Disruption Is The New Black: How To Rock Your Vision (Even If It’s Weird AF) — The Ruby Hour With Charleston’s First “Rage Room” Founder, Cole Wadsten
Going through a rough break-up? Angry at your business partner/printer/boyfriend/toy poodle named Alfred that keeps pooping on your brand new rug? Have an idea that's a little "out there" and you're scared to launch? Are you a millennial launching a business but you think you’re too young, too inexperienced, too _____ to launch your concept?
If any of this is hitting home, this episode is meant for you.
Meet Cole Wadsten, twenty-something millennial entrepreneur, innovator, and founder of The Break Room: Charleston's first ever "rage room."
What's a Rage Room, you ask?
It's exactly what you think it is -- A safe place where you go and smash shit. Choose your unique weapon of choice (crowbar, screwdriver, golf club, baseball bat-- you know, the things fantasies are made of) and then proceed to wail on items such as microwaves, box fans, china, TV's; even cars.
Offering Something A Little Counter-Culture In A Traditional Market
Now, I needn't remind you we're in good ole Charleston, South Carolina -- a land laden with rich Southern tradition and heritage (which overall is a beautiful, beautiful thing), but at times can come with an undercurrent of conformity. So we've got parts of our community still dripping with nepotism, small-minded thinking, and strong resistance to anything considered "different;" then we've got Cole Wadsten over here launching a business that freely encourages letting out not-so-southern-charming emotions while listening to Ludacris. Think he may have ran into a little resistance?
If you have a trail you're meant to blaze in your heart, this episode is for you.
Disruption Is The New Black: How To Rock Your Vision (Even If It's Weird AF) — The Ruby Hour With Charleston's First "Rage Room" Founder, Cole Wadsten
Low on time? Jump to the sections of the episode that appeal to you! Be sure to share in the comments your favorite take away!
1:00 How did The Break Room get started?
1:49 What exactly is a Rage Room?
2:40 What are the biggest take-aways
6:15 Why this doesn't encourage aggressive behavior.
8:42 Instrument of Choice- What you can choose to smash with
10:10 What are the responses from the public from opening a “rage room”?
11:25 How did this idea come about?
14:25 What other things are you up to?
15:10 How do you find and choose people to train who will facilitate the Rage Room?
16:45 The Key to running a tight ship- Don’t Be Weird!
17:50 “Don’t let your food get cold looking at someone else’s plate”
19:10 What is a moment in your life that has contributed most to where you are now?
21:00 Staying in your lane as a millennial: How to avoid getting caught comparing your life with your millennial friends
25:45 Being a twenty-something in 2020:
26:35 1990s Babies - How to cope with being in "young" and in business
27:49 The one question you should be asking yourself about running your business as a twenty-something year old.
31:00 Playing on Neopets in 2002 as a 12 year old compared to sexting in 2020
33:28 How being young in business is an ASSET, not a liability, and the power of picking up the phone
34:00 the most sought after skillset for the next generation's workforce
37:00 Ditching your phone in social situations, and mocktails: The lost social skillset and upcoming trends of the millennial generation
38:30 Why YOLO is bullshit: Stewarding your life well
39:05 What’s been your journey having a disruptive company in a culturally conservative market?
42:00 What advice do you have for someone who has their own disruptive idea?
46:30 How to find Cole Wadsten and Rage Charleston?
Visit The Break Room and schedule your smash party online or social -- @ragecharleston or on their website: https://www.tbrcharleston.com
Full Episode Transcription
Shelby Ring:
Welcome to The Ruby Hour, a podcast produced by our company, Ruby Riot Creatives. We specialize in video production and content marketing, and we're based in Charleston, South Carolina. I'm Shelby Ring.
Madeline Reagor:
And I'm Madeline Reagor.
Shelby Ring:
This podcast is devoted to interviewing extraordinary people doing extraordinary things, and nuggets of wisdom that they've learned along their journey.
Madeline Reagor:
Also, just wanted to give you a heads up, we have potty mouths and we're talking about inappropriate things.
Shelby Ring:
Thank you so much for joining us today for this Ruby Hour. I am here with the amazing Cole Wadsten. Cole, thank you so much for taking the time to be here today. This has been an episode I have been looking forward to for quite some time. Cole started a company called The Break Room. Let me just fill you in here, okay? This is Charleston's first rage room. It's a new attraction in the city offering individuals the opportunity to destroy things either for fun or means of stress relief. It recently made the cover of Post and Courier. Oh my gosh, Cole, how did this happen?
Cole Wadsten:How did it happen? It's all a blur to be honest with you. About a six month process, but it started in April. I'd had the idea years ago, but didn't have the means to bring it to fruition. Then one day I woke up and said, if I don't do this, somebody else will, so let's make sure it's done right. Yeah, here we are six months later.
Shelby Ring:
Okay. I have to break it down for people if they haven't seen the amazing promo video on y'all's website, which I've shown I don't know how many people at this point-
Cole Wadsten:
Thank you.
Shelby Ring:
I'm going to it tomorrow and I can't wait. It's an excellent birthday opportunity to go and break some stuff. You have these spaces set up with random shit, for a lack of better words. You've given people the opportunity to do that fantast experience of just pick your weapon of choice, and go to town and break some shit. Is that accurate?
Cole Wadsten:
Exactly. Yes. We keep it new and exciting so you don't really know what you're going to get. You pick a package, you could get a microwave, you could get a TV, you can get an oscillating fan. It always changes. We're actually about to start incorporating cars into the smashing.
Shelby Ring:
Oh my gosh, yes.
Cole Wadsten:
As well as paint rooms and stuff. It's fun because the sky's the limit as to what we can do. But yeah, you hit the nail in the head. You come in, you buy some shit, and then you go to town and we clean it up.
Shelby Ring:
Okay. I have so many questions. What has been the biggest thing when people are walking away from the experience, what's some of the big takeaways you've been hearing from people? Because it's like, okay, breaking stuff, are we going in there and we're getting angry? What's happening? What is it doing for people?
Cole Wadsten:
The takeaways are arguably the most exciting part for me because I try to be there as much as I can. I've got a full time operations manager, his name is Edwin. But I do try to be around as much as I can. For those people I'm able to witness them coming out, I usually ask them how they feel before they go in, then I ask them the same question when they come out. Almost every time it's like, their eyes light up, they feel great, they feel empowered. They just sweated a little bit, burned some calories, got some stuff off their chest. It's all very personal, so they don't have to talk to anybody. They just go in with, if they're dealing with something, they go in with it, and then they come out having manifested it and broken it, for lack of better words.
Shelby Ring:
That's amazing that it can be something that's playful. Obviously tomorrow, whenever I'm going, I'm going for a birthday event and we're doing a big group thing. But to tie it into something where if you are holding something, it's bioenergetics. You're moving a motion and charges that we can carry. It's a safe space to be able to let out anger, frustration, anxiety.
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah, that's spot on. You couldn't have said it better. I need to put that in my marketing. That's perfect. But yeah, it really is. On a surface level, it's something fun to do. But if you're the kind of person that sees the intrinsic value in it, the that's me level, then ... it works for everybody, which is the fun part. The only way it won't work for you is if you decide beforehand that I'm a mad person, I'm going to be mad, this isn't going to do anything, I'm getting dragged here, I'm not going to have fun. Those people.
Shelby Ring:
I feel like it's like, if you're ... I'm a very hot headed person. I have a lot of fire.
Cole Wadsten:
Me too.
Shelby Ring:
I'm very pita, pita personality for the Ayurveda practitioners out there. Even if someone was like, "Look, you know what? Your rage, all of this is through the roof. I need you to go break some shit and deal with this," I feel like even then, if someone was dragging me there, I'd have my little devil on my shoulder being like, "Yeah, you're going to break some shit, it's going to be good." I feel like I would be amazed if someone doesn't have a positive experience with coming in and just being able to have a good time, release. Do something novel, if anything else, that's something that, when are we ever allowed to ...
Cole Wadsten:
Never. Up until one of these comes to where you live, you're never able to do that ina controlled, safe space where you don't have to worry about anything. But it's such a multifaceted animal in itself. It's growing and it's changing. It's there to accommodate people like me, people like you. It's crazy. There's so much I can say about it, but it all comes back to the base point that it's something that we all need. It really is.
Shelby Ring:
Yeah. Prior to us recording, I had shared the, being someone where ... because I can already imagine people being like, "Wait, are you facilitating negative experiences? Are you encouraging aggressive behavior?" In my experience, working energetically with having something I'm holding onto, it's a great way to move through trauma. I've done work where I've been in a supported environment. If it's a punching bag on the floor, yelling, screaming, creating those releases, even though it's unorthodox, it's highly therapeutic. You're creating a space that is safe, and controlled and just all the way down. I love how thorough your website is around explaining you're coming into a safe space, and just the outfits that you are setting up for people to ensure you're not going to have any damages or anything. Being able to just, yeah, I want to break some china ... just let that release come out, and just be like, okay, cool, then bring it all back in. It sounds like a very grounding experience.
Cole Wadsten:
I would definitely say it is. It's one of those things where a lot of other rage room owners, because this whole industry is in its infancy. It's brand new for us in the United States. As it makes its way to the east coast we'll see more and more. But I think where a lot of people miss the mark is catering to those primal tendencies, and actually taking advantage of a vehicle that you can use at your disposal to process the shit that you don't want to talk to your best friend about, or maybe the beef you have with your best friend. But people come alone, people come in parties, people come for divorce parties, birthday parties. They come at their counselors recommendation, we've had family counselors come in. I can't tell you how many actual counselors and psychiatrists that have come in themself just to get the feel for it to see if they can send their patients there.
Shelby Ring:
Sure, sure.
Cole Wadsten:
It's been humbling for me that they entrust us to design this space that could accommodate something like that. But it's been really awesome and humbling to be in this role just because this is why we did this. It's cool to see the product delivered in month one. It's instant. We're not having to prove ourself, people just trust us.
Shelby Ring:
Yeah. On your website it mentions you can pick your instrument of choice to use. What are some of your things that you can use to smash some shit?
Cole Wadsten:
Right now we've got some baseball bats, of course. We've got a hand sledge, like an engineer hammer. It's just a small sledgehammer. We have some bigger sledgehammers that we're going to wheel out once we get the cars. We have golf clubs, crowbars.
Shelby Ring:
Yeah, the crowbar particularly stands out. It resonates with my spirit.
Cole Wadsten:
Oh, you're going to love it. We've got a yellow one.
Shelby Ring:
All right, it's got my name. Do you have a red one?
Cole Wadsten:
I can make it red.
Shelby Ring:
Okay. We'll make it happen. That's so much fun. I love the creativity around it. It's not just like, well, you can come in and you get your set of dishes to break. You're keeping it as something that is fresh. I'm from Austin, Texas originally. Every time I go back there, I'm amazed by the level of innovation and creativity that people are innovating from. It's inspiring. Yeah. The moment that I found out about you through Hatch Tribe, and seeing that Hillary and her crew had lined up a field trip for the community there, I was like, what? The rage room? I feel like maybe with a lot of people, if they hear about it, is there a lot of response of being instantly like, yeah, I'm all in? What are you finding with that?
Cole Wadsten:
That's a loaded question. It depends on the people. Some people just want to shake their finger at something. They'll be, "Oh, I don't know if it's a good idea." But usually it's like, "Yeah, tag my friends, Joe, Joe, and whoever, we've got to go check it out." What you were saying about the creativity element of it, this is, again, it's so new that there's no set code of how to run one of these.
Shelby Ring:
Sure.
Cole Wadsten:
In a business that's got no real infrastructure, why bog it down with a ton of rules that'll inhibit people whenever you can just make it as safe as possible and really let them have their own experience. It's not like kayaking or zip lining. It's totally a brand new animal.
Shelby Ring:
Oh my gosh, I know. Well, I run an Airbnb. We're always having people ask, "What should we do in Charleston?" I'm like, there is nothing more novel than go break some shit on your family vacation. Add it to the list. That's just such a fun offering. I'm really inspired by the creativity you guys are bringing to Charleston. How did this idea actually come about for you? Did you have a stressful day one day, and you were like, I think I should ... What happened?
Cole Wadsten:
Well, I don't think my days are anymore stressful than anybody else's. It was probably two or three years ago now, I'd first heard about them. I was like, man, that'd be fun. But there was nothing here and I didn't have the resources to pull one together. I just tabled the idea, forgot about it, went on about my business. Then this past spring, I was looking for additional revenue streams, things that I could sink my teeth into that I would enjoy, believe in, and could really push with my name behind it proudly. I was like, we got to get this going. Literally woke up with the idea. The only thing that really, I think, the call to action was I know the city. I've been here long enough now. I'm not a dick, I know the city. But I've been here for seven years. I've got a general vibe of what things are, what's coming, what things are going to be, the growth, Upper King, everything.
Cole Wadsten:
It's like, what do I know? What I know is that most of the attractions in Charleston are food and bev centric. Okay, what can we do that's a little different, not too far away, and can really just get people out of their shell? That's the truth is we're a disruptive company. We're disruptive, but in the best way, because we're really catering to peoples' weaknesses, but not in a predator prey situation. More like, here's your safety net, take advantage of it before you find yourself in dire straits, and your relationship is down the river, or you're in jail, or you broke your hand punching a wall, or you broke your coffee mug. Everybody's got a different story as to how they arrived there.
Shelby Ring:
Yeah. My dad likes to throw apples on the floor.
Cole Wadsten:
That's awesome.
Shelby Ring:
That's one of his moves.
Cole Wadsten:
Me and my buddy used to throw potatoes whenever I lived downtown. I don't really know why. It wasn't really an anger thing.
Shelby Ring:
Yeah, I threw some old tomatoes at a rotting car that was on the back of our property when I was a kid. I just thought it was there for me to throw stuff at, but I later found out that-
Cole Wadsten:
Old tomatoes?
Shelby Ring:
Yeah, it was from our garden. My dad heavily regretted my decision to throw a bunch of tomatoes at a really old car.
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah?
Shelby Ring:
But it felt good in the moment.
Cole Wadsten:
That's all that matters.
Shelby Ring:
I'm big on the release train of being able to have an outlet and have a way to-
Cole Wadsten:
Dispose of bad fruit.
Shelby Ring:
Yeah. Okay. With you, this is not the only thing that you do.
Cole Wadsten:
No.
Shelby Ring:
You've got a lot of moving parts in your life.
Cole Wadsten:
I'm a busy guy.
Shelby Ring:
What else fills your time?
Cole Wadsten:
When I'm not there, I'm at my other job. That's my full time gig. I'm a realtor with the settlement of Ashley Hall. It's a division of Carolina Holdings Group. We're building the neighborhood over I-526. It's the only waterfront property in Charleston, so that's pretty cool. It's a historic site too, which is nice. But to answer your question, you can find me there 10:00 to 5:00, and then 5:00 until whenever ... I go home to take care of the dog, and then 5:00 to whenever, it alternates every day, but I expect solid 10 hour work days every day.
Shelby Ring:
That is a long day. How do you find staffing? I know that this is something you're growing organically. How's it been working with finding people that you can train to facilitate these Break Room sessions?
Cole Wadsten:
Well, that's the thing too is, I use all of my ... let's put it a different way. I'm super specific as to who I bring onto the team because I want the experience that's being facilitated to be linear with how it would be if I was there. I only trust very certain people to perform that task. It's not easy to find people that can do that, that can be very personable while being professional, honest and responsible enough to run everything. It's like the quintessential person. Fortunately I have one and he's awesome. His name's Edwin. You can definitely find him there almost every day except for Tuesdays and Thursdays, we're closed on Tuesdays. But yeah, it's not easy because it's not like putting somebody at a counter to check you out. It's really having somebody curate this experience for you and shepherd you through it start to finish, and make sure you come out feeling better than you did when you went in.
Shelby Ring:
Yeah. No, that's a really specific role. I think that it's so cool to be a part of something like that. We do a lot of filming and we work with a lot of couples where we're filming weddings or ... I feel like a lot of our projects are very, they're person oriented. We're doing promos or what have you. So yeah, understanding that, I love how you use the word curate. You're curating an experience. From a filming perspective, our interviews or our wedding videos are only as great as how comfortable and at ease we can make people.
Cole Wadsten:
Right.
Shelby Ring:
So I love that. That's awesome that you have someone that's awesome, that you trust and that's on that wavelength that you're looking for.
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah. In vein with what you're talking about too, that fourth wall doesn't need to exist. Just rip it down. Be cool, don't be weird.
Shelby Ring:
Don't be weird.
Cole Wadsten:
We're just people doing stuff together. In a business or otherwise, it's all just in good fun, good spirit, good nature. That's what happens whenever you, I think, run an honest tight ship. The same way you do with the wedding photography and production, it's all just keep it as simple as it is. Let's not complicate anything.
Shelby Ring:
Yup, that's right. It's people oriented, and it's for people and it's by people.
Cole Wadsten:
Absolutely.
Shelby Ring:
You have a saying that I love, and I haven't heard it before. The moment I heard it, I was like, yeah. This concept of don't let your food get cold looking at someone else's plate. Tell me about that and how that's tied into your life experience.
Cole Wadsten:
Well, I wish I could claim credit for creating that. I heard it and it stuck with me. But I think it really sounds off in the sense that we so often, especially now in the age of technology, and everything is online and social media oriented, you guys scroll your feed and you've got friends in Thailand, and LA and Dubai. You're like, whoa, why can't I do that? It's not real. Really, that's not life. That's one person having an awesome temporary experience. But for the majority of us, we're living life, just trying to get through it.
Shelby Ring:
Eating a bag of chips.
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah, exactly. It's like, you and I sitting here right now, and somebody's out in the harbor. Don't take for granted what you have right now looking at what somebody else has across the table from you. It doesn't help you. If anything it puts you back further because then you're just like, oh, well, I want to achieve that. I have no means to, and no desire, no guidebook, no anything. The opportunities that you do have, you might throw away inadvertently wanting what somebody else has.
Shelby Ring:
What is a moment in your life that, when you can think of your trajectory, that you really recognize that in your journey?
Cole Wadsten:
There's been a ton. I think a lot of that contributes to where I am now. It was a call to action for me. It was a realization that I need to get off my ass and stop making excuses for myself as to why I haven't arrived at a certain destination yet, and just say, all right, how can I set myself apart? How can I get there and do it not by the book, but honestly. That has served me though 100%. I say it to myself every day. Because even now, we still have a lot of growing to do. We have a lot of plans for ourself and it's going to take time. But the one way that I can guarantee failure is if we take our eyes off what we're doing and start wondering how we can be like the guy next door or something like that.
Shelby Ring:
Yeah. And being able to stay focused and linear in figuring out what is it that you do very well?
Cole Wadsten:
Just one thing at a time. Really, it's as simple as that. You find one thing that's encompassing enough to really occupy you, and you just dive into it. Invest yourself. That's how I feel anyway. I feel like if you spread yourself too thin, everybody wants to do everything, right? But if you can do one thing really well, if you're just determined, and practice and stay on it, then eventually you'll land somewhere near where you want to be. Then you just hone it, sharpen your ax, you get there. The whole thing's a growing process. It's an adventure. I'm super fortunate to have grown from where I was in April to where I am now. Everything that we've accomplished, everything that we've gone through, everything that we've done, and by no means has it been a super strenuous situation. But like with anything, it's a lot of labor. I've got over 300 hours on just myself, not even to mention the team that's worked with me. 300 hours doesn't really sound like a lot until you realize that those hours don't start until 5:00 o'clock every day.
Shelby Ring:
Yeah.
Cole Wadsten:
It's insane. My word of advice on that would be if anybody has anything that they're tracking towards, just don't sideline it because somebody else has got a sports betting business that's doing extremely well, or they're a mobile car detailer and they're crushing it because they have no overhead. Go your own way, do your own thing.
Shelby Ring:
Enjoy your food on your plate.
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah, enjoy your food on your plate. There's no need to lose ground over ... it could be a friend, it could be one of your friends doing well, and you're like, oh, well, I could be great if I could do that well. You can. Just go decide to do it.
Shelby Ring:
Yeah, I love that you pinpointed that of the ... sometimes our biggest, it's one thing to do this social media scroll. We've talked with a couple of other guests around the black hole of the comparison trap we can get into with being in this digital age, and the #FOMO, if you didn't take a picture it didn't happen, all this stuff. When we see the people that we grew up with, or yeah, your buds, and you're just seeing something that's successful. But really, what was it behind the scenes for them?
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah, 100%. The people that really project themself the least are the most impressive to me because that just shows a level of commitment to what they're doing, because it's not for everybody else. It's for them. They're like, I need to see this through, I don't need to put progress pics up. If you're losing weight, you're getting into shape, you're eating healthy, that's amazing. But do it for you and not for everybody else. I'm a super firm believer in that. If you're proud of yourself and want to show your progress, great, but do it for yourself. At the core of your objective, it needs to be an individualistic effort and not a collectivist effort.
Shelby Ring:
I love the concept of when you get focused, and it's not being a jack of all trades in all the things, but doing one thing really well where it's an inch wide and a mile deep. Thank you, Hillary, I totally snatched that from you. And just keeping at it. I love the concept of just speaking too of, in our generation in particular, where we are inundated with this comparison thing of, yeah, the Thailand pictures of our friends or these peak pinnacle moments. I think I look like I'm on a yacht, actually, in the Caribbean right now, according to my personal social media, because I have not focused on it.
Shelby Ring:
It's like, what is real life? Real life is doing it for you. Doing the workouts, getting in shape. If you're posting your progress, then great. But then it has to be that solidarity, that's not the right word, but that, one, it's your own journey. It's not tying it into if you're doing it for a partner, whoever the powers may be, because as long as your happiness, that your fulfillment is rooted externally, you have no control over that.
Cole Wadsten:
The hard part about that, Shelby, is that everything has changed. Everything's changed from, let's just call it 2010 to now. Social media, it's such a foothold in human interaction that things will never go back to the way they were.
Shelby Ring:
Yeah.
Cole Wadsten:
Personal touch, communication will never be the same. The misinformation, the you can be this, you can get rich overnight, it's never been worse than it is right now. It's super hard on self image too. Not to go off on a tangent, but you've got 11 year olds with Instagrams that are seeing body positivity images and starting to think about their own sexuality. Where the hell did we get off on this crazy train? We've devolved to a different part of existence. When it comes to ... when you're in your mid 20s, you're in your 30s, you're trying to solidify your professional life, figure out tracking towards your career, it really just comes down to I think what am I going to do for me? Because nobody else is going to do anything for you ever. That's the one thing that I've been reminded of constantly doing this, I can't rely on anybody to get this stuff done. It's got to be me or else it won't get done. And it's got to be done right. That's what it's got to be by me. Anybody can pay anybody to do anything, but ...
Shelby Ring:
Yeah, it's growing that. I love this. I love that you're in my age bracket because typically a lot of ... I don't know, I feel like I'm always the baby in a lot of different spaces. I have this theory of, I've always been young to do a lot of stuff, and it's always like, "Oh, you're so cute, look at you with your cute business," whatever. I love that ... I had this aha moment of, all right, I'm a 1990 baby. I turn 29 next month. Tying in right now we're following ... actually, Billie Eilish is 17 and she's a big thought leader in music. Pop culture is being led by a generation younger than us I think mostly. Then we've got, on TV, we have people that are the generation a little bit older than us. Then I think that in terms of consumer buying power, our generation is coming into ... we're doing our career thing, we're racking up some cash, whatever. We're in that expansive phase.
Shelby Ring:
To think about, wait a second, there's girls right now that are 35, 40, like Beyonce, that era. She's crowning in what she's doing in her peak. I'm like, well, who the fuck's going to run the business empires and the whatever of our generation? I had this moment of why shouldn't it be me? Why not me? Instead of all these things of, well, I couldn't do that, or oh, someone's doing it better, or someone's already doing that. But identifying where you are in time and space I think economically of where you are in our workforce, it's the 1990s babies, everyone is coming into the workforce, coming into buying power, peak consumer weight. I think that it's really amazing if people can realize, oh, wait, no one's going to do this for me.
Shelby Ring:
I love that you identified a service niche here in Charleston of, wait a second, if I don't do it, it's a good idea, at some point someone else is going to materialize this. And stepping into that vision and blazing that trail, blazing your unique path.
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah. That's an incredibly accurate analysis on everything. Even our generation, the 90s babies, I think that in the next decade we're going to see a lot of cool things happen just because we're a weird intermediary generation in the sense that we've seen a lot of stuff. We've all been through a lot of stuff together. We haven't been around early 80s. We're not into it, into it. We're post crack boom, but pre 9/11. We exist in this weird space where we watched ... we knew what life was like to go play with your friends outside after school.
Shelby Ring:
Yeah. You got locked outside, and you're like, "Come home when it's dark."
Cole Wadsten:
It's sad because kids today, kids right now, they're on their phones outside. Or they're on their phones inside, but they're on their phones. Man, life was great whenever you had a little Nokia bar phone, and all you could do was call people and play Snake on it.
Shelby Ring:
And play T9, T9 texting.
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah, T9 texts. Yeah. That was the peak of existence, that was the pinnacle. That was what it was all about, just having a phone. But now it's like, if you don't have the iPhone 11, I don't want to be friends with you.
Shelby Ring:
Yeah, the latest and the greatest whatever.
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah, I'm going to bully you in school because you don't have three cameras on your phone, or your parents don't want to buy you this, or, yo, you're not smoking cigarettes when you're 14? You can't hang out ... it's crazy. But it just does affirm what you're saying about just the generational gap. I'm excited to see what happens between 2020 and 2030 with 90s babies.
Shelby Ring:
Killing it.
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah, killing it.
Shelby Ring:
We're going to be killing it. If I wanted to get on the computer when I was in middle school, it was our family Dell PC-
Cole Wadsten:
Dial up.
Shelby Ring:
In our computer room.
Cole Wadsten:
Broadband.
Shelby Ring:
I had to fight my brother to get a moment to play on Neopets. I had to find my moment of ... it wasn't like, oh, I have my own thing. If you wanted to find something dirty and Google it, number one, it wasn't saturated with all of the things. But now, kids are growing up with, you can access all of the dungeonous parts of society on this block of technology.
Cole Wadsten:
It takes away the mystique of life completely. There's no unanswered questions anymore. If you want to get really deep, kids can go on there and be like, is Santa Clause real? Childhood ruined. It's over right then.
Shelby Ring:
What? Google better have a whole division shutting down Santa Clause answers.
Cole Wadsten:
They should 100%.
Shelby Ring:
Censorship just for Santa and Easter Bunny and everyone else.
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah, just for Santa and Easter, just for American holidays.
Shelby Ring:
America ... no. No, it's true though. I think that too, the fact that ... I can only relate with my own life experience, but I feel like this is something that you carry as well of, if you are at the beginning, or you're a trailblazer in a friend group or in being an entrepreneur. Just in that journey to inspire people that it's like, yo, let's blaze our trails-
Cole Wadsten:
Let's blaze.
Shelby Ring:
Let's blaze, man. Just finding our niche and not being apologetic. That's been something that's been really rocking me for this year. I'm five years into filming here in Charleston. At this point it's staying relevant in the video production industry. It's taking pride, and not being apologetic that I am my age, and that I am young and I'm still making great videos that people appreciate, and enjoy and add value to their lives.
Cole Wadsten:
The reality of your situation and my situation is that because we're young, we've got more time to get better. If we're good now, if we're as good as somebody who's five years older than us, they need to be worried.
Shelby Ring:
Yeah.
Cole Wadsten:
We don't need to be worried about where we're going because we're going up.
Shelby Ring:
Well, now we've got TikTokers or whatever. We've got these people that know how to have three seconds of ... the minds, the brains of the next generation, that is another animal.
Cole Wadsten:
I'm just going to push this to the side for right now.
Shelby Ring:
The other world of this fast paced generation. But, okay, I feel like you'll appreciate this. I think that the greatest skillset in these upcoming generations is that for people that are so used to living on their phone and everything being in their phone, to walk into a job application process, look that person in the eye, shake their hand, make firm eye contact, and then have a real human conversation and know how to socialize well, I that the pendulum is going to swing from ... I know when I was in school it was all about learn tech skills, that's the up and coming, and also healthcare for baby boomers, because they're all retiring and all this process. But I think that for the upcoming generation that is so, oh, I can't sit in public without being on a screen, I'm not comfortable enough in my own skin to take in nature, take in a park, that I think that the skillset is going to be the ability to interact with people on a person to person level.
Cole Wadsten:
That's really funny you say that because when I was an undergrad I was a comm major, and not for lack of trying, but because I started poly sci and realized that politics ... we won't get into it. But shifted to comm because I realized how important it was and how fleeting that skillset was. I was like, people are, they don't know how to talk to each other. It has served me immeasurably. The joke's on them because people try to discount communication as something less than what it is. But I can't stress the importance of knowing how to deliver a message, and present yourself, and really identify who you are and be able to convey that to somebody.
Shelby Ring:
Yeah.
Cole Wadsten:
Because there's some spiritual journey stuff in there. It's not just study communication, learn who you are, but it is embracing it and ... I hate the word, but regurgitating it and becoming familiar with it. Yeah, learn how to talk. Learn how to communicate, interact, but not just superficially, but passionately. Because I can talk to you right now, I just met you, but it's the rapport, the conduct, like friends.
Shelby Ring:
Besties, that's why I started this podcast.
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah, there you go. But it's just not as contrived as people make it seem. Yeah, put your phone down.
Shelby Ring:
Yeah, because we're all so busy on social media. How about you develop your socializing skills in real life, not just your hashtag game?
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah. For a lot of people what that looks like is social media all day, and bars at night, and then social media all day and bars at night.
Shelby Ring:
Yeah. I'm a big fan of just having, my partner, he's had a journey of ... I'm very inspired of the whole turn of being sober curious, and to put yourself in sober situations where it's like, what if you can't fall back on either a phone, or even alcohol, or whatever your substance of whatever is? And to be able to still feel comfortable in your own skin.
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah. What's amazing is I went to an expo in California ... let's see, when was it? August. It was for food and beverage distributors and manufacturers. It's called the Flavor Experience. It's huge. All the upcoming stuff for the year gets rolled out then for Red Bull, and Impossible Meats, and Beyond Meat and all this other shit.
Shelby Ring:
Oh, wow.
Cole Wadsten:
Really cool to see and be there, but I was a fly on the wall because people that are going are brand representatives. They are CEOs, they are COOs. They're going to see what's new, see what's coming. The sober curious movement is coming. The fact that we're even talking about it here now just goes to show that it's going to really catch wind because ... mocktails are shockingly, there's a market for them and it's coming.
Shelby Ring:
Yeah. There's a couple places in Charleston that are ... there's one place on King Street right now that's doing mocktails and it's just nice. I'm a big kombucha fan, which oh my God, I sound like such a fucking hipster, kombucha. But it's just something that's like, what if I don't feel like stressing my liver out right now? What if I want to nurture myself? We go to our hot yoga class, then it's like, why do we got to party all night? I'm not going to look over there right now. Yeah, what are those options of this wellness, where being intelligent and recognizing, I don't think that ... I don't believe in so much of the, yeah, YOLO, you only live once so trash it up. How about, yeah, if you did in theory only live once, would you not want to steward that well?
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah, absolutely.
Shelby Ring:
I think these are those conversations. I so appreciate from an entrepreneur perspective of you're introducing something disruptive. You have a disruptive product offering in a market. What's been your journey with that? Just from taking it all in and where we are in the conversation at this point, how's that experience been?
Cole Wadsten:
As a disruptive?
Shelby Ring:
Yeah. You're in Charleston. Charleston has a background of being super conservative.
Cole Wadsten:
Super conservative, quiet and cultural.
Shelby Ring:
It's very by the book.
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah. That's, again, part of the reason I knew it would work is because people that live here, people that visit here, people that just moved here ... the southern culture, it's beautiful, it's who we are. But you need some disruption. You've got to break the mold, you've got to switch it up, you've got to step out. You've got to [crosstalk 00:40:05]-
Shelby Ring:
And you appreciate it.
Cole Wadsten:
100%, yeah.
Shelby Ring:
There's the roots of southern conservative culture, but I think if this was open in Austin, people would be like, "Oh yeah, that's cool." But it wouldn't even catch their eye. But you're in a ripe, the opportunity is there to be able to offer something that really has a big wake right now. It's something that's very unusual, yeah, in this market.
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah. Speaking of markets, one of our large target markets whenever we got involved was, I was thinking women have to have an unbridled level of stress that I don't know anything about. I anticipated a lot of female business, but we've probably done, nothing crazy, but probably a little over 200 people through the door so far. I will say for every man that's come in, it's probably been about 45 women.
Shelby Ring:
What?
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah.
Shelby Ring:
That's astounding. What?
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah, it's super cool. It's super cool because women see the value in it. That's, again, what we're trying to achieve is if this works for you, and this is by no means ... about to misspeak and say something super suggestive. But if anybody is used to cleaning up somebody else's mess on a regular basis-
Shelby Ring:
Yeah, and dealing with-
Cole Wadsten:
Now they have the opportunity to go make one their self that they can walk away from. It's just super fun and it's empowering.
Shelby Ring:
And a liberating experience.
Cole Wadsten:
100%.
Shelby Ring:
I want to go make a freaking mess and then walk away.
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah, it's cathartic. Yeah. You feel like a badass too because you've got music playing, you're wearing protective gear and you're swinging baseball bats-
Shelby Ring:
You probably look cool in your gear.
Cole Wadsten:
We're working on, we're getting there.
Shelby Ring:
I'm going to feel cool in that gear, in my protective gear.
Cole Wadsten:
As long as you feel cool, I can't say that you'll look cool-
Shelby Ring:
That's all that it's about.
Cole Wadsten:
But as long as you feel cool-
Shelby Ring:
I'm going to post a selfie from that experience looking cool in my cool outfit.
Cole Wadsten:
You should. You should caption it just that, looking cool in my cool outfit.
Shelby Ring:
Looking cool in my cool outfit. Write that one down, Madeline. Oh my gosh. What do you feel like ... we're taking a big picture perspective of, all right, we've talked through our generation, and markets and practical stuff. What advice would you have for someone that has their own disruptive angle of art. To me what you're offering, it's entertainment, it's ... it is just one of those things that enriches a culture, and it's out of the box. What advice would you have for someone that has their own unusual thing? I have a few things that I want to offer the world, but I'm not going to say because I don't want someone to do it before I do yet.
Cole Wadsten:
Hang onto it.
Shelby Ring:
Yeah, I'm going to hang onto it. What advice would you have for someone?
Cole Wadsten:
For somebody that has a harebrained idea and wants to action it, stop waiting. Stop waiting. If it's money, and if you believe in your concept, if you know your idea will reach your target audience, there are shit tons of people in this town, even this town, that have money that want to invest in the next big thing. I mean shit tons. There's nothing stopping anybody, there really isn't. If you have an idea, stop waiting, do it because somebody else will, you know? There's no stopping it. It's so vague, so ambiguous that even if you think that you found the next house slipper, somebody working on it. So you better jump in there and get it going.
Shelby Ring:
Yeah. Well, that's even a proven thing of there's some sort of ... totally going to butcher it, but it's like when there's an innovative concept and idea, there's often times the other opportunity, whether it's in another part of the world, but ideas are almost an energetic thing. When you get that hit, that's that creative force behind it of, are you going to grow this seed? Is it going to grow dormant? What do you want to do with it? Your advice is freaking get after it.
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah, just stop waiting. There's nothing better, nothing good towards your goal is going to happen with you taking more time. That's something I wish I would've learned getting started because I took a while to even get the word out. I wanted to make sure I had everything buttoned up and nailed down, the location, everything, before I even put the word out. If I had done it the other way, things would be different, but not better. Just different.
Shelby Ring:
I love that. I know I can think of projects in my life where I waited. I look like I'm on a yacht right now on social media because it took me over a year to release a travel story I wanted to share from a boat delivery, and I wanted it to be perfect. I'm finishing it and it was important to me to have completion in that. I said I was going to do it, I set out and I did it. It was a year and a half later than I anticipated, I'm confusing the shit out of most of my friends right now because they think I'm in Dominica or something. But what if it wasn't perfect? What if I didn't have all of my back links uniform on my website? It doesn't matter.
Shelby Ring:
That's the beautiful thing. That's really a birth of why we wanted to create The Ruby Hour, was that we wanted to create a way to tell content, tell stories. It doesn't have to be buttoned up and perfect, like you're saying. We're tired of everything looking perfectly curated and people are wanting real.
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah, absolutely.
Shelby Ring:
I feel like what you're bringing to the table is a raw, real, down to earth novel experience for people that they're hungry for.
Cole Wadsten:
It's catharsis. It is raw. Whether or not people think they need it, they need it. I personally feel gone into the time of sheltering and bubbles. It's time to purposely and intentionally educate and embrace where we are as a society. No secrets, no tricks. Pull out all the stops and leave it on the table, you know what I mean? Let's get everybody on board. The quicker people are less afraid of themself, the better we'll be as a collective.
Shelby Ring:
Drop the mic. Oh my gosh, I love it. I love it. That's so good. This has been amazing. Cole, how can people find you? I love the promo video that y'all have.
Cole Wadsten:
Thanks, Shelby.
Shelby Ring:
I'm a big fan of it. Love the music, I love all of it. How do people find you?
Cole Wadsten:
We are on socials @RageCharleston. Our website is tbrcharleston.com.
Shelby Ring:
Okay. @RageCharleston for Instagram, for Facebook.
Cole Wadsten:
Yup. We don't have Twitter yet, but if anybody wants to make one for us ...
Shelby Ring:
All right, North Carolina.
Cole Wadsten:
There's too much and not enough time, but yeah.
Shelby Ring:
Yeah, busy tweeting. Okay. Then your website is T as in Tom, B as in boy, R as in rage, Charleston.com.
Cole Wadsten:
Yeah.
Shelby Ring:
Okay. We'll put all this in the show notes as well so people can get in touch. If you guys are local and you are checking this out, freaking book yourself a session. You're not going to sorry at all. It's going to be the best thing you've done in a long time, I guarantee it. Other than that, oh my gosh, thank you for being a guest on The Ruby Hour.
Cole Wadsten:
Thank you, Shelby. It's been awesome.
Shelby Ring:
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, and thank you for listening in and for watching. Be sure to like, subscribe and stay tuned for our next episode. Cheers.