Creative Online Entrepreneurship 101: With Alex MarkleyEpisode 20 - Listen Now LinkHow to start an online creative business with all the vast tech available in today’s world.Chatting with Alex was so inspirational. We had so much fun hearing about the beginnings of Markley Bros. Entertainment.In This Episode…Alex Markley 0:00 I've, I've always had a sense that there were specific ingredients that would need to go into this dish. Yes. But without necessarily knowing what the final dish is gonna look or taste like. Yeah. You know, and so it always has revolved around. Number one, being able to connect with people through that shared experience of laughter Yes, being able to make people laugh, and through that disarming effective laughter to connect with people in a way that goes beyond what you can do in traditional media, yeah.Lance Foulis 0:50 Hello, everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of Lance lots Roundtable. I'm excited to bring on a good friend of mine, Alex Merkley. Alex, welcome to the roundtable. Hello, thank you want to take a minute and introduce yourself to the people?Alex Markley 1:05 Yeah. So you already said Alex Merkley established, it is established? Yes. So I, I am a online creator. I don't like saying YouTube channel person because you know, there's a whole thing about that, we'll probably get into Sure. But I like to make funny videos, put them online and make people laugh. That's something that I really enjoy doing. In a nutshell. Yes, in a nutshell. That is not what I do for my day job. Okay. Unfortunately, I'm not yet anyway. Yeah, yet anyway. Yes. Yeah, as a, you know, by by day, I am a, like a software and Solutions Architect. So I get to work on systems that need to talk to each other over networks and get stuff done for people. And a lot of times they're broken, and I have to talk through helping people fix them. So some problem solving all kinds of problems all at the top. I mean, if you have a computer and it's connected to another computer, that's like two problems right there. You haven't even started, right?Lance Foulis 2:16 Just two problems initially. Yeah. And it's gonna get wild. So yeah, so let's just talk let's just dive right in and talk about Markley Brothers Entertainment. How did you even when did you even have the idea to create web video content?Alex Markley 2:32 Well, initially, it wasn't going to be web video content. You know, this is this is a, you know, journey that started with me and my siblings playing with my dad's camcorder. Yep. And you know, really enjoying just making goofy stuff. And you know, if it was video recorder, or if it was a cassette recorder, we would just, you know, make make jokes and do goofy stuff. And enjoy that. I took a brief detour into designing video games and, and programming video games as a teenager. And then spent a bunch of time working on figuring out how to do the music for those video games. Okay, music and sound effects and all that fun stuff. And so that turned into basically, a whole a whole bunch of stuff that I wanted to put on the internet and share with people and at the time, there wasn't really a good platform for that. This is kind of pre pre YouTube days. Yes. Back in the days of antiquity. Yes. Back in back in the back in the stone age of the internet. Yes. So yeah, you know, a lot of just putting files up and saying telling people to go download them and then they couldn't because they didn't have the right driver. Like, have you installed Flash Player? Oh, God install real player.Lance Foulis 4:04 Oh my gosh, time or direct?Alex Markley 4:06 What is your direct media? Yeah, direct extract. Yep.Lance Foulis 4:10 So I mean, that just that does remind me of Richie. I think it would have been in the 90s When my parents got their first personal computer and like we had a chest game on there, where there was just like little animations of all the little characters they would get and then they would kill each otherAlex Markley 4:24 under the like the little pinball pinball. Oh, yes. We need to see we need to wrap up this part of the conversation because it's making me sad. The nostalgia over real so this was a this was a dark time.Lance Foulis 4:38 So I want to talk about the cassette recording. So I'm picturing you with Okay, so like a cassette tape is pre CD. Oh, yeah.Alex Markley 4:47 Yeah. Well, we would we would have like the little you know, your little portable cassette player. Yes. That had like the microphone and so you could record and make silly voices and, you know,Lance Foulis 4:58 so like, was this a story originally? Were you writing jokes? Like, what? What was that content?Alex Markley 5:03 I mean, I wouldn't say that it really ever amounted to any content. It was just jokes, right? Like, I figured out a way to make like a really spooky voice. Okay, and turn it up super loud and then put it under my sister's bed. Right. And we had one of those remote control like, power switches. Okay, you could use for lights all over the house. Oh, that's cool. So we like, you know, wired it up so that I could remotely turn on spooky noises like under my sister's bed?Lance Foulis 5:32 Oh my gosh, that's amazing.Alex Markley 5:33 Not sure she's this Susie. Now this was Alice. Alice. Okay, ILance Foulis 5:37 haven't met Alice.Alex Markley 5:38 She, she's probably still not forgiven.Lance Foulis 5:42 Hence why I haven't met Alice. So I want to talk now, because I don't think I knew this video games. I didn't know you designed video games?Alex Markley 5:49 Well, you know, it was a, it was an interesting, it was an interesting endeavor. You know, I had a couple of ideas for video games. And and actually, you know, I've always been more of a technologist than anything else. And I've been very fascinated by the intersection of technology and creativity and how technology can when used correctly, can really enable creativity that really, you know, you can you can make things happen that couldn't possibly be done otherwise. Yes. So, you know, I was really interested in interactive, you know, interactive media, and, you know, video games, stuff like that, like, these are the kinds of things that every kid wants to program. Yes. And true. You know, I think I was 13 when I actually like programmed my first video game. And it was a really simple like, maze game. So I don't want to, you know, over oversell it or anything, butLance Foulis 6:53 you aren't doing any Bioware games or anything. No, no, no. Yeah. So I mean, that's what I've heard. So like, there was a friend of mine growing up, he went into computer science, I think, at OSU, and one of the classes that they were doing, had to do with like, designing something video game related. And so he was asking me, What kind of a video game should I build out? Probably because I was a nerd. But he, I was like, I think you should do chess. And then he's like, that's way too complicated, because there's way too many variables. So I can't do that. And then I was like, Well, you can't even like design a chess game. Like, what are your options even? And like, I didn't get like a full idea. So I was just curious, like, what like, Is this in DOS? Like, where is this environment that you're creating a video game?Alex Markley 7:36 Yeah, yeah. Um, so. So this was actually, you know, I took a very weird path, right? So you know, want to make that clear, like I was, I was homeschooled, and my dad was very deep into technology. So a lot of my directions were kind of like, either from him or self directed. So, so this wasn't like in a classroom setting. Right. Right. But what I did was I found a, like, an open source compiler for Gameboy for GameBoy Color. Got it? So I was just very interested in designing. You know, like, to me, the, you know, the Nintendo systems were kind of like, the, the pinnacle of, you know, gaming. You know, like, if you could, if you could make a Nintendo game, you were like, you made it, you know, because they were like, gatekeeping the entire experience, it was very difficult. Like, there was no such thing as, you know, like a homebrew Nintendo game. Right, right. So I didn't want to do like a DOS game or a Windows game, because I was like, No, I want to get the attention of Nintendo. Yes. You know, yes. So I was literally coding in C, and messing around with a Gameboy compiler. And so this isn't even on a PC. Well, the, you know, interface, the code is on on the PC. So, you know, designing code designing a little tiles, you know, but compiling it down into a binary that could literally run on GameBoy hardware.Lance Foulis 9:17 That's amazing. Did you get it to run on GameBoy hardware?Alex Markley 9:20 We Yes, we did. Yeah,Lance Foulis 9:21 we did. Who's Who's the Wii?Alex Markley 9:23 Well, my dad helped me with the the actual electronics because, you know, there's an interface you have to you have to go from you can't just have like, ones and zeros. You have to actually like burn it onto a chip, and then plug it in. Get it Get it going. ButLance Foulis 9:38 yeah, so like, you're actually like physically doing stuff to an actual Gameboy to get this to.Alex Markley 9:43 Oh, yeah, we bought a ton of Gameboy cartridges and it's like, tore them all apart.Lance Foulis 9:48 That's amazing. So like, Was your dad fairly self taught as well?Alex Markley 9:52 Yeah, I would say, you know, he's, he's kind of, kind of, in one of the earliest waves of Yeah, computer engineers and software. Yes. Software.Lance Foulis 10:04 Well, like you go back far enough. And there wasn't even like a major in a university. Oh, no, Peter stuff.Alex Markley 10:10 No, no. Yeah, this was Yeah. I mean, he was he was coming up when if you wanted, like, if you wanted a computer, you had to solder it together. Not kidding. That was not an exaggeration.Lance Foulis 10:22 Yeah, I think our first computer that was
