Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hello. Welcome to the Money Adjustment. I'm your host, Dr. Mark Kramer, D.C. i am a chiropractor who loves investing and trading. Are you interested in what's moving markets and your money? Great. Me too. Let's get started.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: All right, listener, so you want to start a podcast, huh? It's a great idea, right? But then you're like, wait, how do I actually make this thing happen?
[00:00:31] Speaker C: Yeah, that's the question, isn't it?
[00:00:32] Speaker B: That's exactly what we're diving into today.
[00:00:34] Speaker C: I am so ready for this.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: We're going behind the scenes with this one, peeking into the creation process in a really unique way.
[00:00:41] Speaker C: Ooh, I like that.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Our source material today, it's actually excerpts from the transcript of another podcast called the Money Adjustment.
[00:00:50] Speaker C: Very meta, right?
[00:00:51] Speaker B: And what makes this so cool is that the podcaster is actually documenting their journey in real time, like as they're figuring things out.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:01:01] Speaker C: So we're getting the raw, unfiltered version.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: Exactly. We're not just getting a polished how to guide. It's like we're right there in the trenches with them as they navigate the ups and downs of building something from scratch.
[00:01:11] Speaker C: That's going to be super valuable for our listeners, whether they're aspiring podcasters or just interested in the creative process in general.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: Totally. And you know what? We might even learn a thing or two about finance along the way, since that's the focus of the Money Adjustment.
[00:01:24] Speaker C: Right? It's like a two for one deal.
[00:01:26] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:01:27] Speaker A: Today is Monday, December 30, 2024. There's something comforting for me about stating or writing the date.
It's meditative. It anchors me to the present moment.
And when I add time, for example, it's now 3:05pm Eastern Standard Time or Eastern Time, and anchoring myself to the date and time helps to ground me. Let's just say that.
So I didn't even want to record today. I haven't actually wanted to record in a while. I think I must be on that part of the journey where it's becoming more challenging to actually sit down to do the recording part. Not so much because the recording part bothers me, but I know after I record, there's a sequence of events that have to occur, including editing, posting, creating content to help promote promoting. And so even though I don't mind hitting record and just talking, the thought of the work, the thought of the work that's about to follow slows me down. So I'm at this stage of development where I'm either going to break through Or I'm going to break down. So if I break through, breaking through would just be continuing the course that I'm on, continuing to produce podcast episodes, continuing to interview guests, continuing to look at charts and do technical analysis, continue trading. There's a lot of things to continue which I'm going to continue whether this podcast continues or not. But in the meantime, I hit record. And that's actually how I just got myself to sit down and do this is I got rid of the planning, I got rid of the ideas that I had. And I just said, you know, hit record and start talking and see what comes out and what you feel compelled to talk about.
So we had the holiday this past week. I was off all week. It was a very unusual feeling because I was off from work, but I was full duty dad dad mode. So it was a lot of watching my youngest. And there was also a number of parties, a lot of social events, more social than I am typically. And I was actually excited to get back to work today. I'm one of those people. I just, I like to work. I'm in my comfort zone when I'm working and I do a lot of different things. So my work isn't always the same thing or what I consider work right now. This podcast is a hobby. It's not profitable. I don't have anything to sell you. You notice I don't talk about any sponsors or anything like that. This is basically me having an outlet to express myself and some of the things that I'm interested in. And it seems that the things I'm most interested in currently have to do with the stock market and investing and trading, including various assets such as cryptocurrency. But amidst all of the celebratory festivities this past week, I had a little bit more time to go through some of my social media and I came across something on threads that someone shared with me. I think it was in October of 2024 and it was letting me or it was asking me, are you this Mark Kramer? And it was a picture of or a screenshot of an X page that looked very similar to mine, except this arc Kramer had two R's after the K.
So it wasn't just M A R C K R a M E R. It was M A R C K K R R A M E R. And so they just changed the one letter and took out my identity. And they didn't even just replicate my page on X. Formerly Twitter. They took my content from Instagram and created a whole Persona of me, which was similar to my Persona because they used video content, so it's definitely me talking.
But they added that I'm Christian, which I am not. I have nothing against Christians, obviously. I'm just that's not how I was raised. My wife is Catholic and we did go to church this past Christmas. So that's like a story for another time. This isn't about my religious affiliations, but that was what was unique to my clone on X is that they were Christian. And they also kept some of my prior bio which included six figure switches, Swing trader and I've recently shortened my bios down to host in the Money Adjustment. And I think that I'm focusing in on the podcast in particular is because this is the one space where I feel really open to express myself for whatever reason. And I feel like if I have this sanctuary to land, then all of the extraneous stuff that happens outside of this is pretty much just noise and food for the cat past. That being said, family is my priority. My health is my priority. So health, family, what I do professionally and this podcast. So if you're an all in mindset and I you think I should leave my family and quit my job and just go all in on this podcast that makes no money, yeah, that's not going to happen. So in the meantime, for those people that are still listening, I do hope to provide value by talking through what a living, breathing real life, a real person in this world is dealing with financially. And so I've had mixed experience in my personal financial life, throughout my financial life, both in business and personal, and through those experiences you live and you learn. And my reckoning was in 2008 and I have climbed a very long and arduous, arduous road back to some financial stability and growth.
So growth gets tricky in the sense that I've invested in certain things over the last few years that are going to be long term plays. So the return on those investments is yet to be manifested. And beyond that, I do manage some longer term portfolios, including traditional assets like stocks. And those are doing well. Those are doing well. I don't know, whoever's listening may or may not be in a similar situation financially, but that's my point of this podcast on money is not to tell you how to get to a million dollars or a billion dollars. I haven't done that, not the billion dollar part, so I wouldn't have any credibility to tell you that. Anyways, I'm actually following some people now trying to figure out how that psychology but the money Adjustment is more just about the psychology of money and how we think about our financial challenges. One thing personal for me over this last year is I'll give some context for this. Malia and I went on a holiday this past weekend and it's basically we went to a hotel downtown. My oldest watched my two youngest and Malia and I got to get out for a night, have a dinner and stay at a hotel. We had other huge plans for Christmas that didn't kind of play out the way we imagined, which was totally fine. But this holiday was awesome and it was what we both needed. And the only reason I'm giving you the context of the holiday is because on this date we discussed what our financial goals are moving into the new year. And one of the things I've come to realize over this past year, spending literally countless hours, but if we're going to count them, let's just say 10 to 15 hours a week outside of everything else that I'm doing to educate myself on investing in multifamily properties. And I would say that's the biggest one and also seven figure sales. So chiropractors, the adjustment is not a seven figure sale. So I've never had to sell anything that was seven figures. I, I honestly am taking this course more due to intellectual curiosity. But if the opportunity ever presents itself to sell something that's seven figures, that could be interesting. That's not the leg of my journey that I'm ending at right now. Anyways, I'm digressing a little bit all over the place here. Let's go back to the holiday. The reason I brought that up is I am looking at managing my portfolios like putting my financial attention, bigger challenges that people experience financially like retirement. And actually I'm focusing on the retirement aspect because long term also you have to think about your child's education.
And my partner and I of 20 years have developed, as I think most long term partnerships do, managing what we manage. And together it seems to work. At least it's work for 20 years. And we have hopefully more than that ahead of us.
But what I'm getting at here is on this date we were talking about what we're thinking about financially and for her, she's thinking about her own practice and I'm just thinking about how to grow our wealth. And for a lot of years we've been putting money back into education and now we're getting to a place where we can make bigger decisions based on the education that we actually both have. We're both doctors and doctorate level education. And yeah, I guess that's kind of a digression too. Anyways, she wants to focus on business and I want to focus on investing in trading, which is what I, what I like to focus my money mind on. So let's say we have this money mind and it's an area of our brain that recognizes the importance of money and tries to make or take calculated risk. Because you have to take risk to grow your wealth. Even if that risk is starting a business or a risk in terms of taking a position in a company or buying a certain, buying real estate. So all of life is some degree of risk and you decide what type of risk level you're comfortable with. I am, for better or worse, I have a very high risk tolerance.
I think that's why I've ventured out a lot on my own. And even with my trading, although I may, I consider myself a six figure trader because my trades will be over $600,000, not $600,000. I'm sorry, there'll be over six figures.
I'm not saying I'm making that much money on each of those trades. I'm just saying I take those size positions and my, my risk tolerance on those is, is much smaller than six figures. If we're going by risk tolerance, it's probably four figures, five max. And then.
Yeah, wow. I'm tapping into all areas of the brain and that's what happens when I just free think like this and don't have something planned out for you. I think that's one of the reasons I like the podcast format. It seems to be liberal with regards to not having to have like this calculated structure. I know with YouTube it's, you have to tell them what you're going to tell them and then tell them and then remind them what you told. Like there's this whole architecture to doing a YouTube video correctly and there's people that are excellent at all this stuff. I am, I am not in a position to make that my priority at this time. I more want to just have a conversation, express some things that I'm trying to figure out and connect with other people who are figuring out similar things. I don't know how much of this is actually going to be salvageable. So did I finish my train of thought on the date with regards to Malia and my date? She is going to focus on what she needs for her business and I'm going to focus on what we need to manage with regards to the equity on our partnerships. So yeah, fun stuff, right? But we actually. That was so weird. Yeah. But we actually really did have a great date and it was super recharging for both of us. Both of us. And the fact that we are still in such a deeply intimate relationship this many years and I guess that's part of the perks of being in a long term relationship.
It's great to just reconnect and feel like you're with somebody new even though you're with the same person. So I hope that makes sense somewhere in there because I'd like to hold on to that part. That was sweet.
Wow. I really veered off. I think I was just talking about last week. So last week we had the holiday and the other thing that I started talking about, which was a bigger thing going on, is this person who assumed my identity on X. And I found I could have known about this in October had I been watching my social media a little bit more diligently. But I, I mean, I'm focusing, my attention is split right now. If I was trying to make money on the back end of this, I would have to take the risk of hiring somebody to do. To do some of the workload or I would have to. And I'm not in a position to do that but. Or have to readjust what I'm doing. And I mean, just saying it out loud. I know my reservation is I'm so deeply embedded into what I do professionally that I can never see veering from that path. I'm just going to till the day I die. But one of the things that I've managed to do with it is consolidated into a period of time that I can manage effectively and get my work done and meet everybody's needs and still have some time to pursue other interests that I have outside of my vocation. My job. Yeah. So back to this guy or girl or who knows at this point, whoever created this page on X, it wasn't so much that they copied my identity and used all of my content without my consent to create this Persona. It was maybe two things. One thing, they had 11,000 followers. Now I, for context on my x page have 300. Less than 300 followers. That just shows you how engaged I am on X. I try to be. At the beginning of the year, actually I had less than 100 followers. So really I doubled my. I tripled my following. But when you're starting from such a small base, that's not hard to do.
But again, I digress.
This person who I think adopted my Persona in August of 2008, or not 2008. Geez, August of 2024.
Because that's when they started posting tweets on there, even though the account itself was open since 2013. So I don't know if they switched from a different name. I don't know the logistics in that. But it was weird to be cloned in general because I'm not a. Although a lot of what I share is public, I'm not necessarily a public Persona. So it was weird to have someone copy me. Like I've seen a lot of celebrities be copied. But that being said, and this is really, this is. This was the problematic part is I know they've been soliciting other people on X since August, probably DMing them and pretending to be me. I don't even think anybody's listening to this because I know what my numbers are in the background of this podcast and they're modest at best. But if that one person listening.
Yeah, it's such, it's such a weird place to be in because like I said, I'm not a personnel, I'm not a known personality. So to talk about where I'm at in the stage of things and my level of interest seem. Feels strange to me. But, but digress, digress, digress. So yeah, I hope any of the people, I hope people just don't fall for this kind of stuff in general. I just assume because I don't do business with people who just DM me. I, I definitely am a face person when it comes to finances. So I hope people didn't send this person money or I don't know how that end of it works. Anyways, I lodged a complaint with X publicly on X and I reached out. The person who took my identity actually blocked me, so I couldn't contact them in any way. But I was able to tag them in tweets and I saw people they replied to and mentioned them to at least bring attention to what was happening. And to X's credit, the account was deactivated, I want to say within 48 hours.
So I think that was. That impressed me actually, because I was thinking, oh, this is going to carry out until 2025. But it didn't. Everything was very expedited. So kudos to the team at X. Yeah, so it was weird having this clone that was better than me, not better than me, more popular than me, larger number of followers than me and had a product. They were actually at least trying to sell you something. So for all those people out there looking for the freebie, it's great. You, you Want to consume free content. That's how you can start getting comfortable with people. But if you want change, I mean, the people that facilitate, I can at least speak for myself. The people that made change in my life charged me a lot of money for it. A lot of money. And I think, like, I include my chiropractic education in that. So this long history of chiropractors. And it's not just chiropractors. Like, I look at the history, you go back to Hippocrates, and he's referenced by Plato. And the way that Plato references him is the physician that's under the tree collecting money for what he's teaching. So that's why I think there's been a long history of doctors just being financially successful because it's in the historical records that has been the case. Modern history would suggest mixed results, maybe on that end, and depending on what your specialty is. And now the level of competition, because it's not just medical doctors competing with medical doctors, but it's anybody who took a weekend course competing with everybody. So it's kind of a surreal world out there yet again. Another digression. I'm in a digressive mood today. This is the kind of stuff that happens when I shoot from the cuff. Like I said, I hope some of this makes it and it's worthy of some mention. I guess if you're someone who's following me or listening to these and you're interested in money, and I'm definitely interested in money. So I don't want it to be. Want you to think like you're going to get on these and just hear me do these kind of episodes all the time. But in terms of the money aspect of it, the person who cloned me really got me to think. I even reached out, like, publicly and said, would you do the podcast? And I was kind of tongue in cheek with that. But I was thinking, I want to pick someone's brain who knew what. What to do with my content to get followers and likes, just basically using mostly me and then adding in whatever BS they were selling inside. But I'm curious.
I know it can be. I know some of it is not even that complex. I've seen so many ads. I'm sure if I dished out a few hundred dollars a month, I would have followers up the wazoo.
But I'm not. Again, honestly, it's funny. It comes back to the money. Right now, as a hobby, I'm funding this podcast on my own. I'm paying for all the logistics that go into publishing a podcast. And it's in a budget that I feel comfortable with for a hobby. But in terms of sustainability, I would have to start considering how would I monetize what I'm doing here. And if anybody's listening to this, reach out to me. I don't know if people realize how accessible I am. If you're a real person and you reach out to me in an authentic way and connect with me on something that shows me you're really paying attention to what I'm putting out there, then I want to talk to you. I mean, you're exactly who I want to talk to. And even when I did this podcast, I hired a coach to get me going. So I spend money on these things. I don't mind spending money if someone can show me the light on the other side. And I, I with regards to the podcast and monetizing it, if someone has a light on the other side and wants to pitch me something, reach out to me on LinkedIn or X or, I don't know, those are probably the best ones. LinkedIn and X. If you're just gonna try to get a hold of me through social media. So to summarize, it was a holiday week last week. Spent a lot of time with the family. In fact, the 90% was family and joy.
Honestly, like 99%. I love my life. So to me it was all joy and even something that would be on the outside perceived as unfavorable. I was able to see what is interesting about it and lessons to learn from it. And so there was a little bit of that. And Malia, I keep saying the word holidate because I never heard it before. Malia's got this whole holiday planned for us and it was super fun. Yeah, that was roughly 30 minutes. So however long this video is when you're listening to it, or however long this podcast is when you're listening to it is minus whatever I edited out. So if you are going to follow me, I want people to follow me on the podcast. I want to see those numbers go up first. And if I see interest in the podcast because it's a two way street. Part of the reason I haven't monetized this yet or pushed in that direction is because I don't know, I want to do it. I don't want to monetize it for monetary purposes. I already have things that I do for money. I want to monetize it to sustain it and create some value.
And that value has is a two way street. I want to create something for you. My hopefully in this podcast in particular, can feel my authenticity and seeing that reciprocated by the algorithm in the sense of numbers and likes and followers and all that stuff, that in modern times, if you're putting yourself out there in any way, you have to think about those things. Looking forward to being with you all in 2025. Two more days left this year, and we'll see. We'll see if I can get even another episode out before the new year. All right, take care, everybody. See you on the next one.
[00:25:34] Speaker C: Okay, before we wrap up this whole deep Dive, I want to circle back to something the podcaster said that really resonated with me. He talked about how everyone's problems, no matter how big or small, tend to fall into these three main categories. Health, money, and relationships.
[00:25:48] Speaker B: It's like the trifecta of human experience, right?
[00:25:51] Speaker C: And I think what's so brilliant is how he ties those universal themes back to his podcast's focus on money.
It's a reminder that even the most niche topics can be connected to something broader, something that everyone can relate to.
[00:26:05] Speaker B: Absolutely. It's about finding that common ground, that shared human experience.
Okay, folks, it's time to wrap up this episode of the Deep Dive. Thanks for joining us on this exploration of podcasting. And remember, keep those creative juices flowing.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: Thank you for watching this episode of the Money Adjustment. If you want more like comment and subscribe, you can follow me on X arc Kramer until the next episode. Stay healthy and wealthy.
