Bill Oakley wrote some of the most memorable episodes of The Simpsons. Now he’s an online influencer who is building a brand centered around his love of food.
From his childhood coveting McDonald’s whenever his family would make the long drive to the nearest restaurant, to cramming down fast food in The Simpsons writer’s room on long work days, Bill has always loved eating.
Before posting food content online, Bill Oakley had dozens of people following him on Instagram. Now he has 42,000+. Over on X he has more than 60,000.
“I never worked in a restaurant. I don’t know anything about cooking. I don’t know anything about restaurant sales. I only know what I like to eat, what I’m interested in. And I think a lot of my audience is the same kind of person.”
Watch now to learn about his Steamed Hams Society, writing for The Simpsons, and the future of the television industry.
From his childhood coveting McDonald’s whenever his family would make the long drive to the nearest restaurant, to cramming down fast food in The Simpsons writer’s room on long work days, Bill has always loved eating.
Before posting food content online, Bill Oakley had dozens of people following him on Instagram. Now he has 42,000+. Over on X he has more than 60,000.
“I never worked in a restaurant. I don’t know anything about cooking. I don’t know anything about restaurant sales. I only know what I like to eat, what I’m interested in. And I think a lot of my audience is the same kind of person.”
Watch now to learn about his Steamed Hams Society, writing for The Simpsons, and the future of the television industry.
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NewsTranscript
00:00The business of television has collapsed more than the more than newspapers and it's exactly the same thing
00:07Yes, remember how records collapsed when when Napster came around and
00:12Newspapers collapsed. Yeah, that's what TV is doing right now. Yeah, it's exactly the same thing
00:23Welcome to restaurant influencers presented by entrepreneur. I am your host Sean Walsh
00:27This is a Cali BBQ media production. We are coming to you from the National Restaurant Association show in Chicago
00:3655,000 restaurant professionals have all come to Chicago four days 12 football fields of vendors
00:442,200 vendors are here showing off all the best products all the best services to help move the restaurant industry forward in
00:51Life in the restaurant business and in the new creator economy
00:55We learn through lessons and stories and I am so grateful that today. I have a master storyteller
01:02I have Bill Oakley who is a legend a writer in the TV space from The Simpsons and more importantly
01:10He is the most famous
01:13Fast-food critic there is and when I started finding your content, thanks to our producer Stover aka barbecue hunk
01:20I said, what is Bill Oakley doing and I started diving into the videos
01:24I started diving into the storytelling and
01:27What I can't believe is that I've neglected what America is built on and we're built on fast food
01:34We're built on fast food. Oh for sure
01:36It's a distinctly American thing and it's taken all the world over as a sign of Americanness, you know
01:41Yes, absolutely. And to be honest really I'm probably the seventh most famous fast-food critic
01:47But let's just pretend I'm the first for the purposes of this video
01:50For the purposes of this this is going on the resume. Oh, okay. I'm the first
01:54I'm the most famous in the world famous fast-food critics in the world. Welcome to the show
01:58If you're listening to this podcast
02:00Please check out the YouTube because we are gonna give you behind the scenes access
02:05Not everyone can make it to Chicago and me and Bill. We're gonna go fuck around and have some fun
02:09So, come on, let's go check it out
02:15We're talking about the creator economy for us
02:18We turned our restaurant business into a media business because we think that as business owners
02:23We've been given the greatest tool in our pocket, which is the internet. We get to publish content to a global audience
02:29We just met our friend from India right there and that's only because we're willing to look stupid sound stupid and put stuff on the internet
02:36So, how about you? Why are you doing what you're doing? Well, this is my you know, it's right. I was my hobby
02:40I've always wanted to be the kind of guy who was the first one to try the new McDonald's burger all the way back
02:45DLT, you know, whatever that was 1982 and I want to be the first one to try it tell everybody and it's not really not
02:51Just that it's also like the new flavor of Lay's chips the new thing, you know
02:54It's all that kind elevated lowbrow food is what people have elevated lowbrow. Yes
02:58Okay, so I am you know, this this is like 10 circuses for me
03:02And it's not just I mean obviously I'm not here for the fine dining aspect of it
03:06I'm not here for the for the point-of-sale things
03:09You leave that to us
03:12You know, I'm here as a fan like it's like I don't know anything I never worked in a restaurant
03:17I don't know anything about cooking. I don't know anything about
03:22Restaurant sales. I only know what I like to eat and what I'm interested in and I think a lot of my audience
03:27It's the same kind of person
03:28It's fans of this very much like having a fan on the side of NFL game going like oh my god
03:33That was amazing. That's kind of what I do
03:35Well, I think what the the coolest thing for me listening to your content listening to you on other shows
03:40Talking about the work that you're doing is that it's such a major market like you're talking about frozen pizza
03:47You're talking about hamburgers
03:48You're talking about the drive-thru experience like you're talking about things that but why isn't anyone else talking about this?
03:54I think people don't talk about it in the big way. That is a very good point
03:57And I don't know why I'm happy they're not because I think over that space, you know
04:01Like that's I think that's a that's what the average American eats
04:05I think to some extent is stuff like that
04:07And the thing is there's a lot I think there's no reason, you know, we have a lot of we have the key to Michelin
04:13We have Zegat guides for fine dining, but nobody is saying here are the best five frozen pizzas
04:18Well, some people are occasionally you'll see an article like that online
04:21But you know a lot of times I don't agree with those and a lot of times they're really long and boring
04:26So most of my content is less than one minute long, you know
04:29Which I think is blessedly short and yes in this world and I think it gets right to the point
04:33It's here are my five favorite frozen pizzas here
04:35Here are the ones that are a ripoff and also there's so much part of what I think is fun for me is
04:41Poking a hole in the in the marketing. I know people hear a lot of marketing people here today
04:45Oh, no, there's so much phony baloney. I love in this universe
04:49There's so much hype for such garbage and many things and and and part of it is, you know
04:54God bless everyone here
04:55Everyone's working very hard and so forth
04:57But the marketing people the internet the the Twitter thing is that you know, I won't say any specific brands
05:03But there are a lot of people a lot of brands that have that's a few in a lot of phony baloney
05:07Yeah online about their new products and their new foods. We say be the show not the commercial, right?
05:12Great problem is nobody wants to watch a fucking commercial like no one including my children
05:17I have small little kids and the first digital button they learned how to hit was skip
05:21Because they don't want their stories interrupted. Yeah, so Bill tell me about the first video that you made for social media, you know
05:29Um
05:31That's an interesting story. That was in 2018
05:34McDonald was the day McDonald's launched their fresh beef quarter pounder, you know, it was a big deal because for decades
05:39They've been frozen. They were launched a fresh beef quarter pounder. I want to be the first one to try it
05:43So I went to my local location. Wait, can we go? How did you learn about it? Because it was in the press
05:48It was in the deal, but but where in the press because I'm curious. I'm curious from a marketing standpoint
05:53Did you yeah, I think I probably saw
05:57You know McDonald's gonna launch I see that in a newspaper no not at that time
06:01There's more fast food coverage in newspapers now than you'd be surprised but there
06:05McDonald's was gonna launch the fresh beef quarter pounder. I want to be the first one to try it
06:09Okay, I arrived at McDonald's and I was like, you know
06:11I'm gonna type what I was gonna do it on Twitter photos of it and some text and I was like, you know
06:16People probably like it better if I did a video. Yes
06:18So my phone it's just I didn't really know how to shoot video on the phone. I shot a very short video review
06:24It took me all day to stitch three shots together
06:27I didn't know what I was doing and I posted on my Instagram where only like 95 followers. Yeah, but I tagged McDonald's and
06:33They McDonald's social media was like, hey, congratulations on your new career as a fast-food reviewer. And I was like, hey, that's a good idea
06:42Yeah, it's the very first post my first video post on my Instagram. No, but do you have the the the DM from McDonald's?
06:47It's on there. It's not a DM. It's it's a
06:50Legitimate reply. Yeah, that's even better and then also the chef who worked at who was the head chef at McDonald's at that time
06:56Mike Harris also
06:58Yeah, and so I'm friends with him now and we actually just met up a few minutes to go here. Could I have a tender?
07:03Yeah, yeah, I'll go to yeah. Thank you one tender tender. Thank you
07:09Thanks
07:16Thank you so much, I don't know maybe I'm really hungry but this is phenomenal
07:19What is this roaster means it roaster genuine roaster chicken. This is terrific. It is terrific. It's really like it's really terrific
07:28Especially for them having to make it right here on the floor of this very interesting
07:32So give me some chicken. Give me your you know, what chicken fast-food chicken that you admire, you know
07:39I don't we go menu specific
07:40We don't go brand specific you because you go niche in certain cases the brand transcends all that
07:45Popeyes like Popeye's is I think anybody watching this is knows that Popeye's rules. I can you know
07:52Now this is very good. I've never seen this brand before but Popeye's has the best fast-food chicken there is
07:58I mean the chicken sandwich only cemented that and that's the best fast-food chicken sandwich by far other places have I know
08:04I've never tried churches. I've never tried Bojangles
08:07But as far as the ones I've tried Popeye's is by far the best across the board. What's overrated?
08:12Well, Kentucky Fried Chicken, nobody really rates it that hardly to be in with do they I mean that like Kentucky Fried Chicken used to be the gold standard all the way up to about
08:201990 and now I mean it really varies on the time of day you get its location you get it
08:25I think you can bring it sometimes but it's not it's not some place I would go
08:29Intentionally, you wouldn't intentionally go to Kentucky Fried Chicken. Yeah, I'd go there if it was only place open at midnight
08:34It was pouring rain. Tell me about this show that we have here in Chicago
08:39Why do you come how long have you been coming? I only came for the first time last year. Okay, so the second show
08:44Yes, and last year I was only here for a few hours and I basically had to run through the whole thing. Yeah
08:48This time I'm big to run through I've been here for four days. I still
08:52The first time I've been in the South building. It's cool. It's colossal. I saw you posted that it's the show is colossal
08:58Yeah, there's no way to see all of it. The only way you can do it is by saying well, okay
09:02I don't really I can personally say I don't just see that part of the room
09:04Or whatever and so you have to kind of, you know, you triage it. Yeah to some extent so I mainly only want to see
09:11Things that I think would it be an interest to my audience, which is, you know, general food enthusiasts
09:16Yeah, so it's new food items. There's and there's a couple of great ones in that other in the North Pole
09:20Yeah
09:21That really that we're kind of strange and then also like I want to go over there and try
09:26One of the drive for the AI drive through and I'm not sure if it's the AI drive-thru
09:31I don't know that I'm gonna tell them that when I when I when I approach them to film there
09:34But you know, I want to ask for a substitution
09:37I want to ask for liver and onions and stuff and see what it does. Do not skip this ad
09:41This is important information. I
09:44Unboxed toast our point of sale at our barbecue restaurants. And now here I am interviewing Shaquille O'Neal on the biggest stages
09:52We want to see in the North Pole. I want to see in the South Pole
09:55We want to hear your toast story if you're thinking about switching to toast we would love to help you
10:01Please send us a message so that we can share your toast story today
10:26All right, Bill, so when when did the obsession with food start like when did you know
10:31I think it started when I was a kid because when I was a little kid we were still living like it was the 50s
10:35Okay, we're gonna try some bread here. Yes this bread. These are good
10:39So we were living like it was the 50s
10:41My parents were still serving literally liver and onions things like that for dinner and McDonald's advertised on TV all the time
10:47But the nearest one was 60 miles away
10:50So I'd only get to go to McDonald's for my birthday
10:52Like for my ninth birthday, really, I've been at McDonald's in Baltimore or whatever and it was amazing
11:01History kind of like the Joker type thing. Is it why is this person like this?
11:06It's totally the reason I was marketed to so heavily at McDonald's. I was like look Donald and cookies
11:10I want those I want to be I want to see what I thought I want to see the grimace and you know
11:14So once a year, I would get to go to
11:16You know to Baltimore for my birthday and have that but so now I'm like I can have a fast food all the time
11:21And so but I don't honestly I don't eat fast well, you know, maybe once a week because
11:26It's you know, so you shouldn't eat it forever. You gotta pace yourself, right? This is a longer meal. Yes. This is a long game
11:32Totally. All right. So what are we trying to try and Bridgeford fresh-baked?
11:38Break the idea company. Yes, sir
11:41This is terrific bread and butter is good, too. Yeah, I don't know who your butter partner is, but they're doing good work
11:47Thank you very much
11:48Well, you know the other thing that happened was that back then we didn't there wasn't a lot of TV on for kids
11:54So all I did was read mad magazine because my brother said left my brother went to college left hundreds of old issues in that
12:00Magazine in a car, okay
12:01And that's essentially how I got to be the way I am and I started working for the Simpsons because the Simpsons is really mad
12:06Magazine for another generation. Yeah
12:08Yeah, exactly. So that's it's pretty simple story those two things. It's a black McDonald's and too much a mad magazine
12:15Tell me about getting the Simpsons gig
12:18It was a miracle my partner when I say we in this conversation. It's my partner Josh Weinstein and myself
12:23we were best friends in high school and
12:25So we were the ones who we got we we wrote for and we ran the Simpsons back in in season 7 and 8
12:31We've written many things other than the Simpsons as well
12:34We basically went to Hollywood and we did it we didn't get we are employed for four years
12:38You know, we had a bad we had what happened was I was we were both on unemployment unemployment ran out and then I
12:46Applied for a job at the State Department
12:48And you say the department has this the Foreign Service exam
12:51You know, you have to take to be to be a Foreign Service officer and they sent the exam and it was so hard
12:56It was so hard. There's so much detail about other overseas countries. I didn't know I was like
13:00Let's write another sample script before we give up on Hollywood
13:03And so Josh and I wrote another sample script and it turned out to be very popular
13:08It got into the hands of the guys running the Simpsons at that time
13:11And they gave us a script assignment and they liked it and they hired us and the rest is history. That's amazing
13:16So if the State Department, um, it was an episode called what we didn't make it up. It was Conan O'Brien's story
13:21Oh, it was an episode called Marge gets a job where Marge works at the plant and Burns falls in love with her
13:27enchantress
13:28That woman she's so captivating Smithers. My heart's pounding like a jackhammer
13:35And so that was Conan's story and then they liked that and then a few months later
13:40They hired us to be on staff and then we were there for seven years. That's incredible. Yeah, it was a fun
13:44It was a fun show right now
13:46I read a pretty good amount of stuff, but I don't write a lot of stuff for TV because TV isn't collapsing
13:51Yes, as you may have heard
13:53Yeah, you go figure. Okay, we're gonna try something. What are we trying here? We've got
13:59Greek orange am I starting with cake or am I starting with pizza?
14:03Which one do you want me to try I
14:06I'm gonna go with the thing. You asked me to try. I'm gonna try I think I would like to try both
14:11Okay, I'll go dessert first
14:16Dried phyllo, my wife is from Bulgaria. She would love this cake
14:21What's impressive to me is the quality of food that we've had at just these last three places
14:26Oh my god, knowing that your audience is restaurant people like the most critical people
14:31Like restaurant people are probably the most critical people. Absolutely
14:36I
14:38Bring me into the Bill Oakley writing process. Okay, first of all, anybody who's ever written anything knows writing sucks
14:46Really hard inside. It's so boring
14:48It's like this is why people don't you know, I don't know people you sometimes you hear my people who are like
14:52Oh writing it just flows for me. It's like my happy place if I couldn't write I would die
14:57I don't know anybody like that. It's writing. You know, a lot of writers hard and boring
15:01It's hard and boring because especially it's a lonely process and which is why I and Josh and I were blessed that we work out
15:08To work with your best friend even then it's still hard and you have to split the money, which is also hard
15:13So yeah writing is not fun
15:15It's a process of turning off every distraction in the world unplugging the internet and sitting there and staring at the screen or the pad
15:22Or the typewriter all day long at first, you know until you get your page count done
15:26Yeah, and it's still like that for me every day
15:28It's like jumping into an ice-cold pool and the only way to make it any better is to do it every day
15:33So you're more used to it
15:34Yeah
15:34And so I learned that from Stephen King actually and he wrote this book called on writing very helpful writing book for anybody
15:39All right, he's writing. I
15:42Don't recommend it as you know now also like I don't recommend it as a career
15:46These I don't recommend people getting into the restaurant business either many businesses are very hard
15:51Anybody that's in the game. No, I know it turns out maybe have a holding conventions
15:54I've heard it's a very profitable business like it looks like trade shows
15:58So that but that's the writing process such as it is is it really is just a process of sitting down
16:03I think Stephen King again said I think the process of writing is ass in chair start typing
16:08Yeah, you know and so it's not it's not very much. That's why I like to do this stuff. There's not so much
16:13There's a lot of eating nice conversations. Yes less typing less sitting alone in typing. Yes
16:18Bring us into the coffee world
16:21What are we drinking? I don't even drink coffee. This is iced tea. Oh iced tea
16:24One cup of coffee a day when I'm writing. That's my treat. It's from you yourself. Yes, I do
16:29I'm from Portland and I only drink Stumptown
16:32I'm a snob
16:35I only drink stuff every other coffee gives me a headache. I'm a big I'm a coffee
16:40I'm only a Stumptown coffee devotee every other coffee. I could anything bill steamed ham society.com
16:47Yes, so that more okay
16:49So people who are familiar with the Simpsons may know about this thing known as steamed hams that appeared many years ago
16:54In an episode called 22 short films about Springfield. There was sketches
16:57There was a sketch which is now known as steamed hams where Prince with supernatural Mars comes to principal Skinner's house for lunch
17:04Principal Skinner tries to substitute fast food for for that bird
17:09You know for the food he was gonna serve supernatural Mars
17:11And it's he lies about it repeatedly to the point at the point that he makes up this term called steamed hams
17:17Superintendent I hope you're ready for mouth-watering hamburgers. I thought we were having steamed clams
17:22No, no, I said steamed hams for hamburgers now that was 25 years ago or so
17:28Maybe more and now people many people refer to hamburgers
17:32Unironically as steamed hams, even though there's no such thing
17:35Hamburgers will contain ham, you know, and they're not steamed. So that's a joke that's lived on for the past two decades
17:41It has and it's it's amazing. It's certainly the most thing most famous thing I've ever wrote
17:46I wrote that segment and so in an effort to monetize
17:50Yes my past I
17:52Continue to use the phrase team hands whenever possible and I have a says I have a club
17:56Okay, I'll be steamed ham Society Club sometimes or steamed ham Society calm
18:01Which is a club for people who want to talk about food all the time?
18:04Yeah, and it's entirely on discord and we have a whole bunch of different channels for fast food snacks grocery store finds
18:11recipes
18:12Local foods and people from all over the country all over the world who want to say I found this incredible recipe for French toast
18:19I had the most amazing chicken sandwich in Tennessee. Did you try the new lays yet? Etc, etc, etc
18:24So that's what we and and if you're like that kind of person only cost five dollars a month
18:27It's all on the discord and and I'm on there all the time. And that's where in addition to my Instagram
18:32That's where we really get into the nitty-gritty of stuff as sharing this kind of stuff. Why did it when did it go on a discord?
18:39Because that that was the you have the community before well patreon
18:44Which is where we have the source of it links directly to discord so the members of the patreon can get on the discord
18:49That's amazing
18:50What was the biggest aha moment for you like fight figuring out about this community of people and we're just as passionate as you
18:58About food. Let's try some of this food now that we're here. This is delicious. It's delicious. And you know what?
19:03I like about it hot. Yes, it's what's not it's not too hot
19:06It's not too hot the the macaroni is kind of a little bit al dente, which normally when you get this kind of stuff
19:11It's just a big pile of mush. Yeah, and this has a little bit of a chewiness to it that I really like
19:17The Asiago is amazing bill. When was the oh shit moment that there's other people just as passionate as you are about food
19:25Well, I think I was getting a little bit of that specific food
19:28Yeah, I was getting a little bit of that from replies on Twitter and Instagram back in the day
19:33but really it was when we started this discord for the Steamed Ham Society because I
19:37Found that there were a lot of people with there were just like me who wanted to be among the very first to try the
19:42New it's only fast. No, it's not at least our discord is everything
19:46I mean, there's there's people there's all sorts of fancy but like foodie food. Yeah
19:50There's holiday the whole thing for holiday cooking people like I would say at least one-third of it is
19:55People who really are serious about cooking. Yeah
19:58Yes, absolutely
19:59It's the whole the whole spectrum of food all the way from the new lace potato chips to I don't chicken cordon bleu
20:04That took 14 hours to make, you know, that's an example of a fancy food for somebody who doesn't need fancy
20:10I don't know what it is
20:10I don't know what they eat but there there there's a lot of talk about that and there's like serious barbecue guys on there, too
20:16Who talked about their smoking and process and stuff? And so there's something for everybody. There you go
20:22Can we talk fast food dessert? Sure. Give me some normally some highlights. I just say you're a dessert, man
20:28Not really. I would always generally rather have another hamburger or another beer. It's important to note
20:33I don't usually get french fries when I have a burger really I'd rather have a second burger for the same number of calories
20:38Oh, you know and I think that's like you have french fry opinions. Oh, yeah, but but but I don't I don't
20:44Other than McDonald's french fries if you get them within three minutes of the time they were cooked
20:48I don't think any other fast-food french fries are worth getting I'd always rather have a second burger and it's the same number of
20:53Calories in most cases. Okay, so same with the desserts. I'd always rather have
20:57Use those calories on another burger. Yeah, or perhaps a beer if I'm getting out so
21:02Fast food desserts though. I try them once in a while. I Wendy's cookies shockingly good. Really?
21:07Yes, and you're not even something that they advertise or even like I didn't know they had good
21:11I know same they somebody told me about them and I like wow, they're they're really good
21:14And then you know, obviously McDonald's fried pie. You can still get those fried fries
21:18I think you can get them in Hawaii. I think you get them in Hawaii. What is that?
21:21I had one in Hawaii and over what do they have other I have a good I
21:24Don't I didn't have the taro pie, but there's another in Hawaii if you ever go to Hawaii
21:28Go to McDonald's and get the front there's still fried pies that they have there
21:33But I've had that's the only dessert. I really crave is
21:37McDonald's or Jollibee, you know Jollibee makes fried pies that are like McDonald's pies back in from 1880
21:43Okay, they have them. I think it's a mango pineapple pie
21:45Magnificent. What's the farthest you've traveled to try a fast food? I
21:50Mean, I wasn't Japan. I mean I went to Japan and then what kind of fast food do they have?
21:54Well, yeah, but they have the American favorites
21:56Yes, they have they have their own they have their own brands and they have American favorites as well
21:59They have a lot. I had when I was there. I didn't get to try pizza
22:02They have a lot of unusual pizza that has seafood on it
22:05If you look at the pizza
22:07You can see online like the Pizza Hut Japan menu the Domino's Japan really a lot of pizzas with shrimp things like that squid on
22:12Them it's very popular in Japan, but I only had McDonald's and they had a very
22:18Large selection of interesting things most notably this shrimp burger. I think it's Edo
22:22You know that they call it. That was terrific. Let me have a
22:26Unfortunately, we're in the position where the United States they have 16,000 McDonald's
22:30So they can't have that many new things what you usually get if you're lucky is a new bag or a new sauce new paper
22:35Bag, or maybe a new sauce on occasion
22:38So but in Japan they got new things coming out of the woodwork and then so it's the same in the UK and so forth
22:43And we never see any of those things. Okay, Bill. Tell me about the the business of television
22:49The business of television has collapsed
22:52If it were if I don't know if we could collapse much further
22:56But it probably will still more than the more than newspapers and radio exactly the same thing. So it's probably the same media
23:02Yes, it probably remember how records collapsed and you know, I do like in 1990 when when Napster came around and
23:10Newspapers collapsed. Yeah, that's what TV is doing right now. Yeah, it's exactly the same thing and you know
23:15They'll always be TV just like they'll always be some newspapers, correct
23:18But there won't be you know, they used to be whatever 3,600 newspapers across the US now, there's 20
23:23Yeah, that's what we're gonna have in terms of TV channels and TV shows
23:26Yeah, because companies have realized nobody wants 2,000 new TV shows a year
23:30they spend a billion dollars making
23:322,000 new TV shows a year for the past 10 years that nobody was watching and now what's crazy is that there's brands that are
23:38Spending money to advertise to something that no like how is that possible? Are they doing that? They should be giving that money to me
23:46Exactly right to creators
23:47Yes to fit your original storytellers that people that are willing to tell stories on the platforms that people actually are on
23:52I completely agree right it is beyond
23:55Well, I mean, you know
23:56I know why they were doing it because all these with the 15 streaming services that launched in the past decade
24:01They all want to have their signature show
24:02They all wanted to have their Game of Thrones or whatever
24:03so they had to throw all this money at these things that nobody watched and now
24:08Cooler, I mean, I don't like the executives who are doing the downsizing. In fact, I hate them personally
24:13However, it makes financial sense to stop doing that
24:17so now what's happened is, you know, we're in a state probably in a state where there's maybe like
24:22Six or seven hundred TV writing jobs in Hollywood. I don't know. This isn't this is an exaggeration
24:28This is unofficial thing exaggeration. Maybe there's six or seven hundred TV writing jobs and 8,000 writers seeking those jobs
24:35So also the companies know oh, well we can pay you minimum Writers Guild minimum for the job
24:40We don't have to get your old salary that you got in 1990
24:42You're gonna get minimum and they're and not only that you're gonna be employed for eight weeks and you have to find another job
24:46So now the strike that we had fixed some of those problems
24:49But what it didn't fix is the fact that the networks
24:52realized they wait made way too many shows and there's gonna be a lot fewer shows big companies as
24:58They've done in money many industries kind of chopped all the fun out of this business
25:03Like it used to be that you'd go into TV writing for three reasons
25:06To make money. Yeah for the excitement of being in Hollywood and for the creative thrill of making your own thing
25:12They successfully limited all three of them was over the past couple years and and they like the money is
25:18Minimum most many writers have trouble paying, you know to live in LA. They can barely afford it if they can't afford it at all
25:25the glamour
25:26Completely gone people because it's like people have almost never heard not all people have not heard of your show
25:31They haven't even heard of the service. The show is on
25:34Thank you, right
25:36Like how do I even get to it? And like, you know, there's no nothing anymore
25:40So there's not even like you get to go in a studio what no you're gonna write from home and you're gonna be on zoom
25:44Like it's like it's gone. So that so anytime but people ask me for advice
25:48I say you're you can continue to go the traditional route and pretend like it's 1996
25:53But you should also go the other route of of trying to create your own stuff
25:58Yeah online or even if you just want to do it a stand-up or one-act plays
26:03Because there's no gatekeepers there
26:05There's still plenty of gatekeepers who are behaving the gatekeepers are still like well
26:09Let me consider your project and it's like screw you you're not gonna pay me anything
26:12Anyway, like the gatekeepers are still there pretending like it's the absolute best thing in the world to get your show ordered
26:19Yeah, but who cares?
26:20That's the thing and so you can go to into a business with no gatekeepers
26:24Yeah, and your chances of success are probably just about as good if not better. Well, I mean we're living proof
26:29that's literally why we do the show why I got to interview you is that we believe that
26:35Literally, we have everything that we need in our fingertips. We don't need to ask for permission
26:39The irony is that we're sitting in between football fields of vendors
26:44And they all have paid a lot of money and spent a lot of money to travel their teams out here
26:49And they're hoping that people come to their booth and because of sheer volume people will come to their booth
26:53But the ones that are winning
26:56They actually have been promoting it on Instagram on YouTube on email
27:00They've been telling stories on the internet and they've done things that have made customers that are gonna come in go to their booth specifically
27:08Absolutely. That's why I went to the you know
27:10The first five booths they went to were the ones that I had seen online and was like I got to go there
27:15Isn't it on it?
27:15But it's amazing that we're here in 2024 and you would think that as many executives that are here investing money in marketing
27:22To do an event would also respect the fact that
27:26Customers restaurant owners their target demographic are on Instagram are on YouTube are on tik-tok are on Facebook. Listen to podcast
27:33I mean, there's some a lot of places that don't think they need to worry about that
27:36And those are probably places that are already there an incredible location
27:39Yeah, you know, they're on the boardwalk and everyone's gonna eat there anyway, so they don't need to advertise but 90% of places don't have
27:46That that lucky thing where they have a built-in customer base
27:49So they do need to advertise and
27:52Advertising on the internet or through whatever or even, you know influencer marketing. Yep is just as effective
27:58And what do you what are you gonna do?
27:59I add a newspaper put up a billboard that you know
28:02The influencer marketing actually pays dividends that are noticeable and even if you weren't giving the money to me
28:08You might want to give it to some other influencers to promote your thing because that's people
28:13They're trusted to some extent, you know
28:15And I think certainly when I not to blow my own horn, but when I say something is good
28:20Generally people want to go try it. Absolutely. And and you have you have an incredibly something stinks people don't people
28:27Enjoy piling on about it. So but what you've built is community and what's so important?
28:32It's like there's vanity metrics and the b2c creator economy where someone has hundreds of thousands millions of followers
28:38But they don't actually care about that. All they do is hit like you're not gonna come to an event
28:44They're not gonna subscribe and join your society and contribute right?
28:47Like what you have is a general can a genuine community and because of that
28:51I think this is just the beginning for what you're gonna be. Thank you
28:54I hope so
28:54Yeah, and I do think you know I have it's very much like some of the other things I've done
28:58The the community is small, but it's extremely engaged
29:06So bill I've been coming to the show for three years
29:08That might have been one of the coolest things that I've done since I've been coming
29:12I think every year we might have to do a redo with Bill Oakley and
29:18I'm totally up for it. This is it is a blast. You asked a lot of really good
29:23incisive questions that that people don't generally ask and it was a thrill to
29:27To be asked those questions while eating such delicious food. It was amazing. Where can people follow you?
29:33What's your preferred playgrounds digital playgrounds to connect with follow me on Instagram on at that Bill Oakley?
29:40That Bill Oakley if you want to join the steamed ham society steamed hams society calm and what the link is on my Instagram
29:47Get on the discord
29:48You can join the rest of us and talk about the new lays potato chip flavors all night long all over the world
29:53And if you're a brand that's listening to this and you're looking for somebody that's a master storyteller
29:58Bill Oakley is taking brand requests. You heard that from me. I appreciate a toast
30:04We are so grateful that you believe in this show you believe in storytelling in the hospitality space to give us this stage this opportunity
30:12National Restaurant Association show. I can't believe I got to hang out with Bill for an hour
30:16Shout out to Stover back home in Portland part of the team TJ
30:20Toby all of the people that helped run this Cali barbecue team and to my wife and my kids. I love you guys
30:26Thank you. We appreciate you Bill. I'm gonna let you go. Enjoy the rest of the show
30:30We've got a couple more shows to do you guys want to connect with me at Sean P
30:34Walsh F weirdly available on all the platforms follow Bill join the steamed ham society, and we'll catch you guys next week
30:43Thank you for listening to restaurant influencers if you want to get in touch with me
30:47I am weirdly available at Sean P. Walsh FSH a WN P W a L
30:54Chef Cali barbecue media has other shows you can check out digital hospitality
31:00We've been doing that show since 2017. We also just launched a show season 2 family style on YouTube with toast and
31:08If you are a restaurant brand or a hospitality brand and you're looking to launch your own show Cali barbecue media can help you
31:16Recently, we just launched room for seconds with Greg Majewski
31:20It is an incredible insight into leadership into hospitality into enterprise restaurants and franchise
31:29Franchisee relationships take a look at room for seconds
31:32And if you're ready to start a show reach out to us be the show dot media. We can't wait to work with you