Ross Patterson and Dan Hollaway are the hosts of the popular show “Drinkin’ Bros Podcast”. They join Chris Van Vliet from their studio in Austin, TX to talk about the success of their podcasts, how they were able to grow them, their advice for podcasters who are just starting out, their dream guests, their impressive sports memorabilia collection and much more!

For more info on the Drinkin’ Bros Podcast visit: https://drinkinbros.com/

On their impressive set design:

Ross: “Dude if you walk in here, it feels like a Hollywood set. We’ve got 7 sets in this building, which is a couple of floors and around 5,000 square feet. It’s very non descript so if you are trying to find it then f*ck off [laughs]. It’s fun and people are recoding it at all times. The cool thing about owning a media company is that there are 16 shows on our network, so there’s always cool people shooting in and out of here all day. Everybody has a key, so they can shoot using the cameras whenever they want. With that being said, every night you walk in here there’s someone that you wouldn’t expect. It’s all a blast.”

On how COVID helped them grow:

Dan: “We weren’t directly involved in creating the virus [laughs]. But what are you gonna do?”

Ross: “We just happened to provide entertainment. During the pandemic, because we got COVID literally on day one, our advertisers hit us up. They were like ‘Look, people need entertainment, Hollywood is shut down. Would you consider going every single day for one of your shows?’ They picked out 2 in particular and we said yes. We huddled up with our employees and we said ‘Look, we have COVID and you will probably get it. We can either herd immunity this sh*t, work though it and try to make something of ourselves. Or we can pack it in and go home.’ Everybody agreed to do it and we never stopped. I’m actually really proud to say that we did not miss one single day.”

On how sick they got:

Dan: “For me it was just bone aches, so I didn’t really care. My bones hurt. But I have lower back issues from jumping out of planes and sh*t. So bone aches and shooting pains for 5 days.

Ross: “I’ll get graphic with you here. My dick fell off and I had to tape it back on! No we were looking at houses in Austin and me and my wife were going around. It was a race for houses and we looked at like 36 houses in 27 hours. You see what was going on in the news and you start to think do I have these symptoms? I was sh*tting on the hour every hour, so I’m like great. I got super f*cked up the night before, so I didn’t know if it was from that.”

Dan: “That’s my recommendation. If you get COVID, don’t just sit there, drink water and eat soup. If you are going to feel like sh*t, then do it to yourself.”

Ross: “So I destroyed the bathrooms of 36 stranger’s houses, that’s what it was. I was sh*tting in open houses. Ironically the house that we bought did not have any toilet paper.”

On the goal from episode one:

Ross: “So I was in Hollywood, and comedy was dying. All of it was. I was writing and selling scripts, and little by little, there was less comedies being made. It felt like there was a change in media. I felt like this [podcast success] could happen, but whether it would is another story. You have to have the right personality for this, and we got in at an earlier stage of the game where you can get on the charts pretty quickly. If people liked your show, they would just keep listening to it and all that other stuff. The challenge is to turn it into a business and monetize it, which Dan was able to do. It’s one thing to do a podcast with your buddies as a hobby. It’s another if you are going to do it as a job in this world. I really thought when we started this that it would become a massive thing. But you still need the right people and guests to make it happen.”

Dan: “It also allows you to be able to do what the f*ck you want to do. We are certainly burdened by the distribution points. Obviously any of these organisations can tell us to go and f*ck ourselves anytime that they want. Navigating that has been a bit of an issue for a show like ours that pushes the envelope like ours does. It is what it is and we have managed to navigate around it.”

On when they found success:

Dan: “I think the tipping point was monetizing it for the first time. You can have the theory that this can really be something, then you turn the switch on and maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t. Once we saw that it worked, we started fumbling every dime we made back into production. Creating more capability to create more. Another big point was COVID, it got people used to the idea of consuming content throughout the day. You do it already by checking your phone, but it hadn’t been popularized until people started working from home. Now employees are not going back into the office again, which is good fortune.”

On how the podcast grew:

Ross: “It was a series of events that was fortuitous. At episode 100, we just tossed it out to the audience. We didn’t know if we were going to go beyond 100 episodes. We said to the audience ‘Hey what do you guys want to do?’ Somebody suggested we have 2 strangers who have never met before have sex live on air. We said yes let’s do that, then we had 700 submissions. We picked a dude and a girl and were doing a live show that night in Denver, Colorado. So we flew these people into Denver, put them on a bed and they had sex for 2 and a half hours in front of us. That show exploded, and the following day was the election day for Donald Trump. We did a prediction and I called Trump to win every state except for Pennsylvania. The novelty of the sex show and what was going on in the world combined showed the audience that we are not just a novelty show. That’s when it really started taking off we had celebrities calling us to be on.”

On a dream guest:

Ross: “For me I think Donald Trump. Not because I like Trump, but I think it would be fascinating to hear the lookback now from the 4 years. I want to hear what it was actually like. I liked the fact that he wasn’t a politician. He probably went in there and asked ‘Where’s the aliens?’ I would like to ask him what he thought about it afterwards. You won’t know how good a president was until 15 years after they leave the office. With Trump in particular, I wonder if he would say ‘I wasn’t a politician, but we all made it out OK.'”

On how to improve your podcast:

Dan: “The only thing you can do is just do it all the time. Your record 4 shows a week and you get used to it. You begin compartmentalize information. You have to be informed enough to ask the questions that uninformed people would ask. If someone is angry then lean into that and get them to give an angrier response.”

On what they are grateful for:

Ross: “My wife, my kids and friends and family.”

Dan: “My girl, myself and Chick-Fil-A.”

Featured image: Drinkin’ Bros