My Journey

 

Many of you listening might not yet know much about who I am, some of my life experiences, and why I may have anything of value to add to the conversation around the topics I'm exploring. Drop in with me on this episode as I share who I am, and some of the wild ride I've been on thus far...

 

(Full audio & transcript below. Lmk what you think!)

 

 

My Journey

 

(0:01 - 11:47)

So I've been knocking off all of these different podcast episodes and the thing I, you know, stopped to recognize is that many of you who are listening still might not know too much about me and why I may, you know, have opinions on these different topics and thoughts and strategies and philosophies and all this stuff. So like, you know, why do you care? Why do I have anything to say? Things like this. So this app is about me and my background and my, my journey a bit to give you a bit of perspective about who I am and where I come from.

 

I've touched on a couple of my stories in a couple of the episodes so far, and you'll probably hear a bunch more as I go. But, you know, me, I'm based in Vancouver. I was born in a place called New Westminster, which is a suburb of Vancouver.

 

And my family has always generally been here. A family all over the Lower Mainland. And my father's side was kind of in the Coquitlam area, and my mom's side was kind of in the Popo area.

 

My father's background is Scottish, primarily English, Irish. And then my mom's side of the family is French. Interestingly, I did a DNA test with one that I felt was appropriately secure with respect to my privacy and things like this.

 

And it suggested that I was reasonably dominant German, going far back enough, where the reasoning for that was because the Celtic people in tradition initially migrated from a part of what is now considered Germany. So I never really knew or recognized that before. I thought that was pretty interesting.

 

But that's the general, you know, background on the family. So we've generally lived in the Vancouver area, or my family has anyways, my whole life. I've been in and out of it.

 

So I grew up initially in the Lower Mainland, going into high school, moved up farther north into a place called Prince George, ended up spending high school there. And came back south, went to Simon Fraser University, which is in Burnaby, and in the Vancouver area. And eventually, I will say, I graduated with a degree in communications, which, I tend to ask, it was a Bachelor of Applied Science when I was taking it.

 

But they gave me, you know, my certificate, my diploma, I guess, whatever, when they finally gave it to me, you know, at the ceremony. It said it was a Bachelor of Arts. So I always stared at it still, which has been a few years now since.

 

And I look at it, and I still scratch my head about that and always wonder, is that a Bachelor of Applied Science or Arts? But it's communications, and I'd started studying business, and during the program, just wasn't really feeling it. Very passionate about business and entrepreneurship, but I really wasn't huge on the program. I really felt those years that that program was really built to develop you know, corporate-minded business people, people you could plug into like the big four or similar in these types of careers, where my style, my inspiration is much more entrepreneurial.

 

So it's more about, you know, building business, and running small business, and solving, you know, interesting problems, and creating, you know, cool solutions, and stuff like that. So it was just a different spirit, where that program seemed to tell you, at least for me, seemed to tell me what the answer was, versus the communications program, which asked me what I thought the answer was, or could be, or should be, right? And so I think it stimulated a different part of my kind of brain, and a much more creative part of me that suited me better in those years. But when I was initially in university, I was getting my butt kicked for a while.

 

I thought I was about to get kicked out. I didn't, by like, literally like a 0.01 cumulative score on my GPA, and I hung in there, and I took a break around that time. I was playing soccer in and around university.

 

I wasn't on the varsity club, but was training with them and whatnot, and these are all pretty high-level players, and so played competitive soccer, you know, ultimately for 30 years of my life. That's my sport. Love it.

 

But when I was in school, I took a break and started exploring some other things creatively, like film and acting. It was initially like my early 20s, and then I also had an opportunity come about to work at Club Med. So I was about 23 at the time, and another acting club suggested I should try out for it, because I was also fluent in French and in the sports and stuff.

 

And so I checked it out, and it kind of lined up. They offered me a gig to run land sports, or at least initially to be a land sports G.O. in Paradise Island in the Bahamas, and not just like, you know, like fantasy stuff, right? I mean, it was amazing. So I took it, and I went and trained in the Bahamas for over 14 months at that age, and was first land sports, and then after my first season, I was promoted to chief of land sports and running the land sports stuff.

 

So that was like throwing events and emceeing events and, you know, dancing in the shows, teaching water aerobics, you know, all kinds of stuff, and had an absolute blast with people from all over the world. It really changed my life, where I feel I was lacking focus, clarity, discipline. I had some really good lessons that I learned there, and from some great people from all over the place who really, you know, become a family and have been ever since, which is just what's partly so special about an experience like that.

 

And I came back from that program, or that experience, and they'd often put me through like the high potential program, where you go on a trajectory to potentially run your own village one day. But I wasn't really huge on the idea, and so I came back. I still felt like I needed to finish my work, my degree, so I came back to Vancouver after about 14 months.

 

I was also a little bit tired because we were going for it. I was there, and so I came back, and I had finished roughly like half of my credits, you know, by the time I left. So I still had some work to do coming back, and so when I did, I just went for it.

 

I took as much as I could. I was totally dialed in. I moved right into campus, and I just like kind of obsessively focused about it.

 

I took literally maxo credits, and I did the second half of my degree in three semesters, and I did it, I think I had like a 3.3 unit of, so it was like quite a shift in work ethic and focus and achievement, and I was just taking like, wasn't taking no for an answer. I mean, if I wasn't getting an A, I was walking in and saying, why isn't this an A? I was just challenging everything because I was insistent on it, you know, like I just wasn't there to get beat up, and the first part of my journey, I felt that was some of what was happening. So, you know, I carried on from that.

 

I graduated, and my parents are professionals. I mean, I have a very, you know, professional background, and, you know, my father's background was as a stockbroker, investment banker, and he was VP Director of a very large brokerage firm in the Vancouver office, and he was a large shareholder in that company, and their focus was generally in like junior finance, junior often public and mostly public finance, with a focus on, a heavy focus on resources and commodities. So ever since I was a kid, we were back in business, and he was back and forth traveling.

 

(11:49 - 14:22)

You know, my parents divorced when I was really young, but I still remember him going away and coming back, and then I grew up with, living with my mom. But, you know, even when I was on my way to Smocker as a kid, and I remember him telling the stories of the deals he was working on, and the potential of those, you know, they came in and all that good stuff, which, you know, is that, is the dream, right? Is the vision, is the dream, is the potential that fuels people that do this kind of work. And so it's been in my blood, you know, ever since I was a kid.

 

So when I got out of university, he had left the brokerage side and was on the company side with that experience and ability to raise capital. There was a group of colleagues that were working on companies together, building various ventures, and it was also in a commodity bull market where there's just a lot of interest, a lot of excitement around commodities, a lot of demand. So there's opportunity, andone day I walked into the office and the receptionist wasn't there, and the phone was ringing off the hook, and so I just started picking it up and directing the calls.

 

And then from there, we got to know a bunch of people in the group, and then that started to open up to help them with other things I was skilled at, and it grew from there. I mean, that was roughly like 2004, and I can't remember the exact dates, butI basically like kind of ascended through their roles over the time, you know, since those first days. And ultimately through roles like, you know, corporate secretary, vice president, vice president of corporate communications, investor relations, they're similar titles, vice president of corporate communications, investor relations, corporate development.

 

(14:24 - 15:12)

Technically different roles, but somewhat interchangeable titles. And then further as the director of companies, and then president and CEO of companies. And I was president, CEO, and director in the first company.

 

I stepped into that role, and the biggest role, you know, that I had stepped into, I think I was like 29, give or take, at the time. And it was quite an experience, because like a whole bunch of people thought I didn't have a clue what I was doing, and blah, blah, blah. You know, you step in your role, you're kind of attacked as a result.

 

(15:14 - 15:32)

You know, you get announced, a bunch of people just start hitting the bin, you know, selling the stock and like, you know, voting against you basically. ButI stuck with it, I believe in myself. And, you know, I did then, I do now.

 

(15:33 - 22:48)

And I stuck with it and cleaned this company up. It was a natural gas company, and an opportunity presented itself between Christmas and New Year's. I think a similar year when I stepped in, I think it was a couple months later, after I was announced.

 

So I was involved with the company earlier, I kind of like moved into this role, right. And there was a project that was in like a very hot sector, really interesting project with huge potential. And we acquired it, and I'd spent like days tenaciously pursuing this thing.

 

You know, negotiating with those who were the first to fuselage and others that were interested in thinking about it. And I think we finally closed the deal, it was like late in the evening on New Year's Eve. And it was, you know, tremendous to pull off.

 

But it was important because most people were on holidays, they were looking the other way. They weren't paying attention, that's what kind of gave us the opportunity to get in there. And then things got kind of wild after that, we raised quarter million bucks, initially, and then our neighbors, we were like the center hole in the donut, we're like the donut hole in this area.

 

And they were drilling for rare earths for, you know, these potential critical metals. And they announced the discovery, a world class discovery, like three weeks after we announced that we'd acquired the project. And then everyone realized that we had the ground in the middle of that whole area.

 

And so as you can imagine, when you make a discovery, the land values of everything go up, right? So our company, their company went from like 30 cents to like four bucks a share. And ours went from 12 cents to a buck 50 a share. And this was within six weeks of us announcing the acquisition.

 

So, you know, it was quite an experience. It went on to roadshow all over the place, traveling, you know, Toronto, Montreal, New York, Austin, Chicago, elsewhere, further northern Quebec, you know, up to the project. We were deeply involved in community relations and First Nations negotiations and all kinds of stuff like this.

 

And during that phase of energy there, we raised another two and a half million. And we went and drove the project. Well, made a ton of new connections and a lot of people along the way and humbled, definitely a bunch of early critics of our inability to do something that would be potentially creative, right? To shareholders.

 

A lot of people did very well, certainly on those first waves. And we went and drove the project and we had everything that was looking quite promising and lining up. And it didn't, ultimately.

 

The drug program proved to be disappointing. And so we hit the business with a different group, acquired some other projects, brought in some new management, kind of turned the company around again, on the back of those results into a new vision. And the company carried on from there.

 

So that was like a first real, like I'd been working for the company for a while, but that was the first real foray, hitting a nut in the top chair there, in the driver's seat. And from that, you learn an absolute ton about this whole world and the industry and how things work and how to raise capital and tell a story and run your program and manage relations with all stakeholders and on and on and on. It's just, it's like serious stuff.

 

Andif you're right, you can be really, really right and you can pretty much retire off of those wins. So that's kind of what you're playing for, right? So I did some more work after that, working at the company. I worked with just some people out of Toronto for a while.

 

I stayed in Toronto for a while, lived in Toronto for a bit. And then, you know, was ready for some changes. Some things were working, some things weren't working, market conditions were changing, a bunch of stuff was going on.

 

So, you know, I made some adjustments. And as this was happening, I started to see a lot of different things too. So I started to see a bunch of stuff like signs and symbols and I was picking up different vibes.

 

And a lot of the things that I'd like to do prior didn't start to feel good anymore. Like just sitting at the bar, watching the game, having a beer and stuff, like even these simple things just felt like a lot to me to do. It just felt really uncomfortable.

 

And soI started to explore what that was all about. Started working with a shaman and started to get some kind of more, you know, intuitive and metaphysical mystical guidance at the same time. And was also, you know, gifted some resources that, you know, help provide some insight and some inspiration.

 

AndI just got to the point where I was like, you know, this isn't feeling right. And I think there's more to the world and there's more to life than all this right now. So I packed my suitcase and I started traveling some more from Vancouver.

 

I was back in Vancouver this time. And I just feel like there are a lot of blockages in the city. So I packed my suitcase and I just left.

 

Andthe challenge was to get out of my head and deeper into my body. SoI just started flowing. It was without destination.

 

(22:49 - 26:53)

It was to explore, okay, you know, day to day, I'm just going to see where things feel right, where they take me and I'm going to go with them. So I started in Vancouver, went over the island. And, you know, I started in Nanaimo.

 

I saw some friends there. I also synchronistically ran into another colleague who, you know, invited me to stay with his family in Victoria. And I just basically my MO and my message as I was going was, you know,I'm just open to see where things take me and see what emerges.

 

I've tried all of the things and I've worked through a lot of things that are like mental based solutions, right?A lot of our world is constructed around thinking about the answer. Less is constructed around feeling into the answer and trusting intuition and listening to that type of inner guidance. So it was really an exploration of me developing that.

 

I ran exercises on it before I left, you know, for a while, of just developing my intuition more. Just simple things like instead of making plans, just, you know, grab a backpack and go downstairs from my place, my apartment and just feel into which direction I should go, whether I should go right or left and then just follow that and carry on with it and do that for the day. You know, it's amazing the types of things that would happen.

 

So I was really curious what would happen if I kind of scaled that and held that space for these things even, you know, wider and longer. And so I did. And so I went to the island.

 

I started there and then I went to Victoria and I did that for a bit and then I felt the opportunity opened to take the ferry from Victoria to Seattle. So I did that and then jumped on the train from Seattle and took it down to California, got off from Santa Barbara and then I stayed, you know, finding places as you go. They never even realized existed.

 

So I found Carpinteria, which I'd never known of before. And like literally as I'm going, I've got a pack on wheels with me and I had everything I could possibly think to need. I had a tent and tools and clothes for every occasion pretty much.

 

And you know, all that kind of stuff. So there's a great campsite on the beach in Carpinteria. It's still there, I'm sure.

 

And you can go and camp basically like right on, like right next to the beach. Spectacular. So I did that for a bit and kind of grounded and then moved on from there to Santa Monica and Venice and hung around there for a while.

 

And then I felt inspired again to ride. So I bought a Beach Cruiser pedal bike from one of the rental shops. I also poked around and they gifted me a kid's trailer that was actually a bit broken.

 

So they gave it to me for free because they couldn't use it. I duct taped, kind of rigged up the bike to the trailer, right, duct taped it to secure it through my pack on the and just started rolling. And I rode that bike, it was a one speed Beach Cruiser, not what it's meant for, but I rode it from Santa Monica, Venice to San Diego.

 

And I just really explored the path all the way there. And, you know, I stayed wherever felt right. You know, campsites along the way, occasional hotel, hostel if I could find one that was just flowing.

 

(26:56 - 36:11)

You know, cool things happen along that path, like all kinds of cool stuff. But you could just envision me on my Beach Cruiser pedal bike with the shirt off and the headband tied back and a little basket on the bike with my iPad and a speaker playing my tunes and just solo riding, like wherever, you know, along the coast, on the beaches, along the shoulder of the freeway for a bit, which is what I needed to do, which was a little bit crazy. You know, in hindsight, no doubt.

 

And I kept flying. Cool experiences along the way, like I just happened to see Joe Rogan's show in Hermosa Beach and got to, you know, say hey to him and meet him after the show up front. It was kind of cool.

 

I stopped in Dana Point for a while and I camped out there, like right on the beach, like tent in the sand. Amazing experiences like that, right? So those were incredible. That was about 250k, that ride.

 

And got to San Diego. So I get to San Diego and like at each step, I'm kind of just staying open to see what's, you know, presenting itself. Like, you know, portals are opening for me to make my next move.

 

And from there, there is a posting for a third party to join these two French guys on a road trip south and they wanted to drive you know, the Baja down to, you know, the Paz slash Cabo, right? At the bottom of the Baja. And they wanted someone to join them to help share costs. And so people I was staying with was at a hostel there.

 

I can't remember what beach it was, but it was this big hippie hostel down there. The big peace sign on it, if you're ever through San Diego, you can look for it. And they're like, hey, Chad, I think this is the sign you're looking for.

 

And so I connected with the guys and talked to them and we're in sync and I said, all right, let's do it.So the next thing, you know, we're riding in this big blue, like 80 Chevy van into Tijuana, which was crazy. And away we went.

 

And we did this whole drive, which was just incredible, like sleeping in the van on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, under the stars in the desert, you know, it was just spectacular. At one point we did get into a bit of trouble in that one of the locals suggested there was some cool ruins to see off road down a certain side road. And we thought the one we chose was the right road, but we're still not sure to this day.

 

But we went down it and we didn't really stop to check in until we were like 20k down the road. You know, self-service didn't work, it was a back road, it was all this stuff. And then we kind of thought, well, hang on, where are we? Like we're driving by cactus that are like, you know, 8 to 10 feet tall or something like this way out there.

 

And when we started to slow down with the van, the van got stuck in the sand. Because we're basically just driving on a beach, but we had the momentum, so it just kind of kept rolling as far as we could until we stopped. And then we were stuck.

 

So then, you know, we're trying to get out, there's nothing really to like, help lever the wheels out and kind of bounce us out. You know, without making comments about how we spun the wheels, our drivers spun the wheels when we got started, kind of digging us in. You know, they were well intending, but like, if you've ever driven in snow, you know, that's not the answer.

 

You don't pin it, you rock it, right? We just gently rock it out. But anyways, we got buried and we didn't have much to dig out. We tried and we tried all afternoon.

 

And then finally we got it out for a minute and we started to celebrate. And so we started driving forward and we're all like, yeah, then the guy driving stopped again and we got stuck again. And we couldn't get out again.

 

So like we were sitting there trying to dig this thing out like all day. Anyways, we pillaged the van and I still have my bike, so I loaded the back of the bike back up and we just, I said, look guys, we got to go, like we're out of supplies, we're running low on water. They're thinking, well, we can just stay here, you know, overnight and do this tomorrow.

 

I'm like, there's no way, we don't have enough for tomorrow, you know. So we didn't even really know where we were. So, and nobody knew where we were either, because it's all sort of this way.

 

So we pillaged the van, we started hiking out to try and trace our steps. Eventually took us about five hours, like through the desert and into the sunset and dark and whatever we found the road and there was still, there was very few traffic along the main road. So we camped there next to the road at night.

 

And first thing the next morning, the one guy was going to ride the bike to the nearest town and we started and tried, but it was still like 50 miles away. So like, that wasn't going to be an issue. We were out of water basically.

 

And we're all starting to get heat stroke, like it was getting gnarly. And this is, he was about to leave, a car came by and he spoke Spanish and managed to jump in the car and hitch a ride to the nearest town. And then the mayor came back with him later and brought, you know, food and water and a winch and helped us pull the van out and all that sort of stuff.

 

It was surreal. But yeah, I'm getting deep into the story because it's just a big one, but you know, we carried on. We stayed in that town for a bit.

 

It was like a fishing town and the people were tremendous and helped us kind of find our way in that. And we kind of regrouped and then carried on in that drive. And I ended up living in Cabo for a while, once we got down there and you know, I separated from the guys in La Paz and I carried on to Cabo and then found a place and stayed there for a while, which was amazing.

 

And I stayed there as long as I could until a big hurricane, which was Hurricane Odile came through and basically just smoked the whole town. And I was living on the marina and like, we got rocked. And you know, as I say, I think in one of my other episodes, like I went through the storm and basically a rain suit standing in the lobby of my apartment building with the doors and windows open and kind of in and out of the storm throughout the night as needed.

 

And you know, the next day it was basically like martial law. There's no money, no power, no food. Everybody's looting all the major stores, even the small ones.

 

Like everything was basically getting looted because a lot of people weren't prepared. And also some people were taking advantage of it. There were armed gangs patrolling at night.

 

And there is basically, I think I went into this one of my other stories, but it was basically like Lord of the Flies. And I just watched this whole community like start from that, get totally leveled and totally bring itself back to an organized state again. You know, and as the military came in and everything, that changed my life.

 

I saw a behavioral element to how we all exist and the things we take for granted. Just get both wiped out and rebuilt from scratch and just how we naturally organize and all kinds of things. It was very, very eye-opening.

 

And so from there, I left after about 12 days. We still didn't have power in the marina where I was. It was quite a storm.

 

It was huge and it was a direct hit. So we really got smoked. And so I went up to La Paz and kind of grounded out a bit and then carried over to the mainland and most of Mexico and through you know Mazatlan and Vallarta and Mexico City and the pyramids of Teotihuacan, the pyramids of the sun, the pyramid of the moon, which were amazing.

 

(36:13 - 37:04)

You know, back to Oaxaca, the Day of the Dead, experienced a lot of that. We went through the mountains, down to Puerto Escondido, where I started learning a bit of surfing. This is all solo, by the way.

 

All of this, right? You know, aside from like the leg with the guys through the Baja and you know, Mexico side. So I'm rolling solo. And if I'd meet people on the way and travel with them for good, and if not, you know, carrying on as I was meant to.

 

And I was discovering all these places that I didn't even know existed. You know, I never even heard of like San Ysidro outside of Vallarta. When I got to check all that out, it was just pure, like in the flow of all this.

 

(37:06 - 40:39)

Then I crossed over into Guatemala, went to Antigua, you know, hiked the volcano, carried on Honduras. I stopped in a town near the border that had these just spectacular Mayan ruins. And I actually hired a guide.

 

And it is his second horse that he kind of gave me the quick notes on how to ride. And he guided me up into the hills, where there's this like hidden Mayan what kind of village and these other ruins that nobody knew about. And did some of that amazing travel.

 

And carried on from Honduras, I believe it was Honduras to Nicaragua, Nicaragua, through the capital, then down to San Juan del Sur, then down to El Chebado, then Costa Rica, the Gulf of Costa Rica, then northern Panama and Bogostel Toro. And then around that time, you know, keep trying to keep the long story shorter, you know, I felt like the right time to come back. And so I came back north and kind of carried on.

 

Lived back east for a while again with someone I had reconnected with on my trip and that I was seeing for a while. And we came out west and we each, you know, found our respective paths as we came out west and carried on on those. And I was kind of back in the circle of it.

 

In the Vancouver area, I got involved with a public entertainment company that was lacking a lot of experience and didn't really know what they were doing. And so, you know, help kind of guide and mentor them in an advisory role, given my experience. And I've done some, an increasing amount of that since.

 

Right? So, you know, lots of stuff I do. Also, I guess in that time around entertainment, I got involved in film. A lot deeper as a performer, a lot deeper.

 

I've done, you know, a bunch of different commercials and got to work on a film project with Casey Affleck and Black Bear, with some other just tier one, you know, filmmakers. It was just an incredible experience that. The whole project, working with Casey's on-camera double and his stand-in, which was like an incredible apprenticeship in the full process of filmmaking with a guy who won best actor while I was working with him.

 

Surreal. It was a very cool experience. And, you know, and other stuff.

 

And so, you know,I'm passionate about the things that I've learned on a personal level about myself and personal growth journey. And that when things started to change, I changed the way I participated in the world and I quit drinking and I changed my diet and my lifestyle. Explored new ways to live and to work and all of this.

 

(40:41 - 40:55)

But I also still carry all the experience that I, you know, skills I developed prior to when my activities were a bit more corporately structured when, you know, my hair was kind of a little bit tight.

 

My Journey Part 2

(0:01 - 0:18)

All right, I had a call come in, so this is a continuation of that thought. But look, like there's kind of three real, you know, pillars to who I am. And one is about personal growth.

 

(0:18 - 0:41)

It's about the journey I've been on, the things I've learned, you know, the inspiration, and kind of knowing the knowledge and wisdom that comes from that. I mean, I'malways a student, I'm always learning, I'm always open. But there's things you realize again, you know, who you are and your relationship to life, your world, the universe and that.

 

(0:42 - 1:06)

On these types of journeys, on these types of, you know, journeys, types of challenges, we'll say, I guess. These types of experiences that are formative, you know. So on a personal growth side, I've done things that, you know, I've been on paper, the way you should do things.

 

(1:06 - 1:35)

And then I've done things that weren't on paper, which felt better about ways you should maybe actually do things or have better results from doing things that way. So, you know, a lot of transformation, a lot of change for me, based on what people say you should be doing, how you should be operating versus what's been best and what feels best, right? So that's kind of the one pillar. The other is like my corporate, you know, activity and my work in venture capital, which is really staged in a public venture capital primarily.

 

(1:35 - 2:20)

At an executive level, which is everything from, you know, just executive management administration to mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, partnerships, corporate finance, raising capital, building teams, building brands, telling story, you know, presenting, pitching, corporate development related stuff, investor relations related stuff, you know, investment strategies, like all of this, right? Financial management, a whole number of different things, wealth creation. So that's another big pillar of mine. And then the other is the creative stuff.

 

(2:20 - 2:47)

And, you know, along my journey, I also got involved in music for a while too. So I was, I was producing some music, some spinning, I was DJing and exploring that craft. And then, you know, got into, got into film and performing once again, also, which I kind of left when I got involved in the more corporate side back in, you know, the kind of early to mid 2000s.

 

(2:51 - 2:59)

So, you know, that whole world is inspiring, really. It fills the bucket. It's good to be expressive.

 

(2:59 - 3:12)

It's good to,it's good to create. It's part of why I'm creating stuff like this, because, you know,creating is expansive.Sharing, communicating, participating in the conversation with others, I feel valuable.

 

(3:12 - 3:41)

It doesn't mean I'm always going to be right, but I am going to present my position and I invite the discussion. And I think in those discussions is how we find opportunity to, you know, learn and grow and kind of move forward collectively, right? It's the conversation. So, you know, creating as a creator is kind of the evolution of some of those passions.

 

(3:41 - 4:11)

What I like about it is being independent in it. You know,what I think and what I feel is valid. AndI create from this place and express it without really needing the permission of others to do so, which in some environments is a bit, you know, ungoverned, censored or similar to be able to communicate.

 

(4:11 - 4:34)

And I'm someone who's comfortable enough in his own skin through my journeys and experiences to have my own positions. And, you know, take my own positions and consider the information for myself and my own interpretations, you know, as I go. So, you know, with all this, I'm sharing it here in this podcast.

 

(4:34 - 5:09)

And the format is wide open for me and the topics are wide open for me is, again, coming from a place of being in the flow of what presents itself, right? And that's been guiding me thus far, you know, in these number of episodes thus far. So this is where I'm at. I'm currently advising other publicly listed, you know, companies, reporting companies.

 

(5:11 - 5:32)

I do that in resources, technology, life sciences, entertainment, not necessarily all at the same time. But, you know, these are all areas I've been working in. The film stuff is also there, but even as I'm recording this, I mean, there's huge strikes in that industry.

 

(5:32 - 6:03)

You know, I remain open and participating, working with other people. I feel thatthere's some things in the world that we do professionally, you know, in business that, you know, are independent and things we can do solo. I call that permissionless business, which I really like conceptually, because it just allows me to just create and build and flow and do things that can help and assist and serve the world directly.

 

(6:03 - 6:33)

But there's other things that are, you know, potentially bigger projects that require teams. And so they're kind of team-based sports, right, to build things together, which is certainly what's required of public companies, definitely required in the film business and similar. So I like to participate on both sides and, you know, stay in those creative states and continue to explore things that, you know, add value to my life.

 

(6:33 - 7:02)

And share those things that I feel are appropriate and strategies I know and I trust that work with others who, you know, like myself, might be interested in them. As well as, you know, explore, investigate, experiment with new ones, because things are always evolving and new things are always coming on the surface. So that's a big part of, you know, who I am and some of the things I've achieved in my journey.

 

(7:02 - 7:38)

I mean,I've been held hostage, I've been through a hurricane, I've traveled to faraway lands, you know, and explored the universe on multiple levels, spiritually and otherwise. I've transformed my own life and, you know, taken, you know, distressed companies and, you know, rebranded and rebuilt and raised capital looking for them and seeing them reach, you know, new heights and potentials. You know, I understand a lot of the kind of invisible mechanics of our world universe, I feel.

 

(7:38 - 8:26)

So it's in that place I share those things and from all of this place who I am, you know, focused on the pillars, which I'll talk more about and share more as I go. Some potential other products and stuff coming, books and courses and things that are related to these themes. But, you know,I believe in radical self-reliance as a foundation, not that I'm as independent as everyone else in the world, but, you know,I control the things I can and I'm prepared for everything I can be or should be in my life.

 

(8:30 - 8:40)

Soit's an amazing world out there. Andno matter where we're at now, everything in front of us is possible. I believe that.

 

(8:40 - 8:49)

So I'll follow the podcast. If you haven't yet, check it out. As I go, tabs on the new apps that drop.

 

(8:49 - 9:04)

It's on Spotify, Apple, others. My other channels will be active as well. My company's information is below if you want to connect with me about anything or just follow my other channels, you're welcome.

 

(9:06 - 9:36)

Lots more to chat about specifically, but I thought I'd just drop in with a good solid, you know, sharing my story and my journey and helping you get to know me a little bit better and how I might even have anything that's worth anything to say about any of these topics that I talk about. So until the next one, I hope you're doing amazing. Your vibes are good and we'll talk to you soon.