#1854 Heavy Feet, Clear Eyes
Thirty-four-year T1D veteran and engineer Arnie discusses offering free diabetes coaching on Instagram , while Scott uncovers the algorithm mechanics behind the "social media casino".
Companies that Support Juicebox
Key Takeaways
- Early Positive Frameworks: Arnie emphasizes how his pediatric doctor set a resilient mindset at his 1992 diagnosis by demanding he play in a scheduled soccer game the day after discharge, establishing that diabetes wouldn't hold him back.
- The Free Coaching Disconnect: Driven by empathy for the daily financial struggle families face to afford insulin, Arnie chose to open his Instagram DMs for entirely free peer coaching instead of adopting standard industry packages that run up to $3,000.
- The Engineering Lens: Arnie leverages his chemical and process systems engineering background to interpret trends systematically, looking at how insulin moves and operates in the body like a logical flowchart.
- Somatic Awareness vs. Hard Data: To help children establish physical intuition for their glucose levels, Arnie introduces a symptom game called "Blood Sugar Ninja." Scott cautions that while guessing can build helpful internal context, it should never entirely replace hard device data.
- Unmasking the "Social Media Casino": Scott pulls back the curtain on tech algorithms, detailing how major networks like Meta and TikTok function as attention-trapping ecosystems that throttle educational reach and deliberately suppress external links to keep users browsing.
Resources Mentioned
Introduction and Sponsor Spotlight
Scott Benner Welcome back, friends. You are listening to the Juice Box podcast.
Arnie I'm Arnie. I've been type one diabetic since 1992, so I'm going on thirty three, thirty four years now. I am, to my knowledge, the only free diabetes coach, available.
Scott Benner If this is your first time listening to the Juice Box podcast and you'd like to hear more, download Apple Podcasts or Spotify, really any audio app at all. Look for the Juice Box podcast and follow or subscribe. We put out new content every day that you'll enjoy. Wanna learn more about your diabetes management? Go to juiceboxpodcast.com up in the menu and look for bold beginnings, the diabetes pro tip series, and much more. This podcast is full of collections and series of information that will help you to live better with insulin. If you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the Juice Box Podcast private Facebook group. Juice Box Podcast, type one diabetes. But everybody is welcome. Type one, type two, gestational, loved ones, it doesn't matter to me. If you're impacted by diabetes and you're looking for support, comfort, or community, check out Juice Box podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook.
Scott Benner Nothing you hear on the Juice Box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. Today's episode of the JuiceBox podcast is sponsored by the Kontoor Next Gen blood glucose meter. This is the meter that my daughter has on her person right now. It is incredibly accurate and waiting for you at kontoornext.com/juicebox.
Scott Benner Today's episode is also sponsored by Able Now, tax advantaged savings accounts for eligible individuals with disabilities. If you or your child lives with diabetes, you may qualify for an ABLE account because of ongoing medical needs, and many people in the diabetes community do. With Able Now, you can save for future expenses without affecting eligibility for certain disability benefits such as Medicaid. Learn more and check your eligibility at ablenow.com. You spell that ablenow.com.
Scott Benner The podcast is also sponsored today by Medtronic Diabetes, who is making life with diabetes easier with the MiniMed seven eighty g system and their new sensor options, which include the Instinct sensor made by Abbott. Would you like to unleash the full potential of the MiniMed seven eighty g system? You can do that at my link, medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox.
The Concept of Free Coaching
Arnie I'm Arnie. I've been type one diabetic since 1992, so I'm going on 33, thirty four years now. I am, to my knowledge, the only free diabetes coach, available.
Scott Benner You're a free diabetes coach?
Arnie Yeah. That's a terrible profit idea. Right? No. I went through the I hit my midlife crisis. Right? I'm 38 years old.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Arnie Diagnosed at five. I went through my midlife I'm in the process of going through my midlife crisis. And I was like, you know, I need to get involved in the diabetes community, but I'm an engineer. For me to get to be a CDE or to to have those certifications, like, I'm not going back to med school. Like, I can't stop what I'm doing. I have two daughters and a wife to provide for. So I see that these diabetes coaches, like, you go through this health and wellness coaching certification process. So I did that. And then I went to try to go figure out how I was gonna, like, price my services.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Arnie And I could not make myself, like, do it.
Scott Benner Okay. Hey, Arnie. Real quick. You're tapping or or moving a chair or something while you're talking. So just...
Arnie I'm sorry.
Scott Benner Don't be sorry. Just sit a little still. Keep telling your story. I'm enjoying it.
Arnie Okay. Yeah. No. So went through the coaching certification process, got certified, took my test, got my piece of paper. I've got the letters after my name now. I'm making a website. And then and then I started comparing, like, what other coaches were charging.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Arnie And I I know that people struggle to pay for insulin, like, every day. How can I expect them or ask them to pay the people that need the help to pay $3,000 for twelve one hour sessions?
Scott Benner Is that what they're charging?
Arnie I mean, it it's it's crazy, Scott. Like, it really is.
Scott Benner Also, Ernie, when I asked you to be a little quieter, did you then go to a construction site? What just happened?
Arnie No. That's probably you probably hear my girls. So they're in spring break.
Scott Benner Oh, yeah. That is definitely what I hear. Okay. There's...
Arnie There's probably a fight going on upstairs that my wife's trying to referee.
Scott Benner You wanna become a parenting coach and get up there and try to...
Arnie No. I'm staying locked in the bay I'm gonna lock this door to my to my office down there. I'm not going up there and getting involved. Alright. I get hurt.
Growing Up with Diabetes in 1992
Scott Benner Alright. Let me pick through this a little bit. Okay?
Arnie Yeah. Go for it.
Scott Benner Okay. So you've had diabetes since, what'd you say, '92?
Arnie 1992. Yes, sir.
Scott Benner How old were you then?
Arnie I was five.
Scott Benner Oh, okay. Do you remember what it was like growing up with type one and, you know, what your experiences were like?
Arnie You know, we were very fortunate that we had very positive experience in the hospital. So I went into DKA, and that was on, like, a Friday of Labor Day in '92. And we went in, and I was in the ICU for a couple days. And before we got discharged from the hospital, the doctor was basically like... my parents are sitting there, and they're talking back and forth. And, you know, I'm five. Right? I was getting ready to start kindergarten, but then we decided to hold me back a year to get the diabetes stuff under our belt.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Arnie And mom and dad are like, well, he's got a soccer game on Saturday, and I think we're gonna pull him out and not let him play just so we can, you know, get home and get settled. And then the doctor, like, stepped in and was like, no. No. You're not. He is going to play on Saturday, and you're gonna bring him off the field. When it's time for him to come off the field, you're gonna check his blood. You're gonna give him something to eat if he needs something to eat, and you're gonna give him insulin if he needs insulin. Okay. You are going to figure this out. And that's really how it's been since then.
Scott Benner Yeah. I was gonna say that he started them off on a good foot.
Arnie For sure. Incredibly blessed early on in my diabetes journey.
Scott Benner '92. You taking injections? Like, do you remember when you got a pump if you got a pump ever? Like, how old you were when that happened?
Arnie Yeah. My first pump was 1999. We did injections until then. I remember getting an insulin pen and thinking that it was, like, the greatest thing ever. Right? Like, oh, we don't have to carry a bunch of syringes around and a vial of insulin everywhere. Yeah. No. Pens were a huge upgrade.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Arnie Yeah. But we were doing NPH and r early on, and then ultralente for long acting when it came out before they pulled it off the market. And then my first pump was in '99, MiniMed five zero seven c, that sexy blue. And I still remember going through the training. And, yeah, it that changed my life for sure.
Scott Benner It's fun talking to people who've had diabetes for a long time, and they talk about just they had a pump that was a certain color in there. That was so exciting. You could pick, like, different colors or...
Arnie Yeah.
Scott Benner You know, yeah, just happy not to have to inject anymore, like, that kind of stuff, the kind of simplicity of it. Now everybody wants to know, can it do it by itself? Do I even have to tell it I'm eating?
Arnie Yeah. Exactly.
Scott Benner Yeah. I and really, but it's not that long, you know, like, in between you just being like, it was blue. Now people are like... I mean, I saw this morning, islet's still working on that dual hormone pump with, you know, glucagon and insulin in it. Like so I don't know where all this is headed. Yeah. But, it's super interesting. So you didn't have, like, trouble having type one embarrassment or trouble with other kids, or have we just not got to that part yet?
Arnie No. I never really had any kind of trouble or issues. I was pretty athletic, so I was involved in sports. My dad was in the air force. We moved around a lot. So I got really good at making friends fast to try to have strong friendships.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Arnie I just put myself out there pretty quickly.
Scott Benner Nice.
Arnie Yeah. No. I never really had any run ins or issues or no bullying or any of that. Pretty fortunate, honestly.
The Engineering Mindset
Scott Benner And then you said you're an engineer. What kind of engineer are you?
Arnie By education, chemical. By actual work and practice, more mechanical a little electrical, but more mechanical and process systems type engineering.
Scott Benner Your brain works that way? That's not a thing you have to force on yourself?
Arnie No. I I definitely don't. That that's just how my brain works, which comes in handy with diabetes because I think it frames my view of what I do on a daily basis and what the insulin's doing and all that so I can think through that.
Scott Benner Yeah. I had an experience recently. I think I've mentioned it once, but my son basically codes things and, you know, has that kind of, like, math brain, like, in that direction. And I was having a problem with something with the podcast, and he just kinda walked into the office. And he's like, what's wrong? And I was like, oh, I'm trying to figure this whole thing out. And I don't even think there was a pause, and he started talking. And he laid out, like, what felt to me, like, directions that you would give a computer to fix a problem. And as soon as he got done, I was like, oh, that's right. That's exactly what I should do. And I think I probably would have spent the better part of an hour, like, dreaming through, like, artistically how to and I would have got there, but, like, it wouldn't... it was just so interesting to see how his brain ordered it so quickly.
Arnie Yeah. That's a gift.
Scott Benner Yeah. You have that experience, though.
Arnie Maybe not to that extreme, but yeah. No. I logical and systematic thinking comes fairly naturally to me.
Scott Benner Okay. Alright. Listen. I want you to have success because I want you to be able to put carpets on the floor upstairs so when the girls are running around, it's not so loud for you in the basement.
Arnie Yeah. I appreciate that.
Scott Benner So you're doing like, are you still an engineer today? Like, do you still have that job?
Arnie Yes. My full time job is being a dad to these knuckleheads upstairs running around. But, yeah. No. I'm an engineer full time. And then a couple years ago, started this diabetes coaching journey that I'm on.
The Side Hustle Journey
Scott Benner Why did that happen? So, like, I know you started to talk about it, but, I mean, I'm imagining you make a reasonable living doing what you're doing. Right? Like so it wasn't like bread got real expensive, I gotta get a side hustle. It didn't feel like that. Like, what kind of moved you to want to do it at first?
Arnie It all started maybe when my girls were born, and that was in 2017 time frame. I was never really involved in the diabetes community before. I was just kinda out on my own, and that's probably a product of me having moved around so much. But I kept having these experiences where someone would come up to me. They'd see my CGM or they could see my pump, and they would just divulge, like, their entire life story, like, on me. And it happened several times over a period of a couple months, and I was like, you know, I probably should do something about this. And then I would forget about it, and it would go away, and then it would come back. But when we moved back to Tennessee in 2022, it happened, like, right when we got here, like, three or four different times within a week. And I was like, okay. I definitely need to do something about this. Like, this is obviously some sort of sign that I need to get involved in the diabetes community. And and then I ignored it again because I feel like we do. You know, something hits you in the face five or six times before you actually need to do something about it. Right. So in November '23, I decided I was gonna run a marathon, and I wanted to raise a bunch of money for diabetes. So I ran that twenty twenty four and 2025 New York City Marathons with beyond type one. That was a lot of fun. But as part of trying to get on the marathon team, I was like, I need to get some sort of social media platform going because I didn't have any social media at that time.
Scott Benner Yeah. Which was great. I'm not convinced I need social media.
Arnie Yeah. So the net positive maybe, but maybe not by a lot. You know, it's hard to say right now. I'm sure in fifty years when we're looking back, we'll look at it through clear lenses. But so I created an Instagram account, started trying to get out there and just get involved in the diabetes community, and diabetes Instagram, woof. Like, I did not like what I was seeing and what I was hearing and just a lot of, you know...
Scott Benner Let me stop you there. So I'm sorry. I almost laughed. One time, they went down the hallway so heavy footed. You were talking, and I almost laughed over top of you. I'm so sorry.
Arnie I tell them all the time. I'm like, are you guys mad at the ground? Like, you walking that hard in tension?
Scott Benner How old are they?
Arnie They're eight and four.
Scott Benner No. That's Yeah. Hilarious. I mean, Boom. Boom. I'm gonna take this moment to implore everybody, like, just to hang on. You're gonna you're just gonna hear all these kids running around, like, during this one. Because I don't think we're putting a... because I imagine he's texted six times already and been like, please keep the girls quiet, and it's not working.
Arnie So they're kinda like me. They don't take direction very well. So they come by that completely honestly.
Scott Benner I by now, I would have texted my wife. I would have been like, tie those kids to something.
Arnie Yeah. Outside, outside now.
Scott Benner But I'm interested. A person who's not on social media, who's had diabetes for a long time, decides to throw themselves into Instagram as an example. Like, what are your expectations for it? What is it you actually find, and what is it that you didn't like, and what did you like? Unlike other systems that will wait until your blood sugar is a 180 before delivering corrections, the MiniMed seven eighty g system is the only system with meal detection technology that automatically detects rising sugar levels and delivers more insulin as needed to help keep your sugar levels in range, even if you're not a perfect carb counter.
Scott Benner Today's episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by Medtronic Diabetes and their MiniMed seven eighty g system, which gives you real choices because the MiniMed seven eighty g system works with the Instinct sensor made by Avid, as well as the Simplera Sync and Guardian Force sensors, giving you options. The Instinct Sensor is the longest wear sensor yet, lasting fifteen days and designed exclusively for the MiniMed seven eighty g. And don't forget, Medtronic Diabetes makes technology accessible for you with comprehensive insurance support, programs to help you with your out of pocket costs, or switching from other pump and CGM systems. Learn more and get started today with my link, medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox.
Scott Benner The Kontoor Next Gen blood glucose meter is sponsoring this episode of the juice box podcast, and it's entirely possible that it is less expensive in cash than you're paying right now for your meter through your insurance company. That's right. If you go to my link, contournext.com/juicebox, you're gonna find links to Walmart, Amazon, Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid, Kroger, and Meijer. You could be paying more right now through your insurance for your test strips and meter than you would pay through MyLink for the Contour Next Gen and Contour Next test strips in cash. What am I saying? MyLink may be cheaper out of your pocket than you're paying right now even with your insurance.
Scott Benner And I don't know what meter you have right now. I can't say that. But what I can say for sure is that the Kontoor Next Gen meter is accurate. It is reliable, and it is the meter that we've been using for years. Contournext.com/juicebox. And if you already have a contour meter and you're buying test strips, doing so through the juice box podcast link will help to support the show.
Critiquing "Diabetes Instagram"
Arnie I don't really know that I had any expectations, to be honest. I think I just got out there and started posting stuff. It really just about, like, diabetes and running. This is how I take care of my butcher while I run. I'm already... I've had diabetes since 1992, yada yada yada. And what did I see? I saw a lot of... I'm not a, like, feel sorry for myself person, and I still see a lot of, like, woe is me. Diabetes is the bad guy. And I think a lot of that is self defeating, and that drives me nuts.
Scott Benner So this will be an interesting question for you. Do you think that those people in general are trying to share their lives with diabetes, or do you think they're all trying to build up a thing so they could do something? Like, because you were there admittedly because you're like, oh, I'll be a diabetes coach, but how am I gonna find people? I'll get on Instagram. And so, like, I'm starting to wonder how many of those people are just like, oh, I hope that my blog, podcast, YouTube channel, coaching service... like, this is how I'm gonna... I have to tell everyone who's listening, it's not gonna work. But, like, good luck and, you know, God bless. But, like, social media doesn't work like that anymore.
Arnie Yeah.
Scott Benner And there's so many of you, it doesn't matter. I'm gonna be this guy for half a second right now. Like, I'll have you crying by the time it's over, but I'm gonna tell you a story. A couple of summers ago... this is gonna sound roundabout for a second. Doshi was very famous for a while. And then a couple of her songs came out. I was liking them. My son turned me onto it. I listened to her album a little bit. And then one day, I'm in TikTok, like, doing something with my account, which is, like, one of those things that I'm just like, god, I don't even have this. And I open up TikTok, and there apparently is some, like, you know, dance trend going on with a Doce song. And there's this girl that pops up in front me. I've never seen her before in my entire life, but she's got very curly, bouncy hair. And I realized quickly her whole shtick isn't that she's super curvy or super pretty or anything. She's just got really bouncy, curly hair, and it's just mesmerizing while she's doing this stupid TikTok dance. Right? And I must have stayed on it a half a second too long. Oh. And then the next time I opened it up, the girl with the bouncy hair was there again. She was always there. And before I knew it, I was like, I think I'm a person who wants to watch people's hair bounce while they're doing TikTok challenges. Like, so I guess I am. Right? But I also then tried to look at it more forensically because of what I do. And then before I knew it, in the next six months, girls with curly bouncy hair was a thing on TikTok. Like, she got popular, and I mean, like, really popular. Like, has millions of views on her videos. And then people looked up and went, oh, I guess if my hair was curly while I did these, it would help. And then there was countless of them. And it went from watching her be the one to it being so many of them that the algorithm stopped serving her to me. I don't know her name. Like, I couldn't even know... I wasn't following her. Like, I couldn't go find her right now if you paid me money. Do you know what I mean? Like, and so somebody did something. It got popular, and then people swarmed in to try to get a piece of it. And then all they did was ruin the whole thing. I've been talking a lot about this this week, so I apologize for people who listen real chronologically. But this happened in diabetes blogging. There were four or five people writing these really great diabetes blogs, and then you woke up six, seven years later, and there were 4,000 people writing diabetes blogs. And, like, that's a literal number. And then inside of four more years after that, blogging completely disappeared in the diabetes space to the point where the person who I would mark as probably being having been the most successful at it, she stopped doing it. Like, she stopped doing it. And when she stopped doing it, I was like, oh my god. There must be no audience at all if she can't draw an audience for it. And then I went off. I pivoted before other people, and I started making the podcast. So I have, you know, what I think business people would, you know, term, like, first movers advantage.
Arnie Sure.
Scott Benner Yeah. Like, I was out in front. And, I mean, I'm pretty diligent, you know, etcetera. Like, I treat it very seriously and whatnot. But the only thing that's saving me is that I built such a lead that I live in a slightly different category from everyone else because then they started coming like locusts after that. And I would tell you that I used to have a compulsion to pay attention to it, which I have not had for many, many years. But in the beginning, when I was more in the mindset that I was in a foot race and I was only a couple of steps ahead and I kept looking over my shoulder, I would pay attention to diabetes podcasts when they would pop up. And before I knew it, it had gotten to a 150 that had started and failed. And they all fail within a couple of months to a year, usually. And one or two hang on, sometimes three or four hang on. I can tell you that now, I don't know how many there are that are actively producing, but maybe three of them actually pop up on a top two fifty chart once in a while, or they'll jump up and then fall out again like that. But even at that level in a subcategory, it's not a lot of listens. Do you know what I mean?
Arnie Mhmm.
Scott Benner And so, you know, when I see somebody pop on to something and they're like, oh, I just wanna share. I wanna do this. What I think is you were trying to set up to make a business. And I think maybe somebody will come along and do a great job of it, but I don't know that the space allows it anymore. Like, my point is is that if I started over today, I think I'd fail in about four months. It's easy to think, oh, no, Scott, everybody listens and, like, it's so popular and they would find you again. I don't think that's true. I think the algorithms and the social media, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, they don't dole out the access like they used to. And if they give you too much of it, they'll take it away pretty quickly too. So people get popular. I just was interviewing... do you know the Boggs family?
Arnie Yeah. Type one. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Benner I was interviewing her yesterday. And she's like, at this point, it feels to me like TikTok's purposefully not serving my videos to people anymore. And, like, in some situations, it it... and we talked a lot about... it's weird that you came on today because we talked a lot about being on a platform that you have no control over. It would be like if I said to you, hey, build a house, but build it on this piece of wood, and I might come along and pull the wood out from under you, and you have no rhyme or reason for why I may or may not do that. I don't know. I guess what I'm saying is is that I worry that social media is just a bunch of people trying to do something and not necessarily a bunch of people sharing for other people. I wonder if they're not just talking to themselves and each other is what it... I wonder sometimes. And maybe I'm wrong or pompous. I don't know exactly. But when you get there, you see a lot of, like, woe is me. Is that the phrasing you used?
Scott Benner As I told you earlier, Able Now is sponsoring this episode. Able Now, of course, tax advantaged Able accounts for eligible individuals with disabilities. If you or your child lives with diabetes, you may qualify for an Able account because of ongoing medical needs. Many people in the diabetes community do. With ABLE now, you can save for future expenses without affecting eligibility for certain disability benefits such as Medicaid. And thanks to updates to federal law, ABLE accounts are now available to more people than ever before. That means more individuals and families can use ABLE now to save and invest. Funds in an ABLE now account can be used for a wide range of everyday needs, including education, transportation, health care, assistive technology, and more. There's no enrollment fee, and you can open an Able Now account with a small initial contribution and build from there. Learn more and check your eligibility at ablenow.com. That's ablenow.com, ablenow.com.
Arnie Yeah. Kinda woe is me. Yeah. Kinda like, not a lot of positive, I'll say, diabetes content. Like, hey. You can actually go and do stuff and live a normal life. And, I mean, there's content, right, where, you know, people are feeling site changes and and things like that.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Arnie But not a lot of, like, positive I don't wanna sound like a motivational speaker, but, you know, just positive outlook on life with diabetes.
Scott Benner Do you know why that is?
Arnie Probably because it's not popular.
Scott Benner Yeah. Nobody cares a lot.
Arnie Which is insane to me.
Scott Benner Yeah. The algorithm supports how people's brains work, and people's brains either want woe is me or they don't wanna be involved. They want complaining. They want you know, they like that. That's why political news is so popular. Right? Like, because it's just arguing. And listen. I put out a lot of positive stuff. It never gets traction. I just put up a post the other day. This is a good example. I put up a post the other day saying that Juicebox docs has been completely revamped. So if you're looking for an endocrinologist or a nurse practitioner or somebody who a listener has said has been really good, You know, I have a pretty extensive, beautifully searchable web page where you can go look for those people. It's free. It doesn't cost anything. I put up a post about it. People don't see it. They don't click on it. You're not blaming them. The algorithm is not showing it to them. And so then the next day for fun just to make myself feel bad, I put up a picture of gummy bears that has 25,000 views.
Arnie Right. Perfect. Yep.
Scott Benner And so a meaningless post about nothing with gummy bears that taste nice and are bling up your blood sugar. You know, you could try to build that up and then slip in some good stuff again. It won't work. So when people get on originally and they're like, hey. You know, I'm Arnie, and I this is really great information. I'm a runner. I have type one diabetes. I'm I'm pretty good at managing it. I know that's hard for people. Here's how I do it. Doesn't matter. It's not gonna take off in that system. People, the algorithm, the world, like, it doesn't care about that. It's sad, and I don't like it either. But it's partly why my thing is still able to work because I was able to build an ecosystem that is not those others. But then you have to wait for people with that interest to find it and come to it, And then you have to hope it's valuable enough to them that they tell somebody else about it, and then you've gotta wait for them to tell somebody else who's actually looking for that kind of information. It is a very slow burn to build something like this. If you wanted me to complain about Instagram around diabetes specifically, I hate that people with diabetes felt like they had to lean into trends to get views. And then on a completely separate note, I cannot explain to you nor can anybody else I know who works in this space or pays a lot of attention to it explain to you why site changes are so interesting to people.
Arnie Yeah. It's fascinating why that is, but that's a lot of the content.
Scott Benner But it's because it's the only thing... it's the only thing that gets views. Even the tech stuff is starting to die. Like, oh, the new CGMs come that... like, that kind of stuff, like, you know, exciting tech news, that's almost done too. You even watched it happen with cell phones and computers. Like, that used to be a big space in social media. Like, you know, the new computers out, the new... like, people got tired of it. They don't care anymore. Like, it's interesting how things ebb and flow. What's his name? The... oh, god. I wish I could remember his name. There's a guy who lives in Jersey who does tech stuff. He's huge, but I'm watching his views go down. Car stuff was huge for a while. That's going down. I used the example the other day that during COVID, reptile YouTubers were huge, and now they're almost completely collapsed. And I think talking about diabetes technology, no disrespect to anybody, like, I think it might follow this trend too. Like, it ain't getting that much better anymore. Like, I think that's the idea. Like, before, it was like, hey, people had, like, the... you know. Right? But you just said it. It was so exciting to go to a pen.
Arnie Right.
Scott Benner Like, right? Like, and then meters came out. I used to be able to get 50,000 clicks, like, putting up a picture of a of a new meter and saying, hey, there's a new meter out if you wanna check it out. It would it would draw people in. If I put up a picture of a meter now, nobody would look at it.
Arnie Unless you complain about that meter using our complaining logic.
Scott Benner Exactly. And that's even not working as well as it used to. Complaining about CGMs not lasting, it's not as attractive social media wise as it used to be. So I don't really talk like this very much, but I'm trying to help people. And at the same time, I don't wanna be doing the stuff that just hijacks the part of you that loves to complain or be mad or whatever. I'm not into that. I'm not gonna do that. And so I'm always looking at where people are trying to imagine how I could offset that with better content. Like, Jenny and I'll do a series later this year that's based on what people say they struggle with. But instead of complaining about the struggles, we're just gonna say, hey, look. Do you struggle with this? Because, you know, a recent thing we did, seven hundred and sixty five people said they struggle with this specific thing around type one diabetes. Here's content about how to help you not struggle with it instead of leaning into the struggle. I hate the woe is me stuff. I'm insulted by it.
Arnie Yeah. Understood. Yeah.
The Pricing Disconnect of Coaching
Scott Benner Yeah. And now, of course, I found a way to talk while your girls were quiet. But tell me, when you get there, you have that experience, you're thinking, I'm gonna start a coaching service. I got a coaching certification. And then what do you mean you didn't have the heart? What were you, first of all, learning people were charging for it?
Arnie I was looking at other coaches, other diabetes coaches, and I realized that the diabetes coaching... I'm gonna use the word industry, it's like a side industry. Like, there's this niche in the market where people don't wanna go to their endo or their endo isn't helpful or whatever. We've all had those experiences. So these diabetes coaching services started popping up. I mean, there's a lot of them.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Arnie But they charge, like, crazy amounts. We talked a minute ago. I make I make a comfortable living. Like, I'm not doing this to try to get out of my golden handcuffs job. Right? Mhmm. So I was like, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna open my DMs on Instagram, and I'm gonna start advertising that. You DM me whatever you wanna and we'll talk about whatever you wanna talk about. Do you have a question? We can talk for a month. We can talk for a day. Whatever you wanna talk about, I'm a free diabetes coach. Because I I kept going back to these same people who are charging what they charge would then turn around and be like, insulin should be free. Like, the incredible hypocrisy I I felt like I was seeing, and I'm a hypocrite too. Insulin should be free, but you should pay me $3,000 for twelve one hour sessions of of my time.
Scott Benner Well, if we're gonna be completely honest, Arnie, it's a business that's focused pretty much on people from a certain background through a certain age range with a certain income.
Arnie Sure. Right. Like yeah. Totally agree.
Scott Benner You're selling something to somebody that can afford that. And by the way, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. If you wanna sell a $3,000 service to somebody and they can afford it, and when it's over, they're gonna have a better outcome, then you know what? Maybe that's worth it to them and that's awesome. I come from the perspective with the podcast. The reason there's advertising on the podcast is because I thought, like, I don't think people should have to pay for this.
Arnie Right.
Scott Benner And I think diabetes coaching or maybe a lot of different life coaching, yeah, I think it all kind of falls into the same bucket, which is to say that, like, life's not as hard as you think it is when you're struggling with it. You just don't know the answer. You don't have the pathway laid out in front of you. You know, you can use people's finances as an example. You know, I just helped a person very close to me, a young person that in their mid twenties had gotten themselves into $25,000 worth of debt already, and it was completely ruining their life. And not just that, like, not just day to day. Like, they were working to pay credit card bills at this point. Sitting in their house, eating ramen noodles, you know, gaining weight, paying off credit card bills that weren't gonna be paid off for about fourteen years if they didn't buy another damn thing ever, which wasn't happening because they couldn't afford anything to begin with. Right? They were already stuck in that cycle. They asked me about it one day, and we started talking. And I said, I can put you on a plan to be out of this in eighteen months. Like, eighteen months, you'll be clear, and you'll probably have $5,000 saved. And they were like, I'll do that. And so I laid out for them how to do it to their credit. They did the things I said. They're six, eight months into it now. Everything's going exactly the way I said it was going to. But my... the secret here is I'm not some financial genius. I am just a person with common sense.
Arnie Right.
Scott Benner And when I talk about diabetes, it's the same thing. I am not like some, like, diabetes guru. Diabetes is as simple at its core. And if you follow the steps, generally, it works out about the way you expect it to. And then you can learn from that, build on it, and make your own thing. It's very simple. Your basal has to be right. You have to pre bolus meals. You have to understand the impacts of your food, you know, fat, protein, makeup of the food, that kind of stuff. Your insulin to carb ratio has to be right. Your insulin sensitivity has to be right. You have to have good settings. You have to have good settings and time the insulin well and understand the impact of the food. It's the whole damn thing. Shut the podcast off right now. You don't have to listen to it. Yeah. Okay?
Arnie That's right.
Scott Benner That's it. So if there are coaches out there helping people, except for the people who have really difficult situations, there's a ton of variables around it. Maybe that's where the coaching is most helpful. Like, that's actually what I like about Jenny is that, like, after she sets you up and gets you going, where her value with you is is that, like, she talks to you every week and talks to the variables that are impacting. Like, you've got the stuff set now, but other things still aren't going right. That's great. If you can get somebody to coach you through that, if you can get somebody to say to you, do this with your money, do this, put this here, blah blah blah, because you don't know any better because nobody ever taught you, then there's a ton of value in that. But, also, if you can't bring yourself to take that money from them, you personally, I understand you feeling that way because I have ads because in the end, I didn't wanna charge people to tell them that they should pre bolus because that just seems silly to me.
Arnie Right. Underplaced.
Scott Benner Yeah. And I didn't need the money that bad. But I'll tell you, there's... I've seen coaches out there. I don't know what they charge, but I've seen them celebrate their ten thousandth customer. And if you're telling me $3,000, I can do 10,000 times 3,000. Gotta tell you, that sounds like $3,000,000 to me. So maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's more than that. You know? Like, maybe my math is terrible. Hold on a second. Let's do it together. You might change your mind before this is over. You might say, you know what? So you're like, hey, Scott. You know what? Hold on. But, no, if if I had 10,000 customers over a handful of years and charge each of them $3,000... I'm sorry. Would I have $30,000,000? Is that right? Can that pot...
Arnie See, 3 thousand's got three zeros in it and 10,000 has four?
Scott Benner Is that right?
Arnie I think that's right.
Scott Benner See, there's a thing that sounds insane. Hold on a second. This is crazy. I know I'm right, but hey, ChatGPT. What's up?
Speaker 3 Hey, Scott. Not much. Just here to help you out or bounce ideas if you need. What's on your mind? Something about bling right.
Scott Benner Yeah. No. I just did some math, and it seemed crazy to me. So I just wanted to back it up here. If I charge 10,000 people $3,000, would I have $30,000,000 when it was over?
Speaker 3 Yeah. That math is right on the nose. 10,000 people each paying $3,000 would indeed get you to $30,000,000. It sounds huge when you say it, but the numbers don't lie.
Scott Benner Well, thank you. Hey. Listen. I'm recording a podcast right now. Is there anything you wanna say to the people listening to the Juice Box podcast before I say goodbye to you?
Speaker 3 Well, hello, Juice Box podcast listeners. Just a reminder, whatever big idea you're dreaming of, do the math, and then go for it. And keep listening to Scott. He's got good stuff for you.
Arnie That was a great sales pitch. Yeah.
Scott Benner Jeez.
Arnie For Chat GPT and for you.
Scott Benner I should have her do the ads. Yeah. For sure. Done. Wow. I maybe I'm gonna change my mind. Y'all gotta pay me. Wait. Wait. What the hell?
Arnie So I think what you're seeing there is I mean, you have a platform that you could you could probably make that leap and get to those numbers. Right? I don't know. I think my my thing with diabetes coaching in general is that, yeah, I I just struggle with the people that need the help. How do you get them the help that they need? Or and then they have to be coachable. Right? That's the other piece, which isn't up to me. It's up to them.
Scott Benner Yeah. No. I mean, listen. Also to say that it's not worth the money, there are some people that are... they're difficult to help. It's a slog. So they come to you and they say they want help, and then you start helping them, and then they fight with you the whole time. And at that point, the 3,000 probably doesn't seem like enough. Also yeah. Could you all just send me $5? Like, would that work? I think I could just retire if that happened.
Arnie Yeah. I mean Yeah. You'd be you'd be moving in no time.
Scott Benner Moving. Yeah. Oh, wait. Oh, wait. I told Arne before we started recording, I was thinking of moving. Listen. I still feel the same way. I mean, do I want $30,000,000? Yeah. But, like, no. At the same time, because that's not really... you said, Scott, I'm sure you have a big platform. You can do that. I couldn't. Because you'll very quickly find out who's willing to part with a dollar and who's not, and most people just aren't. For me, part of keeping it free, this thing for you guys and keeping this thing free for you guys, part of it is this, very, very simply. I worked in a credit union when I was a kid in the marketing department. And we were in this meeting one day trying to figure out how to get people to come into a branch to do something. I forget what the hell we were doing. And I said, why don't we just put dog shit in a bag and write free dog shit on it? And everybody looked at me and I said, I think my point is is that, like, people like to get free stuff. Why don't we just put a gift out? And I think you'll draw people in. People are unwilling generally to pay for things. Like, yes, somebody found thousands of people to pay them a couple of thousand dollars apiece. That's fine. But that's not that many people still. For a business, it's insane. 10,000 customers a couple thousand dollars. That's an insane business. Right? But 10,000 people, there are... I mean, what are there? 2,000,000 Americans living with type one at this point? Or 2,000,000 people across the world? Or I don't know how many people have...
Arnie I think it's 2,000,000 in the US. Yeah. That sounds good.
Scott Benner Point being, 10,000 of them is not a meaningful percentage. It's a great percentage for that business. It's not great for people living with diabetes. And so what I chose to focus on was reaching as many people as I could with the idea that, like, get your settings right, pre bolus your meals, you know, understand, you know, how fat and protein impact later, that kind of stuff. And then I've tried to add a lot to it since then, but I thought, like, I don't wanna help five people. I wanna try to help as many as possible. That's been my goal.
Arnie No. I appreciate that. I've I have personally benefited from some of the episodes on the podcast, so I hope to pay it forward today or tomorrow or whenever somebody sends me a free DM on on Instagram asking me.
Scott Benner Is that working? Are people reaching out to you?
Arnie So you'd be amazed at how many messages I've received. You know? So I've been doing this since I opened up my DMs in, like, June '24, so we'll call it two years.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Arnie I mean, I have people message me. I have three or four messages a day.
Scott Benner Yeah. That doesn't surprise me at all. But there's no part of you that says, like, if I got three or four messages a day, why don't I drop the price to $500? Like, if I'm doing it anyway, why don't I collect some money from it? Like, you're not feeling that way?
Arnie Not yet anyway. I kinda have the same mentality. Like, I told my wife this maybe nine months ago that, ultimately, what would be fantastic is to have paid ads on my page. I don't know how I would do that, but to continue to provide free coaching services, but have paid ads to try to make money that way. And I'm still so new to all this...
Scott Benner Yeah.
Arnie ...social media and all of it. I I don't know how any of that works, to be completely honest.
Scott Benner And I wanna say in fairness to people listening, I have no idea if you're any good at it or if you know what you're talking about even. That's that's neither here nor there. Also, I just want people to understand, like, Arnie being here today, like, I didn't know this is what we were talking about. Like, I really do not pay attention to what people are coming from the podcast for. And so, like, I just I'm interested that this popped up. And in a week where I'm always weirded out by how this happens, like, there's been so much of this conversation this week, you know, with different people that I've been recording with. Maybe it's something in the water months ago when we when everybody sets up or whatever. I have no idea. In fairness, like, I'm not pimping Arnie. I don't know. He might kill you. I have no idea. Yeah. I don't know. He might show up at your house and dismember your body and throw it in a river. I absolutely do not know Arnie at all. But I like this conversation about, like, you got into that thing thinking, oh, I'll make a business. And then can I ask, is it religion? Is it that you make enough money? Like, where was the pang that hit you in the heart that slowed you down from your initial idea of, like, I'll start a coaching business?
Arnie I don't know that I ever thought about... I never came in with the intention of of making a business. First off, I was just trying to get my name out there to help me get on the marathon team.
Scott Benner Really?
Arnie Because yeah. Because in 2023, late twenty three, when I decided to get on the marathon team or to try to apply, one of the things they ask for is, like, your handles so that they can see because they want you to try to generate, you know, some some buzz around the marathon and try to get people applying all that.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Arnie And I didn't have any of that. And I was like, well, I have to have this, or I'm not gonna get... you know, they're not even gonna look at my application to be on the marathon team. And that's when I was exposed to diabetes coaching. Like, I got ads for for diabetes coaching, and I was like, what in the world? These people are charging what they're charging. Like, I can do that today. Yeah. And that's kinda how the the process started.
Scott Benner I've heard all kinds of stories from people who have used different coaching services. Some of them say, like, it was a feel good, like, cheerleader experience. Yeah. But I don't think I know anything more about diabetes than I did before I started.
Arnie Which would be infuriating to me as a customer thinking I'm going to get diabetes coaching, I'm getting, like, a...
Scott Benner A pat on the ass.
Arnie Pat on the back. Yeah. Get out there, kid. You can do it.
Scott Benner By the way, I'll do that for free for you right now. You guys can do it. I promise. Go ahead.
Arnie Yeah. I mean, my advice is free, and sometimes it's worth what you pay it. Sometimes it's not. But, I mean, it depends on if you come with a problem that I, like, I can't do anything about, I can talk to you about it, and I can try to listen to you. And I get some of that. You know? And some of it's very specific questions. I mean, I've been around the block long enough that I think I can handle and address most people's concerns. I have some frequent flyers feel they come to me once, two, three, four times a week. I'm like, hey. You know?
Somatic Awareness and the "Blood Sugar Ninja" Game
Scott Benner Well, can I ask you a question? What if it got so popular that it took up all your time? Because, like, I went out to lunch with Arden yesterday, and I was working, like, sitting there, like, from my phone. Right. Because there's something I had to do. I mean, this podcast and the surrounding community around it encompasses most of my waking hours. And, like, I don't know what you all were doing last night at 01:00 in the morning, but I was sitting up fixing code on a web page. And you know what I mean? Like, when it turns into that and your wife is like, hey, you don't talk to us anymore because you're coaching people for free online, that's gonna be a a loggerhead for you.
Arnie We've had some of those conversations already. Not that I've spent a sufficient amount of time to, like, curl a warrant. Like, hey, dummy. Like, we're still married, you have kids. Like, you need to let me take care of...
Scott Benner By the way, I don't know how long you've been married, but I assume the hey, dummy part every time my wife opens her mouth even if she doesn't say that.
Arnie Yes, sir. 1100%. It's there. Upset or unsaid, it is there. I feel I feel it.
Scott Benner I'm so sorry. Go ahead.
Arnie No. You're... you're exactly right. But we've had some of those conversations. Like, what would it take to have to leave work? Does this become a full time thing? Like, I can't do it... you know, I can't do two full time jobs and be a full time dad.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Arnie So we've had some of those conversations way too prematurely. Right? Because I don't have any idea what I'm doing with trying to build this. I'm literally just making this up as I go. I think that's part of the fun, honestly.
Scott Benner Yeah. The scaling is near impossible. You know, Kenny Fox has been on here a number of times. He's really great with Loop, and he has a service like this. It's a pay service. And I was just talking to him last week about it. And, you know, he again, people come. They meet him. They like what he does. They have success and everything. But how do you meet the next person? Like, it's a difficult process. Right. Like, you have to be... it's almost like it feels like, you know, you either have to be out in front or you have to be relentless, like a real like like a business mind and really, like, business it up to get it to where it's going and have a little bit of that social media, like, swagger at the same time. It takes a lot to to draw in enough people where you know? Because by the way, you use the number 3,000. I really don't know what any of it cost. But, like, if you have two customers, well, you might be able to go make $6,000 a lot easier at a job. Do you know what I mean? Like, that that that... and especially when one of them leaves, and now suddenly your income's $3,000. And then you lose the next one, and you can't find the next one again. Like, that's different. I mean... but, you know, basic math, and this is, you know, this is how people make money online at this point. Like right? Like, you don't need all of the customers. You just need enough of them to make a living. You know, that is a business model that's all over America and and maybe the globe at this point. Right? Like, you know, think about it. 10 people paying you $3,000 over twelve weeks, you made $30,000 in three months. You made $10,000 a month. Just like that. That's more than a fair living. And if you do it well and you can scale it to 20 people, then now you make $20,000 a month. And, you know, if you can... then now you gotta get 20 people for this twelve weeks, 20 people for that twelve weeks, and that's when the panic comes in. And that's when it turns into social media. In that same feeling that those people have, like, put up a video and the video's got 5,000 views, and I need to get to 10,000 views, and I gotta get to 20 because I gotta get to 50 because I gotta get to one. Like, that's when you're gonna be in that mad rush of chasing. There are not many people that are built for that. It's unrelenting. It really is. And you have to be able to give it away at some point, and you can only give it away if you're having success. Like, when people are like, oh, you used to worry more about how the podcast was doing. Like, I did when I was building it. I'd worry about it all the time. Now that it's what it is, I don't have to worry about it as much. Not about the content. That's stuff I actually have more time to think about now. But, like, oh my god, this is gonna fail any second feeling. I lived with that for eleven years. It's not fun thinking like this thing I built is a house of cards and it's just gonna blow away. So I don't know. Like, it's not for the faint of heart and that you're gonna see a lot of people trying to do it only if you are gonna succeed. Maybe even fewer than that are gonna be valuable for the people. And then it's up to all you out there to go find it. I will say this, like, Arne, you being here is very uncommon because I have a very simple rules, like, in my Facebook group, and one of them is no coaches. Like, no health coaches allowed in that group. You can't pimp yourself in there. You can't do that. Like, I just don't let that happen because who knows who's who. And, you know, I don't wanna be on the hook for saying this guy's good or this guy's bad. This is why, you know, in maybe unfair to you, but that's why your conversation's gone this way because, like, I'm not here to say you're great or people need health coaches. I'm saying, you know, this is an interesting story about the back way of of how kinda how it works. I hope you're okay with that. Like, you seem like you are.
Arnie Yeah. No. No. Yeah. Yeah. It's been an interesting journey so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing where it's going. You know, we've talked about a lot of different things. I had a couple bullet points that, like, I thought I was gonna try to go through today, and I think we've touched like, I'm Arnie, which has been fantastic because the conversation has flowed.
Scott Benner No. Tell me what we have time left. What else is on your list?
Arnie I'm a parent of two kids. I see parents who I'm gonna use the word, like, paralyzed by not trusting the tech. Right? Because we we wanna trust the tech. We rely on the tech because the kids don't know their, you know, their blood sugar symptoms just yet. I had such trust with my parents when I was young because I learned my symptoms very early. And I could tell them, like, hey. I'm high or low or in the middle. Right? When Arden was growing up, you probably said, hey. What do you think you are before you checked her her profile?
Scott Benner All the time.
Arnie All the time. Right? Yeah. So we did that too, and the whole family would guess. I had to guess first, right...
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Arnie ...to give the family a frame of reference. Right? Like, I can't be, like, you know, mislead them. You know? So you had to play honest. But I've turned that into, just in the last couple weeks, more of like a game. I call it blood sugar ninja. And you have to don't look at your CGM. We don't trust the tech. Right? That's a big complaint out there right now. Don't trust your CGM. Don't look at it. Guess what your blood sugar is, and then check on the meter. And then report your results is something that I'm trying to push right now really hard to try to teach kids through their parents teaching them, like, to know what their blood sugar symptoms are. And you you can start out by saying, do you think you're high, low, or in the middle? Right? Because back in the day, we didn't have CGM. So anytime I was checking, I was going to either give insulin for a meal or something was wrong, and I needed to correct either be a high or a low.
Scott Benner Arne, is that actually a a valid way to figure out what your blood sugar is? You people can get accustomed to higher blood sugars and not feel it anymore. Like, you know, there's... hey. Listen. I'll I'll tell you, like, I appreciate the idea because I've done it as well. Like, hey. What do you think you are trying to get her to feel, like, whatever she feels right now and give her context for it? But I also told my daughter, if how you felt was a valuable measure, we wouldn't need this meter or this CGM. How do you balance that?
Arnie I think that's why you you check. You feel what you think you are, and you check. You don't rely on completely on what you feel. Just like you don't completely rely on the tech. Like, people will say, my CGM's telling me I'm this, and I definitely know that I'm not. It's a similar vein of that. Right? And I'm not saying that you should get rid of your CGM. I'm not saying you should get rid of your tech. But I think going through the, hey. What do you think you are? Or playing what I call blood sugar ninja.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Arnie And you're you're exactly right about people being accustomed to being higher. Right? So, ideally, your blood sugar's in range, you begin to feel how you're supposed to feel. You feel normal when you're in your normal range. Right?
The Illusion of Online Grievances
Scott Benner Let me go back to something we talked about earlier and maybe, like, warn against something a little bit. So you said I see people online that say they don't trust their technology. You see it a lot. Right? But we also said that people just like to complain online because that's the only thing that gets views. And when people are newer at things and don't understand how stuff works as much, they are more apt to run to the Internet to tell the Internet how bad this thing is.
Arnie Agreed. Yeah.
Scott Benner And I would just warn against this. We said earlier, if there's two million people living with diabetes and you see fifty of them online complaining about the Libre, you know, that means there's a lot more of them out there who are not complaining about it. It's easy to see people online complaining and thinking that's how things are going. It's hard to remember that most people aren't even online, and that online is a thing that drags people to wanna complain, to want to look for sameness in that complaint, to do the woe is me thing with other people because it feels easy and good and it feels comforting.
Scott Benner Contextually, I started writing a blog in February. I started making this podcast twenty fifteen January. This podcast has 1,800 episodes, like 21 and a half million downloads. It's, you know...
Arnie It's incredible.
Scott Benner It's in the top 30 of the medicine category in The US for, like, eight years and in, like, 45 other countries. It charts. And I see a lot of people and a lot of conversations. And what I can tell you is that when you get past the beginning part and get to the rest of it and go talk to those people again, they don't talk about it the same way anymore. So you have to be careful that you're not listening to the uninitiated or the recently initiated when they complain. Now I'm not saying that all the technology is perfect or that it doesn't need to be improved. I'm certainly not saying this. As a matter of fact, I'm spending a lot of my time over the last couple of weeks and then in the coming months doing a, like, a consulting kind of a thing with Dexcom to tell them all the things that I see people talking about that, you know, they're doing a lot of fact finding and wanna make sure they're doing the right stuff.
Arnie Thank you for doing that.
Scott Benner Oh, no. Please. I'm being paid for that. So don't worry.
Arnie But still, companies need feedback. So I appreciate you doing that.
Scott Benner Yeah. No. No. It's big chunks of time, like, when they do it. But, whatever. Like, you just make space in the calendar and and do it. Right? But, like so that's important. The other thing you learn when you sit down with a bunch of people who really know what they're talking about and are using the devices that they've figured out a lot of ways to not have those problems, or you start realizing the things that other people might be doing incorrectly that lead to some of the problem. Like, there's a lot more to it than just the thing is supposed to be perfect and the thing didn't perfect. And I'll tell you something. I hope it doesn't sound out of context and, like, pompous. I think I've used that word, like, three times today. But but I will tell you that I think that part of my job is to ignore what people think they need and give them what they actually need. I don't know if that makes sense or not.
Arnie It does completely. Yeah. Makes complete sense.
Scott Benner If you knew what you were doing, sometimes you wouldn't be asking the questions you're asking. And so when I sat down with that person to help them with their money, everything they were saying was wrong. You could tell how they got in that situation. And then they started offering ideas like, well, I tried this and I tried that and I tried this. I'm like, yeah. None of those things were gonna work. You don't know that because you don't have the context for it. Nobody educated you about it. Your parents didn't raise you well with this information. Right? Whatever. Switching that over to diabetes, when you hear people complaining, they are sometimes just complaining because contextually, they're lost or they don't have the right education or they don't understand something. And taking the cue from them about where to go next is only gonna keep you on their path. So anyway, that's a long long way of saying, like, be careful of how you judge the value of what's needed based on what you see people arguing about or complaining about on the Internet because they are the minority. They often don't know what they're talking about. And if they did, these aren't the things they'd be asking for help with. Does that make sense?
Arnie No. It does. And I appreciate that advice.
Scott Benner Yeah. No. Seriously. I you're gonna help people. You gotta help them, not just hold their hand while they're saying the wrong thing and go, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know how much this sucks. Because you can tell them how much it sucks, but then you gotta get them to pivot from the thing they wanna do or the thing they're inclined to do to the thing that's actually gonna help them. And some people are gonna hear that and think, oh, that's just a person who's a little farther ahead on the path looking back and helping people behind. And there are some people who are gonna feel lost, hear that, and think I'm an asshole for saying it. Like, you don't understand me. You don't understand my life. Yeah. I hear you. But I bet, yeah, I could sit with you for a couple of days and make five or six little tweaks to ideas you have or things you do and put you in a different position, and you might think differently about this a week or two from now.
Arnie It's fantastic to watch people, like, human psychology, like, of those two responses. You think you're talking to someone about what you think they need and not what they're telling you they need, but they can't get to that path yet because that path hasn't been laid in their brain quite yet. It's it's fascinating to watch.
Scott Benner Believe what they see. Yeah. And there's no reason for them not to. Like, right, like, people don't make poor decisions. Forget diabetes. Like, people don't make poor decisions because they get up in the morning, go, I'm gonna make a bunch of decisions that six months from now will put me $10,000 in debt, and then two years from now will put me $25,000 in debt. Let's get moving on that. Every step along the way, this person I'm talking about was doing what they thought was right. They were trying. They just didn't have all the facts. And they were in a system that was, you know, hedged against them. They were already set up to lose. You know, you can't... and finances for people who don't have a lot of money and can't just buy their way out of a problem is very simple. Like, once you get behind, you're screwed. When you hear me talk about insulin, what do I say? Get ahead. Stay ahead. Right? Like, it's all the same stuff. Like, I try to say this over and over again. Like, I don't think about diabetes any differently than I think about everything else in the world. Like, you know, get ahead, stay ahead, have a good foundation, know the next thing that's gonna happen, trust yourself, trust what you know you see something happen, trust it. And it's hard advice to take, and sometimes it's hard to do in the moment, But that's why you go to someone else and say, I'm struggling. And then when you get to them, you tell them, no. You're wrong. Like, I don't help people one on one privately at all, and but I used to a long time ago before I had the podcast. Like, I was one of those people that somebody'd be like, you should ask that guy. He might be able to help you. And I've talked to a lot of people, but, like, at some point, your time becomes valuable. More people are reaching out to you. And I used to start these conversations by saying, listen. I'm sure you feel like you wanna explain to me everything that's happened to you for the last year, you know, and why you're in this situation. But with absolute respect, I'm gonna tell you, if you knew what you were talking about, you wouldn't be on the phone with me right now. So why don't we just start with what I think, and let's see where that gets you? And, like, I let people talk it out on the podcast because it's valuable when you're listening to hear their thought process and how it misled them because then, you know, you can say, oh, well, wow. I am... I'm doing that too. Like, you know what I mean? Like, there's a value for having that conversation that way. But when you're one on one with somebody, maybe other people are better than I am, but I don't have the fortitude to listen to your crazy path of bad decisions. Like, you you know what I mean? Like, I didn't let the person tell me, like, all the things they did wrong to get them in the debt. I was just like, yeah. Well, you don't know what you're talking about. Try this. And...
Arnie How does those past decisions affect your advice to them now? Yeah. It doesn't. It doesn't matter. No.
Arnie It's meaningless. You've sailed to the new world, and you burnt the ships. Like, we're at the new world. Like, let's go.
Scott Benner Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Don't tell me how we got here. I know how we got here. Again, not because you were not trying.
Arnie Intentionally.
Scott Benner Yeah. Nothing intentional about it. Like, you just don't have good... it's the same thing with everything. Like, people don't parent poorly because they mean to parent poorly. Like, people aren't bad friends. Nobody's brain works that way. Maybe some people in government. But other than that, most people's brains don't work that way. And so, like, I just assumed they have good intentions, and now we're talking, which means they're motivated. And I don't wanna spend a lot of time hearing what went wrong. Now after you start talking a little bit and they get a little context, then sometimes it is interesting to hear how they made those decisions because you can help them not make future decisions with the same thought processes. I'm saying on day one when you're getting set up, I don't need to know what you think because what you think got us here. Why don't you try what I think for a second and see? And maybe I'm wrong too. God bless. I'm not saying I'm right about everything, but at least now you have a different perspective and you can sit back and try to absorb it and see if you think it's valuable. I've tried to help people with money in the past who have not taken my advice, and those people are still broke. But, like... and and still struggling. But this... I'm using this one person as an example who had the lack of ego to say, tell me what you think. I'm gonna try that. And then actually calls me every once in a while to say, hey, I'm doing great. This is where we're at. I'm up to this part. I almost got this paid off. No small stuff, man. Like, I made that person move back home with their parents. And by made, I mean, like I said, this is your only option. Right. You know what I mean? I was like, I'm I I didn't actually force them. But, like, you know, I said to, like, look. Here's what you need to do. I'm like, right now, you know, you're way out over your skis. You owe more than you're ever gonna make. Like, this will literally haunt you for the rest of your adult life. $25,000 is gonna ruin the rest of your adult financial life. You're never gonna get out from under this. And I was like, I think you need a clean start, and you need to think about how you spend your money differently. And so I talked to her about how to spend money differently, put her in a couple of different situations, got her out of a car that was messing her up. I called her parents and said, listen. You gotta let her move back home for eighteen months. You know, this is how this is gonna work. This is how this is gonna work. I basically told the parents, you need to take out a home equity loan, pay off her debt. She's gonna give you back this much money every month, and you're gonna have all your money back plus the equity loan will be paid off in eighteen months. She'll pay the interest as well for you. Then you need to let her stay a little longer to put away a little bit more money before she leaves. And then I took her, and I was like, you have to do these things. You are taking money from your parents. You cannot screw this up. Like, you absolutely have to do what you say you're gonna do. They need their money back in this frame of time, or you're gonna put them and you in a bad situation. So they're almost done now. They almost have their money back. She's, you know, almost to the point where she's saving money and getting going. She's in a car she can afford. She makes much different decisions with her money month to month. And I don't know. She might be back in this situation three years from now, but at least I know if it happens to her again, it's a decision she made, not a path she was set on before she knew what the hell she was talking about. And I don't know. Like, I don't think this diabetes thing is any different than that big picture thought wise. I don't think anything's different than that, really. Anyway, I'm sorry. So what are you gonna do? Let's say this comes out and, you know, five people get ahold of you.
Arnie Sure.
Scott Benner And you're like, I could charge some of them $500. Where's the courage of your convictions on this free thing? How long is this gonna go for?
Arnie I don't... I'll probably keep it going until I can't sustain it as free. The time becomes valuable so that free is not an option anymore...
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Arnie ...if I have enough demand. But even then, I don't know. Taking all this this day by day, and, you know, it it's been very interesting to see how my social media presence has changed. I started doing running dedication videos. I was dedicating training runs to kids. I put out, like, a basically, hey, if you want me to dedicate a run to your diabetic kid, I'll send in a little message and and share it on my story.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Arnie And doing positive things like that, I think, has helped. Now do I get a ton of clicks on that? I don't know. I don't care. I've tried to maintain that views and clicks don't matter and that I'm not trying to make money off of this and that the person that I'm talking to is gonna see this when they need to see it.
The Mechanics of Tech Platforms
Scott Benner Yeah. They don't matter in your life. In the real world, they don't matter. They do matter if you're trying to build that thing up. I mentioned this the other day, so I feel weird saying it again. But, like, yeah, I saw a fairly big organization the other day put out this really great, like, well conceived, like, thoughtful social media content, it had two likes on it after, like, four days. I was like, oh my god. They must be, like, apoplectic over there looking at this. Like, I can't imagine all the money and time and people's effort that went into making this series of posts they put up that no one saw. Like, it's gotta be incredibly... I mean, gotta be. It's frustrating. But it was all good information. None of it was sad or, like, you know, what's that one thing they what do they call it? Like, like, sadness porn or something like that. Like... oh, yeah. It wasn't... it wasn't anything like that. Nobody saw it. I saw a big organization, a pump company do a live the other day. 13 people were watching it. And I'm pretty sure that the two people on the live count as part of the 13. When I laid on it, I was now part of the 13, and you gotta think that four or five people from the company were watching at the same time, like, a lawyer, stuff like that. And I'm like, oh my god. No one's watching this. So, like, I got super interested in it. I went back and checked it, like, a day or two later because I thought, well, you know, fine. Nobody watched it live, but it'll maybe it'll get views later. I mean, it was up to 490 views, like, days later. I was like, oh, god. I was like, all the effort and time. Like, there was a person on there. I know they paid that person to be in this video. And I'm like, 490 people. You could've walked outside and screamed, hey, does anybody have type one diabetes? You know what I mean? And then walked up to him and said, here's a pamphlet for our pump. Like, I mean, it might have been a better use of your time and a hell of a lot cheaper. It's just a weird world, and the algorithms don't want you to win. They want you to try. Like so listen. For anybody who's trying to do this, who wants the advice of a person who's been doing this way too long, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, those kinds of places, they don't want you to be successful because you being successful means that you took their users and redirected them to a different link. And they don't want their users to leave their platform. They want them to live there constantly as long as they can so they can feed them as many ads as they possibly can. To Facebook, you are... it's the matrix. You're in a bubble and they're pumping ads at you. That's what TikTok's doing. That's what Instagram's doing. Instagram's owned by Meta. Meta owns Facebook. Like, these are, like, big companies making countless, countless dollars off of ad revenue. They can't serve you ad revenue if you're not in their system. So what they do is is they carry you, Arnie, and they carry me. They go, look. If you come here, you can build an audience, and you can build a life off of that audience. That's what they're saying to people. And then they get you in there, and you do all the work. You make the content for them. You draw in the people. You build the fan base up. You get people interested in what you're saying. You draw in more people from them. So they are using you as the magnet to bring in people that they can serve ads to. So the last thing in the world they're gonna let you do is redirect those people out once they get you in there. And then they're gonna give you a little success every once in a while so that you think, oh, it's getting ready to work. I just have to try a little longer.
Arnie I'm in control. I have control.
Scott Benner Yeah. It's like a slot machine. You're like, oh my god. Like, I'm losing. I'm losing. I'm losing. Then all of a sudden, some money falls out and you go, oh, I'm gonna put in another $100. Like, this is gonna pay me again. Then it does and it does and it doesn't. Then it gives you a little bit... it's like having sex when you're married. And then they give you a little bit again, and then you go, oh, I'll pull on this lever. I'm gonna get back into it again. Like, it's gonna happen again. It's gonna happen again. You're not set up to win. They're the house. You're going to lose. But in that time, you're gonna draw in... listen. I have 85,000 people in my private Facebook group. Right? Like, if I put up a link to something completely valuable to them, that algorithm will squelch it immediately. It will not let people see it. So if I'm like, hey, there's a list of doctors that could help you here... anything I might say, they're not gonna let you say it. They don't want you to leave. They want you there. So that is what you're all fighting against or that's what's being done to you if you're on the other side of it. It's not winnable. And they did a good job in the beginning of getting people like me, like, OG people like me to think, this was how it worked. Because I used to write a blog post and put it on Facebook, and, like, a 100,000 people would see it, like, twenty four, forty eight hours. It was insane. It's almost like they made some people big enough to make everybody else believe that it was doable. Do you know what I mean?
Arnie Right. Yeah. To get hooks in. Yeah. To for others. This is... this is appetizing. Yeah.
Scott Benner Listen. Like, I'm a fan of the mister beast videos. I like them, and I'm sure he's got a lot of good ideas. And I've heard him talk before about, like, a thumbnail needs to look exactly like this and this. Like like, it worked for him and you're not arguing about it, but, like, it's not rocket science what he's saying out loud. Like, he just did it. The algorithm rewarded him. He built on it. Now, I mean, he's clearly got a lot of business sense to, like, to propel it the way he has. But my point is is that if you took that all away and made that go away right now and let him start over today, if that algorithm doesn't decide that he's the one, then it just doesn't happen. Right. You know?
Arnie It's the casino. It's this... I refer to it as a social media casino. It's funny you said the slot machine. Yeah. That's what... that's what I call it.
Scott Benner It's exactly what it... and listen. I had a a lovely person that works at Facebook. It was nice enough to get on the phone with me one time. I was trying to figure out what I was doing, and I used everybody listening to the podcast. And I reached out, and I said, does anybody know anybody who works at Meta? And got ahold of somebody. Inside of five seconds on the conversation, the person said to me, I wish we would have had this conversation like a year and a half ago. I could have helped you. And I was like, what do you mean? And they said, oh, just recently, they took away our ability to turn up people's volume. And I was like, what are you saying? And she's like, basically, a year and a half ago, I could have just decided to make your podcast more popular on Facebook.
Arnie They control the throttle. Isn't that insane?
Scott Benner She said employees were allowed to kinda, like, pick and choose and amplify people when they wanted to. And I guess what was happening was that people were starting to sell it, so they stopped it from happening. Oh. But that's not the point. The point of it is I'm working my ass off trying to get good information out to people. And what you're telling me is is there's an invisible hand holding my top of my head where it is. And it can push my head down if they want to, or they can let it rise up if they want to. It's not my effort or the quality of what I'm doing that keeps me where I am. It's an unseen electronic force that says this is as popular as you're allowed to be.
Arnie Which sounds un-American.
Scott Benner Do you know, like, once a year, Facebook lets me have more followers for about six or eight weeks, and then it pushes me back down to the amount that I get. So, like, my group adds about a 150 new people about every three days. At certain times, it gets fewer, and then there's a gap of time where it jumps up so much that you realize that something else is controlling it. Because you don't go to, like... by the way, a 150 people every three days isn't a massive amount of people to add to a Facebook group. It's already a huge number. But once in a while, the throttle comes off, and I'll get, like, three, five hundred people every forty eight hours. And it'll go on for a while. And then it's almost like somebody notices it and just goes, oh, how did this switch get flipped? And then puts it back again. Downloads for the podcast work the same way. I do the same downloads day after day after day after day after day after day. Same unique people within a few 100. Like, it's pretty close. Right? And then a new iOS comes out for Apple, and it's clear they just didn't tune it exactly the way they want. And all of a sudden, thousands and thousands more people heard the podcast that day. And then they put out a patch to the iOS, and it goes back to where it was. It's really interesting. Like, you are not in any kind of control of this stuff at all. And that's my point of saying what I said earlier. It's like, you're trying to build a business on the back of that platform, you are setting yourself up to put a lot of effort and time and maybe money, blood, sweat, equity into something that literally somebody could just go like, oh, why is this switch like this? And then it's over. But everyone thinks that the switch is gonna get flipped the other way and they're gonna be mister beast when it's done. And I'm telling you, he's the guy. They're not gonna let that happen to other people.
Arnie Yeah. He... he escaped the asylum. Yeah. He's the one that... that got away.
Scott Benner He is it now. Yeah. They're beholden to him at this point. You know what I mean? Like, the lunatics took over the asylum is an exact right way to say, like... not that he's a lunatic, but, like, he got... you know, he broke out, and there's nothing they can do about it at this point. So, but that's not gonna happen. It's the same thing. I use this example so much, but my son used to play baseball with this kid. He was so nice, but he was so small. And his parents were really tiny, and they were just so sure, like, he was gonna play professional baseball. And he was so talented. Like, he was just tiny. You know? And his dad told me one day, he's like, oh, you know Dustin Pedroia? He points to, like, you know, the second baseman for the Red Sox back then. He was this little guy. And I was like, yeah. That's him. He got that. The league's not gonna fill up with five-five second baseman. That's not gonna happen. Then they go, well, Jose Altuve. And I went, okay. Well, there's two. I... you know, I'm like, yeah, I'm like, your kid's not gonna be the third one. There's not gonna be 50. I'm like, this is a random thing that happens to random people for random reasons. Not a thing you should plan for. Your five-six kids should not be planning to be a professional baseball player.
Arnie You don't plan to win the lottery. Yeah.
Closing and Community Links
Scott Benner Well, yeah. Exactly. I'm sorry. I talk so much during this, Arne. I almost feel bad.
Arnie No. You're good.
Scott Benner So I'll button this up for you here. How do people find you on Instagram or wherever you're gonna be? I hope this helps you. I don't know that it will, but, like, give people your socials.
Arnie If it does help me, so be it. And if it doesn't, so be it. That's kind of the great thing. Me being free, I don't lose or gain anything. I get incredible satisfaction from people who come back to me and go, hey, I did what you told me to, and and I'm feeling a lot better. I've... I've... I've improved. So I...
Scott Benner Feels good. Doesn't it?
Arnie Where my payment is. Oh, it's...
Scott Benner ...so good. Yeah. Don't that feel great when people are succeeding? Wonderful.
Arnie So my socials are at type underscore run underscore diabetic. Type run diabetic on Instagram. I'm not on TikTok. As a 38 year old man, I can only manage one and a quarter... I could say the quarter... I'm on Facebook as well. I can only manage one and a quarter social media platforms at a time.
Scott Benner It's a lot of work. And the worst kind of work, Arne. The kind of work that as you're doing it, you're like, I know I'm wasting my life right now. I...
Arnie Well, it's funny. I get to do it, and I'll... I'll finally think, like, I think I know what I'm doing, and then I don't. I get just... it's like the rug gets pulled out from under me. And not that I have, like, incredible content, but it's like, oh, I did a much better job editing that reel. You know? Oh, yeah. I forgot I still don't know what I'm doing.
Scott Benner And meaningless. And it doesn't matter. And it's gone. Yeah. No. What I've learned is is just hold the camera in front of your face and talk and don't even edit it. It's really not worth the effort of the time.
Arnie What I've learned is that me not being in my content is my best content. I have a post where I have a trunk full of diet soda. I went to the grocery store for two cans of green beans, and they were having buy three, get three free 12 packs of diet soda. So I bought, like, six different kinds and and took a picture of of all that in my trunk with the two cans of green beans that I meant to go there for. I posted, this is without a doubt the best time in history to be living as a diabetic. Yeah. And I do believe that sincerely whether we talk about Diet Coke or all the tech we have available, and it's almost at a million views.
Scott Benner Isn't that funny? Like, what?
Scott Benner Can I tell you I've never done anything that's gone viral ever?
Arnie I find that hard to believe.
Scott Benner Never. Never. Never. Never. My most popular blog post is a picture of a a guy with type one who's in such good shape that he's got, like, no body fat, and he's wearing his pod on his chest. And the idea was, like, hey. Listen. If this guy can wear an Omnipod, I don't wanna hear from your, "my kid's too lean."
Arnie Right.
Scott Benner And the other one was I took a picture of myself one time. I was exhausted. I put arrows all over it to, like, the bags under my eyes and all the stuff that was going wrong with me, and I was like, this is how you can tell your kid has type one diabetes. That's maybe the most popular thing I've ever done. And I think the ProTip series alone has well over, like, a half a million downloads, And the Omnipod five series has a lot, hundreds and hundreds of thousands. What I mean is, like, I've never, like, held my camera up, took a picture, and then suddenly been like, there's a million views on this. Like, I've... Right. Never once happened. I don't imagine it ever would. I don't even know what I would do if it did. Like, don't... I think it would matter. I saw this great video the other day of this girl's, like, making content, and, you know, it's pretty popular to tell people how much money you make, like, making content.
Arnie No. I didn't know that.
Scott Benner Yeah. There's a content level of just content creators showing other people how much money you can make making content. I hate that. I also hate the one where people tell you how to be successful. Yeah. Like, "I'm successful. You can be too." And I'm like, no. No one can...
Arnie If you have to say "I'm successful"...
Scott Benner Well, they are. They have a lot of views, but all they're selling is hope. They're just selling hope.
Arnie Yeah. Right.
Scott Benner All they're saying is, like, "Do you wanna get where I am? I know you do. Like, this is what I did to get here." And by the way, if you go to ChatGPT, which I know people have done and say, how do I make my stuff more popular? Everything it gives you back will not be valuable. It will be right. It's the only thing you can do, but it won't actually work. Like, all those, like, clip services, like, give us your content. We'll clip it up for you. None of that's going to work. None of this works the way you expect. So, anyway, I forget what I was saying even. We gotta go.
Arnie We were in the process of buttoning.
Scott Benner I was buttoning? What was I? Buttoning?
Arnie We were buttoning up.
Scott Benner No. Yeah. Well, we're done then. Arnie, I appreciate you doing this. I don't imagine this went the way you thought it was going to. I didn't know what we were gonna talk about before we started, and you maybe had the misfortune of coming on on a week where I've already been complaining about social media a lot with my recordings. But, like, I do really appreciate the conversation, and I hope you find a way to help people for free, and and I hope you're so valuable to them that it turns into a real business for you, and it's valuable. You know what I mean? So...
Arnie Yes, sir. I appreciate that, Scott. Absolutely. For having me on.
Scott Benner Oh, of course. Hold on one second. A huge thanks to today's sponsor, AbleNow. AbleNow offers tax advantaged able accounts for eligible individuals with disabilities. If you or your child lives with diabetes, you may qualify because of ongoing medical needs. With ABLE now, you can save for a wide range of disability related expenses without affecting eligibility for certain disability benefits such as Medicaid. And thanks to recent federal law updates, more people are eligible than ever before. Learn more and check your eligibility at ablenow.com. You spell that ablenow.com. There's links in the show notes and links at juiceboxpodcast.com.
Scott Benner I'd like to remind you again about the MiniMed seven eighty g automated insulin delivery system, which of course anticipates, adjusts, and corrects every five minutes twenty four seven. It works around the clock so you can focus on what matters. The juice box community knows the importance of using technology to simplify managing diabetes. To learn more about how you can spend less time and effort managing your diabetes, visit my link, medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox.
Scott Benner I'd like to thank the blood glucose meter that my daughter carries, the Kontoor Next Gen blood glucose meter. Learn more and get started today at Kontoor Next dot com slash juice box. And don't forget, you may be paying more through your insurance right now for the meter you have than you would pay for the contour next gen in cash. There are links in the show notes of the audio app you're listening in right now and links at juiceboxpodcast.com to Contour and all of the sponsors.
Scott Benner If you've listened to any number of podcasts or maybe watched a YouTube video, you're very accustomed to listening to the creator of that content ask you and sometimes just outright beg you without any feeling of self respect for you to follow, subscribe, share an episode. The reason that happens in podcasting specifically is because podcast players don't have a sophisticated recommendation engine like YouTube or TikTok does. They can't watch listener behavior and then give you content that you might like. Word-of-mouth skips that line completely. It's an instantly expanding reach engine and really the only thing I've ever found that helps to keep the Juice Box podcast growing. So subscribe and follow because that the algorithm understands. Set up automatic downloads, listen to the show, but share it with somebody else. Leave a five star review. Make it a thoughtful review that the algorithm can understand. I really appreciate the time it takes you to do those things. And I hate that I have to say this to you because I feel like an idiot. But subscribe and follow, tell a friend, please and thank you.
Scott Benner If you're new to type one diabetes, begin with the bold beginnings series from the podcast. Don't take my word for it. Listen to what reviewers have said. Bold beginnings is the best first step. I learned more in those episodes than anywhere else. This is when everything finally clicked. People say it takes the stress out of the early days and replaces it with clarity. They tell me this should come with the diagnosis packet that I got at the hospital. And after they listen, they recommend it to everyone who's struggling. It's straightforward, practical, and easy to listen to. Full Beginnings gives you the basics in a way that actually makes sense. Have a podcast? Want it to sound fantastic? Wrongwayrecording.com.
