Podcasts about elan musk

Ingenuism is about experimentation and discovery.  Elan Musk is a great example of an Ingenuist.  In this episode, Robert Hendershott and Yaron Brook discuss the new biography coming out about Elan Musk, Elan Musk as an Ingenuist in new business, space X, AI and autonomous vehicles.  Sign up for our newsletter at ingenuism.com.

Welcome to another adventure of the Ninja please podcast .   On todays adventure we open up with Breaking news and more.   Kee See Palmer & Usher  The Sea Gate Sub  Mark Zuckerberg vs Elan Musk   (00:18:00) We discuss the potential of the human mind and technology's impact on early childhood development.  (00:22:00)  We recap DAVE season 3 on FX .  (00:39:00  We recap the Max Original series, Warrior !!! Episodes 1-4  Original Music By Starman Ninja Please Theme - Starman .  Ninjaplease OST Coming soon. Subscribe to Ninjapleasepod on Youtube 2023 Star Superior, LLC Follow us on social Media @Ninjapleasepod and like us on Facebook. Coming soon to Youtube. #Ninjapleasepodcast #covid19 #Anime #Hulu #Crunchyroll #Funimation #Nintendo #Sony #PS5 #Marvel #DC #DIsney #syfy #Cartoonnetwork #CN #Adultswim #usa #trending #memes #life #style #Netflix #Ninjapleasepodcast #Amazonprimevideo #Hulu #PS5 #Xbox #WB #HBOMAX #Disney+ #animereview #bestanimepocast #BLERD #Bestblerdpodintheunuverse #geekoftheyear #bestgeekpod  #blackgeekculture #comedy #warrior #dave 

Just when Elan Musk thought he was in control...

Well, this one is a bit more energized than the last one. Which is a low bar, but still... Things start off with a discussion about the many children of Elan Musk - twins, triplets, different mothers - and jump to Nick Cannon who seems to be a bit of a polygamist. Then we quickly discuss that James Caan has died and how we loved all his stuff but really only knew him from Elf and Las Vegas (the TV show). Speaking of Las Vegas, we are planning a bit of a working vacation out there so we get into strip clubs and dinner plans. Finally, Paul put together a short list of "this or that". Apparently it is "brush AND floss" not "brush OR floss". There is other stuff as well, but you'll just have to listen. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/contentnotsupported/message

HOPE update, Elan Musk may be getting cold feet, NY Governor Hochul proposing a series of measures to combat domestic terrorism, Congress holds hearing on UAPs, eavesdropping on 6G wireless signals, millions of Teslas vulnerable to hacking, Russian hackers attempted to disrupt Eurovision voting.

HOPE update, Elan Musk may be getting cold feet, NY Governor Hochul proposing a series of measures to combat domestic terrorism, Congress holds hearing on UAPs, eavesdropping on 6G wireless signals, millions of Teslas vulnerable to hacking, Russian hackers attempted to disrupt Eurovision voting.

It's illegal to demonstrate outside a Supreme Court justice's house, Russian state TV and financial companies hacked, Russian hackers target ventilators in British hospitals, HOPE update, Google Docs bug crashes documents, Elan Musk would reverse Trump's Twitter ban, controversial Texas social media law allowed to take effect by appeals court.

It's illegal to demonstrate outside a Supreme Court justice's house, Russian state TV and financial companies hacked, Russian hackers target ventilators in British hospitals, HOPE update, Google Docs bug crashes documents, Elan Musk would reverse Trump's Twitter ban, controversial Texas social media law allowed to take effect by appeals court.

Nonprofit News of the week. Supreme Court Poised To Strike Down Roe v. Wade, Changing Advocacy Landscape For Both Pro-Choice & Pro-Life Nonprofits  A draft decision of the United States Supreme Court ruling on a pending abortion case appears to show the majority of justices in favor of striking down Roe v. Wade, upending nearly 50 years of abortion-access precedent, according to a leaked draft obtained by Politico. The decision comes as a worst-case scenario for pro-choice advocacy and provider groups like Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America, while it also is perceived as a monumental achievement by pro-life groups. As abortion becomes illegal to access and potentially criminalized in the wake of the decision which will be released in June, human rights groups are warning that nonprofits and tech companies may come under legal pressure to disclose sensitive information regarding people who seek information about abortion clinics, emergency contraceptives, and the like. An anti-abortion nonprofit in Wisconsin called Wisconsin Family Action was the target of an arson attack on Sunday. Read more ➝   Summary Jeff Bezos donates nearly $120 mn to nonprofit: Report | The Siasat Daily  The Chronicle of Philanthropy Unveils Ambitious Growth Plan to Put National Spotlight on Social Sector, Become Nonprofit  | The Chronicle of Philanthropy Opinion | Black Lives Matter needs to get its (real expensive) house in order | Washington Post The AP Interview: BLM's Patrisse Cullors denies wrongdoing | AP NEWS CEA Nonprofit winner: Seeing a sea turtle need | Greater Wilmington Business Journal   Rough Transcript   [00:00:00] This week on a nonprofit news feed, we have our major story, which we made the focus of the week's newsletter, which is the Supreme court poised to strike down Roe V. Wade, and how we see that changing the landscape for advocacy for both pro-choice and pro-life nonprofits, as well as touching many of them. [00:00:21] Industries again, this is not gone through, it was a leaked bit, but Nick, you're going to walk us through this as well as some other news highlights. [00:00:28] Sure George, I can start us off. So of course, yes, we begin with that first story that was. Reported by Politico, which published a draft decision written by a United States Supreme court, which appeared to show that they were poised. At least when the decision draft decision was written to overturn Roe V. [00:00:52] Wade, what that means is that nearly 50 years of abortion access precedent coming from the court now, It's very likely to be reversed. The decision comes as a worst case scenario for pro-choice advocacy groups and health provider groups like planned parenthood. Now pro-choice America and many other groups and funds that work to help women access abortions. [00:01:23] And. That being said on the flip side of it, there are lots of pro-life or anti-abortion advocacy groups themselves non-profits that are, have been working to get this passed. So essentially you have this bombshell announcement that's completely altered the, the landscape for advocacy organizations. [00:01:47] Both, both sides of this issue. And there's so many reasons and so many ways in which this can pretty dramatically impact America, social life and economics, the list goes on and on, but at its heart, this is ringing. Has a bombshell decision for a lot of people and people have understandably, very emotional reactions. [00:02:13] George w w what's your take and how do we think about the many nonprofit organizations that are kind of involved with. [00:02:20] it's hard to see through the frustration and many distracting narratives going on, such as , who leaked it, how it happen. I think we. If we're being honest, could see the dominoes falling after RBG sadly passed and was unfortunately, not really, even remotely honored when it was rushed through, into the Supreme court to change the landscape of how these justices would deliberate Roe V. Wade . [00:02:53] So, you know, I've been waiting through just massive amounts of news, but I think anything that's. Looking backward saying, oh my gosh, they lied in testimony. And it truly doesn't matter what we're trying to focus on. And what I'm trying to look at is the second order effects that are to come and, , pulling those out of. [00:03:12] Non-profits in the narrative saying here are some that were for some that were against this decision and suddenly the entire table has just been flipped upside down. And so these groups that have previously been more about advocacy and have just removed potentially a layer of support for women who are truly in need and in a time of,, great. [00:03:39] Great risk. I would say that frankly, planned parenthood and others were supporting in that period of time. There's no safety net. If suddenly you're in a state where that's made illegal. And so you have to move from groups that maybe were pushing paper and other, very lightweight ways of advocacy into new. [00:04:00] No, you have to support these women in some way. Whether or not that aligns with. [00:04:06] the. [00:04:06] Right of choice or right of life. There's a lot of infrastructure that is just not there. And I see a switch and is about to be flipped and not a lot of planning as a result of it. And so, , I try to park a lot of the hand wringing about how did this happen and this person did that to her. As somebody who's going to become pregnant, who may be in tremendous need, doubt, concern, risk, and more than one, you know, the data will show you this in a lot of the states that are about to flip back to a draconian that would use the word type of legal system that does not support these women in a safe way. [00:04:50] And that's where I'm trying to spend my, my thinking a bit on. [00:04:53] Yeah, George, I think that's a good analysis, nearly one in four women. By the time they reach 45 50. We'll have had an abortion in this United States. And the fact that now what was a relatively routine medical procedure, a lot of these states have snap laws that go into effect the moment. RO would be toppled. [00:05:22] Those are poised to go into effect. There are some states that are pushing laws to in fact, criminalize abortion, as in getting one or facilitating access to an abortion is now a criminal criminal offense. And that is it's insane to be honest. It's, it's an it's insane. And The other, the flip side of this, and there's kind of more of the story as we outlined in the newsletter here is that human rights groups are actually warning human rights watch. [00:05:56] And other other news organizations are warning that tech companies and organizations with information about people who've accessed abortion. Resources or, or procedures. Those organizations with that data may find themselves under legal pressure to disclose that information to prosecutors, if charges were be, to be brought. [00:06:20] And it's just kind of another kind of dark direction that this is facing. If getting an abortion becomes a criminal offense. So. Like you said it kind of flips the whole thing upside down. We don't know. I don't think where this is going to go from what I'm seeing on the advocacy side, there are tons of abortion funds that are organizations that help facilitate a women accessing an abortion. [00:06:51] And even in states where it's perfectly legal people, it can be tough to access. Right. You know, there's so COE, there's monetary barriers and there's a lot of organizations on the ground that have some experience doing this, but they're about to find themselves as a lifeline for a lot more people than they anticipated very quickly. [00:07:14] So it'll be interesting to see how that. [00:07:15] The word here is legality. And when you change that word, you suddenly have a whole host of I'll use the word weapons provided to the court system. To mandate, demand and force companies that may have data say Google, potentially apple, depending on where the data resides in the searches and information and stored contacts. [00:07:45] And what have you, if this is a legal question, but because it's been made illegal for a woman who is by the way, Even beyond sort of the questions of rape and incest and very, very real medical endo topic type pregnancies, where you will really have to get a get an abortion to save your life potentially is that,, the process of, of having a child in America, despite all our advances has carries with it, 60 X, 60 times percent, 60 times, the amount of. [00:08:19] That an abortion does. And so with that, and you're using the word legal as a thought exercise, consider how marijuana laws carry across states right now. And if you drive across the border with a certain amount of legally purchase marijuana, I did something illegal here. It is illegal over there and you go state by state. [00:08:41] There are a lot of unfortunate second order effects that could happen. And. The, the landscape gets a little bit more scary and I think it's a great, that human rights watch has already sounding the alarm with enough time for companies to start anonymizing de anonymizing and protecting people that. [00:09:02] will be put in danger in these states and areas. [00:09:07] I agree. Really important things to think about. And again, if this is, it goes up and down the ladder, right? This is, this is a fundamentally altering in the ways that very few policies or laws or quite frankly, events, at least in my lifetime have had in terms of. Life as an American, quite frankly. [00:09:31] So of course, we'll continue to watch this story. The one aside is that you'll probably start to see increasing tension on both sides over the weekend. And anti-abortion nonprofit and in Wisconsin called Wisconsin family action was the target of an arson attack. Over the past couple of decades, both organizations on both sides of this issue have seen instances of violence. [00:09:58] Unfortunately, but it's yeah, I don't know, kind of at a loss of words with what more to say, but something we'll [00:10:06] Yeah, I would say if you're, if you're frustrated, , one thing just to speak, , personally, as a, as a. Parent, Of, you know, one little girl in one little way. And also as a leader of a company, I thought I was compelled to say something to the staff. And I'm going to probably continue to try to also message her around this, just about where we sit, what we think and what we do to help keep the focus, because a lot of people are frustrated and where I try to point us toward is that this is the. [00:10:38] Social justice pendulum swinging in a way that we really disagree with that violates precedent. That actually for the first time, in as many years, these like 50 plus years removes a right, that we thought was an amiable and granted into the contract of America. And one thing I know about pendulums is that when you push them very hard to one side, they come. [00:11:05] With force back the other direction. And so the positive, cause I always push myself to think this way that I as do see coming is that a lot of people just woke up to the fact that what was granted and what was taken for granted has been taken away and people do not like it. When you take things away, we feel lost two X, the amount of gain. [00:11:30] So I think a lot of people just woke up and they woke up at. [00:11:32] a time when the midterms are coming. And That's why I believe there isn't a sort of large brass band being walked down Washington right now. But the GOP, I think there's a lot of people afraid to talk about what the actual implications of what a minority has just pushed onto a majority. [00:11:50] That's a great point, George, when you take a step back and then contextualize it and think about. Broader trends. [00:11:58] All right, pivoting a little bit. I'll take us into the summary on, I'll say a much lighter note billionaire owner and or previous owner, not no longer chief executive of Amazon, but billionaire, nonetheless, Jeff Bezos has donated $120 million to as yet unnamed. Nonprofit. Apparently this brings his non-profit donations up to 233 million, at least in terms of unnamed nonprofits, he's giving money to George why'd you throw this in the mix. [00:12:35] I just wanted to throw a little, two things. One of the throw a little shade that he's only about five Billy, 5 billion short of what his wife ex-wife has done is a philanthropic leader, but also I think you want to keep an eye on where his kind of dollars are going because there's a lot more dollars behind it. [00:12:56] And it's very interesting to see. Where frankly, one of the richest men in the world is deploying capital in the social impact sector. So it's not just a sort of billionaire watch, but it's saying where, where is that? That mindset shifting and this particular time. [00:13:12] I think that's a good point in a world where billionaires seemingly increasingly dominate the news and trends and other aspects of our life. Looking at Elan Musk, controlling the Twitter verse I think it's important to keep an eye on. Our next story comes from the Chronicle of philanthropy. [00:13:32] And it is about the Chronicle of philanthropy, which has announced a quote, ambitious growth plan to put the national spotlight on the social sector, which is their way of saying they are becoming a nonprofit news organization. The Chronicle of philanthropy previously I did not know this was actually wholly owned and operated by. [00:13:54] The Chronicle of higher education, which is kind of the premier news source for colleges and university and higher education type news. But that is itself a private, independent for-profit entity. But now the Chronicle of philanthropy is breaking off into their separate own nonprofit organization. [00:14:12] One of many newsrooms to do so of late. This is absolutely a continuation of the trend. [00:14:20] I feel like it's a great way for a leading voice on non-profits to in fact, you know, walk the walk and I, I hope them All the success we enjoy their work and yeah, hopefully it continues to grow as a, an extra valued source of information and sector. [00:14:40] All right, I'm going to wrap our next two stories together because they're related. This is following up on a story that we talked about a couple of weeks ago about the black lives matter organization which came under some heat for the publication that it had purchased a multimillion dollar home in The the, the bay area. [00:15:04] And also came under criticism for not filing form nine nineties and in general, a lack of transparency around its financials. So the two articles we have here is an opinion published in the Washington post, which from, I think, a large. Hacktivists perspective is critical of the organization for not necessarily engaging or being as transparent with the local chapters and the family funds that were set up for victims of police brutality and the desire at the activist level for a little bit more accountability for the national organization, which in. [00:15:46] 2020 saw $90 million in donations. The other news source is from the AP and which the former director of the organization, Patrice colors denied wrongdoing but also laid out some of the concerns of people within the activist community. I should say that at the bottom of that article, I thought this is a little bit more important. [00:16:10] They did file a nine 90, which technically brings them up to date. But the nine 90 only goes until June of 2020. So does not include Really the tremendous growth they've seen over the past couple of years within that financial disclosure. And I think we wanted to highlight this story again because we brought it to this podcast a couple of weeks ago. [00:16:34] And George, we sifted through the only articles we really could find were quite frankly from right wing news sources that were, were talking about it. And but we, we identified. Within that, that there actually is kind of a genuine thing to talk about within that narrative. So we wanted to highlight from the activist level, what people are thinking about this, but yeah. [00:17:00] George, do you have any other thoughts or things to add on that? [00:17:03] Yeah. [00:17:04] we definitely looked through quite a number of news outlets and clearly, you know, outlets that rhyme with the word pot. Have you had a field day with this into, you know, something where, you know, a kernel truth has turned into a tree of lies and manipulation, but there is still seeds of what actually, you know, did happen. [00:17:26] And we try to go to primary sources and that quote from colors actually from the AP I don't know. Read it directly on paper. It looks crazy. She said, we use this term in our movement a lot, which is we're building the plane while flying it. I don't believe in that anymore. The only regret I have with BLM is wishing that we could have paused for one to two years. [00:17:48] Just not do any work and just focus on the infrastructure. You know, the foundation paid 6 million for this Los Angeles compound in 2020 and has, you know, brought ire and criticism. Here's the truth. There is, there's a problem. I'd say with crisis crowd funding, when a bunch of money is thrown at an organization of the moment, regardless of whether they have the infrastructure to achieve what the moment demands. [00:18:18] There's a reason why traditional philanthropies capital P philanthropies will not give more than X percent of a total revenue. In a grant to a non-profit, let's say you are a half a million dollar organization, many philanthropy say you're eligible for up to, let's say 50% of your operating revenue for our grant, because the true fact is if they were to get more, say 5 million or 50 million, they wouldn't have the infrastructure to use it. [00:18:49] And what's worse. Could actually send them into a bit of a tailspin of hiring too quickly, focusing on the wrong things and not having the infrastructure to manage that money and that word. Can't just be glossed over. And I think this is just an honest quote from exactly what happened. You know, they were, you know, suddenly handed tens of millions of dollars and then expected to operate like an organization with that revenue. [00:19:14] And the truth is it's not there that it takes a long time to hire, to set up these systems. And again it's you know, I think it's great that she's out there making, you know, trying to bring back this, this narrative and obviously it's yeah, the probably, I mean, it hurts quite a bit. She says that, that this is quote a false narrative and it's impacted me personally and professionally that people would accuse me of stealing from black people. [00:19:41] And you know I think. It's a, it's a tough moment. The foundation announced state 19 million fundraising amount. Wow. I didn't realize it was that high anyway. Things for you to look at and to consider around these macro issues of, of funding. Hmm. [00:20:00] Should we do a feel-good story, Nick? We've been, I put some, I put some good wins in there this week. I knew I had been letting the team. [00:20:08] Yeah, George let's do a feel good story. This comes from Wilmington, biz.com. Wilmington's homepage for business. Tart title of the article is about seeing a sea turtle in need. And. This is about a, a sea turtle rehabilitation project. And within the 31 sea turtles residing at the center as of this year they could be released back into the ocean after recovering from various elements. [00:20:44] There is one turtle named Lenny a Ridley turtle that can't be released because. Blind and can't survive on her own. But just want to shout out that the awesome organizations in this case, the Karen Beasley, sea turtle rescue and rehabilitation center which is taking care of sea turtles and sea turtles are awesome. [00:21:05] I, I learned from finding Nemo that they live a very long time and I think that's very cool. So I've always been a big. [00:21:12] All right. So I had to look this up, see turtles can live up to 50 years or more. So that's, that's great. That they're, they're taking care of taking care of these animals. Good job. And also kudos on anytime we get an article pun. So good job seeing those sea turtles. All right, Nick. Thanks for bringing all the news to us. [00:21:35] Thanks, George.    

Here's a story, about a man named Brady We all know of the Brady Bunch introduced the world to the "Blended Family" and the Set-Up Crew will speak on Blended Families this week. What are the advantages and disadvantages? Does it work? Let us talk about it. Our shut-out and shout-out will talk about a $87million dollar bridge for mountain lions, Elan Musk, Cuba Gooding shenanigans among other topics. We will return with another top 5. This week will be top 5 Children's Games. Come hang out with the Set-Up Crew. Looking for you guys. Let's Go! #blendedfamily #cubagoodingjr #unscripted #unfiltered #elanmusk #top5list #childrensgames #setuppodcastlive #sedrictimanderic #letsgo

Here's a story, about a man named Brady We all know of the Brady Bunch introduced the world to the "Blended Family" and the Set-Up Crew will speak on Blended Families this week. What are the advantages and disadvantages? Does it work? Let us talk about it. Our shut-out and shout-out will talk about a $87million dollar bridge for mountain lions, Elan Musk, Cuba Gooding shenanigans among other topics. We will return with another top 5. This week will be top 5 Children's Games. Come hang out with the Set-Up Crew. Looking for you guys. Let's Go! #blendedfamily #cubagoodingjr #unscripted #unfiltered #elanmusk #top5list #childrensgames #setuppodcastlive #sedrictimanderic #letsgo

La gestion des finances publiques et la gestion des Wokes sous Elan Musk, voici quelques sujets abordés par notre invité Adrien Pouliot dans le Jeff Libârté #120. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lewis Dix and The Poetess hold down this episode with Lewis mostly sharing family history and past text messages from his kids and ex wife. Other topics include Critical Race Theory, Elan Musk buying Twitter, Family files wrongful death lawsuit after son falls off a ride at an amusement park. 

In this week's show we go over the reaction to Elan Musk's interest in purchasing Twitter, how people around the world are so eager to be led by dictators, and review a segment from the show Doomsday Preppers about a bunker built from an abandoned missile silo. Don't get your hopes up if you want […]

- Episode 25: Synth pop- Wir klären in dieser Folge ein für alle Mal:Was war die musikalische Revolution beim Synth PopWer hat man Synth Pop in den USA genannt?Und wie in Großbritannien?Was ist das große Dilemma von Depeche Mode?Was kann man heute von Synth Pop lernen?- Wie immer ein paar Fun Facts zur Folge:Popcorn wurde 1969 von Gershon Kingsley geschrieben für das Album "Music to Moog by", populär wurde es allerdings in der Coverversion von Hot Butter.Im Jahr 2010 hat selbst der dänische Koch in der Muppet Show hat Popcorn einmal interpretiert.Die Ex- oder vielleicht doch Partnerin von Elan Musk, "Grimes" war früher auch Synth pop MusikerinUnsere eigene Synth pop Bands waren Second Decay und No comment, später mit Rehberg dann auch gemeinsam.- LinksPodcasts: https://disko80.buzzsprout.comRSS-Feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1754816.rssHomepage: http://www.purwienundkowa.comAktuelle CD von Purwien & Kowa: https://ffm.to/puk5Bandit EP von Purwien & Kowa: https://ffm.to/bandit12Musik von Purwien & Kowa: https://purwienkowa.bandcamp.comBücher von Purwien & Kowa: https://amzn.to/2W9Ftj8Hörbuch zu Pommes! Porno! Popstar!: https://amzn.to/3J8DVcVSpotify Playlist Episode 25: https://spoti.fi/3u4kX2c

How To Buy NFTs What is a Non-Fungible Token NFT How To Make Your Own NFT Best NFT InvestmentsEpisode SummaryGFunk.eth aka Comicman joins us for an exclusive interview! Learn about the MetaHero Universe, PUNKS comic, and more!Twitter follows!GFunk: https://twitter.com/Gfunkera86Pixel Vault: https://twitter.com/pixelvault_PUNKS Comic: https://twitter.com/punkscomicMetaHero Universe: https://twitter.com/MetaHero_MetaHero Identities are a collection of heroes, villains, and mutants native to the MetaHero Universe. The Core Collection consists of 146 fully-matched MetaHero concept characters, including two special mints, collaboratively designed by project creatives Chris Wahl and Odious. Generative MetaHero Identities (max supply of 9,678) can be minted at any time by redeeming MintPass #1, the signature NFT reservation system developed by Pixel Vault.https://opensea.io/collection/metahero-generativehttps://punkscomic.com/Hosts:Chris KatjeMazhttps://bitclout.com/u/mazFollow The Roadmap on Twitter!Disclaimer: All of the information, material, and/or content contained in this program is for informational purposes only. Investing in stocks, options, and futures is risky and not suitable for all investors. Please consult your own independent financial adviser before making any investment decisions.Unedited Transcript:What's up everyone. Welcome to the roadmap. Benzingers new NFT show. Last few episodes. We've had some great interviews, some great teams, the Vogue collective robotics, the dos pound owning force, crypto dads, dizzy dragons, suck doc, and more. We also did an NFT giveaway. Definitely stay tuned for more NFT giveaways in the future.We've got a great show today. A great interview. Pixel vault, founder G funk. Joining us guys. This is the roadmapAll right, guys, you heard me say at Benzinga is new NFT show covering the latest news headlines and top interviews from top projects in the NFT world. If you're new here, we currently air Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00 PM. Eastern time. We're working on getting more shows going. Uh, we we've got an exciting show coming up today.Before I talk about that, I want to bring on my cohost mass, mass. What's going on, buddy. Chris, a exciting episode today. It feels like we haven't been here in a while. It's been a week since we did our last show, but today's episode is going to be amazing. I'm doing great. Yeah, we've got a great week planned.And before, I mean, for those of you who follow Benzinga on Twitter or read the articles, you probably already heard who our interview guest is on Thursday. If not, we'll talk about that at the end of today's show, but we have two of the biggest NFT projects out there. Both joining us this week. I mean, one week to catch two of these big projects.So if you're new here, go ahead. Smash that like subscribe to Benzinga his YouTube channel. That's where you're going to get notifications. When we're live. You're going to hear all about our great guests. So mass, uh, before we bring on our guests, let let's talk a little bit. Who do we have coming on the roadmap?Yeah. So we have G funk AK the comic man joining us today. And you know, I've been in the space for a couple months and I hear his name all the time, nothing but good things, you know, love the pixel bolt, project, love what they're doing with the planets. And just, there's just so many things to talk about, which, you know, I'm excited for that.And, uh, yeah. So yeah, I feel great. I mean, this is one of those projects where yeah. If you, if you're, you've been in the NFT space for a little while, if you're not completely new, you've likely heard of pixel vault, punks comics, Mehta hero. You've heard those names right. Well, today we're going to dive into the background, right?How did those come to be? And what's ahead. I mean, you talk about NFT projects that could have lasting value and lasting pixel vault is building, I mean, an entire NFTE ecosystem. I am so, so excited to get into the, and for anyone, you know, here in the chat, we're going to be taking questions for G funk.And if we have time at the end of the interview, one of the things we're doing on the show, right? Mass is asking questions right from the chat. So feel free, drop those questions in a me mass, and the producers will try to get to those, you know, at the end and pull up some of our favorite questions. So you never know what's going to get, but mass, I know there is a ton of people here excited and ready to hear from the man himself, chief funk.But before we bring him on, we have this trailer that we made to get everyone hyped. So everyone out there mash the, like, sit back and get ready to hear about pixels. Let's goall right. Hyped, right? It's time. I mean, hopefully everyone hyped up. We're ready to go. We we've got a great show. So without further ado, let me bring on to the roadmap. G funk, Hey, what's going on? What's up man. Loving the walk-in music. I appreciate that. We made you a hold for a whole trailer and everything.I mean, that's how big this episode is. We appreciate you coming on. Um, again, as Matt said, you know, one of those names in the space that is very familiar, you know, to anyone who's been following NFTs for awhile. So we have respect for you and we are so excited to talk all things pixel vault today. So let's dive into some questions.So I'm going to kick it off here, you know, G funk before we get in to pixel vault. Uh, let's hear a little bit about your experience in the NFT world before you created pixel. Yeah. So I've been in crypto since 2014. Um, I'm an entrepreneur in real life. And so a lot of those gains, uh, unfortunately were a bit muted.I was, as I was, uh, taking profits on the way up. And I started to get exposure to the NFT space at the end of last year. Um, I got really into top shot, started to get into crypto punks, pretty similar, uh, pathway into the NFT world is I think a lot of our collectors have had, um, and I have a background in the entertainment space.Um, so you know, very familiar with developing IP. And I saw this opportunity that, that, uh, was starting to become clear early this year that certain people on Twitter were starting to develop personalities. You know, whether they be beanie or G money guys like that, where they had these avatars and we're starting to kind of connect their personal brands to them.But at that point in time, nobody had, had really started to develop IP in a traditional sense behind. And so that was the birth of pixel vault. Um, it's basically a business designed to, to drive intellectual property drive value, to NFTs, which are otherwise, obviously stagnant on chain. Um, so that was sort of the birth of the comic in the run.Run-up there to that first Christie's auction, uh, very exciting time. Uh, and yeah, I mean, it it's crazy how much has happened in the last six months or so, but, uh, super happy to be here and see all the progress that has been made. And, uh, only up from here, I think that's right. And it's hard to believe it's only been, you know, sick like that.And I mean, it seems like a lifetime, um, with all this stuff that has been created. So one of the things, when we talk about NFT projects, a lot is artwork, right? And. That you have Chris wall, a former, you know, Marvel, DC and other artists. Uh, how did that relationship come to be? And how involved is Chris wall on the current and future?Yeah. So that's actually a really funny story. So, um, when I approached beanie with this idea, uh, for the punks comic, he actually just sent out a tweet saying like, basically money is no object. Like we want the best artists in the world. Uh, we're thinking of developing a project. I don't know if he mentioned, uh, that it was, uh, like a comic book based on crypto punks or not, but, um, yeah.And Chris was one of the people that responded to that tweet and, uh, I just started talking to him and looking through his work. Um, obviously he's been a part of, a lot of great projects, but tank girl is sort of like what he's most notable for and very quickly and looking at his work, I just knew it was the perfect fit for, uh, what we were trying to create with the punks comic.And yeah, he, he's the, he's the chief comic artists moving forward. Uh, we have issue two well underway. We have a large corporate partner that's, uh, As much as I love them slowing the process down a bit. So, uh, issue two is currently planned for sometime in November. We'll, we'll see how the dates change. Uh, but yeah, Chris is very much a big part of the future of pixel.Awesome. Yeah. And we're going to show some of those images here throughout the interview. Love the artwork. I know there's a lot of big fans out there as well. W you mentioned that this, you know, six months, so it's when punk's comic first launched, it was not a fast sellout, um, you know, something we're seeing now in the NFT space.So what was it like in the beginning? Was there always a belief, you know, that this project would sell out and find an audience? Yeah. So, I mean, you know, for sure I believed in the vision, right. And I think that time has, has really paid dividends to the people that understood the. But I think still today, you know, I mean, if you look at the planets, there's still supply available.Granted, we, we intentionally designed it to, to make it available to anybody that wanted to join the community. But I think you're really seeing people focus on kind of this like lotto scratcher field. Right. Everybody wants those rarity traits and it's all PFPs and stuff that seemed to be selling out instantly.Now, regardless of if the project is moving the community forward, you know, I think, unfortunately you're seeing like a lot of copy paste type stuff happening, but, uh, with that said, you know, with, with great risk comes great reward. So yeah, it took like five weeks for the comic to sell out. Um, but really sort of building on this idea of a quote unquote decentralized Disney is like this buzzword you'll hear, um, Giving the community, the opportunity to have fractional ownership in these underlying 16 crypto punks that we're actively developing story around.Right. Um, as we succeed the community succeeds. And I think that just as sort of an overall theme for web three, that that's going to be very powerful and be a really disruptive force within traditional media. And, you know, as things have progressed over the last six months starting to approach these traditional media partners, um, you know, it's been, it's been interesting, the reception, and I think that a lot of them are fearful of being the next blockbuster, right.Blockbuster didn't want to adapt to the Netflix model. So, um, there's actually been a pretty great willingness so far with, uh, major media partners to, to start exploring, developing this IP in the traditional sense. But yeah, I mean, yeah. Trying to blaze new frontiers. I think this is the way things are going.And, um, you know, the people that have believed have been rewarded so far, but certainly some sleepless nights along the way. I totally love that, man. Um, can you walk us through the decision to make a burning mechanism for the comics? Yeah, so, um, at the time I don't, I don't think really anybody was doing this, but sort of a core proposition of pixel vault is this idea that when you're collecting the, the end result of your collection is very much going to be a result of your own decisions.So trying to create as many 50, 50 toss up decisions as we can, you know, are you somebody that, uh, leans into risk? Are you risk averse? You know, do you love the comic? Do you like gaming? Um, all sorts of decisions that I think ultimately reflect the choices of the individual, the risks they want to take.How they see their collection shaping how actively they want to be engaged in the community. Right? The game that we're building is very much going to be a community built project with all these Dows. So, you know, we, we like to introduce as many decisions as we can and, you know, some people love it. Some people hate it.It's certainly, uh, a frequent complaint I hear about pixel vaults is that it's, it's too complicated. And so, you know, I take that, I take that criticism to heart and I'm going to try and find ways to make things more clear. Uh, but certainly, you know what, we've tried to do weekly spaces. We're trying to lay out everything very clearly on the website.But, uh, I really liked this sort of like Willy Wonka nature of pixel hall. Um, I think it makes it a lot of fun and it's really built a very strong community, but you know, it's not going to be for everyone. You have to sort of be engaged with things of Walt to, to get and catch everything that. Exactly.Yeah. You're building a whole universe around it, which is awesome. So speaking to that ma meta heroes, uh, how close to a game are we? Yeah, so, I mean, the game is going to take quite a bit of time, um, with that said we're looking to stagger it intelligently so that, you know, people aren't waiting two, three years to see any sort of game development.Um, so sort of this first look and first, uh, action with characters, we're looking to hopefully be about a year out, but you know, it it's really too early to confirm any sort of timeline because we're, we're really actively engaged right now in the process of, of working with different game development studios.So, um, myself and the virtual knot and a couple of other members of our team are taking, you know, a handful of meetings every week with, with different game dev shops. And, uh, there are a couple that stick out, uh, hopefully more news coming on this in the near future. You know, leveraging some of our own contacts and, uh, our team's experiencing game development.And then also the relationship with WME, they're opening some doors that actually have a meeting with, um, our rep in, in gaming with WME tonight. So just continuing to look for potential partners. And, uh, certainly we're going to bring on a lot of experienced individuals in game dev. So it will not just be our, our team right now of 18, or we're either going to be hiring probably a team of 50 or working more likely with an experienced in dev shop.So, um, still too early to commit to timelines, but, uh, you know, we have the resources that we need and the expertise right now on the team. And we'll be hiring a few other key individuals on the team, uh, to execute on this. So very exciting. Um, but still, definitely early days in that love that though. It's coming though.Right. So that's awesome to hear for sure, for sure. In the beginning when you were launching punks comics, was this always the plan to create this, you know, world and game around the meta heroes? Yeah, so the, the games sort of developed over time, but there was always this idea to expand, uh, the universe of IP that tied in with the comic.So if you look at like early days of DC and Marvel, right originally comics were just humans, right. And then with the introduction of Superman and then eventually Batman, et cetera. Now comics are pretty much synonymous with superheroes. So beginning in issue three, we're going to sort of merge the two worlds of punks comic and medic hero.And there's the potential that there may be some offshoot comics as well. But, um, yeah, I, I think it's going to be really fun seeing the, those two worlds intertwined and, uh, in the interim, we're going to be releasing this project called origin stories, which will be, you know, every two to four weeks, we'll be sort of like.Like a backstory on maybe a more minor character, uh, origin stories, being a nod to origin city, which is where the headquarters of the pixel vault is, uh, in crypto voxels. So, um, that's going to let us sort of interact with the community more frequently, really build the IP, um, in a serious way as we look to develop, you know, animated series and whatnot with traditional media partners.So, um, I think that that's going to be a really beneficial thing as we build out the comic and the lore there. Uh, and you'll see a lot more backstory on the heroes and the pumps themselves love that. Can you share any details on how different heroes will be utilized in the game? Uh, specifically speaking of, you know, ones from different planets, uh, any advantages or disadvantages, disadvantages that the.Yeah. So, uh, the virtue Mount has talked about this quite a bit. We don't want to create a situation where it's like a pay to win mechanic. We want to reward, uh, our early collectors in a way that it distinguishes the character in game and maybe provides like a very minor benefit. But, um, you know, there are also intelligent ways that, you know, maybe they earn at a, at a higher rate.So with the, the play to earn mechanics that are becoming popular, that you see with ACCE and stuff, you know, maybe the identities and sidekicks, uh, are able to have, you know, a small advantage in that realm as well. But overall, you know, you can think of it as like a skin, like a very, um, high level notable skin, uh, being sort of, uh, at the, at the very forefront of developing this game.Um, As part of that, right. We wanted to tie them to these planet tokens because for these original identity holders, it's not just about driving value to their identity and Ft. Right. They're also very much an owner developer participant in the game itself. So as the game succeeds, so to do these early NFT holders, so it was important for us to sort of tie those together so that it wasn't kind of like a diluted experience as we expanded the game verse and whatnot.But, um, yeah, try trying to make it so that future entrance can, can still get into the game and have fun. We don't want to take the fun out of it, or it won't be a success. So, you know, there's a balancing act there, but I think having these early holders also have Dow tokens is a sort of an important aspect in, in balancing the reward system there.Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, one thing we've noticed teas lately, and I'm sure you've seen this G funk is that the NFT space is moving so fast and people are, you know, looking for news updates on a daily cycle. They want, you know, the next big project they want the immediate reward. So what is it like, you know, to take the long route here building with one of the largest teams in NFT is when the NFT world is kind of moving more to the short term side of things.Yeah. I mean, it's tough and I I've been tweeting a lot about this in the last couple of weeks. I mean, you're seeing like a lot of really prominent NFTE sort of personalities talking about being burned out in. You know, it's real. I mean, I feel the need to sort of like constantly be providing updates and, you know, people put a lot of time, effort and money into this project.Right. So I take that extremely seriously, but you don't really want to be building, uh, a business worried about the floor price of an NFT. Right. So, um, you know, the people that bought punks comic right, as it sat there on the shelf for five weeks, ultimately it's, uh, you know, 50, a hundred X on, on their original, uh, purchase.Right. So, you know, if ultimately you try and sort of block out the noise and understand that there are going to be peaks and valleys in every cycle and try to just keep like a mid to long-term viewpoint on this. Um, you know, right now the floor is down, right. Uh, across most projects and, you know, I have people.You know, messaging me all the time, sort of in a panic, but it's like, you know, if, if they knew the meetings I was taking every day, I'm sure they wouldn't be panicking. Right. But like, that's also not how you run a business. So, um, you know, just, just, I think patients will be rewarded. Uh, certainly the partners that we're working with are working at like a breakneck pace for these traditional corporations, but it's not like how NFTs work.So trying to balance it, trying to give people sort of like a peek behind the curtain, as much as I can. Um, while remembering, you know, it's about the long game don't give into the FID, just like keep building, but it's hard. Uh, Yeah, definitely. Um, so, you know, you mentioned that people who bought comic, you know, saw a big return, right?50 X, a hundred X. And with that said, it may have priced some people out of, you know, the pixel vault ecosystem. So there was the recent planet launch. Why was it important to offer access to people who maybe missed out on comics and pixel vault before, you know, the opportunity to buy into the planets at the lower tier?Yeah. So I mean, as much as we love rewarding our existing community, and we've done that a bunch of times already, uh, you know, expanding into this game versus, I mean, ultimately there will need to be hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people in this game burst to be for it to be truly successful.Yeah. I don't think you're, you're seeing, I think you need to connect meta mask to see like the updated numbers, but, um, Yeah. So, I mean, we wanted the price to be low enough for new people to join the community. Uh, obviously that was a very common question. I would get on Twitter discord, like, Hey, I'm interested.But you know, I think at the, I think right now, like the comic has seven and a half feet or something. Right. Um, it's a ton of money. So, um, you know, pricing the lowest comic or the lowest planet at 0.5, either giving them the opportunity to get now two different planets, right. Whatever they meant. Plus Jupiter, if you follow it along with that story and lower that we developed there, uh, that was, that was kind of fun on Twitter.Um, but yeah, two planets and ultimately two sidekicks, again, all of these original participants in the ecosystem, we wanted them to, to ultimately have a character that they could use engaging. You know, if you're taking the time resources, effort to build the game, like you should probably have a character.So, um, yeah, I mean, for 0.5 east, you can participate in two different planetary Dows and have either two different sidekicks or an upgraded sidekick, uh, with the burn mechanism there, you know, ultimately companies need to grow. Uh, we can't always just sort of reinforce the existing community. So we tried to have like a huge supply again, to avoid gas wars, to let anybody that wanted to get in in, um, and then find like interesting ways to create a deflationary supply with that Jupiter mechanic.And then ultimately whatever doesn't sell we'll, we'll be taken back to the uptown, which is sort of this like central governance mechanism for the game. And the community will decide when they want to sort of release future trenches for, for funding, the development of the game. Perfect. You mentioned side.Is there, I want to talk a little bit about this. So, um, can you share any update on the timeline for when sidekicks will be released and talk a little bit about leveling we'll work, um, with being able to burn kicks? Yeah, so the sidekick mint pass will be coming soon. So that'll probably be the first couple of weeks of November.So similar to what we did with the generative identities, you'll first get them in pass, um, to the community based on what you're holding. Uh, and then later you'll be able to burn that and then pass for your sidekicks. Um, so the sidekicks themselves, I would say are probably not until Q1 of next year. Um, given the larger supply of sidekicks, uh, it's going to take some time.Uh, we, we do have like a fun way to interact with the community coming up in the development of these sites. Um, and then to your point, there's also going to be this fun sort of deflationary mechanic where you'll be able to level up your sidekick. So right now the concept is five different levels of sidekicks and we haven't finalized the total burn counts, but whether it be one to five minute passes or one to 20, um, there's a chance we, you sort of scale it, interestingly there, but, um, yeah, again, creating an environment where the community shapes the ultimate, uh, experience and ecosystem, uh, is, is really important to us.So seeing, you know, how people want to play it, right. Do you want five low-level sidekicks or do you want one premium? So it'll be fun to see where the final numbers end up. I assume, um, you know, the, the maximum supply was something like 115,000. The way we're creating it was to try and get down to somewhere around a 50,000 number, but, you know, we plan and the community does what it will.Uh, so it's, it should be interesting. Awesome. Uh, one thing that, you know, pixel vault, uh, become known for is adding surprise value to mentors. So, you know, we saw punks comic mentors get a mint pass for a, met a hero, met a hero, met pass holders, had the opportunity to win a free core hero. Um, you know, and now the planet mentors also getting a free Jupiter planet and sidekick.Can you talk about, you know, why this is important and how it adds value to those early adapters? Yeah. So, I mean, from, from a price perspective, obviously every time we, we reward the community, obviously the price of everything reacts. Right. So, so that's awesome to the existing community, but from more of like a structural standpoint, right?Like. As we release things into the community, who does it make the most sense to, to have those items go to, you know, ultimately a lot of them will sell in the secondary and take some profit along the way. And in turn that expands the community to those people that are picking it up on secondary. But you know, you really do want to reward those people that are actually helping you build the thing.Um, again, turning back to those five weeks of sleepless nights where I was like, well, you know, did I make a mistake? Um, yeah, I was literally all in with everything I owned, uh, to launch this project. Uh, and then some honestly, so, you know, it it's, it's been a wild year, but like I take these people's support, like incredibly seriously and to heart.So, you know, wanting to see the community sort of succeed alongside the project just makes sense, providing these reward metrics. And also, you know, it defeats kind of like the gas wars and the bonding and all of that. So finding interesting ways to here and there expand into a public sale, but for the most part, trying to reward existing community and we have some more stuff up our sleeve, but I'm going to leave people to speculate.Nice. So G funk Dow is a term that we're hearing in NFTs a lot lately. Um, I'm curious to hear, can you tell us a little bit more about the Dow and the pixel vault, you know, like when will voting begin and, uh, you know, where are they being set up? Yeah. So, uh, so the, the founders dial, right, which is sort of our art Val, but really kind of like a, a core community of like long-term collectors.I mean, I don't really know that any NFT project was, was interacting with a Dow in that way when we launched it. But certainly you're seeing them like everywhere now. And I mean, our, our game vers, you know, they're, they're 10 they're alone. So, um, I don't, I don't know if you've been following sort of the drama with the moon, the moon bird, but 17 people, uh, tried to interact directly with the contract, ended up burning their comics, just poof gone.Uh, and that's like 30 K a pop. So, uh, that will be the first use case for, for voting for any of these Dows, uh, we're going to get the moon voting up and ultimately the community of token holders for the moon will decide, you know, if they want to make them whole with this supply, we've set aside of 17 moons.Um, and you know, I have some opinions in that. You know, most of these people weren't flippers, right? They were just like sort of panicked that they were going to get locked out because the button wasn't working for a couple minutes, I was telling them like, just wait, it's fine. You'll be okay. But you know, people will do what they will.FOMO is a hell of a drug. So, uh, we're going to get this vote probably initially using a mechanic, like snapshot. And then ultimately we're going to, to develop like a custom UI experience across all of our Dows and that's something the virtue not has spoken about a lot. Um, so that's something that's going to be built sort of in conjunction as, as we're building out the game verse, but probably initially, um, snapshot through our website and, uh, and then more of like a custom build over time.But, uh, I would say that all of them should be up in the next few months. Um, they all have already been established. Uh, from a legal standpoint with R R from Fenwick and west who have done just like an awesome job given sort of the unique nature of these 10,000 interacting with one another. But from a, from the technical implementation standpoint, that's going to be, um, like a primary focus after we get staking out for, for the Medicare identities and the comic here in, I dunno, roughly the next two weeks.Nice. Do you see the discord community for the Dows, uh, being able to expand to more channels for more complex coordination and projects in the future? Sure. Yeah. So we just recently opened up a planetary channels. Uh, so we had only ever had two channels, sort of the main, uh, non gated channel. And then the things about founder's Dow channel, which you had to have the founders token to get in.Uh, and now you can get into these gated, uh, you know, earth Pluto. Um, so, you know, we see a lot of interaction happening there. Um, but ultimately, you know, we would like it all to be built into sort of like a cohesive voting experience. I mean, with what you see with snapshot, I mean, there are, there are ways for the community to interact there, but it's, it's all a bit limited.Right. Um, Erin and we're early days. I, I actually think what Snapchat has is really great, but finding ways to make it a more social experience I think is going to be really important for Dows moving forward. Um, so, you know, we're going to try our hand at that. I am sure there will be, uh, more products and services that come along on the way, but, uh, trying to find ways to allow the community, to like really interact in the decision-making is going to be hugely important in the development of the game among other things, uh, We're going to try our hand at that, but at the outset here, there'll be snapshot.Right. Um, there's a lot of game theory around picks of all products, you know? So how do we explain the punks comic, the fund, the founder's Dow, uh, you know, a Metta here on the planets to someone that is just joining the NFT world. Like what's the best way. Yeah. I mean the rabbit hole is deep here, so this could take a second, but, uh, I would say that it's, it's a project based around IP, right at its very core.What picks of all aims to do is develop IP in the web three environment in a way that not only will the company succeed, but so will the community. And along that journey, um, your faced with choices for how you want your collection to, to be tilted. Do you want to have exposure to this very unique collection?And participate more broadly along with, you know, 5,000 of your closest friends and really everything takes them all. That's the founders. Now that was the choice to burn the comic for the founders now, or, you know, do you want to have more of a direct control over some Lords as it relates to the IP in the punks tokens, right?These factionalized 16 crypto things. Well, that would be staking the comic and some of the people in that route, it wasn't even so much that they wanted the punks tokens, but they really wanted this physical. So there's the physical comic that will be shipped. Uh, and the fulfillment for that is going to start probably in early.Um, so if you can state the comic, you can collect your physical and, you know, we hope that to be like a really cool collector's item. So I'd say staking and, you know, ownership over, uh, really everything as it pertains reward wise is, is directly going to you. Uh, that would be the comic route. Then you also recently had this opportunity to burn for the moon Dow.And the moon Dow is, is sort of the same concept as the founders now, but applied to the game verse, right? So this is again, this like really loyal community of supporters who had to make this choice to burn a seven and a half east comic that they also were probably holding for quite some time. So we see the moon functioning in kind of like a similar.Not necessarily governance because they're all equal, but kind of like, uh, having a really long-term perspective for the overall benefit of the game and the universe, um, that was the choice to burn the comic for the moon. And then each of these planetary Dow tokens, you know, you have direct exposure into the ultimate success of a gaming platform that we're trying to build together.So, you know, you see products like sandbox, right? Uh, you see a lot of teasers. I, I think they're releasing soon, you know, not convoluted hopefully, but, um, ultimately all of those rewards flow back to sandbox and in a mocha, right. Um, here, what we're building together will actually flow back to the community.So I think it's a really cool sort of technological and sociological experiment for the power of what web three can do, uh, Dow. Um, three NFTs, really trying to leverage all of these technologies in a way that I think is pretty clearly the direction for the future, but just doing it at kind of like this early stage in their development.And then the medic heroes obviously are a really awesome way to actually be able to play in that game, but also participate in kind of like the comic ecosystem, given everything that we're doing there to, to develop the IP with, you know, traditional media partners, whether it be like a Netflix or a universal or, or whomever, we ended up deciding to partner with, um, you know, trying to get like an animated series.That's, that's distributed more broadly to bring, you know, hopefully new people, not only into NFTs, but into the technology. Um, building value behind that IP. Uh, so that's kind of like the happy medium, I would say is the Medicare regenerative identities, because you get to participate in both the game, but also kind of the traditional IP path of the punks chronic well said, man.And the game theory is what makes NMT so fun. So I'd love to hear how, you know, there's so much game theory here. Um, let's kind of switch a little bit, so, you know, let's talk a little bit about, you know, if you've been in the NFC space for a while, you've most likely heard of beanie, you know, so is anybody watching, how did your relationship with the beanie start and how's your relationship currently?I know he is now an advisor to picks the vault. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, none of this would have been possible without him. I mean, I I've talked pretty publicly that I in crypto as of last November, so less than a year ago, I had 20. Right. Uh, and, and now we have like this very successful business. So I'm like really grateful that, that he saw the vision of what this could be.Um, he put up something like $3 million in assets to make the founders now and all that collection of punks possible, which was really kind of the core of what the comic was. Right. We needed these fractionalized punks in order to sort of build this story, this decentralized Disney kind of project, um, and how we met, I mean, uh, in kind of like, I think he had just made a trade with prank C uh, on Twitter.Like he had only like a hundred, 200 followers. Uh, and I messaged him the, the original interaction didn't go very well. Uh, you know, he was kind of a Dick and, but I stuck at it. Like, I thought that he knew some things and I was trying to learn at that point in time. Uh, and, you know, we sort of built a friendship, um, and then sports cheetah, Preston, another one of our original partners.Um, he and I had had, uh, started to buy some NFTs together early this year. We had a crypto punk together. Uh, and then we decided we wanted to buy this, uh, this oiler beats. Oh, gee, I don't know if any of you are familiar with oiler beats, but um, really cool economic model. Uh, and you know, it's popped up here and there, we're actually planning to use some of that model, uh, with issue two and some of our collectible covers, but it was like this, this huge project that was kind of like the hot project of the moment.Um, each of these OGs generated a royalty, right. And I think the first four days before they announced. Series two of enigma. Uh, we made like Tenny 70, 75, 8 in royalties, just off holding this NFT in, in four days. Um, so, uh, Preston and I decided that we wanted to buy this OJI from beanie beanie was selling it for a hundred eighth because he wanted to buy the LP one.And, uh, it was my anniversary with my now fiance, then my girlfriend. And, um, we, so we're at dinner and beanie has decided, okay, like, he'll, he'll do this deal with Preston and I for a hundred eighth. Um, and like Preston's on a zoom with beanie I'm at dinner. Uh, for my anniversary, I have the email that I need to send to beanie my phone dies.Uh, I'm like up at the, uh, Like the, the front desk, trying to get them to charge my phone and, and Preston and beanie are just like, you know, chatting on, on zoom. Uh, obviously trying to keep the deal alive because, you know, beanies, uh, beanie is a pretty tough negotiator at times. So he was like, all right, well, like if you can't do the deal, then like it's off, it's off.Um, and so Preston was like keeping it alive and, uh, we ended up making the deal with him. Ultimately, I don't really know how, how that's turned out. At one point in time, we got an offer on that, whether it be for like 368th or something, we still hold it right now. But, uh, that was the start of the relationship really between, uh, Preston beanie and myself.And it was during kind of those conversations that we, we started talking about this idea of building IP behind these crypto punks and, and that's how really we got his investment into the project. And the rest is this. Love it. That's always wild times. Yeah. Yeah. Love them or hate them. You know, Beanie's an awesome person to keep an eye on.I always loved his thoughts. His tweets always keep me entertained and speaking. It's never boring. That's for sure. Speaking of tweets, he tweeted something earlier today, which we'll pull up on the screen right now. Uh, and that's going to lead me to my next question. Is your BGL D thing? Yes, exactly. So, well, yeah, so I, I had not spoken with him prior to him tweeting this.So, you know, when, when blue had come out, um, you know, I, I think it's like a very fun community, right? Uh, there's a lot of like really positive people in the blue community and the BGL D thing. There was like a conversation that beanie and I had had about, okay. You know, maybe if, if blue holders or BGL D hold.They had started to like come into the pixel vaults ecosystem and, you know, they were contributing a lot. So I thought, okay, you know, like let's find a way that maybe we can welcome them into the ecosystem and you'll see my tweet there. Um, and then the BGL D dev rubbed. Right. Uh, and that, that had nothing to do with beanie.And I know he takes, he takes a lot of, uh SMACtalk. I don't know if this is a PG channel. Uh, but yeah. I mean, people talk a lot of trash to him on Twitter about BGL. And I know that he had nothing to do with that. Rugging, I mean, he still has like, I know 5 million tokens or something, but, uh, I don't know if we'll ever do anything with BGL GLD, you know, frankly, I don't really want to associate with BGL D because of that rug.Um, but the bloop community, I, I liked, uh, I think there's good people in the blue community. So, you know, I would like to find a way for us to do something nice for them since I, you know, at that point in time when I said it, you know, I mean it, and I'm a man of my word. So, uh, I would like to find a way for us to do something for them since a lot of them have now become like really long time supporters of the project that I interact with a lot in discord and on Twitter.So, you know, if we can find a way to do that in a way that's like true to pixel vault, you know, we're not going to be doing any sort of like weird blue type text, uh, stuff, but something true to rip, uh, where. We can somehow reward them and, and welcome them into the community. I'm all for it. But, you know, the thing would be GLD is, is unfortunate because I know a lot of people thought when it was high and then that dev rubbed like, like the entire, the entire reserve of Eve.So, you know, it's, it's kind of a tough spot because I know he, he really cares about the people that sort of like followed his advice and, you know, granted, he says it's worthless, but you know, I, I know he really cares about the perception of the project and I know he wants to see it succeed. So, you know, if we can do something to, to, you know, work with that community in a way that's true to pixel vault, you know, I'm, I'm happy to do it, but I doubt it'll be through BGLB.It would more likely be just like something in partnership with glutes. Um, But it would be something like that's like actually just like a pixel wall project that maybe we can reward blue folders with. Got it. Nice. So, yeah, we'll definitely keep our eyes on that. Um, you know, speaking of, you know, following, uh, how do you manage to discord?You know, there's such a big following for the pixel community. Uh, you know, how often are you in the discord as well? Yeah, so, uh, I would say I'm pretty active in the discord granted, like the last few weeks, I, I haven't been able to interact a ton. Um, but I do, anytime people tag me, I do try to answer, but, uh, Podemus is, is our community manager.He he's like a Saint he's in there all the time fighting the good fight, uh, dealing with the fighters. Um, So, you know, he leads a team of like really amazing, uh, community mods. We have too many to name right now, but I love you all. Uh, and yeah, I mean, I think that the, that the discord is like an amazing resource because the project is so complex and we do have so many different things happening at a given time that if you're not in the discord, I can see how people get lost, you know, so finding ways to improve our communication, you know, these weekly spaces, um, I was thinking of maybe having something on the website where it's kind of just like a running list of updates, because I mean, if some of these things, if you tweet it, I've seen beanie do it before.And it was like 25 tweets long or something trying to explain what was happening. So I don't really think that's the way, but, you know, finding ways to have a running update on our website and through Twitter is important and, you know, definitely. Head into the discord. I mean, if you can get a founder's doubt token, I know the price is down right now.I mean, I'm biased, but seems like a really good deal to me, the alpha and just that channel pays for itself. I mean, we have people that started with like one Ethan now have bought board apes and punks and stuff just off the basis of the different projects that they're flipping in, in the founders now channel.So it's a really vibrant community and there, uh, love those people. I, I highly suggest getting in that channel if you can afford it. I agree. Love it. So one of the things we we've talked about, you know, in reference several times during this interview was a deal that pixel vault signed with w M E so that's something we're seeing more and more now in the NFT space we saw, uh, you know, crypto punk's parent company signed with UTA.So I guess my first question here is, you know, uh, how soon will we see announcements on the TV and film side of things for monetization? You mentioned that things, you know, are you, you know, you're constantly talking, is that something that's going to be communicated, you know, through the founders discourt first?Or will it be, you know, public information through press releases with these potential media partners? Yeah. So, um, I would say that that's really my primary focus right now is finding us a game development partner and a partner for developing the IP. Um, For example today I met with like a really amazing, uh, former top level executive at universal and Dreamworks.And he's interested in coming on and sort of leading a team to, to actually develop the IP into an animated series, feature film, et cetera. So, you know, we're speaking with, uh, the who's who of, of Hollywood trying to develop a team, my personal background, I've worked in the entertainment space, but more of like support services, so communications, uh, financial tools, et cetera.So I very much know what I don't know. And if we're going to be successful in developing this IP, I think we really need a seasoned, uh, production, executive producer type person. Um, so I'm actively taking meetings in that regard. And then shortly thereafter we'll be working with, um, I would be working with that person to try and find us, uh, a seasoned television or.Uh, which has obviously different than a comic writer, but, um, you know, they're all going to need to be very much intertwined together. Right. So, uh, actively building out the creative team and, uh, yeah, I mean, I I'm, I couldn't be more thrilled with the conversations that are going on behind the scenes and, uh, you know, to all the flutters, like good luck, uh, cause I'm building.So, uh, you know, I'll be here, rain or shine, uh, bear market bull market. Uh, it takes a while it's not going anywhere. So, uh, really, really excited for what the future is going to have love it. So, uh, you know, you mentioned your media background, so I'm guessing that w M E was not the only, uh, rap considered here.What did that process look like? And maybe, you know, why was w M E picked over some of these other talent agencies for pixel. Yeah. So, uh, we took meetings with just about everyone. Um, uh, well I guess all of the large players, uh, in the agency space, we didn't speak to UTA, uh, who represent larval labs just because, you know, ultimately we're going to be developing kind of like a similar IP.I really don't know what they're planning, but, um, we spoke with all the other major players and I wanted to get a sense for sort of their vision for the space. And, um, you know, I was also really impressed with CAA. I know they're doing a lot to, to build out kind of like an NFT division, but ultimately what really sort of differentiated WME for me.Um, so Chris Jackman, he, he's kind of like, um, a leader in strategy for WME. Um, and first off to have like a CSO. Your call, your first meeting shows like some of the degree of, um, you know, seriousness with which they're taking your project. So, you know, having senior level executives on all of our initial calls was, was really impressive to me that they, they take the time and effort to do so.And he's actually stayed like very highly engaged. So it's not just like a lip service that they're paying you off the bat, uh, too with WME. Um, you're not really just dealing with one agent you're dealing with subject matter expertise, uh, across a variety of verticals, right? So we have someone who is in like legacy publishing, whether that be comics, books, et cetera.We have someone whose sole responsibility is television. We have film, we have, uh, like digital media. We have a gaming agent. You really have like a team of people that are going out and developing business for you. And, uh, while our team is now 18 people strong. I mean, having all of these people whose whose sole incentive is to develop business for you.I mean, that's the only way they make money. They don't collect a check from us otherwise, uh, is really powerful. Right? So I think having subject matter experts makes a difference, but really sort of the key, uh, and touching again on this conversation with Chris, uh, in strategy for them, they don't look at pixel vaults as an NFT business, which I think pretty much everyone else.Yes, NFTs are sort of the, the core of our business and what will allow us to differentiate ourselves from traditional media players. But ultimately we're an IP business leveraging kind of next generation technologies, right? We're still approaching IP in a way that is very similar to what these legacy institutions are doing, but we're doing it in a way that actually benefits the broader community, develops the IP for the benefit of all, uh, and sort of this collective mind, uh, of our community, all working together to develop this IP, I think is going to be tremendously disruptive to, to sort of like legacy institutions.Um, I mean, you've seen, uh, Amazon and Netflix already disrupt what the traditional studios were doing. And I think this is the next logical progression of where that's going. And, uh, I, I touched on this a bit earlier. The, the opinions are different now, even in these legacy institutions, like nobody wants to be blockbuster, you know, they don't want to be disrupted again by the Netflix and Amazon of the world.So people are taking our conversations very seriously. I think there's a lack of, of new IP. I mean, you know, the, the Harry potters and, um, you know, game of Thrones of the world have really been few and far between, uh, over the last, I'd say decade or two. I mean, Harry Potter now came out, I don't know, 25 years ago.So you're seeing, um, a lot of, sort of repeat. You know, fast and the furious one to eight, 10, right? Exactly. I mean, they're cool. Like they're fun movies and $300 million movie is nothing to scoff at, but, um, there's a, there's a shortage of IP. And I think that you're going to see these traditional media players starting to look at the NFT space as kind of like these niche, but very strong and loyal communities where actual new IP is being developed, whether it be us or dates, et cetera.Um, cool cats, you know, some of the other leaders in the space. I think, I think all of us are going to be successful in, in one way or another in developing and disrupting some of these traditional business. Awesome. You know, so one of the things we always try to do on here, we already got a ton of information from you.Some updates on the timeline, you know, you're talking about taking meetings and all that different stuff, but I always try. So my question is, can you give the Benzinga audience one sneak peek detail about the Metta hero universe that hasn't been revealed anywhere yet?Well, I mean, I would say that that was like a pretty big, uh, hint that I just dropped a minute ago. Right. Uh, bringing on, uh, an executive to, to develop this, this Medicare IP. It, uh, obviously it's going to tie to the pumps because it all works together, but you know, someone. Uh, sort of grew up under Steven Spielberg in the very early days of Dreamworks and his led like multi a hundred million dollar projects being interested in, in leading our IP.I mean, if that's not bullish for our project and the space more broadly, I don't know what it is, but people see the value in what's being created here. And, uh, you know, this, this was the first, the first like big meeting, uh, bringing someone in house. But, uh, uh, I mean, I, I couldn't have been more impressed with that, with that call.And I think it's really indicative of the direction that, um, you know, these conversations are going to go with WME. Making introductions across a variety of verticals tonight, I'm meeting with their gaming department. So, uh, yeah, really excited. But I think that if, if, if that meeting that I just spoke about is any indication of sort of the other people that we're talking to in, in traditional media to develop the project.Like, you know, there, there are, are big household names that are, that are looking at, uh, developing the medical IP. So very, very bullish on the future. Perfect. We, we love the hints here. I love that. And the way you painted that too, you know, I just, you know, it's, it's so clear. I can see it in my head. Now we've seen a lot of, you know, YouTube and influencers take on movie roles to get more viewers.I can totally see that happening with NFTs where, you know, the IP is going to be so important for, you know, to drive such a large audience. So, dude, I'm so excited for. Yeah. I mean, you know, as the IP succeeds in the broader media, obviously that returns value to the NFTs, but also we're definitely going to be finding creative ways to give exclusive content to NFTE holders, uh, you know, participation in events.Uh, you know, there there's a whole host of different ways, but, uh, you know, focusing on, uh, driving kind of like the mainstream attention. While, uh, you know, making sure to reward that kind of like initial community of builders will be our focus moving love that. Uh, so between punks comic Mehta heroes and the planet sales, uh, pixel vault has done over 48,000 Ethereum in volume, top 12, all time on open seat with about over four with about over 5,000 unique holders.Um, so what advice? Yeah. Secondary, what advice would you have for new projects launching today? Right. So in a market that's, you know, getting oversaturated, it's such a fast moving market, uh, what advice would you give to someone that wants to, you know, join that FTE community as a creator? Yeah, so, I mean, I first off, I think, you know, hearing those secondary numbers, I mean, I, I'm sure that stood out to groups like WME, right?If you're in a legacy business and you're seeing how much more effectively things can be monetized in a web three environment, I mean, you'd be stupid not to pay attention in terms of. Uh, new projects, new collectors. I mean, I think everyone that, that has found the most success has brought something unique to the table, right.While yeah, you can probably make like $3 million doing like a copy paste project that, you know, fades into oblivion in a few days, if you're doing something unique and actually dedicated and involved with your community and, and, you know, looking at things from like a long-term mindset, right. Again, I'll point to the cool cats and board apes.Like I, I know for sure that those are teams of founders that like take the longterm success of their projects seriously. Uh, just like we do. So, you know, I think it's pretty clear, uh, when, when evaluating these projects, what, what people's intentions are. I mean, even if it's not a rug or something, even if the people like.You know, well-intentioned and the founders are in chat. If really all they're doing is another, just like random PFP, you know what what's going to differentiate that long-term like, why is the market going to appreciate that project in one year, five years, 10 years. Right. So I think focusing on creators that are bringing something new and unique to the table, whether that be tech or, you know, vision for what can be done with the IP, uh, or even just have like a really unique community of supporters.Um, I think that's sort of like the key, the key when evaluating new projects and what will, what will make successful teams moving into the future? Love that. So we've seen a picks of all cool cats, bore. Dave's a lot of these projects that started a couple months ago, you know, they've become blue chip. Do you have any projects that you like right now that are on their way there, or that are fairly new or that you've seen so far in the last couple weeks?I don't mint a lot of projects these days. Um, I'm just like way, way too busy to even follow the mania. Um, but like, I've been following a handful of, uh, like photography projects. Um, so, uh, obviously twin planes was really awesome and now, you know, uh, Justin's kind of like blue chip, uh, Dave, uh Krogman I always mess up his last name would drive.I mean, he, he, I didn't know it at the time, but he talked about how pixel vault and punks comic and like the weird mechanics were sort of inspiration for some of the things he was doing there. And then, uh, like where my vans go or whatever that guy that is just like taking pictures at like insane Heights and stuff.Um, yeah. That's, I mean, those, those pictures make me nervous. So I think that you're going to see. A new crop of, oh, a cat simmered. I want to say her last name is, uh, with like sort of the outdoor landscape things. And she did like a really cool project. I don't know, a couple months ago where the winner would get to do some sort of like cool outdoor excursion with her.So I, I think photography is going to be a thing that you're, you're seeing, uh, gain a lot of traction here. Um, you know, hopefully it's not just PFPs into oblivion, but I mean, again, it doing new things that inserts risk, right? Like if you could just do a copy paste PFP and make $3 million, like, like why do a comic that's going to sit there and nobody is going to get for five weeks, right?Yeah. You have to have the vision. So again, you know, find founders that really believe in what they're doing and are doing something unique. I mean, yeah. Look at these photos. It's so. Uh, I, I was looking, I mean, it's already really expensive, so I kind of missed the boat. Um, but yeah, I heard, I heard some of his backstory, I think he's like former special ops or something.Um, yeah, so he, and he's just climbing these things with, with like no harnesses, nothing. So, you know, more power to this guy. I, I hope, I hope he stays safe, but pretty cool collection of photos. I love that. Awesome. Well, G funk that did it for questions from myself and mass and some of our Benzing a team.Uh, if you've got a couple minutes, we could try to rattle through some chat questions real quick. Um, I know we're already past three here, so only if you have time, um, we'll try to go fast here. So we had a question from Teresa. She said, well, the opportunity to win a core ever come up again, outside of the mint pack.Oh, okay. No, uh, ever come up again. Yes. In November, the core giveaways will start again. Um, but no, you will need a med pass to get those cores. However, we do have kind of like a, another sort of core, like project coming up, that's tied to the planets. So, uh, you know, that's going to be something that the community can speculate about, but, uh, ODS and Chris are, are very much in the weeds there.So that's going to be really cool and tied to the lore of the planets. There won't be as many, but a really cool set of characters. So yeah, finding new ways to reward collectors, but know that that original set of 146 cores is only going to be going to the mid pass holders, which I think there's like, I dunno, 4,000 or so.Awesome. And then you, you mentioned snapshots before we did get a question from yogis in the chat. When will this, uh, pixel vault set snapshots be taken? So just any comment on maybe the timeline or how that will be communicated to everyone. Yeah. So we're going to be taking the planet snapshots for the sidekicks, uh, like the first week of November in terms of the sets.So the, the sort of Genesis set being tied to the giveaway of the earth tokens. So again, that'll be like first week or so of November, and then kind of that, that like longer term sort of dangling carrot for the sets with the ultimate conversion, to a doubt, a public Dow for pixel vault itself. Uh, I mean, that's gonna take some time, you know, couldn't take a year, but the plan is for next year to formerly convert, to adapt.And similar to what Sr did, where, you know, existing holders, people that have participated in the community to work, to reward those people. The PV Dao token will not be sold anywhere. So it's just going to go back to our original collectors and they'll have a stake in how the business is run. So, uh, really excited for, for that ultimate future.Um, and that's sort of like the long-term benefit of these sets. Awesome. And then we have power the game currency. Uh, the question from Ben is will that be public or only available in the pixel vault ecosystem? Well, so, I mean, ultimately you'll be able to trade it like on, on sushi or whatnot. Um, but it's not a token that will ever be sold.So, uh, it's, it's going to have a specific allocation to the identities. It will, there will be an allocation to the sidekicks, which will be also good, but not as good as the identities. Um, and then. Uh, the remaining tokens are going to flow to the uptown, which is sort of the governance mechanism for the gaming platform.And that will decide, uh, based on a vote of the planets, um, how, and when they want to distribute the rest of those tokens, there will ultimately be a billion pound tokens. Um, and we'll be releasing more information here pretty soon, uh, because state game for, for the identities is going to start probably in the next two weeks.Nice. So we have a question from Scott here who, uh, he's asking, you've mentioned, you know, the burnout being real and then another T world, uh, do you take personal days off? And if you do, how do you keep your mental health strong, you know, throughout these crazy times and then if T space? Yeah. Uh, unfortunately I, I, I mean, I've basically taken no days off.I don't, I don't think there's ever been a day since this started, that I've unplugged. Uh, even, even the trip where I got engaged. I mean, I was like working that morning, so, you know, I try and find, uh, bits and pieces here and there where I can unplug for a few hours. I know beanie gives me, uh, a lot of grief over, you know, tweeting about sports, but, you know, even if I'm working right, if I'm watching sports, it gives me kind of like a little bit of a way to unplug.And so I, I find that to be kind of like a useful mechanism to unplug, you know, get out, hit a bucket of golf balls, um, you know, exercise, you know, do you gotta do things to unplug, even if you're not going to unplug for extended periods of time, but that's it. I, I totally get that. You know, some people need to step away for, for more time than that.And certainly I'm a. It feels like I've aged like 50 years in the last six months. But, um, yeah. I mean, finding some time in your day to unplug, I think is important, but I mean, with, with how fast this is growing, I, I really can't step away even for a day, so yeah, it's crazy. But they're trying to push through.Yeah, no, I completely get it. Uh, definitely want to just get some movement and stuff. Some balance is always healthy, but yeah. Another question from Scott here. Yeah, exactly. Another question from Scott here is, uh, he's curious to know, has any of the team met in real life? Uh, you know, given that NFT communities largely exist on Twitter and discord?Yeah. So. Preston, who again was, uh, was one of the founders of punks comic. Uh, he and I met on Twitter about, uh, 10 years ago. Uh, but then have since become like in real life friends, um, I have met some, like other members of the community in LA. We had like a meetup. I met, uh, Justin Arsano hunter, um, you know, Jacob, uh, the NFT attorney, like a big group of people, uh, in LA there's, there's actually like a pretty tight knit group of people there.But for my, my pixel vault team, unfortunately we haven't had the opportunity to, to meet yet in person. Uh, I do have a ticket for NFT NYC and the virtual, not he, I got him a ticket as well. I don't have a flight or a place to stay yet, and I'm not a hundred percent sure I'm going to make it. But, uh, that would be, I

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Dr. Franchell HamiltonShe recognized that many of her patients needed a more personalized plan to help them maintain their weight loss goals. By addressing the mental, behavioral, medical, and environmental factors that kept them from a meaningful transformation, her patients began to regain control in these areas.Ari Gronich: Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of create a new tomorrow I am your host or Ari Gronich and today I have with me Dr. Franchell Hamilton. She is a bariatric surgeon with not only several years of medical and surgical training, but chemistry psychology as well, who's now kind of grown a little tired of the system, as it is, and is looking to help support patients in a more holistic way. So I want I wanted to have her on here because she truly is part of who's making medicine, good for tomorrow, helping them activate their vision for a better world through medicine. So wanted to bring her on Dr. Franchell, thank you so much for coming on. Franchell Hamilton: Thank you. Thank you for having me. Ari Gronich: Absolutely. Why don't you tell us a little bit about your background? And what made you go from traditional medicine towards some more holistic approach?Franchell Hamilton: Sure. So I was traditionally trained MD, medicine, went through residency, general surgery, and then I did extra training and bariatric or weight loss surgery, and was in private practice for about 10 years. And it wasn't until I was in private practice, actually, kind of with my own patients doing the things the way I want it. To do that I started realizing the system that I've been trained all this time wasn't really effective. And I have three clinics, right. So we had a pretty large practice. We're in a big Metropolitan Dallas Fort Worth area. And I was probably one of the top geriatric surgeons as far as volume, what I started noticing probably about seven years in actually, that I was doing a lot more revision surgeries, which means they've already had a bariatric surgery, gastric bypass, sleeve, lap band, whatever it is, and they were coming back to get a revision surgery. And I noticed that several years in the practice changed from doing predominantly first time, weight loss, whatever, surgery, medication wellness, I do a lot of things in my clinic that I saw a lot of repeat customers that regained. And I had to ask myself, what am I doing here, like I did all the checkboxes that I was taught to do. All the patients had to go see a nutritionist, they had to go see a psychologist, they had to get their heart checked out. They did all the checkboxes that was required by insurance. And that was required from my training. But patients weren't getting better. They were requiring revisions. And even the ones that were doing just the medical weight loss, they just weren't progressing the way I thought they should be. And I didn't go into medicine just to be busy. Just to be a busy surgeon, I actually wanted to make a difference. I have a heart for people with a lot of medical problems and complicated obesity. And I really wanted them to not just treat their medical problems, but to resolve them. I wanted them to go away. And I felt like in that moment, we I wasn't doing the right thing for them. So I really had to kind of rethink what I was doing revamp and I actually got more education and almost like what we call Eastern medicine or holistic medicine during those years because I was getting burned out with traditional medicine because I felt like I was not helping my patients because they didn't get better. Like I was trained bariatric surgery will not only help them lose weight, but their diabetes and hypertension, cholesterol, all this stuff will resolve. Right. And it did for a brief moment in time. And then the majority of patients were regaining. So that was my turning point for me.Ari Gronich: Awesome. Thank you so much for that and your dedication in general to wanting to find the best results for your patients. Because we all know that that's not happening so much in the industry right now. And one of the questions I wanted to ask you is what's been your, you know, the pushback from the system or from your colleagues, and so forth? Or what's been the adaptation from them where they've said, Oh, yeah, I've seen this too. And I also want to do what's best. So how can I get on board with what you're doing? So how have you seen on both sides of that?Franchell Hamilton: So, believe it or not, I felt like and still feel like I'm almost like a sore thumb in my industry because I will tell you, especially in the surgical industry, a lot of us are them. They're not there yet. Like they just they operate the and to be honest, I don't even know if it's their fault, like we were trained as a surgeon, we see a problem, we fix the problem or take out the problem. And then we move on to the next thing before I started my own private practice, I was with a group that was very much like that I was employed. And I immediately got out of that, because I was like, this is definitely not the way I want to practice medicine. And the only way that I felt like I can even come close was by starting my own practice. So that's kind of how I ended up in my own private practice. But I will tell you, in my own private practice, it was a struggle, like, I felt like I got pushback from all sides, I got pushback from the insurance companies, I got pushback from a lot of my own colleagues, when I surgical colleagues, when I brought up the idea that patients have to do other things to help them with their weight, diabetes, when I talked about positive affirmations, or maybe including meditation or yoga, I got pushed back all the way around to the point where I had said, almost like leave those I'm not a part of a lot of those organizations. And from the insurance standpoint, they did not pay for any of the more holistic things that I wanted to do that I saw worked, I saw this work. And I even wrote a letter saying this is medical necessity, I think they need this, this and this. And it was denied left and right. And I often found patients were almost mad at me or my office because we couldn't get this approved. And I'm like insurance companies will pay for their blood pressure medication. But if I want it to treat their blood pressure in another way that I know would actually benefit them by helping them reduce stress, change their environment, whatever the case, I got pushback, I wasn't paid, the insurance company didn't pay. And a lot of my surgical colleagues thought I was actually kind of crazy. So I literally had to shut everything down and almost start over the way I felt like with my own vision, the way I felt like things that should be it almost gave me an aha moment. On the way healthcare was practice, like everything it was it was almost like a brief down moment for me, because I've been in this system for so long. And I didn't even recognize this was happening until my patients weren't progressing. And then if I was in fight with the insurance to get stuff covered, I felt like my voice really wasn't being heard. On the other side, some of my medical colleagues, medical non-surgical, were very open to that idea. So I had to shift almost to the more holistic or integrative community, where they got it, lifestyle medicine, doctors, integrative medicine, functional medicine, meditation therapist, yoga therapist, so I almost shifted into that community. And that's kind of where I felt more welcomed, because in my traditionally trained community, a lot of us, some of us are jumping over, but a lot of us are still with the typical mindset when it comes to how we should treat health care.Ari Gronich: Right. So, you know, part of this show has always been a lot about the health care industry, because that's where I started. And, you know, I know from my own medical history, having a brain tumor that I was told, I'd be basically gaining weight until I was dead. And I was 342 pounds at one point where I'm just going okay, so I went on to a cleanse, I went on to another cleanse after that I did a 40 day fast, and I did a 10-day water fast. I mean, it was like one after another of just Something's got to give. And but, you know, misdiagnosed and mistreated my entire childhood. It's kind of why I'm in the business to begin with. What I what I saw was that results never seemed to matter. It was procedures and the incentive system is to do more procedures rather than to actually get the good results for the patients. And so, one of this is like the audience here. A lot of them obviously hear me a lot, but to the people that are in what they would say mainstream, I'm considered maybe woo woo because I don't have a doctor degree other than my doctor of metaphysics, right. So, I would be discredited, you know, because of that. So, you're a medical doctor who's in this industry, right? And so how do we get that system to start shifting itself to more of a results-oriented system?Franchell Hamilton: Yeah, and I'm glad you mentioned that because one of the reasons I got into, particularly obesity medicine was because of the labels like I was labeled as a kid, I didn't have the best childhood. And I had all this kind of like negative labels slapped on me. And so, when I got into medicine, I knew I wanted to be in a field, where people felt like either they were defeated, or they're, you know what I'm saying they just have this negative connotation. So that's what drew me to obesity medicine in general, because there's all this negativity around it, that most of it is not true, which a lot of it I also felt growing up. And so I want it to be that kind of voice for my patients and be that advocate truly be that advocate. And that's one of the things when I got into medicine, where over time, I felt like I'm not advocating for them, kind of like what you were saying. It's a procedural driven society. I mean, we can talk about what happened in COVID, when elective surgeries got shut down, like there's so much stuff in the hospitals that got shut down, I think the way to change it is to do stuff like what you're already doing, talking to more people getting the word out what me and you are both doing try to promote, I still have my practice, it's completely changed now. But a lot of my work now is to get the word out on the way this healthcare system is having practiced in it for a decade before my eyes were open. And realizing like this is not the way it needs to be practiced. There are actually several communities of physicians now who also believe this, which is helpful, we are partnering with a lot of people like you like yoga therapists, like other people who years ago, they're just like, oh, they don't know what they're talking about. Yes, they do, because they're also seeing results. So it's a matter of like getting the word out there that these other modalities exist. And I think it has to be a combination of patients, patients now are also getting frustrated with their results, they're getting frustrated, for paying these high insurance premiums, and not having anything covered, and not getting the treatments that they feel like are going to resolve their medical problems. So I think it took everybody being frustrated and wanting to make a change in the system it's starting. And I think it's just the combination of us getting the word out joining together and getting a change in this area.Ari Gronich: Yeah, so one of my questions, then is being that you're in the unique position that you're in, of being in that medical side, and now bridging the gaps. You know, to the western side, my question would be, how do we get some of those organizations that are individual like IFM, FMU, a forum, right? Those are all individual organizations to kind of come together and literally create the next kind of healthcare system. Because, you know, the way I look at it, the battle that we've been having has been about who pays the insurance company bills, right? Whether it's the government paying or whether it's the insurance paying, it's still who's paying, but there's been no talk about how do we make the system more effective so that people are healthier so that it costs us less money in general? And so that's kind of one of the conversations I like to have is, how do we come together in a way that honors and respects all aspects of medicine, minus, of course, the fraud and deceit and all that shit. But that honors the risk and respects all the good that medicine is mixed with all the good that the holistic side has to offer, and come and create a new system that just is outperforming the old system.Franchell Hamilton: I agree. And that's a loaded question. Because as you and I both know, that's going to take a lot. That's going to take a lot of manpower. On all ends, physicians, support staff like you other health care workers like you and patients to kind of come in and say we want this change, I can tell you, I have stayed one of the reasons I've stayed with my foot in medicine, like clinical practice is so I can help dictate and start being the change. There's so many other opportunities, I've had to completely leave medicine and kind of and maybe at some point, I will do that. But right now, I am trying to bridge the gap. There are several people that are trying to bridge the gap with their patients and these organizations. So I sit on a lot of committees on a lot of these organizations that do not see it this way. yet. One of the reasons I started They'll stay on these committees. So I can almost be a voice inside that committee to help create the change that I think is needed. I'm, I still sit on my Council Committee for American College of Surgeons and so I'm over all of North Texas as a bariatric surgeon, I represent that one of the reasons I still stay there is so I can voice some of the changes that need to be made, I think it's going to take people higher up honestly, in these organizations to say something, and then to start kind of weaving, which we already had, we met each other. I've met several people who are on the same playing field, but I would have never met until I kind of started this whole thing. I think there needs to be a movement. That's what I'm talking about on my podcast and shows. That's what you're talking about. There's a lot a lot of us that are talking about it and we need to all come together, believe it or not, we are making some headwing. CMS which is Medicare, Medicaid, they the government insurance is considering at least looking at functional and integrative medicine, as far as coverage, which is huge. I know, it doesn't seem like a lot. But that is a huge thing that in general, we've been trying to push just like coverage for bariatric surgery, right? Like there's a lot of issues with that. There's a lot of these like grass roots going on in these organizations. I'm part of AMA, which is an American Medical Association. We're trying to in these organizations, I know there are several of them. And yes, we need to come together more, but we're trying to get stuff passed. So integrative and functional medicine has gotten a bill to Congress saying this is what needs to happen in order to help treat patients better, they've actually looked at it and are considering approving it. Once Medicare and Medicaid approves the coverage of functional and integrative medicine, which is currently not approved, that will be a ripple effect, and all other insurances will follow. So I think it's steps like that that's like big, it's hard for like the lay person to see it who's not working. And it takes years, it takes years. Like it took about six years for even that to get to Congress, you know what I'm saying? It just takes a long time for this stuff to happen.Ari Gronich: So because it takes a long time, when it's us industry, people that are not lobbyists? What is the thing that we can do with our patients? Like what are what are the things that patients can do to accelerate it within their groups? Because I'll tell you, I look at all of the Facebook groups and you know, people, some complaining and some promoting and some other things, but all of them is like it's disconnected. And it's what I would consider to be frantic, complaining or gathering to complain instead of collaborating to succeed. So, my question is both for the patients and the physicians who are starting to work with their holistic counterparts, right? How can they combine together to create more power in that movement.Franchell Hamilton:  So I think in kind of what we're doing, and this has also already started, where we're forming networks, right, and networks among our area, or region. And I think from a patient standpoint, they need to complain to their insurance company for coverage, which a lot of my patients when I was accepting insurance and alert or accept it, but when I was accepting insurance, I was like, you need to talk to your insurance and ask to get a coverage, believe it or not, when you're an insurance physician or practitioner of any sort, there are several people that's not a physician that takes insurance, there's only so much that we can do, believe it or not, insurance don't want to pay us but as the patient and I'm a patient too, you're paying into the system. So the patient has more power when it comes to their insurance than the physician or the provider does. So those complaints need to be directed towards their insurance companies demanding coverage or demand to leave. There's so many other options out there. If everybody pulled away from the insurance companies and just decided to that that's not that's not working from them, they have to make changes, right. This is what happened and financial infant structures. You almost like wherever the money is going. So in my community, we've formed networks with everybody massage therapist, physical therapist, nutritionist where you can either do like a subscription, which a lot of people are doing now, and you pay into this network, a subscription and it will cover whatever visits almost like an insurance But you're cutting out the insurance, you're cutting out the middleman, this is getting provided directly to whatever group that you're with, or you because a lot of us physicians, we just want to treat the patient, most providers just want to treat the patient. And so we will make something that's reasonable, and that they can afford a lot. And I can speak on physicians, and a lot of these holistic practices are no longer or don't accept insurance, and they're doing their own models, but we have to network and collaborate. Because if I can't offer something, I need to be able to refer that patient to other services that are in our cash pay, holistic integrative network that they can go see. And a lot of patients, believe it or not, are leaving insurance companies and only getting what they need in the event of traumatic or event. Yeah, exactly. And they're paying the doctors and the providers that are providing care for a lot cheaper than paying these high premiums in these high deductibles. So I think that's what needs to be done all over. And that movement has already started.Ari Gronich: That's awesome to hear. I'm so glad to hear that that is going on. And we'll have to make sure that people know how to connect into networks like that, when they listen to the show, so we'll have links and stuff for that as well. So here is a, an off the cuff. Right? So let's say you're not taking insurance, right? I'm taking insurance, you're not taking insurance, you're getting results, I'm not getting results. Alright, so we're just taking a scenario that I think happens quite a lot. So we're going in for weight loss, counseling, weight loss care, right? How much is the difference in cost for say, bariatric surgery compared to a functional medicine approach? And, you know, an average cost, right? So a bariatric surgery costs, how much and then the average approach for functional medicine costs How much?Franchell Hamilton: Well, in the other question, I guess we have to ask is the results, right? So okay. So the first part, so average bariatric surgery probably costs about 20 grand between the hospital and the doctor. And usually the doctor's offices provide all the pre care and a lot of the post care. So about $20,000 functional medicine, typical subscription cost, cost about 100 and 100 to 150 a month. And so let's say 13,000, right? Are there I'm sorry, yeah, sorry, 13 100 a month. So 1300 for the year versus $20,000, for bariatric surgery. So that's a huge cost difference.Ari Gronich: Okay, so now we're going to go to vote who results on both sides. Since you were talking earlier about how many people come back, let's just do that how many people come back after bariatric surgery versus how many people do average, see come back, meeting more care or knowledge or whatever, after going through a functional medicine program.Franchell Hamilton: So with the functional medicine program, it's kind of ongoing, which it's a lot of support. And so people may not come back because they have recurrence of their disease, it's more just maintenance, right? So that's a little so we're not adding money into the system, because we're not treating anything per se anymore. We're just maintenance, right? So that taking into account, my bariatric patient population. For me, I felt like it was at least 50% that needed a revision, which is high considering the cost of a bariatric surgery. So I felt like there was a piece missing there.Ari Gronich: So, is the cost of the revision about the same as the cost of the original?Franchell Hamilton: No, it's significantly higher, significantly higher, because it's more complicated. Anytime you have to go and this is not this is all surgery. Anytime you have to do a revision, your complications increase dramatically. And so the length of stay in the hospital increases dramatically. Like your postdoc, potential complications are higher, like everything is more expensive in a revision surgery.Ari Gronich: Okay. Cost of ongoing care for functional medicine since there really isn't any revisions. But what's the ongoing cost? Oh, it's just the 13. Franchell Hamilton: Yes, your monthly fee. Yeah. Ari Gronich: So on top of the monthly fee, for instance, whatever that is, so they're, you know, they're all programs are different costs, right. So then there's obviously supplement costs, food cost, so people are freaking out. Let's gonna cost me so much money to get healthy. So let's talk about those costs a little bit, how they go high and how they go low, comparatively to what other people are doing. So in bariatric surgery, typically there's medicine medications that they're taking, which have a cost, right? What's the average cost of the medications of maintenance for somebody who's going through the surgical route.Franchell Hamilton: So bariatric surgery, you have to have supplements, they all have to have supplements. And there are specific variadic supplements that most bariatric surgeons or nutritionist, or baria-nutritions provide in the office because that's what the ASMBS, the people kind of write the rules say they need this supplement. And so there's an approval process. And so those supplements are usually about $60 a month for your basic supplements, let alone if you actually have some deficiencies, and then you start adding on and those supplements can range up to 60 to $100 additional a month, not to mention before surgery, there's protein drinks and supplements that you have to do. And after surgery for the first six to eight weeks, there's also protein supplements that people have to stay on to make sure they're getting all the protein that they need. And let me also mention to stay healthy. There are certain foods the bariatric patients have to eat, they eat less, but almost the same healthy foods to stay healthy that people in a maintenance program will need. So that's the bariatric cost, functional medicine cost. They don't have some way, if you don't have bariatric surgery, you don't necessarily have some of the deficiencies that bariatric patients get. So you don't necessarily need all of the supplements. Some people do, right? But very extra patients require us because of the way we rerouted you, you are 100% going to have these deficiencies because of the way the surgery was made. Other functional medicine patients that didn't have the surgery may or may not have those deficiencies, but everybody should be on a basic supplemental regimen that could cost anywhere from 40 to $60 a month. Ari Gronich: So what's the cost of obesity without any intervention at all? Do you know about those what those numbers are the statistics for those numbers.Franchell Hamilton: So because obesity, so let me tell you what obesity cost big picture, because they've looked at different sectors. So obesity caused, apparently 40% of less workdays, obesity in general, because you're obese, you have all of these other chronic problems that come about that people don't even realize that they will get you're sicker. So COVID, for example. I mean, there's so many studies showing obesity alone is reason why there was high death and high hospitalizations with a ventilator. Okay, so outside of that, though, people your immune system is down, you have more missed workdays, or missed work days, which is costing the economy money, you have a higher propensity for diabetes, and all of those medications, hypertension, high cholesterol, depression, anxiety, we don't even care enough to get into the emotional and mental side of what obesity can cause. So overall, they were in this was probably several years ago, when that I saw these numbers, the cost of obesity was taking up about 56% of our total healthcare, that's just for obesity, because of all of the other sub-quella that it has with obesity and this, I use that number because that's the number I used back in the day to try to get bariatric surgery covered because it wasn't covered as readily. It's better, but we still have coverage issues. Ari Gronich: Alright, so, I want to do the numbers because I want people to kind of grasp the gravity, not just of the obesity, just of the cost of bad results, right? You think that it's costing you a lot to go into a physician, a doctor who actually gets the job done? Who is not taking maybe insurance, but is really about caring for you and your patients? Right? And then you go, but I can't afford you. I have to go to where the insurances and then you have to go to 15 people, you have streamlet high expenses. I find it fascinating that somebody can go in for an MRI without insurance and it costs $200 and they go in with insurance and it costs 1600 or 2000, or however much they decide to charge because the whole idea of insurance at the very beginning is we all pay into it. Cool, so that they negotiate better rates for us, right so that they are taking care of those kinds of things. And I think that people are in such a cognitive dissonance about what is really happening in the world around them like, well, they wouldn't, you know, choose money over, over my health, right? They wouldn't allow the system of medicine to be about that. And so there's this disbelief, even though we see after we see after we see the evidence that something is shifty is going on, right.Franchell Hamilton: Yeah, yeah, I agree. And just to kind of piggyback on that, a lot of people think that they're there, it's almost like insurance for them as a security blanket of some sort, when it's actually not doing anything for you. I mean, I get it, I was in that boat too, for a while, like, Oh, we have to have just in case just in case, in, we're pouring 1000s of dollars a month into insurance. And over time, it's changed right now, everybody not only has their high monthly premiums, but they have this huge deductible that they have to pay out. So they're paying high monthly premiums. And then when you come see me or whatever, Doctor, you owe me your deductible, so your insurance is not even covering that they don't kick in until after your deductible is met. Even when I had insurance, I got rid of it myself. You're right, that same scenario happened to me, I needed an MRI, because of my neck. And so I was gonna go and pay insurance. And I had to pay my deductible. They're like, Oh, you need to pay a $2500 deductible. And I was like, pin. And then my therapist, my chiropractor, he ordered it. He was like, you know, I just I know a cash place, go pay cash, and don't tell him you have insurance. And I went there those 350. And I'm like, why when I had insurance, I was gonna have to pay $2500 out of pocket with insurance. I go to another place and say no, I don't have insurance. And I paid 350. Like, what is wrong with this picture, we're actually paying more into the system with insurance than without insurance the same way with physicians, my rate to see me is the same rate that insurance charged for a deductible plan. And so they're not only paying me that, that they're paying, they're also paying their monthly fee, you know, so it's, it's crazy.Ari Gronich: Yeah, it's, it's intriguing to me, but it also intrigues me to the level at which I guess our industry just doesn't even pay attention or explain it or talk about it. Because to me, it's so obvious, right? If the only thing you did, as a scientist, as a medical scientist was look at the numbers of diabetes, of rates of autism, of rates of obesity, of rates of heart disease, right? You would say, Well, shit, we have all this new technology. But the results that we're getting are like 10 times worse than we were getting before we had all this technology. So you'd think that there'd be some cognitive awareness of this? So my question is, how do we bring back the cognitive awareness to people in their own profession? I mean, in their own world, so that it's not incumbent on the patients alone, to have to fight for their right to feel good?Franchell Hamilton: Yeah, yeah, I agree. And that was the problem. And I was a part of this, where I was completely clueless. I was completely clueless, because they didn't teach this to me in school. And I don't know if they taught it at the school you went to but believe it or not, in most healthcare, professional fools, they're not talking about this. And why would they talk about this, because, you know, this could potentially bring down insurance companies or whatever, I was just looking while you were talking, the gross domestic product for our first quarter was $22 trillion. And that's for to 2020. It has gone up, but it's gone up every year. And this was my kind of aha moment. So when I was giving you those numbers, this was probably back in 2018, or 19, when it was a little bit less, but it was still in the trillions. And so if you think 56% of OB takes 56% of that obesity takes up this $18 trillion number, how much we are spending because of obesity, and we're not doing anything. I mean, that was kind of my big thing. Like this person just paid $20,000 for the bariatric surgery, and they're back in here two years later, and now it's going to cost them 35 you know, because they have to have an extra hospital stay because now it's more complicated and the insurance are willing to dish this out. But when I requested that they see counseling or therapy or food addicts? You know, they denied that like, this does not make sense to me why as a country are we willing to spend money on stuff that may only band aid the problem, but we're not willing to spend money on things that will actually resolve the problem? I can't answer that, because I was blind to it also, because I didn't see it. And I don't even know what kind of the only reason why it was brought is because I want it better for my patients. Not everybody is like that some people are just happy going to work collecting, they're checking going home. And if that's the mentality, that they we will always have that system where our head is kind of down. And our blinders are on, because they're going to work the collecting their check, regardless of the healthcare profession. And they're not seeing this bigger picture. I think what helped me is because I was in private practice, I wasn't employed. But a lot of this, if you're in a hospital setting, or an employed setting, honestly, in the defensive providers, it's hard to see, because you have a patient who comes in with diabetes, you have 30 minutes to talk about their nutrition, prescribe some type of medication, and your hospital, or your clinic has already scheduled the next patient for you. So they've got to go. And that's all you see. And so awareness has to come from the people that are doing this, but only if they want to, like me and you talking about it can only help hopefully that helps people kind of think twice, especially providers that have been there in those employees conditions where their employer doesn't see this, they may not see this, you know,Ari Gronich: Right, I just, you know, I look back on this last year, and I go, what an amazing amount of opportunity got lost, because we weren't allowed to talk about building your immune system versus treating a disease, right, we weren't allowed to talk about the ways in which we develop a system that is immune to these kinds of things, because we're so healthy, and our healthy immune system takes care of this stuff like, Good, right. And so I'd like what a missed opportunity we had this last year. The positive, I think is that we've gotten the opportunity a little bit to recognize and to start building the numbers for what you were saying a little earlier, which is look at all the medical intervention that did not happen this year. And the deaths by medicine toll, how much that's dropped. And we'll we might if somebody is actually interested in doing this be able to figure out what really is the cost and the toll death toll wise and cost toll of medical intervention that's unnecessary. what's the overages of what we're doing that we should not be doing? And, and so I'm looking forward to seeing if that gets any play in the community, you know?Franchell Hamilton: Yeah, and I think it will. So I and that's one of the things like in my practice, I never did research. And I'm getting physicians, because I'm like, we need the data, the only way that we're going to be able to beat this thing is the data like in bariatric surgery, which is where I was for so many years, we have data on how bariatric surgery causes a decrease in diabetes, a decrease in hypertension, and how this is saving money, how much obesity is costing America and how we treat this right. So we have those numbers. But then that's it, it drops off, it doesn't talk about or show the aftermath, right? We hadn't even and I think part of it is because people don't want to, we did so much to kind of get it approved. And even my own community is not showing the data afterwards. Because once they get the surgery, that's it. There's no prevention, there's no once their diabetes has resolved. And that's what we're missing the boat. And part of that, believe it or not, is insurance, you're healthy, wanna pay for your one wellness visit a year in your lab work, and that's it. And then patients are left having to what do I do now as they're like medical problems and everything else is slowly increasing. We need data on what prevention does in the big picture. But what we do have data on and this is kind of what I'm trying to educate other physicians about is that every medical disease has increased since the beginning of time since 2000. Diabetes has increased, hypertension and cardiovascular disease has increased obesity has increased, yet, we're supposed to have some of the best health care in America. And we have all these technologies and all these great meds that have come out right these $1,000 meds that are treating epilepsy in cancer and heart disease. But yet the incidence is not going down. The incidence is not going down people because we're not doing prevention, because the focus is not on prevention. This is why the incidence is not going down. And I don't understand why anybody else is not seeing this. They do offer grants, which mean one of the companies that I'm working with digital health company, to increase access to kind of ask these questions, I will tell you what the pandemic I think, like you were alluding to help with open eyes, we had way more deaths than we should have, because of the pandemic because people were not healthy. And if we have the best expensive meds that everybody's paying for in the best health care of all these technologies, why do we have so many deaths, we have more deaths than some other underserved countries. So what, like what's going on there? So we need to start focusing on prevention. And I think, as the whole people are starting to see that now, I've seen more of a shift, kind of towards the end of this pandemic than I've seen before. So I think all of us like you like me, all of us who are like advocates of prevention, now is our time to try to make changes, policy changes come together, educate our other so I'm educating as many physicians as I can I host webinars, you know, conferences, I'm speaking at conferences, in order to cut these to get the word out conferences where it normally wasn't spoken about before. I think at this point, we as a medical society, all providers have to look at this and look at what happened this past year, and start scratching our head like something is not right. It shouldn't make everybody open their eyes this past year. Ari Gronich: Yeah, absolutely, I completely agree. Here's goes to the system, but it goes towards the fear side. So, yes, there are a lot of physicians like you who were blinded for a lot of years. But there's also a lot of physicians who have felt threatened. Right. So I'll give two examples. One is just there's approximately 70 plus holistic health practitioners who have been found, murdered, suicide, whatever, in like a very short period of time, it was like in a three year period of time, there was like 70, some odd, holistic health practitioners, many of them working on vaccine stuff, like the research and in vaccines, kind of interesting, because that ended right before COVID. And I didn't actually put that together until just now, but it's just a thing. So that and then the amount of like, we had a gynecologist in Orlando, who I met at a functional medicine training. And she had gotten, basically, her business completely shut down, she had gotten investigated by the AMA, she had gotten shut down by insurance companies, because what they consider to be the standard of care is if you're going into a gynecologist, you have four sessions that you could go in, where you either have to be prescribed a medicine or a procedure, if one of those two things is not done in four sessions, all of a sudden, you're not practicing in the standard of care. And she did that with a lot of her patients, because she was actually treating them holistically for whatever the ailments were that they were having. And so she had to, I mean, lose her entire practice. And so the fear factor, the only way, in my opinion, to alleviate fear is to become bigger than the bully. And the only way to become bigger than the bully is to get loud. And to bring a crowd. That's kind of where I'm looking at what you're wanting to do what I'm wanting to do a little bit. And so I want to talk to you about that. What do you say to those doctors who are doing frontier medicine, that are on the fringes of, of the new frontier? Really, it's frontier medicine for reason. They're doing the things that are getting the results that are currently not in the standard of care,they're afraid. What do you what do we tell them?Franchell Hamilton: So, you know, it's really unfortunate that this is happening. And that has happened to me, I've been under investigation, because I didn't want to practice the way other people were practicing. So I've been through it. And I think one of the things is you have to, from a physician standpoint, data will help you a provider standpoint. So if you can show data that it's working, that will help you in a courtroom, for example, the other thing is, in every provider knows this a consent and making sure your patients understand. So I've gotten sued, and I've gotten investigated, and I've gotten dissolved, like dismissed because I have consents, and I tell them, this is the way we're practicing. And honestly, at this point, I even tell them, if you don't like this practice, you know, there's other people that are practicing other ways. But this is the way we're going to do it in order to get you to your surgery, or in order to get you to your weight loss goal, because this is what I found has worked. And it's not your typical medicine. And so I make sure they all my patients sign a consent. And I have data. So I didn't put it in a research form. But my EMR tracks, right, you can track the bloodwork, you can track the weight, you can track there's so many different ways to track it without doing an official study. And so I didn't do a study. And that's why I'm encouraging my doctors that I kind of talked to, let's all put data together that shows and then publish it. We need to put data together and we need to publish it. And believe it or not, this is the way medicine used to be practiced. You experimented, you experimented. And that's how breakthroughs came. And now stuff is so regulated in the United States. I go to these international conferences, and some of these European countries are so far ahead of us, because it needs to be regulated. Let me not like take that away. But I mean, come on, you know, how do you think polio was discovered the vaccine for polio? I mean, some of these things were through experiments, and as long as you explain to the patient whoever you're treating, this is the way I'm going to do things, you have data showing their cholesterol numbers are going down. Because this I'm treating with tumeric. And I don't want to treat them with a static drug, you know what I'm saying. But I'm still getting the same results as your stat and drug by doing the things that I've, they do yoga twice a week, meditate every day for 10 minutes, and I'm giving them tumeric. And this is their cholesterol numbers, right? That will hold up in any investigation or suit as long as you can keep that data. So that's what I would tell to the doctors who are going through this, or providers, because I've been through it and I had that I had my data, I had consent. And I'm not giving up. If this is something that you're passionate about, then what you need to do is start bringing people in with you grabbing people that you know, that's also practicing this because as he stated, you stated, I mean, we're bigger in numbers. So now, a lot of my colleagues are no longer unfortunately, my surgical colleagues, but they're my colleagues that are practicing very similar to what I do. So guess what, when one of them gets investigated, they're gonna call me or their lawyer can call me as a witness or one of us, and I will write letters on their behalf, I will witness to them on behalf, we are much stronger, like you said, and numbers. That's the only way. I don't even know if we can do it with money, because I know this is completely off the topic, but that whole COVID vaccine thing. There was definitely money involved. I don't Bill Gates, I mean, all of a sudden, you know that some of that stuff seemed a little questionable, to be honest. Um, I there was money involved. We don't A lot of us don't have Bill Gates money, you know what I'm saying? So the only way we can kind of start defeating This is by speaking up, don't feel like don't let investigators, lawyers states, like, close your voice down. Because if you're doing things the right way, they can't do it. I mean, it's frustrating. And it's depressing during the time because I went through it. But if you're doing things the right way, you're getting your consents, you're slogging your data, they can't shut you down. I mean, they can't.Ari Gronich: Yeah, I've never been investigated. But I'm, I'm not a physician. Franchell Hamilton: It's higher among us because, you know, physicians, everybody's like, oh..Ari Gronich: There's more scrutiny, which is part of why I want to talk to that side of medicine, because, you know, I watch Zeedog MD, for instance. And he talks a lot about the moral dilemma that physicians are having, because they're being told to practice in a way that is not equivalent to the reason why they got into business, right, why they got into the industry. And I don't remember the exact term that he calls it the moral, something moral injury, it's moral injury. And knowing that he feels that way, he and I disagree, obviously, on a lot of the vaccine things and what he considers science and what I consider to be clinical evidence are very different. But I like the fact that he's willing to have the conversations and so like, I would want to have a conversation with him. And you. And then maybe Dave Asprey, you know, who knows, like somebody who's completely on the other side of the pie, and has his own science to back up what he's saying. And I'd love to have these kinds of discussions regularly with it, like within view of the world, right, so that people can see the differences, how much more similar they really are than differences, and then how we get to a kind of a consensus for practicing medicine in a way that actually gets the results that we want. Because really, that's at the end of the day, the only thing that matters, right?Franchell Hamilton: Yeah, I agree. And, and to talk about his moral injury, I mean, everybody talks about a kind of in the medical field, burnout, right? Like burnout is all of a sudden, significantly higher than perhaps 20, 30 years ago, you didn't really hear about it that much. I never heard about burnout in med school, like you know, or other people getting burned out. And that is why burnout is so high, because there's this mismatch on what a lot of providers or healthcare workers want to do. And what's happening even in nurses and you've probably talked to some nurses too, like I have worked with so many nurses who are just burnt out. And the reason they're burned out, most nurses are hospital employed, or for some type of facility employed, and that's not what they want it to do. That's not the way they wanted to practice. They truly want to help people. You know what I'm saying? And then you start to see like, we're not getting the results. We're not doing what I wanted to do, and that's where the burnout come, I got burned out because there was this mismatch in what I want it to do and what was happening. And boy did it hit hard. And so that's the reason so many healthcare workers are getting burned out is because we all live in a system where they're saying healthcare is this, and a lot of us are waking up and realizing, but that's not helping, you know. And so if there needs to be a revolution in healthcare, and I'll be the first to talk to whoever will hear me talk about this revolution, because we're not getting the job done. Our medical problems are increasing,and we're not doing anything about them.Ari Gronich: And so for me, I feel like right now we're on a 19, or like an 1890s 1800, steam train. Right, and we're going Chug, chug, chug. And what I'm wanting to see is Ilan Musk's mag train going through the boring tunnels, right? And so bridging the gaps, I'm going to go really far back to where we were at the beginning of that conversation, bridging the gaps between the speed at which change looks like it wants to happen, because of the powers that be, and the possibility of what can happen if we have the movement with a leader that is like an Elan Musk, that is like, somebody who's there going, Okay, we're about to do this thing. Let's go, there's no option no stop in us, you know, like Kennedy saying, we're going to the moon by the end of the decade. There's no question, like, make that happen. Right. So if we were to do that, what do you see the steps are to making that happen faster? If you could, like, if you could imagine a sped-up version of what you thought was gonna happen? And then we could kind of plan that out? What would that look like?Franchell Hamilton: So kind of, like you said, We need somebody who's already well known, already well recognized, to be an ear. And, and to also identify and be on the same page as what this movement is about. And to be honest, I think I think we have a couple candidates. And Amazon, for example, they announced a couple years ago, they're over the way the healthcare is being practiced, and they want it to do their own health care, you model, you know, and so these big corporations, I just saw thing about JP Morgan, they want to do, you need to find these companies, we all need to find these companies who want these big changes and who get it right. And then we need them to help us because they already have the clout, they already have the ear of America, to kind of say, this is what needs to happen. Oprah would be a great person, I'm still working on that, I'm gonna get up, I'm still working on that. So somebody like that, who's like, this is the way we need to change the way healthcare is done. And then she will have this movement of people who was already on board. So I think that's what we need to kind of bridge the gap, somebody who has the power in that can be a listening ear to all of these, our voices to say, and they don't even have to do it, right. There's enough of us on the ground level that can take it where it needs to go. But we need somebody who's going to listen and help kind of drive this force, because right now, you have the providers and all the providers and we're a big force if we work together, but we need somebody bigger, honestly, to be able to kind of compete, because once we do that, and when we do this, we're competing with the big pharma companies. We're competing with insurance companies, we're competing with a lot of Congress and Senate, people who honestly, they all have nice pockets, and they don't want things to change, to be honest. So you have to have somebody who has as much power with the crowd who can come back that because right now we have work competing with pharma, and insurance come billion and trillion dollar companies who likes everything to stand or wraps. If I publish an article or almost like some of those healthcare workers you were talking about, there's people more powerful than us, that can make things disappear. You know, so we need someone or a group of powerful people who understand the way healthcare is who have nothing to lose, and they can compete with those bigger companies. So that's what we need. I'm actively working on getting bigger companies involved when the digital company that I'm working with is talking to Walmart. I just got an email a couple days ago saying JP Morgan is looking for a change. So when we get This is part of the digital health arena, because this is also how we can reach more people, right? So once we see these us on this level need to jump on that, and how do we get at least in the door with their whoever their health and wellness coordinator is right, every major company has one of those, you have to start with that and then maybe move your way up.Ari Gronich: Unfortunately, not every single major company has one of those. You know, that's kind of my part of my bailiwick, like I was 18, starting three of the first corporate wellness programs in the country, because my school backed up to Intel, Nike and Tektronix, in Beaverton, Oregon, and I was like, Oh, well, we need to bring people to our clinic. So let's just bring our clinic to them. I've done a lot of corporate wellness programs, a lot of consulting with companies. And unfortunately, the majority still do not have a corporate wellness program, what they have what they consider to be that is, they have a health fair twice a year, or they have a few booths with vendors, and then they give flu shots. And maybe they have an on-call psychologist, you know, where you call in to psychology department or something. But yeah, the creating a complete culture of wellness and accompany is definitely one of my bailiwick's that I wish I had more companies that would say, yes, easily to that possibility. But I do agree that the company's you know, here's the thing, following the money are the companies tied to the insurance companies in any way other than that, and typically they are through investment. And because the investment is from the insurance companies, it's really hard for them to do anything that's really going to get their employees well, so they could do a lot of treatment stuff, a lot of educational stuff, not a lot of policies in place to make it happen. And that's definitely an area where I would like to see shifted and changed. You know, we were talking a little bit earlier, you said, you know how burnout is I remember going into good Samaritan Hospital back in the late 90s, and early 2000s. And they still were on 30 something hour shifts. So they, you know, if you got a surgery at the 28th hour, and it was a 15 hour surgery, you were on for 40 something hours, I mean, some of the most unhealthy people I ever met. And it was a shame, because there's some of the kindest, most loving, giving people, get treated really poorly. And so that's part of the thing is, if we made the system a little bit better, and people were less sick, then the health care workers would have less moral injury, because they'd be doing the thing that they signed up for. And people would be treating them? Well, because they're not the what I would call the sounding board for the administration, for the insurance companies, they're, you know, like, the physicians, the providers have been the sounding board for all the complaints of their patients instead of who's really at fault, or who's really, you know, at cause. So let's, let's wrap up with, I want some positives in this as well, as far as like, I want, you know, things that the audience can do immediately if, especially if they're physicians, but if they're not, that they could do immediately to shift the way that they're getting health care. And some of those behaviors and mindset more to prevention versus, you know, reaction.Franchell Hamilton: Yeah. And, you know, I'll piggyback to and I'll make sure I answer that, because we are kind of like this digital health company that I'm working with. And I have a couple of investments in a couple of them. And there have been some leeway on that area, because a lot of them want kind of digital health. And they have the way we're pitching it to them. Kind of like what I started earlier is if your employees are healthier, they can give you more work days, they don't have to have as much time off from work they don't have so it's benefits you to kind of implement these wellness programs. And so like I said, we have entered into Walmart which surprisingly their chief health officer is very open to the idea of integrative changes. We're still Working with we're working with them. And then other companies such as share-care, which are kind of in a lot of there are people in there are people making, we're making some leeway. But you're right about the train, right, it's Chugga chugga. But I will say at least it's not stopped, like, we're, we're moving, we're moving along slowly, I think it needs to get implemented much quicker. But because of a lot of the regulations, and the pocket, the insurance has such deep roots with so many companies like you just did it, like they're investing in other companies. And that kind of keeps everything at bay and kind of this vicious cycle. It's gonna take some time, but I think a lot of people's eyes kind of got opened after this pandemic. One of the things for physicians, I would say, in order to shift this mindset, if you feel like remember the reason why you went into medicine, first of all, and if you feel like when you see your patients on a regular basis, they're not improving, you have to consider why what other factors maybe the reasons for them not improving, and honestly, you'll give my information out. But this is kind of one of the things that I do now I help physicians kind of help figure this out, because they're all getting frustrated. And so it's like, let's take a look at how the way your practice is set up. And your assessment as a physician, we need to ask patients more questions, right? Like we I'm over the, what's your chief complaint, family history, medical history? Do you smoke? Like, that's fine, we'll get all that. But we need to truly ask our patients, how are they doing? Like, how are you doing? Like, we need to get a feel of where they are at emotionally, mentally. And to be honest, that takes up a lot of time. So physicians that are employed may not want to do that, then create an assessment that does it create a questionnaire that acts that you'd be surprised if you're seeing diabetic patients. When I switched up my questions the way I asked the questions instead of just prescribing them a regimen. Let's take diabetes, for example. They come in and I'm like, oh, you're diabetic? Here is a med or insulin. And here is your nutrition or diet that you're supposed to be on? I'll see you in two to three weeks, right? You need to start asking, Can they even afford that? To be honest? What do they normally like to eat, you almost need to cater more to the patient and work with them as a partner, not as like a doctor kind of throwing out orders and then you expect them to do it. One of the reasons why our healthcare is not working is because we're putting demands on patients. And then we expect them to do that. And then when they come back the expectations aren't there. And then we were like, Well, why is your numbers not down? or Why didn't you exercise? or Why? And we didn't even ask them? How are they doing? How do can even do what we're asking them to do? That needs to be your question, if you're going to prescribe them some type of treatment plan, and it doesn't even have to be a medication you need to ask your patient, do you think you can do this? What do you think you can do to help bridge the gap? This is my goal for you. And this is where you are. So here are some options as the physician, what are some things that you think you can do for us to help bridge the gap? That needs to be the question you ask not just medical history, here is what the American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association says. And I'll see you in three weeks. So that is what I want to offer to providers in general, nutritionist, therapists, chiropractors, I mean, there's several people, we're all in this trying to defeat this together, show them help them understand they have to understand so many patients don't even understand go to their doctor, and then they don't even know why they're started on this or what medical problem they have. That was always so frustrating for me. Make sure your patient understands what they have. I mean, come on, you know, that's number one, and then make sure they understand what your goal is for them. Right as the physician or provider, what is your goal, and then you guys have to work together to meet in the middle. That's number one. Number two for the patient. Patients need to demand more, you need to demand better. And I have told my patients to like what do you want x? What do you want patient just like the same way physicians need to provide Why did I Why am I in medicine, if it's to collect a check, you're in the wrong field, go to admin. If you're doing patient care, you need to meet in the middle with your patient and for my patients. They're so quick to just go in, get their meds or get their refills and then leave and I'm like you need to demand more. This is your health. This is your body. This is your mind, body soul. What do you want for your mind, body and soul, I always tell my patients health is not absence of disease, you need to be whole healthy whole socially, mentally and in the body. So when you think of you need to think of health that way. And if you feel like you are not getting what you need, you need to start looking for ways to get what you need. So much stuff is done virtually now. So even if your primary care doctor, they provide her meds or whatever, but they're not, but you feel like you're not getting some of the other things that you need. Go online. There's a whole host of integrative you can use integrative medicine, lifestyle, medicine, functional medicine, you can use those terms and find people that you can treat virtually the pandemic has helped people like me treat people all over. So we're not limited now to just I'm not limited to just Dallas Fort Worth, I can treat people all over, you know what I'm saying. And so for patients, if you feel like when you're leaving your physician office, and you're not getting what you want out of that you need to find another physician, you're not married to that physician, and you need to consider if your insurance won't cover it, paying out of pocket long term to pay for your health, your health is an investment, it is the most important investment you will ever make. It is more important than your house, your car, what other people spend on money, your health is more important. So spending an extra 100 or 200 a month is nothing that's groceries or half of groceries for most people, you know what I'm saying? So you need to take time and invest in your health, that's the most important investment. You cannot have joy, peace, happiness, and all these other things that we strive to have or even help others if your health is compromised. So spend the investment. So those were kind of the closing points that I would tell both those patients and physicians.Ari Gronich: One last closing point is what would you say to the system as it is? As it's going away?Franchell Hamilton: That's a good question. Um, I would say that for sure the current system, we, we need to make changes we need what we're doing is not working. And I would be happy to see a transformation in our healthcare system to something that's going to resolve medical problems. So I am happy to see it go away in order to revolutionize healthcare and heal our patients in America. So that's and I feel like our current medical system is actually preventing us from being able to actually heal, not just treat that heal and resolve medical problems and make people truly healthy the definition of health.Ari Gronich: Awesome. Thank you so much for being here. I am so glad to have you on. And I know that the audience has gotten a lot out of this conversation, hopefully enough that they'll start acting upon it. We can all create a new tomorrow and activate our vision for a better world. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you having me. Thank you. Got it. Thank you so much. Audience I appreciate you listening in. This is our garage and it&#

Meet Claire Claire is a personal brand strategist and the CEO and Co-Founder of Claire Bahn Group. She has been helping high-achieving entrepreneurs, investors, founders, and executives create their best personal brand for over 10 years. As an entrepreneur and influencer with over 70,000 followers on social media, she has learned the importance of creating and maintaining your personal brand. Claire helps entrepreneurs leverage their personal brand to develop the authority, influence, and trust they need to exceed their business goals.  Can you share what personal branding is and why it matters to you so much? Basically, there are so many different nuances of personal branding. But really your basic personal brand is essentially what people think about you when they do a Google search on you or they meet you for the first time in person. It's literally someone's initial reaction to you, and how they feel about you whether they want to work with you and that sort of thing. So that's your baseline personal brand. How can entrepreneurs and SMBs boost revenue by showcasing their subject expertise and leveraging their authority? I always look at personal branding from an aspect like when we sign on a client, we take a strategic approach to personal branding. We look at social media as well as Google, SEO in blogs, and SEO in videos. Because Google and YouTube are search engines, you can find out what people are actively looking for and the type of questions that people are actively asking and wants to know answers for. They want to find experts to help them find a solution to the problem that they're currently having. So ultimately, one of the best possible ways that someone can build that know, like, and trust with an ideal client is to create content, whether it's a long-form blog or a video or both that specifically answers a question that somebody is looking for. So ideally, you want someone to do a Google search on a certain subject, and they find something that you created, and they're like, "Wow, I really liked this person." So many times people find me that exact way because they search a topic that I'm an expert in, and they find a piece of content that I created or video that I created and they're like, "Oh, wow, Claire really knows her stuff." So that's ultimately how you really build ROI, you get customers that are committed and trust you, and value your input. The goal is to hopefully work with them, but trust has to be one and it's not something that everyone gives for free. For small and medium-sized businesses, is it important to have the individual or the owner of the organization versus building up the brand of the company itself? People connect with people and people want a connection, especially when you have you know certain younger demographics. They want to know your values, what you stand for and that is done through people. If you think of some of the very well-known, multibillion-dollar corporations, those CEOs branded themselves. Think of Elan Musk! Tesla's cool, but Elon Musk is cooler, if you think about it, right? He has more followers on social media than Tesla does, because when Elon says things it has so much more weight. So if you just think about these real-world examples, you see exactly why it's more important that the person be branded and then they talk about their business because the people are going to have that know, like, and trust factor, not a business. Why does ignoring personal branding negatively affect your ROI? If you really think about everything that I've talked about like if someone does a Google search on you, specifically. They're like, okay, who's this person, should I work with them, and there's nothing there, they're definitely not going to want to work with you. You should have some information, especially if you are an expert, which most people that have their own businesses are an expert in something, right? So you kind of wonder why can't I find content about you? What's wrong with you? Then the next part of that is, what if I do find content about you, and it's bad? So this is how can negatively affect you, either not finding any information so people don't believe that you are actually the expert that you say you are or the second thing is that they do find information about you and it's not great information. Whether it's negative information, or you really did not do a good job of creating content that was very helpful, and it negatively impacted what people think about you. You want to put effort into really engaging and answering questions and things that people are actually searching for. It's not one of those things where you can just kind of like punt, and it'll work, you actually really have to put in the effort and answer people's questions. So that's the return is you can help people but it also helps build your business too. But it's a long-term game.  Can you share with our listeners one of the favorite networking experiences that you've had? I admit that sometimes networking is scary, and I actually did a blog talk giving some tips on how to make it not so scary. But I think ultimately, one of the biggest things is, if there's a group that you are being very strategic with your networking, I would kind of go on to LinkedIn, find who you want to really connect with, and have a way to connect with them. Say something like, "Hey, I read your article on this and I really just wanted to come over and say hi," and have you have your brand statement really quick write your little kind of like blurb about me. I think that's one of the biggest things in making networking easier, especially if there are people that you want to connect with is do your homework first. That's actually one thing that a friend of mine taught me and it's such a valuable thing. If you know there are strategic relationships that you want, go and do a little bit of homework.  How do you stay in front of and best nurture the relationships that you have? Connecting with people on social media, connecting with them on LinkedIn, which is obviously a very professional network. I think you can always nurture the relationship through whether it's inviting them on your podcast, inviting them onto a video podcast. Just staying connected by essentially asking for their input on something. Everyone again, loves a compliment and I think that is a really key thing. Don't ask for favors, ask for advice on things. Connecting with people like that is really great. I think if you do have a platform, invite them to be on your platform. That is a really great way to stay connected with people and there could be an end game strategy with it, but it doesn't feel and come off as salesy. I definitely don't think it's a good thing to hard-sell people in the social sphere or when you are networking, it's so much better when you just really show up and are committed to sharing your expertise and giving value. The relationships that you create through that are so much stronger than immediately going straight for the sale. I think that would be one of the biggest things. Stay connected, ask for their advice and if you have a platform, bring them onto that platform, but don't sell. What advice would you offer that business professional is really looking to grow their network? There are so many networking groups. For me, I've asked friends, and I, you know, asked the group that I know for their advice. Find out from other people, other networking opportunities that they would suggest whether it's in your area in person or online. There are so many events that are online as well, that I have found and you can just ask your network. There are also so many Facebook groups and LinkedIn groups that you can join, you can find out about other networking opportunities in those groups as well. So there are just so many ways to do it, but I don't think it's a bad thing to ask. Just ask people because people want to give their advice. They want to be helped. just asked people to ask your network put out a post saying. So ask your network or you can also just put it out there on social media and a lot of times people will respond, and they'll have great information. If you could go back to your 20-year-old self, what would you tell yourself to do more or less of or differently with regards to your professional career? You talk about this a lot, but networking is so important. So I would say probably more networking, pushing myself to be uncomfortable rather than always staying safe, and not maybe doing that networking event because it's scary. So I think pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and doing more networking. We've all heard of the six degrees of separation. Who would be the one person that you'd love to connect with and do you think you could do it within the sixth degree? I've kind of liked the way that Rachel Hollis has navigated a lot of stuff. She's definitely gotten herself in some sticky situations over the years, but she's somebody that I what she's done with her personal brand and it's very much evolved. Neil Patel is another marketer who has done great things so I definitely think I could connect with those people through six degrees because I'm in that kind of marketing and influencer space, but those are people that I think are learning kind of more about their story would be really cool. Any final word of advice you'd like to offer our listeners with regards to growing and supporting your network? It kind of goes back to even your personal brand. There are so many people like you mentioned, that won't put themselves out there and won't commit to networking with people, they won't commit to doing their personal brand. When you actively do it, and you commit to it and you do it and you show up, you're really going to be in a smaller group of people. I think that's one of the most important things to think about. There are so many people that won't have the follow-through, that won't commit to going all the way with whatever it is whether it's building that personal brand, networking, and committing to so many networking events or opportunities. Just commit and do it! You don't have to bite off the biggest chunk, just find the events that you want and commit to going all-in because so many people don't. That's what's going to differentiate you from somebody else is that follow through and that commitment, and that's a lot of what you said earlier about networking and just being true and following through. It really will benefit you in so many ways.   Connect with Claire   Website: https://clairebahn.com/  Free Masterclass Course: https://clairebahn.com/personal-branding-masterclass

Hi, I am here with Rober Riopel. He is a world-class trainer, author and founder of AMENTORA INC. Robert's mission is to ASSIST INDIVIDUALS IN INDENTIFYING AND LIVING THEIR PURPOSE WITH PASSION.With his high energy and heartfelt style, Robert Riopel has been blessed to travel around the world helping over 200,000 people find their passions and financial freedom. He has shared the stage with the Dahli Lama & Sir Richard Branson, and trained notables such as David Woods, Doug Nelson, Colin Sprake, Robert Yates and thousands of other trainers.CHECK THIS AMAZING WEBSITE BY ROBERT RIOPEL FOR MORE INFO:https://successleftaclue.com/CHECK THIS AMAZING BOOK BY ROBERT RIOPEL OR MORE INFO:https://slac.rocks/bookJOIN NOW!! AND BE PART OF MASTERMIND PROGRAMMastermind - Create A New Tomorrow Inner Circlelearn how to activate yourself for a better future!https://createanewtomorrow.com/master...CHECK OUT ARI'S A NEW TOMORROW BOOKhttps://bit.ly/3d7EMg4CHECK THIS LINK FOR A FREE GIFT FOR YOU!https://www.createanewtomorrow.com/giftDO YOU WANT TO BE OUR NEXT SPECIAL GUEST?Book an appointment now and let's create a new world together!https://booking.builderall.com/calend...CHECK THIS OTHER WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION!https://www.CreateAnewtomorrow.comhttps://www.Achievehealthusa.comCreate a fundamental change in the global community from a strictly reactive system of medicine that focuses on symptom and emergency treatment to a proactive system based on whole-being health as well as illness and injury prevention. Personally teach and influence at least one million people.We are a multifaceted Health and Wellness company that specializes in Corporate Wellness and Culture Consulting, Industry Speaking engagements and Continuing education for the industry.We Help corporations by solving the most costly problems they have with Productivity and Health Care while creating a culture that thrives on accomplishment and community.We help organizations think outside of the box and gain tools that allow them to be nimble and strong as tides and markets shift.We Up level the skills and tools of other practitioners by providing them continuing education that actually leads to greater success and standing in the business community.#Podcast #health #Education #CreateANewTomorrow+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Ari Gronich 0:00  I'm Ari Gronich, and this is create a new tomorrow podcast.Welcome to another episode of create a new tomorrow. I'm your host Ari Gronich and today I have with me a good dear friend Robert Riopel, I am not using an intro speech or anything today because I have a very deep personal connection to this man. He was the first trainer at MMI Millionaire Mind Institute, or a million millionaire, mind intensive, through peak potentials that I went to a training that he did, it was his very first time being a solo trainer. And we had 1000s of people in the audience and this man killed it. He went on to train, I think it's over a half a million people in business and life skills. This guy is incredible. And now he's doing this new project that I'm excited to talk to him about, but mostly, he's just a fantastic person. For ideas. I mean, he's owned Domino's franchise, he's been married his high school sweetheart, I mean, that guy that whose does that these days and stays married to them? He might have a secret or chill. I don't know. Let's talk to him. Robert. share a little bit, give me a give me a Give me your intro.Robert Riopel 1:39  Well, you know, I just have to be here. Because, as you know, I love to have fun. I believe there's way too many serious people on this planet. And life's too short not to have fun. And it's interesting that you brought up my high school sweetheart, because actually yesterday, on the time of recording this, yesterday was our 32nd wedding anniversary. And so yeah, I met when we're 13 started dating when we're 16 got married when we're 19 Oh, I just started giving my age away. So I just, you know, I've been blessed, you know, international best selling author, App Designer, and entrepreneur, and I'm a trainer that's traveled the world, you'll be for COVID, I was on average traveling 200,000 miles a year around the world during training. And it's my passion is what I absolutely love to do. Because a couple things happen. One, when a student comes up to me and says, Hey, do you remember when you said this? Here's how it changed my life. Yeah, we're not gonna talk about what you were telling me about. That's one of the greatest feelings in the world, is when you see that you're making an impact. Because then you realize that maybe I've taught over half a million people personally. But now how exponentially did that grow by the people that they went back into their lives and impacted, and they then impact it, and they impact it? That's what gets me really jazzed and excited. So, you know, for me, I'm a guy who does what I love, and enjoys life and you know, helps as many people as I can.Ari Gronich 3:12  Absolutely. So I'm going to tell it tell a story that you don't remember. And it's an impactful story for my life. So I just want to I want to I want to share it with the audience because I think it goes along with the idea of creating a new tomorrow. A lot of people know my background and know my history that listen to the show, really briefly from rape and molestation growing up bullying being told I was sick and would never get better having to be injected into puberty. I mean, I grew up in a way that was pretty Rocky, let's just easily put it that way. I've had 20 friends who have committed suicide. And, and the first attempt I had at suicide was at nine years old. And when I was at the MMI, your very first one, you pulled me up on stage to speak to the audience. And I had been speaking with EMI and Mark Victor Hansen, Robert Allen with the enlightened millionaire millionaire Institute. I had been doing money in you and I had been doing all kinds of things. I've been in the industry a while. And I had recently worked on somebody. This was over 20 years ago, I think or not 20 but it was close. It was what was the first one for 2004. So close. Yeah, it's close to two. So I had just gotten back from the Paralympics. Working on some of the most amazing athletes gold medals under my hands left and right. World's records broken not just Paralympic records, but world records. And I was I was feeling really blessed. At this moment, I get up on stage. And you asked me, I think it was what my best memory of my business was or something like that. And I spoke about the Olympics. And then I spoke about this guy that I worked on, who was paralyzed for 30 years. And I was called in to basically help him being more comfortable. He his body, you know, is the movement of his body. But he had been quadriplegic for the first 10 years, and paraplegic for the last 20, he took a hit of LSD in the 60s thought he could fly, jumped off a balcony and crushed his spine. So he had been very wealthy family had been to like the best of the best in the world. And when I started touching him, and I was thinking about it in my head, like, how, how can I help him the best, I was thinking if he went from quadriplegic, paraplegic, after 10 years, he could go from paraplegic to walking. I just was something I was young, and dumb. And I knew this. And this is actually a story that I tell a little bit on my trailer actually for the show. So I get up on stage, and I'm telling the story of how, in three months of working with this man, I had him walking. Wow. I said he could feel my fingers on his toes. He could move his hips forward on his own mental accord. He had arm crutches, but he could move. I mean, he had been crawling for 20 years. And I said something along the lines of even though I've had all of these amazing accomplishments, because of my past, I still feel like I'm worthless. And 2500 people, I think at that event, something around there 1500 to 2500, don't remember, it was big. And it was vulnerable. And you pulled me aside after the event was over. And you told me how valuable I was to you and to the event at large. And how much of worth, I had delivered in that five minutes of talking. And the fact that you were able to come and show me in a physical way how much I met you and how much that I was valuable, was a big turning point. In the way that I started to see myself it was still a journey. And obviously with life directions, we did a lot of things together. Butit was the beginning of a journey that was really powerful. And I've never told you that I wanted to take this opportunity to share it with you so that the audience gets how much of an impact you've had. And that's me, you've done this with half a million almost people were you've literally taken the time to go individually to some of them, and tell them how much they meant to you. And so that's how I want to start because this is all about creating a new tomorrow, activating our vision for a better world. you embody the authenticity, and the drive of that. And so I wanted to tell you that and then get your feedback, too. Because it meant so much and I've never told you that.Robert Riopel 8:53  Wow, dude, I'm also gonna face right now, if I had hair on the top of my head to be standing up for every other hair on my body is I'm lit. And I appreciate you sharing that with me. Because if and this is what people don't understand, is when they live their authentic life, and they follow their passion. They have the courage. You know, it's something in the new kind of trains I've been doing. I've talked about instead of having the courage to live life, it's authentically having the courage to allow life to live you. And that's a whole different paradigm shift. And so when I hear things like that, I don't have expectations. I don't have, am I going to help people? How will I help people? You know, I hope they get this out of this. I just I got to be me. Because if I try to implement what I think should happen, I take away half the magic or more. And so to hear that absolute magic what you just share with me thank you that wow, I don't even mean I don't even know where to go from here. Now.Ari Gronich 10:02  Well, you know that the idea is that we're creating this world, we're living in a place that feels to many people. So disconnected. So like, everything, you know that George Carlin said, we make things like computers to connect the world, and then it divides us so much. And so, as we're creating an tomorrow as we're living that authentic life, as we're activating those visions for a better world, you're one of the people who has actively done that, your entire life. And so, how that's how where we go with it is what caused you to be that kind of a man? Right? What was the thing that triggers? And then, you know, obviously, through this show, we're gonna talk a lot about tips and tricks and things that people can do. But really, I want that I want to have a deeper conversation with you today.Robert Riopel 11:03  And look, let's, let's go there. Because that's where I think a lot of value, cuz I look at, say, what's going on in the world today. And one of the worst things I think they could have done was call it social distancing. Physical distancing, yes, stay safe. But now more than ever, people need to be social. And so a couple things I've implemented over this past year, is something as simple as when I do my gratitude journal in the morning. I don't, you know, it started off as a success journal. I write down five successes for the day. And then it started to morph into what, what successes I had, but what am i grateful for? What And who am I grateful for. And then when I write down names, cuz obviously a name would pop my head just because of, there's something I remembered about them. And in that moment, I was like, I'm grateful for this person in my life. And over this past year, it's morphed into, instead of just writing their name, what about sending them a message? And if I can send them a voice message, but the key is being with I do it with no expectation? No. Hey, arias is Robert here. I just won't let you know. I'm grateful for you in my life. Can I get back to me? No, if you're loving, because you know how that feels, if it was like that. So I sent it with no expectation of whether ever they hear it, get it, send something back or not. And I do it because it'll say something like, you know, I just want to let you know, in my gratitude journal, I thought of you today because of bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, thank you for being in my life, I hope you're doing amazing. And you and your family are safe. And I ended up that now some people get back and, and we've had some great connections and others don't and, and it's just an or some people just give me a heart or, and everything's perfect. So things like that. Cuz you're right with technology. How easy today is to stay more connected. But why don't we? Why is it that people sit around a table and everybody is in eating but they're all disconnected? Because yes, exactly. their fingers in their thumbs are going on their phone. And it's like, or, and some of them will text across the table to each other. That's how they communicate. It's like, Really? IAri Gronich 13:12  find it hilarious in my house, where somebody will text the person upstairs. Hey, it's dinnertime, instead of just calling Hey, it'sRobert Riopel 13:23  right. Because that ding on the phone will get their attention, but a hauler won't, right. And so kind of the answer the question, why am I the way I am? Look, I'm the youngest of four children. And to get my share of attention, I became that people pleaser. And I was like, I gotta, I gotta get people like me. I'm very shy. And a lot of people have a hard time believing that. But I am, I'm traditionally shy, but I hide my shyness by being outgoing. And so I've done some crazy stuff in my life. And, but my direction was always look, we were born on the wrong side of the tracks. We're, we're the wrong real pals. And I don't know if I ever shared that with you, but even the spelling of my name, something I didn't really realize until a few years ago and probably thank goodness. But when we started researching my last name, real pal, which was a French name, it can be spelled ri o p e L, which is how minus or ri o p e l l, e, m, which is another version, those are the two most common and if your name was spelt with the l l e, that meant you were born into the upper crust of the Riopel, the right side of the tracks, the fluent but if your name was spelt just ri o p L, that meant you were the trash. You couldn't afford the extra LAri Gronich 14:45  and the extra E.Robert Riopel 14:47  Right? Because you know letters are expensive. They are letters, and it has something to do with the masculine and feminine over whatever but you know, and so I look back at my family history, and no wonder my grandparents came west, you know, no wonder they were pioneering and, and, you know, trying to change life. And so thank goodness, I didn't know that because as a child, what would I have done? Oh, I would have ingrained that so deep of why I can't be successful. And I was taught though, because my parents, everyone in my family, my dad's second oldest of 10 kids, and the only non entrepreneur in the family. All right. And so it was you, you do whatever you need to do to take care of your family. I've actually talked to my dad about this yesterday, and that we were nomads, when we're young. I never spent more than six months, maybe a year in a school, because they were always having to move to get work to feed the family, because that was number one. Whether you liked the job or not, you did what you needed to do to take care of your family. And so I learned my work ethic from them. But thank goodness, I had people into my life that said, No, there's something more. And we spoke about earlier, which is my wife, you know, one of the greatest gifts she gives me is she's not willing to let me play smaller than I am. And in fact, if it was left up to me, I have no problem admitting it. I would be comfortably miserable in a job right now. miserable, but I'd be going but this is what I'm supposed to do. So I'll all suck it up. I will do my job. I will. Because if it's stable, and it's paying me that I don't complain, no, I just do what I need to do. But she won't let me play in that state.Ari Gronich 16:34  Nice. Good for her.Robert Riopel 16:37  Yeah. Yeah. I'll give her as well, because it's got to go two ways, right.Ari Gronich 16:44  I remember my dad sitting in a was standing in a telephone booth, with a bag full of quarters, and a telephone book, telemarketing. In the middle of orange groves in California, like in the middle of nowhere, orange groves. And I remember this I you know, for him, it was one of his worst moments. For me, it was one of my best, because I saw the links to which my father loved. Hmm, yeah, that's how I took it was he didn't show, you know, he was very busy, he always trying to survive. So while he showed love, he was very busy. He was an absent. And yet he, that act of doing that made me know that what he was doing was worth it. Like he was doing it for us. And even though I felt that abandonment as a kid, I also saw why. And it was that was really powerful. So I liked that. You got that from your dad.Robert Riopel 17:59  Yeah, and that's the thing is, is, you know, my parents went through health issues. And the other one would always step up when the other one was in the hospital. And, you know, work the two jobs and take care of the kids or what have you. And so I learned a lot of amazing things from my family. And it just, it's, so it's made me who I am today. And I will always look at that and go, I'm grateful that you know, talk about the gratitude, I'm grateful. And when you talk about creating a new tomorrow, probably one of the biggest things I feel people can do is really focus more on what they are grateful for, don't focus on the lack or what's pissing them off, or why they don't have this or why they don't have that. Just focus even a little bit, just a little bit on something you're grateful for. Even taking a deep breath and going. Yep, I was able to do that. I was able to do that. I'm grateful for the fact that you and I are doing this interview. And I'm not at home because I'm able to be here supporting family that are going through some pretty major stuff right now. And because we have the freedom financially to be wherever we need to be. I'm grateful for that. You know, those those are the things I focus on and, and especially during this time with isolation. Do you reach out to people and something like instill upon my students? Three people a day, just reach out and ask simple three words? How are you? And then open your ears and Listen, don't go go. Hey, Ari, how are you? Oh, great. I'm glad you're okay. And I'm doing good. Which is what a lot of people do but actually be present in the moment. And and just be interested in how they are. And watch what that can do for people just by authentically showing some interest in them.Ari Gronich 19:52  You know, it's weird because I was talking to my son recently. He's seven and I was telling teaching him a little bit About focus, and how important being able to focus is. And it's interesting, because what you said about being present is what I said to him about focus. So he was at dinner, and he was jumping up every bite, he had to go somewhere, do something and get distracted by some somewhere in something. Right? And what I told him is, have you ever tried to be really present with your food? really present with the flavors and the experience of it on your tongue? The smell as it's going down, you know, the feeling in the back of your throat as you swallow the chewing? Like, have you ever been really present with that? And it was interesting, because that's a very similar thing to what you're saying. But being present with people being present with anything is so difficult and requires a lot of focus. So do you have any like, tips or tricks? Like, how does somebody be present with somebody else without the background noise in their head? It's a good concept to say to somebody, but like practicality, let's get down to the practically How do they do that?Robert Riopel 21:19  Yeah, well, you know, first of all, it takes practice. Don't think that Oh, I know. Aryan Roberts has told me that this is a great thing to do. So I just learned it. I should be good at I should be a probiotic. Because that's how we sabotage ourselves. Right? One of my favorite quotes, probably hardest book. My favorite quote of all, every master was once a disaster, which means you're going to be a disaster, you're going to go through a disaster stage, you've got to practice. And that's what most people they forget or choose not to do. They choose not to practice. So when it comes to that, I'm going to go back to something I learned back in 2002, that has served me all my life. I actually and because you know me, you know how tough this was, for me. I did a four day Zen retreat with a Zen master where I could not speak for four days, Roxanne was in bliss. I think there are those from Earth Day. But I couldn't speak and it was all about that what you were talking about you want to food. While you're just saying with your son. That's what made me think about is, we couldn't when we sat down for a meal, we're all facing the same direction looking at beautiful scenery. And you take your fork or knife or spoon, put a mouthful in, put it down and then intend to notice everything about that flavor, the texture, the smell, and just chewing it natural experience yourself, taking it in. And then you take a deep breath before he takes another spoonful. And I don't need that flow normally. Oh my goodness. And in the beginning, it felt like it in the beginning felt like. But by time I did it for 40 straight, it became natural. So one one tip, practice. But what really brought me to this was something that really impacted me that my teacher had said, Every night we were able to break our silence to ask questions and earn a better question. I was going around in my head going around in my head. But I was too afraid to ask it and another woman voice and she said Sherry, she goes, You know what? We're here. And we're meditating. In this space. It's easy. We know it's uncomfortable, not but it's easy. Because we're in the space. How do I do this? When I go home? Or I'm a mom, I'm busy. I got kids screaming, I don't have time to sit down for 20 minutes and go, okay. What do I do? And Sherry's answer to me was so profound, she said, she goes, look, meditating means being present. So the fact is, anything that you're doing, where you're actually present in that moment, you're meditating. And awesome. I went, Wow. So when I'm on the stage, if I'm present with my audience, I'm meditating. When I'm talking to an audience member, one on one if they're sharing, people go to me all the time, Robert, how's it you draw out of people and can see what's going on in their life? It's because I'm not a pure in my head. I am just connected with them. I'm present. So I'm actually meditating. So they think that I'm helping them which I am. But it's also helping me right now. You and I are having this conversation. I'm aware of everything that's going on around me. But I'm here in this moment with you right now. So I'm practicing my meditation. And so if you want to know how a practical skill to create it, Start, take 10 seconds. And truly taking that deep breath and be present in the moment of what you're doing. And then cried again a little bit later, and then do it again. And then every time you go home present practice, okay? Okay? Start with taking a deep breath because you can only breathe no present. And just bring yourself to where you are, and then notice where you are. Are you in your head? Or are you actually truly here? I justAri Gronich 25:30  I just tried to breathe in the future and it didn't work.Robert Riopel 25:33  I know, right? It's easy. Now try not try doing it in the past. You and I are gonna have so much fun as we keep talking. Because that's the thing is it? You know, and another tip is don't take things so seriously. Even when might seem serious. Yeah, the humor. I wasAri Gronich 25:55  I was doing a hypnosis course. And it was a past life regression. Course. And the instructor was channeling a being or an entity named I think Miss Dr. Peabody or something like that. I was some weird name. That I was like, Oh, God, it wasn't Cleopatra. But it always is, you know, I'm Cleopatra in Formula. How many Cleopatra's Have you met? anyway? So Mr. Peabody? Dad, if you want to be enlightened, yeah, gotta lighten up. Yeah, I went, Oh, my God. Do I have a lot of practicing to do? Because I'm, you know, I grew up, I'm a pretty serious person most of the time. And, and I got serious work to do to create a new tomorrow. And, you know, I was like, and now I read dude, three. So yeah, I mean, yeah, you know, people have forgotten that living is about living. And that living, breathing, really reading in life. You know, it's about stopping that joy of life,Robert Riopel 27:14  it's about your son. What you said about your son is where he's, he's modeling you. So when you talk to him about your being present, use that as a reminder for yourself to be present in that moment. Because every moment, you're impacting people around you, whether you know it or not. And most people you're impacting them with not with what you're saying, but it's how you're acting, what you're doing, your way of being. And so if someone said, Well, how do I create a better tomorrow? A new tomorrow? Well just start with you. And then allow that example? Because is it going to impact a ton of people? Maybe not? Is it going to help even one person? Maybe not, but it will help you?Ari Gronich 27:58  Yeah, the whole idea of competition, right, to me is, is been inverted. Because the only competition that I think anybody should ever be in competitive competition with is yesterday's version of myself, or yesterday's version, right? So let's talk a little bit about how you can be in competition with yourself. So that you're consistently in that growth mode without overwhelm.Robert Riopel 28:35  I'm glad you put that last part in there. Because as soon as you put it in, phrase it in competition with yourself probably like, oh, my goodness, I gotta go and get better cuz I'm not getting better, I suck. And then that gets becomes a reason to beat themselves up. And oh, my God, if I sucked, and why am I even trying to give off? Now it luggages without getting that overwhelm. And that's where the practice of being present really comes in. And ask yourself, did I take one more step? And then celebrate it? You know, in my first book success, let the clue. Step number four is celebrate your successes. You know, if I had to count on my fingers, thank goodness, there's not like 25 steps, or I'd never get through because I only have 10 fingers 10 toes, right? So I tell people celebrate your successes, because then that what you're focusing on puts you more towards that. So reason I determine and notice most people get overwhelmed. is they set a goal, okay? Are you just told me to only compete with myself. So that means I'm going to do this and this and this and this and this, and I got to get better at it. I got to be really good. And they're now 1000 steps ahead of themselves, trying to figure it out, trying to figure out how they're going to do it. But is it good enough? What if I misinterpreted it? Do Am I doing it the right way? is all what he really meant. Any of this sounding familiar? And so you definitely take a deep breath and you say, Okay, how am I doing right now? I'm doing good. Excellent. Okay, let's take one more step. And then check in with yourself. How am I doing? And in the, in the beginning, it'll probably drive you frickin insane. Because it'll feel like you're not moving anywhere. But if you stay consistent, persistent and consistent, how do you develop any habits? You have to do it over and over? what I used to do my podcast, one of the things, one of my episodes I was talking about was how, how does the singer a singer, get their song to become number one? on the radio or on your media? Do you think they sing it once? And then never sing it again?Ari Gronich 30:52  Only if they recorded it on YouTube, right? viral? Yeah, let's That's true. That's very true. I actually. Here's the thing. I'm just I'm just using the fact that you're old. And we're talking about records instead of instead of digital downloads.Robert Riopel 31:16  My sister in law did yesterday, when she keeps saying, I, you know, I watch my favorite show on tape. And I'm like, really? Yep. I'm old. Hey, my birthday was only two weeks ago. So come on now.Ari Gronich 31:42  I know. Yours was two weeks ago. Mine was last week. I think that that that this was a perfect timing for a show to highlight our elderly capabilities. Because you know, kids these days think that they are much smarter than us old fogies. So,Robert Riopel 31:59  yeah, yeah, that's right. Well, to finish my story, then Gemini is in other than the viral pneus of it. When a singer sings or song, to get it to number one, they have to sing it again. And again, hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds and hundreds of times. And the ones that don't make it are the ones that start getting bored easily, and trying to change your song. making little adjustments. little tweaks, right? Have you ever been at a concert, and you love a song? And often the singer sings it in a different way at the concert. You're like, I can't.Ari Gronich 32:38  I can't sing to that.Robert Riopel 32:40  Yeah, it's crazy. So it's the same thing with any habit you want to create. If someone wants to become a trainer, they go, Robert, how do I become a trainer? Practice, tenacious practice. You've got to do it over and over and over again. And so creating a new tomorrow is about saying, I choose to be what's one step I can take? See, celebrate it, and then go Okay, what's my next step now? And just be gentle with yourself? Because if you I know will be? Well, no, you This has never happened to for you. So for that I'm referring to you on this. How many of us, if we had a best friend that treated us the way we treat ourselves? They wouldn't be our friend for very long. But yet we take it from ourselves, right? Oh, yeah.Ari Gronich 33:32  I've been I've been trying to rewrite the golden rule because I disagree completely with it. Because we don't want people to treat us the way we treat ourselves. Now, we want we want us to we want people to treat us the way we treat other people. The Golden Rule is has gotten a little shifty for me. But yeah, I mean, you know, we definitely the self talk. That is, in most people's heads is so toxic. And and I like that you're you're saying that because one of the things that I do with with trauma work a lot is mirrors. You know, it's, it's not about affirmations. affirmations to me are like akin to motivation, which is almost nothing, right doesn't doesn't provide what it's supposed to do for very long. But staring in the mirror for 300 hours, crying, screaming, wailing until you find the pieces of you that you love until you strip the masks of inauthenticity from yourself the masks of trauma. And I tell people, everything that you think about yourself is literally just a mask of trauma that you put on or other people have put on you. And our goal is to strip those masks off of trauma so that we can be authentic.Robert Riopel 34:53  Yep. Absolutely. And look, you know, that's, that's when I would do the mirror work. I started off Prepare. By time I removed everything my hair was gone. I couldn't reason that I had to go there. If someone's just listening to this, because, you know, there may be people just doing the audio. They had to know I'm aerodynamic. And ladies and gentlemen, I'm I'm not short. I've been told I'm just more grounded. So I like that as well.Ari Gronich 35:21  It's closer to the earth. Yes. Yes. Just close to the earth. Mister where's the earring? Mr. plane? That's all I want.Robert Riopel 35:33  Yeah, well, it could be this year. But that's in my ear. It just flipped up and goes in is multi purpose today. Because Mr. Clean in the airing of so yesterday. You're talking about age? Come on now. Now it has to have multi purpose. Yes.Ari Gronich 35:51  So we're cleaning ourselves up? Where we're getting, we're getting to be present. Now. What? Right now what? So somebody is looking at their life going? Now what? And by the way, I liked the fact that you brought up some questions and what kinds of questions are not necessarily the best questions like why me? As you were, you're stating a little bit Why me? Why does this happen to me? Why, you know? What are some better questions that people could ask? And you know, and I say that because one of the ones that I ask is what's next? A lot? What's the best next thing for me? What's the next thing I should be doing? What should I do now? Right? Those are the kinds of questions that I asked myself. So what are questions that you have people asking themselves so that they get to that place? So once they're present? Now what?Robert Riopel 36:50  Yeah, you know, you want to hit on one of my favorites, too powerful word. What's next? Your March Pym 2020. I land in back in Canada, from doing a powerful three day training in India. March 11, I get locked out. All my live events around the world are getting trans, canceled. And I'm not gonna say I'm perfect. I'm all that. I went through victim role in the first few days. Like what's up? And I was pissed. And then my I took a deep breath, and I went, what's next? And often the answer started coming. While Robert for years, you've been saying you want to go digital, you and I talked to myself a lot. I do already. I'm gonna admit it. And talking to yourself is never a problem. If maybe when you start arguing with yourself, you know, maybe you've maybe looked at it before GeminiAri Gronich 37:41  is where Gemini is we are a I'm a Gemini and a Jew. And if you know anything about Jewish people, you get 10 Jews in a room, you've got 100 opinions. Now, apply that by Gemini.Robert Riopel 37:56  Right? You know, some people don't know how to take it when I walk into a store that says, because of COVID sign on the door, maximum eight people in the store at a time and I say, Oh, I can't come in because all my personalities aren't allowed to come with me. Some people laugh at that they get it. And other people are just too serious. They're like, What do you mean? I'm like, if I have to explain it, nevermind. And you'll, before I answer the question, I'm going to go back to something else you said about not taking yourself so seriously. Because I like to have so much fun. And I've chosen that to be my way. I remember a person asked me one time they want Robert, I can never follow you or listen to you. Because you don't take anything seriously. And I said not a problem. I said but I will tell you, I take fun seriously. And ultimately looked at me like, Oh, I guess that makes sense. And I didn't know if it would or not. But it so what's next is one of the biggest questions, those two powerful words. But it's also another one. The other phrase is something he did say. But I'm gonna do it in in different way. Instead of going worimi? If Why me? And now turn it into a curiosity of what was the lesson in what just happened? Or what was the lesson and what you went through? Or what was the lesson? Because I am a huge firm believer and I'll tell you in the beginning I was so in the box thinker because the way I was raised anything outside of the box that was airy fairy woowoo Forget about it. Forget about it. Like even my dad today. He's 83 years old. He's about to turn 84 in a couple days, another Gemini. And you you'll sit there and you'll say Dad, what about doing this? No. Well, why not? And as soon as he says no, you're never gonna change his mind because he doesn't open his mind to anything. Right? If this is the way it is. Okay, and I've learned you don't try and change his mind it because the harder you try, the more he'll just dig in deep, right? It's just it is what it is. So, I'm a big believer that everything happens for a reason, which a lot of people have heard that statement. But a lot of people haven't heard the whole statement. They've only ever heard this. Everything happens for a reason. But the whole statement is actually everything happens for a reason. And that reason is there to serve me. And now, if you look at it from that perspective, and I'll use kind of what got me back out of retirement, I don't know if you remember. But in 2008, I was so burnt out from traveling and training so much, I had to take a hiatus, I was burnt out. And because I wasn't taking care of my body, I was giving so much I forgot to take care of me. I herniated my back. And I decided to take one year off. But that one year turned into three and a half years. And I went through two back surgeries during that time. And I had to like I say I was burnt out for about three months. My wife goes, No, you can look at a suitcase or anything for nine months. You just you know it would put you back into that phase. And so when I was in my retirement, I went from over living my passion to not living it at all. And I realized both were bad. Over living it. I wasn't taking care of myself. I was getting burnt out my body was paying the price. Not living in it all the old negative non supportive habits started coming back in because people think and this is a misconception already. They think, well, I've learned this, and it should be permanent now. And I'm going to use Oh, oh, I'm gonna explain it like this because it's Yeah, we're squirreling here. But I'll get back to your questions.Ari Gronich 41:47  I don't I don't mind nonlinear conversation.Robert Riopel 41:50  Oh, perfect. Well, you've you've seen the documentary or have you? Social dilemma. Yes. And it's really a lot of people are going oh, my God, what are they doing? They're tracking everything. They see how long they pause on a video. And now they're sending me all those up? How dare they? And they've all a lot of people what's given attraction, a lot of people have seen it in a negative way. Well, a friend of mine, who's someone you know, as well, and he took a deep dive into it. He said, let's take a look at it this in a different way. Because everything happens for a reason, that reason is there to serve me. And often, he came up with what he calls an algorithm talk. Because what he puts a twist on it, which is brilliant. He said, Well, let me ask like this, are you Do you believe in the law of attraction?Ari Gronich 42:40  I believe the law of action traction. You know, we you we've had discussions, but the law of attraction to me is the movie, The Secret all that stuff. It's a great beginning, it didn't finish. And it's it left people wanting, which is where, you know, I I take offense to it. But I do like is the science of getting rich, the book, The Science of Getting Rich, which is where all that la comes from, originally back in 1908, or something like that. And I like that it's a little more Matter of fact,Robert Riopel 43:16  but it's all the same. You're right. The actions missing, that's what people they think all just thinking, no, they've got to take action, which is absolutely true. I'm going to suggest you check out the movie, beyond the secret is a follow up. It just came out about a year and a half ago. And it brings back a lot of the secret guests where they were able to go deeper and like yeah, the secret and collaborative. But let's go beyond the secret. And you know, dive in deeper. So you might want to check that out. But what he noticed is he said, if you realize it, this social dilemma, actually just unveiled the truth of the greatest law of attraction working in our favor. Because people look at any social media you're doing. So attacking everything you do. And you're looking at your feed go, why am I getting all this? Because that's what you've been focusing on. So if you don't like what's popping up, then change your focus. If you notice that something instead of slowing down and reading it and think of how bipolar people become over COVID, right, so someone sees an article that someone has a different point of view, and they get on there and they give their point of view and this you're wrong because of this. And also now they're getting flooded with all these contradictory to their beliefs, and they're getting more upset. Well, what about just going scrolling by that you want and when you see something you like, flow, your scroll, that's my new hashtag, flow your scroll. And actually, because if they're tracking how long they're tracking how long you're looking at something, then flow your scroll to something you like, and give it a heart instead of just like and watch out instantly. Because this is a powerful thing. And I've done it, he's done it. We've done it with 1000s of students. Now you can instantly change your seen on social media by really consciously choosing what you want to look at. And people go, that's awesome. But here's what they don't realize. That's the easy part. The hard part is the maintenance of it. Right? And that's where I've now started to really change my focus on things is because yeah, when I do breakthroughs with people, they get that instant change. That's that motivation you were talking about. But then ultimately going into back into their environment. And they wonder why they slide back. And that's where having mentors and being part of mastermind groups, having coaches, it's the maintenance that makes the difference. And so, when I was in my hiatus, I had said, I'm taking one year off. That's the message I put out to the universe. And then also one year turned into a year and a half. And the universe started sending me universe, God, whatever you want go by 13 messages. Robert, you said you're only taking a year off. You're not training yet. And you know, what happens if you don't listen to a message that comes your way from the universe? smack? Yeah, it sends it to you again, within a harder way. And if you don't listen, get well here. It is August 10 2010. I'm now two years into my hiatus of the one year I said it's gonna take off. And I my in laws happen at the time where I lived, they lived across the street and seven doors up. And my mother in law's phone and said, Look, we're having problems with the TV. Would you mind coming up and help me out? I'm like, absolutely not a problem. I walk out is a gorgeous, one of the few gorgeous sunny days we get an Alberta across from our house with a big playground boat. 30 kids in it. I go up, I help her. Get the TV going. I'm walking back down the sidewalk. I'm about to cross the street to my driveway. When a couple comes walking with a big bowl massive dog from the pathway beside her house. And I love animals. So they said in front of my driveway, I'm on the sidewalk and I said down issue friendly. And they said No, she's not. We just rescued her. We're rehabilitating rehabilitating her right now. That's okay, not a problem. So they stayed there. I stayed where I was. We talked for a while. And then eventually I knelt down, and they fully brought her to me and let her smell my hand, petted her head, petted her neck, there was no issue. Until the moment I went to stand up. And the moment I went to stand up, she wanted it my throat. Now, thank goodness, in the standing motion, my chin naturally dropped. From standing in my throat. She got my chin, and she latched on so hard, she started trying to pull me to the ground. I'm instantly in shock. And the only thought in my head isif she gets me to the ground, I'm dead. So I stood up in this dog now hanging off my chin, 150 pounds, trying to pull me to the ground, the guy physically had to grab her Jaws, pry them open. And now there's blood all over the place. And it's taken both him and his wife to hold her back with the leash. Because she's trying to get back at me. Now, the only part that entered my mind is there's 30 Kids behind me in that playground. And I'm holding my chin and a blood and I'm like, Look, I live right there. Just get her out of here. Get her away from these kids. They start dragging her up the street, and I start walking on my driveway, blood all over the place. I'm getting up to my front door, and I'm about to open the door. Now the only problem I had already. If I get out of the house is gonna kill me. Insane what goes through your head when you're ready. And I open the door. And I think I did. You'll call me I'm like Roxanne Well, obviously, it wasn't gone. Because she comes running, she sees a blood you'd like what happened. I'm like a dog attack me. And so she gets a towel gets it up to my gym to stop the bleeding. And now I'm safe. So my fight or flight, I'm now I'm safe. I'm okay. And I started to get lightheaded. I'm about to pass out. And my wife knows if I draw, there's no way she's getting me to that vehicle, get me to the hospital. So she looked at me and she goes into and you'll you understand this because we've done the course. She goes into warrior mode. And she looked at me She goes, don't you think just to that car. She drives me to the hospital, five hours in emergency to get seen. And the guy comes in and he's cleaning up. And they don't like to close up dog bites, because they want any bacteria to be able to flush out. So under my gold tea. There are three puncture wounds from the dog, but right here on my chin it and rip through. And so he had to actually clean it up, cut some of the skin and took nine stitches to close that up. Now look, I went into victim mode and I'm like, why did this happen to me? And when I calm down, I switched the question to Why did this happen to me and I'll finish it Curiosity was activated from that space of, you know, okay, it happened for a reason that really served me for why. And all sudden, what came to my mind is some, you know, product life directions, that universal principle, that which is not utilized is eliminated, my gift had one inch further, the dog would have got my jugular. And me and my gift would have been gone just like that. And I realized, wow, I'm not living my gift. And it could be taken that quickly. And in that moment, I made the decision, I had to train again. I didn't have to train because financially, I hadn't had to do anything for years. But I had to train because it was my gift to the world, if that makes sense. And I'm looking at the universe going, I don't need any more lessons. I got it. I got it. And within two weeks of me making that decision, me owning it. Within two weeks, I got a call asking if I'd come out of retirement. And it was an easy, yes.Ari Gronich 51:00  Yes, I will give me six weeks got agenda got to clear up.Robert Riopel 51:05  And actually, it took a year and a half, because of I was going through the rehabilitation of two back surgeries. And because one of the decisions was if I'm going to do this again, I will not put my body through that again. Right, I will take care of my body. And so and that's what I decided that instead of doing 4050, full on training here, I would do maximum 20. So that even with traveling all over the world, I get six months a year to be at home. Because I like my time off. Yeah, software, I learned more about balance.Ari Gronich 51:33  So I'm going to interrupt you a second. So what I'm hearing is the difference between a goal and an agreement, or a commitment. Right? So a lot of people put I'm going to speak in a year as a goal, right. But then there's, it's like, what happens on the in between? Yeah, versus an agreement, whereas I'm going to be ready to speak in a year by doing these things up till then. So that by that year, I'm on stage having spoken. That's exactly it. So it sounds like you made an agreement with yourself. You didn't keep it. So the universe said. And you said Oh shit, I got it now. I'm gonna keep greementRobert Riopel 52:29  Yep. And that's it. Because we're, it's so easy to give up on our agreements, we'll we'll stay true to an agreement with another person a lot longer than we will to ourselves. And so it's a matter of saying, My commitment to me is important. My commitment to my belief, and my goals and my dreams. You know, one of the things I teach people is what I call the authority master key. And I love acronyms. So I use the acronym vital. And the the L in vital stands for loyalty. And I talked about and I'll tie it into whatever group I'm talking about why to be loyal to this, this myth. But then I stop. And I say and the most important thing to be loyal to is your own dreams. Plain and simple. And I dropped the mic at that point. I do the dramatic effect every once in a while you know that? Oh,Ari Gronich 53:23  you've got to? I mean, I remember the tea drinking. Yep. It wasn't drinking tea. It was. I'm drinking tea. Now. Do you see me drinking tea? This is what you should be doing on your stage.Robert Riopel 53:38  Drinking. Yeah, and watching people be bewildered like, What is he doing? What does that all mean? Until then, when you explain it open up the light bulb and go get it right. Exactly.Ari Gronich 53:53  Yeah. Wow. So we've gone through questioning and questions that that matter. And one of the things I want to just clarify within your questioning, you're asking questions out of curiosity, versus asking questions out of, and I'm going to just fill in my blank, which is out of judgment out of already thinking you know the answer. So when you ask a question like Why me? You already think you know the answer. I'm bad this way. I haven't done this right. I am I you know, when I was two, I you know, my parents had to spank my butt because I wasn't listening. And when I was 10, it was this. And so I'm just and it validates an already preconceived question, right, or answer that we have. It's kind of like a police officer interrogating somebody in a in an interrogation thinking that they already know that you're guilty. So all they're trying to lead you is to the answer that they want, right? Yep. Versus Yes. And asking questions that will need to open ended solutions or answers? Right? Like what's andRobert Riopel 55:05  that's the that's the part I said about courageously allowing life to live, you versus you living life, right? And that's what gets you out of victim role. Because if you're asking the question from the victim space, you're going to validate that you're a victim, you're going to validate that everything bad happens to you, and that you're the one on the receiving end and isn't bullshit. And no wonder I don't do as good as I could. And no wonder my life is crap. Or you can sit there and say, okay, I've let that go. Now, what's the lesson that I can use to empower myself?Ari Gronich 55:37  Yeah, and and for me, like, just, for example, I'm doing a lot of trauma work right now, you would have ever gotten as empathetic and as able to handle the depths of other people's pain? Had I not experienced those depths of pain myself, and come out of them? and learned those things? So I absolutely I used to have that. Why me? Why me? victim victim victim? And I still, you know, it's we all do? A little bit, right? It's Yeah, who's across that way? The differences is that I own the victim, like, Yeah, I was a victim of that guy who did that thing. And it's not a bad thing to be the victim of something like somebody gets raped, you're the victim of rape. And it's okay to say that, and what are you going to do now? So for me, it's what's next? It's what what did I do with that I took that nobody should ever have to live in that kind of emotional turmoil in their bodies, like I did, for my entire, you know, childhood growing up. So I'm going to help people clear that up, I'm going to help, right, because the minute that, that blocked that stopping them from living, soRobert Riopel 57:03  and that's what allows you to connect with people I can never connect with. Because if I tried to say, Oh, I understand, and I'm coming from a place of Unknowing. And you know, I'm gonna reconnect you with Aaron, because I think he would be a phenomenal guest for your podcasts, to go down a deep rabbit hole on this, because he talks about let your pain be your path. Let your wounds be your way, let your you know what you've gone through be the resume of why you can actually help other people. And and when you understand that, okay, I went through this. Now, who can I help, maybe not have the pain I did, maybe get through it a little quicker, maybe decide not to try that suicide, maybe decide that they are important enough to be on this planet that this planet needs them. And I'm going to say like that this planet needs them. So to have that understanding, if we didn't have those experiences, you would not be connected with the people so deeply in the way you do. And that's one of the things I so appreciate about the fact that you do own, that this has been my journey. Now what and the people that and it comes back to something you and I are talking to me, they've even been off the recording. But you may even you probably don't even have any idea of the people you've actually impacted because of the people you've worked with, who have gone back into their life in a different way. And also the people in their life are going, Wow, something's different about them. So often it changes their perspective of life, which there may be changes someone else's perspective life. And so you could have four or five, six degrees of separation of people that you impacted, because of helping one person see that you know what, I create a new tomorrow, the way I want to, and if I live my life in a different light. And we don't have to know who we're helping, right. That's what makes it even better.Ari Gronich 59:02  Just like my story today of you that you didn't know about, right? That impacted me. I had a similar occurrence. I gave somebody a hug at a party once I was 24. It was a guy. He was a psychologist from New York. So very, not in their emotions, right, very mental kind of person. And about eight years later, he I was at a Tantra party with him and hadn't seen him in many years. And he said he pulled me aside he said I just want to tell you how you impacted me. He said you gave me a hug once at a party. And you held on like you meant it was like and that's just me. I was That was my personality. I'm a cobbler. And he said my family are are not huggers. In fact, before you did that it had been over 10 years since I had even had a hug from my brother. Wow. And when I went back to New York, after that I was I was talking to him while we were on the street. And I just felt compelled to hug him. And I hugged him and I held on. And it was the first time that we had a hug, probably ever in our lives, like fully hugged. And I'm going, Okay, he said, My entire family has now become a hugging family. Love each other, and we treat each other. Like we mean, it came from you. And I'm like, I mean, how could you have any idea of that?Robert Riopel 1:00:53  And how could you plan for it? How can you plan that this is the impact you're gonna have today? That partUnknown Speaker 1:01:00  is just I mean,Ari Gronich 1:01:04  we never know what the impact is. And especially my favorite thing, the butterfly effect, you know, what are the ripples ripple effect, the butterfly effect of any action that we do, whether it's a good consequence or a bad consequence, there's a ripple effect to every action. And every actor typically has polarity in the consequences in the things that happen, right? So if you if you get off off coal, for instance, right, you have a net effects of positivity for the environment, for instance, however, there's going to be an effective all these people who have their livelihoods for the last couple 100 years that they won't have. So if you know that there's a ripple effect, you can plan for it. And then you could say, Okay, so what are those ripple effects? 1020 years down the line, 100 years down the line, and all of a sudden, the plan becomes so detailed in the minutiae that you can really actually create the change, knowing that you're going to have an effect here and we're going to compensate there. We're going to have effect here. We're going to come You know, it's,Robert Riopel 1:02:14  it's beautiful. You have you affect change. Right infecting change.Ari Gronich 1:02:22  You know, you and the Coronavirus and your infections. Well, you know, I did have a good Corona last night and around the fire. So I like my Corona. Brown, right. It's the crown. jewel. Well, that's what Corona is correct. Corona is, right. So they made it the king, they put all these spike proteins to give it a crown. And then they named it after that. And they said, hey, you're the king of all pandemics? I mean, pandemics? Yeah, without my Okay, boy. Yeah. That was a slip of the tongue. A Freudian slip. But anyway. So I think people are getting that, that there's so many ways to be when you're creating a new tomorrow, but the actions of questioning with curiosity, the need to balance for overwhelm, right? There's all these different places that people go, what I find is like, most people, they walk around the house all day or the office all day, not knowing what to do next. Right? Yep. You see people in like, I just don't know what to do. And so I'm not doing anything because I don't know what to do. It's like they're paralyzed in this confusion, space. So go, but I'm so busy. I don't have time for anything. Right. But the busy is usually up here, not the external busy. It's that, like, I know this for me. I get so stuck in the head. And I get so busy in my thoughts, planning new things, thinking of new things, flushing out my ideas that I go, I am so busy. And I haven't done anything the old day. Right? ButRobert Riopel 1:04:15  yet you're drained. Mental drain just really? And then you're like, how am I going to keep this up? Is it worth it? Because, look, I haven't even really accomplished anything and yet I'm so tired. That becomes that catch 22Ari Gronich 1:04:30  right. So what is, you know, the business tricks? You've been a business trainer, we're not talking a whole lot about business. What's the business trick for life? For when somebody gets to a place where the mental overwhelm the language in the head, the words the voices, the stories, the wants, the needs that I don't have all that stuff? gets crashed in somebody's mind. How How would you quiet The quiet this morning, you know, we did this thing called wizard once. And so I'm kind of bringing you into a wizardly way of of being here so that the audience can get more into that position. Well, I'm not going to tell it what, what, what the position is that you want to be in, because that would be wrong.Robert Riopel 1:05:22  Here's the thing for me, because everybody's so different. Everybody's unique, everybody's themselves. So it's understanding yourself, first of all, to me is the number one understanding. I know I am a world class procrastinator. And I have no problem admitting that because if I tried to deny it, it just can keep creeping up and sabotaging is gonna keep and everything will become the 11th hour. And I got I gotta get it done. I gotta get, right. And so I I'm, I'll acknowledge and I'll say, yeah, that's who I am. I No, I am. And I'm okay with that. So one of the tricks I use, is knowing I'm a world class class procrastinator, I came up with a quote that I use as a mantra. I designed my day, in such a way that procrastination cannot play. And so that means is I purposely will book a lot of my calls and meetings for first thing in the morning. Why? Because as soon as I commit to someone else, then I'm gonna get my ass out of bed and get it done. But if I don't have a call till then 1130, then it's easy to go home. There's a few folks, I did so much yesterday. I'm tired. I'm just gonna. And I'm going to reset my alarm. Now, on the other side of that, because then while Robert doesn't that just make you busier and busier, busier, because you're always up early. And, and I'm a late night person anyway, do right. So I don't get a lot of sleep. But then one of the adjustments I've recently made. Okay, when Corona happened, I got busy. But I got so busy. I can with time zones around the world for students, I've talked to all over the world. It can be 6am to 1am. I was going, going, going going getting burnt out. Because when I put my mom's home, I just I don't take care of myself. Yeah, anybody? Do you know anybody like that aren't just curious,Ari Gronich 1:07:14  watching a few trillion people like that?Robert Riopel 1:07:17  Yep. And so my wife instituted one thing. She said, here's what we're gonna do. At noon, we sit down, we have lunch, we put our phones down. And we play cards and connect. At dinner, we put our phones down, we have dinner, we watch TV, and we just relax. instituting those two simple little things often changed my whole day, where I wasn't feeling overwhelmed, wasn't feeling burnt out. Because now on my calendar, because I'm not used to living by a calendar per se. But everything gets scheduled now. So that I know if there's a meeting and by going back to something we taught in one of the programs you learn is we use a big rock system. The first thing we put on our calendars are those balance pieces. family's important. So I'm here with family right now. Now, can I still do work in that? Yes, because with technology, I can do it. So but the family is scheduled in first. And then when I now look at my schedule, I plan other things in so I can do interviews, I can do things guilt free, without beating myself up, thinking I'm taking my time away. Because I know the moment I'm done this call, I've got time back with family, I'm gonna actually drive back to my home about an hour and a half, take care of our animals, and drive back up here. And tonight, we'll be sitting around a fire talking about you know, how important our family is to us. Think of the memories and just reliving stories. And I don't cuz I don't have anything else booked for the rest of the day. That's it. And then take one more step further. As is even it was so easy to go. Come to me, I haven't had weekends in years. Becau

Meet Matan    Matan is the founder of Fit Hit, an Inc. 5000 fastest growing company in the US. As a former special-ops Krav Maga Warfare Officer, and after training 1000s of special ops pro athletes World Champs and regular folks, Matan recognized that empowerment to training is key to success, not just in violent situations, but in general. Fit Hit helps people tap into their potential, develop a healthy lifestyle, increase mental fortitude, and learn how to handle themselves.    What would you say to entrepreneurs who simply can't find the time to invest in their own well-being?   That's a great question. A lot of my students are entrepreneurs and high-level managers, creators, people that rely on their creativity to succeed. So we actually have a little in-house joke that we say and it's called more abs, more money! We're basically connecting your personal well-being and fitness level, to your levels of income and how much money you make. Now, most people can't see the direct line between the two. But I can tell you, there have been several researchers on the subject that have looked at over 1500 CEOs, and what they found was that CEOs that take the time to train, hold themselves up to higher standards when it comes to their nutrition level and their well being overall tend to have more successful companies, better returns to their investments, and more profit. It's not that hard to figure out why right? It's because really, how you do anything is how you do everything. So when you start putting your own well-being as not as important as something else, you don't actually show up in their business as the best version of yourself. If you're an entrepreneur, your capacity to create is what's gonna make or break you, how much drive do you have? Do you think that you'll be able to do more when your health is on point when you have energy that lasts through the entire day, and you're not bogged down by 6 pm or 7 pm, when you just bounce out of bed right in the morning, right? Because your body can carry you like that and you're gonna spending the first 30-45 minutes doing morning scrolling in your bed because you don't have the energy to get up. So what we tell entrepreneurs is that if they're not putting their own physical well-being first, their business is taking the hit, not just their own physic. I recommend to a lot of entrepreneurs to do it that once you get into the process of actually taking care of your body and being aware of what your fat percentage is and so on, I've actually mapped out my fat percentage put it in a graph over time because I keep track of it and my bank account, and what I've noticed is that the two moves kind of like in the same pattern. When I'm at my fittest, my company does really well and if I let go, I can see the changes in the company. If I can show for myself, that means that I can also show up for my business and for my employees. But if I don't even show up for myself, are you really giving the people who depend on you, your team, your staff, the best version of you, or a run-down version of you?   What can entrepreneurs do to beat the stress eating and some of these other bad habits that we've all picked up over the last year?    I can tell you that one of the reasons that so many have gained weight during COVID, and I'm looking at entrepreneurs, specifically, is that we are a breed that is driven by control. We have our own business because for better or worse, we like to control the outcome of things. Some are more successful than others, but even when you talk to people that are not that successful in business, and they're business owners, they'll tell you, I'd rather be here than get a job, right? They like the ability to control their successes and even if they fail, it’s still something that keeps them motivated keeps them going and they're very much connected to it. Then COVID happens and what happened when COVID happened is we lost a significant amount of control of what we can do in our lives. So in the first few months of COVID, with lockdowns, and all this other stuff, if you are any type of retail business, you couldn't operate it all, the way that you used to. We lost control of who we can meet, we lost control of where we can go we lost control of our late we can stay at night, whether I can get food from this place or that place. What happens to people when they lose control? What happens to anybody that loses control? There are direct emotions that go right with it like anger, sadness, and fear which are all the result of loss of control. So what we've seen, because we interview everybody that trained with us, is that when people lost control of things, it made it easy for them to just give up control on everything else, even on things that could be under their control. So even though you have full control of your nutrition because you lost control over everything else, it feels comfortable to just flush down to drain your habits, and then you talk to people. Now for entrepreneurs, if you are sad, and afraid, anxious, and angry, that doesn't work for the business, you have to mitigate those emotions if you're going to show up for the business. So what I recommend to entrepreneurs that are finding themselves in this emotional roller coaster that 2020 has brought in is that anytime there is a lack of control, which is to become very aggressive with taking control where you can. There are actually four aspects that every entrepreneur must take control of all the time. The first one is nutrition. What you put in your body has a huge effect on how you feel and if you're not feeling at your best, you're not gonna show up as your best, you're not going to have the best ideas, you're not going to have the best execution and you're not going to have the energy. So where most people basically turned to junk food and fast food, alcohol, we recommended to our community to go even more hardcore on clean nutrition during this time. You're not going to find comfort in bad food because that just leads to a whole other can of worms with your body and your mind. So the first thing that you want to control these your nutrition, the second thing you want to control is your fitness level. Now gyms got closed down. So what? "Well, if the gym is closed, I can't do anything." No, there was a lot that you can do. You can train at home, you can train outside, you can be active, there are a million things that you can do. But you have to first admit to yourself that you need to take control of your physical fitness. When you do that, you're already starting to make movement in the right direction. Then the third thing is that this is an opportunity for you to gain control of your knowledge base. So you can spend the time just aimlessly scrolling and getting angry at everything that's happening in this country, or you can start seeking out advantages. Seek out the knowledge that would make you better at what you are, that will inspire you, that will move you forward. Then the fourth element is I always recommend people to also take control of hobbies of things that are not directly related to their business and just grow in other directions. So when you force yourself to take control of these things that you can, you are no longer a victim to those horrible emotions that come with the initial loss of control because you continue having control over the things that you can. So your nutrition can be up to par you don't have to go to junk food and alcohol, you don't have to sit on your sofa all day even in lockdown, right? You don't have to be immobile just because the gym shut down. There are options, take control over that! You don't have to be a mindless zombie even though all your friends may be mindless zombies right now, and people around you are mindless zombies right now. If you take this time to get better, create better offerings, become more professional, find a new market, find a new niche, the whole experience of loss of control becomes way easier.   How did you take Krav Maga, this kind of aggressive approach, and make it something that is accessible to women?   That was the challenge when I set out to create Fit Hit. I come from the military world and when I started training, my clients were for the most part, within that world. Police officers, security companies, special ops, and government agencies, were the clients. But when I was in New York, even within the very first year, I started getting more familiar with violence against women, and how prevalent it is in the United States. It was much worse than I thought it would be, like one in every six women is going to get sexually assaulted in her lifetime. That's like one roll of the dice. You start talking to women, and everybody either has been assaulted or knows somebody that has been assaulted. I was just thinking to myself that I have all this knowledge and I have this skill set that is completely transferable. The beauty of Krav Maga is that you don't have to be the strongest person to be able to do it, they're teaching it to kids straight out of high school in the military because that's what Israel is. So how do you turn these 18-19-year-old kids to be very efficient with a striking, you have to give them a system that is not reliant on size or strength. So if you give women a system to defend themselves, not relying on size and strength, you're actually giving them a power that they can then use to not be a part of that horrible statistic that just kept creeping up. So for me to be able to create an environment to attract these women, I couldn't just come out and say, "Hey, ladies, I'm about to teach you the most aggressive self-defense system in the world, it's only being taught at special ops and law enforcement these days, so let's go," because most women, right off the bat, are not attracted to that concept. I know it because that's how I started, that was my first Google ad! I created a great school for Krav Maga, but women were only maybe 15% or 20%. From day one, I wanted to attract women, but I just didn't know what was the right message, what was the right way to put it all together. But I knew what problem I wanted to solve in the world and it was the problem of victimization especially for women because there was nothing like that. So most women, even though the solutions are out there just don't do that. So I had to bend their reality in order to make it happen and the way that I did that is that I didn't come out with so we create a new product. It is an upscale fitness experience that has nutrition built in, community, mental fortitude, it is one of the most beautiful spaces you would ever go into in New York City right now. We put on music and lights, and we build a whole fashion line to go along with it and we put females in the forefront of it so the women that are teaching the classes are all these badass women and they're also beautiful and feminine at the same time. But they're also very strong and very accomplished, very powerful, and they have conviction in what they do. We put all of that together and on the way, you're going to learn a little Krav Maga! We didn't lead with Krav Maga, we lead with, “You’re going to lose 25 pounds, let me show you how.” That became the draw for the female population and the beauty of it is that it didn't take long because women fell in love with this type of training. See, the problem was it's not that this training is not for women, it's just that women have been falsely convinced over the years that they're not supposed to be a fighter, they're not supposed to be aggressive, they're not supposed to say no and are not supposed to hit back, and all it takes is one hour for us to break all of that. What we did is we created these human-like punching bags so instead of hitting other people, they're hitting a thing that looks like a person. Within like 10 seconds, they feel that they have an impact behind her punches. Fighting is in our DNA, fighting is not a male or female thing, it's literally in everybody's DNA. It's part of our survival mechanism, but because we don't need to survive that much these days it just stays dormant. So all we did is we gave a more attractive offer and then when we exposed women to what we knew that they would in their core being would be attracted to you because we all have an aggressive side. No matter how quiet it is, no matter how silent it is, no matter how many years other people have tried to squash it, it's there. The end results are instantaneous, we probably have the highest retention rate of any gym in the country, because once they try it, they don't want to go sit on a bicycle to nowhere!  What if you even burn more calories, but you also learn some new skills your body moves in us in a different way and when you leave the class, that information stays with you? You leave the class you go out into an NYC street and some guy looks at you weird. You're no longer paralyzed, which was the case for most women before they started this training.    Can you share with our listeners one of your favorite networking stories that you've had?   This was a long time ago when I didn't even have a location yet, I was just like a hired gun and I would just be hired to train for certain things. I wanted to open up a facility so I was looking for investors, partners, anything that can give me a leg up. So I was talking to somebody who is a poker player and she just mentioned she knew I was looking for investors and that there was this illegal poker game that was going to happen that night at some random location in New York City. She gave me the name of one person to look for and if I got him on your side, he will find you. So I was like, "Okay, great," and I to my girlfriend I was like, "Hey, listen, dear, we are going to an illegal poker game, I've never played poker in my life, I don't know how to play, we are just going to be social and nice and see what's what." We get to this building and there's this guard, his security guard standing out there and he's like, "Can I help you?" I told him I was here for the game, he asked for my name, and when I told him my name he said I wasn't on the list. Then I give him that one guy's name and they let me in. So we go in there and there's like, this social gathering, which was very small with everybody sitting around the poker table. We're just sitting like a sofa and I don't know who that person is that I'm looking for, but I figured by being there, I'll be able to see what's going on. So for like, 30 minutes, I'm just sitting there, not even talking to anybody. Then at some point, this guy raises his head and he's like, "Hey, you're Matan?" I said yeah and he was like "Oh yeah, this woman told me that you're gonna be here. Hey guys, this is Matan, he's like the baddest Krav Maga fighter ever so if anybody wants to train, we'd like a super commando guy, that's your guy!" I was like, "Great, man I thought you and I will be able to talk later on," and he's like, "No, I don't have any time for that, but thanks for coming." But then there was another guy at that table and he was like, "Oh, you teach Krav Maga, give me your card, I'm doing this charity event if you want to donate a couple of classes that might open you up." That little social gathering and social conversation that guy didn't just put me in this huge charity event that gave me huge exposure and huge opportunity to go over it, he became my client. Later on, he also became my first investor. So just taking advantage of the fact that I could get into a room with a bunch of people, be able to get the conversation even though the original guy that I came there for, didn't even want to have a conversation with me. Just being exposed to other people that could make a difference in your life got me, my first investor. From there, it was pretty easy to open up my first location.   If you could go back to your 20-year-old self, what would you tell yourself to do more or less of or differently with regards to your professional career?   I would say if I could go back to my 20s, I would work way harder on getting access to mentors, and getting mentorship from people who have walked the walk. The interesting thing is that super-successful entrepreneurs are more likely to take on a younger person to mentor than an older person or mentor because there's a certain sense of pride when you take somebody who doesn't know much and you start giving them tools and then they go out and kill it. I started looking for mentorship way later in life. I was in my mid-30s and I ended up paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to get the mentorship and it always paid back and dividends. Paying for mentorship is great, but when you're super young, a lot of times you have access that you don't even know that you have just because you're young, you're hungry, and you're ambitious, and you don't have all the answers and nobody expects you to have all the answers. So I would say if anybody is that super early age, work on connecting with mentors. You never know when you're going to run into them so you have to make yourself available to run into these people. I would tell myself and there anybody that may be in the position that I was is you want to recognize success when you see it early and get close to it because it gives you shortcuts. It can save you years of trial and error, not to mention money.   We've all heard of the six degrees of separation. Who would be the one person that you'd love to connect with and do you think you can do it within the sixth degree?   I would say a person that I've been completely fascinated with over the past five years, Elan Musk. He doesn't build businesses, he creates industries. Most people would be lucky to be very successful in just one aspect, but he seems to innovate in completely different industries. I heard him say something and I think as an entrepreneur you need to hear it. There are two things that he said that really stuck with me and I'm happy that he said it because it makes a lot of the emotions that you may feel as an entrepreneur and during hard times, that's really kind of find their place. He said, "Being asked for nor is like chewing glass and staring into the abyss: You have to be prepared for long periods of difficulty before you make it on the other side," and then the second thing that he said which was in reply, somebody asked him, "What can you tell young entrepreneurs that need to be motivated?" He said, "If you need somebody to motivate, you should probably not want to be an entrepreneur." I just love the idea that you have to find the motivation from within all the time as an entrepreneur. There's not going to be anybody there, that's going to push you to be the best that you can be in your business unless you hire them to do it. But our voice will always tell them to look deeper, listen to that part of you wants to push forward. So I would say that without a doubt if I had stronger social skills and networking skills than I do, that would push hard to get on the circle with Elon Musk.   Connect with Matan    Instagram: @matansmethod Website: https://fithit.com/

SUMMARY If you're wearing a mask to hide mental health challenges, why not swap it for a superhero cape and brainpowers so strong they're sure to save the day! Sharon Blady, PhD (comic book geek, former Manitoba Minister of Health, founder of Speak Up: Mental Health Advocates) and Dr. Simon Trepel (a psychiatrist and member of Sharon's treatment team) openly talk about Sharon's multiple diagnoses, what's helping her heal, and how you, too, can embrace neurodiversity and load your mental health toolkit with superpower solutions. They also touch on the impacts of stigma and childhood trauma on mental health, the effects of COVID-19, the need for resilience, and the importance of strong doctor/patient relationships. TAKEAWAYS This podcast will help you understand: Personal experiences from a person with multiple mental illness diagnoses, and those same experiences from the vantage point of her psychiatrist An individual's experiences with post-partum depression, ADHD, OCD, Bipolar 2, and suicidal ideation Challenges and opportunities associated with multiple diagnoses Mental health “superpowers” and how they can help promote personal healing and support others Superhero Toolkit Benefits of neurodiversity (seeing that brain differences such as ADHD and autism are not deficits) Impacts of stigma (structural, public, and private) and reducing its negative effects “Resilience” from personal, professional, and community perspectives Impacts of COVID-19 on mental health Doctor/patient relationships and what makes them work   SPONSOR The Social Planning & Research Council of British Columbia (SPARC BC) is a leader in applied social research, social policy analysis, and community development approaches to social justice. The SPARC team supports the council's 16,000 members, and works with communities to build a just and healthy society for all. THANK YOU for supporting the HEADS UP! Community Mental Health Summit and the HEADS UP! Community Mental Health Podcast.   RESOURCES Speak Up: Mental Health Advocates Inc. Embrace Your Superpowers program Managing Multiple Diagnoses of Mental Illnesses The Importance of a Complete Diagnosis: Managing Multiple Mental Illnesses Neurodiversity in the Modern Workplace   GUESTS  Sharon Blady, PhD Sharon Blady is former Minister of Health and Minister of Healthy Living for the Province of Manitoba, an academic, and a comic book geek turned mental health superhero who empowers others with her fandom-based Embrace Your Superpowers program. Using her lived experience of multiple mental health and neurodiversity diagnoses, she helps others better understand and achieve improved mental health and well-being. Her diagnoses became a source of strength – Superpowers – which she harnessed and directed for personal, organizational, and community growth. Sharon's life experiences range from being a single mom on social assistance, to being responsible for a $6-billion health department budget. She is a survivor of domestic violence, cancer, and suicide, along with being a published author, entrepreneur, and public speaker. Email: sharon@speak-up.co Phone: 204-899-4731 Website: www.speak-up.co Facebook: @SpeakUpMHA Twitter: @SpeakUp_MHA & @sharonblady Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-blady/ & https://www.linkedin.com/company/speak-up-mha Simon Trepel, MD, FRCPC Simon Trepel is a child and adolescent psychiatrist with more than a decade of experience assessing and treating kids and teens. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba, where he teaches medical students, residents, psychiatrists, pediatricians, and family doctors. Simon is also a clinical psychiatrist with the Intensive Community Reintegration Service at the Manitoba Adolescent Treatment Center. Simon is co-founder and consulting psychiatrist for the Gender Dysphoria Assessment and Action for Youth clinic, and consulting psychiatrist for the Pediatric Adolescent Satellite Clinic, where he primarily works with children and adolescents in Child and Family Services care.​ Simon has worked with Vital Statistics as well as Manitoba school divisions providing his expertise in child and adolescent gender dysphoria. He has spoken to audiences on a range of topics, including gender dysphoria, video game addiction, anxiety, attention deficit disorder, and neuroplasticity.​ Websites: https://matc.ca/ (Manitoba Adolescent Treatment Center) Email: sptrepel@gmail.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/simontrepel LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-trepel-md-619a76b8/   HOST Jo de Vries is a community education and engagement specialist with 30 years of experience helping local governments in British Columbia connect with their citizens about important sustainability issues. In 2006, she established the Fresh Outlook Foundation (FOF) to “inspire community conversations for sustainable change.” FOF's highly acclaimed events include Building SustainABLE Communities conferences, Reel Change SustainAbility Film Fest, Eco-Blast Kids' Camps, CommUnity Innovation Lab, Breakfast of Champions, and Women 4 SustainAbility. FOF's newest ventures are the HEADS UP! Community Mental Health Summit and HEADS UP! Community Mental Health Podcast. Website: Fresh Outlook Foundation Phone: 250-300-8797   PLAY IT FORWARD The move from mental health challenge to optimal restoration becomes possible as more people learn about various healing challenges, successes, and opportunities. To that end, please share this podcast with anyone who has an interest or stake in the future of mental health for individuals, families, workplaces, or communities. FOLLOW US For more information about the Fresh Outlook Foundation (FOF) and our programs and events, visit our website, sign up for our newsletter, and like us on Facebook and Twitter.   HELP US As a charity, FOF relies on support from grants, sponsors, and donors to continue its valuable work. If you benefited from the podcast, please help fund future episodes by making a one-time or monthly donation. Sharon Blady, Dr. Simon Trepel Interview Transcript You can download a pdf of the transcript here. The entire transcript is also found below: RICK  0:10 Welcome to the HEADS UP! Community Mental Health Podcast. Join our host Jo de Vries with the Fresh Outlook Foundation, as she combines science with storytelling to explore a variety of mental health issues with people from all walks of life. Stay tuned! JO  0:32 Hey, Jo here. Thanks for joining me and my two guests as we conduct a brain tour that will take you on a journey of discovery, from mental illness all the way to mental health superpowers and superheroes. This great conversation is brought to you by the Social Planning and Research Council of British Columbia. My first guest is Sharon Blady, founder of SPEAK UP: Mental Health Advocates Inc., and former Minister of Health and Minister of Healthy Living for the province of Manitoba. She knows firsthand how getting mental health or neurodiversity diagnoses means living with stereotypes and stigma associated with those labels. She also knows there's a way to reframe those stereotypes and define assets that empower us instead. Sharon's lived experience, combined with a lifelong love of comic book superheroes, successful treatment with cognitive behavioral therapy, and robust peer support, gave her the perspective and tools she needed to see her mental health challenges as assets or superpowers that she now harnesses and manages for better mental health and success. Helping us navigate Sharon's brain tour is Dr. Simon Trepel, a psychiatrist with more than a decade of experience assessing and treating kids and teens. He's an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba, where he teaches medical students, residents, psychiatrists, pediatricians, and family doctors. He's also a clinical psychiatrist with the Intensive Community Reintegration Service at the Manitoba Adolescent Treatment Centre, and co-founder and consulting psychiatrist for the Gender Dysphoria Assessment and Action for Youth Clinic. Welcome to both of you, and thank you for embarking on this journey of disclosure and discovery with me. SHARON  2:39 Thank you. It's great to be here, Jo. SIMON  2:41 Hey, Jo... yeah... thanks for having me as well. JO  2:43 I know the relationship between doctor and patient is sacred, so your willingness to help us better understand that connection is brave, and so very much appreciated. First, we're going to dive into Sharon's story, peppered with Simon's clinical perspective. I think this is going to give you a whole host of insights. Sharon, let's start with you. When we spoke to prepare for this episode, you talked about being born with quote, "different brain things," unquote. Can you tell us that story, starting with you being an energizer bunny and chronic overachiever right from the get-go? SHARON  3:27 Yes, that was my very articulate way of self-identifying, but that's how I felt as a kid... that there was just something different about me. And it wasn't just that I felt that way. I kept getting told that I was different, and not always in a good way. Sometimes I did receive positive encouragement in school and always did well. The first time my parents had to ever deal with the principal, and my being in the office, was because in grade three I had decided I wanted to drop out because I felt there was nothing more that they had to teach me because I was spending more of my time helping other students. And it all just seemed so boring. That's what would eventually get me into advanced programs and stuff like that. So, it was just that thing where I was always doing things and not intending to be one step ahead of things, but finding myself there and then kind of getting simultaneously rewarded and punished for it. So, it'd be like, yeah, there's a great grade, but then you get the side-eye from your classmates. And then I get my father. His tendency was to say that, on one hand, yes, you're my child, you're so smart. But don't think you're that smart... don't get too confident or cocky. So, there was never 100 percent security in it. It's the way I lived in terms of the university and how I was managing things. I remember a girlfriend and I… the joke was that no one would have thought of giving us mental health or neurodiversity diagnoses. More that the joke was made to zap us both in the butt with tranquilizer darts to slow us down so that everybody else could keep up. That was my childhood. JO  4:57 What were your teenage years like? SHARON  5:00 Oh, a roller coaster. I was always good in school, but I got into the IB (International Baccalaureate) program, and it was the first year that they had the IB program in school. So, I think in some respects, they weren't ready for us. We were that first class... 50 of us kids that were used to being chronic overachievers… outsiders… were all suddenly in one small school that only had a total of 350 students. I was, again, still doing well in school, but I found my own people and then went off in directions that had me going to The Rocky Horror Show and doing all of this wonderful world of exploration and finding like-minded people. That was when my second round of visits with the principals started to happen. But again, that weird place where it's like, how do you discipline the kid that's in the advanced program for doing a thing, because they're supposed to be there as a role model. And also, that thing, like the seven colors in her hair, might not actually be a disciplinary issue. It's just you've never encountered it before as a principal. So, I was all over the place. I was doing really well in school and was the very untraditional captain of the cheerleading squad where we cheered to punk rock songs like Youth Brigade. And then I was also in Junior Achievement and, in fact, was the president of the Company of the Year for all of Canada in my final year. Yeah, so again, chronic overachiever... energizer bunny. JO  6:25 What happened that triggered your first experience with mental illness? How was it treated? And how well did you respond? SHARON  6:34 It was actually a while after my first son was born. I was 25, I was a grad student, I was doing my master's degree. I had been going out with somebody that had been a classmate, but when he found out that I was pregnant, ran the heck away. Of course, he also ran the heck away, because the day I found out I was pregnant, I also found out he was cheating on me, and basically said, "Don't let the door hit your butt on the way out." So, I moved back to Manitoba from BC. I had my son, and didn't feel very well, and I couldn't figure out what it was. Because it was, "I've got this kid, I'm doing my master's degree, I've got support from my family," and then one day, I had... after feeling all of this up and down and trying to juggle everything... the overwhelming desire to drive my car off the side of a bridge. And was really the red flag, and something stopped me in the same moment that my wrist almost turned to do that. Another part of my brain went, "That's not the rational thought that you think it is, that's not going to save you or your child the way you think it is." And that's when I sought out help, and would end up with a postpartum diagnosis. And then that would go on to being diagnosed as chronically depressed, and then I spent some time on Luvox. The GP that was looking after me… I wasn't receiving any therapeutic care… I wasn't receiving any kind of counseling or supports that way… it was just medication. I was eventually on the maximum dosage, and it was making me physically ill, so I did a very unsafe thing and I went cold turkey. I was lucky to then connect with a psychotherapist that helped me and introduced me to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. And that's where my really first positive journey happened. But I have to admit, I probably lived the first three, four years, five years of my eldest son's life in a real, foggy, ugly place. That's where the journey started. And it's led to other things and seeking out care has been intermittent and based on things like addressing being assaulted by my ex-husband. Other basic traumatic events have triggered seeking out care. And it's now working with Simon that I've really had that opportunity to go back and dig through a lot of stuff and learn more about myself. And she's like a superhero geek kind-of-way retcons my narrative in the sense that I've realized my understanding of things has changed, especially as we've dug deeper and I've learned more about my brain and what my diagnoses are, as opposed to what I thought they were, and what others had told me they were in those shorter forms of treatment and care. SIMON  9:12 That might be a nice place for me to maybe step in a little bit if you guys don't mind. Sharon's covered a lot of things simultaneously… I'm going to try to have a foot in Sharon's side and to be preferential and biased in Sharon's behalf. But, I also want to take a bit of a meta sense, as well and take a look at what Sharon has said through the lens of maybe how people with mental health challenges or superpowers are sometimes treated by the system or by their families or even by themselves. So, we backed up a little bit to the beginning when you asked Sharon about her childhood. She talked about having lots of energy and being an overachiever. And she was told that she was different, which is an ambiguous message. “Difference” doesn't let a child necessarily understand that that's good or bad. And the child is left to struggle with, "Am I special? Yes. But do I fit in? No." That is the mixed message that a "different" label gives us as children, and we struggle as well to make sense of that. And we are, simultaneously, as Sharon mentioned, rewarded for our special features, our cognitive abilities, but at the same time it isolates or sometimes distances us from other connections that we can have in social circles and with peers and things like that. So, Sharon felt ahead of others, which then makes her feel separated from others, which then makes her aware of pure jealousy. And then she mentioned this mixed message from her father to be, “Hey, you're good, but don't become arrogant.” And I think that's a big understanding of Sharon's struggle to really understand, "Am I a good person or not?" And this is ultimately what leads us to struggling with our sense of self-esteem and sense of identity. You then went on to talk about the teen years and, again, Sharon is propelled to this academic special status of IB program. But you hear her own worries about the school's ability to contain and nurture that in a good way by her own misgivings about it being, quote, "the first year the IB program is in effect." And so again, the theme is, "I'm not sure the adults can handle us... I'm not sure the adults and the systems and the parents can handle us special kids." And you hear the same thing when she talks about getting in trouble, and the rebel phase of, I think it was, pink hair, and getting into trouble despite good marks. And she remarks, "Yeah, it was really tough for the principal because he'd never encountered it before." But he had, Sharon, many times. The principal had encountered many rebellious yet academically talented kids who weren't getting clear messages at home about who they were, and letting them shape a  foundation and identity that gets stable over time, then becomes something for them to fall back on in later years. When they struggle, or even fail at things, they're able to tell themselves, "Hey, that's okay, I'm good at stuff." But when you get a mixed message for so much of your life, and so many systems, you end up falling back on yourself, and you're not sure if you're going to catch yourself. So, you start to wonder if you're able to get helped by the adult authority or systems that are supposed to be catching us. And then we move on to university degree, and we hear Sharon talk about these awful experiences with a partner, and yet she glosses over it very quickly. And you hear the avoidance in her about talking about that very traumatic rejection and separation that happened abruptly at a time when she needed help the most. And see here, there's no ability to process that trauma. And so, when she gets home, all of a sudden, she wants to drive into traffic, and she doesn't understand why. But yet it's the lack of processing that trauma that sits in the basement of our mind and the sub-cortex and waits like a monster until we are at our lowest, and then it shows and rears its ugly head and attempts to take everything from us because we don't feel like we have anything there. JO  12:47 Sharon, I know that you have had multiple diagnoses with different mental health challenges. Can you explain to us how that unfolded? SIMON  12:59 How about, “Sharon, how you doing?” Because we talked about a lot of things just now. And I think an important part of doing these type of interviews where we are laying bare our souls and our histories is that we can go too far. And we can open up too much. And I took Sharon's lead from how far she went in hers. But I think at this point, I'd like to sort of check in with all of us because we've really unloaded some very heavy things. And we don't have to act like it wasn't heavy, Sharon? Well, it's not just for sharing. It's also for our host. JO  13:29 I love this back and forth. I think it's brilliant in that we combine lived experience with a clinical perspective of that lived experience. And I think that's very, very positive. And as you mentioned, Simon, it must be positive for Sharon as well. SIMON  13:48 Exactly. And when we unload things like this, we feel exposed. When we feel exposed, really, again, the sub-cortex of our brains, our basement where our amygdala (which is our fear and emotion center) sleeps beside our hippocampus (which is our library), and that retrieves our memories. And when those two get intertwined in the dance of trauma, they end up opening up these boxes again, when we're not always ready. And so, I always make sure whenever we're talking about traumatic events that I take the lead of the patient, but then when I do the step that seems like I'm being asked to do, we stop and we take a breath, and we reregulate our nervous systems, to make sure that we're still on the same page, and it still feels safe, because therapy doesn't always feel safe, but it should always feel caring and kind and make sure that you are checking back with people. So, you're walking together. And I hope I've given you some time now, Sharon to sort of articulate what it is that you want to maybe say at this point. SHARON  14:47 Thank you for the processing time. I want to thank Simon for how he picked up on how I had said things. And so that in that time to process what I recognized was, for example, that tendency to gloss over things or to say things quickly and sort of dismiss the traumatic aspect of it. And that I've kind of conditioned myself to just telling that story, and that sometimes it has left me raw and open and vulnerable. And that I would just keep moving on not recognizing that it was effectively taking a psychological or a mental scab, and leaving it open to possibly getting infected. And so that's one of the really interesting processes. SIMON  15:31 Oh, I like that. I like that metaphor. SHARON  15:33 Well, that's what I've loved about this process, and about being able to share this today here in this manner, because I've come to realize that so many things that I had taken as normal... they were my normal, they were my habits, they were my whatever. But they weren't. And they maybe got me through the thing at the time, but that they weren't the way things had to be... they weren't a mandatory default setting… that they could be changed. And that even some of the language that I use is, again, a process or part of that, again, what I had internalized. And so that's what I always love about feedback. And the support that I get from Simon is that recognition of, oh my god, am I still using that language? Oh, really? Okay. I thought I'd made some growth here. Yes, I have made some growth, but I'm still carrying around some baggage that I didn't realize I had. I thought I dropped that emotional Samsonite back two weeks ago, but somewhere along the line, I decided to pick up the carry-on version of it after all. And, so what can I do to process that... SIMON  16:35 I hate to interrupt you, Sharon at this point, but we often talk about again, in trauma, this idea of a win-lose or black-white, or yes-no. But when we get into this idea you are doing it again, you're selling yourself short when you say, "I thought I made some growth, but if I made a single mistake, I obviously haven't." SHARON  16:47 Again, and that's what I appreciate, because it's a black and white thinking that I've normalized. So, I'm enjoying the growth. I appreciate the reminders. Jo had the question about the different diagnoses, and I have to say that, because I've been given a variety of things over time, I didn't view them necessarily as negative. Some people will look at mental health labels and neurodiversity labels as negative and other, and I found ways of reframing that, but I still found them as identifying mechanisms or filters that I would run things through. And what I've come to realize in the time that we've worked together is that while those were, I guess you'd say, things that I could use to ground and navigate with. I think it's Maya Angelou that said, "You do the best you can, and then when you learn more, you do better. Some of the diagnoses that we've talked about that I ascribed to at one point, and then realizing that they were mislabelings. I'm glad that I had them for the time that I was there to get me through the thing. It's nice to go back, and that's where I use that term about retcon and go, "Oh, that wasn't really the thing that I thought it was. And now I can adapt to it differently having a better sense." And I would have to say that the one thing that I was most surprised to sort of learn about myself, was just how much of my own mental health has been shaped by trauma of all the different things that I've been dealing with. That is not one of the ones that I would have put near the top of the list or is having had the most influence. SIMON  18:26 That's powerful, and it's because we as a society demonstrate one of the symptoms of trauma, which is avoidance. In my clinical work, and in my everyday life, we are all desperately trying to avoid talking about traumatic things. And that's the reality. JO  18:41 Simon... a question for you. A few of the diagnoses that Sharon had were ADHD, OCD, bipolar two, PTSD. Do you often have patients with multiple diagnoses like that? And if so, isn't it incredibly difficult to diagnose if a person has more than one problem? SIMON  19:05 Well, yeah, but we're not textbooks. We are complicated things. And so, there's many, many reasons why somebody may or may not have a diagnosis at a certain time, and maybe why someone might look like something at one point, but they'll change over time. So, for instance, children, children to teenagers, teenagers to adults, our brains are qualitatively changing over that time, not just in size, but in how they work. A child is not a mini adult... a child is a qualitatively different animal, so to speak. I think that's first of all. So, really, what we're learning is that the brain undergoes incredible amounts of development over our lifetime. And we know that, for instance, in ADHD, while 7% of children are born with the psychological diagnosis of ADHD, according to our latest studies, by the time you reach 18 years old, we know that only 50% of people are going to have ADHD, which is about 4% of adults. And the reasoning for that is because we know as the brain develops and matures naturally over time, if given the right supports and the right conditions, and you will naturally develop the ability to regulate yourself in unique ways as you develop more skills, have good experiences, and accomplish things, and believe in your ability to manage yourself. And we see those things. You can be diagnosed as ADHD as a child, never having been treated or medicated and end up not having ADHD as an adult just by the power of development of the human brain and neuroplasticity. But there's also other things that happen. For instance, you might learn skills that allow you to be more organized, and so you no longer meet criteria for ADHD because you've learned skills that compensate for it, the same way maybe somebody with diabetes might learn how to regulate their diets. They don't have to rely on as much insulin. So, I think we're all regulating our chemistry in different ways all the time. And lastly, we're not in Star Trek or the Jetsons yet, so we don't have the ability to scan a human brain and say, "Okay, well, now we know exactly what this is." So, if somebody comes in talking about hearing a voice or feeling delusional, or being disorganized, and it looks like something called psychosis, well, psychosis is a really a general term that can be many, many things… anything from a bonk on the head, to paranoid schizophrenia, to somebody using math for the first time, to somebody having an autoimmune disorder that's causing an inflammation of the cerebral arteries in the brain. So, there's many reasons why we present the way we do, and sometimes it's not clear in the beginning. Lastly, PTSD and trauma is a great imitator, it can look like almost anything in medicine. We talk about lupus sometimes looking like many, many, many different types of disorders from many different areas. And I feel that in psychiatry, in particular, child, adolescent and young adult psychiatry, I see that trauma looks like many things before it finally gets figured out to be what it is. JO  21:52 Sharon, how did your understanding of the diagnoses and yourself change as your treatment with Simon unfolded? SHARON  22:01 I would have to say the greatest thing was that recognition of what he just explained about PTSD. And I love his comment about the societal avoidance of trauma. Because when I think about my childhood, or the way I used to think about it in terms of or even how well I was in it, it was that… well, you know, my folks are together, I live in a nice house, I've got my brother, I've got my cousins, I've got this, I'm doing well in school. I never would have thought of things necessarily as trauma... trauma was for somebody else that lived far away, that didn't have a stable roof over their head, that lived in a warzone, that kind of thing. So, it was again, not that eight-year-olds necessarily have the clinical or academic understanding of adverse childhood experiences, so the notion of trauma didn't really enter my life until I got to things like dealing with an abusive ex, dealing as an adult recognizing what I had experienced with my father, and what he considered discipline, was, in fact, abuse, and that it was both physical and emotional, psychological, that kind of thing. But that was like, again, in retrospect. So, I understand now exactly how the labels... I go, okay, that's the thing. If that's what I've got, at least I know what I'm up against, at least I know how to deal with it. And so, the understanding that there was something actual masquerading, and that my trauma responses, I think that's the other part, was things that I thought were other things were now like, "Oh, that's a trauma response. Okay, I didn't realize that. Well, that shines a whole new light on it." So, I have to say that's the one thing is that it's given me a lot more, or an ongoing sense of self-reflection. Not that I ever figured out, I never thought that I had it all figured out, but it's encouraged me to keep a growth mindset about my own mental health and neurodiversity. And that there are things that I can always learn about myself so that I can really learn better, healthier ways of coping and adjusting and just moving through life. JO  24:08 Simon, what are you learning about Sharon's unique brain during all this? And is her response to her trauma similar to other people's responses who have experienced similar trauma? SIMON  24:23 I'll take the second part first, if that's okay. What's really fascinating to me about trauma is that every single human being that's ever existed, has experienced something traumatic, but not all of it becomes something that we call PTSD, or a fundamental change in how your brain works after that event. And that's what separates it. We can be scared, and we can struggle by something for a few days, and then our brain essentially gets back to factory settings. Or we can have a really horrific event happen and our brain can then change. And they can do two different ways. And so often people think of trauma, like somebody has been to war or has been raped, really something we think about something truly savage has happened. And that is one type of trauma. And that is the classic type of PTSD you think about. But we are now becoming very aware, our eyes have been opened to another type of trauma called complex PTSD, where it doesn't have to be savage, at least not savage through the eyes of an adult, but is savage through the eyes of a child. So, for instance, if you are a harsh parent to a child, you are a big, much larger individual. And if you scare, intimidate, or otherwise terrorize a child in the act of trying to be a parent to teach something, you are actually in some ways putting that child through a savage event, and that can be scary. And when the person that lives with you scares you, that can easily become something we call complex PTSD, and it fundamentally changes how our brain works. And so that's something that has to be recognized. And it doesn't recognize that, as Sharon said, "I didn't realize how much trauma affects me," but it's like putting a lens over your reality from childhood. And so, you start to recognize that when we see this happen in other ways, for instance, in religion, or even in more severe things like cults, for instance, where children are very young or sort of shaped in a certain way, it becomes very difficult for them to disentangle themselves from those perhaps bias messages from their childhood, or perhaps healthy messages. I'm not going to moralize on these things right now, but my point is, what we learn early affects us, and sometimes it can affect us for a very long time. So, savage or harsh, either one can create trauma. And so that's the first message. The second one is Sharon's brain is unique, but I don't know where to start, actually, like we've already mentioned lots of things. And so, I honestly think that the most unique part of her brain is simultaneously the ability to experience everything she's been through, and then be able to look at it and really allow her to renegotiate who she is, again, looking back, which is the power we all have. And so, I really am honored about and privileged to work with somebody who is so strong and doesn't know it all the time, but is so strong, they're willing to walk back and say, "Let me look at my childhood, again, with my kinder eyes, with my more neutral, healthier eyes, with eyes that aren't afraid, in the same way anymore... and let me see what was truly there. And let me look in the shadows, then find out they're not as scary. Let me look into my eyes and see that I matter all the time, not just when my Dad's in a good mood." And these kinds of things become extremely powerful moments for anybody, but in particular, people willing to risk the discomfort of therapy with somebody who's willing to go there with them, but also take care of them along the way. And that's what Sharon and I have been able to create. JO  27:56 Sharon, what have been your biggest challenges along the way?  SHARON  28:01 Wow. I'd have to say that it's been breaking belief cycles and habitual cycles that reinforce the trauma behaviors. So, whether, like I said before, it's the use of language or the comparative competitive thinking, or even recognizing, as I'm recognizing my own strength, because I have to say that there's a lot of things where I would describe the situation or thing that I'd accomplished and kind of felt that it's like, well, anybody would do that under those circumstances, and not allowing myself to recognize the specialness, of maybe something that I had done or accomplished the uniqueness of it. And whether that was academically, politically, it was just oh, this is what I had to do at the time. Or, gee, anybody in my shoes could have done it. And so, I think the biggest challenge will be in that assignment. Okay Simon... I'm curious what you have to say, cuz you're always good at reminding me when... SIMON  29:02 Well, again, when you are putting yourself in the crucible of your own personal accomplishments, you have to remember that earlier on it was compounded into you that you can't get cocky. Yes. And so, what you end up keeping with you is that what seeming like an innocuous message from your father when you brought home 105% on that math test, and he said, "You know, don't get too full of yourself because no one likes an arrogant person," and you didn't know what to do with your accomplishment. And you see how long you carry that. And so, what I challenge you to do is to put that down and say, you don't have to worry about the backhand when you do a perfect forehand. Yeah, I just made that up. But that sounds great. SHARON  29:41 Yes, it does, I agree, and that's probably the biggest challenge right there is living in those things.  SIMON  29:48 Or maybe you should not have to worry, because that's not reasonable for me to suggest that you shouldn't worry when the person there perhaps is a vulnerable narcissist and needs to extract his self-esteem from you in some way. And as a child, we are unequipped to even imagine that as possible from the gods that we sort of worship. Right? Yeah, sorry to be so powerful. I'm just in that kind of mood today... loving it! JO  30:15 Sharon, you touched on your challenges. What have been your key moments of personal growth and resilience? SHARON  30:23 Well, it has been the aha moments like those and recognizing that I'm allowed to celebrate these things. And in fact, I should be encouraged to celebrate them. And that it's okay, and that I'm not being cocky and celebrating. Yes, I was the Health Minister dammit, and I was responsible for the $6 billion budget, and I think I did it well. People are allowed to have another opinion. That's their opinion and their business, but I don't have to diminish myself anymore around those things. Earlier on in my own experience, like I said, I've learnt to get through things by reframing them. And that came from experiences with my son and finding the assets. So, I have been able to go, "Yeah, you know what, you might say I have this thing, and that makes me difficult to manage or whatever. But I've also got this other positive aspect of it." So, it was that process of the reframing, which would turn into that superpower language that I use, because being the Energizer Bunny can be very useful and productive. And being somebody that gets told that they can't sit still, and they can't focus, also means that, you know, I pulled together pretty damn good master's theses, and I connected some really interesting dots in some other places, both in my academic and political life that other people hadn't got to. And that in some respects, I was surprised that, "Why is it taking me to do this? How come nobody else thought of this, because once I got here, this seemed really obvious.?” So that reframing is health. SIMON  31:55 Or, how about one ever talks about Steve Jobs and Elan Musk never sitting still. JO  31:59 Yeah, exactly. SHARON  32:03 Yeah, well, and that's the other part of it, too, is that some of it's even been gendered, in a way.  SIMON  32:08 In a way... some of it? All of it! SHARON  32:10 Yes. Yes, I was the Chatty Cathy doll that was a know-it-all and this and that... but I'm sure boys... SIMON  32:16 No, you weren't, you were a woman with an opinion. SHARON  32:18 Yes, but that's how I was... SIMON  32:20 ... like a human being. Yeah, exactly. SHARON  32:22 But that's how I was labeled when I was growing up was that it was... SIMON  32:25 ... no, that's the microaggression. SHARON  32:27 And that's the thing that has to be unlearned, because I'm watching my granddaughter right now, who's also recently been diagnosed with ADHD. And one of the messages that came home was that we need to get her to learn to be quiet, and to behave herself in class. And I was just like, "Oh, you do not tell a young girl who has got a voice and an opinion and is able to articulate thing well... you don't put baby in a corner.” SIMON  32:55 Particularly in 2021. SHARON  32:57 Yes, exactly. SIMON  33:00 I thought we just learned these lessons.  SHARON  33:03 This was it. So, it was like, we work with her on how to focus, manage, empower, but do not make her quiet, because that would be doing to her in 2021 what was done to me in 1971. SIMON  33:17 Well, yeah, talk about a replay. JO  33:20 So, what you might be saying, Sharon, is that your granddaughter... her ADHD may be a superpower for her. SHARON  33:27 Oh, it honestly is. Like this kid, it blows my mind, honestly, sometimes the things that we'll watch her do, and then process and be able to articulate back. When they went to Drumheller, guess who came back like the little dinosaur expert, and that she was, again, connecting dots and doing things. She's now a big sister, and I think one of the things that she's also got is a sense of compassion there, where she understands her little brother in a way that while he's not even two weeks old, I mean, she wanted to sit down and read all of these books so that she could be a good big sister, and she read some bedtime stories. And I think that there's a compassion that she's acquired because she knows what it's like to be treated particular ways, to make sure that she's going to be her little brother's defender. She's going to be a good big sister. SIMON  34:21 Let's not do that to her.  SHARON  34:22 Okay, that's a good point. Let her be her. SIMON  34:25 Let's not sign her up for a job without discussing it with her first, because we've got all sorts of great plans, but John Lennon had some song about that or something. I'd like to challenge us, as well, to circle back the last two minutes and let's reframe something. What is the school telling her by saying she needs to learn to be quiet… what are we actually missing in that message? Because, if we see it as a pure criticism, we might be missing some wisdom in there that is helpful for us to think about. Because superpowers... when you discover heat vision as a child, you don't make microwave popcorn for your parents, you burn a hole in their curtains is what you do. And so, we're not talking about that... we're acting like the superpowers are easy to handle, and the person who has them knows how to wield them. But I think what we're hearing the school say is that she has something cool that makes her unique, but it also interferes at times, and we don't want that to hurt her. JO  35:25 Before digging in deeper was Sharon and Simon. I'd like to acknowledge a major HEADS UP! sponsor... the Social Planning and Research Council of British Columbia. SPARC BC is a leader in applied social research, social policy analysis, and community development approaches to social justice. The council's great team supports 16,000 members, and works with communities of all sizes to build a just and healthy society for all. Thanks yet again, to all of you great folks for your ongoing support. So, Sharon, let's circle back... we've been talking about superheroes and superpowers. And I'd like to hear the story of how that all got kicked off for you. SHARON  36:17 Well, I'm a comic book nerd. I fell in love with superheroes at about a year-and-a-half when the Spider-Man animated show came on TV, and I found myself fixed on the screen. And I just never broke away from that, and it's gone down into other different fandoms over time. So, I've got a whole bunch, I'll spare you the list, but what happened was in raising my kids, especially having two boys, we were surrounded by comic books and action figures and Marvel movies. So, it was just familiar. We had favorite characters, and this and that. And, so what happened was when my second son was born in 2003, I noticed some things about him very early on, especially once he started school, it became really obvious. He was not interested in learning to practice his writing, he would just scribble, he had a very strong auditory sense, like, go to a movie with his kid, do not ever try to debate script with him, because he will have picked it up. And he can come back, like literally with the phrasing, the cadence, the tone, that kind of thing. And that was his gift. But he was struggling in school, and he always had problems. He was told that he was daydreaming. He was having problems with reading and math. So, they would just send him home with more stuff, and he just was super frustrated. And as much as I'd asked for psychological assessments, I was told that he was too young and will get by. And they kept passing him from one grade to the next, where things just kept getting progressively harder and harder, because he didn't have the skills. And he was eight years old, and he just melted down one day and said, "Mommy, if you love me, you wouldn't send me to school anymore. Because I'm a failure, I'm broken. And I'm not going to do well there. And it's just it's not worth it." And I found myself saying to him, as he rattled off each of these different things that were wrong with him. I found the flip side. "Oh, so what you're telling me is that you think you're oversensitive to this and that, well, I see empathy there, I see caring, I see strategic thinking." And we flipped all the things and found assets. And I said, "Sweetheart, you're not broken... you're like an X-Man... you have mutant superpowers. And it's just a matter of figuring them out and figuring out how to harness them. So, we're going to do for you what Professor X does for the X-Men," and I use the example of Cyclops with laser vision. I said, "Think about Cyclops... you can blow up buildings and save his friends to do all these things and take down the bad guys, whatever. But if he doesn't put his visor down in the morning, guess who's gonna set his underwear on fire while he gets ready for school?" So, we use the example of Cyclops, and what I found myself doing at first I was like, "Oh my gosh, did I just blow smoke at my kid?" And then I realized how I had been coping and managing since that diagnosis of postpartum, and the different tools that I had been given intermittently, and what I had learned on my own... taking those tools and then researching and doing things further on my own,... was that I had been reframing, and I had been finding assets, and that actually previous to that diagnosis the thing is like the kind of thinking that I had with ADHD... well, that had been an asset. As long as I was checking off the right boxes and I was getting rewarded, that was an asset that was a spidey sense that I was hiding. And that why is it as soon as things helped out on me at a diagnosis of postpartum, that suddenly there was like, “Whoo, I've got a thing wrong with me… it's a diagnosis...  bad, broken.” And I saw that it's stigma, that kind of thing. That's what I started doing, and that's where we started really trying to Identify within our own family, what were the assets that we had. And it was things like hyperfocus, it was creativity, and that's just the language that we started using, because we also found that it was neutral. The superpower is inherently neutral... it's what's done with it. It goes to Simon's comment about burning the hole in the drapes or making the popcorn, right. It is what it is... now, am I going to be stigmatized and end up someone like Magneto, who becomes the antihero and become reactive and defensive? Or am I going to become someone that's more like a Professor X and the X-Men and use my powers for my own benefit, but also for the benefit of others. And that's where I realized that a lot of the things that I had been doing were about using those powers to help others. So that's where it came from. It was basically me trying to parent my little boy who was broken, and to help him build a toolkit until he could get proper clinical diagnosis and support. It was our way of getting through things. JO  41:06 How have you evolved that program? I know now that you're offering the toolkit, for example, to other people. Tell us about that. SHARON  41:15 I guess it's been about a decade now or so since that originally happened. I was using that language with my kids, which crept into my language at work. So, you want to see political staff, which have the minister in a meeting, use the word “superpowers.” That was on the list of words that the minister wasn't allowed to use. And also, not allowed to talk about neuroplasticity, or anything else that will get the opposition a front-page headline where they can call me quirky or a flake or something. And they tried, but it was a case of going through that and deciding that after coming out of office, and after working at another organization, that I wanted to share that, because as I encountered different people that went, "Oh my gosh, that's an interesting way of looking at it." And so, I realized, and also watching my son and other people I'd  shared it with, that it had a destigmatizing approach. I'm not a clinician, and I'm not someone that's trained as well as Simon is... I'm someone with lived experience who has trained in things like peer support, and, that for me, it's a language that I find helpful in taking these big complex ideas and making them relatable, and making them a conversation that we can have, without it being again, scary or distancing. So, I can talk about anxiety and talk about Spider-Man. And we can have conversations around Peter Parker, and Spider-Gwen, and Miles Morales, and find out that people have empathy for those characters in a way that they might not have for themselves, or someone they know what that diagnosis is. So, it creates that little bit of a safe space. I guess how I put it is I take mental health seriously, but I don't always take myself seriously. And if I can share stories and do things and introduce people to tools and perspectives, or especially introduce kids to ways of handling their emotions, because a lot of times it manifests more emotionally, where they see it as positive. I've seen the results with my son, who specifically has got some powerful reframing tools. That's what it is. And so now it's a program called Embrace Your Superpowers. And I've since encountered another fandom that I've been dived way too deep into, and I have another program based on the music of Bangtan Sonyeondan (BTS), and just published an article in a peer-reviewed journal out of Korea on the mental health messaging within their music and how they model things like CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy), peer support, and some other therapies. JO  43:43 Wow, that's amazing. Simon, can you put all this into clinical/neuroscience/neurological context? SIMON  43:54 You mean, as assistant Professor S? JO  43:56 Yes. SIMON  43:59 Like that one... Sharon... Professor S? SHARON  44:00 Yes, yeah. SIMON  44:01 Pretty close... yeah... not bad. And as a psychiatrist, I didn't want to say sex because then I have to say something about my mother... it's embarrassing. So no, I really can't summarize it in some perfect way. But I can talk about Sharon's use of superheroes as a way for her to lovingly and empathically discover herself. And I think that when you think about how difficult Sharon's life is… especially early on was, maybe not so much now, which is awesome… but as a child, she didn't have a hero that was safe to look up to. And when kids don't have a hero that's safe to look up to they find them. They find them in teachers, or they find them in pop culture, or they find them in rock and roll, or they find them in fandoms. And Sharon was really lucky to be able to find such an awesome fandom that gave her such positive messages, that allowed her to start to say, "Wait a minute, different is unique." It gave her the idea that adults could be nice, that they could do things that were selfless that did not have to hurt other people. That adults could do big things and handle things. That they could be role models. That adults could be strong, and that people could look up to them and still be safe in doing so. And these are all contrary to the messages that Sharon had been experiencing in her own life. And so, this was a very much a place for her... a cocoon for her... to be able to develop safely in her own mind and her own psyche to survive how harsh childhood was with all the adults in her life that were not sending her comfortable messages. In fact, they were quite mixed, and they were quite barbed. So, I think that I would start off by just saying it's awesome to think about this way, and in Sharon, teaching other people how to have more empathy for themselves. We always work on the idea that what we do for others we're actually doing for ourselves. And so, it brings us back to the idea that Sharon is doing this, in fact, for herself, which then makes me wonder if I'm doing this for myself, and it makes me feel good to help other people. So perhaps, I'm selfishly also baked into the system here and doing some of the same things. But that's okay, because you can reach a point in your life where you can give to others without taking anything away from you. And that's the other idea about how things are not a zero-sum game, things are not black and white. In fact, we can generate kindness and love on the spot as humans, and we have this beautiful ability to do so. And that's, as well, what superheroes do... they love the human regardless of the situation, because they know the person's always trying their best. And that's one thing that I always make sure I work on with everybody... I will truly believe that everybody is trying to be as successful as possible at every moment, including when we don't want to get out of bed, we just calculate that. That's all we have that day, and that's the best we can do. And I just want to make sure Sharon continues to embrace those parts of her because they are easily the most powerful parts that really do have the ability to generate almost infinite abilities to believe in yourself. JO  47:02 Sharon, you mentioned earlier… neurodiversity, and I'm really interested to know, first of all, from you Simon, what that means, and what that means to people like myself and like Sharon, who have mental health challenges. She may not be considered, quote, "normal" unquote, from a mental health perspective, but look at who she is. Look at what she's accomplished. Look at how she's helping people. So, can you just respond to that? SIMON  47:37 Absolutely. I'll back you up a little bit. Sharon's as normal as anyone else... there's no such thing as normal. This is the lie that we've all been sold very early on in our lives, that there is something called "normal." And, by the way, that normal is also perfect. And that's also the thing we all wanted to aspire to be. But it's really a story of conformity... the language of normal or perfection is actually language of conformity. And so, the reality of it is, we are all so different. If you go into a field and look at 100 cows, but then you put 100 people in the field beside them, you look at the people, humans are really unique. I'm not suggesting cows aren't unique...  cows are pretty neat, too, but humans are exponentially more unique. And because of the freedom that we enjoy, because of our prefrontal cortex to imagine ourselves in almost any scenario we like, we're walking around with a holodeck in the front of our skull. So, we all have that. But what neurodiversity truly speaks about, it's recognizing that in the great, great ghetto blaster of Homo sapiens, the equalizer is spread uniquely throughout all of us, all of Homo sapiens is a spectrum. And so, we do cluster sometimes around some tendencies such as gender, but we're learning that not everybody experiences a “normal” quote/unquote, as we've been sold, gender. In fact, there is intersex conditions, there is agender, there is gender fluid, there is genderqueer, there is non-binary. So, there is no such thing as normal. There is just this incredible adventure called being a human being. And the only limitations we're going to put on that are the ones we put on ourselves. JO  49:16 So, Sharon, how did your understanding of neurodiversity help you to see yourself in a different light? SHARON  49:23 Well, it goes definitely to what Simon said... one of my favorites expressions around this is "normal is just a setting on a dryer." That's the only place it's a useful term. SIMON  49:34 And it doesn't always work for the clothes in the dryer either. SHARON  49:37 Exactly, exactly. It might not be the setting you need. Again, when my youngest one was finally tested and given diagnoses that said that he had discalculate dysgraphia and dyslexia, these are things that are called learning disabilities. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, he just learns differently, and that he learns in ways, that again, it's this idea of along a spectrum, and so it's a case of wanting to take the stigma away from it. There is all of this diversity. And that somewhere along the line, somebody came up with some sort of liberal, conformity-based normal in the supposed center, and that the rest of us were put out on the margins. And we have a disability or like with ADHD, the idea that it's a deficiency, and I'm like, “Okay, no, no, I don't have a deficiency disorder. I can hyper focus. My ability to focus is divergent, and it can be hyper focused, it's not deficient.” The term, variable attention stimulus trait is one that I've come across as an alternative. And I appreciate that one, because it's the idea that I just have greater variety in my stimulation range. It's not better or worse, that idea of positive or negative. So that's why I tend to use the term neurodiversity, where other folks would tend to use terms like a learning disability or some kind of a challenge or something, again, something that implies other or negative. It's like, no, there's this wonderful spectrum that exists. And that's what we need to understand and appreciate. And then the other thing that I've come to realize, especially, I guess you'd say, in real time with my son's experience… and then I'd say, in retrospect, with my own on this journey with Simon… has been that those of us that have that kind of a diagnosis or a label, will inevitably have some kind of traumatic or mental health issue. Because you're going to experience anxiety, you're going to be stressed out, you are going to overthink and self-judge and do all of these things. When you are being treated as other in the classroom, because you're not reading the same way, you're not writing the same way, you're not allowed to hand in a video presentation instead of an essay. And so instead, you're beating yourself up for two nights trying to get two paragraphs on a piece of paper. Whereas if you had been left to give an oral presentation, or maybe my son had a geography assignment that by God, if you'd been able to do it in Minecraft, to build this world that he created for this class, he would have knocked their socks off. But instead, it was knowing we need five paragraphs on a piece of Bristol board and a picture. And that just wasn't his thing. So that's for me, neurodiversity is about we need to challenge how we see each other, how we teach, how we work, because we're missing out. There's a lot of us that I call sort of shiny sparkling stars that, you know, you're trying to take those shiny, pointy stars, and that's what you're trying to shove into the round hole, not just a square peg. But you're trying to shave off all of my shiny pointy stars to stick me in a boring round hole. And we all lose. SIMON  52:44 And I think really the other thing we have to mention is that we need to treat education like fine dining, but instead we treat it like the drive thru. Yes. And so, if we don't talk about that, we're going to blame the teachers for everything. And it's not their fault. Schools, education has been undervalued, underfunded, and quite frankly, is not sexy or cool. Even though I think it's the best thing ever. SHARON  53:07 Yes. SIMON  53:09 We don't look at teachers as heroes, yet, they are probably one of the highest skilled and the most patient and most saint-like versions of humans that have probably existed in our society. And I'm not joking, the ratios are too high and unmanageable for teachers to spend the qualitative time to actually help kids learn in the best ways they learn. So, what they do is they bundle kids… and I know sounds like a [Bell] MTS package…but they bundle kids into packages of classrooms where the median learning style will get served the best. But what we have to start doing is recognizing there might be seven or eight unique learning styles, and then streaming our children into those enriched learning environments. So, they simultaneously get to enjoy their easy way, while working on the other seven types of learning that they're not good at. So that everybody starts understanding that there's no deficit for those people. We all have deficits, because we don't have everyone else's skills, but that's a qualitative aspect about being human. We're all capable of learning to greater or lesser degrees, but we're all capable of learning, period. And we're gonna find some ways that we do it easier across the board, which is going to work in many environments, but it's not going to work in all environments. So, the challenge for all humans is to enjoy what you got and flaunt it, and be celebrated. But at the same time, celebrate learning the other things you don't do well, and we're not going to blame the student because the school doesn't know how to approach their unique learning challenges. We're going to help fund the school, we're going to elect people that take education seriously, and we're going to start to really give our kids a fighting chance to develop self-esteem and identity and an actual career that they feel fulfilled by. JO  54:53 Simon you mentioned that we can all learn. How does neuroplasticity play into that? SIMON  55:00 Our brains have changed dramatically since the beginning of this podcast. That's how our brains are a dynamic ocean of neurons and waves that are sending electrical signals to each other all the time. Every single thought you have is like playing a single note or several chords on a keyboard at the same time. That's why people say we only use 10% of our brain, because if we used all of it at once would be like playing every key on the piano at the same time, and you would not make sense of what that was. Neurodiversity and neuroplasticity, in particular, talks about the idea that our brains are shaped by our genes that sent templates for them, but then having great amounts of potential to be shaped in dramatically unique and different ways. By our experiences, in particular, if those experiences are harsh, they can hardwire in some ways and rigidly keep that template baked into the system for sometimes decades at a time. And on the other side of the spectrum. If our young brains are nurtured… like an orchid in a garden that understands the conditions under which they will thrive the best… then the human brain doesn't seem like it has limits, and we see that in our neurodiverse populations that are allowed, because they're so separated in so many other aspects. If you have severe autism, for instance, we see human abilities that are beyond anything we could ever imagine. And that's all within the human brain. JO  56:29 You can't discuss mental health without talking about stigma. Sharon, what kinds of stigma have you experienced? Be it structural, public, personal? And if you have experienced that, how have you reduced the impacts of that in your life? SHARON  56:46 I might not have identified it as stigma as a child. But there was definitely that sense of being othered. I wouldn't have had that word. I remember when I was first given the postpartum diagnosis, and I remember the doctor asking about if there was any history of mental health issues. And then going back to my folks and being given this adamant, "NO," that there was nothing. Okay, they're very defensive. And yet, at the same time that I was given this adamant "NO," it was then followed up with my mother's explanation about how she and her two sisters all spent some time on Valium in the 70s, while six of us peasants were all young and growing up together. There's been a lot of self-medication on both sides of the family, and how those that had nothing to do with those behaviors, nothing to do with that. And there was this real sense of denial, and, How dare I ask these questions? And I still have some family members, from whom I am estranged because, How dare I talk about mental health? How dare I be the crazy person? And as I said, I had been given a diagnosis of bipolar which again, through work with Simon, realize that behaviors that were seen in there, it seemed like the thing at the time, but we're realizing those because trauma hadn't been addressed appropriately. So, my son, his father to this day still asks, and because my son lives with me predominantly, has had the gall to say... my son would come back, and this is pre-COVID, would come back from a visit. And you know, so how did your visit go? Oh, well, Dad asked, "What's it like to be raised by a bipolar mom?" And, "Am I okay?" And, "Am I safe?" And then, when I went public with my mental health, as the Minister of Health, part of the reason why I did that was because I wanted people to know that I was somebody with lived experience, I wasn't just a talking head. And it had to do with a particular situation, where we had just lost someone to suicide, and that the system failed this person, and hadn't been able to meet his needs. And as a result, we lost this wonderful artist. And that broke my heart, because I always looked at that job as if the system can't look after me and my family, then it's not good enough. And if we lost this person, I saw the situation, I guess, from both sides. I saw myself as the potential parent in that situation, and also the potential adult child who was lost. And I remember my staff, people were flipping out about how the minister cannot discuss this, because we're gonna have to deal with peop

1. Yesterday, the markets staged a solid rally led by the Russell 2000 (IWM). Remember, the Russell 2000 Index represents small cap companies in the United States. That is definitely a positive in the near term. The Russell 2000 Index has been a laggard since 2018 is now making new all time highs and is up 9.0% this year. The Russell declined the least during the September sell-off and now it’s showing leadership. Financials yesterday were very strong. Even Wells Fargo is up 7% today. Citi 4% BOA 3.7% Transports up 2.2%. Volume is extremely light. Yesterday’s volume was anemic. Easily manipulated. 2. Energy stocks have been surging higher along with financial stocks. These 2 industry groups were laggards and now show some strength. Believe it or not, money seems to be leaving technology and is now going into these sectors. I think that is a good thing in the near term. $45 per barrel. Sector is on fire. Is it vaccine driven? Refiners are on the rise. Oil services are up 6.5%3. Tis the season. Elan Musk just passed Bill Gates and is going after Jeff Bezos. Yesterday’s rally upped his net worth by $7.2 billion and probably another $5 billion today. He’s got a lot of other businesses going. 4. Gold/silver getting hit today. Down to $1800. GLD down. Nothing terrible going on. Shake out the weak hands. Miners will find su

Connect with Michael and BobThe Climb on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-climb-podcast/Bob Wierema: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-wierema/Michael Moore: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelpmoore/Connect with Keaton TurnerWebsite: https://turnermining.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keaton-turner-b400a34b/[00:00:00] Keaton Turner: Behavior is a super tough thing to change as businesses grow, right? Because when you're small, you're scrappy, you fight for every dollar you get big and you make some money people first spending money like crazy, right. Everyone's got platinum Amex cards and they're, you know, there's just behaviors, really tough to change.And so I'm, I'm looking at like, okay, I'm coming in as an outsider. What are the things I'm changing? It was just clear. It was super clear. And, and when it's that clear that that are some people changes that need to be made, regardless of if three of your buddies are not like. We're not running a nonprofit, like we're not running a church mission.Like this is a business and I have stakeholders that I'm going to make a return for. I'm going to make a return for myself. I'm going to treat the clients the way they should be treated. And. If there are people that are in the way of that, as much as you love them, you just got to make those tough changes Bob Wierema: today on the climb.Michael and I had the pleasure of sitting down with Eaton Turner. Keaton is the founder and CEO of Turner mining and is, is out there to make mining sexy. Again, we had an. Awesome conversation with Keaton. He has an absolutely infectious personality and unbelievable passion, not just for life, but for his business.He's gracious, humble. And I think you guys are gonna really enjoy this one. You're going to hear it throughout the, uh, the podcast, but Keaton is definitely on fire. Thanks for joining us today.welcome to the climb. We appreciate you joining Michael and I today. Keaton Turner: Absolutely guys, thanks so much for having me looking forward to it Bob Wierema: is we reached out to you. We actually reached out to Tracy. And she connected with us phrase sees what, she's your head of [00:02:00] marketing, Keaton Turner: correct? Yep. Yep. She's our chief marketing officer and she's phenomenal.It's been great. Bob Wierema: And you know, the reason the emphasis behind us reaching out was, you know, we've seen amazing social media presence from you guys on LinkedIn, Instagram, and a few others and said, man, we got to talk to this guy. He's doing some really cool things. So looking forward to, we want to dive into that a little bit more, but maybe first let's start with.You know, who is, who is Keaton Turner, and maybe bring us back a little bit and bring us up to when Turner mining started and then we can kind of go down that path. Keaton Turner: Yeah, absolutely. So when you ask, who is Tina Turner? I tell everyone I'm a normal guy. I'm just like you guys. You know, I love football. I love drinking beers with buddies and hunting and fishing and all that.I happen to be a guy that, you know, when I was 27, I realized how short life is. I would just woke up one day getting close to my 27th birthday. And I'm like, man, you know, the stats show my life's a third of the way over. So I took the leap and I was with a family company at the time. And we can get into that later.But, you know, I took the leap of faith to start a company and start a business. I had a couple of small young kids, but you know, I talked to people all the time about. Life is short. And I just don't. I just had a conversation with a kid the other day. I just don't think people really grasp, you know, how short it is and how much you're going to regret, not doing crazy things.So I do crazy things. I was in a hot air balloon the other day. That was like, I took my wife out for her 31st birthday and I just, I love living life up. You know, I know this has been a weird year with COVID and everyone's. You know, emotionally razzled I get that, especially the stay-at-home moms, but man, I just like enjoying life.I like living it up. Bob Wierema: That's awesome. Well, I've never been in a hot air balloon, but you're talking to the right guys. When you talk about hunting and fishing [00:04:00] and drinking beer in college football. So, you know, this will be a good conversation, Michael Moore: checking all the boxes, Keaton and all the boxes Keaton Turner: last week was some clients, uh, night vision machine began is it was like, These are the right kind of clients.If you can take them shooting hogs. Bob Wierema: Well, I'm sure we can. We can talk after this. We can get that all set up with Michael Dan outside of Fort worth. Absolutely. Michael Moore: No, just keep coming back and eradicating this problem that we have down here, because I mean, the hogs are not going Keaton Turner: away. We made a, we made a small dent in that last weekend.Michael Moore: Thank you. Bob Wierema: Well, and so did you, you're Indiana Keaton Turner: born and raised. Born and raised Bloomington Indiana. Bob Wierema: Okay. So you who's here then? No, you went to Indiana state. I saw it, right? Keaton Turner: Yeah. You know, it's funny everyone that grows up in Bloomington, most of the people either go to ICU or they're the they're, they're like the weird theater kids that move off to LA and do the whole loss, you know, Los Angeles thing.So I, I was one that was kind of in between. I wanted to get a little bit further away from home. Uh, my dad played basketball, Indiana state with Larry Bird way back in. Wow. Yeah. And, and you fortunately, or unfortunately they didn't have any construction programs back then. And so Indiana state did, I went to Indiana state.It was an awesome, had a blast there. Bob Wierema: What drew you to the construction space? Keaton Turner: Uh, like I said, I'm one of those guys. I'm like, I'm a guys guy. Like I love being outside. I'm not that smart of a guy. I'm not a numbers guy. I just kind of wing it. I'm not super organized. I think of something and I want to go do it and I want to see some results.And so I've, I really wanted to be in commercial construction. You know, I wanted to build buildings. Uh, I thought real estate was cool. I worked for a real estate mogul, so to speak in high school, a big developer. And I thought that was really cool. And then I, [00:06:00] you know, I got to, I got to college and went through a bunch of estimating classes on how to cost projects, how to manage projects.I did some business stuff. And so, uh, yeah, it was just kind of off to the races. I I'm, uh, I think I'm a natural. DNA entrepreneur type guy. I have a real hard time working for other people. My mind just doesn't really work that way. So it was just kind of off to the races after, after college getting out in the real world.Michael Moore: Hey Keaton, real quick. As we think about kind of the, the pillars and cornerstones of this podcast with crossroads in defining moments, you know, you mentioned that age of 27 and it was, I think. A lot of people, probably that light bulb goes off, whether it's because you're having kids or, you know, college was a long time ago.Uh, I'm a, I'm a big music history follower. And you know, it was, it was Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Morrison that all died at 28. So, I mean, I, I just got, can't let you off the hook. Like, what was it about 27 that just said I got to kick this into Keaton Turner: high gear. Yeah. I don't know if people have asked me that and it's weird.I was living the dream from 22 to 27. I was working for my family's company, my uncle's company. That was making a great salary. I was, I was kind of like the number two guy or number three guy, uh, you know, basically they gave me free range. I could do whatever I wanted. I was managing my own projects stuff.That was probably way outside the realm of what a 24, five, 26 year old should manage. Uh, so I was living the dream really. Um, but I don't know something just as I, as I got. It seems like every year, whether it was like new year's Eve or my birthday, I started to get kind of depressed. And it was, it was a weird feeling.I've never really talked about this, but it was like, man, my time is running out. [00:08:00] And, and I was like, well, what am I, what is my time running out for? And I kind of bolded down. I'm like, I just feel like I could do more. I feel like I could impact more people. I feel like I could wake up and just feel excited.Instead of those, I talk about Sunday scary sometimes where it's Sunday night, Sunday night football is over. You gotta wake up and go to work on Monday. And it's like, man, I don't love the feeling of Sunday night now. Well, what I'm doing now, I can't wait for Monday morning. Like I'm, I'm in here on Saturdays sometimes and there's people coming around.So I don't know. I think I just, you know, I'm a Christian, I'm a believer and I realized there's a, there's a, there's a verse. And I can't quote it. Cause I, like I said, I'm not that organized, but it's your life. Your life is a vapor. And I, every year I got a little bit older. I'm like, man, my life is a vapor and it's a third of the way over.I got to go do something. So I don't know. I took the leap and I tell guys here in the office, I don't think they believe me, but I tell them all the time, if what we're doing fails today or tomorrow, we've had a lot of early success, but what if it all fails tomorrow? I'm going to do the same thing again.And I can fail four times, five times being a young guy in business and. To me, that's just, okay. You know, I don't know. Maybe I'm weird, but that's just the way my brain works. I think Bob Wierema: what I love about you saying is love and wake up on Monday and go to work. And we talk a lot about, you know, when you got work and play and how do you, how do you make that feel like that's happening every day and there is no work in play, right?Like, and it sounds like you've got that, which is go going. For you, which is awesome. Michael Moore: How do you Keaton Turner: continue to Bob Wierema: drive that forward? When some challenges come at you and things like that? Like, how do you keep that mindset? When you know, the stress is inevitable of business or life come at you? Keaton Turner: Uh, it's a great question.We, you know, early in that we've been in business almost four years now and we've been sued. [00:10:00] Probably more than four times. I, I quit counting after the second one. Um, but you know, just recently I've had, I've had to let go of some of my best buddies that worked for us that were early guys in the business that had a ton of loyalty.I had to let go of some people who didn't quite fit our company, but were amazing human beings. They were just awesome people. We just lost two massive contracts, sort of really transformed our company. And we lost them on a technicality that, I mean, would just. If a normal person knew the circumstances, it would be super depressing.So I say all that to say there are a lot of dark days in business, especially as a young guy, as a founder, you know, trying to start a business in a big, scary industry, like mining. There's a lot of bad days. There's more bad days than good days. But I think, you know, for me, cause I I'll have those bad days and I'll get home and sometimes I'll sit in my truck and say, these are the things I'm thankful for.I know life is short, so it works to make these massive swings and strike out sometimes. I also, while I know how short life is, I'm, I'm kind of fighting for an eternal goal, right? Like I'm trying to impact people in a positive way. I know I can't take the money with me, the watches and the cars and the equipment and all the, all the stuff that the world says is awesome stuff to have.It's awesome stuff to have. But it just, it doesn't mean anything at the end of the day. So I try to think about the big picture even when days suck and you kicked in the balls, like I'm super blessed to be a guy that gets to go try to do something like this in America. If I were, if I were in Saudi Arabia, I probably don't get to do this.Right. Or some of these other countries, this, you know, we have tons of opportunities. So I try to, I try to look at the positive, even when man it's hard sometimes. Michael Moore: And one of the things you mentioned that I want to circle back on is, is, you know, when you started this company, you brought [00:12:00] on a lot of your key buddies from growing up, which, you know, it doesn't get any better than getting to work with your buddies, but then you also mentioned that you've had to let these buddies go, which I can't imagine anything tougher.I mean, talk about a crossroad and defining moment in your business. Just give us some insight into that and how you went about it. Keaton Turner: Yeah, it's me guys. These guys. They're just like you and I, these are the best dudes. These are guys that have worked for me in the past. I mean, I built my company around these guys.These are guys that, you know, some of them were like, one of them was employee seven and employee like 20. Uh, and so they were really early guys on a list of 800 plus employees, whatever the number is, you know, really early guys that were loyal, I mean, would have taken a bullet from me. Uh, after I fired them, I don't know if they take a bullet for me today, but they would have.And I just think that sometimes, I mean, we've had massive growth and that's a good thing and a bad thing. It's a blessing and a curse, sometimes founders as they go through these growth curves and they realize their company has to transform to get to the next level. You just outrun certain people, uh, you out run their capabilities.I think one of the massive mistakes that I made. Was I gave those guys a ton of, I gave them a ton of responsibility and authority, and I gave them a title when we were a small business. Uh, and it worked really well. They were awesome operators of a small business climate when we got to a big business and we had a team of executives and we have real structure in our organization.Those titles didn't mean as much, and their responsibilities were shrunk down. Um, you get sued so many times you realize that you need to have some real rules and processes and regulations in place. Those were guys that just didn't fit that mold. Right. They were people in the office call us Cowboys, like, you know, it's [00:14:00] okay for the founder to be a cowboy a little bit, and just kind of say things and do things like Elan Musk.But you got to have people around you that stop you from making monumental mistakes. And I make tons of you can't have a bunch of Cowboys. You know, you've got to have really thoughtful people, really smart people. Again, I'm not that smart of a guy. And so I, it just led up to, uh, uh, us trying to get to the next levels of business and as an organization and those guys, while they're awesome, guys, It it's, it's really hard for everyone to fit into that next, that next ring up as a business.So I think there's a lot of founders and business owners that go through that through Michael Moore: growth. Well, there's also a lot of people that wouldn't take the chance or the dive of, of hiring their friends. To build a business too. So, I mean, it's, it's, it's kinda damned if you do damned if you don't right. But it is, you guys were experiencing this, you know, monumental growth and you've got these, these lawsuits coming in, like how, how did you go about, or, or someone helping you on your leadership team, identifying the issues and who they were.And then the realization, Oh shit. These are some of my best buddies. And then, okay. Hey, you know, Jimmy, we got to sit down and talk. Keaton Turner: Yeah, it's a great question because if I didn't have the people around me now, I would have kept all those guys. And we would have been the same business that we were two years ago, you know, because I'm thinking, well, these guys are loyal.They're legit. They know how to do the work. They're awesome, guys, why would we need to ever get rid of them? To answer your question. I've put so many smart people around me that are, I mean, this business runs. If I leave tomorrow, this business probably runs better, truthfully. Uh, and I don't [00:16:00] say that in like a humblebrag kind of way.You know, our chief operating officer has got an MBA from Harvard, our acting CFO. My business partner, you know, went to, went to Yale and another one went to Stanford. Like these people are just Riddick on a different level. Right. I got a guy that does analytics and stuff for us. He walks in here and starts rattling off numbers.No, you just go do it. Cause I don't know what you're talking about. So, you know, you get enough, really smart and now they've got to be good human beings. Right? Cause there's a ton of smart people that are jerks. But you get really smart people who know things that you don't and are experts in things that you're not experts in.They start to call out your dark corners of your company. They start to tell you areas where there's waste or where there's efficiency problems or you know, where there's financial issues, which we had a ton of. I mean, I, I'm just a huge fan of putting people that are way better than me. And all of these management roles and they just elevate you, you know, it's, it's wild, but if you put people in that, you know, if you're the smartest guy as the owner of the company and everyone else is kind of below you, the company lives and dies on that guy, my company would die.If I'm the smartest guy, it just would, I can, I can run an awesome small business of 50 people or 80 people. I cannot run a big corporation without a ton of people, way smarter than me. So that's, I've recognized my own weaknesses and I've tried to, you know, cover them up. Michael Moore: So, so then when you are going to sit down and have that conversation with one of your friends like this isn't working out is, do you have some of these other people in the room with you, like walk us through how that process took place?Keaton Turner: You know, I, I didn't, there was such a, there was such an emotional thing there because I love these guys so much. It had been made aware to them where the company was going. And I think they [00:18:00] had sensed for a while that their role and how they fit their role. It just wasn't quite jiving anymore. And so there was kind of an unspoken thing, right?Everyone, there was an elephant in the company. So I just took these guys aside and sat down. I don't know. I'm like, man, I love you. It's just not working. And it's, it's really not even a use thing. Like I'll refer to you, I'll get you a job tomorrow with any company. I paid them well to go do the next thing.Like I, I want to be, I want to do it as, as the most professional way I can. And some of these guys here in the office are saying, man, you did that for him. I, you know, It's to me, it's just a love thing. Like I love these guys and I trust they're probably not over it. Right. It sucks. It's things. It's not fun.There are days I still wonder, like, did I make the right decision? You know, I kind of regretted, I think we could have coached them out of it, but you know, it's just, I, I've always just, don't, I'm a big fan of brutal honesty and I'm a big fan of, like I said, the big picture and they've both. One of them, not both.One of them has said it was the best thing we ever did for him. So, you know, whether he's saying that to make us feel better, him feel better, whether it's the truth. I don't know. But you know, it's, it's not fun. Anyway, you slice it up. Bob Wierema: Were they surprised or did they know it was coming? Keaton Turner: I think they were surprised on the surface, but I think in their heart, man, they'd known it.I don't think they'd ever tell me that or anyone else. Because they were so loyal and they thought, you know, this company will take care of them forever, but I just, I don't know. I don't know. Bob Wierema: When you said to, Hey, we could, you know, when you're thinking back, we could have, maybe you could have coached them out of it.I think that's an interesting comment because Keaton Turner: I think that happens a lot Bob Wierema: and it says, well, we can keep working with this. [00:20:00] We can keep working with, at what point did you go? Okay, I got to draw the line. We can't. Be coached anymore. I mean, because I think that can go on and then all of a sudden you got people below them that are going, this person's not working for me is my leader.And then maybe you get exited there and that big, then it becomes an even bigger problem. So like, how did you decide when to act? Keaton Turner: Yeah. So there's a, when things aren't going right in your company as the guy, as the one that kind of orchestrated the whole thing. You look at what's not going right. And, and sometimes, you know, I'll go home and I'll get in the shower, the hot tub or whatever.And I'll just think, okay, if I'm there, there's a show, a restaurant and possible where this restaurant consultant comes in to failing restaurants and tells them all the things they need to do to fix it. Most of the time, the owners know all the things they needed to do. They just waited for someone else to tell them to do all those things, right.They, it was a person, it was a process. It was, uh, uh, you know, uh, operating line of credit, whatever they knew what to do. They just didn't do it for whatever reason. They waited way too long. And so I looked at our business. I'm like, man, if I'm a guy that this company hires to come in. 100% objective is to make this thing work or people don't matter.Relationships don't matter. What are the changes I'm going to make? And when I looked at it from that lens, man, it was clear. You know, I, I love these guys and there's several, it's not just these two guys. There are processes, there are behavior. Like behavior is a super tough thing to change as businesses grow.Right. Because when you're small, you're scrappy, you fight for every dollar you get big and you make some money. People start spending money, like crazy. Right. Everyone's got platinum AmEx cards and they're, you know, it's really tough to change. And so I'm looking at like, okay, I'm coming in as an outsider.What are the things I'm changing? It was just [00:22:00] clear. It was super clear. And when it's that clear, That there are some people changes that need to be made, regardless of if they're your buddies or not like, you know, we're not running a nonprofit, like we're, we're not running a, you know, church mission. Like this is a business.I have stakeholders that I'm going to make a return for. I'm going to make a return from it myself. I'm going to treat the clients the way they should be treated. And if there are people that are in the way of that, as much as you love them, you just got to make those tough changes, you know? Michael Moore: Kayden you mentioned.I mean, it, first of all, it was just incredible that. All of this has occurred in such a short amount of time. I mean, this feels like much more of a story of somebody we'd be talking to 50 years into their business with the lawsuits and Bob and I see this a lot in our work, you know, that that is the test of the fabric of, of your culture, of your mission, of the people, of how you go about doing your work.And that can, that can either be proven or wrecked. As the result of the lawsuit, probably these lawsuits aren't done yet, um, is, is quick as they've come. But can you talk about that and how you guys have worked through them? Keaton Turner: Yeah, I mean, for me, you know, I, there was, I was meeting with a guy CEO of a massive company and, and you would think this company has been sued a zillion times, right?From there. I mean, there are a billion plus dollar company, 10,000 employees. They've never been sued. And so I asked the guy, how have you never been sued with 10,000 employees? I was like, I would think you'd have a hundred lawsuits pending. He takes the approach of if I'm doing something to someone that they have a reason to go after my company or after my money or whatever the case may be.He's a 51 49 guy. So he wants to give a little bit more than he gets every time. And he's happy to do [00:24:00] that because he's got an eternal perspective, right. He's thinking, okay, God has entrusted this business to me and this money and these, these employees, I'm going to go above and beyond and make it make everyone's lives a little bit easier.So you got a vendor who doesn't deliver. Yeah. You could Sue them. Right. And you could go get the money or what, you know, whatever the thing is, you're chasing. But instead this owner and he's, this guy is worth a lot of money. He drives and meets with the vendor and he sits down and he talks to it like a normal human being.He's, it's kind of like divorced, right? It's like, well, it's not even an option. Sign the thought we're going to sit down and work this out and you're going to hate it and I'm going to hate it. And maybe we hate each other, but there's a bigger picture here. And so I dunno. W we, we try to take that now we've won a ton of lessons, especially as it regards to rules.Like I said, some of these lawsuits, I'm a cowboy, right. And I just do crazy things and I'm not a big fan of rules. I don't want people telling me what I  can and can't do. I don't want the government telling me what I can and can't do. I just, that's my DNA. But you go through that enough, you know, you get people that are like, Hey, this is we're going to do this the right way.And you start to mature, you know, as a 27, 28 year old kid with early success, you're even more rebellious. You care less about the rule. You know what it's like, Sue me, whatever, you know, So you start to mature, but I mean, it's, for me, I just try to look at the big picture. And when, when we have conflict, whether it's a lawsuit or a disgruntled employee or whatever I want to, I want to be the 51%.I want to go a little bit further. I want to give up the more money or whatever the thing is. And, and, you know, I just want to be the bigger person. So it doesn't always work out that way, but that's kinda, what's going through my mind. Bob Wierema: Was, and you mentioned a couple of times being a young guy being in business.So what are some of the challenges [00:26:00] there from a leadership standpoint and then also, and maybe after that is the second question is it seems like you have a lot of a younger group surrounding you too, at least from what we're, what we're seeing and reading. Can you talk a little bit about that though?Keaton Turner: Yeah. So I think that a young guy being in business, I would say that the toughest challenge that I've had. Is the same, the same challenge, a new first-time parent has. Right? You get, you have a baby, you have no clue what you're doing there. You know, you can read all the books, you can meet with all the advisors and the counselors.You can go through the classes at the hospital until you're holding that baby. None of it makes any sense. Right. So I thought I was super ready for business at 27. I was like, man, I'm going to go build the best thing ever. And then you get there. You're like, No clue what I'm doing. Right. And, and I'm a big believer in like you learn through all the lessons, you learn through all the mistakes.I've got three kids, the third kid, we have parents that are going a whole lot differently than the first kid. And so, you know, for me as a business owner, I think the thing that I would go back and tell my 27 year old self don't beat yourself up over all the mistakes, you know, we've, we've had. Several.And I can't tell you how many million dollar mistakes where you look back. And you're like, man, I, you know, I could have that kind of money sitting in the bank and it's, you have to worry about adjusting to those failures and learning from them and moving forward, then dwelling on, you know, or, or being even afraid to change.There's so many business owners they're just afraid to make change. We make change really quickly. You know, when we see, uh, when we see a thing not going right. Forget, everything else we're changing right now. We're gonna pivot. We're going to change the process. We're going to change the approach, whatever the thing may be.Um, so that's, to me, that's the challenge of a young business owner. You don't know anything you learn every year. You make mistakes, you repeat, and then someday 40, 50 years [00:28:00] from now, we'll think maybe we've got it figured out. So that's the first thing. The second thing is with all these young people. I, I truly believe that passion.And what you do is the most important quality. You guys probably know a lot of really smart people or a lot of really talented people that just don't have passion and they don't go anywhere. I'd rather have the passionate 26 year old guy who is learning and we're paying for some of his mistakes while he learns.I probably have that guy that works 80 hours a week to try to figure out and master his craft. Then the 50 year old guy, who's learned it all, but has no passion, you know, because again, for me, it's not, this is not about money. Like if I was trying to maximize profit. Sure. Maybe you have a bunch of non-passionate people and everything's mundane that doesn't excite me.You know, what excites me is seeing people develop. And, uh, I, it excites me for me to develop. Now we do have a lot older people. I'm not going to say, you know, older people throw them away. But our older people are on fire like Paul and I don't even know how Paul is. He's our chief commercial officer. I think he's 60.Maybe the dude runs around here faster than the young guys, you know, JJ, one of our sales guys, one of our op ops and sales guys. He's, he's probably, you know, 55 or 60. I don't know, maybe I'm off, but he's got the gray beard, not much hair. Best dude on the planet. Super passionate. You know, so for me, it's not even an age thing.I don't discriminate with age. I discriminate whether you're passionate or not. That's just how I think about it. Michael Moore: Keaton, you can't judge age by the, uh, gray beard and the losing hair. I mean, I'm only 43. Like where am I going Bob Wierema: from here? Keaton Turner: There's plenty of gray coming in. And, and honestly I have told, I've told several people, I am going to get a, just for men gray kit, because I've lost contracts.Cause I don't have enough gray hair. That's a true story. [00:30:00] That's the truth. That's the other tough part about being a young business guy? Bob Wierema: No, that's what, that's what I was going to ask. I mean, you're, you're sitting down in the room and especially in like the industry you're in, right? Like it's a very much an Keaton Turner: older industry.Bob Wierema: And here, here comes Pete, this young guy, right. Walking in. I mean, I can only imagine some of the meetings you've had with that.Keaton Turner: Not, it's not so much more to these days because we built an awesome brand and we've done a lot of work. We've done a lot of really good things. And so I try to stay out of the spotlight as much as I can. You know, if you follow any of our content, some of the podcasts and stuff, you see me, but I'm not that I'm not the focus.I'm not the mascot. But two years ago we had a massive contract. It would have been our biggest at that time. And we were the best proposal we were. We were the cheapest. We were the best service, everything. Everything was perfect. The board said no, because they knew how young I was. And I saw a picture of me and they were like, this guy looks like he's 18 years old.You know, we can't trust, we can't trust him and his company with this massive opportunity. Fast forward. We won that same opportunity. They gave it to someone else two years ago. They kicked those people out. Our company wanted this year just a few months ago. So I think you just got to persevere. I trust me, I'm getting plenty of gray.It will come. And I'm plenty. I, I think I'm too young to have all this gray hair already, but you know, that's, it's definitely a challenge getting people to say yes to a young person. It's just a challenge. A Michael Moore: question I had around that was you talked about, there are some, some older, more seasoned people in your organization, but their energy level.Is as high or higher than, than the rest of the workforce. Is it, uh, is it a two way street feed, meaning the younger people are feeding off them and they're feeding off the younger people? Or do you really just think they're [00:32:00] getting that energy because they're so passionate about what they do or just talk us through that.Keaton Turner: Uh, it's to me, it's a DNA thing. Those people have a DNA to be passionate. We just, we, I wouldn't say just a few months back, we had some, some folks on staff here in the office who were the most talented young guys in their twenties and thirties, the most talented, like, if, if you saw their resume, You would think these guys are a no brainer for this company?Uh, they look the part, they had the experience, they had the education. I mean, everything, they had everything they did not have the passion and they're no longer here. And so for me, it's just a DNA thing. I mean, I think that, you know, I wasn't taught how to be passionate. It's, you know, I just, it's the way I am.Some of our people here in the office and I, I don't think you need every single role. To be someone who's passionate, right? Like if you have an analyst, for example, maybe they're not passionate about mining, but they're passionate about numbers. You know, you've got an it guy, the it guy, he could care less about our equipment.He doesn't care about the fancy pictures or Instagram or any of that. He cares about I'm going to go problem, solve computer stuff today. Uh, so I, you know, I don't want it to seem like every single role, every single person has to just be on fire. I think that's unrealistic. But I think there are some critical roles where passion is the number one ingredient.And I think that it's just a DNA thing. Bob Wierema: How do you continuously keep that going as you guys continue to grow? Keaton Turner: Uh, I think getting people to buy in to the vision of, of where we can go, I I've said this several times over the last six months or a year, I think what we're doing, we've got a big enough opportunity that someday, hopefully soon, hopefully later, rather than sooner, but someday this thing gets bigger than what I can manage.I don't [00:34:00] think I'm equipped to be the CEO of a huge company. Right. I, I think my talents top out somewhere. And so by saying that, what I'm really saying is we have a humongous opportunity as a company. If people can see that, you know, the number, the number 12 guy at Facebook is doing okay. You know, the number 20 guy and Twitter or Instagram, like any of these companies, right?Salesforce, for example, the 50th guy in line at Salesforce probably didn't have to worry about too much. And so, you know, I want people to realize we are three and a half years in business. You know, we, we are, we are doing things we should not be allowed to do. We have, uh, we have a hundred plus million dollar proposal going out of our office at the end of the day to day that shouldn't even be a thing.I want people to buy in to where this thing could go. And you know, to me, that's motivation enough. If, if you're, if you want to do something in life that is a rocket ship ride, like this is a great opportunity to do that. And you know, if, if that's not what you want, that's okay too. Maybe you do your three or four years here.Get some really cool experience and go somewhere else. Um, you know, this is a little less fast paced or crazy or whatever, but that's, that's what I want. And that's what our core group of people here have signed up for. They, they want the rocket ship ride. Michael Moore: He knew Bob and I talked to a lot of, of business leaders and entrepreneurs.I mean, at 27 to already understand that your vision, what you're creating now could get bigger than what. Maybe your skill set or just what you want to do is insane insight. So, I mean, if I'm sitting there as part of your team, I'm thinking, you know, I believe in this guy because he has the ability to look inward and say, You know, here are my strengths.I'm bringing those to the table, but there might be a [00:36:00] certain time when somebody else needs to help me. That's that is awesome. Keaton Turner: Well, I can tell you that, you know, it comes, it doesn't even come from a place of humility. It comes from a place of practicality, you know, Twitter force, their CEO, the founder, you know, he, he wasn't the right fit at, at, at a certain stage.He wasn't the right fit. And I just know. That my abilities and my education and my experience only take us so far. And so if I'm the, if I'm the limiting factor on the opportunity that this company has, that's a big problem, right? Like I will gladly step aside and watch someone else do what I'm not able to do.A buddy of mine, the guy, the guy was just telling you about the 10,000 employees. I compare myself to that guy and his abilities. It's night and day. You know, and I wish, you know, maybe, maybe 10 years from now, the story is different and I can, I can feel confident that I can go do 10,000 employees.Well, I can't, I can't sit here and lie about that today. So, you know, I, I want the brand and the logo to go where it can go first, me personally, um, you know, I'll be all right. I, you know, I can sell baseball cards or whatever. Um, but I, I just, I want to be super practical. And that goes back to the getting rid of your best buddies.You know, you just, if you want to go where the company can go and I, you guys know a ton of small business owners. That could take their thing and turn it into something unreal. Right? Problem is they're the, they're the limiting factor and they don't want it to go above them. They want the control, they want the ego thing.They want to be the guy. You know, I love that too. Don't get me wrong. I got an ego and I'd love to be the guy. But if everyone around you is looking at you, like, man, you're not the guy get out of the way you got to get out of the way, Michael Moore: but you're right. I mean a lot of the, to their credit, right? It's their company.But a lot of the small business owners becomes a lifestyle business. Right. And it supports their [00:38:00] lifestyle and that's good enough, not, not really wanting to take that next step or that next risk of where they could take it. If, if they did the inward looking that you do, you know, Keaton, you're running a massive mining company.I mean, Some people, some people say the insurance industry is the second oldest profession, but maybe mining's the third, like it's been around forever, but you're bringing this, this social media, YouTube channel podcast pumped, like, can we just kind of go down that rabbit hole of you're changing an industry that's thousands of years old.Keaton Turner: Yeah. And, and honestly, guys to me, It's not even the technology, right? Like people see what we're doing on Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn or YouTube. And they're like, wow, they're using all this technology in such a cool way. All we're really doing this, the real secret behind it is. We're just exposing the people that have been doing this work for thousands of years.Right? Like if people, if people in the eighties had TV shows about minors, It would have been awesome content. Right. And I think one of the reasons why we've had early success. Is, we're just peeling the curtain back and we're showing everyone, this is what happens in mining. You get kicked in the balls, you have massive wins and massive losses.You know, you've got Bette and Bobby and they're fighting and things are bad. And then they love you. Like, we're just telling the stories and, and, and it's, you know, it's almost like our own TV show and people resonate with it. Cause we're real, you know, we. We have over-hyped ourselves and we have sugarcoated things in the past.I hate it. I want to be real good or bad. That's why the keeping up with Kardashians went for 20 years, right? Like you're getting a real look at what their crazy family goes through. I want the same thing for mining. You know, people are so scared to show [00:40:00] their haul truck flipped over. We had one catch on fire and burn to the ground.That's real stuff, man. That happens the biggest mining companies in the world. Have fatalities, haul truck burnt on fire. They have people doing idiotic things. We're no different. We're just, we're just showing it. Michael Moore: No that, I mean, that's, that's just phenomenal perspective because whether it's the mining industry or the energy industry, I mean, you mentioned, uh, Salesforce, you know, it just replaced Exxon on the Dow Jones, right?Like that's an absolute old economy versus new economy example right there. And then you've got like this investor sentiment around, you know, ESG. And your approach to all of that is like, we're just going to showcase all of it. Like, how did you, how did you say. You know, the kimonos open, walk in, check it out.Keaton Turner: Yeah. Well, I'm a, uh, I'm a consumer of content. So I love, like I tell people I'm not a mining guy. I'm not even really a business guy. What I do well is marketing and I love attention. Uh, and I don't even want to be the center of attention, but I love to think about like, where is the tension going and where are people spending their time?Is, they're not looking at, you know, Pitt and quarterly magazines anymore. And I love pit and Corey, but kids are on Instagram, right? Like you guys, you guys are doing a podcast, you know, guys, your age five years ago, weren't doing podcasts, you know? And so I don't know. I just, I want. I want people to see mining, where they consume content.If we were just doing this, you know, on certain mining channels or just focused on mining people, we would be missing 95% of the people that consume our stuff. And so I, you know, I, I'm a big fan of real marketing. I'm a big fan of getting people's attention. And you, and we kind of have a little bit of a cheat or a hack to it because the equipment is [00:42:00] so big and so cool.Everyone just loves it. Right? Like if we were an insurance, I'm trying to think how I can make insurance sexy. You know, like there are people that do it. What we say is we want to make mining sexy again. And so that's what we're focused on that. And our, some of our clients love it. Some of our clients hate it.Right. They want to say a secret. They have enough environmentalist after them that, you know, they don't, they want their stuff exposed. Uh, but you know, we have a ton of fun lighting up. What I think is one of the coolest industries, the planet, one of the oldest industries on the planet, like it's, it should get a ton of recognition and people should know all the environmentalist's that are driving their Prius' around or their Teslas that are against mining.That car, every single material and it, besides the leather on the seats was Keith to my mind, you know? And so I just, you know, I think there's a ton of education we can do someday just to the general public, but you gotta get their attention first. And that's what we're super focused on is we need to get everyone's attention and we're doing pretty good at it.I think there's a ton more we can do. And we're making some big changes currently with how we do it. So yeah, a lot of, a lot of fun stuff coming up. Bob Wierema: Yeah. I just think about like what you said about getting attention. I mean, that's how we are trying to draw into you, right? I mean, would we have come across you guys without that?Probably not maybe, but I got to imagine too. It's probably drawn for you guys from an employee standpoint, a lot of diverse backgrounds too, that makes a company different. Is that, is that accurate at all? Keaton Turner: Yeah. So we've hired, we've hired a person from all 50 States. We get the number changes a little bit, but it's actually going up.We just, a few days ago, we were getting 26 applications a day. That number, as you get into winter time, it goes up to closer to 50 applications a day just through the people being displaced through the seasonality type stuff. But I mean to think about getting 20 [00:44:00] people apply to your company a day. The, the real issue in our industry is people, right?Like most of the people we service, they can't get anyone to apply to their company. We have, we have 2000 people backlog that if we said you're hired tomorrow, they will be ready to work tomorrow. So 2000 people's a lot. And I'm sure that number goes up and down. If someone finds a job, whatever, but to me, how we win.Get everyone's attention and get all the people and, and, you know, that's what we're focused on. And obviously they gotta be good people that, you know, they got to know something or have some sort of skill or talent or, you know, passion, whatever. Uh, I always say my biggest mistakes are people mistakes, um, without a doubt.So, uh, you know, to me, that's, that's, that's how I'm thinking about our industry over the next 20 years. The people problem becomes an even bigger problem. The average age of the minor in our industry is 52 years old. The average age of our employees is 28 years old. So we're yeah. We're setting ourselves up for the next 30 years.Not, not just the next two or three years. Cause it's, there is a lot of pain. I don't think I've ever said this. There is a lot of pain and learning and a lot of expense that comes with building a company around 28 year old people. You just, there's just a ton, you know, they don't have the experience. You know, we had, we had a kid super talented 20 year old kid rip the blade off of a dozer.You know, that's a, that's a five or $10,000 mistake. You know, if that guy was 52 and had 30 years in the industry, he probably wouldn't have done that. You know? Cause he did that 20 years ago, but I don't know for me, we're making the investment now in our workforce and our marketing and our brand awareness.We, you know, we want to be positioned for this people game. Yeah. Bob Wierema: Coming out of that, what's, what's one of the biggest [00:46:00] challenges you have. I mean, you talked about some of these little mistakes and are you, are you pissing people off in the industry with what you guys are going about things? I mean, do you have some somatomedin out there?Keaton Turner: Yeah. What I would say is we're pissing all the right people off. Bob Wierema: I love it. Keaton Turner: Can you explain? Cause there's some people that listen that, and they're the ones that are pissed off saying, Oh, that's wild. Uh, there are companies we compete against. Who are just legit companies. Right. They, you know, uh, the Kiewit Ledcor, H like the big companies who do things, right when Ledcor or Kiewit or someone like that sees us on a bid list.I don't think they get super pissed off. I think they know that we're professional. We have the right values. We're not, we're not the scabs of the industry. They're just going to go after the lowest price. Like, you know, there are people out there that we know when we see them on a bid list or an opportunity.There's just no reason for us to go any further because they're the bottom feeders. They do things, the costs, they nickel and dime the clients. It's just a terrible way to do business. In my opinion. But we're pissing those people off, right? Because you know, what we do is we try to hire good people. We try to develop our team.Uh, you know, one of our values and our mission statement is, is make life better in the mining industry. Well, if you get, if you get a contract, let's say it's for 50 million bucks and your cost is 50 million bucks to do it. You make no money. Eventually you got to hit the client with change orders and nickel and dime me for this and that to go make some money.That's not making life better for anybody that's making life worse. So I think, I think all the right people are getting pissed off. The people that are rooting for us are the companies that have tried to make some changes in this industry for a while. Michael Moore: Kayden, you mentioned like Elon Musk and electric cars.And I mean, from a mining perspective, like you said, everything, but the leather seats, um, I mean, do you [00:48:00] see that industry and what's needed for the batteries as an expansion opportunity for you guys globally? Or how does that play into your business strategy? Keaton Turner: Yeah. So there was a saying, uh, if it's not farmed, it's mine.And you know, as you see the world population continue to grow, common sense would tell you you're going to have to mine more natural materials, whether it be, you know, stuff for coal, that's not, you know, coal is not happening much here in the States anymore, due to a lot of reasons, but you know, lithium, I mean, there, there are you, you could, there's a list of minerals and materials and metals.That our government puts out every year and you can see that list and how much we import from other countries. Right. We have a lot of those right here. It could be self-sufficient, you know, and, and people feel a lot of it, different ways that I'm not going to get it, all the politics, environmentalist and all that.But common sense would tell you, as the population grows, the mining industry grows. You know, you just mean the farming industry. Like the more people, the more food. You know, the more people, the more roads, the more cars, more, whatever buildings. Uh, so yeah, there's a, I think it's one of those industries where on a global scale, it's never going to slow down.And, you know, we, we get asked all the time to come to different countries, uh, Canada, Mexico, South America. We're going to figure out our business here in the States first, you know, three and a half years in. I'm not, I'm not super ambitious to go to like Africa. Um, but yeah, I mean the goal someday is to make an impact beyond just the U S soil here.Michael Moore: Keaton being down here in Texas and the whole mining of, of sand for the fracking industry, you know, started up more Wisconsin and other areas too, but for a variety of reasons, um, mostly transportation, [00:50:00] uh, the end basin sand got a lot more affordable down here and. Uh, in, in my backyard, outside of Fort worth.And then certainly out in West Texas, sand mines have popped up everywhere. Uh, and you know, so much sand was produced. Then there was a pricing issue and a margin issue. Do you guys have any exposure there? And if so, or if not, just, what are your thoughts on the mining industry? Is, is it results to the sand?Keaton Turner: Well, thank God. We didn't have any frack sand contracts. Um, we were fortunate enough to lose. We quoted it, hold on a frac sand stuff over the last two or three years, we lost all of it because the pricing was just so cheap. And we had safeguarded a little, I don't want to, I don't want to act like we're geniuses and predicted the crash, you know, but anytime you get into a commodity.That ebbs and flows, you know, goal, right? Like, okay. We can go heavily invest in gold right now. Well, what happens in 1224, 36 months? Is it come way back down? You know? So, like I said, we've got a lot of smart people around here that are thinking about risk and thinking about markets and those sorts of things.So when we weren't in frack at all, I think we did one frack sand project. And, um, I'm, I'm remembering now we have one frack sand project. They almost a million dollars and they're probably going to file bankruptcy and we're going to maybe kiss most that million dollars goodbye, but that could have been $50 million, right?Like that could have been a whole lot where, and there's companies that we compete with that I know are in a bad way due to their heavily investment practicing. But I think if you're doing business for the right companies, which is one of the reasons why we love building materials, aggregates, cement, um, industrial sand stuff, not used for fracking, we're always going to be building roads.We're always going to be building bridges. You know, uh, the [00:52:00] housing market and commercial construction market comes up and down. But you know, you look at those materials versus some real volatile stuff. Like oil and gas or gold, uh, copper, copper is taking a beating this year, iron, or you just got to know the game, your plan, and you got to know your risks going into it.Bob Wierema: You shared a lot about Turner mining. Thank you for that. And you've shared a lot about some of the trials and tribulations you've gone through when it comes down to Keaton as the person, how do you continuously work on yourself? Both, you know, whether it's personally professionally to get better. Keaton Turner: Uh, well, I think the real answer is I don't always continuously work on myself.Uh, I'm not, you know, I'm not going to sit here and lie to you and tell you, I get up at five in the morning every morning and read, you know, business journals and stuff. There are times where sure. That's the case, right? Like I, you know, I'm just like any other human I to get motivated in chunks. I may have a three month chunk where I'm super motivated and I'm on fire to go do X, Y, or Z.Uh, I had a chunk right in the middle of COVID where I didn't want to do anything. Um, mentally out of it fogged up like no desire to work out or no desire to improve anything. And so, you know, I think it comes and goes, but I think I listened to a guy, Andy, for Cielo, someone he's on Instagram. He, you know, he runs a big supplement company.Uh, he's someone that's super motivating. And he said the other day, You're either getting better and you're growing as a human or you're getting worse and you're dying. You know, it's one of the reasons why as Americans, you look at most, most Americans at 55, 60 years old they're way overweight and unhealthy.Whereas 20 years old, they were healthy, right? So slowly they've died and slowly they've gotten worse as they've gotten older. And that really just. That hit me right in the mouth because I'm like, man, the last few months, you know, I've, I've not been getting better. [00:54:00] So I've, I've been getting worse, stuff like that.If you can feed your mind with the right thing, which I don't always do. Uh, but if you can feed your mind with people that are improving and people that want to get better and want to take big swings. Everything we do here as a business, we are, we are swinging for the fences. Like, like we, we are just not big fans of bumming one out there just to, you know, get on base.We'd rather swing for the fences and strike out and try again, Michael Moore: you know, Reggie Jackson strike Keaton Turner: out a lot. I'm sure. Michael Moore: Yeah. I mean more than anybody and look how many home runs he hit Bob Wierema: getting uncomfortable every day. You know, Michael, we talk about that all the time and, you know, finding a way to get yourself uncomfortable and get out of that comfort zone.He, one of the things we like to ask is, you know, you have your, your passions in life. And when we ask people, you know, we used to ask and they'd say number one. Well, my, of course my family and my friends and number two, maybe his work. So talk about. Three and four. And what are some of those other things that you keep front and center in your life that keep you keep you, uh, you know, you mentioned fishing and hunting and I don't know.I mean, what are they, where, where do you get some of that passion from Keaton Turner: great question. Mine change all the time. Right? I, in the spring, I can't wait to go fishing. By middle of the summer, I've fished plenty. I'm tired of, Bob Wierema: I don't want to fish, Keaton Turner: you know, um, you know, I'm one of those guys that I'll buy four or five guns and do the gun thing for a while.And I'm like, man, I'm over guns. Like I want to get into whatever the thing is, you know, buy a motorcycle. So I am a sporadic diabolical person, right. Whatever my mind is into. And sometimes it's end to the business. Sometimes I want to focus on the business. I'm going to work 120 hours. I'm going to pour into people sometimes and it goes to something completely away from the business.And I actually might take away what I'm doing at the business. So, like I said, I love hunting. I love fishing. I love guns. I love dirt [00:56:00] bikes. Um, I love building people, uh, but I get tired of all of it at some point. So I just, I just try to keep it fresh. I, you know, Bob Wierema: A good stable of different things that keep you interested knows that.That's great. Keaton Turner: Why do you do many hobbies? Bob Wierema: You mentioned that Michael Moore: too, because like I was up in Bob Wierema: Northern Michigan Muskie fishing the other day and we've been fishing, you know, all summer Keaton Turner: and Bob Wierema: we pulled the boat in and I'm like, I'm done. I've had enough. You know, like we've been doing this it's time to move on to something different.And I think my fiancé's very happy that that time has come for me. Sure. But hunting seasons around the corner. So the, you know, the eyes had shifted elsewhere. Keaton Turner: Yeah. They don't realize you, you spend more time in the woods hunting than you do on the boat. Fishing, not a great trade-off for them, Bob Wierema: but. You have a, I'm like, I'm a very outgoing person.Social want to be out, want to be docking to people. And she goes, how do you sit and hunt? And no, one's around. I'm like, because that's my time. It's fantastic. Cause some of the best time I have Michael Moore: no, you know, I mean, the reason that they're seasons is a lot more for like the population control of. The particular animal or waterfowl or whatever we're talking about.Um, but I also think it's for us. I mean, if I could hunt year round, it wouldn't be as special is when it comes back around again, it just feels like that that changing of the tides, the, you know, the leaves are changing and you get all fired up about it. Again, one thing I wanted to ask, just because I think your mind's a lot like Bob and I's where it just, it it's.It's the reason that we can handle a whole lot of things going on at once. As you can bounce from meeting to meeting to strategy to this proposal, this proposal we're going after this. But I think another reason that the Bob and I are effective, what we do, I don't want to get your insight on this is the ability when you have to, to slow that down and just narrowly focus [00:58:00] everything on this one thing.And like everything else slows down. Do you have that? That process when you really got to zero in on something? Keaton Turner: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, my phone is a great example, you know, it's just a million notifications and I don't, my phone doesn't ring it. Doesn't vibrate. Doesn't do anything. I leave it off all the time.Um, when I'm in a meeting, my mind is very easily distracted. Right. I, I probably have add or something. I don't know. But when I'm in a meeting that I'm passionate about, whether it's a proposal or meeting with the person that we're trying to improve, or coach or mentor or whatever, like, I want to be super conscious of focusing on that thing a hundred percent.Uh, I do really well at that, that sometimes the things that I'm less passionate about, I'll notice myself in a meeting on my phone, scrolling through emails. Like if it's something I'm just like, add this. This is not this doesn't like light me on fire. I'm not going to add a ton of value in this conversation.There's I mean, just the other day, there was an important meeting happening here and we had some visitors in the office and. 15 minutes into an hour long meeting. I realized I'm not going to add any value here. My time is better spent somewhere. I just got up and walked out and I apologize later and I'm like, Hey guys, don't take it the wrong way and not being rude.I'm just, I'm not going to add value to that. So, yeah, I'm my time. I've had to learn how to manage it way differently than I did three years ago. Uh, especially with kids, I'm hoping my wife doesn't divorce me. So I got to pay attention to that. Like there's, there's, you know, you gotta be very conscious about time and it's something that I always underestimated.And so now I live and die by my calendar. Uh, I have appointments for everything I say no to almost everything. Um, social stuff, good things are okay to say no to. And it took me several years to learn how to do that. Um, but yeah, I just, I want to be intentional when I'm sitting [01:00:00] somewhere or talking to someone or having a meeting like this, there's a million things going on around here, like said there's a massive proposal going out just a few hours.I'm not even thinking about it. I'm with I'm with you guys. So that's, I try to do that. I'm not always great at it though. Well, we appreciate you saying Bob Wierema: yes to us because we've definitely enjoyed the conversation. Keaton Turner: Yeah, I have to. I love it. Michael Moore: You know, just in thinking about coming on this show, is there, is there anything that you had wanted to hit on that we haven't.Keaton Turner: No, I don't think so. I mean, my message is pretty similar across all of these that I do, right. Life is short, go have fun and be happy. Like don't, don't put your focus on the wrong thing, which is so easy to do, you know, especially with Instagram, you know, you, everybody wants the new truck or the new car or the new house or whatever.Like, you know, there's so much good in the world. I think that's the one thing I would touch on. Like everyone, especially in an election year, everyone is so divided. Like, man, there is a lot of good going on, amidst all the riots, amidst this COVID thing. There is a ton of good, there's a ton of opportunity.People just need to think about that. Michael Moore: That was great. That was awesome. So you kind of, you've teed up my question. You've answered part of it, but I want to direct it more just towards, towards Keaton and you, you can, you know, you can use it to talk about the company and the culture again as well. But this is the question that we ask.You've heard the saying growing up, it's not what you know, it's who, you know, But we like to say, it's not who, you know, it's who knows you. So if you think about your podcast, your YouTube channel, this podcast, what do you want people to know about Keaton? Keaton Turner: Yeah, that's a great question. I, you know, for me, I want them to know that amidst all the chaos.I, I truly have good intentions to be a good human being. [01:02:00] Um, I, my goal is to impact as many people in a positive way as I can. Uh, you know, we were about $300,000 in revenue per employee. So if you think about it, man, someday, if I have 10,000 employees, that's a lot of revenue, right. That's not even a thing on my radar.I won 10,000 so that I can impact 10,000 families in a, in a way that maybe they wouldn't have been impacted. Otherwise it's a huge goal, right? It's not easy to be different in an age old industry and still impact people in a positive way every day. Don't get me wrong. We screw up a lot, but man, I just, I want to bring more good to the world.Just like car. I'm going a second ago. About how much good is it going on out there? I want to bring more good to the world then, while people are hearing or seeing, you know, I want our content to be happy. I want our employees to be smiling, not just for the camera when it's on them, but like every day I want you to be happy and fun and, you know, enjoying life.Um, that S that's what I want people to get out of what we're doing. Bob Wierema: Okay. Now I'm going to say one thing that I don't want to hear from you Keaton Turner: anymore. And it Bob Wierema: stopped saying you're not that smart of a guy because today's conversation was awesome. You got Keaton Turner: an Bob Wierema: absolutely infectious personality. I mean, your passion, the gratitude, the humility it shows.And that's exactly like, I can just tell that's why that company is thriving, that you're building and that. Well, you probably got people around you that are just running through walls for you. So keep it, man. Awesome. We appreciate the time. This has been a lot of fun. Michael Moore: Could not agree more. I think, uh, Bob and I are ready to get into the mining industryKeaton Turner: and come visit anytime we are hiring and you know what I'm going to do, I'm going to take that recording all those nice things you said, and I'm going to play it on. Repeat for people here. Bob Wierema: Don't Keaton Turner: forget it. You had your wife. That that's the real one, [01:04:00] right? That's Bob Wierema: the important one. This has been great.Thank

  Today, we're going to be talking about , early bird or a late night out is one more beneficial than the other  to be. Oh, it all depends. But everything else. I think it all depends on what you're trying to get accomplished. for me personally, I've always been a late night owls. I feel I get most of my. most of my work done better at night. I have more energy. At night cause. Usually at night, Just finished a workout. So I'm nice and energized and nice and focus. So that's usually a good time for me. Either read a book study son. learn something new, listen to different podcasts. Like I'm just in that zone at night. Yeah. No only , the only downside I would say about being late night, I was like, Pretty much everyone's asleep. So you can't contact people like that. You can't tell the content most people, if you need a certain thing, You gotta make sure they're up. Yeah. There's where an early bird has an advantage. Those people are getting up pretty soon. So you can write down what you need to say. That sort. Yeah, it depends on a person and I, For instance for me is I'm a late, I'm a late night hour, right? Okay. I'm actually both because in the daytime. I tend to take care of all those things that need to be taken care of as far as . Don't pride in my pressure, washing business. I'm taking care of that. I'm getting money. I'm trained on the daytime.  a lot of my assets and things I need to take care of during the daytime I take care of, but my intellectual, where did I have to do? It's at night? When that time hits, it's like a certain sound like when that sun goes down, is something about that time? Damn. I hit my intellectual juices start flowing. Typically starts flowing. You're like, what does, like, if we did a podcast in the morning time in comparison to when we did it at night, you see a huge difference in the person that I am. You know what I'm saying? Straight up at cuts in at nighttime. I processed a lot of stuff that I thought about doing a daytime and overnight that night, private right. Going it's like when I'm doing like, say I'm doing a car while I'm doing whatever, what outside pressure washing job and going at Anton. I'm literally thinking about the job, doing the job, but my mind is like off somewhere thinking about a theory or whatever. Like right now I'm reading this book, Carter. the history and origins of consciousness. And it talks about, the, how. I'm not gonna get it today. But it gets, it's a lot. It's a lot of theoretical things, but it's based off in reality, it talks about mankind is consciousness and how we grew as a conscious, nice. And how it went from, individuals to collect no vice versa. but I'm thinking about that and I'm like, how does that, how does it actually affect? I relate to my current relationships with people, but I'm thinking about that while I'm doing the job. And while I'm interacting with people, I'm constantly, it's a constant thing. But when I get home that night and I finally wind down and my being I'm sitting down, I'm taking notes about all the things that I thought about doing that day. You know what I'm saying? Big time to review. Oh, absolutely. whereas if you did the early bird nothing's happened yet, so you can't really well. I also, at that time, we'll read. All right. . And you're not, and you're drinking your dreams are like, it takes everything that you've learned. And then it puts it in a way to where you can actually absorb information. Right. So you dream and that's what basically drains. I've met four. By audit can be proxies, whatever have want to put it. But, then when you started to date, I started Dave, am. I started down for the podcast. You know what I'm saying? I started day I'll wake up and I read, so it'd be the same. Like I'm still absorbing information from the information I have prior, but I've worked better creatively at night. And I worked, I functioned better, during the daytime, but I can't do overnight works. Like when I work overnight. I have not as they get into it as I would be if it was daytime. Alright. So for me, it's a. I'm a combination of both. So I'm making money doing a day. I see that as making money and I make money at nighttime, but my nighttime money is different from my daytime. My daytime money is physical money. Data by nighttime money is, Creative for residual. Putting myself in a position to where like I might do. I created my business strategy at night. And then I implemented. In the daytime. So night is always preparation for the next day or the next month or the next year, I think from that perspective. So I'm thinking about my book. I'm like, all right, when I dropped his book right, I'm writing the book at night when I dropped the book. Okay. when it's time to drop, how do I present on create my strategy at nighttime implemented during the day? Yeah. Yeah. I think for me, my take on it when you go on with, but the early bird or what, the night owl. I'm really gonna have to stick with you. Like you got like I'm with the both,  I'll work with both of them because how I look at it. Is when I wake up early in the morning. I want to be able to knock out the biggest task that I need to do throughout the day. on whatever big tasks I need to get done. That's going to be one of the first things I need to get done, just to knock it off. The reason is, is because once I knock that out, then I could be able to, Coast my whole day now, where I can get this ball rolling. All right. I'll keep on building up momentum, cause if I'm I get a big victory starting out. at the beginning. I'm able to work my way through having multiple victories throughout the whole day,  and. I always say I'm a night owl as well. just because I'm one of those people, my mind is one of those that keeps on running. . And I always have stuff to think on where I I had already did on that day. I think about all my wins are all my losses that I had, made. what can I learn from it? those are the stuff that I think out at night. it's crazy because my mind is, I feel like online is really more active at night than it is in the morning. Yeah. So that's what keeps me up,  cause of how much is going on it running through my head. but. the morning is what really helps me to get my day going. I already know if I'm going to stop on a good foot or a bad foot about how, go ahead and accomplish my biggest tasks in that day. And so I just have to look at it from there. For me, I would presume. Much say, I can't really say I'm. The early bird at all, or really. Cause  like same with you guys. I do my best thinking my creative thinking at night. So I set everything up to pretty much do everything at night. So all my leisurely stuff and, Stuff to make sure I'm nice and relax for right. I have balance in my life. I do in the morning. So I do anything if I want to watch, like the quick, funny show, I do that in the morning. I lived some dope. Of funny podcast or radio show up in the morning. I listen to all. I listen to. Do anything with sports like sports talk shows I listen to in the morning as well on my way to work. And then by the time. is time to start work. I'm ready to go. I'm nice and calm. And usually it usually takes me over about.  But afternoon we're on noon. I'm like, I'm ready to go for the rest of the day. But if I don't, if I don't do those things early in the morning, like just to relax, if I try to do some heavy in the morning, It's normally doesn't it doesn't normally doesn't work out for me because personally for me, I'm still sleepy, but like I'm still not there. All in there. Yeah. I'm still like falling in all that. So I have to. Just do other things just to loosen myself up to make sure I'm. Can you can get the job done. Alright. Alright. So  for me, it's just I have to balance myself out in the morning. Yeah. Aside, keep getting yourself balanced out and knowing what do you, what your mood goes with? Because I think for a lot of people, their mood, It kind of fluctuates throughout the day. where they're feeling really low in the morning. And then it kind of ANSA. And then they had that crash and they got Anthem self up a little bit and then peaks out at night. You know what I'm saying? And so it really depends on what are you doing to  and keep yourself moving, during, throughout the day, what the help  is getting your scheduled already planned out. if you have a schedule that's already planned out in front of you. and you know what, you're going to go ahead and do, I would say to wake up early in the morning. And don't fall asleep until everything is done. You know what I mean? And so that's what would help you keep yourself, sustainable. throughout the whole day. making sure everything off your list. Get to accomplish, Yeah, for me, I'd have this. I would also have to schedule that thing. A schedule. My day at night. Cause I guess. Earlier. It was just, I just think the best at night. I also utilize my creativity more at night. So like I can try different some of my creative ideas. It was like, since I'm a personal trainer, like if I want to try a new exercise is best for me to try that night while my creative juices are flowing four, by the time morning comes around, I can see what worked best for me and how I can utilize it to help my clients. And. Different. ways that they could respond to it. Oh, I would say. Since I get the best creativity at night. And for anyone that is also a night owl that gets their creativity at night, I think. you gotta know yourself. You gotta. You gotta learn like different what time of day that you worked best that, and just maximize it to the best of your ability. All right. All right. I agree. Me too.    the. I'll be the topic is like, what are we going to be what's most useful, or we think , is more successful is either staying early in the morning or late at night. There is no wrong or right answer to it. As long as you're using your potential to your fullest, do the waking hours that you are up, you do have some benefits in the morning of where there's more people up, all. the businesses , are up and running. I , we design what is design to be built as night creatures. We were not turning for a very long time. In the beginning of human history will not turn. And then now it was transitioned over to being, Dan's,  for a very long time. That's how we survive. We will survive at nighttime. We hunted at night, we lived in, Oh no, we didn't have any night. We hunted in the morning time, but we slept, we didn't really sleep at night time. What's the second most society pushes more of the early bird. Yeah, exactly. they don't even say the flu expression. They always say the early bird gets the worm, but the full expression is early. Bird gets the worm. Second mouse gets the cheese. Thanks. It's actually a fax, but Mike. Just think about it at night, we're pushed to be early birds. Yeah. By the way that society is structured now, because we have so many, we're in such a comfort zone to where animals aren't coming to kill him, trying to kill us at nighttime. Nice. We can actually go out in the daytime and we're not being hunted by these huge animals. We're able to actually be productive during the daytime because we're in big cities now. Aware, even smaller cities. Like we have technology that if an animal does come with one point, that same manner, but we didn't have that same knowledge. You would kill us and eat us. Now we don't have that issue anymore. So to go in and figure out whether or not we're just designed to be early, birds were designed to work in the morning time. And then put those. I have to work at night. It's actually strange to do it now. When you like those who can't do overnight, it destroys our body. not. It doesn't show you by, but it throws off your, Katie. Yeah. Arcadian rhythm. There you go. It throws it out. So your body's not regenerating their witness supposed to cause any time that you shouldn't be sleeping. You're working in the time that you should be working at your bodies. You see you work that you shouldn't be working. You designed to work now is, sleepy. . So technically those that are a night owl was even though we started out as my house. Is. Destructive for you to actually be on doing those signs. It's more distracting to see your body as it is in which I was surprised that y'all, didn't go off to this notion. I consider them both, the personal fitness, right? You like, that would be the notion that I would take on , okay, it's better to work in the daytime. It is it's not really healthy to be up late night next. Cause during that time, that's when the owner. Because personally for me, I've just. Yeah, I don't even think about. Your body has gotten to the point where you're able to do that. it's now it's wired that way. Cause you've done it so much. The way it's wired. But even still does that to like health wise, is that health healthy? So do it for now. It, is it really healthy tonight? B O O. As long as he's still getting asleep at the end of the day. It didn't sleep in there. As long as it's still going through your sleep. So I blew your friend. It's so easy. So go in the daytime, like it. Your body doesn't. I don't like the chemicals in your body to release there's. There's something that happens inside of your brain. The app is only at nighttime. Oh melatonin. So in the daytime and then its own, isn't the same thing, unless you like black out everything and just thinks that your mind thinks that it's night. You can trick your body into believing that it's not tonight, right? That's crazy. I just, I don't know. Is it better? Did the question that you got access isn't really better. If I showed you abide by the same things that society has set up for you is structured for you to be able to get up in the morning, go to work and be productive, and then go home at nighttime and go to sleep around a certain time to get back up in the morning and do the same thing to repeat the same. Thanks is because society is structured like that. Are you defiance societies, rules and regulations by doing it? doing the opposite of what it tells you to do. I wouldn't think so. Like I said, as long as you're getting what you need to get done.  I think  the point of what me and private hits is that the sleep schedule. It's just not as long as you get your sleep done. Hello? Yeah, it's only a set schedule and you stick to it. And what are you going to say? Send me the schedule and you still have to do it every day. How often does it happen  to what you abide by that set sleeping schedule? Yeah. becomes the harmful for you. So then again, if that's the case, then it kinda goes back to my point of, is it more destructive to do at night signing them? Cause I know for me. asks me, I take care of business, but then there's a certain point Dodge's like I'm going to nap. I'd say NAFLD 31 years old and I take naps. Maybe I'm 32 now. Yeah, I'm 32 now. So it's true. What they say about that night after you hit a certain age and I, it doesn't matter anymore. What age you are. Cause you don't really remember. nah, I just told, I want a couple of podcasts. You'll see. Prior to this, I was like, I'm 33 now. Yeah, but the question that I have to ask is, does it do that. And is it is, is it healthier to just abide by the laws of society? The way it is structured now? Is it healthier for you? Is it more beneficial for you to. To be a. That's what, that's why I said earlier, just experiment with a time that works for you. You just got to understand what works best for you. And if you can't do Like you say, you personally say you can't do overnight. If for a fact you can't do overnight. Don't do overnight. Yeah.  I've done it and I was successful at it, but I know where. That for me. It was not for somebody else if they do overnight and they're not getting enough sleep, they're getting like three or four hours of sleep. Don't do overnight. Get a job where you. go to. Get enough sleep if you need to go to bed 10 o'clock to make sure you get enough sleep. You got a little bit at 10 o'clock. It's that simple. And for me, I can go to sleep at two o'clock. and wake up at night or eight o'clock and be perfectly fine. Not doing. I didn't have plenty of energy. I do it every day. There is not a data I'll wake up and rock eight, maybe nine o'clock. , regardless, like my sleeping in is eight and nine. O'clock. Yeah, oh man. I feel like I'm sleeping out date. Let's put me asleep. Yeah.  , really like honing in on whether or not the societal structure is that the right way to do it? Are we doing it the correct way? Talking about, daytime and nighttime. Should it be flipped because like you were saying, I have a lot more energy at night, right? Same amount of energy at night. It's like the abilities, the things that if I had work to do at nighttime about there was a way that I can do stuff at night, bro. I will probably be more productive if I worked at night time. if I did stuff at night, Like the same stuff that we do in the daytime. If I did that at nighttime for a few hours and I changed my holes, if I flipped it completely. Oh, my God. I'd probably be way more productive, . But I'm saying it's over here. overnight, most of the top entrepreneur, like the studies that they've shown is that the lean more towards the late night also. But then again, there's Elan Musk and he says he sleep in until 11 o'clock in the morning. Yeah. But he's also a genius. Did you know that the others aren't. No, I don't. I'm not saying that they're not geniuses. I'm saying that like the brain chemistry probably works a little bit different. , like what his. I did it,  he comes up, like he said, it's like, bro. I have so many ideas that come to me at all times. , it's always, it doesn't shut down, but I have to force myself to shut down. Alright. There's a lot of entrepreneurs. They're not like that. They just  they see. They see an opportunity. Boom. Alright. That's made that happen. And then I think they think a little bit into it, but not too much. Cause there's entrepreneurs that just symphony by businesses. Look at 'em learner, the form to figure out how to make profit off of big asset. Scripted DAS in. Nancy could have made money off it and ask people. That the entrepreneurs that are real estate agents and they do the same day, look at the house, figure out how to build it, send the people to build it. , it's not really that much. They just got capital to do what they got the mayor. How did I need to make it happen? So a lot of times, even though we think with entrepreneurs that they're thinking constantly in their building ideas constantly, that's not always true in every case. There's not all entrepreneurs are not the same are nowhere near the same. No, not at all, but like he was saying that he leaves, it leans more towards the night house because at nighttime, the juices are flowing. Yeah. dad is fat. I know for me, that is fact and Finn for most people that I know. that are entrepreneurs that are actually washed for meals that are actually out there doing anything. It's the same concept. It's , yeah, I'm up. Around this time. And how many times we even got on the phone and it was nice. , it's two o'clock in the morning. I call you. Hey, listen. Yeah, you can just say, I just noticed that the podcasts you've listened to it. You know what I'm saying? It drops a night for. Yeah. Noses. So it might've been twice. But still not performing. The point is that when I called you and stood up to yeah. Sure. I know why I'm an idiot. I don't even know. Tell me you were both. We're trying to figure out different ideas. Exactly, but it's, what's going on. Yeah, I don't know. I just think even with. Then that I would think it is possible for it to be disruptive. It can be destructive to be a night owl, but. then again, I guess you can say the same. Society just made it easier to be an early bird. Absolutely. that's I think that's the main thing. Nice   society made it.  Nine to five man. That's it. All we know is that nine to five. It's all of that early morning grind. Here's what's crazy about that though. I think about it. All right. Are you productive? If you want to notify, are you truly productive as far as for your life? Like it brings you some money. You're able to take care of your bills and things of that nature, if you're able to do that. But your productivity level at the job is just to keep that shit. Whatever you do at your job is to get that check for you for your life. That's that's what that leads to. But for the person that you're working for. Your productivity, brains them an entire lifestyle.    

Working hard has been known as the main pillar of success but is working hard truly all you need to be successful? A quick glance at professions that demand intense effort and long hours such as construction workers and busboys shows that there is no direct relationship between hard work and success. In other words almost all successful people are hardworking but not all hardworking individuals are successful.    In this solo edition of Beyond the Present podcast Daniel will shed light on the other equally as important pillar of smart work that allows you to do better things, do them in a better way, and do them with better people! If you want to work both hard and smart in whatever you do to obtain the best results and improve them over time then this program is for you!    Daniel's Social:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danmolgan/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Danmolgan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-molgan-41812352/   Pouya's Social: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pouyalj/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/pouyalj LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pouyalajevardi/   Episode Transcript: ----more----   SUMMARY KEYWORDS work, customer, construction worker, hard, hours, day, income, increase, money, people, smart, bad apples, life, arrive, simply, business, success, thinking, higher, job SPEAKERS Dan   Dan  00:14 Hello, and welcome to yet another episode of beyond the present podcast, the solo edition. My name is Daniel Molgan. And welcome to this show where we're going to talk about the paradigm of smart work versus hard work. You see, guys, unfortunately, a lot of the times when we talk about success, people are asking me So Dan, I want to be successful. So the only way of course is to work harder. And guess what, I completely agree. I believe that hard work is the essence of success in all areas of life and anybody you look around who are truly achieved and accomplished individuals, you kind of realize that they are real hard workers. But here's the truth are all people who are successful, hard working, I mean, does being hard working itself lead to success or those who aren't are successful, they tend to be hard because that's very, you know, different. For example, think about construction workers think about busboys, think about, I don't know, those who tend to work day and night, basically very little. And they're always working, let's say farmers or working on the field, let's say I know, as I mentioned earlier, like construction workers, so these individuals are hardworking, but they're not rich. So this clearly shows that a relationship between working hard and acquiring major success in life, while that's very, very important, but there's no direct relationship here. Because if we thought that big, you know, somehow being hard working makes you successful, then perhaps the only option you would have is to simply work harder at whatever you did. But the fact of the matter is that that is not the way to acquire you know, major wealth or success. So today we're gonna talk about the other elements of basically success which are not necessarily just about working hard, but rather It's about creating a lifestyle where you somehow tend to get higher and higher on the scale of income as well as profitability. While Of course, from any hard work individual. You see, whenever it comes to any area of life, whether it is I don't know, learning a new language, whether it is to lose weight and gain muscle, whether it is to start your own business, ultimately, there is always going to be an element of what we call sweat equity. That is you have to work hard at it. And that is always there. But the question is this, you can work hard at a task that is inferior, or you can work hard a task that is superior. And it's quite obvious that once you work hard at a superior task, this will yield higher results. So let me give an example here. Let's say you're a construction worker, and you work very hard to work 12 hours per day, at the end of the day, you're going to get your minimum wage, which is about let's say 15 bucks an hour, right? So after having worked all day long and have only slept, let's say I don't know, six hours. So you have have spent a tremendous amount of time working almost 18 hours. I mean, like, that's a lot, right? And at the end of the day, what you end up with is not a lot of money, right? However, what if you know you were a, let's say, Elan Musk, he also sometimes puts very long hours at work. But despite the fact that he might spend sometimes what I don't know 16 hours a day working 18 hours per day working, does that mean that he necessarily makes this amount of money as somebody who was a construction worker? Of course not? And the answer is because Ilan musk works on higher value tasks that will then allow him to yield better results. So in whatever you do, you should ask yourself, first of all, what is exactly my major, basically, path in life? What is exactly my major goal in life? What am I trying to accomplish and what is my main direction? Once you know that you can ask yourself All right, I have this skill. I have this ability. I know what to do with this and that and I wants to build a lifestyle surrounding, basically success in this regard. And then he asked yourself, so how can I increase the value of what I do? You see, working hard is very important, no doubt about it. But of course, if you want to work hard all the time, at some point, you're going to face with some resistance, you're gonna be faced with some difficult because there's only so much time that you can have per day, there's only so much energy that can actually put into your work. And because of all of these things, you generally find it very hard to sustain that level of, you know, very hard work for many years. Because if you do so, then you will what perhaps we'll face with other issues like health problems, like family issues, relationship problems, because at some point, you just simply don't have enough time to actually dedicate to your basically, you know, career or your studies or preparations or all of these things. So, because of this, as you somehow you know, get older and as you go up through the basically food chain You want to focus on not only working harder, but working smarter. Now what is exactly working smart. Working smart can be defined as doing things more efficiently, or working on things of higher values. So for example, let's say you wants to arrive to your destination that is a few, let's say 100 miles away, you have a few options. You can go on foot, you can use a bicycle, you can use a motorbike, you can use a car, or you can use a helicopter. Now all of these options are going to allow you to arrive at your destination, whether you move from this place or that place on foot or on a helicopter, you will arrive there. The question is how fast and at what cost? So perhaps if you want to go on foot, you don't need anything. You don't need any instrument any equipments just you know, start walking, and maybe after a few hours, you arrive there. But if you want to fly there on a helicopter now you need to actually invest in it in advance a helicopter and a pilot's To try to arrive there on time. So this is the paradigm of smart work, which is cost and benefit analysis of what you want to get done in your life, and then trying to create new ways of adding value to your time so that the same amount of hours and days and months and years do you put into a certain you know, activity will then be spent on another activity in order to give you the chance to actually work harder and get better results. So because of this, I want to now start off with challenging the listener with one simple question. From your point of view. What do you think is the best approach and the most important thing to do when it comes to improving the value of your time? Now there are very, you know, various options because the simplest way to increase your income, for example, is to work more hours at whatever job you're currently doing. That's okay. But what are the other ways by which you could probably increase your income while having the same amount of workload? The first option would be to increase whatever amount you charge, you know, per hour, that's one option. Option two is perhaps trying to create a new business, and then having other people work for you. So you free up the time so that there are more people working now this way, you will be spending the exact same amount of time at the office. But since it involves the work of many other employees, you will then have a chance to actually increase the overall profitability. The last one, of course, is to dramatically change, you know, the entire field that you work in and start doing new things and new activism might actually be of higher value. But whatever you do, what truly matters here is how can you start thinking in terms of working smart, and then hopefully, that'll allow you to actually focus your attention on you know, more valuable activities and actually do for yourself in order to you know, gain the most results. So having said that, now let's think of your life. As of now, you might say, well, then you're right. I totally want to just start working smart because I do not want to work hard. Well Now think about three types of individuals in the modern world, we have the one time who is extremely hardworking. We have one type who is extremely, you know, focused on, you know, working smart, but they just don't really want to put in the work. So they are a little bit lazy, perhaps or they have this, you know, dream of those listeners call it the Tim Ferriss style of four hour work, basically, what kind of person and then you have somebody who's going to work hard and smart, so who in the end is going to smoke all of them? I think the answer is obvious, right? So, because of this, I believe that an ideal approach is combining the two because unfortunately, those who tend to you know, look for shortcuts and easy ways of earning, you know, an income. Unfortunately, in most cases do not achieve that. In most cases, they actually find themselves stuck in situations where they simply don't have, you know, an opportunity to fully fathom what they want nor achieve big goals because you know, if you are, you know, working in a marketplace, you're obviously competing with other people in it. And if you want to focus on just working smart, and not trying to put in the effort, then what happens here is you simply fall behind those who do especially if they are also smart workers, right? So because of this right now, I want to ask you a question, ask yourself how much of my time that I put into my work, I put in terms of trying to increase the value of my basically income and my work? Because once you increase your value in the marketplace, of course, you can earn higher income? Secondly, am I really willing to work hard, because unfortunately, laziness is one of those issues that we all have to struggle with on a regular basis, because we want to somehow get the job done, but Well, I mean, there's just the SPN on TV and I want to watch the match and I kind of want to also, you know, hang out with my friends. So I mean, life is short man. So I believe in you know, creating and striking a balance between Working hard and working smart in order to achieve, you know, long term, basically professional goals in your career. So if you really want to make the most of your career, then you have no choice but to combine the two. That is smart work and hard work. So let's talk about both Actually, let's talk about implementing both strategies in your career from today in order to actually make the most of them. So ask yourself, how many hours per day, not per week, but per day understands. Those who are successful did not think of themselves as working, you know, per week. In our society, those who judge their work in terms of basically, minutes and hours are oftentimes the highest paid and the most accessible. And ironically, the least successful ones. Oftentimes they judge themselves in terms of year like how much do I make per year. So just imagine like, for example, a very highly successful surgeon thinks about how they shouldn't how much he makes per hour while Unfortunately, let's say a truck driver might think of how much he makes per year. So you want to first change your time perspective, focus on the minutes and hours instead of months and years. That's number one. And number two, ask yourself, How am I willing to increase, you know, both the amount of time that I work more minutes and hours per day, as well as the quality of those hours, because that's really important. So right now, whatever job you have, you can just simply calculate your hourly rate just right now take your annual income divided by basically 12 to have your monthly income, and then literally count the number of hours you work per week. So for example, if you have a job and an office and you know you do that nine to five thing, five days a week, you can actually you know, calculate like, okay, so I worked for example, eight hours per day, and I work five days a week, so that's gonna be about 40 hours a week. So whatever income you got, you know, two by 40 and boom, you get your basically hourly rate. So that of course gives you a great chance to, you know, figure out, for example, how you can go around it, because let's say if you work for 40 hours a week, then it can actually even go further. So 40 hours a week is going to be 40 times four is going to be like almost 160 hours a month, and then divided by 60 even can get your let's say, you know, hourly or even minutes by minutes rate. And this will then allow you to know exactly how much you're worth. And ask yourself, alright, I make exactly this amount of money every minute, okay? Whatever it is, whether you work in McDonald's, whether you run your own business, whether you I don't know, are a creative type, you know, you're you know, minute by minute rate, and then you ask yourself, alright, so this is my minute by minute rate. Now, how can I increase that there are a variety of ways one, increase the type of work that you do, perhaps we have to move out of McDonald's and maybe start your own for example, restaurant, right? Or perhaps you have to work with better clients. One of the things I really like about working international businesses that it gives me access to a global market, because the same services offered in different countries have very different values. So for example, one service one consultancy service offered, let's say, and I don't know, let's say in Europe could cost you let's say, I don't know, for example, 100 euros per hour, while the same service could cost basically somebody else $2,000 an hour or less if you move to Dubai, right. So by literally let's just moving from, for example, Berlin, to Dubai, you can offer the exact same service and instead of being paid 100 euros an hour you are now listen, pay $2,000 an hour. That's a great move, right? So this is one of the you know, paradigms of smart thinking, How can I offer my service in the best possible location? Or this maybe it's also product depends on the situation, right? Because not all products are sold equal in different markets. And then you ask yourself, How can I find a better way to you know, serve better customers. Secondly, increase the quality of your current customers right now. So you might be dealing with a lot of, you know, bad apples, here's my advice, and it's always been the same, get rid of the bad apples as soon as possible before they spoil the whole pot. You see, there's nothing worse for your success and happiness than to work with people that you don't like. Now, obviously, I mean, we all want to be below you know, in a perfect world, you can always, you know, see a lot of great people great customers are coming, you know, in and out, and you're just so happy. But the fact of the matter is that ironically, a very small percentage of all of your clients and customers at a time will inevitably be those will be called bad apples. And also remember this customer that used to be a good customer could become a bad customer over time, by the changes in circumstances his or her lifestyle or situation in the economy. So just because a customer was the best customer does not mean that he or she will always be the best customer. And in most cases, the opposite also applies. So ask yourself right now, how much stress? How much difficulty Am I experiencing by having these bad customers? If you're working with somebody else, ask yourself in my office, which people are causing me the highest amount of stress could be your colleague, could be your boss could be I don't know, the Vice President. And you ask yourself, Is there any way I could change and not deal with these guys in my work, maybe we should change our department, maybe you should even change your job and get a job elsewhere. But the best thing you can do to increase your productivity is to actually stop working with people that drain your mental energy. And that makes you unhappy. Because the surest way to fail is to work with or for the people that you don't like. So, right now, ask yourself, whether you are working as a secretary and you know in a small company, whether you're working as a You know a doctor privately, whether you're running your own business, whether you are working I don't know as a waiter Do you really enjoy the kind of clients you're dealing with on a regular basis if you wanted to get you know somehow these bad apples if you will out of your life could you get started right away and do so because once you focus your attention on removing these bad apples, initially you will have less income it's true. For example, bad apple customer will make you very you know, feel very upset. But at the end of the day, whether you're a dentist I mean he or she comes to your clinic gets the teeth done and goes now you will be upset and probably even depressed after a while but you get the you know, get your money if the operation you know, the teeth are fixed and I got my money. So, you're saying Dan, okay, so I should tell my let's say, you know, customer from hell who happen to have bad teeth to go home and not come back. And that way I'm going to lose money today as true When you send your bad customers home, you're going to lose money for that day. But what this does is it creates a vacuum free time, and a drive to replace the lost income. You see nature's like this, when there's a vacuum created, this vacuum must be filled. So once you, you know, you know, by yourself and intentionally get rid of a bad customer, you create a vacuum, and this vacuum must be filled. Guess what will fill that, you know, vacuum, a better customer in most cases. So, the same thing applies if you have a job, you're saying, well, then I really feel stress in my workplace. I feel like that my colleagues are abusive, and my boss never understands me. I even told him yesterday that I had a problem with my family and I needed to have a day off and he said I don't care go back to work. So you're saying but then I need the money. I gotta make the mortgage payment. I gotta I gotta pay no. feed my family and I'm telling Right now to quit your job and find a better job, you're saying, but that doesn't make any sense because I have to, you know, feed my family, I'm not really sure about this. So you will end up putting up with the BS of your boss or your staff members, your colleagues trying to make the ends meet, but guess what happens, you will not be engaged at work, you will not be very happy, and your income will not increase. So you will keep accumulating those negative emotions inside. At some point, boom, it bursts. And you say, Oh, I quit. But by then it's too late. Because you have been working to that end job. It didn't like for three, four or 567 years. You did not work on improving your skills. Because whenever you came home, you were so depressed, just had to just you know, chill to get rid of all the stress. So you don't have the time to work on yours to improve yourself your abilities, learn new skills, and at the same time you had no energy or motivation to look for better opportunities. So years have gone by, you have lost your skills or at least you know, remain to the same level. And now have lost the motivation to even look for better opportunities and boom, all of a sudden you say I had it. Or worse yet, your boss says, You're fired. And boom, it's like, what the hell am I going to do? The problem is you are not prepared for it, you are not prepared for, you know, making these changes to make your work smarter to improve the quality of your work, because in the long term, doing the kind of work that you really enjoy, with the kind of people that you like to associate with, will lead to far better results than putting up with the bad clients, the bad colleagues, the bad bosses that somehow give you money in the present, but will then ruin your future and your growth perspective. So because of this, I want you guys to start thinking long term in your careers from now. Whether you are a you know, simple nurse, whether you are I don't know as I mentioned, it doesn't matter what your career is, you should think long term. Do I enjoy working at this hospital do I enjoy being in this Place do I enjoy the kind of people I serve? How can I improve the quality and serve better people? These are the kind of questions you have to ask yourself on a regular basis. And this will allow you to change the way you think, and hopefully be able to change the paradigm of your work that will then allow you to work smarter, those who work smart think long term, so they invest some money and effort at the beginning. so evident, they're actually losing a lot, right. But in the long term, they would be making a lot more than those who simply want to just get through the day and just get a paycheck. That is why it's very important, crucial to start thinking long term, planning ahead and beginning to combine smart work with hard work. With that being said, I will never underestimate the importance of working hard. That's quite important. And if I were to give one advice to anyone who wants to make their lives better, I'd say work harder first, but working hard first is just first There's a second element and that's called working smart. So both are important. And by doing the work on both simultaneously, it's kind of like the wheels can you like drive a car with only one wheel or like, I don't know, a bicycle, you need at least two wheels to get any vehicle running, right? So in this situation, you want to focus on that you want to focus on building the ability to somehow work smarter. That takes effort that takes time, but it is completely possible. Alright guys, that's all the time we have for I hope that this little short talk gave you the motivation to combine smart work with hard work and try your very best to hopefully make the most of your experiences in your workplace. Whether it is you working as an employee or running your own business. It's all the time we have for any questions, feel free to contact me on the social media anywhere you can find me at Dan Mullen and of course you can contact basically the person to show Pouya LJ as well, in case you wanted to discuss things regarding the topics of the show or any other ideas. And of course, I'd like to see you guys in person if you have the chance or simply send me a message and I'll be glad to answer all of your questions. Have a great one guys and take care

Trends Podcast met Marco Te Brömmelstroet (UvA)In deze aflevering bellen we met Marco Te Brömmelstroet. Hij geeft les aan de universiteit van Amsterdam en publiceerde onlangs met Thalia Verkade ‘Het recht van de snelste'. In dat boek nemen ze mobiliteit onder de loep. Te Brömmelstroet laat zich de fietsprofessor noemen en maakt zich sterk dat corona ons mobiliteitsgedrag wel eens voorgoed zou kunnen veranderen.In Vlaanderen bedraagt de afstand tussen de woon- en de werkplaats gemiddeld slechts 20 kilometer. Bovendien is 75 procent van onze verplaatsingen korter dan 10 kilometer. Daar hebben we geen auto voor nodig. De groeiende aandacht voor de fiets tijdens de lockdown maakt van de fiets de duidelijke winnaar van de coronacrisis. Dat vindt ook de Nederlandse ‘fietsprofessor' Marco te Brömmelstroet (Universiteit van Amsterdam). “De fiets kan een nieuwe impuls geven aan ons mobiliteitsdenken. De fiets past niet zo goed in de autogerichte manier waarop we naar mobiliteit kijken. Dat alternatieven zoals het openbaar vervoer wegvielen, maakte de fiets interessant. Bovendien nodigden heel veel straten die normaal door auto's worden gedomineerd, tijdens de coronacrisis plots uit tot veilig en prettig fietsen.”Volgens Te Brömmelstroet is het tijd om de straat te herdenken. En dat is perfect mogelijk. In de jaren twintig van de vorige eeuw gebeurde het al bij de opkomst van de auto. “Toen was iedereen het erover eens dat een snelle auto in de straat geen toekomst had. Kinderen letten nu eenmaal niet goed op, dus kun je niet met de auto in dezelfde straat. Peter Norton beschrijft in Fighting Traffic heel mooi hoe dat in tien jaar volledig is omgeslagen, zodat mensen kinderen gingen opvoeden om niet zomaar over te steken. Bij elk ongeval werd gezegd dat het kind niet goed had opgelet. Die logica kan ook andersom. Dat gesprek moeten we nu aangaan en dat gaat over meer dan de files oplossen.”

Trends Podcast met Marco Te Brömmelstroet (UvA)In deze aflevering bellen we met Marco Te Brömmelstroet. Hij geeft les aan de universiteit van Amsterdam en publiceerde onlangs met Thalia Verkade ‘Het recht van de snelste'. In dat boek nemen ze mobiliteit onder de loep. Te Brömmelstroet laat zich de fietsprofessor noemen en maakt zich sterk dat corona ons mobiliteitsgedrag wel eens voorgoed zou kunnen veranderen.In Vlaanderen bedraagt de afstand tussen de woon- en de werkplaats gemiddeld slechts 20 kilometer. Bovendien is 75 procent van onze verplaatsingen korter dan 10 kilometer. Daar hebben we geen auto voor nodig. De groeiende aandacht voor de fiets tijdens de lockdown maakt van de fiets de duidelijke winnaar van de coronacrisis. Dat vindt ook de Nederlandse ‘fietsprofessor' Marco te Brömmelstroet (Universiteit van Amsterdam). “De fiets kan een nieuwe impuls geven aan ons mobiliteitsdenken. De fiets past niet zo goed in de autogerichte manier waarop we naar mobiliteit kijken. Dat alternatieven zoals het openbaar vervoer wegvielen, maakte de fiets interessant. Bovendien nodigden heel veel straten die normaal door auto's worden gedomineerd, tijdens de coronacrisis plots uit tot veilig en prettig fietsen.”Volgens Te Brömmelstroet is het tijd om de straat te herdenken. En dat is perfect mogelijk. In de jaren twintig van de vorige eeuw gebeurde het al bij de opkomst van de auto. “Toen was iedereen het erover eens dat een snelle auto in de straat geen toekomst had. Kinderen letten nu eenmaal niet goed op, dus kun je niet met de auto in dezelfde straat. Peter Norton beschrijft in Fighting Traffic heel mooi hoe dat in tien jaar volledig is omgeslagen, zodat mensen kinderen gingen opvoeden om niet zomaar over te steken. Bij elk ongeval werd gezegd dat het kind niet goed had opgelet. Die logica kan ook andersom. Dat gesprek moeten we nu aangaan en dat gaat over meer dan de files oplossen.”

Tina and Kerry are back with their daughters to momtemplate annoying insects, entering the anarchy stage of COVIC and Michelle Obama's Netflix special. A Coffee Crush Quarantine with weird baby names courtesy of Elan Musk.

A New view on ROI (Return in Intention) Holly interviews Jane Stevenson, Managing Director of Magnetic Minds in South Africa. The two shared a connection through stories that flowed together on stage at a South Africa conference in 2019.  As the managing director of Magnetic Minds, Jane’s company helps reframe mindfulness in ways that serve organizations in planning for their teams goals and future big picture. Her purpose: Finding True North. Personalized business solutions that equip leaders and teams to magnify results and impact. Magnetic Minds brings teams together to help them shift their mindsets in safe spaces to have conversations about where they want their teams to go.  Some of the questions that Holly and Jane unpack are: How do conversations within ourselves magnetize the right people to us?  Who am I?  Why does success in business not feel like success in my heart? Are you showing up and following the plan that you committed to? What is your purpose on earth? Am I winning? How to Reframe what success means - no more winners or losers. We are all wanting to feel like more than just the jobs that we do. We tend to focus on our jobs as the centers of our lives, but is this the most mindful way to live?  Purpose is far bigger than profit! Jane mentions Elan Musk and his opening up his intellectual property to the world, and how his example of sustainability over profit is the perfect example of living with purpose.  Collaboration brings a much higher influence than working alone and in isolation. Holly and Jane discuss global challenges such as violence against women. More questions that they address are:   How can we use the negative stories and build purpose driven collaboration around these?  What are we doing to affect change?  How do we become part of the solutions?  How could anger create the answer? Sometimes we need anger to move into a state of brilliant action. Jane actually uses Holly’s book, Everyday Mindfulness, as one of her tools to give herself a framework for setting daily intentions.  Jane leaves listeners with “Don’t ever think of it as a failure, but as a revelation of how to not do things in the future.” Find out more about Jane’s work at http://www.magneticminds.co.za/ or email her at jane@magneticminds.co.za Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

http://degeneralist.be/podcast/ Meer dan 90% van de bevolking is normaal, die andere 9,5% weten het nog niet. Naar mijn mening is normaal zijn een op angst gebaseerd gedachte van zelfafwijzing. We behandelen onszelf als vijand, we keuren onszelf af opdat anderen ons zouden aanvaarden. 'De mafkees' is het geneesmiddel - be the weirdo! Je hoeft het niet te ver te zoeken, de remedie zit in ieder van ons. Die 'weirdo' is het grootste deel van wat mij, ‘ik’ maakt! Geschiftheid: zijn de eigenschappen of karakteristieken, de neigingen, het gedrag, de perspectieven die me uniek maken. De vraag is: “Durf ik het masker die die rauwe weirdo verbergt afzetten?” Bij de vraag wie me het meest inspireert, denken veel mensen aan succesvolle personen als: Steve Jobs, Elan Musk, Oprah Winfrey, Einstein, Ford, Zijn die normaal? Ik denk het niet, zo werkt het ook niet. Ze zijn allen op hun manier 'de weirdo'! Niemand wordt geïnspireerd door ‘normaal’. Uiteindelijk worden we geïnspireerd door mensen die hun ‘vreemde’ zelf zijn. Ik denk dat velen die 'weirdo' onderdrukken omdat we goedkeuring willen, of juist toegejuicht willen worden. Trouwens, hoe plezier je iemand? Typisch, door je als die ander te gedragen - te spiegelen! Op die manier word je wat de ander wilt dat je bent. Ik geef ‘die rare’, meer en meer speelruimte in mijn leven. Dit gaat gepaard met discomfort, maar essentieel om mezelf te zijn; The obstacle is the way! Want die weirdo wordt niet aanvaard, voelt zich in de steek gelaten, tot zelfs afgekeurd. Maar weinig kinderen worden aanvaard als ze hun zelf blijven. Schijnbaar heeft het leven iets in petto, maar dat moeten we later zelf maar uitvogelen. Ik denk juist dat we die mafkees terug kunnen vinden in de kindertijd. Daar waar we als kind werden voor uitgelachen, waar we ‘t meest beschaamd voor waren. Waar we ‘t gevoel hadden dat we de enige waren bij wie dit ons overkomt, daar - in die bizarheid - ligt je kracht. Zo, zou je bereid zijn te kijken naar wat aan jou ‘weird’ is? Om - samen met mij - naar een minimum 50% weirdo-populatie te werken? Laat het me weten. ... Geïnspireerd door Ido Portal en JP Sears ... Vond je dit een waardevolle aflevering? Laat dat een 5-sterren waardering of review voor me achter op iTunes, vind ik leuk!

This episode's FREE download Your brand's selling story is the cornerstone of all effective business building strategies. Learn How To Get Your Brand On The Shelf and What Retailers REALLY Want.  This Is Your Roadmap To Success.  CLICK HERE TO GAIN INSTANT ACCESS TO MY FREE TURNKEY SALES STORY STRATEGIES COURSE One person can make a lasting and dramatic impact on the way we celebrate food and how it unites our community. Authentic humility and purpose is what drives mission-focused brands to do more and be more helping shoppers feel good about their purchases. I’ve worked in this industry for a long time now, and throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of meeting and getting to know and working with several amazing thought leaders and industry pioneers. You’ve heard several on this podcast over the past 50 episodes, and you’ll continue to hear more. Today’s story is truly inspirational, about an unsung hero, a quiet and very humble change maker, who focused on his talents and his gifts, saw a problem, and made a change, a change that had a tremendous impact and inspired other thought leaders in the industry to join forces to create a lasting impact, something that affects us all. When we stop and think about our heroes, we think of people like Steve Jobs, or Elan Musk, our heroes that have disrupted the way we think about life. I was equally humbled to talk to Ahmed today to learn about all the important causes that he’s involved in. Simply put, Ahmed saw a problem, and he solved it. He saw another problem, he solved it. More importantly, he was able to build a community of industry leaders to help him solve some of the biggest challenges that we’re faced with, like climate change, the need for sustainable packaging, the need for fresh, clean drinking water, fair wages, and safe working conditions for farmers, giving people a reason to belong to the community through art and education, eliminating food deserts. I could go on and on. But the reality is, I could not begin to tell the story as well as Ahmed does. Here's Ahmed Rahim of Numi Organic Tea and OSC2 Download the show notes:  brandsecretsandstrategies.com/session51  

"Cause I'm a firm believer that anyone can get their foot in any door now... the trick is to be so irresistible that that person doesn't want you to leave." Steve Sims simply doesn't hear the word "No". His company, Bluefish, gets people like Elan Musk and Richard Branson experiences that mere money can't buy. Find out why Forbes magazine called him "the guy with the coolest job in the world". But aside from his accomplishments, colorful take on life, and high end friends, he's a guy who gave me not just one shot, but two... as he agreed to sit down with me a second time after a technological breakdown during our initial interview. Luckily, Steve was just as interesting the second time around. He is also the author of Bluefishing: The Art of Making Things Happen.   If you like what you hear, please Subscribe, leave an iTunes review and spread the word. You can also listen to all episodes at www.10000nos.com

Communicating from Cork Ireland. There is a clock ticking during this episode ... "People can hear their life ticking away..." says Roger. "Your time gets more valuable the longer you live ..." says Roger. "I'm charged out at a much higher rate than you Roger ..." says Paul. Elliott Erwitt, the photographer - how does he think? Coffee chat comes next. No coffee company sponsors Business Jazz - "we're not attractive enough yet" says Paul Gary Vaynerchuk went ranting yesterday - says Roger. "The contrast between your two personalities is significant" says Paul Parents shouldn't impose their dreams on their children ... At the beginning of his business career Gary Vaynerchuk worked in the family business. He was living his parents' dream - wasn't he? "Gary took the conventional route" says Paul. "I knew his father, I played golf with his father, mixed foursomes with his parents ..." says Paul. "Call him on Skype" says Paul. Casey Neistat , the You Tuber, doesn't like being asleep - Roger says. FOMO = fear of missing out "How is this at all relevant Roger ...? - Gary Vaynerchuk is a trombone says Paul Customer service plea by Roger "sounds like sloppy stuff" says Paul. "I'm really going to enjoy things when I retire" - Paul sounds horrified as he reports that he's heard many people saying this. "Let's try and think of the others" pleads Paul to Roger. "You'll end up in a job you hate ..." Roger says "After work I can go to opera" says Paul "It's not the end of the world to be in a job your don't like" says Paul. Paul gives a sermon on "Suck it up". "You are become the most amazing stoic ..." intones Roger. Calvanistic Voyeristic Clever use of rhyme perhaps. 8 hours a day = 1/3 of your life, says mathematician Roger. Business Jazz Podcast is for people who like their job and for people who don't like their job. This is an equal opportunity podcast. "Are you absolutely sure this is the right job for you?" = a great question for a consultant to use. "Are you absolutely sure you're on the right planet?" (as Elan Musk says) Gary Vaynerchuk's life summarised by Roger ... "We can tell a story" says Paul - as he starts to speak about a job he began ages ago. How Paul learned a lot from bad experiences in London. "I'm distracted by the ticking clock ... " blurts Paul. Roger takes his turn at telling a story. You can connect with Paul & Roger - "Personally on line" - at http://www.showandtellcommunications.net Thank goodness - the next episode will sound very different The End.

EP116 - Industry News, Geek Week   SuperBowl News Ad Coverage Amazon won the Superbowl Nike Launched a new sneaker direct to consumer.  Nike’s SNKRS site for new releases (who’s name I couldn’t remember during the recording, sorry Kevin). Amazon News SpaceX successfully launched it’s first Falcon heavy rocket, and recovered two of the boosters.  The photos and video of the Tesla in space were amazing.  And there appears to be a thawing of relations between Jeff Bezos and Elan Musk. Prime Now delivery from Whole Foods stores Expansion of FBA On-Site Amazon expands it’s airport plans from 900 acres, to 1100 acres The Spheres launched at HQ1 Private label continues to get traction especially premium denim “Hale and Denim Crush” Amazon Go store opened to the public Amazon is the largest spender on R&D, much larger than any other retailer Walmart News Walmart acquired Spatialand out of Store 8 for VR Capability JD.com Coming to US Walmart – Rakuten partnership ads digital books to Walmart.com Drug News Helena Foulkes becomes new CEO of HBC (from CVS) replacing Jerry Storch Deliv launched DelivRX home delivery pharmacy service Upcoming Events Etail west 2/26 – 3/1 Palm Desert Path to Purchase Summit – March 12-14 – Chicago IBM Think 3/19-22 Las Vegas ShopTalk 3/18-21 Las Vegas Adobe 3/25-3/29 Las Vegas NPD Idea 5/15-17 Austin SAP Sapphire June 5-7, Orlando Don’t forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 116 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Thursday, February 8th 2018. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason “Retailgeek” Goldberg, SVP Commerce & Content at SapientRazorfish, and Scot Wingo, Founder and Executive Chairman of Channel Advisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing.