Joe Rogan Experience #1380 - Pete Dominick

1. 0:00 – 5:45

   Leaving SiriusXM: sudden firing, ratings opacity, and rebuilding an audience

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:00

      ... three, two. Uh, uh. (claps) Hello, Pete Domick. How are you, buddy?

   2. PDPete Dominick0:05

      Hey, Joe Rogan.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:06

      Good to see you, man.

   4. PDPete Dominick0:06

      Good to see you. Psyched to be here. Psyched to be in California, and psyched to be sitting across from you.

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:10

      Psyched to have you. You're, you're a free man now.

   6. PDPete Dominick0:12

      I'm a, I'm-

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:13

      You've escaped yourself-

   8. PDPete Dominick0:14

      (laughs)

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:14

      ... from the, the shackles of, uh, satellite radio.

   10. PDPete Dominick0:17

       The sha- the shackles of corporate media.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:19

       Yeah, man. That's, uh, see, that's the thing about dedicating so much time to a company like that, they can just (snaps fingers) get rid of you, and then you don't have a connection to all those fans. You have to reestablish a connection.

   12. PDPete Dominick0:30

       It's been an amazing experience in the last, what, four weeks since it happened to try to... First of all, I watched my funeral play out publicly, 'cause I had a huge community of listeners for 12 years that I created-

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:40

       Right.

   14. PDPete Dominick0:40

       ... that I was trying to respond to all of them, and I, you know, you can't say. I still can't share, like, certain details, right? And-

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:46

       How much time did they give you before the show was ended?

   16. PDPete Dominick0:50

       The sh- the show basically, they told me after the show that, uh, that it was the last show, and then they let me have, like, a, uh... They said I could do a last show, but instead, I was just like, "Let me just record a message. I don't wanna, I don't wanna go-"

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:02

       So you didn't know until the day of?

   18. PDPete Dominick1:05

       I had a pretty good idea. I had a pretty good idea.

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:08

       Do they have ratings? Like do they-

   20. PDPete Dominick1:10

       I don't think so. If they did, I think I'd probably be in pretty good shape. I mean, like, it's a long story, but the show I was doing was pretty special. Like it was really helping people, and we were enlightening. It's kind of like what you do here. I mean, that's why I love what you do here. You people learn. They, uh, they get enlightened, they get entertained, they, uh... Uh, you make people a better, better people through this show. The, the contribution in, that you make, that's what I was doing. We worked three hours every day talking about issues, talking about, uh, struggles that people are having, and it was rewarding and challenging and satisfying, and I had total editorial control, so you know, I can't, I really can't complain. Twelve years is pretty-

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:48

       Do they know, though, how many people are listening to any given show?

   22. PDPete Dominick1:51

       Not that I ever know. Not that I ever know.

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:52

       Not that you ever know.

   24. PDPete Dominick1:53

       Not that it was ever shown to me, and-

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:54

       See, that is a weird thing. That's a thing that you have with Netflix as well. You know, like if you do a special with Netflix, and, and-

   26. PDPete Dominick2:03

       Yeah.

   27. JRJoe Rogan2:03

       ... they go, uh, "We really like it. It's great." And they-

   28. PDPete Dominick2:05

       But they don't share it with you.

   29. JRJoe Rogan2:06

       Yeah, and you go, "Well, how are the ratings?" They go, "We're really happy." "Well, what does that mean?" "We're really, really happy."

   30. PDPete Dominick2:11

       (laughs) Yeah, that's like, that's like when you first started doing comedy and, and you came off stage and your friends were like, "You looked confident."
2. 5:45 – 7:24

   Why independence matters: bandwidth, managers, and avoiding corporate traps

   1. PDPete Dominick5:45

      I always did everything directly myself.

   2. JRJoe Rogan5:47

      Oh, that's a-

   3. PDPete Dominick5:48

      I could never-

   4. JRJoe Rogan5:48

      ... terrible idea. I could, I could never allow somebody... I never felt like anybody could sell me the way I could sell myself. Oh, dude. Then you have to think about selling yourself-

   5. PDPete Dominick5:55

      Which-

   6. JRJoe Rogan5:55

      ... and you have to th- you can't... It takes any... Uh, the way, this is, I mean, for people listening to this podcast, uh, regularly, I'm sorry. I apologize for repeating myself, but the way I look at everything, and this is something I've done over the last, really cultivated over the last 10 years, but really specifically focused on over the last couple.... is I look at thinking as bandwidth. I only ha- say if you have 100 units of thinking. Whatever the fuck you have to, d- d- y- what you're res- in- of involved in to have this negotiation-

   7. PDPete Dominick6:24

      Yeah.

   8. JRJoe Rogan6:24

      ... to sell yourself to this and sell yourself to that, and talk about this, and, you know, and pitch your ideas to this person and that person, that's taking away time that you could be working on your other shit.

   9. PDPete Dominick6:34

      Creating.

   10. JRJoe Rogan6:35

       I, yeah, I don't have any time for that. I have zero time. I've, I allocate zero bandwidth for selling myself, zero bandwidth for doing other people's shit.

   11. PDPete Dominick6:42

       But have you always d- have you always done that? Did you, were you that way at the start? Because, I mean, you're- you're so big now, I can... And anybody can understand that you can do that.

   12. JRJoe Rogan6:51

       I never ha- sold myself. I always had an agent and a manager.

   13. PDPete Dominick6:54

       Really?

   14. JRJoe Rogan6:54

       I've had the same manager since I was an open mic-er.

   15. PDPete Dominick6:56

       Really?

   16. JRJoe Rogan6:57

       Yeah.

   17. PDPete Dominick6:57

       Who?

   18. JRJoe Rogan6:57

       Jeff Sussman.

   19. PDPete Dominick6:58

       Oh, wow. I know Jeff Sussman.

   20. JRJoe Rogan7:00

       Yeah, yeah.

   21. PDPete Dominick7:00

       Yeah, wow. Huh, that's awesome. That's-

   22. JRJoe Rogan7:03

       Yeah.

   23. PDPete Dominick7:03

       You're a loyal guy too.

   24. JRJoe Rogan7:04

       Well, he's awesome, and, you know, w- he's family. We- we've been together since ni- what, 1990-

   25. PDPete Dominick7:11

       Yeah, I feel that way about my agent too.

   26. JRJoe Rogan7:13

       One?

   27. PDPete Dominick7:13

       But I just, like-

   28. JRJoe Rogan7:14

       Yeah.

   29. PDPete Dominick7:15

       ... Conan Smith. He's a gr- like, one of the few guys I met in this business that I really always liked, and he didn't seem like he was part of this business. But he'd always be like, "What's next?"

   30. JRJoe Rogan7:24

       Yeah.

3. 7:24 – 9:33

   Podcast logistics: work-life balance, studio setup, and staying off networks

   1. PDPete Dominick7:24

      And I'd always say, "Tomorrow's show," 'cause every three-hour live show, we talked about everything-

   2. JRJoe Rogan7:28

      Right.

   3. PDPete Dominick7:28

      ... from tax policy, to depression, to environmentalism, to anything. Politics, parenting. And so it was really challenging to do that and to prepare for all these interviews with these smart people. And then I wanted to go home and be with my girls. Like, I- I had an amazing work/life balance, and I feel like so... Most people never find that. They never understand it. I found it and I kept it for a really long time, which is what's scary to not have that. I've been working, uh, my ass off since the day... I left SiriusXM and went right into a meeting, and have been on the phone ever since, reached out to you and everybody I know. I said, "Hey, you know, what- what can I do?" But it's not, it's not balanced, you know? I haven't seen my girls. I haven't seen my garden. So I'm excited to hopefully get back to that, to some semblance of that. But most people don't have that. And I think-

   4. JRJoe Rogan8:11

      Right.

   5. PDPete Dominick8:11

      ... I think finding... 'Cause you get, you get so ambitious, especially as a guy, I feel like. If you're a breadwinner especially, it's just work, work, work, support your family if you've got a family, there's ego, there's money, and you just keep going. But then you realize there's gotta be, there's gotta be enough. You have to a-... In my opinion, you have to have an idea of enough. And I got there, and that's when I, you know, I- I just would work and then I would shut that down. I would... Still doing as much comedy as I could, but that- that definitely fell by the wayside. 'Cause the show, it was up at 4:30 in the morning. I was, you know, done by 2:00, and then it was... I turned it off.

   6. JRJoe Rogan8:47

      Right.

   7. PDPete Dominick8:47

      I had to.

   8. JRJoe Rogan8:47

      Well, the good thing is you can do your show... If you do a podcast, you can do it from wherever you live.

   9. PDPete Dominick8:52

      Right.

   10. JRJoe Rogan8:53

       You can do it close by. You could either rent an office space or you could do it in your fucking garage.

   11. PDPete Dominick8:56

       Yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan8:56

       You could do it anywhere.

   13. PDPete Dominick8:57

       That's what I'm doing now.

   14. JRJoe Rogan8:58

       Especially if your kids are at school, you can do it.

   15. PDPete Dominick8:59

       Yep.

   16. JRJoe Rogan9:00

       You could do it y- on your terms. You know, you could bank a couple of them. Do two or three in a day-

   17. PDPete Dominick9:04

       Yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan9:04

       ... and then take days off.

   19. PDPete Dominick9:06

       Yeah.

   20. JRJoe Rogan9:06

       But the most important thing, I think, is that you stay independent. We were just talking about that out there. 'Cause there's gonna be a bunch of bozos that want you to join their network.

   21. PDPete Dominick9:14

       Oh, they're calling. Are they-

   22. JRJoe Rogan9:15

       Yeah, they- they take a big chunk.

   23. PDPete Dominick9:17

       I don't know if they... I don't know what- what the offers are. I don't know what the deals are, but it's like, why? W- why... I have... I just started doing this podcast. Like, wh-

   24. JRJoe Rogan9:23

       You've already been through what that is.

   25. PDPete Dominick9:25

       I've got a- a, like, a great community of- of- of listeners who are like family to me. They're all, they've all been so supportive. I feel like, let me just try to test that out.

4. 9:33 – 26:31

   Social media: promotion vs. distraction and the “image cultivation” trap

   1. JRJoe Rogan9:33

      Definitely test that out. How active are you on social media?

   2. PDPete Dominick9:35

      I'm try- I try to be as active as I can. I'm not great at it.

   3. JRJoe Rogan9:38

      That's im-

   4. PDPete Dominick9:38

      I don't love it.

   5. JRJoe Rogan9:38

      Well, that's important though, that you have some sort of engagement so you can tell people-

   6. PDPete Dominick9:41

      Oh, yeah.

   7. JRJoe Rogan9:41

      ... where you're going.

   8. PDPete Dominick9:42

      Yeah, definitely doing that, but-

   9. JRJoe Rogan9:43

      You know, I mean, you don't want to be too wrapped up in it because again, bandwidth. It's gonna suck up a lot of your time and-

   10. PDPete Dominick9:48

       Right.

   11. JRJoe Rogan9:48

       ... you know, for a lot of people it's a giant distraction.

   12. PDPete Dominick9:51

       Yeah, I don't-

   13. JRJoe Rogan9:52

       It's just-

   14. PDPete Dominick9:52

       I don't... That's why I- I f-... When I say I'm not that good at it, it's because I feel like it's a distraction. It seems like a very-

   15. JRJoe Rogan9:57

       It's not healthy.

   16. PDPete Dominick9:57

       As a creative person, it's interesting. It's an interesting outlet, and there's a lot of creative people who are great on Twitter. But I don't think in terms of what's a great tweet, or I should tweet right now, or put this up on Facebook.

   17. JRJoe Rogan10:07

       Mm-hmm.

   18. PDPete Dominick10:08

       You know, c- c- comics, artists do this because they love to create. They love to perform. They don't love to promote-

   19. JRJoe Rogan10:16

       Right.

   20. PDPete Dominick10:16

       ... what they're doing. Nobody really likes that. Some people do, and some people are great at it, but it's usually not why you get into it. At the same time, if you don't do it... I mean, there's a lot of great comics who don't promote themselves.

   21. JRJoe Rogan10:26

       Mm-hmm.

   22. PDPete Dominick10:26

       And there's a lot of bad comics... If we're talking about comedians, you could talk about any performer... who are great at promoting themselves.

   23. JRJoe Rogan10:31

       Right. They're usually-

   24. PDPete Dominick10:32

       And I fall somewhere in between.

   25. JRJoe Rogan10:33

       ... mutually exclusive.

   26. PDPete Dominick10:33

       Yeah, yeah, yeah.

   27. JRJoe Rogan10:34

       People that are really good at promoting usually are not that good.

   28. PDPete Dominick10:37

       Because they spend so much time promoting-

   29. JRJoe Rogan10:38

       Yes.

   30. PDPete Dominick10:38

       ... and they're trying to get famous and trying to get successful, as opposed to w- doing the work. Writing the jokes, performing.
5. 26:31 – 37:26

   Long-form conversations vs. cable formats: why podcasts feel real

   1. JRJoe Rogan26:31

      Well, the worst thing is presidential debates. You're-

   2. PDPete Dominick26:33

      Oh, they're horrible. Horrible.

   3. JRJoe Rogan26:34

      ... literally picking the person who's gonna run the free world, and you have to stop because there's a Palmolive commercial. Is Palmolive even a thing?

   4. PDPete Dominick26:42

      Or-

   5. JRJoe Rogan26:42

      You know, I'm such an old man. Look at that, pulling out fucking Palmolive references.

   6. PDPete Dominick26:46

      I think they're usually pharmaceutical companies at this point.

   7. JRJoe Rogan26:48

      (laughs) Pfizer.

   8. PDPete Dominick26:49

      Yeah, but it's-

   9. JRJoe Rogan26:49

      It's a boner pill.

   10. PDPete Dominick26:50

       The irony of them talking about the pharmaceutical companies and then they advertise during the break. But you're absolutely, yeah, it's not real. The, I mean, the presidential debates are so not real. And all those networks, I mean, my friends produce those things.

   11. JRJoe Rogan27:01

       Yeah.

   12. PDPete Dominick27:01

       And it's just like, it's a show. It's, it's like, uh-

   13. JRJoe Rogan27:04

       Well, when you get Bernie, like, when I had Bernie Sanders in here and you get to talk to him-

   14. PDPete Dominick27:07

       Yeah.

   15. JRJoe Rogan27:07

       ... like a real human being.

   16. PDPete Dominick27:08

       Yes.

   17. JRJoe Rogan27:09

       You go, "Oh, you're, you're a human being who cares about people, and you have a different perspective on what these people are saying." Your, your idea of democratic socialism is not this wacky socialism where people-

   18. PDPete Dominick27:21

       Not a soundbite.

   19. JRJoe Rogan27:22

       Yeah, and it's not this thing where people think you're just gonna steal money from hardworking folks and give it to lazy people. That's the worst case, you know, stereotype.

   20. PDPete Dominick27:31

       It's none of that. It's none of that.

   21. JRJoe Rogan27:31

       It's none of that. It's none of that.

   22. PDPete Dominick27:31

       No, it's not. We're gonna, we're not gonna privatize shoe stores-

   23. JRJoe Rogan27:35

       No.

   24. PDPete Dominick27:36

       ... and gyms.

   25. JRJoe Rogan27:36

       He's a very thoughtful person, very-

   26. PDPete Dominick27:38

       And I was talking to his, uh, 'cause as I told you, I'm thinking very seriously now about a- also running for Congress. And, uh, I was talking to his, I think, deputy chief of staff, a guy named Ari Rabinoff. Great guy. And I was, I was telling him I was doing your show, and he told me that after Bernie Sanders did your show, he, everybody was recognizing him. I'm like, "Really?" Like, he reached a whole different demographic talking to you than he ever had before, 'cause he's mostly on those cable news shows. He's mostly on terrestrial or, you know, radio. But when you do these, I, I don't even, what do you even call this now? Non-traditional alternative media? Might as well be mainstream. But the point is, when you have a long conversation with Bernie Sanders and he's not like up there, "You know what we have to do?" You know, all that shit-

   27. JRJoe Rogan28:21

       Yeah.

   28. PDPete Dominick28:21

       ... is, is annoying. You've heard it before.

   29. JRJoe Rogan28:23

       Right.

   30. PDPete Dominick28:23

       He sits down and has a real conversation with you and everybody's like, "Oh man, that guy's making a lot of good points."
6. 37:26 – 1:07:03

   Considering a run for Congress: money, corruption, and the cost of authenticity

   1. PDPete Dominick37:26

      ... it's hard to think about, like, I'm, I was seriously considering running for Congress 'cause I-

   2. JRJoe Rogan37:32

      You were or are?

   3. PDPete Dominick37:33

      I, it's hard right now because I learned some crazy shit.

   4. JRJoe Rogan37:38

      What'd you learn? Dun, dun, dun.

   5. PDPete Dominick37:40

      Uh, first of all-

   6. JRJoe Rogan37:42

      Drum roll, please.

   7. PDPete Dominick37:44

      ... uh, th- the corruption... I live in New York State.

   8. JRJoe Rogan37:47

      Wait a minute, New York State's not corrupt.

   9. PDPete Dominick37:49

      The New York State-

   10. JRJoe Rogan37:50

       Stop the fucking... Stop this show.

   11. PDPete Dominick37:53

       All of, all of, you know, politics-

   12. JRJoe Rogan37:54

       What?

   13. PDPete Dominick37:54

       ... there's levels of corruption, but the N- th- in the New York State Democratic Party, there's always been all kinds of issues. So I be- I met with a whole bunch of really smart people about running for New York 17, which is the district that I live in. Like, the day after I lost my gig at Sirius, the woman who had been representing that district for 33 years announced that she was retiring. And I was like, "Well, I got, I got nothing going on and I've always thought about running for office and l- let me, you know, seriously consider it." I reached out to a whole bunch of people from all different walks of life, congressmen that were in office, that had been out of office, uh, campaign coordinators. I talked to Chris Cuomo. I talked to a whole bunch of people, but there's... (laughs) One person told me that if you wanna, if you wanna win, w- uh, regardless of your party affiliation, uh, you have to... There's a certain, uh, special interest group that you had to promise you wouldn't interfere with and make sure they got an envelope of cash. And I'm like, "Well, I'm not doing that. I will tell everybody and everywhere I go about that."

   14. JRJoe Rogan38:57

       What is it?

   15. PDPete Dominick38:57

       I can't because I don't have a second source, so I wouldn't say it, but wh- I'm trying to get one to prove that it's true.

   16. JRJoe Rogan39:03

       What does it make you... What does it rhyme with?

   17. PDPete Dominick39:04

       Uh, the special interest group?

   18. JRJoe Rogan39:06

       Yes.

   19. PDPete Dominick39:06

       Won't do it 'cause it'll just... Everybody will know. Everybody will know and it's-

   20. JRJoe Rogan39:10

       Come on, bro.

   21. PDPete Dominick39:10

       ... it's, it's dangerous. But the point is, the point is-

   22. JRJoe Rogan39:13

       What's it the, what's the opposite of that special interest group?

   23. PDPete Dominick39:19

       Uh, maybe the private sector?

   24. JRJoe Rogan39:22

       Right, but what would be, like, what, what would be, like-

   25. PDPete Dominick39:25

       I can't. I will tell you if I, if I get-

   26. JRJoe Rogan39:26

       ... what, what would be the thing that they're opposed to?

   27. PDPete Dominick39:27

       What would it be that they're opposed to?

   28. JRJoe Rogan39:29

       Yeah, what, what group?

   29. PDPete Dominick39:29

       You interfering with, you interfering with the way that they run their show.

   30. JRJoe Rogan39:34

       Right, right, right, right.

Episode duration: 3:03:30