TrueLife - Jordan Richardson - Community, Spiritual Growth, & Life Lessons

Episode Date: July 1, 2024

One on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_US🚨🚨Curious about the future of psychedelics? Imagine if Alan Watts started a secret society with Ram Dass and Hunter S. Thompson… now open the door. Use Promocode TRUELIFE for Get 25% off monthly or 30% off the annual plan For the first yearhttps://www.district216.com/Jordan Richardson is a cosmic navigator of the entertainment universe, fusing creativity and rebellion to transcend the ordinary. A USC Thornton School of Music alum, his journey has traversed music, television, tech-thought, and medicine, leaving an indelible mark on each.From Capitol Records’ storied halls to SBV Talent Agency’s dynamic campaigns, Jordan orchestrated voices for NBC and ABC’s Soapnet. At VH1, he sculpted cultural narratives with “Behind The Music” and “I Love The 2000’s,” shaping icons in real-time.Jordan’s revolutionary spirit sparked the #LoveIsLove brand activation with Absolut Vodka, co-creating SayReal. This independent music group’s meteoric rise and acclaim culminated in Hollywood Music in Media Awards recognition as “LA’s Hottest New Band.”At Not Impossible Labs, Jordan’s visionary talent management ignited projects like the Hunger: Not Impossible COVID-19 campaign, earning the 2020 Shorty Award and a place in the JFK Library Foundation’s New Frontier Forum. His insights graced “After Shock,” the sequel to Alvin Toffler’s “Future Shock.”Venturing into precision medical genetics with Myriad Genetics, Inc., Jordan shattered norms. Applying his “12 Tenets of Talent Management,” he achieved stellar success, securing consecutive President’s Club honors and the title of 2023 Southwest MVP and Western U.S. Mentor of the Year.Through Cardboard Rockets LLC, Jordan champions the belief that every professional is a talent and every leader a talent manager. His voice echoes globally, featured in CNN, Swiss Public Television, FOX, and Reti Televisive Italiane. As a sought-after speaker, he shares psychedelic insights on human connection, talent development, and collaborative innovation.Jordan Richardson is not just a name but a movement—a testament to creativity, resilience, and the relentless quest for deeper connection.https://www.jordanrichardsonspeaking.com/ One on One Video call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_USCheck out our YouTube:https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPzfOaFtA1hF8UhnuvOQnTgKcIYPI9Ni9&si=Jgg9ATGwzhzdmjkg

Darkness struck, a gut-punched theft, Sun ripped away, her health bereft. I roar at the void. This ain't just fate, a cosmic scam I spit my hate. The games rigged tight, shadows deal, blood on their hands, I'll never kneel. Yet in the rage, a crack ignites, occulted sparks cut through the nights. The scars my key, hermetic and stark. To see, to rise, I hunt in the dark, fumbling, fear. Heiress through ruins maze, lights my war cry, born from the blaze.

The poem is Angels with Rifles. The track, I Am Sorrow, I Am Lust by Codex Serafini. Check out the entire song at the end of the cast. Hope the sun is shining. I hope that the birds are singing. I hope the wind is at your back. I got a great show for you today. I have with me here.

the one and only Jordan Richardson. And for those of you who may not know, let me just tell you a little bit about Jordan. He's a cosmic navigator of the entertainment universe, fusing creativity and rebellion to transcend the ordinary. A USC Thornton School of Music Alum, his journey has traversed music, television, tech, thought, and medicine, leave an indelible mark on each.

Excuse me. From Capitol Records, Story Halls to SBV Talent, agency's dynamic campaign. Excuse me for one minute. It's true life. It's true life podcast right here. Love it. Yeah. He's sculpted cultural narratives with behind the music and I Love the 2000, shaping icons in real time. Jordan's revolutionary spirit sparked the love is love brand activation with absolute vodka co-creating say real. This independent music groups meteoric rise and acclaim culminated in Hollywood music and media awards recognized as LA's hottest band. Not Impossible Labs, Jordan's visionary talent management ignited projects like The Hunger,

Not Impossible, COVID-19 campaign, earning the 2020 Shorty Award and a place in the JFK Library, Foundation's New Frontier Forum, his insight-graced Aftershock, the sequel to Alvin Topler's Future Shock. Venturing into precision medical genetics with Myriad Genetics, Inc., Jordan's shattered norms, applying his 12 tenets of talent management. He achieved stellar success, securing consecutive president's clubs, honors, and the title of 2023 Southwest MVP and Western U.S. mentor of the year. Through Cardboard Rockets LLC, Jordan champions the belief that every professional is a talent and every leader, a talent manager. His voice echoes globally, featured in CNN, Swiss public television, Fox, and Ready Televize Italiani. As a sought-after speaker,

he shares psychedelic insights on human connection, talent development, and collaborative innovation. Jordan, thank you for being here today. How are you? I'm so good. Thank you for that. And that introduction is epic. I appreciate it. I appreciate it.

I had to pause. I kept getting stuff stuck in my throat right there. And I'm like, oh, man, I got the cadence, that everything rocking. I was so stoked on it. And then True Life podcast right there. And I appreciate that. And I love that. I mean, that's how I like to talk and converse and communicate with people.

Right. It's just, you know, we're all storytellers. Let's hear it in a different way. You know, not so polished all the. time. Yeah, I think it gives people the, you know, the, a real look into how the sausage is made and how people are. And it gives it that feel of authenticity when you come across and sometimes you got to pause, sometimes you got to think and you really get to know the individual when you have the stream of consciousness, man, right? I mean, especially when today, you know, media and content,

you know, even, you know, the mom going to buy grocery stores and look how fresh and unique this is. I mean, that's so polished even that. It's like what happened to real reality? Like, and actually that reminds me is when I was working at VH1 in the music talent, creative development team there, we stopped calling it reality TV because it wasn't. It was non-scripted, right? So that just means we didn't script out everything that was happening. But it was still with these guidelines and these guardrails that made up situational instances. where we would try to capitalize on

even just to try to control the narrative a bit, right? But even that, and so nowadays, you know, everything you see is so polished that something like this, like the True Life podcast being so fresh and unique and like just raw is something that's so refreshing. I mean, I think that's what people want to see and they, you know, they want to experience

is real life, real life. Yeah, man, I couldn't agree more. I'm curious to get your thoughts on this idea of talent. Like, I'm really big into relationships. and how we see the world. I think that's evolving. But how do you see our relationship as, you know, individuals making the way to the world?

How do you see our relationship with talent evolving? You know, we've gone from this big screen to very polished things to reality TV to unscripted to, you know, live streaming. What's your take on our relationship with talent? Yeah, I think it goes back to a fundamental belief that I have is that everybody is a talent. Right? You think about, think about this. Like, I always love to say my favorite, like, do you love sushi? Do you like sushi? Yeah, I like sushi. Sushi for me. Is your, is your favorite sushi chef not a talent? Right? What, right? What about that admin assistant that helps you drive everyday business or I always joke, you know, what about that CPA that gets you out of tax trouble every year? Right. So we have to recognize that there's talent in everything we do and in each one of us. So. First of all, that's what I believe.

I believe that everyone is a talent. And the second part of that belief is, and anyone can grow to become an effective talent manager. So you really have to come to the place of recognition that you are a talent, you are valuable in whatever you do every day, whether it's at the coffee shop at the barista or you're engaging with somebody on a Zoom meeting for work. We have to recognize that there's immense talent in all of us. And I think going back to that key tenant of mine, that everyone is a talent and anyone can grow to become an effective talent manager, I talk about these tenants of how we all get there.

And that's why my main keynote is called the 12 tenants of talent management. You have to at that point, I think, also recognize that all of those things like spokes to a hub of a will come back to the central idea. And it all comes down to communication and building that trust between and. individuals and how do we increase that connectivity? So it's a very long-winded way of going back to your main question and saying that the people who know how to tap into that connectivity with everyday people around you, that's when you're going to make the real impact. And that's when you're going to really see something take form and take hold with people

with that authentic take. So talent in general, if we're talking about entertainment, I think we are, you see that huge shift towards authenticity and, and, you see. things that are seemingly refreshing. But really, it just comes back to how do we all create a world of deeper understanding and connectivity with each other? That's well said. You know, it reminds me, sometimes you get that feeling when you notice somebody doing

something well or when you notice someone's doing something like in an art form, whether it's your barista, whether it's the sly smile on your tax attorney's face when they're like, watch this. You know, like when you notice. that beauty in somebody else. Which we don't do IRS, IRS. We're all up and up in there. Just an example. Exactly.

Maybe it's like when you go to, whatever, you go to your barista, you go get some food, you see a chef, whatever it is, when you notice that sly, subtle beauty in someone else's actions, do you think on some level that's because you're willing to admire the beauty in yourself? Wow.

Yeah, that's a good question. I think that when you had noticed those things, I think you partially subconsciously, you've desensitized yourself enough to the main narrative that, or not even desensitized, the word I'm looking for, you've like kind of, you know, you've changed the way of what we've been ingrained as each other, that, oh, I have to be this type of person to be a talent or be successful. I have to be this level of manager or this level of an executive. When you look at something like customer service, those are the people who have, actually build the brands. Those are the people who actually engage with the customers.

They are the face of your brand. So I think when people do recognize in others that, wow, you do an amazing job and don't have that hubris of like you're not at this level or you're not this person or you have to have a Hollywood like star on the walk of fame, I think you should give yourself a pat on the back for recognizing that that is true. And you've kind of broken away from what they want you to think success looks like. And I say they meaning, you know, the world around us how it conditions us. I like that. Let's talk about the 12 tenants that you came up with.

How is that something that you've learned along your lifetime? Does that come from experience? Does that come from relationships, all of the above? We can dig into that. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, all of the above. And again, a lot of my tenants of talent management, you know, they're not necessarily new ideas that are just like,

oh my gosh, like I've never thought about that in the world. world but I I memorialize things based on my experiences in working with talent and so the 12 tenants of talent management is essentially a modular keynote where I have these 12 tenants that I learned throughout my career and these things that have impacted me the type of you know each tenant is something that I feel like is the type of leader that I strive to be the type of father that I hope to be and the and the kind of talent that I think we all are. So, you know, I have these 12 tenants that have guided me throughout my career and I learned

of them along the way. And I learned each one, each one of those tenants in my keynote is tied to a specific celebrity story of who taught me that tenant. So although you may, you know, everyone talks about trust. Like I think my first core tenant in general is listen to build trust. And when you listen to build trust, like you talk about it in a way that. it's more real and you're bringing in this the grander idea of trust. But the fun niche and spin I put on each one is I say how I learned that lesson through my

career and which celebrity taught me that lesson. And I kind of give them an homage to like it's an homage to, you know, how much we can all offer from each other. So some of them could throw you for a loop, you know, like, you know, how did you learn that from Little Wayne or how did you learn that from, you know, Linda Perry or like Brett Michaels taught you your most significant lesson? about listening to build trust, you know, these kind of things like that. So there are things that I think that when you put them all together and when you,

when you see them from a different lens a little bit, the message hits differently. And then when I'm putting it together and saying, hey, we're all talent. So like the things you're doing right now, Stephen Tyler, Nicole Richie, Snoop Dog, they're doing the same thing you're doing and they're teaching other people about it. So you be that person. You help do that. And again, the speech isn't like I sit there and say tenant number one, tenant number two. tenant number three, but, but the 12 tenants do cover such a broad swath and area that any keynote,

essentially any, any company that has employees or leadership, any company can benefit from that. So what I do is when I speak at an event, I cater my presentation to around their themes. So I don't come in, I'm not coming in and saying, here's what you need to do, less than this, this and this and this. If you're doing a keynote or you're doing an all hands or something like that or a conference and you're talking about listening to build trust, reciprocity and I don't know, let's say knowing your talent, knowing your employees, knowing your talent, knowing your customers, those kind of things. Then I would pick, oh, this tenant, this tenant and this tenant, and I put them together to make it clear and cohesive to your themes.

What are you trying to get across? What do you want your people to learn? I'm just here to echo and remind you all that your company's trying to get this out of you and for you and through you and with you. And I just reinforce that message. It's like next level storytelling. Finding the ingredients you need to create the hero's journey on demand. You know, it's kind of mesmerizing.

Well, and what's crazy is like I kind of mentioned before, and I don't remember if we were recording or not, but like we're all stories. storytellers. Yeah. You know, we're all storytellers. If I tell you, hey, you know, how'd you get to work today? Not everybody just says, oh, I drove. But if they're like, how'd you get to work today?

Man, I was like a struggle to get out of the house. I left and then I got forgot my keys. I came back. I was going, driving on the road. I had to go around this accident. The 101 was jammed, all these things. You put all these extra details. And so inherently within us, we have this ability to want to know more, to want to draw out and

communicate on a deeper level because that drives to connection. Right? So, you know, I feel like you have to all tap into that. You're a natural storyteller. And so when you're doing anything like a sale or you're talking to people or you're communicating or whatnot, you're telling them a story. How do you communicate that story? How do you build the narrative around it to actually make it meaningful and impactful

and drive towards actual results? It's different if I just say, all right, here. we go increase sales 10% this month or if i say hey you guys we're doing an awesome job at driving this future product you know um i know that there's some challenges of things we can we can get around but you know how can we ideate around this how can we figure this out you know what and you know it would be the best goal if we can do it's like let's increase sales by 10% this month like we can do that's such a better digestible and uh you know story to hear and to be a part of than someone just telling you, you know, you're lucky to work here or you should be, you should be, you know,

gone are those days, gone are those days. So as we communicate with each other in our personal lives, in our professional lives and everything in between, the story you're telling people, you are, you are actually creating that frame that they, they see you, you know, so you're, you're creating that narrative for yourself. It's wonderful to think about the way in which the spoken word can have a real emotional effect on the people to us, not only around us, but part of us. And I guess my next question for you is, is your inner dialogue, the story you tell yourself and your inner dialogue, does that echo the story that you tell other people?

Like, how have you managed that relationship? Right. That's great. I mean, it's a great question. I think that I'm a natural, I suffer intensely from imposter syndrome, like all the time, like all the time. And I think that's good for a lot of reasons, because it's a lot of reasons. kind of keeps me in check.

Sure. And it does gut check me and like, am I doing every day, like what I'm preaching? Like, because if I'm not doing that, if I feel like, oh, yeah, I'm just this like, you know, cool guy that just, you know, it's so easy and it's like everything comes naturally and whatever, then you lose sight of that. And then your message gets lost. And then the connectivity is gone from your story. So I think that I always, I have, these are my 12 core tenants, for example, because

they are truly what I believe and what have. helped shape my career and like I mentioned who I aspired to also be just so you know just because I know something doesn't mean I don't falter we're all fallible doesn't mean I forget that doesn't mean I can't I need to remind myself to strive for that and in fact as I started speaking more I was reminded to be more of the person that I want to be you know yeah I do know it's I'm curious can you give us an example of one of the tenants maybe you could tell us a story about someone who taught you something that we kind of like the example we spoke up earlier yeah so you know I think let me see what's a good one I find a good one man I want to hear well okay like do you like do you like

you like rock do you like hip hop do you like what do you like um if we're gonna go music where I can go other ways but unlike I'm kind of 90s I was driving with a younger guy yesterday and he said to me, wow, George, you like classical alternative. And I never really heard that term before. So I guess I like classical alternative, whether it's,

I used to go see Rage Against the Machine or the Beastie Boys or I used to see a lot of reggae. I'm a huge fan of like Ziggy Marley and I guess that kind of, that era right there. I guess that kind of dates me a little bit. No, no, definitely.

I mean, not really. I mean, actually, you mentioned the band Say Real, I used to manage them who are still really good dear friends of mine, like we did shows with Viggy and with other Marley family members and stuff. So it's like, it's classic. It's legend. It's legend. Damien, you know, like

all these people are still making amazing music. I would say though since, you know, you go in 90s and I, since I mentioned it before, like, you know, my first core tenant is, you know, listening to build trust, right? Actually, it's my second tenant.

So the first tenant is know your talent and know your role. I think if you don't know those two things, even if you're a dad with children, you better know that child and know how to help them achieve and stress. But anyway, I digress. So, like, if we're going sequentially, then the, I think a really good lesson of kind of piggybacking up what we're talking about today is, know your time is listening to build trust. And, you know, I'm, I won't get into the whole, like, soliloquy of how the speech wraps around it. But, you know, I think the whole point is when we're talking to each other and we're listening, like the conversation we're having right now, I can

tell that you're not just sitting there like waiting to talk or waiting to say something. You're listening. You're not fake listening. You're not mirroring what I'm doing. You're not, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, me, you know, it's you're, you're building that trust. And I think a lot of times many people forget to just listen and how much you can learn from that by letting other people just talk. And, you know, I start off the kind of tenant, that's the tenant where I kind of tell two stories where Naya from Say Real, who's so much. great dear friend. One day through a, we were doing a long development session. We were working on new music and all this stuff. And she asked me my advice on something. And I jumped in with a beautiful

five minutes soliloquy of, of, you know, what my opinion was. And she sat there listening quietly and just said, you know, sometimes you talk too much. And sometimes I need you just to tell me that you hear me and that you're understanding what I'm saying. And as much as Naya taught me what not to do. The person who taught me what to do is actually Brett Michaels, you know, front man of the band, Poison, 50 million records sold, you know, celebrity, Prince, winner, and alumni, you know, TV star. And when I was working at VH1, we, I was working on, you know, my mentor at the time, and just give you a little context of how this all came about. My mentor at the time, she's still my mentor Leah Horowitz, she did a lot of the production and or the, the creative development for

the biggest music shows we have, like behind the music and I love series and, you know, all these huge stores, Rock of Love was one of the things that she had, you know, worked with Brett Michaels to develop. And so we were always bringing Brett in because he was VH1 celebrity like royalty at VH1. He could do no wrong. Anytime he wanted to sneeze, we'd be like, yes, let's get that on camera. and let's create a show around Brett Michael's tissue, you know. And so, you know, we would, we would bring him in for these ideas and things. And the first time I had met him, you know, he said, you know, oh, hi, you know, hi, Jordan, nice to meet you.

Like, I had, and so I had known him a, like a tiny little bit. And then when I got the opportunity through Leah to cast, I love the 2000s, Brett Michaels was like the first person that I wanted to like bring in and cast on. And so he came in. We went to the shoot date. Again, I didn't really know him. I said hi to him like once, once before. But on his shoot date, I went to go cover his session, his session when we were recording.

And, you know, we worked together for that three or four hours. And it was a great time. The onset activity around him was swirling everybody. And every single person I talked to or I would see him talk to, he just had this absolute focus and engagement when speaking with them. So worked with him. was a great day, all the things. He left. I didn't see him again to like a year later or so. And when I went down to meet him to walk him for this other meeting he was there to talk to us about,

before I even had the chance to like stick out my hand and say, hey, Brett, do you remember me? I'm Jordan. Like I worked with you on this show and we did that. And he said, he said, hey, Jordan. Hey, nice to see you, buddy. How are you? And like a giddy fan boy, I was just kind of. kind of like, oh, okay, yeah, hey, how's it going, Brett? You know, and he's like, he's like, and I said, shockingly, I said, I, I just didn't expect you to remember me. And he goes, of course I remember you. We talked about X, Y, and Z.

You steered me on those A, B, and C lines we were trying to get, you know, and he just, and, and I was kind of just flabbergasted and said, and I was like, okay, well, like, you know, awesome, great. Like, I'm so glad you remember me, like, yay. And I, then I started to try to kind of pivot because we were short on time. and I tried to pivot to brief him on the opportunity he was actually there to talk about and to go meet the executives about. And he stopped me and he pulled me off that. And he said he wanted to know more about what was new and exciting in my life.

And then he dropped the hammer, which still impresses me to the day and kind of gives me goosebumps. He goes and remind you, I haven't seen him in a year. He says, how's being a newlywed? Yeah. And I said, oh my God, like, I'm just the development guy. You're the celebrity. And you know and remember from over a year ago all these things and that I was about to get married when we had talked. Like I felt so validated and so heard and listened to.

And it was just such an impactful lesson that this guy who on screen is this suave, smooth, you know, lovable person that can do no wrong. wrong, he was like that off camera, from the lowest level PA to the highest level executive, he could, he only talked to people with such clear focus and understanding and excitement that you couldn't call it anything but absolute trust. Because he not only was able to let you feel like you could be who you wanted to be, but he encouraged you to tell him more and to be a part of that story. And so to this day, I still evangelize Brett as being one of the most caring and empathetic listeners. And, you know, when I say he's an empathetic listener, I don't mean that he feels like what the other person is feeling, but he just creates this space to allow you to be who you want to be,

like I said, and share it. And that to me is one of those hallmarks of like, I understand why he's a celebrity. I understand why everybody loves him. And I understand why people are loyal. And to this day, like I said, I still evangelize him as being one of the most caring and empathetic people and who taught me that lesson that I've ever worked with. It's amazing. So that's just that's an example a little more concise how I say it in the in the tenants. But those that's an example of just these interactions that I've had. And I could have learned that same thing from the barista, you know, or from somewhere else. But people also, I think when they hear that these people who we see as celebrities and these people we aspire to be are real people that have these same thoughts and

feelings and wishes for the world, then I think it resonates a little bit more for the people listening. That is an amazing, thank you. That's an amazing personal story that gives me insight into someone whom I've never met, but now I feel as if I get to learn a lesson from them through you. It's almost like contagious in some way. And I could see how that has a spillover effect into relationships. Like that, that is amazing.

We do put these celebrities sometimes on this pedestal. And if you are, you know, five people away, maybe you don't even really know why they're a celebrity. You just think that they're famous. But when you get to talk to somebody who knows somebody, you go, well, let me tell you about the great qualities this person has and what they taught me. I think that's what's, maybe that's what's missing from the,

idea of maybe that's why we're seeing this new form of communication emerges because that kind of fell away with with the scripted stuff what do you think yeah um i think we all are longing for creative ideation these days and for connectivity and i think we have we we work i think we're experiencing an overcorrection from where we were that you know from the polished to the individualized about me. I think after COVID, we were all looking to feel reconnected and feel deeper, meaningful connections and everything we do and wherever we are. So I think we're in this kind of like age of Aquarius type, you know, you know, revelation and revolution towards it's just not acceptable anymore to go back to the way it was,

you know? Yeah, I do know. I do know. I. It makes it just, you know, it kind of just makes me think like, you know, when someone lifts off the veil and you actually see behind the curtain, how do you go back to being blind, right? Like, and that's kind of how I feel we're at this place post-COVID or we're still in COVID. I know there's searches, like that we're the narrative is we're telling, you know, it's something it's we're still living with, but it's something that I think we just, we were longing for that human connection. And again, like I made the crack earlier about like, oh, you're lucky to work here kind of thing. But I think it's true. Like I think gone are the days where you, where companies can just hire and fire people at whim and, you know, not have a great work culture environment and not have certain incentives that actually create a work life balance. And speaking of work life balance, you know, I think the one thing that COVID shows, there's no such thing as a work life balance.

It's all, it's all life. So we have to bring more connectivity and creativity to it. And when we do that, the better world, we're all going to live. Yeah. Yeah. I think it speaks to the idea of meaning. I know for me and a lot of my friends in COVID and a lot of the people that I've spoken to, it was a real big wake-up call for people.

Like, what am I doing with my life? What kind of life do I want to live? Who am I? You know, we really move that curtain back, like you said. That's when I switched out of entertainment, honestly. And that's when I made the jump to, you know, this tech world. of medicine. I had a really good friend who I worked with before, Erica, and she said,

hey, I want you to come, jump ship from what you're doing and come to this medical genetics company focusing on hereditary cancer. And I said, well, cute, but I know nothing about medicine like that. And I know nothing about, you know, sales in that way, in business development with these kind of businesses. And she's like, don't worry. It's just, you know, we need big outside of the box thinkers. We need creative leaders. We need, we need these kind of these, this new way of thinking. And so that was kind of the foray into let me see, and the impetus of why I'm here with you today, is let me see if I can apply the same things that I did as a talent manager to a completely different

industry with no experience, but follow these same core tenants. And then at that point, see it comes out of a success. Because like you said, if I walk the walk, I have to talk to talk. And, you know, I can't be espousing these things that, like, it doesn't matter what you do as long as you kind of start, stay true to yourself and you, you kind of find either your own core tenants or borrow mine for a while that help guide you, you can do anything. So I had to actually prove it as a use case for myself before I could start talking to people about it and speaking about it, you know.

it sounds like your relationship with uncertainty was challenged at that point in time maybe you could talk to what is your relationship with uncertainty yeah that's a good question I think I'm getting better with it to be honest you know I you know I grew up knowing I wanted to be in the music industry that's all I wanted to do and I wanted to be an entertainment and I wanted to be a manager and that's just what I set my goal to but naturally as new opportunities came that I saw I I saw a value in pursuing. I had to inch out a little bit from my comfort zone. And I had to figure out a way if it's something that I really wanted to try and explore, not be afraid of losing what I have, but losing what I could possibly gain by not even trying is crazy. And I think on my career path,

I used to have bits of issues at times when I would try to interview for something that was like a little bit out of the wheelhouse. you know like an entertainment is very much in line if if you're if you're a music marketer you're a music marketer you're not a you're not a tv show marketer you're not a this marketer you're not it's like it's so the lane so i started out in the record industry and then i went to the talent agency world and then i did tv in working with music and creative development and then i went to a tech startup focusing had music projects but we're doing more things in medical and these other things and then i ended up at a genetics company and and my story throughout all of that

And you could see how those progresses, they diverge a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. And then until you see the end, record company medical genetics, right? But the whole through line and the whole story that I created and I had that narrative around that I had to not only remind myself and tell people is like, my through line is working with talent. It's and talent is all of us. So growing and developing businesses and going to market with certain strategies and selling products, what's, really the difference besides the major, you know, things about the industry. It's all a lot of the same skills and soft skills and the hard skills too. And so I think with uncertainty, again, like I had to ease myself into it, but then I get more comfortable with it every time I do

something different that interests me, you know, because life's too short and I've learned too much to just do anything that doesn't interest me anymore. So when you look at like that, that span and that range yeah it looks like a huge divergence but it's something that i had to talk myself into every time like can i do this am i valuable enough do i add actually any value to this like does the story makes sense why would i go from this to this to this to this but it's like how am i telling that story i'm telling that story with confidence that yes i can do this because i have done it just got a different you know name it's just got a different story a different path but it's the same work Yeah, it reminds me of a quote I heard one time that says growth and comfort can't coexist.

And it sounds to me like a lot of your success and your creativity comes from your relationship with uncertainty. Yeah, I think that's an interesting quote. So it's growth and comfort can't coexist. Yeah, like if you're comfortable, you're never really becoming the person, the best version of yourself. You know, you're slowing down on some level or you're getting calloused in some level. It's like too easy. Yeah, my first thought is kind of like I think there still will be growth, but how slow growth is that going to be, right? I think it's monumentally slower, right?

It's like you said you're comfortable. Then you have to ask yourself, why am I comfortable? Because I got the job on lock or because I'm not being challenged or because X, Y, and Z. I think you're right. I think that it takes that real uncomfortability, that discomfort to push you in a way to actually grow exponentially. You have to stretch and learn and grow. Like actually,

this bracelet I wear every day, it was gifted to me by a friend, Adam Roa, who's this great musician and kind of a spiritual guru and athletic trainer and all the things. And when I started my job at Myriad Genetics, he gave this to me, this little brass bracelet.

And it just says, seek discomfort. And I wear this, every single day because when you are in a place like you said unless you're being challenged to grow you don't have that ultimatum essentially you don't have that thing that's saying you need to figure this out and if you don't you're looking at uncertain failure and I think that's the best motivator in a lot of ways not a failure in terms of there's punishable setbacks I don't think I don't think we should look at failure as And I think that's a question I asked people in my keynote is, you know, does your manager, your manager, whether it's your boss or your mom or your,

your cousin or your barista, do they look at failure as being a punishable setback or as an opportunity to grow and learn? Right. And if they see failure as a punishable setback, then that may be a culture that you may not want to align with. Like, because I'm talking about creating cultures of empowerment and creating cultures of reciprocity for mutual growth and success with everybody. So if I'm gonna be doing punitive punishments for people who are trying to grow

and trying to stretch and trying to learn, and then I punish them for falling short of their goal, like what is that fostering? Doesn't make a lot of sense. Yeah, it's a tricky mindset though, especially when you're trying to, a lot of people who have been set in their ways for a long time.

maybe they get to this point. I'm like, okay, well, I'm going to lose everything if I do this. I'm afraid to jump right here. You know, and then what do you do when you find people that are talented like that, but they've lost the will to jump? Is there something that you can do to kind of push them? Yeah, and I want to make a quick distinction too because, like, I'm not, if you're, I'm a father of three, right?

Absolutely. At this point in my life, I'm not a 22-year-old male that can take a leap of faith. and always do something. So I do recognize that not everything always makes sense for the health and well-being of your family, depending on the extreme, right? But I do believe that nothing's impossible. So I'll say that.

Full stop. And I think that when I kind of lost again, asked that last part of the question again because I thought I had it for a second. Well, it seems to me like sometimes in periods of our growth were faced with an opportunity to live. We'll live out something we want. Yeah.

Right. So like I think, I think, and thank you for getting that. See true live, live stream, live stream of consciousness. I, you know, I think that if you are, if you're taking a risk, that's great. And when you want to help somebody, taking a risk, helping someone who's taking a risk is a risk for yourself. So I, but I think one of my, the rules that I follow is you can't care more than the talent. You just can't. Because you can see, so this kind of goes back to what I was saying is like, you encourage people to take risks and you want to help get them there. You can't push them over

the edge to do it, especially if they don't believe they can do it because then they're going to fail. And then that's going to not be conducive to your time, energies, and efforts. So I was always very conscious when I'm working with talent, musicians, especially, is I would catch myself early in my career, are caring more than they did and pushing towards getting results and knowing that, wait, wait, that's not my role. My role is to encourage and shape and develop and all these things. You're the talent. You have to care because if you're just doing something because I tell you to do it,

then the passion's not there. The success won't be there. And so I do think, like I said, there's that balance of taking calculated risks for sure and encouraging the whole team, the whole group, everybody that's with you doing that. to be just as invested, if not more than you. They have to be. Everyone has to be on that same level. Environment seems key.

Sometimes we find ourselves in the environment that's conducive to growing and learning. And sometimes we find ourselves in the environment that's pulling us back. It's an interesting road. Who's your support team? You know, it's like, who are the people you surround yourself with? You know, how do you evangelize them? And if you really are and you're really doing it in a way that's authentic and not just using people to talk up your net, like, oh, you know, whatever the case may be, I'm just, you know, I'm kind of just espousing this group of people. But if you're actually doing an authentic way and you're choosing people to be surrounded with and to learn from and have a little bit of cooperation with, then at that point, then those people are going to have reciprocity and they're going to actually.

want to evangelize you and follow you into battle. So, you know, I think I think that's a huge point that you just brought up is that network and how do you craft and create that mold and develop it and enlist people's help for different, you know, functions and for different outcomes. Because, you know, when you're looking for an answer, not every answer it can be used, like hunted down from a lone wolf, you know, he's to sometimes enlist that help. You know, I'm a big fan of altered states of awareness. For me, I'm a big fan of psychedelics.

And one thing that they have done for me is change my relationship with the way that I see myself and allow me to surrender to some of the mistakes that I've made. It can be very, you can be devastating to some people to, oh, I can't believe I did that thing. But if you can find a way through breathwork or maybe it's through exercise or through some medium, If you can find a way to approach a bad situation without judgment, it can really give you clarity on how to move forward. What's your thoughts on that? And have you ever found yourself there? Yeah, I think that kind of goes a little bit back to to that embracing failure kind of part, you know,

and that reflection that you're talking about. Yeah. And being okay to fail and how do I move forward? Like, you know, Nicole Ritchie actually taught me that. You know, that she, you know, I won't get into the whole story, but she was the one that taught me, you know, of course, she's well, when we recognize, and I talk about this, she's well resourced and she has a lot of resources that other people don't have. But the point of the matter is she has a lot of, you know, she's an author, she's a fashionista, she's a talent, she's a poet, she's a musician, she's an activist, she's an author, you know, she's all these things. And the point is she told me, you know, I only ever do things that interest me. And I said, okay, that's a little novel at first.

But then as we were talking, it kind of hit me. It's like, yes, of course she's well resourced. But she has the drive and the passion to go after every single thing she wants to that interest her. And she attacks it with her full energy. Now, she then told me, she's like, and if it, you know, if it doesn't work out, then it's okay. I embrace it and I move on. And I think that's the whole thing

is like the idea of having that tenacity, like trying. Like I said, I never fancied myself a talent. I never thought I'd be doing keynote speeches. But it's something that I wanted to do and I wanted to try because I felt passionate about it and I wanted to put out my work

and put out my thoughts and my ideas. And if it doesn't work out, it's okay. And I'll move on to something else. But I would have the regret for the rest of my life as I think, you know, man, I got these great core tenants that I should really be talking about. And, you know, who knows? Like, you know, maybe I can speak on it someday. And, you know, and if I just never pursued that, then I'd never know. So again, you know, I think finding that interest and being okay with that failure, like you were saying, that's how you kind of, you move on.

It helps you actually experience the full experience of it, push through it. and then be okay after the fact if it doesn't work out or if you fall a little short. It doesn't mean you can't try it again or try it a little differently the next time. What is your relationship to curiosity? Like this is a two-part question. The first part is what is your relationship to curiosity? And when you think of the word curious, what question comes to mind? When shit hits the fan.

I know, honestly, yeah, and I know that sounds so random. But I started learning recently and using this practice of instead of always looking at something that goes wrong, I'm an anxious person. Like I'm like I'm like I'm like a cross my teeth dot my eyes. That doesn't look dark enough. Let me double the T. Let me triple dot the eye. So and so you so obviously you can imagine just being a person in life. Shit hits the fan all day and goes off rails.

How many times a week do you have a day that goes exactly perfect to plan? the way you planned it. Never. Like, never happens. So do you imagine that source of anxiety then when you have to, when I'm confronting myself with that every day of like, oh,

someone's asked how was your day? And it was like, okay, I guess. I had this one bad phone call. And like, oh, but you went to your daughter's soccer practice.

And then you came home and you cooked. And then you're watching a movie with the family. And then, you know, the two other deals you closed and like the person you help, that doctor on the other line, you know. And why is my day relegated to that bad experience, right?

So the point being is I stopped looking at things. I'm trying to look at things instead of it being a pain point. I'm trying to look at it a sense of curiosity. Like, huh, what if things do work out? Or, wow, that really hit the fan there. I wonder how we're going to make this better. How are we going to resolve this? And so, of course, that's a little bit of a different spin on what you're talking about in terms of curiosity.

Like just the general curious nature, I think I kind of talked a little bit about that when I think that I go and I explore things that interest me. And I try to figure out if I have the passion enough to actually take it in the next step further. But now when you talk to me about curiosity, I immediately think of how I wonder how this is going to change. And if you look at things through a sense of a curious lens, as opposed to it being negative or positive or whatever, it really does actually give you a true dial in point as to what that real raw emotion that you're feeling. You know, like it may not be fully positive or fully negative, but let's be curious to unpack my feelings about it. Like, how does this shape me? How does it make me feel? and what can I do to make it right from my own perspective.

So it's a little different direction I went there. I love it. Yeah. That's why I always ask that question. I'm always curious to hear what other people, how they interpret curiosity. And when I start thinking about your background, the idea of harmony comes into my mind because you've worked in music

and you've worked with talent. And I think that harmony can be defined in so many different ways. How do you define harmony? Yeah, I guess harmony is like a present moment state of being almost. Like in my mind, you know, because when you look at music like a harmony, like it may not be a traditional like Western chord, you know, that something sounds pleasant to the ear always. It might not always, there's dissonant chords too, right?

So it can still be harmonious. And so I think that harmony in general is a state of being in a, a place in your mind when you are right with the world and you can accept it and embrace it for what's happening in that moment. Doesn't mean it's going to be perfect because there's no such thing as a perfect moment. Even those brief moments of time where we have that, that pump of excitement, that adrenaline rush and like, you know, that perfect moment on a summer day when like you're, you're either having a beer or an iced tea or whatever. And, you know, and then your favorite song is playing in the background and that slight wind breeze blows.

and you have that quick little fantasy about, you know, what if things do turn out right with this next gig or this presentation I have on Monday or this promotion I'm going for. And you have that brief moment where you just, you feel like all is right in the world. Like that's harmony. And I think if we listen to what's happening in the daily basis

and we come to things more with curiosity, we can have more of those harmonious moments because if I'm looking for a perfect moment of everything has to be exactly in alignment, I'm never going to experience it. and I'm always going to be disappointed. I love it. I do at times have those harmonious moments of insight, and I feel like they're fuel or a light or a brick on the path

to making those things happen. Is it possible that those moments of insider that harmony are like an invitation for you to continue to explore that and actually create that? Yeah, I think that's a great point. I think when you have those harmonious moments, like you said, you have that little rush of what can be. What's possible? And that's when you have daydreams. I don't know about you, but I daydream all the time.

I daydream all the time about the good, the bad, the real, the ugly. And I think that's an incredible point that you just made. It opens up the door to future thinking and more connectivity. with yourself most importantly, I think. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. I'm glad you verbalized it because as soon as you verbalized it, it gave me permission to think about it.

You know, I'm like, oh, yeah, I've had that. Right. You know, isn't it interesting this sort of language that happens between encounters? Maybe sometimes you're sitting out in your backyard and you watch the way in which the plants are growing. And it's almost like a language or you're having a conversation and you share a moment of silence. You know what I mean?

Do you think that there is a language that is speaking to us through different avenues, like through birdwatching or watching the plants grow or moments of silence? Do you think there's something bigger that's constantly trying to inspire us and speak to us? 100%. And I think that is the nature of why we all exist. I'm serious. We're all stardust, right? We're all stardust, right?

So when I see something happening, I'm alive, I'm present, I'm in the moment, that should spark something in me, a thought, a clue to investigate something a little bit deeper within myself, within the world, within what I'm visualizing, with what I'm seeing, like these little moments we should take as clues to dig deeper. And I think a lot of times a lot of us don't take the time to do that and reflect on what that means, you know, we have to. We have to do that. Otherwise, otherwise, you're just floating through and you're just experiencing what the world wants you to experience, what you're constantly being bombarded with. You have to break away from that, have a little bit more of,

you know, take those clues in those moments and try to gain some insight to yourself in the world around you when you experience those, for sure. sure. I know we're kind of, how are you doing on time? I know we're coming up on about an hour all day. I'm good. I'm good. Okay. Fantastic. Because the next question I have that is along this line right here is I think it's interesting. If we tie together what we just spoke about harmonious moments, about something bigger than us that's trying to speak to us, the concept, the ideas that you spoke about Brett Michaels and understanding that he's, teaching you something far beyond relationships when he's talking to you. Is that something that you

were kind of born with? Or did you have a mentor that kind of helps show you the ropes of seeing the bigger picture or like a sort of a spiritual mentor on some level? Or was there something that happened in your life that kind of opened the aperture a little bit to say, hey, this is a little different. Yeah, you know, and I would say, too, just like what you just mentioned, it sparked something in me is like, you know, Brett Michaels didn't know he was teaching me that. Right, right, exactly. He was being his authentic self. Yes.

And I experienced it and I took the time to reflect on it later and see what I could learn and glean from that. And then I tried to implement more of that in my life. So it's exactly what you're talking about when you get those little moments. Like how do you reflect and think about it and how do you implement and what does it mean and how does it feel and what does it make you experience? Those kind of thoughts. So yes and. Man, that just kind of tripped me out for a second. Yeah.

And then I lost exactly again what you were asking on that for it. Yeah. It speaks to the idea of contagious well-being. Like lessons learn from the insights of others in authenticity. And there's something. magnificent about that. And it happens on a daily basis and not enough people embrace it. Like you can walk away from a conversation and feel enlightened for a little bit.

Like that gift of like, wow, you know what I just learned? Someone's like, who cares? That guy was talking about birds. And you're like, no, no, no. Did you see the way he talked about birds? You know, sometimes if we can just step outside ourselves and get the real miracle of it, like I want people to embrace that and to understand that, Every conversation has the opportunity to enlighten you to a lesson on some level.

Like, the way, it's full of miracles, right? I mean, and it is. I mean, you can learn a lesson from anything at any point in time. If you take a minute, that will grant any and everything probably. But, you know, I mean, you can take that. And again, it's just like someone gives you any kind of information you learn. Like, where do you prioritize that in your own life, in your own mind? And how important is it for you to expound upon that?

So I think the people who learn and can tap into those ideas of connectivity, those are the people that will find greater success in life and their relationships and their careers. Is that when you listen to those clues and you take in those inputs, you digest them and then you output something, And like you're automatically going to be better off than the person who gets the input, doesn't even chew it, let alone digest it, and then just moves on. Because even if it's minuscule, like we were talking about earlier, like growth, like, are you challenging yourself to grow? Are you challenging? Are you, when those inputs happen in those moments of these experiences, these clues happen, am I, what am I doing with that? Of course, everybody will grow a little bit through age and knowledge and, you know, experience.

But you'll grow exponentially faster if you're listening to actually what's happening and you pay attention to those signs and signals. Yeah. I've been doing this thought exercise. I want to get your opinion. I've been making my way through the world where I envision everybody I talk to is the planet talking to me. So when I see somebody and like they do something that really bothers me, that I would normally be like, where I would get mad,

but that's so annoying. Like, I realize that that's the world telling me that I'm annoying. Like, hey, you know how I know that that person's annoying? It's because I'm annoying.

And I do that, and I recognize it in that other person right there. So I always start, like, I always start laughing. Like, I start off and my wife,

it drives her crazy because I'll be like, I just put my head and I start laughing and she looks at me and she's like, I don't even want to know, George. I don't even want to know.

You know, but it's been a really cool thought experiment. It's really helped me, understand who I am. If you can just see everybody as like a lens or a mirror on some level, you can do a lot of learning. And it's helped me pull myself out of like a poverty mindset where I was angry or I was upset all the time or maybe maybe scarcity is a better word. Have you ever found yourself in like a scarcity mindset? And if so, how do you get out of that? Yeah, I think I think exactly what you were saying about imagining it as a world. I, I imagine that as myself. Like I'm working on it,

more and more. But when something like that happens, I'm like, well, what does this say about me? Yeah. Because honestly, they don't care. It stirred something in me that brought it up and made it personal to me and pissed me off and made me feel that way. So like, what is that saying about me? Yeah. That's what I'm getting mad at them about or angry or frustrated is something that I'm recognizing on a subconscious level about myself that I do not like. yep that's well said so you have to understand that those little microaggressions you feel there's something inside of you that you're just not viving with and something isn't just off

and instead of trying to blame them and point the finger you know you realize this is something that is happening inside of me like you get cut off on the freeway yeah you might be scared or shocked for a second because you're adrenaline pumping and you know you almost got hit this guy almost hit you or whatever but shouldn't it stop at that like shouldn't it stop at like i i got scared for my life for a second or for whatever no then you're like oh no that you know i got it like i hate the bumper sticker all right it's like i'm taking out this frustration and anger or or or whatnot on somebody else because they just gave me an input i digested it And the output I'm getting is not equitable with like, you know, of what I, what I should feel about that person.

It's what I feel about myself. Now, that might be a bad example because it's, you know, driving and everyone gets road rage at times. But I think that's kind of just harkens back to the whole point. It's like, you know, you, we're all connected. Like I said, we're all star dust. We're all made from the same, literally the same materials. So there's got to be some kind of empathetic connection that we have on even a super subcontact. super subconscious level like we we have to be so let's use that clue because on on the one hand if we think about it like all theoretically if somebody does something to me since we are all from the same thing that's kind of like me doing it to myself if you know if i have that if i have that mindset and i know that what they're what they're stirring up in me is something that i'm not

happy about myself you know i'm not happy with about myself then then that's when i feel it deeper That's when it hurts. That's when you kind of have that misplaced anger. So if you take that moment, you can take a pause and a breath and realize like this is, this is something in me that needs to change. I think those are the people who are who not only communicate better, they feel more connected. And they live better lives. Yeah.

Yeah, I think they do too. I on some level, you know, we talked about whether it's road rage or relationships, when we look at generational trauma, the word programming comes to mind. And you've worked with genetics on some level. Maybe we're pre-programmed to relive out the fears that happen to our mom or our dad or our ancestors on some level. Like we're reacting out these irrational fears

or perhaps irrational dreams sometimes. And maybe we could, I'm trying to tie together this idea of programming because I think the programming that we're, we get coming into this life in some ways echoes the program that we've seen on TV. And an example of that is anybody who's ever watched a sitcom and then has watched that same sitcom without the laugh track, like it's not very funny on some level. But if you think about it on a grand scale, you watching a program with a laugh track being taught to laugh at something that might be a little bit sinister, you carry that sinister vision of programming with you throughout there. And

now we have this new version of programming, this new version of communicating or this new version of connection. Like, I don't think it's a coincidence, right? Like, I know that's kind of a meandering question, but I just a shotgun out the back door right there, but your ideas on programming and the way it's evolving, whether it's trauma or its connections through future entertainment. Yeah, so programming, I think, like you brought it up, there's more scientific correlation, and I'm, of course, no experts.

But, you know, there's more and more people that are realizing and recognizing that generational traumas can be transferred and they do get kind of, you know, absorbed. So on a scientific level, I think there's some evidence out there for that. And like you said, we are programmed from the moment we come out of the womb to do things a certain way, to achieve certain things, to do the right way of the right way of. doing it and those things do change over generations. But we're constantly in a state where we're being told exactly what to do and how to do it if we want to feel valuable, we want to feel successful and we want to feel meaning in our lives. And I think that when it's okay, I used to kind of bring about this example being biracial. And a lot of people look at me and they don't know I'm half black and half white. They just don't, right? And a lot of times when I talk to people

about races, you know, we're programmed and we're inherently like always looking at people and sizing people at that on a human level. You know, first time you meet somebody in person, just your natural instinct is to like, if you're a guy, you're like, is he bigger than me? Is he buffer than me? Is he cool with me? Is he this with me? And even on a subconscious level, you're just programmed to kind of evaluate and to have a certain kind of response. Same thing with a man with a female. It's not always sexualized and I'm, you know, I don't mean to label anybody. But it's like, you know, when you're talking to a woman for the first time,

subconsciously in your mind, you're like, is this somebody that I can marry and mate with and have a baby? Is this somebody that reminds me of my mother that I'm trying to have this connection with? Is it like so I think when you first meet people, you're always programmed at like, instantly in our brain to like size them up figure out how we're going to engage with them within a split millisecond but i think the difference that that that changes us from um having those experiences and those programmed responses is that that pause and that moment of reflection like we were talking about it's like and it's okay to have that initial reaction it's okay to be like to meet someone for the first

time be like i don't know about this guy he's a lot bigger than me live stronger he might beat me up But then give them, take a breath and shake their hand and actually experience what the truth of it is aside from the programmed input that you're provided naturally. And so, like, that was a different way of kind of speaking as we're going across. But I think same thing with the way we programmed our cultures and our communities. There's different ways to do it that are more harmonious and that add to more connection with people. So we just have to break away from those, those pre-programmed ideas, genetically, societally, you know, physically, all the, all the different ways and kind of just be open to what is coming at you and evaluating it.

And then making a decision based on a universal truth, not on some kind of politics or gender or any kind of idea that is forced on you or that you feel like has to define the box. but look at it and look at it as how is this a universal truth in terms of wanting to feel love and connection wanting to treat people right wanting the best for people while wanting the best for myself and if i think if we focus more on universal truths instead of these political lines or these social lines or these divisive tribalistic views on things you know that's just half the battle right there, you know, that's half the battle. I mean, maybe we all need to like smoke a blunt together or do something like, you know, I don't know, we could do some mushrooms or some LSD or something like that. And that's the crazy thing is when people talk about that, it's almost like a

tongue-in-cheek joke, but obviously the science behind it, the soundness of unlocking parts of your brain that are breaking away from that pre-programmed life that we've been accustomed to for however many days, weeks, months, years we've been on this planet. And again, it's not saying like, oh, everyone just go drop acid and drive on the freeway or whatever. But like you said, do you find that openness and that connectivity through yoga and breathwork? Yeah. You know, when you unlock parts of your brain by communicating with people or by listening to stories or listening to music, like how do you unlock parts of your brain that give you the more creative freedom to experience life in different ways. I think that's the key. And I think we need to find more creative outlets,

you know, to do that. Man, now you're talking to my language. I have an affinity for psychedelics. And I remember the first time that I did mushrooms when I was like 17. And I went to the Pink Floyd Laser Show. And, you know, me and my buddy split like an eighth. And I'll never forget this feeling of first being out of control and then a warm wave of knowing washing over me with things made sense for the first time. And I can't explain exactly what it was that made sense, but I can't explain to you the feeling of wholeness that I felt for the first time like, oh, and I get goosebumps when I think about it right now. There's a plan. Oh, there is something bigger there. Like, I feel like so many of us are brought up in this.

world of isolation, whether it's our family's views, our community's views, and rightfully so, like, those are the rails that are placed upon us to keep us in a lane. Here is the, here is the standard default mode network. You can stay safe. But for those who find the spark of creativity or for those who are wandering or curious, there's a trail off the beaten path that's calling your name and psychedelics on some level for me. I don't advocate it for everybody, but they have helped me fundamentally create a linguistic pathway to describe a better reality. And once I had that linguistic pathway, I could walk towards it. I could see it. I could imagine it. I could visualize it. I could bring it into my in my world. I can grab it.

You were exposed to a new reality. Yeah, you were exposed to a new reality. And it gave you an idea of what is possible and what can't be. And a lot of times, even and that's that's I think one of the disservice is people who do casual drugs who don't understand why they're doing it or what they want to do and there's nothing wrong with doing casual drugs if that's what you want to do I think that we're always always always always trying to find ways to connect with more people yeah and to and to end to be on the same level and so however we get there we we we need to all get there, right?

I think that, again, the disservice I'm talking about is, like, I think people who go to a party and, like, and do drugs or whatever and do psychedelics, like they, I, my wish for them wasn't to do it or not to do it. My wish for them is, while you're doing it, what are you feeling? What are you thinking? Where are you learning from that?

What are the clues you're pulling from it? And like a lot, I think that's the difference in people's mindsets, is that like having that seeker mentality and that wanting to find out like more things about yourself in any situation, whether you're on drugs, whether you're on sober, whether your child is screaming at you, whether your boss just yelled at you, whether you just felt guilty for cutting someone off on the freeway, you know, be open to those clues and those signs and hear what something's trying to tell you because you took the time to listen and hear and it made it had a profound impact on you how many of those profound impacts are we all missing every day

by just not listening a lot a lot i think we i i feel like we're on the cusp of i feel like as a species we're just beginning to learn how to communicate for so long if you look back at the problems that we've had it's just this inability to thoroughly communicate meaning to one another Like we have these, so many people's side monologue or they, like you said, they don't listen and they're waiting to talk instead of like, I wonder what this person is trying to tell me or feel. But every now and then you read, you hear a song or you read some poetry and you're like, I get it. You know, it's this light bulb goes off. And I think with AI, with this sort of ability for you and I to come across and have the stream of conscience of two parts of the planet and have a meaningful dialogue and share it with other people, we're finally getting to sound out the vowel. to create meaningful language with each other.

What do you think? Yeah, I think the more and more we have the tools around us to experience those things on a deeper level, AI included. Like, AI is not here to replace us. I mean, it might, if SkyNet awakens, you know, that whole thing. But, like, honestly, it's a tool that can help us experience things in a deeper level, find out answers quicker to then make a more. meaningful life or to drive towards quicker solutions it's it's just like anything else just like the

hammer just like you know elevators and cars and whatever like of course anything can be replaced by anything else but it's like how do we choose to implement these things how do we how do we choose to look at it as a value add instead of a negative detractor in a way yeah anytime you're afraid of something and you give it power over you and you can't work with it. And it's not going to stop it from coming. It's definitely not. It's going to paralyze you and it's going to steamroll you. And I get those people who have arguments that are like, well, you know,

AIs are going to take all our jobs and they're going to do this and they're going to do that. You know, if you look at the history of any type of innovation, any type of innovation, there's a certain percentage of jobs and people that it does displace. And that is an unfortunate reality of, of, innovation, but how many more jobs are created because new industries are created and because new modes and things that we can't even conceive and comprehend right now of what that means for us, what that actually is going to drive towards for us, we can't even begin to think of all the use cases. So for me to just as a blanket statement, just say, well, AI is bad. It's going to kill us or

destroy all the jobs, you know, I just don't think that people have an appetite to let it do that all the time. We always need the humanity and we always are looking for the humanity. And yes, AI can probably make a dope trap beat and, you know, bring Tupac back to life, all that good stuff or whatever. But like, am I going to stop listening to Tupac because no, you're not. Are you going to stop having people make real music or, you know, some of the most, the best music have mistakes in them and flubs in them and you know and you can you can program a computer to have more humanistic qualities and mistakes like that but if you just know that you're seeing something that is not all human i think there's a natural there's only so much of an appetite people have i think it's a

novelty in some way and i don't think it's going to take over all of our creative endeavors i think it's going to definitely help with manufacturing and with computing and science and all these other things but you might have seen that like you know they um what was that recently when like an a i was like like, you know, launch, it was like supposed to be guiding a spaceship or like or whatever. And like, you know, it crashed and burned and like, you know, it's because it doesn't understand all the humanistic things. It's ones and zeros. There's all kinds of things in between that gray area that make us human that it will never replace. So let it replace the things that will benefit us and not destroy us hopefully. And then everything else will pick up the pieces and we'll

figure it out together as long as we are looking for more creative solutions because clearly all of our institutions are not creative enough. If they were, all big problems would be solved and all people would feel fulfilled in their work and their jobs. Yeah. So clearly, institutions aren't creative enough. So let's get them a little bit more creative. And how can we do that and help that, you know,

regardless of AI, you know, just in general. Yeah, I think we've picked all the low-hanging fruit. I think that the world belongs to the creator. And in each one of us lives a creator. that's just striving to get out and create something and show this unique beauty that every person, everybody has that, that divine spark in them that's want to create. Like, hey, watch this. Watch this magic I can do.

And I think that's what AI is allowing people to do. And an example of that is people who may think AI is going to take away stuff. Think about watching a really good guitar play. My friend Adam Lopez, is an awesome guitarist. And he talks about the difference between Nashville and playing live. He goes, George, when I go to Nashville and people want to record, you go in there, you hit one chord and then they repeat it. Like just repeat it for the whole song.

He's like, I like to play at a venue because the people, my audience, get to hear me playing a way that I'll never play again. I'll never play the same song twice. Every time it's a new song. You know, you can look back to the 60s or your favorite band. I got to see, I got to see Lenny Krabbits at San Diego. That was one of his best performances, You know what I mean?

And like there's something magic that you share with the individuals when you create something together, whether you're in the audience or whether you're playing. And that's the thing AI can never take away is like that human component that one time you hit the bar a little bit hot. A little bit longer. Woo! That was right when I was peaking. Oh, it was perfect. I'm telling you, man, like honestly, you, music is like the first, like, pretty much like one of the first ways we ever communicated. You know, the first instruments were our voices and clapping and stomping around the campfire.

Like, it's just something that's inherent in all of us in terms of communication. And like I said, there's such an amazing, like, I don't want, when I go hear a concert, I don't want to hear the exact same thing I heard on the record, right? I want to hear that nuanced sound, that performance, right? Like one of my favorite examples of this is Lauren Hill. You know, are you familiar with her song, Like Water? No, I know Lauren Hill, but I haven't heard that song. Totally fine.

I think your homework assignment. Okay. Write it down right now. There's a song by Lauren Hill called Like Water. Okay. And she did an MTV unplugged album of like a kind of like a greatest hits compilation back when, you know, those were kind of when Jay-Z was doing his and like, right. But when Lauren Hill did hers, she had like laryngitis or like a crazy hangar. over or something. I don't want to speculate. Lauren, I don't know you. I'm sorry. We've never met.

I don't want to ever say legal and compliance. Don't get after me. But you could tell she was sick and she had lost her voice. And so by the time she gets to the song, Like Water, that is just this like hard piece for anybody to sing. You have Lauren struggling to hit these high notes and her voice is crackling and cragling and it is the best version of Like Water that you will ever hear. hear from Lauren or anybody else. There gets to this one point at the end of the song where she goes like, around, around, around. You know, and she's doing this thing with her voice,

and it's just crackling and that is the peak. You cannot get the crazy shivers and chills when you hear that and you can't almost not tear up because it's so beautiful. And the thing that makes it so perfect is because it's imperfect. And because it is so human And because it's her flaws and her pain and her joy and everything is felt in that moment,

there's no way AI will ever do that for me personally, especially if I know that it is AI. So right there, maybe AI can help me edit my movie faster or color correct it better. Or yeah, you know, those horses in the background, like, you know, let's save some money on the budget or whatever. Like I admittedly, if it came out tomorrow on Netflix, the first all, AI film, sound, music, all the things, I'd watch it. I'd watch it to see the novelty of it. I'd probably watch another one five years from now,

five years after that, five years after that. But the minute I know that there's not a human element and a human touch in it, that's how we create, how we do it, it just doesn't appeal to me as much. It's like one that's perfect that tries not to be perfect. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if I get down with that. Yeah, there's, there's,

there's a humanness that you can recognize, you know, and maybe it's, maybe it has to do with suffering, you know, maybe that's the one thing that we all share is suffering. And I'm not sure that AI will ever be able to mimic that. You know, you can see it, you could feel it around someone who's been through a tragedy. You know, that is humanness. Like, and I don't, I don't know that AI will ever be able to do that. And I, that would be awesome if AI could suffer for us, you know but that it's like the buddhist saying you know life is suffering or whatever you know and like are you familiar with the course of miracles you heard of the course of miracles yes of course right and so like one of the guiding principles and you know don't quote me on it but like in course

of miracles is you know that what we living in as humans this is the hell like this is the hell like this is we've deviated from god or spirit or whoever you want to call it we've deviated from them we're here now to experience the things we do to each other as people and when we die there's no heaven or hell there's just a reconnection with spirit and so like if you think about it like that and you think this is like because the stuff we put ourselves through on the daily basis the way we treat each other as humans the way we um treat ourselves you know with yeah it's it that that is the hell right even when it's reflected when we reflect that in the media we see and watch and we do like that like why would we put ourselves through that necessarily of course to learn a lesson but like the things we do like we're

in it now this is this is the hardship right this is the hard shit i have to believe that yeah yeah it's it's the unknowable mystery that keeps us both on our toes and at the same time depressed and happy and it's it's hard to to sit with it sometimes, you know, but I think that if you just sit with it, that's, that's where you, it's where the juice is, you know, I got, um, sitting with it. Yeah, those clues. Yeah. I have a, I had a couple audience members that send in some questions, Jordan, can I ask them to you? Yeah, absolutely, of course. I forgot there's actually, we're streaming this live. I know. Oh, shit. Exactly. Legal and compliance. Lorne Hill, I love you. I'm so sorry.

Okay. We, um, integration of disciplines. How do you integrate? the diverse knowledge and experiences from various industries into a cohesive approach to problem solving and innovation. Yeah, I think that's exactly what we all are talking about today and what we're striving,

is that these, it's the story we tell each other. It's the story we experience. It's creating that through line. You know, if I'm a, if I'm a baker, you know, and I'm used to baking me,

muffins. I know the art of baking. I understand the concepts of what yeast does and how I have to, you know, cook it a certain way and do certain things and these core principles. Like, who's to say I can't start making croissants? I'm still a baker. I'm just now going to bake something else. But I need to understand my role. I need to understand this little industry part of it, but the core ideas and the core inside that I have of baking is in there. And I know, and I know how to bake something well. I just need to learn and grow and stretch something new. So I think that clear cohesion of industries and jobs and this fake illusion that we have that you can't work in, in, you know, in accounting because you came from HR or you can't,

You can't do, you know, be a carpenter when you used to just do steel work. You know, I think you have to give yourself the space and the time to understand that those skills are transferable. Those things that you are doing are not, there are some things, of course, that are industry specific, but you'll learn those. But inherently, the things that you're trying to do, it's that story of, that you are a creator, you are a baker, you are a builder, you are a, whatever the case may be, you have to always just kind of to remember that. Because like I said, before, what are the real differences, you know, between industries when you're driving a product to market, when you're creating a sales force, when you're doing whatever,

they're the same things. You're just learning how to do it in a different industry, essentially, with a different end product. Right. Oh, am I losing you? Did I lose you a bit? Oh, just a second. It kind of flaked out for a second. Do you have any speculations on what the future of entertainment might look like?

Oh, I lost you there. Oh, I'm still here. Can you get me? Do you got me? Oh, okay, I got you there. There we go. There we go. Okay.

Back. The future of entertainment. Do you have any thoughts, George? on what you want okay so i think we're working with a little delay which is great true life podcast i think we're uh we're gonna make sure that we get it you know i it's so funny you ask me that because i was on the airport or i was at the airport the other day and i was listening and eavesdropping with these three young women having a conversation um and and and i love i love eavesdropping people watching ease dropping is like my favorite thing in the world

uh so i'm on the lax exit bus, you know, once you get off the bus and you, uh, I don't know, I don't know if you guys know this, but at LAX, they change their whole system. So now you can't just get an Uber at the gate anymore. You have to get on a bus to take you to an Uber place or whatever. So we're on the bus going to the Uber lift locations. And, you know, I all of a sudden these girls are talking and they're in their like mid-20s, I'd say. And I can tell for their conversation, they actually work in production, right? And I think this is important to the question. And so one of the girls just all of a sudden says, you know, I'm not really into like TV.

And, and I was thinking like, that's so weird, you know, I love like I still, regardless of what streaming services we have, my wife and I still love like, you know, basic cable shows that are like your guilty pleasure dick, Dick Wolf shows or whatever, you know. And so, and, and I was expecting the girl to kind of be like, what, you don't like TV, and they're, they both just kind of say, yeah, yeah, me too. And so I'm like, I'm like, okay, now I'm interested. now I'm interested in what you're saying because I knew they're in some kind of production before, some entertainment production hearing them talk. And so this woman says that. And then the next thing she

says is, you know, I would rather just scroll on TikTok for hours. And then her reasoning behind it was because I'm going to have to watch at least two or three episodes to really understand who everyone is to really actually know what the story is, to understand all these things. And she's like, I don't have time for that. And then simultaneously, she said, though, but have you seen that new show? It's called like medieval or something like that,

or it's called Renfair or something like that. It's about people, Rinfair, nonscripted. And I thought to myself, that is so interesting. And the point of the story is, these are young people in production making content that are so aligned to, day with short form content that scrolls past that I can watch something for one to two minutes, two minutes pushing it and still feel like I've heard a story from beginning to end in a micro way

and now can now can move on and I don't have to spend three hours of my day or three weeks in a row to then you know experience something. I don't personally like that myself. Like I like to do more character development and drive and see what really happens in the art form of these stories because I do think there is like a lower barrier entry for entertainment these days. But I think what I, my prediction is, and this is just my naive prediction is I think that there's going to be two camps essentially. It's going to be it's going to be short form content on all levels like micro like micro things. And then it's going to be streaming services. And the streaming services when a new show is out, you'll be able to watch the entire thing every single time from front to end back to back so you can either binge it or not.

And not only that, I think that the way we're moving, we're streaming services used to offer so much more. And we were moving away from kind of like certain monopolies like in television and things. Now we're all kind of coming back to the same thing. Like you almost have to have, you know, you used to be able to have basic cable and then have like one or two streaming services and watch everything you wanted under the sun. Now I have to have 15 different streaming services, and I have to have a cable package, and now these people bought this, or this is my favorite sports team. Now I have to actually buy YouTube premium or whatever the case may be. So I think people are going to get tired of that model. I think that it's just becoming exorbitantly expensive.

And I hope and my wish, and what I think is probably going to happen is you can probably start buying things a la carte, regardless of a network or show. like you don't have you know like how you can kind of download something on amazon like a show or an album or something like that i think that won't be necessarily you won't have to be an amazon member or you won't have to have Netflix to watch the new game of thrones or you won't have to have this you can download it on some kind of a generic device and pick and choose where you want to see and not have to sign up for a month subscription or a free trial you know for a smaller a smaller price in real time yeah i don't know yeah i know yeah i know i know i know I know someone who made 12 episodes, they had a documentary, they broke it up in 12 episodes,

and then they took the first episode and broke it up into shorts. It's doing pretty good. You know, it's like you watch the whole episode, but in minute clips. And I'm like, that's a pretty good idea, you know? That's exactly what I'm talking about. And that is an amazing, that is right there on the cusp of, like, what I was thinking, you know, and of course, that is, but that is way more flushed out than how I just described it. But yeah, like, you know, like how do you get someone, how do you, it's not an either or.

It's like, do you only want short form? She said, you know, she would rather scroll on TikTok for hours, but then she also liked this one show, Renfair or whatever is, is on right now. And I think it's going around. I've seen, seen it mentioned several times. So, but this person that you're talking about found a way to offer both, right? You can, there can be an opportunity down the road where if it gets acquired by a streaming service, or some other network that you can then send the episodes. But in the meantime, building that fan base, that content,

if they're going to watch one minute of it and they like that one minute, they'll watch the next minute and then the next minute and then the next minute. And then all of a sudden your metrics say, you know, you've had, you know, you've had, you know, 20 episodes streamed in one day, you know, like by millions of people. And those micro episodes end up being one episode. I mean, I think it's fascinating. And honestly, these are things I've probably.

would ask my people who are still in TV because I I it's like going beyond me man I just I just want to turn on TV maybe DVR or something you know yeah it's do you it on that same vein do you forecast individual creators being able to compete with giant you know conglomerance

I don't think people necessarily want to anymore or have to like Lisa Ray um she did The show, it's escaping me right now, but it's now, it's very, it's been like four or five seasons. It's awarded. It's been, you know, she started that on YouTube or Issa Ray. Sorry, her name's Issa, like Issa Ray. And she had a YouTube show that then got acquired and then it was on a network and then it got a bunch of Emmys and all these other things after a few

a few seasons. I don't think the individual creator nowadays, like we have that innate nature, like we said to want to communicate, want to share, want to tell stories, want to do these things. I think the vast majority of people that are millennials and Gen Zers and Gen Alpha particularly, I don't think they care about competing with the big guys. I think they know that they can be exactly who they grew up watching and aspiring to be in terms of content creators without having a TV deal, without needing to have a major television. Why do that? Brands hit me up all the time. They send me free stuff. They pay me to make a video to mention on my video, I'm already going to do it. And I have 23 million followers.

Like, I get asked to go to conventions. People see me in the airport. They know who I am. I'm getting interviewed on my True Life podcast. You know, like they have these, they have these, like, just these different goals and aspirations than what traditional media is doing right now. And I don't think they care to compete, nor would they want to. There's, I think there's probably tons of examples of people who were offered big network deals, but they had to sign away their likeness or they had to give up distribution or they had to do this on the third and they're like, nah, I'll just go upload this tomorrow next week and make, you know, however many thousands of dollars or whatever, you know, or I'll put it on my only fans account, you know, like,

like, you know, and that's and I and I joke about the only fans are like, you know, the porn hub thing, but you know, people upload legitimate content to there because it's salacious. But like, you know, people upload like to porn hub like math tutorials. That get millions and millions and millions of views and that creator is getting paid out. Because the novelty that he's teaching a math lesson on porn hub and there's nothing sexual about it at all, but that it's like the incentive is there for him to post it as opposed to YouTube is my point. Like he can get more eyeballs on that because whatever the case and reasons. So I don't think, I think the traditional way of doing media in general is just going out the window.

It's going to be evolving further and further. And like I said, we can't even with AI in that, we can't even pretend to know what direction it's about to go in the next four years, let alone 10. That sounds like math is getting sexy again. I love Rockets lunch. Jordan, you are awesome, man. I truly appreciate the conversation.

And I love being able to have a free-flowing conversation and just get to pick the brain of cool people and have a cool conversation and I really appreciate you spend time with me and my audience but before I let you go, where can people find you? What do you have coming up

and what are you excited about? Yeah, so I would say if you want to know more about like the 12 10th of talent management that I'm doing, go to Jordan Richardson speaking.com and all my social handles which are actually full transparency.

They're growing. This is like I just am making the foray like I mentioned from talent manager to talent. So at Jordan Richardson speaking on Instagram and same thing with YouTube as Jordan Richardson speaking. So if you want to learn more about the 12 tenants, my website in particular, we'll give you a great understanding of what we can all learn from each other.

And what I'm working on now is just, you know, being the best father that I can be. I have a new daughter that's three months old. Thank you. I have three daughters. I'm a girl dad 100%. I always joke that I'm going to quit everything and start a girl band. So, you know, and what I have coming up is just sharing more things like this.

You know, I'd love to talk to people. I love to make sure we're all feeling connected. So I'm still working with Myriad Genetics and doing some great impactful work with cancer patients, which is incredible. And that's the reason why I joined Myriad Genetics is because it is the inventor of the industry. It is the gold standard. It is something that we put patients over profits all the time. So if you want to learn a little bit more about what I was doing in music and then how to,

works with genetics go to myriadgenetics.com and like i said i'm always open to whatever's interesting me so well we'll put all the links down on the show notes down there and i would recommend that everybody go and check it out and reach out to you i think we just barely scratch the surface on what you got going on and i'm really looking forward to all the projects you've got coming up i think it's amazing hang on briefly afterwards but to everybody who joined us today i hope you have a beautiful day i hope you realize that there's a little miracle coming new way and that the world there's a language trying to get a hold of you so just just listen that's all we got ladies and gentlemen aloha thanks for having me