Marketing: Space, Technology, and Life in the UAE

A Casual Conversation about Space, Technology, and Marketing

Fellow podcaster Izzy House, from the Space Marketing Podcast drops by to have a conversation. Matt is frequently traveling to the United Arab Emirates, where space technology has been at the forefront of the headlines. The UAE is a young nation, but has become a major player in the world economy and in space. The recent Space Debate was help in Abu Dhabi, which focused on ethical issues of space exploration and colonization.

Matt relates some of his experiences, with Izzy adding the background and technology aspects to this amazing and innovative space program. We also look at the marketing of these programs and how successful they have been in inspiring a young nation to achieve so much.

Some facts about the UAE Space program:

  • The UAE is sending a crewed mission to the ISS, the 11th country to do so.
  • In 2021, The UAE successfully put a probe into orbit around Mars.
  • Planning an uncrewed moon landing in 2024
  • Actively developing Space Tourism programs in Dubai
  • The average age of the UAE’s space program is 27, with over 50% women.

Transcript

[TRANSCRIPT] ECC-House

[00:00:00] Matt: Anyone who was doing something in the space, industry was there and it was really interesting because there were ethics, discussed, ownership, really a lot of deep topics and talking with you, things you just don’t think about when it comes to space that were discussed and brought up. And so It’s really amazing that went on.

I remember when the Mars mission went up. I think that was in 2020?

[00:00:29] House: February of 21.

[00:00:31] Matt: 21, okay. There were posts everywhere because, I’m following a lot of our own content creators and just nationally, that was a big source of pride. It’s like we’ve arrived and on the stage but you look around at some of their industry, there’s a company there called Strata which does a lot of work with Boeing and other airline manufacturers, and develop wings. They’re in the country.

[00:00:56] Voice over Intro: Welcome to Endless Coffee Cup, a regular discussion of marketing, news, culture and media for our complex digital lifestyle. Join Matt Bailey as he engages in conversation to find insights beyond the latest headlines and deeper understanding for those involved in marketing. Grab a cup of coffee. Have a sit. And thanks for joining Well, hello and welcome to another edition of the Endless Coffee Cup podcast. As always, I’m your host, Matt Bailey, and looking forward to another great conversation. So I hope you have a nice hot cup of coffee or a beverage of your choice and ready to settle in and learn today about AI.

[00:01:37] Matt: Hello and welcome to the Endless Coffee Cup. And dear listener, I hope you’ve got a large cup of coffee ready to go for today’s episode. This is going to be a dual episode with the Space Marketing Podcast and Endless Coffee Cup.

Izzy and I are getting together to just have a chat about everything that’s going on, in science, in space, and who knows where the conversation will go. As this is just getting together in a coffee shop or after a show and just having a relaxed cup of your favorite beverage. And sit back, relax, and let’s get to the conversation.

[00:02:13] House: Yes. And I have my coffee cup right here.

[00:02:16] Matt: All right. All right. Izzy. Good to see it. What are you drinking, Izzy?

[00:02:19] House: I am drinking Bengal spice tea.

[00:02:22] Matt: Ooh, what is Bengal Spice Tea?

[00:02:24] House: It’s a little bit cinnamon. It’s like a red hot, in a tea form.

[00:02:29] Matt: Oh, that’s nice. I love those old red hots and I don’t see ’em much anymore. That sounds wonderful. I have a can’t remember what it is, but it is from Honduras, so it’s a nice light brew, perfect for an afternoon, looking at the snow outside today, I don’t know if you got any down in Kentucky, but we got snow last night.

So it makes for a nice afternoon. I don’t have to go anywhere. I don’t have to see anything, so I could just sit and look at the snow while we record our podcast.

[00:02:56] House: It threatened. It just spit a little bit of snow today. But no coverage and which is a huge change for you. Just getting back from the desert. Do you wanna tell us a little bit about your recent travel?

[00:03:11] Matt: Sure, absolutely. So I joke, I’ve been commuting to Dubai from Ohio. I’ve gone out there three times since August and, I come home for a couple weeks. I came home for Thanksgiving, came home for Christmas, and then I’ll be going back out again in January, but working with it’s called New Media Academy, and the purpose of it is to build number one Arabic content.

Arabic about 20% of the world’s population, but it only makes 2% of the online content. And so number one is to increase Arabic content. Number two, is to increase the quality of Arabic content, because the 2% that’s out there, it can be improved, let’s put it that way. So New Media Academy is tasked with creating, Arabic content creators across a wide variety of content. And this is what’s so exciting.

So I’m training businesses, government leaders and entrepreneurs in digital communication and digital marketing. But I also work with our, content creator team in working with them to market our content creators, but also teaching them to independently, develop content, distribute it, and how to measure and react to that.

So we have content creators in science, in technology, in law, in Fintech, in economy, and just so exciting to be creating content. And worthwhile, content that really is educational and inspirational at the same time.

[00:04:46] House: Yeah. The United Arab Emirates, which is UAE, they are taking the bull by the horns and they are determined to become world leaders and respected.

[00:04:57] Matt: Absolutely.

[00:04:57] House: And..

[00:04:58] Matt: Absolutely.

[00:04:58] House: Not only in content, but in so many different areas. For example, last February they have the Hope Mission, which is a satellite that is going around Mars and getting some great footage. They just led a international astronomical Congress last year. I didn’t get to go, but I still wanted to go.

And they also just hosted the space debate, which is why…

[00:05:28] Matt: Yes.

[00:05:28] House: I reached out to you because you were there when that was all going on and do you wanna give us a little sneak peek about what that world is looking like? Because they are just…

[00:05:38] Matt: Yeah.

[00:05:38] House: Innovative, for sure.

[00:05:40] Matt: I was there, but I did not get a chance to attend the debate. So that debate came right after the 1 billion follower summit. And that was a Saturday, Sunday. They had 3,500 content creators from over 70 countries.

[00:05:59] House: Wow.

[00:06:00] Matt: Basically everyone there had over 1 billion followers when you edited ’em all up. I think it was a billion 0.2. Just an exciting weekend. And then, new media Academy, a lot of them went over to the space debate because they were recording it and developing it.

But, the space debate was all you heard about, it was an international event. There were representatives throughout the Middle East from Israel. Anyone who was doing something in the space, industry was there and it was really interesting because there were ethics, discussed, ownership, really a lot of deep topics and talking with you, things you just don’t think about when it comes to space that were discussed and brought up. And so It’s really amazing that went on.

I remember when the Mars mission went up. I think that was in 2020?

[00:06:50] House: February of 21.

[00:06:51] Matt: 21, okay. There were posts everywhere because, I’m following a lot of our own content creators and just nationally, that was a big source of pride. It’s like we’ve arrived and on the stage but you look around at some of their industry, there’s a company there called Strata which does a lot of work with Boeing and other airline manufacturers, and develop wings. They’re in the country. The whole supply chains in the country.

Most of the engineers are women, and they’ve got an educational system that they are boosting science technology and nationally there is just this real sense of pride about we are contributing to this space technology and we want to be a part of it. And they are working within the education system, the government system, all of that to build an Emirati presence in space and so it is just exciting to see.

[00:07:50] House: Yeah, when I was doing research for our little chit chat today, they’ve doubled their employment in the space sector just in the last…

[00:07:58] Matt: Yes.

[00:07:58] House: Two years. And it is just, amazing what they are doing and what they’re getting ready to do. They’re going to have another conference coming up it’s the International Conference on Space Operations, and they’re getting ready to do a long duration space mission next spring, which is very exciting. And, the UAE was elected as chair for the UN committee on peaceful uses of outer space.

[00:08:26] Matt: Right , that’s incredible, isn’t it?

[00:08:29] House: They are just determined to go up in a very elegant and smart way. So…

[00:08:37] Matt: I like…

[00:08:37] House: I really like how they’re doing that.

[00:08:39] Matt: I like how you said that in an elegant way. So, the Museum Of The Future opened up earlier this year. Dear listener, I have to say, if you’ve never heard about the Museum of the Future, go type it in, search on it ,Museum Of The Future, Dubai. And they call it the most beautiful building on Earth, and it absolutely is.

I’m fortunate that where I work is the tower right next to. It’s what out the window when you’re drinking coffee in the morning. You can go out on the patio look at it, but it’s best seen in the evening when the lights are on and the calligraphy around the building is just so beautiful.

When you go there, the first thing you do is they put you in an quote, unquote an airlock and tell you’re getting ready for a space launch. Then everyone goes into a room and you’re on a shuttle to the space station.

So I think they’re saying like, the year is, 2170 or something like that and all of the windows are video screens and you see yourself lifting off from a space port in Dubai. One thing I laughed about is there’s a lot taller buildings than the Burj Khalifa.

That’s one of the things where like wow, there really planning on building up, but then you simulate a space flight going up to the space station, you’re welcomed into the space station, and they’re showing what kind of things would be happening.

Such as global monitoring and they’ve got this massive screen, and as the earth is rotating, they’re saying, here is a wildfire going on in the Amazon and how many acres, what’s the spread, what’s going on around it, what are some weather factors. Also what’s happening here and there is a storm coming and there’s a few tankers and where are you going to send them.

And it just, so it helped you picture a space station would be doing, what kind of experiments would be there. What kind of monitoring would it be doing and how would it benefit us. And what kind of inventions would be created in this enabling, a practical application on earth.

And so this is what they’re exposing people to. They’re showing, this is our plan. This is what we wanna see. And it’s a kids’ museum. It is just amazing. Just as an adult, I was amazed by what I saw. But what it’s doing, is inspiring kids for space. It’s inspiring them for science and technology to see what’s happening and to see a full country behind this, that we want to do this and we’re gonna do what it takes to build this, and influence children, that this is an ideal this is what you wanna work for. That was exciting.

[00:11:28] House: Yeah. Most of the museums, they really focus on history, what has happened in the past. But this particular one is looking at the future.

[00:11:36] Matt: Yes.

[00:11:36] House: And it is focused on the future. The vision that some of people from the UAE is having, is amazing. It’s really inspiring and, I mean they’ve got a lot of business that is looking at them seriously, like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are looking at creating space ports there. And, definitely it is on my to-do list for sure.

[00:12:00] Matt: It makes a lot of sense because right now, every day is 80 degrees and sunny. Once in a while you get a sandstorm, at its hottest point I was there in, late July or early August, probably one of the hottest I have ever experienced.

I’ve been in Texas for summer, and out there it was about 120, with humidity, but you know what you’re gonna get every day. So, for anyone who’s doing any type of space launches or anything like that, sand is probably your number one enemy. Sand and heat. But other than that, it’s predictable.

[00:12:28] House: And you don’t really wanna be over any population when you’re doing rockets, an anomaly. You can have those happen. So we want to have ’em in…

[00:12:37] Matt: Right.

[00:12:37] House: Areas where that doesn’t affect as many people.

[00:12:40] Matt: I thought it was interesting that in the Museum of the Future, during this, I was looking to see where’s the space port, because Izzy will wanna know. That was… I was going through this whole thing, Izzy with you in mind oh my goodness.

So the space port was not in the desert. Basically they built another island and put the space port there. So it was taking off over the Gulf and so in that way it was away from population just going over the Gulf and some areas like that.

I thought it would’ve been in the middle of the desert, but it was interesting to see where they placed that and I’m sure there’s a whole lot of thought into it.

[00:13:15] House: Oh, Blue Origin is looking at the desert to have there space port there for the Blue Origin, space tourism flights. So that is, a serious consideration. And some of the space ports are in populated areas.

For example, Houston. Is right there in the middle of Houston, but it does not shoot off rockets. There are horizontal launch options that many of these space ports are doing, like for example, Cornwall England is getting ready to have a Virgin Orbit take off and Virgin Orbit’s a plane. Cosmic Girls’ a plane that has rockets underneath the wing or one rocket underneath the wing. And once they get to a certain altitude over the ocean, then they can shoot off the rocket and it doesn’t have as far to go and as much resistance.

And then it can drop its payload in space, in the orbit. So that is game ready to happen, any time. We were just holding our breath waiting for that to happen. And then what did just happen was the Artemis flight.

[00:14:20] Matt: Yes.

[00:14:21] House: Which was huge. Artemis just got back to earth and they went around the moon in 26 days. They dropped off some satellites to do some, viewing of the moon, but they were able to get the pictures sent back from the dark side of the moon. And this is Artemis 1. This is the, pre-flight for the big flight.

Artemis 2 is gonna be a crude flight that goes around the moon. And that will be in 2024, early 2024 hopefully. Fingers crossed. And then in 25, we have Artemis 3.

[00:14:58] Matt: Yeah.

[00:14:58] House: Which, we will be going back to the moon. A woman of color will be stepping on the moon for the first time since I think 1972.

[00:15:09] Matt: Mhmm.

[00:15:09] House: Big deal. And can you imagine what that’s gonna do?

[00:15:13] Matt: Amazing.

[00:15:13] House: To, inspire all the generations.

[00:15:16] Matt: I hope so. I don’t know if you saw this, Izzy, so there was, I think it was on 60 minutes a while ago, but I’m gonna bring in some marketing. They were talking to someone about TikTok and they were saying that in China is a completely different version of TikTok that if you’re under 15 years old, you get actually number one a time limit. You have a 30 minute time limit.

If you’re under 15 years old using TikTok in China, what you get is science experiments that you can do at home. You get, nationalistic messages, you get educational content, you don’t get the stuff, that the rest of the world sees.

And they said when they did a survey of school children in China, asking them, what do you want to be when you grow up? Astronaut was number one. Now what they ship to the rest of the world, the TikTok the rest of the world has, is the addictive version, that has a very addictive algorithm and what happens now is when you do a survey of school kids in the US asking them what they wanna be, they want to be an influencer.

And the man that was explaining this on 60 Minutes was saying, give this a generation or two to work out and see what’s going to happen. And so I certainly hope that this becomes a cultural event that does bring people back to not so much the space race, but this technology.

Let’s look and see what we can do. Let’s inspire to something big. While I’m okay with being content producers, let’s be honest, if you’re looking at some of the, big content producers that are able to make a living, it’s about the chances of getting struck by lightning, that you’re gonna make a million dollars off YouTube.

But getting a good education, learning how, you can apply things even if it’s not in the sciences. There’s so many things that you can do that even contribute to this. I am hoping that this becomes a cultural event and it’s covered in a way that, makes it an appealing cultural event. I hesitate to say it, something that pulls people away from their phones.

[00:17:23] House: Taking the marketing spin towards it, we are seeing a trend going towards space in the advertising realm. If you look at commercials, there are a lot of car makers that have some type of space theme to it. There’s even Chanel No. 5 has a very spacey theme to it. And there’s a lot of commercials that are filmed up on the International Space Station.

So Lowe’s did a 3D printed wrench that was filmed up there, and Milk has done some things up in there, and Hilton has recently signed an MOU with, I think it’s Axiom to look at building hotel rooms in space. What does that look like? How does that work?

Because…

[00:18:12] Matt: Yeah, that is amazing because I think is the next step to do a moon colony or another International Space Station or both at the same time? What’s the next step with some of that?

[00:18:24] House: We are not taking next steps. That’s the one thing that’s interesting about space is that .It’s more like instead of a next step, it’s more like the Boston Marathon . It’s a lot of steps.

[00:18:37] Matt: Everyone’s doing their own thing is at it.

[00:18:39] House: The last figure I heard was 77 countries have space programs now.

[00:18:44] Matt: Wow.

[00:18:45] House: So many things that are like right on the brink. We’re getting ready to have several space stations that are going up in the next few years. And, the orbital reef with Blue Origin is going to be a complex that’s going to have solar and station stuff. And you’re gonna be able to be a private researcher.

It’s the George Washington, Carver Industrial Park, I think is …

[00:19:09] Matt: Wow.

[00:19:09] House: What they’re calling it. So you don’t have to be NASA related in order to do your experiment on there, you just have to have backing from some sort of, revenue.

[00:19:19] Matt: Mhmm.

[00:19:20] House: And then you’ve got a lot of people looking at the tourist area, where you have the dear moon getting ready to come out. Have you heard about that one?

[00:19:29] Matt: I have not.

[00:19:30] House: Elon Musk, right? Everybody knows elon Musk.

[00:19:33] Matt: Everything by now. Yeah. Everyone knows.

[00:19:37] House: Whether you’re in space or not, Elon Musk.

[00:19:40] Matt: Right.

[00:19:41] House: He does the Falcon nine that goes to the ISS, and that’s one of the rockets. The Starship is also one of the rockets, and he is working with a Japanese billionaire that they have booked a flight, it’s called Dear Moon.

And this Japanese Billionaire is taking eight creators that do film, that do photography, that do music, and they’re going to be going around the moon. And that is happening, I wanna say 2024.

So you’ve got , the crude mission going around, the move for NASA. And then you’ve got this happening. So all of a sudden, these people are relatable. You talk about influencers, these are all influencers that are gonna be going around the moon, and people that know how to take that experience and put it into visual content, audible contents that can relate to your everyday person. And what’s that gonna do?

Oh my goodness.

[00:20:39] Matt: Right.

[00:20:39] House: Okay. Goosebumps just thinking about it.

[00:20:42] Matt: It’s really cool cause we’ve seen AI, especially right now, getting a lot of headlines, things like that. So, definitely outer space moon things are going to be hitting the headlines. And I think that’s part of it, it’s gonna be getting into the news cycle.

[00:20:56] House: Yes.

[00:20:56] Matt: And consistently, with so many things happening. So I think that’s going to raise the level of awareness is seeing that we’re at the moon here, now we’re doing things in a space station, and now we’ve got these things going on. So, I think that constant presence in the news cycle will be enough to raise awareness, but then also, hopefully bring some curiosity to it as well.

I love that you, dedicated to helping market what’s going on here, because there is such an amazing amount of potential. I like the message, especially when you were on my podcast the last time, you talked about how the things that we’re learning in space have a direct impact here on earth.

That there’s so much innovation that has come from research and space that has benefited our daily lives that we just don’t even realize it, most of the time. That was one of the more exciting aspects the discussion.

[00:21:49] House: Everybody has it, it has to be relatable and that’s how content works. And you take your phone out of pocket, and this is all space. This is 100% space. The way we’re talking is space, but when you check your weather, that is space.

Before the 1960s, we could not see weather. Like a hurricane coming, we could not see it. Somebody from a remote island had to contact us and tell us it was on the way and there were a lot of hurricanes that caught people unawares.

There was a big one in Texas at the turn of the century that killed thousands of people because they just didn’t know it was coming. And so the 1960s was not that far away, and that was when our satellites first started seeing the earth for the first time.

And it’s really important that we do see the earth because for example, we were able to see the hole in the ozone from space, and they were able to change the way that we do things. They were able to institute legislation that made it to where these harmful chemicals were not eating away at the ozone.

So our view of the earth from space changed, our climate.

[00:23:06] Matt: Mhmm.

[00:23:06] House: And with our climate crisis now getting into full swing, then, how do we measure it? How do we see it? It’s all from space. When people get directions on getting to work or check the traffic, that’s all coming from space and it’s just in, everyday thing that we just don’t even think about or connect.

[00:23:27] Matt: One of the things I thought about is how much safer air travel is now than it was. You can go back every decade than it was in the eighties, seventies, even back in the sixties. That’s probably one of the biggest that I’m aware of on a consistent basis, is how safe air travel is now. That they can move, they can go around something, they know what’s happening.

I don’t know why I went back and looked at just, the accidents that would happen, weather related or anything like that and then also tracking individual flights and landing that, It was still relatively safe, but how many accidents there had happened through the sixties and seventies, as commercial air travel was coming in.

And yeah, a lot of that technology was creating a much safer transportation system, through the air than we had ever experienced because of that.

[00:24:15] House: And just the communication between the airports.

[00:24:17] Matt: Yeah.

[00:24:18] House: They are able to see who’s coming, who’s going, facial recognition, AI that is, huge helping aircraft navigate and helping keep unsavory characters off of the plane and it’s just, amazing.

[00:24:34] Matt: Yeah.

[00:24:34] House: And we’re able to track all that stuff via space as well.

[00:24:37] Matt: So let me ask you this and if you can’t answer, it’s okay. Is it true that I have more computing power in my iPhone than the first space mission?

[00:24:45] House: I believe it is.

[00:24:47] Matt: Okay.

[00:24:48] House: In fact, the camera on your phone was started because of these space missions.

[00:24:54] Matt: Really?

[00:24:54] House: Because they needed something light. And do you know that they fought recording the first steps on the moon?

[00:25:01] Matt: I heard about, yes. I think you told me about this. Yes. Yeah the fear. What if something goes wrong?

[00:25:07] House: What if something goes wrong? So they, were afraid of doing the live feed, but it was the camera on there and even your eyeglasses. Speaking of, that, your eyeglasses have protective coating that was on the helmets.

[00:25:20] Matt: Wow.

[00:25:21] House: So it made it scratch resistance. So another aspect of space. And you were talking about aviation. My second book, I am finishing the first draft this week.

[00:25:35] Matt: Good. All right. Good for you. That’s the hardest part.

[00:25:38] Promo Break: Hey everyone, this is Matt. And thanks for listening. Just a quick break in the middle of the podcast here to let you know there’s a couple ways that you can connect with us. The first is learn.site logic.com. That’s the learning site where you can see courses on analytics, courses on digital marketing across paid search seo, multiple disciplines. And then also you can connect with us on Slack. Go to Slack if you’re there and look for us at endless coffee cup.slack.com. Connect with us. I’d love to hear from you, hear what ails you in the realm of digital marketing. Are there courses you need information that you’d like to hear, or maybe some past guests that you’d like to hear more from? Thanks again for being a listener of the Endless Coffee Cup, and I look forward to hearing from you

[00:26:34] House: My second book is on Spaceports. And Aviation is a very big example of why I, say that we need more space ports because when aviation and airports started to come in, it was a little more than a hundred years ago, mind blowing that it was only a hundred years ago.

[00:26:52] Matt: Right.

[00:26:53] House: It was only, probably the sixties, seventies, eighties that commercial aviation started being a thing.

[00:27:00] Matt: Yeah.

[00:27:01] House: And it started becoming something that your everyday person could afford. Before that, if you were gonna go on a plane, it would cost you as much as it was to purchase a car.

[00:27:11] Matt: Right, yeah.

[00:27:12] House: And it was only for the rich and few, just like the space tourism that we’re having right now is only for the rich and few, but eventually, it will be for everybody. And there’s gonna be all kinds of opportunities for occupations, for example. You know what I mean? We think of aviation or aerospace, space as being for just engineers, rocket sciences, but…

[00:27:37] Matt: Right, yes.

[00:27:37] House: Once the tourism aspect really kicks in, they’re gonna need chefs, they’re gonna need, space law, which, going back to conference that we were just talking about a little bit ago.

[00:27:49] Matt: Yeah.

[00:27:49] House: Space law is a big deal, right? Who owns what?

[00:27:53] Matt: Yes.

[00:27:53] House: And how are we gonna act. So that is a big deal. But it’s gonna be your computer people, your service people, there’s so many different jobs. Everything that we’re doing here will need to be done up there as well. It’s just gonna be different. How do you saute steak, in space? That’s going to give a whole new meaning to that word.

[00:28:16] Matt: I think that’s part of it. Yeah. You’re gonna have to have a whole service industry, a whole support industry. I like to laugh about Jurassic Park where had all the problems of a major theme park and a major zoo, now we’re gonna take this to space and we’ll have all the problems of a major theme park and a hotel and a space station, everything put on top of that.

Just, the sheer amount of logistics, which I will say that’s one thing the US does well is logistics. That is amazing and other countries are learning from that. And I think that was, one of the things especially with the world wars and how you transport troops and food and supplies and everything.

I think that was one of the things, the, German General said is just the sheer amount of Jeeps and supplies, when he saw it hit the beach, he’s Iike I knew then it was over because wasn’t just the equipment, it was the ability to feed all these troops for months, and stretch across Europe. So, you think about now we’ve gotta supply all that orbit. It’s mind blowing.

I watched The Martian the other day just because it was on and I stayed up late and watched it. It was one of those things. And it’s funny because I’m thinking about our conversations as I’m watching this. My goodness, I don’t know if it’s in my lifetime, probably not. We won’t see anything like that. But a manned… I don’t know, do we still say a manned mission? Can I ask you about that?

[00:29:39] House: I believe that will be in our lifetime. I think Elon Musk has, its slated to happen by 2040.

[00:29:47] Matt: But also politically, do I say it’s a manned mission or do I say it’s a human mission or ?

[00:29:52] House: Human. Yes. You’re so right.

[00:29:53] Matt: It’s a human mission,okay. I can’t say it.

[00:29:55] House: I did not ,catch that . No. Especially since, you know they’ll…

[00:29:59] Matt: Yeah.

[00:30:00] House: The first female is going to be stepping on the moon. She’s gonna be a woman of color.

[00:30:04] Matt: Yeah, that’s great.

[00:30:05] House: Which is going to change so many dynamics for the good. It’s just gonna be an awesome thing.

[00:30:12] Matt: And that’s one thing I love to see about so many countries being involved. That’s why I love the UAE. Right now I’ve been over the UAE more than I’ve been in the US for the past three, four months.

And I came back and I went to a school event for my daughter. And it was weird because, when I’m over there, I’m the whitest person there, and it’s very easy to pick out who’s the Brit or who’s the Russian, who’s the other person on the train or on the metro but you just get used to it and there are so many nations represented there.

So you’ve got people from all over. And then I come home and I’m like, wow, this is really odd. I’m just with a group of people who look like me. it’s really weird, but that’s what I love about what’s going on in space and how active the UAE is.

Right now, throughout the Arab world, they did a survey asking youth that, where’s the best place you think you will succeed? And Dubai is number one. And so it’s not just the UAE it’s the Arab world sees the UAE as if I go there, I’ll be successful.

That’s what’s going to give me the best chance to succeed. So you’re going to have so many people represented, and that’s going to be exciting to see. So I love that the UAE taking a lead on this and it’s not typical cast of characters. We are going to see a very diverse group of people leading this and a lot of different voices. And I think that’s probably one of the more exciting things of the developments happening.

[00:31:49] House: And that’s what I love about space. It celebrates the diversity. It celebrates the different people. And I honestly believe that everyone needs to live overseas for a little bit. I think everybody needs to be the different one. The one that is obviously not from there. They need to experience that and bring that home.

I think it changes the way that the world looks. Then it’s not us versus them’s.

[00:32:16] Matt: Mhmm.

[00:32:17] House: It’s we. We are all one and space crosses so many cultural lines and that’s been its whole focus with the International Space Station. That’s how that happened was all that collaboration coming together, all those company countries coming together and making something that is grander than any one of us can do apart. And that’s what draws me to space the most.

[00:32:44] Matt: Yeah and that’s just the beginning. I think we’re gonna see so much more of that, that is exciting. That is so exciting.

[00:32:50] House: And it requires a lot of content, to get that message out.

[00:32:54] Matt: You’re not kidding. I don’t know if you had a chance to look at it, but there is the Instagram account is iraqi nerd. Iraqi nerd. Great, great story. He’s a young kid, lives in Iraq, and he was making content science content.

The academy that I work with noticed him, brought him over, interviewed him, and now he’s working as a content creator, full-time living in Dubai. And so I got to talk with him a couple of times and he was at the 1 billion summit he interviewed, Matt Pat, who’s a big YouTuber here in the US and they just talked about what it is to be a nerd, for the longest time it was a great great conversation.

His content’s mainly in Arabic, but he’s reporting on what’s going on in space. He’s showing people simple experiments. He’s explaining big, high concepts in very practical terms. And so that I’m excited about is that kind of content and this is a pet peeve of mine, Izzy, and maybe yours too. I like that we’re getting away from the word influencers.

I think that word has such a negative connotation. What’s been done to it. Content creator I think is an amazing thing because now what’s happening is we’re democratizing content. It’s not one organization or three organizations showing us what they want us to see.

if I like science content, I’m gonna watch them because they do a great job explaining it. And I like it. And, that’s what we’re seeing now is this kinda back to the long tail of content, where it was probably 15 years ago and now we have content creators all over the place. And the ones that are able to connect with people that are able to teach concepts. It’s very highly educational.

I’m seeing so much more of that and I think we’re gonna see more and more of it. I can’t wait till we have content creators from space showing what’s happening, how do you saute a steak? How do you do this? What’s different about it? How does this work?

it Those are going to be exciting to see that kind of thing that, it it’s not just going to be programmed content from a government or from a entertainment company, that real people, citizens, people that are up there will just be making content. that’s gonna be an exciting movement.

[00:35:19] House: It’s that connection. You know that connection with, you’re a real person, I’m a real person and I find you interesting kind of thing, and I find what you’re doing interesting and I wanna know more about it.

And, the space industry, that’s how it was born is with content is just a little bit different. And NASA, they were able to pull all these companies together and get the message out about space. They were able to do hands-on things with space. It wasn’t something secret. It was, here’s how the capsule is built, here’s the logistics of behind it. They captured the imagination because they gave you enough content for it to be relatable.

They could have kept it a secret and I think the space industry would’ve died if they had.

[00:36:06] Matt: Yeah.

[00:36:07] House: But they made it to where when they finally went to space, you were with them. It wasn’t they going to space, it was, we went to space. And that’s the power of content is that it makes it, we, yeah, it brings everybody together.

[00:36:23] Matt: I think that’s always been, a strong factor, even though we put our flag on the moon. There’s still…

[00:36:30] House: Your right.

[00:36:30] Matt: A, it’s not ours. It’s kinda more of we got there. But yeah, that, unity. So when I was at university, I was a communications journalism major, and one of my favorite courses was analyzing speech that were made by famous people, Martin Luther King.

That was, a couple of his, Henry the fifth, the St. Christens Day speech. And just, there was a number of ’em. The one, I absolutely loved was Kennedy’s speech about going to the moon.

And the reason why I loved it is because we don’t hear things like that anymore. I brought it up here because we want things to be easy. We want them to be, convenient. And I love how he said we choose to do this, not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard. We choose to go to the moon because it’s hard. I always loved that quote that.

It was a challenge and because it’s a challenge, we’re gonna do this. Even though we don’t have the technology to do it right now, that to me was one of the most inspiring speeches. And that specific phrase, boy, you just don’t hear that anymore.

[00:37:38] House: We didn’t have the technology then either.

[00:37:41] Matt: Yeah.

[00:37:41] House: And we just celebrated 60 years since that speech. 60 years.

[00:37:46] Matt: 60. That’s it.

[00:37:47] House: Yes.

[00:37:48] Matt: That’s amazing.

[00:37:48] House: So I did that speech on a podcast. I read it. The amazing part about that speech was that with the exception of a very few things, it sounded like today.

[00:38:01] Matt: Yeah.

[00:38:01] House: It was still relevant today. And there was a little mentions of something else that said, oh, okay that, I forgot that we were talking about the 1960s.

[00:38:13] Matt: Right.

[00:38:13] House: Like the example of, we only had, I think he said four satellites up there in orbit at the time.

[00:38:20] Matt: Yeah.

[00:38:21] House: And they didn’t know how we were gonna go to space, when he came out with that speech.

[00:38:25] Matt: Mhmm.

[00:38:25] House: He just knew that we needed to go.

[00:38:27] Matt: Yeah.

[00:38:27] House: And so here we are 60 years later.

[00:38:30] Matt: Absolutely and I hope that people don’t, back off of that phrase, that it’s gonna be hard. You know We know what we’re in for and I think sometimes that message just gets hidden. Because if we tell people it’s hard, they might not want to do it or they might not be, on board with it.

That’s one of the things I absolutely loved about it is it was just setting the stage for a big challenge you can’t get people to dream big if it’s easy.

I thought that was an incredible speech. Looking at it is very relevant for today and so I think our leaders they will be looked for these types of messages. Of what are we gonna deal with and we embrace the challenge. This is what’s going to happen. That was one of the things I absolutely loved about that class hearing that, and boy, how it applies today is just amazing.

[00:39:20] House: It just, took my breath away, and I think we like easy in our day-to-day lives working through things, but we really don’t like easy because it, does kill dreams.

[00:39:35] Matt: Yeah.

[00:39:35] House: If know that every day is gonna be the same, that doesn’t really get you some juice to get up in the morning. And that’s one of the reasons why I’m doing a lot of what I’m doing. I do a space for Kentucky in the podcast is because I want to inspire people that when they pick their career and they get up in the next day, the next morning to get ready for work, they’re like, yes, I can’t wait to do this.

And, I think that’s missing from a lot of things. And we need hard.

[00:40:09] Matt: Absolutely.

[00:40:09] House: We need hard. We thrive on hard.

[00:40:12] Matt: We do. That’s what makes us human. Absolutely. Hard Hard means there’s gonna be means there’s gonna be sacrifice.. Hard means you’re going to have to make decisions to put things off for now. Things that you may wanna buy, things that you may want to do, you’re gonna have to put them off till later.

And that is the definition of maturity. Maturity is when you are making decisions according to your future. Knowing that this isn’t good now, it will be good later. And so you’re working towards a goal and that will require sacrifice. It’ll require you to focus your attention. You’re not gonna be able to do the things you want to do if you want to achieve that.

And yeah to a degree, I think we’ve lost some of that. Especially when everything seems to be very easy to come by, for us on earth here right now. But, I look at in terms of education, If you want to be an engineer that’s going to be involved in this, it’s gonna take some sacrifice.

But that’s where I love even just the rhetoric, the body language and how Kennedy even say it, we’re not doing it cause it’s easy, but because it’s hard,

[00:41:22] House: Yes.

[00:41:23] Matt: Coming from New England, Jackie got married, a mile and a half from my grandmother’s house and…

[00:41:29] House: Oh wow.

[00:41:29] Matt: My aunt went down to go see the wedding and showed me where she stood in order to see them coming out of the church. So that’s my generational brush with greatness. But just the way he said it. Like you said, it just gives you goosebumps because it’s this preparatory speech for what’s coming.

[00:41:49] House: And I think that when you compare influencers to content creators in your terms, that’s one of the difference. Influencers are like the cool kids.

[00:41:59] Matt: Mhmm.

[00:41:59] House: And you’re lucky if you get to be there, but content creators means you got skin in the game.

[00:42:06] Matt: Yeah.

[00:42:06] House: It is hard. You’re creating something from nothing, and it just has a whole different connotation, whole different feel. And that inspires. It’s yeah, I’m going to have to sacrifice creating. Something’s not easy, where being an influencer, if I do a little dance , I can get yeah a thousand likes off of it. That’s not sustainable.

[00:42:32] Matt: No, not at all. Not at all.

[00:42:34] House: But content creators being a creator of something that is sustainable. You’re making the world a different place and that can get you excited. I work with a lot of kids with civil air patrol and some of them told me when I would ask ’em, what do you wanna do?

And I remember one in particular said, I’ll think about it when I turn 18. It’s like no, you need to be thinking about it now.

[00:42:58] Matt: Wow. Yeah.

[00:42:59] House: If you expose them to different careers in another cadet, we went to a museum and from there he was able to see how things were put together. And he is an airplane mechanic now.

[00:43:11] Matt: Nice.

[00:43:11] House: Because he was exposed to that at younger age and it gave him excitement to learn to say, okay, these are the classes I need to take in order to do what I wanna do.

[00:43:22] Matt: Yeah.

[00:43:22] House: And I think space does that, it inspires. It inspires. It is hard. And when you reach the top of that mountain or in that orbit, you’ve known, you’ve done something hard and you can be proud of it. And that’s why I love space. It’s inspiring.

[00:43:39] Matt: I like the distinction you made, what about the influencer and content producer and that’s one thing that advertisers are starting to figure out as well. That just cause you call yourself an influencer. You may have a million people following you, but do you truly influence? Do you truly have a connection? Do those people care if they see your content tomorrow or next week?

Whereas a content creator, it’s much more personal. And like you said, you, when you create content, you are taking a stand, you’re sharing an opinion, you are presenting information, and you’re taking the chance. It could be wrong. It could be outdated.

You are taking a bigger risk to create content around a specific subject. And what I love about this though and especially doing in the UAE is we have content creators in, economy and finance. So that meant he’s now applying his education into creating digital content.

And, the amount of people following, someone teaching the economy, and now who has greater influence? Someone doing a dance or someone teaching you about money and investing in the economy in a language you can understand.

So yeah content creators, the producers, and especially we’re seeing more and more people in science creating content. And that to me is exciting. It’s one of those shifts that I love seeing in the industry, truly hope it continues.

Part of it is, my kids are my, bellweather I watch what they’re watching. And it’s really interesting to see just from them being children to now being older teenagers, how their taste in content has changed and who they’re listening to and what they’re watching.

It has largely turned educational. They’re once in a while they’ll watch a gaming video, but it’s not the majority of what they’re taking in, taking in science culture. They’re taking in, just amazing things that to me, I’m very happy to see that.

That as they’re maturing, they’re seeing much more quality, type of content and things that I feel like I can sit down and watch this. So that’s part of it.

[00:45:58] House: I’ve been listening to things and the trend is for more authentic, more real I think people are really getting tired of the fake. Most of us are not in the ivory tower. We’re boots on the ground. And I think that’s more relatable. So you can only watch something that’s not you for so long before there’s no connection it gets boring.

[00:46:22] Matt: Yeah.

[00:46:23] House: So real authentic, real information. I’m with you. It is the next trend.

[00:46:29] Matt: And I think as we get more space travel, more space tech, more space things, what we’re going to see is the application. That’s the missing piece in our education system is everything’s taught as theory.

And, that was always my struggle. I was not a good math student cause, I never understood what it was important about it until, I started doing analytics and calculating money, then it makes complete sense now. Yeah now I can’t tell you what principles or equations I’m using, but I know what I’m looking for and how it works and that’s what I’m hoping is as space makes things more tangible, here’s why these equations are important, here’s why you’re doing this so that you can do that.

And being able to connect the theory to the practice to seeing this in motion. And I would love to see that we take every high school science teacher, middle school science teacher and send ’em into space. Literally.

[00:47:33] House: Yes.

[00:47:33] Matt: Because what will that do to them when they come back? We need to put our frontline people into this to see the excitement, to see the application, cause it’ll transform how they teach it. And that will inspire that next generation,

[00:47:48] House: Which is why the Dear Moon project is so important, is because these are all creators that are going to be going around the moon. But there’s also something called the overview effect. And when you look down on the earth and you do not see country lines, and you see just this glowing, beautiful blue marble spacecraft that we live on, it makes you really want to take care of it.

And I think that is the most vital thing that we can get out of space, is looking back on our earth. And yeah, it may be only the rich that can do it now, but eventually just like air flight, it will be the teachers, it will be students, and it’s just right around the corner.

[00:48:34] Matt: That’s amazing. Every time I talk to you, I’m like, this is closer than I realize.

[00:48:38] House: Yes.

[00:48:38] Matt: It is so much closer than I realize. I read an article the other day about colonizing Mars and how it’s actually easier on Mars that I’m like, why?

[00:48:50] House: You have gravity. Gravity is a really important thing.

[00:48:53] Matt: Yeah, we’ll go into it in a little detail. They were saying like, if you live like in a cave, you’ll be okay, cause there’s atmosphere. You just don’t want to go in the sun unless you have SPF 1 million. I did not know. I would’ve never guessed any of this, but oh my goodness, Izzy, what a fascinating what a fascinating industry. You are attracted to.

[00:49:14] House: We,we.

[00:49:14] Matt: We. Yes. I feel like there’s something you learn new every day about this that’s just mind blowing.

[00:49:20] House: Absolutely. Absolutely. And it’s going to need marketing for it to happen. That’s the key. That’s getting what we are, the bullhorns to how things get created, how things get spoken, and you know that they exist in the first place. Nothing exists without marketing.

[00:49:39] Matt: Yeah.

[00:49:39] House: Because you gotta speak it into being.

[00:49:42] Matt: And that’s one of those things, I will update you on my trips to the UAE and how they are developing the marketing side of all of this. I will tell you, yeah, as a country, they are all on board. It has created a very nationalistic sense of pride about, we’re on the world scene and so that marketing job was easy.

I’ll say that, but I’ll be very interested to see how it develops from there. Honestly I’ll be interested to see how it plays out in world politics as well.

[00:50:15] House: Yes.

[00:50:16] Matt: Because there’s gonna be, like you said, that this legal forum, this debate, lot of unanswered questions.

[00:50:21] House: Lots and that need to be answered as we go forward. They’re really critical questions, so I look forward to seeing that as well.

[00:50:29] Matt: Izzy. Thank you so much. love having a cup of coffee, just listening to you talk about space how it, gets my mind going serendipitously of like, how does this connect to marketing and what I’m doing.

But thank you for also asking about the UAE. I’m gonna invite you over you ever have the chance, I’m over there frequently, and I will definitely point you in a couple of great directions of things want to do. So thank you so much for being on the podcast today.

[00:50:56] House: Oh thank you very much for having me and thank you for being on my podcast today when I visited you over the summer, it was one of my favorite conversations that I’ve had on a podcast, and I could not wait to figure out how to have you on mine. And when you started talk telling me about all your Dubai adventures, I’m like, ah, yes. Here we go.

We could talk about this.

[00:51:21] Matt: Absolutely.

[00:51:22] House: So this is the bridge that, can connect us to and take the information of marketing and send it out to the people that are my listeners as well as space for your listeners. So it’s a win,win.

[00:51:35] Matt: Fantastic, absolutely.

[00:51:38] House: And check out more of us on the marketing podcast network. There are 36 other podcasters that have really good information for marketing. And marketing how you exist. It’s not just sales. It’s the whole existence of everything that embodies your company.

Marketing is not just sales. Sales is a part of it, but marketing is the conversation. It is the connection with your audience. It is how they get to know you. So get to know all those other people on the marketing podcast network. Sorry. Too many podcasts in there. Too many podcasts. I always enjoy conversation with you. You’re easy to talk to you.

[00:52:21] Matt: I appreciate that, Izzy. Thank you so much.

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