The Compass Chronicles Podcast: Where Fandom Meets Faith
The Compass Chronicles Podcast is where fandom meets faith in thoughtful, honest conversation.
Hosted by Javier M. and Mickey W., this podcast explores the stories we love from movies, television, music, comics, and pop culture, then thoughtfully connects them to timeless truths of Christian faith. Each episode is grounded, reflective, and accessible, designed for listeners who are curious, questioning, or simply looking for meaning in the stories that shape our lives.
The Compass Chronicles is not about preaching or jargon. It is about real conversations, cultural moments, and spiritual insight that feels practical and relevant. Whether you are deeply rooted in faith, exploring it for the first time, or somewhere in between, this podcast invites you to slow down, think deeply, and find direction.
If you enjoy fandom, thoughtful discussion, and faith that meets real life where it actually is, this is the place for you.
The Compass Chronicles Podcast: Where Fandom Meets Faith
Social Media's Double Edged Sword: How it's Shaping Faith And Fandom
What if the apps shaping our days are also shaping our discipleship? We dig into the promise and peril of social media with a creator and coach who has built multiple podcasts and helped countless hosts grow with purpose, not just noise. From the first dial-up memories to today’s feeds, we chart how these platforms can carry testimonies, launch shows, and connect strangers who become friends—while also fueling outrage, distraction, and shallow metrics that drain focus.
We get practical fast. If you’re building a podcast, ministry, or creative project, treat social media like advertising rather than a living room. Define your audience, pick platforms that match their habits, and measure what actually moves the needle: views for discovery. Expect follower counts to dip when you shift from casual to mission-driven content; that pruning reveals your true listeners. You’ll hear a simple framework for moderation—bless, block, delete—that protects your community and your peace. At the same time, we talk about spotting the pain behind a harsh comment and choosing when a thoughtful reply may open a door.
We also wrestle with the heart work: are we more formed by Scripture or by the scroll? Balancing global reach with local relationships matters. Choosing when to speak and when to keep scrolling matters. And selecting the right platform for your message—short-form bursts for younger audiences, long-form depth for older communities—can make your work both sustainable and effective. Along the way, you’ll pick up real coaching insights on content strategy, boundaries with trolls, and building a digital presence that reflects your values without feeding the outrage machine.
If this conversation challenges you or helps you reframe your online work, tap follow, share it with a friend who creates, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. Your support helps thoughtful, faith-centered conversations reach the people who need them most.
I would love to hear from you!
For listeners looking to deepen their engagement with the topics discussed, visit our website or check out our devotionals and poetry on Amazon, with all proceeds supporting The New York School of The Bible at Calvary Baptist Church. Stay connected and enriched on your spiritual path with us!
This is Javier from Compass Chronicles podcast. I want to welcome you all today. Uh, this is our first episode with a live guest, and I want to also introduce my co-host with the most, Mickey. You can introduce yourself, say hi.
SPEAKER_04:Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Compass Chronicles. Glad to be here and super excited that we have our first guest on today. Can't wait till we talk about who he is. So we'll let Javier tell you all about who Rory is.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. So we're excited to have one of the coolest people I know. And one of the nicest and most what can I say? Most uh how do you call it? You have a lot of patience, very patient person, super patient. And uh, so we have Rory Paquette. He is the host of about six or seven podcasts that I can't remember right now. Remember all of them. That's what? Well, anyway, I'm gonna let Rory answer everything. Rory, thank you so much for being our first official guest on the Compass Chronicles podcast. So I'll let you introduce yourself, see you, and welcome.
SPEAKER_01:All right, well, thank you both. Um, I love the team up, I really do. I've had the incredible blessing to work with both of you individually, and I think you guys are both great, and I just love being here, so thank you for that. Um, and uh Javier, I appreciate you returning the favor. You were my first guest on Wake Up the Lions, which is one of my podcasts. Yes, so that was very, very cool. Before I even had anything going, I was like, hey, I don't know where this is going. I want you to be a guest.
SPEAKER_02:You're like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure.
SPEAKER_01:Love it, happy to return the favor. But uh, my name is Rory Paquette. I am a uh uh husband, a father, a brother in Christ, a uh podcast, podcaster, speaker, and podcast coach, speaker coach. And other than that, um, I mean, goodness, I have seven podcasts that I do, uh, which you know, I guess we'll talk about at some point through all of these. Um, but uh, you know, the three biggest ones are Power of Man, uh, The Podcaster Nation, and Wake Up the Lions. Uh, after that, I have four more, and then I have two more that are actually in development right now, uh, that hopefully will be released before the end of January uh that we're working on. And um, I mean, I'm just so happy to be here. Thank you guys for having me.
SPEAKER_00:We are excited for you to be here. I know me and Mickey were talking before and um about all that we've been, you know, everything that's happened and everything that's going on. And just I'm excited to have all this coming together. It's almost like a a closing of everything that I've wanted. You know, I've always wanted a co-host, I've always wanted to have guests. So to me, this is full circle going better than I thought. 2026 is already starting off greater than I thought. So, anyway, so everyone, welcome to the show. And uh, today we're just gonna talk about. I know that we are a fandom podcast, we talk about pop culture, we talk about stuff that happens in the world, but today I think we're gonna talk about social media. Social media is a huge and can be a very long and tedious subject and topic. Uh, but we want to talk about how it's affected fate, how it's affected family lives, how it's affected the world in general. What's the positive, what's the negative? Um, because everything has a positive and negative, right? And how we want to ask the questions to everyone how do they use uh social media? What are they, you know, what makes them be on social media? What gives them that? Or what helps them? So um to start off, you know, I think social media in a lot of ways, as I said, can be useful and can be detrimental. As we can see in this world, social media can destroy some person's life immediately. Immediately. And there's no technically no getting away from it. What like they say, once it's in the internet, it's done, it's there forever. Um, and I've seen people abuse it, I've seen people make mockery of God with it. I've seen people um, you know, I've read things that are like, oh my God, what? Uh but then I've also seen the blessing of it, especially from my side. And I think from our side, how we use social media to share God's word more, to share our faith more, to speak to people more, uh, to show uh the world that there's other conversations to have, other things to do. So um, but like I said, social media can be used in so many great ways and so many bad ways. But Mickey, we were talking before, and I'm gonna let you go into that subject that we were talking before, and uh we'll go from there and then we'll let where we go, or we can all jump in, whatever. Okay, it's a hodgepodge here.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we were talking um before we started recording and um jumped on here today that social media has such an impact. It could be in a good way or a bad way. One thing it has good impact is we can reach people all across the world where before we couldn't. But the but the negative side is that is that I think that we are longing more to reach people across the world, but we forget who our neighbors are because they live right next door. We're so busy on social media that that we we lose some connections with people that are right next to us, opposed to trying to reach those across the world. So I think you gotta really find that balance with social media because it can become destructive and it cut it can, you know, really be detrimental to your life if you let it. Now, if you have control over it, that's a good thing. I was reading something about algorithms, and I something I thought was interesting is like, do you get do you get discipled through Christ in Scripture or do you get discipled through algorithms? And I thought that that kind of struck me, and I thought, wow, that's that's kind of some food for thought when we're getting ready to talk about social media today. Yes, facts. And I was like, man, how worried are we about our algorithms, guys, opposed to how worried are we about how much discipleship we're getting? And we can disciple through social media, we can disciple one another and we can get discipleship through uh social media. But if we are shifting gears to where the algorithm is more important than the discipleship, then we need to take a step back and take a look at what we're diving into, is where I think um we should be paying attention to social media. But it has a lot of great benefits. I would have met probably either one of you had I not been on social media. You would not have met me. We have not met hundreds hundreds of people that we have come across um in this lifetime as we have met, and the lives that can get impacted through social media is phenomenal. Um, now there is some you know downside to it because you know, like they say, there's a lot of negative Nellies and there's the loud Karen's, and they're there's the whatever names you want to call people, which I think is absolutely uncalled for, but they just do it anyway. I think it's immature behavior. But we're gonna we're gonna meet all walks of life on here, and you have to take it with a grain of salt, or you can jump in and you could just you know jump on the bandwagon with everybody else. You know, I I know people that like to just watch the comments. They're like, I'm here for the comments. I'm here for the comments, and it drives me crazy because I'm like, that's all they do is entertain themselves with other people's comments. So I don't know if you guys can relate with me or not, but that's kind of where I stand with social media. I think there's a lot of benefits to it. I love that I get to share the gospel of Jesus Christ through my podcasts, and I get to meet wonderful people like you. Um, I've created some great friendships along the way, and I think there are some really good benefits to it, but I just do think that we need to balance ourselves and we need to be careful and we need to be wise about it. What do you think, Rory?
SPEAKER_01:Wow. Um, I love what you both said to say. Frankly, I don't think I could disagree with anything that either one of you said. There's um we all know that unfortunately social media is vital in building the businesses that we're in. If you're in an online business, if you're running a podcast, um there really is no replacement for it, unfortunately. You need it. I think the key is is very much like what you were talking about, Mickey, is how how are you how are you being discipled is a perfect way of putting that. Um we all have algorithms that are working on us, and too many of us don't understand that. Um they censor our news feeds, they they censor what we see, they censor what we think, what we feel um when you make a comment. Sometimes it goes somewhere, sometimes it doesn't. Uh we are pawns in a bigger game on social media, unfortunately. And the goal is to have us fighting with one another, and that that's just that. So they accomplish their goal. Um, I can tell you that I've used social media intrinsically to build seven podcasts um and continue to do so. That any of my students who work social media and do it the way I teach them to do it all have success on social media and their podcasts grow. Uh, I can also tell you that I've received four absolute, honest to goodness, death threats in my life. All have come via social media in some way, shape, or form. So, you know, it you gotta take the good with the bad, but right um the one thing that I will also say is you you really have to be um aware of policing your own social media and making brought up comments. The I have a policy when it comes to social media, when it comes to my comments, and that is um the positive ones can stay. And the negative ones, it's bless, block, delete. And that is exactly it. Um, I bless the person who left the comment talking about how horrible I am and everything else, uh, because they really need it in their lives if they're that angry at a post on social media. Uh, you block them because there's absolutely no reason uh to uh hear any more from that person. Clearly, they're they're sad, and then you know, release slash delete, because I'm not gonna leave that comment there to poison everyone else who sees that post uh who may read the comments, because so many of us go and read the comments. So I don't allow them to spread you know their venom and their hate and their poison um on my posts. And I think too often, because we're so worried about engagement and you know, we gotta have engagement, we gotta have all these other things social media tells us we gotta have, and gotta have comments. No, you don't. You gotta have stewardship over your own social media, and people don't pay attention to that. So they leave the negative comment, and then they think if they if they interact that that's helping them with their interaction and their engagement. No, it's not. Okay, it's validating, you know, this person who is simply there to be a troll. You know, and the last thing I'll say is that there are people who are paid, a lot of them, who get paid to engage as trolls. So they get on there, they spread hate, and when they get people to hate them back, they understand what that's doing to everybody who's watching it, and they get paid to engage. So whenever we see something that we object to and we comment back, we are helping them make money on that comment, on that post, and we're actually furthering the hate. And so I think people need to just educate themselves about what they're doing, and I think have stewardship over their social media a little bit better.
SPEAKER_00:I could I couldn't agree with you more. I I think um, especially in the where I come from, where I'm when I started the podcast, you know, comes when it comes to uh uh pop culture and social media and pop culture and stuff, you deal with people that are mostly not going to be faith-based or they're not gonna be Christians. They're gonna be, you know, um, they're gonna be against it. They're either gonna write a bad comment or whatever, but that's expected, right? Because as Christians, we're always there's always gonna be a negative to whatever we do. The world is never gonna like what we do, ever. Uh, but I also agree with you about the delete and and remove part, but there's also a little caveat to that where if a person sometimes may make a remark, and if you kind of read it, they may be asking for help in a way that you don't know. And I sometimes read that, especially with the guys that I deal with. A lot of them have depression issues or mental health or family issues, and sometimes they'll make a remark almost like a question, but it's not really a question. So I kind of not, you know, I know they're being negative because they're hurting, but they're also asking for help. So there's also a little bit of that as well. But I understand the trollers, professional disruptors are everywhere, you know. They get paid to do that. We see it now in in everywhere we look. Now they're professional disruptors, and uh, those are the people that you like. You said we have to use wisdom, we have to use common sense, logic. Just look, if you think that that person is gonna just be like you said, a negative nanny and just leave that there, and it's just gonna feud other people because other people are gonna comment. No matter what you do, if you leave that up there, someone's gonna comment. That person either gonna defend you or they're gonna defend that person, and that could bring you down to a dark hole where you don't want to be, and that can destroy your whole post, your whole uh whatever you were trying to say out there, or whatever you wanted to do, it can destroy it. And uh I'll be one of the first ones. Oh, go ahead, go ahead, Rory. I'm so sorry. Oh, okay. Yeah, no. And when what Mickey said about the algorithms, when I first started, and I'll be honest with you, that was my I was doing that. I was trying to really fix and see what my algorithm was and how I can, but I wasn't doing it in a way, I was doing it where I can reach more people. Now, I honestly like when I spoke into Mickey and Ori in our interviews, I don't care if one person listens to it and just says, you know, I accept Christ or I can start looking, I'm good, I'm I'm perfect. Uh, but I also see, like you said, social media needs we can't live without it, right? This world will not cannot function without social media anymore. No matter how we try and say it, it just does not function. Um, you know, we come from Generation X where we didn't have this, we were one of the forefronts. We were there in the beginning when AOL started, and you got mail and all that, and you had your chats, you had your private chats and those things, and you mom would pick up the phone like you know, and things like that. But you can see from there how it, you know, you had those chat rooms where oh my god, they were like rah-ress back then. There was no nothing as moderators or anything like that. It was crazy and fun, but then I seen where it's grown from I remember when we had MySpace. Oh you know, I've been I've been on Facebook, I've been on Facebook since it started when it was just college kids. My one of my friend's son had a college and he and he got me an account, and I've been on there since then, and I've changed a lot. But I've seen Facebook grow, I've seen Instagram grow. I've seen you know Twitter. Well, I still call it Twitter, I will never call it X, I don't care. It's Twitter for me, it'll always be Twitter. Uh, but uh I also see, like you said, they block our algo, they block our messages, they don't we don't sometimes we send stuff out and no one sees it, or it doesn't go anywhere, you get no remarks, or you get no, and you're like, but I know somebody saw it, but sometimes they block it, and that's the world we live in. I mean, that's algorithm for you. YouTube does it, everywhere does it, but I do agree with um with you guys that it can be used for the most positive things in the world from meeting some one of your old friends that you haven't seen in 20 years and catch up to meeting like I meet you guys. To me, it's been a blessing meeting everyone that I've met through social media and the podcast and everything. I thought I would never. I'm one of the most, you know, I'm a I'm a loner. I don't really have many close, close friends or people, acquaintances like that. Because, you know, after a while, when you get burned so much, you start to really be protective of yourself. So, but you start to meet all these new people and you start to learn and you start, it's exciting. To me, it's exciting. And social media is exciting to me. It can get really beautiful, but it can get really bad. But, you know, you guys can stop me because you know I can yap all day.
SPEAKER_04:Um You know, I think sometimes we can get fixated. Is that such a word?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure.
SPEAKER_04:With with um social media to to a point where we um um we just let it get out of control sometimes. I mean, I've been in I've been in a few heat conversations and then I've had regrets for it. And then I've also I've also you know been scrolling along and I'll I'll see it a conversation that'll kind of strike me the wrong way. And that's where we get to make the decision, am I gonna jump in on this and put my two cents or does is it really gonna make a difference? And I always ask myself this question when I when I think like that, even if it's if it's uh if it's something I disagree with or I'm irritated about, because we're all it's okay to have different opinions. It's but the thing is is we know it's gonna offend someone somewhere when you have a difference in opinion. So I always ask myself, is this gonna be helpful or harmful? That's the question. If it's not gonna be helpful, then I'm not gonna put a comment. So, or if it is, it's it better be a helpful comment or just keep on scrolling, just pass it all together because I I I I want to make a better influence. I don't want to be a negative, there's enough of that out there already. And um I just I I get like I said, I get blown away when I read people's comments and stuff. And um, and like you said, uh Rory, they will feed off from each other and it becomes a poison. It starts, they they start attacking each other through the comments, and it had nothing nothing to do with the big original post sometimes. And it's just out of hand and it's just ridiculous. And I see people just act just so immature. And I think, man, I wonder how sometimes I look at their little picture on the side and I think, this is like a guy in his 60s. What is he doing? You know, he's acting like he's 12 years old, like having a tantrum. And so it it, you know, when I see this, it kind of really makes me reflect on myself and go, you know, how do I want to behave? How do I want to react? How do I want people to see me? Because I I want I want people to see what I worship is good, the things that I like and enjoy in the world. I worship God. I I worship, you know, um what God does for me and the people in my lives that I care about. I don't want them to see, oh, the only thing she cares about is all of the the the all of the negative impact that the world has. I want to bring we want to bring good impact to the world. And there, like you said, where there are some people that literally just go to the extreme. And I didn't know people got paid for that, by the way. I should have been signed up for that a long time ago because I think I could have made some money. Oh yeah. I mean, because I used to be, yeah, I I I used to not be as nice as I am now. So I think I could have been on that that, but you know, God's changed my heart. So it's probably a good thing I didn't know about it. But I think people out there listening are probably taking notes right now because I think they're like, you can get paid for this. I think I'm gonna look into this information.
SPEAKER_03:I had no idea.
SPEAKER_04:So but yeah, that I I just about cracked up laughing when we started talking about that. But um, because it is true. I I I've you know, sometimes we don't think about that, we don't look into it, we don't research what we're what we're actually doving into, and it's like we want to know, we need to be prepared with stuff. And then when it when we do get faced with it, we're shocked, like we had no idea because we didn't do our homework, you know. So I just encourage people, you know, to to take their time and invest a little time in checking things out, not just dive right into every single thing you see or read. I mean, there's so much social media out there that you could dive into everything if you want it, so you got to be really careful.
SPEAKER_00:So, Rory, I have a couple of questions for you, especially in the field that you're in when it comes to social media, because you are a uh counselor and you talk. To people and you help them out. What have you seen that's been the most difficult for people to understand how to use social media in their ministry or in whatever they decide to do? How like how would you tell them to go into it first and how to use it, or how they've been using it in the wrong way? Like, how would you talk to them about that?
SPEAKER_01:It's a great question. Um, I think the biggest problem with social media is in fact the ignorance of it. Um, we all get into it and we uh try to figure it out, and you know, especially Gen Xers. We don't read instructions, you know. We we we start something, we figure it out, and you know, the instructions are not part of it. So, you know, it's like, oh, if I hit this, it posts. Oh, okay, got it. You know. Um, we what we do is we see things that make us feel good or that we think are effective, and then we try to imitate. And that really is all anybody does when they get on social media and they have no idea what they're doing. Um, people spend hours and hours making like this, you know, film-worthy uh, you know, summit film festival reel that is gonna get four views because you know, instead of spending all that time on what you're putting out, you should be spending time on building your audience. Um, people are told by Facebook, here's how you build your audience. You must have engagement. That only helps Facebook. Engagement doesn't help you as the person, uh, even though they tell you it does. What helps you is views. It's people have to step out of what they hear and what they think is the way it works, and understand that all social media really is at its base when it comes to businesses is advertising. That's all it is, it's another way of advertising. Um, I had my greatest success when I figured out how to use social media for my purposes, and I'll share this with folks. I tell people this in my training. Um, views matter. That's what matters. And people will go, well, no, all this other stuff matters too. Engagement and followers.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Here's a little clue, if I may, digress, and a little piece of advice for everybody who has a podcast. I recently had um someone that I was working with who said, Oh man, my followers are going down, so what you're doing isn't working. And I'm like, okay, listen to me. The first thing that happens when you go from being a casual Facebook person to um running a business and trying to put out a podcast, for instance, is your followers are going to go down. Why? Because they've been following you because they know you, because they want to be associated with you, because they want to see the pictures of your kids or your puppy or your barbecue. When you start posting regularly about your podcast, about your book, about your project, about your membership. Well, all of a sudden they go, Oh, well, I'm not really interested in that. You know what? I don't want to follow Rory anymore. I'll still be friends with him. I don't want to follow him anymore because I don't want to see that in my feed all day. That's what you want. Because that's not someone who's going to listen to your podcast. That isn't someone who's going to buy your book. They're not going to buy your product or your service. And when you start using Facebook as a business, you literally stop using it as social um communication. People can't wrap their heads around that. Okay. I own a social media company uh called Powerhouse Productions. We teach people how to do their own social media to grow. We also do it for them. I have a lot of podcasters I coach who are like, I don't have any time to do all the social media I have to do to grow the podcast. I say, Great, my company will do it for you, just pay them. And we're off and we're running. And one of my clients was like, Wow, my followers are down. And I had already gone over this with them. And I said, That just means it's working because you have to separate those. Now, once you've done that, then you go with views because you want to try to get new followers who are not following you because you know you're named Javier or because they like the way Mickey's earrings look. Okay, they're following you because they like your podcast, right? Because they like your book, because they love your message, and that's what you want. So you literally have to like decrease the ones that are there just because and increase the ones who are there because they want to be there. Once that happens, you're on your way to becoming a successful, you know, business on social media. People don't get that. So I think that's the biggest thing is people don't understand how to use it for what they want to do.
SPEAKER_00:Wow, that's I I'm taking that for myself right now because I'm guilty of of uh in the beginning using that. You know, I I sometimes and I tell people, and it may be sound horrible, but Christians are sometimes eat our own wounded. We eat our own wounded, we eat people that are down. We kind of like we don't support our own sometimes. You would expect it, uh, because like you just said, these are all pretty much people you know in a personal way, not in a business way. So when they see all that stuff, they're looking at you as a friend. But when you start, like you said, you start putting out. I've seen that when I start putting out more stuff on the podcast, on the Sasquatch studios, and all that, you start to see the difference. You start to see that certain people are not no longer commenting, but you have outside commenters. So you do see that, and I agree with that. And but now that I learned that, it's you just changed my whole head around because now, you know, thank you. You see, I get free advice on the show.
SPEAKER_01:I've literally I've literally told you that before.
SPEAKER_00:Like, I know, I know, I know, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Meeting you on this new call.
SPEAKER_00:Hey, you know, what are you gonna do? I uh uh my mind, those two things were bad. What can I tell you?
SPEAKER_03:I was gonna say, I'm pretty sure he coached me on that. I remember that part of the coaching class that I took that he gave.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you, Mickey. Appreciate that.
SPEAKER_00:Sorry about that, bruh. You know, hey, I've no I've never been the one to follow rules to per se or remember rules anyway.
SPEAKER_01:Uh but you're good to know that your work has impact. That that just fills you up when your work has impact like that.
SPEAKER_00:I'm not I'm not gonna leave this one down, guys. I'm just gonna be like, you know, I'm gonna have to just propose on everything. Well, Rory told me to do this, so I'm doing it like this.
SPEAKER_01:By all means, continue, rather. I mean, whatever. Of course, of course.
SPEAKER_00:I'm just digging my own whole every minute here. But uh, like like you said before, uh, when you start to it depends on what you want to use social media for as well. Uh, if like us, we're podcasters, we're content creators, we write, we do all. So we have to look at it as not social, as more of a business. Now, back then, in the beginning, you you know, Facebook was for your friends, was to meet your friends and see your, and I still use it like that. You know, I still find friends that I haven't seen in years and talk to them, but to look at it in that way, you know, to say, you know, I have to focus. If I want this to grow, I have to focus on social media as a business model, not as just a social friends model. And uh, but and also the negative part, people will use it to abuse power and to create their own dynamic in whatever they want to do and create their own world in social media. And uh, you know, I've seen pages where I've gone in and I'm like, whoa, this is really on Facebook, like wow, you know, and um, and some of the really dark stuff, like really, really like uh, and um you see where that uh danger is, but they're using pretty much the same model, they know what they need to do, and they're gonna use that in order to get the people to, you know, you want people to talk back to you, you want people to have a conversation, but you also want them to have a conversation where they understand what they're talking about, or that they can understand what you're trying to say. You know, you don't want people to get confused. Not that everybody's gonna agree with us because the world doesn't agree with what we have to say 90% of the time, but if we can say it in a way where they feel uh conviction, but also a makes them think and makes them well, you know, that kind of sounds okay. Let me look into it or let me figure this out. Um, so I think we can use social media that way, uh, especially with us with a Compass Chronicles, where we mix pop culture into faith is a very big deal, uh, especially when it comes to uh movies and music and stuff. Everybody has their opinions, their thoughts. Uh, I believe everything that uh is created is created by God, and and the imagination that God has given, be it bad, be it good, it's an imagination that gotta put in your head. Um, you know, and and and all of us, and what Mickey does in her podcasts and and her stuff, and and Rory with all your podcasts and shows and stuff, you know, God gave us that imagination, that that that creation, because he is the ultimate creator, and um, so that's the way I see uh what we do. But um, so but I want to ask people also if they want to, you know, what made you get into social media? Like what led you into because there are people that are our age that never touch social media, they will not get on it, they will not do Facebook, they will die. But then there are people that are our age that are just getting into social media, they just started, and you know, what are the interests like what made them at 40 years old decide I want to get a Facebook page or whatever, like things like that? Because social media can be a young person's game, it is a young person's game per se. Because if you look at TikTok, it's all young person's game. Um Instagram, it's also young Facebook you still got our oldies here, and you still got the people that dealt back in the day. Mostly the age bracket in Facebook is now between 30 and 50. I think now the younger people are more on TikTok and Instagram and stuff like that, or um other social media platforms that I don't even bother with. There's too many now. But um, you know, and I see that uh happening a lot, like more of um the older people trying to get into the social media world just because they kind of feel lost in without it. Because I'm sorry, but a lot of news, no matter what you do, comes through social media. Most people get their news through Twitter, through X, or they read it on a Facebook blog or something. They get their social, so you know, I see that as a way also of getting things across to older people who may not, you know, uh understand it. But you know, I was just talking to my mom today because she was amazed at what we do, and she goes, You're gonna talk on the computer. I was like, Yeah, mom, I'm gonna have a whole conversation. I'm gonna she goes, and and don't get me wrong. My mom has a Facebook page, my mom has an Instagram page. She is she's seven, almost eight years old. She is social media savvy. I mean, helps that me. I help her, but you know, she got on there at a very late age. She got on social media, but she loves it, she uh sees a lot of things positive. She watches her Bible studies, her pastor on there. So, you know, there's things that can benefit us, but she also says uh that there's a lot of things that she's scared to watch, and she goes, Oh my god, they put that on there, and you know, but um as Christians, we have to be aware of what we watch on social media because we can't go down a rabbit hole and not realize that we're going down that hole. Um, you know, I I have this app that I went on. It's uh it's almost like a uh TikTok uh sort of uh app, but this app has no filter, it doesn't have any blocks, and you know, like you can see real graphic, graphic stuff, like real murders, who like there's no no block. And I start and I started seeing how negative that started to make me feel, even though I was watching it, just to see what it was all about, and I can see how that can make people either become very negative and very hostile, and because that's all they're getting fed, right? You get fed all that negativity, all that anger, all that, and I it it got like I deleted that. I couldn't even, I was like, nah, this is way too much, even for me, you know. But um, like I said, it can be used for good or for bad.
SPEAKER_04:So, but uh, is one thing I want to say is that if you take Rory's coach coaching course, um, he he will teach you. So, depending on what audience you're looking for, that's one of the questions he asked me. He said, What audience are you looking for? Are you looking for a younger generation? Are you looking for your 30s? Are you looking for 40s to 50, 50 to 60? What what what age range is your audience? And then Rory is really good at letting you know which platforms you should start working with. Um, because me, I would have known. I would have just tried to go to all of them, which would have driven me absolutely nuts as a beginner learning how to monetize platforms. But he will literally teach you nope, you want if you're going this age range, you should stick with this platform to begin with and go from there and work your way up instead of trying to take it all on at once. And so I recommend anybody that wants to learn more about social media and platforms and monetization, coach is the one uh Rory is the one to go get your coaching from because he knows exactly where to put you and where to have you start at, because it can get overwhelming at first, and and then you're calling people at three o'clock in the morning because you don't know what to do. And Rory can testify to this because I was getting really overwhelmed before I started podcasting. But he he is very patient, he walked me through it step by step, and he's he's so good at what he does. He, I mean, he could probably do it in sleep, I'm sure, at this point, but he really does understand what he's talking about, and he takes you step by step, and it's so easy the way he showed me compared to all of the money I spent, I spent over ten thousand dollars trying to start my podcast, and I got nowhere. And I got on with Rory, and within, I don't know, what, two or two weeks, you had me two or three weeks, you had me push and play. I was already recording and push and play and and launching that podcast. So I would say if you're really looking for someone and you're really serious about it, definitely would give Rory a you know call and look him up and be like, hey, well, I don't know about calling him a bit, you know, message him if he likes he's usually on the air. So he might interrupt his podcast, but maybe message him and say, Hey, um, you know, what what do you have? Because he's really good at that. And he also does speaking. So which he's he didn't you just start, how long have you been doing the speaking, Rory? You want to tell us about that?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I appreciate that. I've been speaking for um uh about 15 years. Um, took a little break, obviously, during that wonderful COVID stint. Um, and that's when you know we went towards uh Zoom calls and things like that, and of course, more into podcasting. But yeah, I've been doing speaking for a long time. Um, I started coaching speakers uh instead of just doing the speaking myself, and then I coached uh and and spoke at small groups. So I've been doing a lot of small group speaking. Uh my goal for 2026 is to get back on a bigger stage. So that's uh I'm pretty sure I told you that. So uh that that's a big deal for me. But you know, I do want to um say, first of all, you didn't spend$10,000 with me. So don't let anybody else get the wrong.
SPEAKER_02:No, I didn't. No, I didn't.
SPEAKER_01:But uh, but yeah, you at the very beginning, especially, you were um just anxious, you know, because you had been through some things before and you were like, yeah, you know, am I really gonna get this done? And I appreciated the fact that you trusted me and said, Look, I'm I'm gonna trust one more person, I'm taking one more flyer on this, you know, and we're gonna get this done. And you did. So I've always um considered that a blessing that you decided to trust me, like with your last shot at trusting anybody. And I am just uh thrilled to death that it worked out. You have five shows now, you know, that you're a part of. That's amazing for somebody who literally was texting me through Messenger at three o'clock in the morning, and not only texting me, but needing a response, like a pen. And and I loved that because I was like, What is this?
SPEAKER_03:I mean, I'm up and you were awake, that's what freaked me out. I did not know you were gonna reply back. I thought oh, you should be irritated with me and he replied.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and then she's like, Whoa, I didn't mean for you to reply. I'm like, send me a message. But thank you for all that, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So don't do me, don't do like me, like you'll give me advice and I'll fully forget it. So don't do me. Do what I'm saying. Not as I do, right? Right. Don't don't do me, don't learn from me, because you know, we'll see.
SPEAKER_01:But thank you for all that. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, no, we're we're uh we're excited uh that you are you've been our first guest on the show. This is a dream of mine to always have a guest and a co-host, and I have two of the coolest people that I can ever ever ask for uh to be on the show and to be my host, co-host. Um, and uh, you know, um I want us to um like you said, 2026 is gonna be a goal where I think the compass is going to be going into more of a not a serious thing, but more of a conversational more than just uh talking about Batman or anime, or I think there's other parts of that that we can encompass into everything, and I think what we're doing today is a big part of that because that's how we communicate also in fandom. We talk, we have Instagram pages, you know, you have followers, you have people like me with anime, I follow certain anime pages, and that's how I get all my information from, and I share that. So I see you know that as well. But um, so another question for both of you. So when you first got on social media at all, like when you first ever like how crazy was it for you? Like, how hard was it for you to get your foot in there or to feel comfortable in that space? Because I'm trying to let people know that don't be scared, just go in and say hello. You know, sometimes that's all it takes, but how do you guys, you know, anyone can answer that?
SPEAKER_04:So well, I'm starting to feel like I'm back in the dinosaur ages because you've uh uh you brought up my space. So we all know where we all started, right? With the stuff, the dial-up on the computer and the waiting 15 minutes thinking it just was never gonna work. And yeah, I mean, that's when social media started. But um, I think the the the area that was big for me is when we started texting one another, you know, when our phones started changing and we started getting conversations, but then we couldn't we couldn't correlate between are they are they happy or are they mad? Are they are they serious or are they playing around? Like you couldn't read a person's conversation, but now I think I've gotten pretty good at it, except for now the language, you know, with the younger generation, they make up all these words like sus and whatever. And so I'm like trying to figure out the new language. My grandkids say a word, and I'm like, what I asked him the other day, I go, I asked him, I said, What is what is the other word you use for cool? He goes, Well, it ain't rad. And so so I'm getting educated with my texting skills when I'm texting my grandson. He's like, What are you trying to say, grandma? You know? But I've learned a lot over the years how to distinguish people's tones. in in their conversations and it's like you have you have to really be careful with what you say and you have to learn how to use your words in a in a way to where you're not effectively hurting someone's feelings because you're trying to like I'm right I'm kind of like to the point and people say I'm too blunt sometimes and I'll be like no I'm just trying to get to the point. Like I'm not trying to be rude you know I'm just trying to put it out there and not waste all your time. And so I have to be really careful in the way I verbalize things because I don't want people to be offended. So I think social media from the start to finish I I think I've gotten better at recognizing like how I speak and how I come across and how other people come across to me. I don't automatically go, oh my gosh, they're mad at me or why why are they upset all of a sudden or whatever. I can kind of go, I can kind of read into it a little bit better than what I used to and not get so worried about it. And if I have a concern I ask hey or hey are you okay or is are you upset or you know instead of just assuming because right off the bat we assume someone is something you know and so social media has taught me that even in even even in generalization with my own family I've learned to and it probably got taught through social media is to not assume a person's the way they actually are what they're saying and how they're coming across and how they're feeling to assume it's one way if it could be another. And I think that's one thing social media has has helped with but as far as starting up for me I mean my my English professor told me in college that I was really terrible at grammar so I'm pretty sure everyone loved being on social media with me because I did not know how to do any of those short abbreviations or any of that for a long time. And I started learning them and um as I you know it's funny how you use all those short terms. Kind of like when you're um in the courtroom I feel like I don't think I could be a short hand. Yeah I don't think I can do it so but yeah I learned a lot I mean it does teach you but and you do learn a lot from it but um I wasn't I was never scared of it I was more excited I was more excited because I got to you know reach out to more people I think for me but I never thought about it back then as a business like I do now. So now my thinking is a little different if that makes sense. Right, right sure how about you Rory what how was your experience?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah for me it was um it was a little bit little different because uh the reason I got on it was uh because I was a coach uh I coached youth sports forever um and you know little league and um uh you know uh basketball when they were younger track and field their whole lives baseball forever football um all that stuff and so my boys did all that stuff my daughter did a bunch of it too so I was always coaching and so that it social media became a great way to communicate to the team to you know highlight players and stuff you know and all that so I got into it that way and then I quickly became that dad that like all the other dads are annoyed by because I'm always posting all of my victories for you know my kids and you know oh man you know my my older son did this you know ran his best time and you know did that and had the five sacks and an interception of the game and you know blah blah blah and I'd be posting a picture of it and talking about it and you know I wrote it up like it was some big dramatic news release and yeah everybody's like okay they'd like it but you know I could just tell they were like enough about your kids man just enough about your kids we know you think they're great you know move on so I became that guy um but from the get go I viewed social media as a place to uh motivate other people I've always done that you know I've been a speaker forever I've been a coach forever and so I always kind of took it that way you know and so I was one of those guys early on that was sending out motivational pictures you know and uh with the the tags on the bottom that you know kind of make you you know go yeah that's what I'm talking about you know and um and all that so for me it was just it was fun it was a great way to communicate you know all the awesome things my kids were doing and um and to stay in touch with the teams so it was positive uh very positive most of the time and then um my business was real estate you know when all that was coming out and I owned a you know a very large real estate company and um so we quickly started using social media before anybody else in our area was using it for real estate purposes you know to market the agents to build the branding everything else so for me it kind of happened naturally I was already on it I knew what it could do I made my agents do it taught them how to do it you know everything else so from the get go I think I've been teaching people how to do this which is a little I didn't really think about that till just now I've been doing this for a long time you guys yeah so yeah that's amazing that's that's that's awesome that's awesome I um I think when I got on it um well first I got because I'm curious I'm one of those people that need to know what's going on like what makes that tick so when I heard first heard about Facebook I was like what is Facebook like what the heck is all these kids are and from there you know you you you go down like they say into everything you start to MySpace and YouTube and all these other social media um and like you said uh you know when you first start out you start out as a you know a fun thing and then I realized that well this is not who I am now but when I was before the person I was before and my social media present I was in big nest I was one of those trolls I was one of those people that would love to light you up I I'm a good I honestly I'm a good talker I'm a good I can pretty much make you think that you know your eyes are blue when they're green.
SPEAKER_00:You know I can I can kind of you know I'm very good at reading people which is weird. Even my therapist goes that's kind of crazy but and I can manipulate that way and and I say that not out as a boast but I say it as a warning of to people that you can become that you can become that type of person where you know you think that all you say is valuable it's interesting it's you know you my whole point in the beginning was how can I make this person stumble? Like how can I make them say the wrong thing or get them heated up because then that would make me start a conversation with them because there are people that I used to see that just talked a lot but never made a point. So I would push them to make the point man you're just babbling. Oh let's let's get to the meat or if I hear someone babbling and saying garbage I'll just tell straight out like nah bro these are the facts or I don't think you're right and it would get people heated but it would get people engaged. That was my way uh but also like you said there are trolls out there that that's all they do that's it that's their job period let's see how many comments can I get on this person that they can keep commenting on me because whoever the comments they're gonna go on that person's page to see who that person is that means they're gonna view your page that means they go on your page and if they like what you say they're gonna follow you. So in a way you like uh Roy said you're helping them grow their craziness by leaving either that up there or even answering back now for me it's very hard not to answer back. It's extremely hard not to say something uh not negative but to just tell them like yo listen but thank god God has given me a little bit of wisdom a little bit of patience and thank God for mental health therapy that I cannot get crazy with them on because some people and you guys know that there can be people that just get under your skin and you're like oh man if it wasn't for Jesus boy I'd go to jail you know things like that like you know so I see I see where I've grown from that where now I just really want to be you know the most positive person give people the best but I also want to be the realist I want to tell you exactly what I'm thinking what I'm feeling and what I don't understand and why I don't understand it. I will never just say I wouldn't agree with you. I'll tell you why I don't agree with you and then please explain to me how I can understand what you're saying. That's my whole vision in this whole podcast social media world I just want to have civil discourse with as many people as I can to learn as much as I can about the human people and to show God's love. And I think social media has been a big impact for all of us um again um I want to thank everyone for being on Rory I you rock bro thank you so much for being on my show on our show my bad I still gotta get used to it don't mind me I still gotta get used to it uh it's only our third show together which is a lot of fun three yay um Rory so if you want to just tell people what where they can find you or your links and then we'll set that up in in the show notes when we're done but just let people know where they can reach you they can talk to you and then after that Mickey you also I want you to share what you do what you have planned all your other stuff so that you can share that as well and I'll close out at the end. So Rory take it away by prayer.
SPEAKER_01:I appreciate that man and it's been great being on talking to both you guys and you know reminiscing about some of the stuff too so um do you have time for me just to mention my podcast names is that okay yes do all you this is all you know I appreciate it I do have seven podcasts so I hope folks will go check out at least one of them depends on what fits for you they're all very different. So I have Power of Man podcast helping husbands and fathers to be better men tomorrow than they are today. I've got the podcaster nation which is for any podcaster out there who wants to you know hear podcasting tips, stories from behind the mic so on and so forth. Wake up the lions which is for Christians to come on and share their testimony and encourage others to do the same. The fourth one is Step Up to the mic which is for aspiring and current speakers to bring their message out and actually do their talk uninterrupted for the world and then they have a link that they can use to go get speaking jobs. I have one called the right path which is W-R-I-T-E Right Path it's highlights authors but more importantly than the book is the story behind the book with the authors that come on. I have one that is called um Real Talk for Realtors with the number four in there Real Talk for Realtors where we highlight realtors around the uh the country and talk about different um you know things that they do to uh help their business and then finally we uh have uh one that I co-host with uh somebody that you guys probably both know I know Mickey does uh I co-host with a lady named Brandon Lynnette and uh it's called uh Boiling Point Faith and Fire and it's a political podcast that is faith based and so uh those are my seven look them all up if you're trying to reach me I am really simple go to Facebook uh slash Instagram same thing really at RoryPacet names on the screen right there at RoryPotket all one word you can find me on Facebook or Instagram and all you need to know about me my podcast everything I do is all on those feeds so come look me up would love to help anybody who needs the help in any of those ways thank you I would that's that's amazing uh Mickey take it away well thank you for that and we're again glad to have you on our show um I do have five podcasts this being one of them this is um I actually co-host um three shows and have two well I have guests on my Crushing Stormholes podcast um but I do also do solo episodes on there and then I have a solo episode on for Until my watch is over which is for people that have dementia um whether you're a caregiver um you are struggling with it yourself or you just want to find out awareness about it um you can come on the show and talk about about it you can learn from it and uh you can watch it and we have truth be told and that is a gal that I went to the academy with and um she is super super knowledgeable in the Bible.
SPEAKER_04:I love listening to her because she really understands she does a lot of studying and um she's really fun to do a podcast with and then we have this podcast which is a lot of fun too and then my friend Trish and I have our podcast but um Crushy Strongholds was the first one I started and it is a faith-based um podcast where I just want to encourage people to um overcome obstacles or strongholds that hold them back from God's given purpose because I feel like um we all could go that extra mile sometimes we just have something holding us back. We have to figure out what that is we have to get to the root of that. And so I do coaching with that um podcast and um I have a lot going on with that different types of coaching sessions that you can get with me through crushingstrongholds.com that's how you can find me on that one. And then of course uh the Compass Chronicles um with Javier um you and you post that information so yeah it's all exciting a lot of stuff on social media that's awesome I mean I'm excited for all everything I like I want to be involved in everything I want to be a host a guest on all the shows that's just I love being guests on all the shows um for me um as you guys know I have my compass chronicles podcast which has been my baby for the last couple of years I have what we call I have a bunch and Rory knows and Mickey knows I have so many plates I I use I have you know everything is under Grace and Grind Ministries uh I have my uh podcast um also I have a music studio image creation it's called the Sasquatch Syndicate studio uh where we do music uh we are on Spotify we are on anywhere you find music just look up Sasquatch Syndicate and we have so many bands any type of music you like from praise and worship to thrash metal I have on there all faith based all positive nothing negative uh I also uh gonna announce it here and I've been announcing it everywhere I'm I I'm looking to start a new podcast called hymns to headbangers which is to I want to talk to people who are in the music industry in the Christian music industry or anyone that's a praise and worship leader uh anything like that that's in the music field and I'll talk about where Christian music has come from where it's a hymnal to where we have thrash metal hardcore metal core Christian music which I truly love but that's you know I want to meet those people and I want to be able to you know show people that too so that's in the works now um looking to see how to get that started um but you can find us uh at uh braceandgrindministries.com you will see everything there from the podcast to the books I've written to the studio to the uh I have devotionals I have one for anime fans and one for people who love comic books so but it's all to show God's love and to show people that Christ is real and that you know his foundation is what we stand on.
SPEAKER_00:So I want to thank everyone for joining us for watching us for listening to us having the patience to be with us we thank you don't forget to like subscribe and share and we will see you on the next one and I think the next one's gonna be even cooler. So stay tuned. Take care. God bless
