like you're having a lot of fun
37:35
and getting a lot of cool stuff
37:37
yeah i get cool stuff but that's just
37:40
that's not why i do it i do it because i
37:43
enjoy doing it like the grind like i
37:46
feel like my mind is
37:48
so busy all the time that i have to be
37:50
doing something all the time
37:52
so just kind of doing that
37:54
it just
37:56
i go from my work life to my home life
37:59
and there was like something missing so
38:01
i felt like during my free time i can
38:03
kind of fill that space in to where i
38:05
feel like i'm being productive
38:07
throughout all of my day
38:10
and i like that i like being busy
38:13
i don't i feel like my mind is just
38:16
running all the time so i have to have
38:18
that filler to be able to do something
38:19
different
38:20
um cigars though that has kind of
38:23
helped me slow down a little bit
38:25
um
38:27
so
38:29
i am very 80d so
38:31
when i hyper focus on something it's
38:33
like
38:34
gotta get this done
38:36
um
38:37
and then
38:38
my off time
38:41
i'm kind of left wondering
38:43
or feeling like i need to be doing
38:45
something i can't just sit here like
38:46
it's hard for me to just sit
38:48
and watch a movie because i feel like my
38:50
mind's not stimulated enough like i need
38:53
to be moving around or doing something
38:56
while i'm watching a movie it's like
38:58
i can't just sit there i feel
39:00
unproductive i'm just sitting there
39:01
watching tv or watching movie
39:04
no what else about youtube do you want
39:06
to know well i got a lit i get i get
39:07
some of it because i do make the the
39:10
i get the making videos part is a lot
39:12
more than just having fun in front of
39:14
the camera uh i get that part because i
39:17
make the videos for my cigar pack
39:20
at least a good number of them
39:21
um
39:23
at the same time
39:25
i was also
39:26
i was also uh a bit curious about your
39:29
add is it actual addd or is it that just
39:33
most stuff is plain up boring
39:40
no so i do have add i've never been
39:42
diagnosed with it but um
39:46
if i'm bored okay um i tried to explain
39:50
this to my wife and she didn't
39:52
understand it because she doesn't get
39:53
atd
39:56
i can be
39:57
okay if you can imagine a conversation
39:59
going like a flat line
40:03
if i get bored doing it during a
40:05
conversation i will be listening
40:08
and then i'll catch on to something that
40:10
they're saying
40:11
and i'll veer off
40:13
and i'll just be focusing on that while
40:15
they're still talking so the
40:17
conversation's still going and then i'll
40:19
tune back in
40:20
and then i'm lost and i'm trying to
40:21
figure out what's going on again
40:23
it's like if my mind's not stimulated in
40:25
the conversation itself i'll veer off
40:27
and do something else in my mind and
40:29
then tune back into where i find
40:30
something interesting to say
40:33
and then i'll start doing that so it's
40:34
like a lot of
40:35
up and down in conversations i can't
40:37
literally
40:39
have a full conversation with someone if
40:41
my
40:43
i don't know like my my in my
40:46
my mind just kind of goes everywhere
40:47
okay that's
40:49
i think i'm picturing it so correct me
40:52
if i
40:53
if i uh didn't get you
40:55
it's basically like
40:57
if you're not fully engaged it it
41:00
basically means that
41:02
it's hard for you to stay engaged
41:05
because
41:06
it's not that the
41:08
other person's boring but just the fact
41:10
that your attention span doesn't allow
41:13
you to
41:15
and you can't do much about it right
41:19
exactly
41:21
right i can't do anything about it and i
41:23
find myself doing that sometimes when
41:25
i'm watching when i'm editing a video
41:27
i'll
41:30
i'll be editing a video
41:31
and then 10 minutes in
41:34
my mind will just
41:36
go to something else and i'll just start
41:37
scrolling through instagram facebook
41:39
whatever and then i'll be like oh wait i
41:41
got to go back and edit videos sometimes
41:43
the video actually take me a lot longer
41:45
than it's supposed to
41:46
because i can't just sit there and hyper
41:48
focus on the video editing cutting
41:50
chopping stuff up
41:51
and then
41:53
it just gets boring sometimes
41:55
so i just go off and do something else
41:58
or i'll text message somebody or
42:00
watch a youtube video
42:02
or
42:03
this happens sometimes when i'll be
42:06
saying something and i don't know
42:09
um
42:10
the information fully
42:12
so that will be like let's say i'm
42:14
talking about a cigar in a video and i
42:17
say it incorrectly or something i'll go
42:21
over to google
42:22
research something
42:24
and then i'll be like oh okay so i'll go
42:26
back to the video and then i'll put it
42:28
like a little pop-up
42:29
that kind of helps pull together what i
42:31
was actually saying so it's like
42:34
i'm always constantly like veering off
42:37
but i'm veering back in so it's like
42:39
very okay my mind is very distracted
42:41
easily
42:42
would you change that about you
42:45
or do you embrace it
42:53
if there was a way to manage it i mean i
42:55
know there's a way to manage it through
42:56
medication but
42:58
i don't feel it's that bad
43:00
to where i need to be
43:04
on medication like i know it's gonna
43:05
slow me down
43:07
but i feel like my cigars are a way to
43:09
slow me down that make sense
43:12
all right gotta give me a minute to
43:13
figure out what to ask you next because
43:15
this this guy
43:16
this got personal and in a good way and
43:19
i like it
43:24
i've heard a saying that says you're
43:26
either creating content or you're
43:27
consuming it
43:28
do you consume other cigar bros's
43:31
content
43:36
i'm not asking who is a yes or no
43:38
question but
43:40
okay
43:42
okay okay okay yes
43:45
and no
43:46
yes because for a long time
43:50
i used to follow
43:52
as mit oh i used to follow
43:56
religiously five cigar review channels
43:59
that could have been four that could
44:00
have been six i don't know just saying
44:02
five
44:04
i noticed
44:07
when
44:09
i consume less
44:11
i can focus more on my own channel
44:15
to make that better as opposed to
44:18
focusing on someone else's channel
44:20
that's not really going to do much for
44:22
my channel does that make sense
44:25
so
44:26
there are some times where i'll go back
44:28
and i'll watch another youtube channel
44:31
cigar review channel
44:34
but it's not as much as i used to
44:36
consume
44:37
i'd say about a year ago and
44:40
um
44:41
i stopped watching a lot of cigar review
44:43
channels because
44:46
you can kind of tell when people are
44:47
faking it
44:49
and i don't like that sometimes and um
44:51
there was one channel that i'd been
44:53
watching for a long long time before i
44:55
even started reviewing cigars and i kind
44:59
of
45:00
over time i kind of narrowed it down
45:02
dude
45:14
and just disappear shortly after
45:22
for the dudes
45:24
they can get kind of fake very quickly
45:27
and you can kind of tell when they're
45:29
just
45:30
putting an act uh so yeah i stopped
45:33
watching a lot of those channels first
45:36
and then
45:37
there was like constant controversy
45:39
between channels i was like i'm not
45:41
watching this dude he's just trying to
45:43
pick fights and trying to
45:44
pull people from other people's channels
45:46
and talking crap about about them so
45:49
like
45:50
i don't like that
45:51
so if you're gonna talk bad about
45:52
somebody behind their back or on their
45:54
youtube channel so belinda subliminally
45:57
whatever the [ __ ] you say that
45:59
then i'm just not gonna watch you
46:05
so yes i do
46:06
consume some but not as much as i used
46:09
to so there's probably about maybe one
46:10
channel i still watch
46:12
um and
46:15
i do uh i do a live
46:17
uh live chat
46:19
on uh wednesdays and thursdays
46:21
wednesdays and saturdays too so that's
46:22
one
46:23
that i'm
46:25
very involved with
46:27
another cigar group
46:29
on facebook and discord
46:31
but other than that
46:32
there's not much else going on that i
46:34
really want to discord your own you want
46:37
to plug it here you're certainly allowed
46:38
to you can plug anything
46:43
no
46:45
actually it's not
46:48
so
46:50
the discord is
46:52
part of a cigar group that i'm a part of
46:54
and i just
46:57
i feel like
46:59
the people in that group are like family
47:02
so
47:04
that's the one i mainly focus on
47:06
we've done meetups together we've done
47:08
actually we're having a meet up tomorrow
47:11
um here in texas we've got a lot of
47:13
people flying in from uh
47:15
throughout the world um guys from
47:17
germany uh guys from uh the us
47:20
we've got about with the weather i don't
47:22
know if we're all going to meet up but
47:24
at one point in time we're going to have
47:25
about 20 people here in here in texas
47:27
we're all going to be going to this one
47:29
cigar lounge and just kind of meeting up
47:30
and hanging out that sounds like it's
47:32
going to be hopefully the i know i know
47:34
it's bad with the snow storms in the
47:36
east coast right now but hopefully they
47:38
can all make it because that sounds like
47:40
a committed group
47:46
it is it is a very committed group and
47:48
we've been okay the majority of the
47:49
people who've been in that facebook
47:51
group slash discord group
47:53
have been there for
47:55
the length of my youtube channel so
47:57
about three years if not more
48:01
because um yeah i mean i feel like once
48:03
covid hit
48:05
it just kind of brought everybody
48:06
together which is kind of cool because
48:08
we did live videos and stuff like this
48:10
and
48:11
it's just kind of helped
48:13
build that bond with people that you
48:15
talk to
48:16
on the internet
48:17
kind of like when people do gaming you
48:20
wouldn't think that people who are
48:21
gaming
48:22
are friends like are friends with each
48:24
other but i've heard people who actually
48:26
game
48:27
and they have like these meetups which
48:29
is kind of cool it's kind of like that
48:31
with cigars so it's like you meet these
48:33
people online
48:34
who enjoy the same thing that you like
48:36
doing
48:37
you all meet up do you game
48:44
i don't
48:45
i i can't ask you the next question
48:47
because it's gonna be a gaming question
48:49
i uh i use a game often so
48:52
uh
48:53
i got sort of back into it through vr uh
48:56
which
48:57
vr is freaking nuts
49:00
forget the metaverse right
49:03
i'm talking about vr right
49:06
not not this meta
49:08
corporate mumbo jumbo no no i'm talking
49:09
about like
49:11
vr
49:12
uh that is so much fun it is
49:17
it's weird because it can change
49:19
mediocre experiences into good ones just
49:22
because you are there if that makes
49:24
sense
49:28
so
49:29
how do i explain this
49:31
a lot of the games in vr
49:34
if you were to make them
49:35
like controller based
49:38
they would suck
49:42
but they don't but they don't
49:46
explain that
49:48
so
49:48
i don't know but
49:50
that's neither here nor there for for
49:52
this podcast episode i think we're
49:53
creeping up on an hour
49:55
so
49:56
uh final
49:59
section home stretch of this episode
50:01
thank you so much for uh
50:03
for joining us it's it's been a lot of
50:05
fun
50:06
uh i i i'm not sure if you've noticed
50:09
but i've been like smiling the whole
50:11
time because you've got a lot of cool
50:13
things to tell especially ever since i
50:15
the floodgates opened for your
50:17
creator monologue
50:19
uh which i always love to hear when when
50:21
creators sort of off the cuff talk about
50:24
what it's like to what their channel
50:26
means to them that that's that's a lot
50:27
of uh
50:29
uh that's certainly inspiring for
50:31
someone who's
50:32
creating content too i guess um
50:36
so
50:37
i want you to close by giving a message
50:40
to all other cigar youtube bros those
50:44
who have grown more those who are still
50:46
to grow
50:47
those who are at the top those who are
50:49
haven't really
50:51
engaged with an audience yet what is
50:53
something you not even advice just
50:55
something you want to say to them
51:02
okay
51:05
smoke what you like
51:07
i mean that's just plain and simple
51:10
it doesn't work it doesn't matter what
51:11
other people are into
51:14
if you like a
51:16
two dollar bundle stick and that is like
51:18
the best cigar to you
51:19
[ __ ] smoke it bro
51:21
you don't have to go out and spend
51:22
[ __ ] 20 30 on the single cigar
51:25
um hoping that it's good
51:28
because you can find a lot of cigars
51:30
that are about five bucks that are
51:32
really really good
51:34
um
51:35
it's just the
51:37
it's it's all about experiencing a cigar
51:40
for what it is
51:41
regardless of the price
51:43
um
51:44
don't think that because you're spending
51:47
money on a
51:48
premium
51:50
aged for 10 plus years cigar
51:53
you're gonna get a [ __ ] good cigar
51:55
because a lot of times that might not be
51:57
the case it might not be for your palate
52:00
so find something within a price range
52:02
that you enjoy five to eight bucks
52:05
uh five to ten bucks
52:07
if you like that explore
52:09
those options
52:10
find something that you like
52:12
and who gives a [ __ ] what everybody else
52:14
thinks okay
52:16
thank you so much martin amaya reviews
52:19
for joining us for episode 14 of the my
52:21
cigar pack podcast uh it's been a lot of
52:24
fun this one is
52:26
definitely dude
52:29
awesome to have you as our first guest
52:32
loved every minute of it uh i don't know
52:34
how long this has gone it's probably
52:36
overstayed our targeted time and i don't
52:38
give a flying
52:40
finger about it because it's been
52:43
however many minutes of fun uh thank you
52:46
so much for joining us uh i'll leave
52:48
i'll leave you with the closing words
52:49
how's that
52:55
um
52:56
yeah
52:57
um i mean i know this is your channel
52:59
but i just want to thank you guys for
53:02
uh
53:03
having me promote your stuff and
53:05
including me in your videos and
53:07
um i just feel like
53:09
my cigar pack and cigar yard are
53:13
the best cigars like they have the best
53:15
cigars every month i look forward to the
53:18
my cigar pack
53:20
boxes
53:21
because i know that there's going to be
53:23
some good [ __ ] in there and i really
53:25
really look forward to these
53:27
hidden gems that you find
53:29
here
53:30
and not to mention these hidden gems
53:32
where we're getting
53:35
freaking
53:36
25
53:38
per cigar
53:41
twenty-five dollars per cigar
53:43
um you're getting four of these cigars
53:46
for
53:47
39.99 so i think we kind of robbed you
53:49
guys but i think that was uh
53:53
i just enjoyed my car pack man you guys
53:55
are rocking it over there thank you
53:57
martin it's been
53:58
awesome cheers everyone have a great
54:01
whatever time of day it is for you
54:03
and uh
54:04
well we'll catch you in the next episode
54:07
and be sure to go visit martin's channel
54:10
there's probably something you're going
54:11
to enjoy there man posts three videos a
54:13
week if you enjoyed this long
54:15
conversation you're probably gonna enjoy
54:16
at least one of those uh hopefully all
54:18
three
54:19
cheers guys catch you in the next one