Max Meisel spent 15 years failing at acting before he realized stand-up comedy was his real calling. Three years in, he's on his first headline tour, the LA Sober Tour, doing a full hour on stage, booking his own dates, and running the whole operation like a one-man business.

In this episode of Clout Nine, Alex sits down with Max to talk about what it actually takes to build a career when nobody is handing you opportunities. From throwing his first comedy show in the back of a Polish restaurant (he expected 70 people, 143 showed up) to spending 13 months on the road across 60 cities as a feature act, Max breaks down the mindset behind staying obsessed and doing the work whether the show goes well or not.

We get into:

• Why acting felt impossible and stand-up finally clicked

• Building your own shows instead of waiting for permission

• Life as an independent comedian with no manager and no agent

• What 60 cities on the road teaches you about connecting with any crowd

• Rewriting jokes city by city so they land everywhere

• Choosing your career over dating (and whether you can have both)

• Why he'd celebrate if the internet disappeared tomorrow

• Burning Man, putting the phone away, and staying present

If you've ever felt like you're grinding toward something that hasn't clicked yet, this one's for you.

Follow Max:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maxmeisel86/
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@MaxMeiselComedy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaxMeiselComedy/
• Tour dates and tickets: http://maxmeisel.com

Clout Nine Podcast sponsored by DRAX Social Hosted by Alex Drachnik @drachnik Want to learn how to make high-converting content that doesn't suck? Find out how - https://draxsocial.systeme.io/coursewelcomeSocial Media Video Production Agency - https://draxsocial.com/Follow Clout Nine on IG - https://www.instagram.com/cloutninepodFollow Clout Nine on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@cloutninepodListen to Clout Nine on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1iYkp7URKxv2G9CqlPSyXV?si=467bf03a09874c15Listen to Clout Nine on Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/clout-nine/id1858319756

Caleb Serban-Lawler is the ultimate LA man of mystery. If you've been to a major creator event, festival, or influencer party in LA, you've likely walked right past him, or he was the reason you were there in the first place. He’s the bridge between the biggest creators, top-tier brands, and the chaotic world of event production.

In this episode of Clout Nine, Caleb breaks down how he navigated his way to the center of the LA creator scene, the reality of the "creator house" era, why the landscape of viral content is shifting, and how to actually network in a town built on fake connections.

Follow Caleb:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/calebserbanlawler/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@calebserbanlawlerr

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@calebserbanlawler

Subscribe to Clout Nine for new episodes every week. Hit the bell so you never miss a conversation.

In this episode of Clout Nine, host Alex Drachnik sits down with dark techno music producer, DJ, vocalist, and creative director Lucille Croft. Lucille opens up about her underground origins, shifting from modeling and fashion design into music, her unique FL Studio production workflow, and how she builds immersive creative worlds around her upcoming EP, "Doctor Red".

If you are an independent music artist trying to navigate the music industry, find your creative flow state, or understand why playing it safe is completely killing modern artistry, this raw conversation is a must-watch.

🌐 WHERE TO FIND LUCILLE CROFT:

You can keep up with Lucille's dark techno journey, upcoming EP releases, and character universe drops right here:

• Spotify, Apple Music, & Streaming: https://open.spotify.com/artist/270fGluVXrZVyTNECXbrsy?si=JlFnJEu9TEej8qBWWi4xsg

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lucillecroft/

• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lucillecroft

• YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@lucillecroft

Hosted by Alex Drachnik, Clout Nine dives into the real world of building an online career, social media strategy, and the unfiltered stories behind the screen.

🔔 Subscribe for more music industry interviews, music production workflows, and raw conversations with underground legends.

🎙️ ABOUT CLOUT NINE:

Hosted by Alex Drachnik, Clout Nine dives into the real world of building an online career, social media strategy, and the unfiltered stories behind the screen.

🔔 Subscribe for more music industry interviews, music production workflows, and raw conversations with underground legends.

Missy is a former Comedy Central creator with 839K TikTok followers and 68 million likes, known for her viral unhinged weather reports and turning internet hate into her brand. But before all of that, she was in the depths of addiction. Getting sober didn't come with a roadmap. It came with a camera and a sense of humor.

In this episode of Clout Nine, Missy gets raw about sobriety, what it's actually like to build a brand out of being yourself on the internet, why she deleted all her dating apps, her unhinged story about flying to Germany to meet her Instagram crush, and why AI might be the biggest threat to creators right now.

Connect with Missy:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/misss_missy/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@misss_missy
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MisssMissy?mibextid=wwXIfr

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@misss_missyy?_t=8sdajGuIj5K&_r=1

What happens when you play a character on national television and the internet decides to hate you for it?

Shauhin Davari went on Survivor, got the villain edit, survived the online hate, quit law school, and built an entire coaching company around helping people find and use their authentic voice. In this episode of Clout Nine, we get into the real psychology behind online criticism, what Survivor actually teaches you about human behavior, how he turned trolls into fuel, and why the moment he stopped caring about what people thought online was the moment everything changed.

If you have ever gone viral for the wrong reasons, felt like the internet decided who you were before you got to say anything, or just want to know how to walk into any room and own it, this one is for you.

Follow Shauhin Davari:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shauhindavari?igsh=ZTNwbjZ1NWx4bngw

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@shauhindavari
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@shauhindavari

Matt Faulk grew up with "pretty much nothing" in Humboldt County, lost his father at 5, became a professional baseball and BMX athlete, taught himself design, and went on to found BASIC®, one of the most awarded design agencies in the world, working with Nike, Apple, Beats by Dre, Gucci, and Patagonia. Then he sold it all and reinvented himself as a DJ and producer with a weekly show on Insomniac Radio reaching 8 million listeners a month.

In this episode of Clout Nine, Matt breaks down the raw truth of entrepreneurship, why passion is the only real business plan, and how losing everything can be the beginning of your best chapter.

Connect with Matt & steam his music:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/mattfaulk/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@matt_faulk

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/7tkBPZOFv2Z0IEbYqqyVEt

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/mattfaulk

Website: https://www.mattfaulk.com/

Lisa Mancini makes a living as a full-time cosplayer, building elaborate costumes from scratch and turning her creativity into a career on Patreon. She also raises pet squirrels, which sounds like a joke until you see them.

Before cosplay became her full-time job, Lisa was a graphic designer who got laid off during COVID. That's when everything shifted. Then reality TV found her. The Bachelor Canada labeled her "Squirrel Girl" after she mentioned her squirrels once and producers ran with it. She entered the mansion in a mermaid costume and her job title was listed as "mermaid." She went on The Bachelor in Paradise Canada and got edited into the same caricature all over again. But cosplay was always the real story.

From Fan Expo Canada to building a Bowser costume out of styrofoam to turning Patreon into sustainable income, Lisa breaks down what it actually takes to cosplay for a living, the reality of the cosplay community, and what happens when reality TV tries to overwrite your identity.

Follow Lisa:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/lisa.mancinerh/?hl=en

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lisa.mancinerh?lang=en

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Lisa.Mancinerh/videos

J Cyrus was there when Vine started, when it peaked, and when Twitter pulled the plug. He made $26,000 in a single month on an app that never paid creators a cent. Now the app is coming back as Divine and J Cyrus has the OG badge to prove he was there from day one.

In this episode of Clout Nine, J Cyrus breaks down the real Vine story that nobody talks about. The monetization hustle that kept creators alive, the meeting where Vine told creators "we're done," and why 40 million users was never enough for Twitter.

We talk about
✅ How J Cyrus made $26K in one month on Vine without in-app monetization

✅ The creator meeting that ended Vine forever

✅ Why Vine died and who actually pulled the trigger

✅ Divine is bringing Vine back and what went wrong with the launch

✅ The looping magic of 6-second content that TikTok still copies

✅ Myspace Top 8 drama and the original social media wars

✅ The devastation of losing your platform overnight

✅ Why putting all your eggs in one basket destroyed OG Viners

✅ Threads paying creators and the new platform gold rush

✅ The Sasha character origin story and smart comedy vs cheap laughs

✅ Why J Cyrus regrets being too precious with his content

✅ GTA V improv and what he's creating now

Follow J Cyrus:

• IG - https://www.instagram.com/j.cyrus/

• TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@j.cyrus

• YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@jcyrus

J Cyrus was there when Vine started, when it peaked, and when Twitter pulled the plug. He made $26,000 in a single month on an app that never paid creators a cent. Now the app is coming back as Divine and J Cyrus has the OG badge to prove he was there from day one.

In this episode of Clout Nine, J Cyrus breaks down the real Vine story that nobody talks about. The monetization hustle that kept creators alive, the meeting where Vine told creators "we're done," and why 40 million users was never enough for Twitter.

We talk about:

✅ How J Cyrus made $26K in one month on Vine without in-app monetization

✅ The creator meeting that ended Vine forever

✅ Why Vine died and who actually pulled the trigger

✅ Divine is bringing Vine back and what went wrong with the launch

✅ The looping magic of 6-second content that TikTok still copies

✅ Myspace Top 8 drama and the original social media wars

✅ The devastation of losing your platform overnight

✅ Why putting all your eggs in one basket destroyed OG Viners

✅ Threads paying creators and the new platform gold rush

✅ The Sasha character origin story and smart comedy vs cheap laughs

✅ Why J Cyrus regrets being too precious with his content

✅ GTA V improv and what he's creating now

Follow J Cyrus
IG - https://www.instagram.com/j.cyrus/
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@j.cyrus
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@jcyrus

He was making six figures as an engineer straight out of college. He walked away from all of it.

Nimai Delgado grew up vegetarian in Mississippi, became the first vegan IFBB Pro bodybuilder in history, built a coaching empire by doing what felt right, and somehow still has time to be a full-time cat dad.

In this episode of Clout Nine, we talk about what happens when your career is checking every box except the one that matters. We go deep on social media as a tool for personal development, what it actually takes to walk away from stability, why posting less made him more money, and the moment he realized that helping people transform was his actual purpose.

Follow Nimai here:

• IG: https://www.instagram.com/nimai_delgado/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw-JiCSn29MdBYX5rRxuacQ
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nimai_delgado?lang=en