TrueLife - Matt Ritchey - Kill The Guru, Build The Circle

Episode Date: November 12, 2025

One on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_USThe Lila Code: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4612-3942🚨🚨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/Matt Ritchey In a world high on hype and starving for truth,Matt Ritchey calls bullshit and builds integrity.He’s the architect of Inner Circle—a network of builders and leaders proving business can be sacred and true leadership are always innovating.No gurus. No smoke. No mirrors.Just leaders forged in fire—walking the razor’s edge between legality and liberation in the world of plant medicine.https://innercirclebiz.com/In This Episode:The real cost of leadership in an age of illusion.How to identify and build alliances with real leaders — not false prophets.The rise of circular economies built on reciprocity, not exploitation.How the plant medicine movement is reshaping entrepreneurship, ethics, and education.Why integrity is the ultimate disruptor in business and consciousness.How Inner Circle vets members, protects trust, and keeps the mission pure.Navigating legality, ethics, and transformation in an evolving industry.Key Takeaway:Integrity isn’t a brand. It’s a way of being — and the future belongs to those who keep their word sacred. 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, furious 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. ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the true life podcast in a world high on hype and starving for truth matt ritchie calls bullshit and builds integrity he's the architect of inner circle a network of builders and leaders proving business can be sacred and true leaders are always innovating always evolving no gurus no smoke no mirrors just leaders forged in fire walking the razors and edge between legality and liberation in the world of plant medicine. Matt Ritchie, thanks for being here today, man.

How's it going? Thank you for having me, George. I don't even know how many times I've been on now. It's at least three or four. So it's good to be back. Good to be here with your network. And I just want to say, everyone out here listening, I did not write what he just wrote there.

He wrote all of that. That's the genius of George just being aware of who people are in seeing their gifts and their beauty. So I just want to say thank you for that introduction, George. Yeah, it's a great encapsulation of what we're working on. well thanks man i've known you for a while now and i always see you man like i i remember reaching out one of the first times and being like you are an awesome community builder like you're everywhere man like i you're just in new york you're in denver every time i you know sometimes you give me

these awesome phone calls like hey george my buddy's got a boat in the harbor i'd love to see you down here i look at the invite and the boat is bigger than my house and i'm like dude look at matt ritchie matt ritchie's everywhere man so it's true you have a beautiful community and the people in your community are all leaders and they're all builders and they're all doing something really incredible man so it's true i appreciate that yeah and um sorry you didn't make it down for the boat that was our now annual uh la boat extravaganza we're just you know bringing people together and say it's always the right people in the right setting in the right conversations and the uh you know the middle the summer is a good time to take in what is around us right i mean we live in la or i live

in San Diego, we live in Southern California with these amazing, you know, weather and water, and I say people have access to these boats, and I get people all the time, we're saying, hey, let's do this, let's host it here. I'm like, all right, let's, you know, we can have a little fun and we can have a little enjoyment in the business, you know, conversations we have. So I think having the right setting, right, we talk about set and setting, like the right setting makes all the difference. And I don't really do business hotel meetings or, you know, these, you know, stuffy rooms. I mean, they're at someone's home or we're on a boat or we're or beautiful location or something to that effect or in nature because for me it's all about

connection to the people and the human element and you know stripping away all the you know the external factors you know getting down to the human element usually in beautiful set and settings that tends to happen more easily because people feel more alive they feel more connected they just feel more open and that's the beauty with a great setting yeah I think it's conducive to building relationships too when there's that trust there and there's not that edgy feeling of like we're in this we're in this guy speaking today i gotta listen to him or we're over in this conference we're in room 307 today or something like that but that's the beauty of membership right like that's what inner circle is like that's what you're buying is sort of the speed of trust

yeah that's part of it i think a lot of people too i mean i've sat in a ton of these rooms the last 15 years is that everyone's trying to sell everyone something right and like you're set at this room even if you have great you know facts and education wisdom to drop on people at the end it's kind of like hey buy my course or hey like join my club or hey, like, let's, whatever. There's nothing wrong with that per se, but people are just tired of being set up to be sold to. And, you know, we don't do that in our circle.

It's like everyone's coming to the table as an equal and, you know, share great education, great information. And if there's opportunities to work together, that's part of the conversation. But it's never, you know, whenever having, like say, you never, I just hate the whole guru model of like, you know, state, you know, educate from stage and then you're essentially selling people.

And it's like this one way street, right? So we always set up these containers, so it's back and forth, it's dynamic. It's, you know, I'm not leading, you know, I'm not better than anyone. I'm just sort of leading the container and helping everyone to connect further. And that's what people really want. They want to be seen as equal. They want to be seen as who they are.

And then, of course, if there's a chance to work with people or do business together, then that's the opportunity. Do you see that as a model, Matt? Like, I know that we were at a few events together. And specifically that 216, Jacob tells even, District 216. And I think that you were what Inner Circle doing models this as well. but it seems like the evolution of sort of getting together and building something. Like we're moving away from this idea of sit in lectures into like hands on being part of

something, bringing something to the table. And like everybody's part of the experience. It seems so much more experiential these places that I'm going to. Do you see that as a future? Is that something you're building into these models? Yeah. I mean, honestly, I've been doing that for over a decade. So we've been doing experiential events and learning for over since 2013, 2014, for sure.

I had another business called Evo experience, evolution experience, right? We would host these containers where people come in and have an experiential experience, right? Whether it would be, you know, teaching people how to cook better, teaching people how to physically move their body better, teaching people how to connect more, whatever it is. It's more about embodying it and practicing it as opposed to just hearing somebody conceptually talk about it. Because I don't know about you, but for me, I don't really learn that well listening to people. Actually, don't learn if all listening to people. If I hear you say something, I might remember it. If I see you do something, I might.

you know i might further remember that but i do it myself if i experience it if i get a taste of that that's when it actually takes hold or that's a you know a potential seed planted for something to change so yeah we're doing experiential stuff all the time like say that's been my MO because i just can't sit and you know when i started getting like the kind of leadership personal growth space in 2010 2011 that's all you did you basically you bought a ticket and you went to a hotel and someone spoke from stage for three hours and at the end they had an offer and people go to the back a room and sign up if you don't do it now you're a loser get up here let's do it this whole thing right and we just we're over that we're past the guru the whole look at me it's more of a we and and and there was a guy who

spoke on stage in 2011 i can't remember Simon man wearing he wrote a book from me to we i'm remember i read that 11 i was like this is it i was like we're going from the me guru to the we collective intelligence right the whole aGI right it's we are the collective intelligence Yeah. I like that. It's so interesting to see where we are right now. And something I'm super curious to pick your brain on is this recent Brian Johnson experiment. I've been looking through like the Twitterverse and all of these places. First off, I'm super jealous of that. That guy is crushing. And he's doing these citizen science experiments that I think are bringing so much knowledge and so much coverage to the world. It's fascinating to see. What are your thoughts on that whole experience? Well, if anyone doesn't know who Brian Johnson is, we're talking about the, there's like 10 Brian Johnson's in the world as well, even famous ones. So it's like the Brian Johnson who's the don't die, right? It's like he's the whole, his whole brand is don't die. And if anyone's been following Brian Johnson, which I have been for like three or four years, whenever he really started his journey, it's so cool to see. I did just read his his, his download, did some of his, you know, read some of his stuff and shared it on some of the platforms. I was super excited. because here's the thing like here's this guy who's essentially human guinea pig he's basically taking his own life not taking his life he's using his life to see what works and what doesn't of course for him but for the greater good so i love that i love that someone's out there

embodying and doing and you know essentially being the you know the tip of the sphere right so for me that i just want to say you know full respect to anyone who's doing that and taking on the challenge of you know becoming not sending your best self and i don't want to get into those motives and he's he's you know exchanging blood and plasm with this kid that's a whole another conversation we can maybe go into in the future. I don't have a, you know, I'm very neutral on that. But point being, getting back to the psychedelic portion of it, you know, he's just reading his thing, like say, his whole thing is around don't die, right?

And I think that, I mean, after his first experience, I'd be curious to hear, you know, his voice and how things may have changed. But just seeing his writing, I could already see he shifted. I could already see that his, maybe he's even, he talked about how he experienced death and or experience the concept of death in a greater, you know, in a greater experience in that, in that, elevated state. I think that's what a lot of people get out of a psychedelic experience, is they get this elevated perspective of, of course, we're all going to die eventually. It's just

the inevitable human cycle of this physical 3D reality, right? And I think he's, he's maybe coming to some realization of like, hey, maybe the goal isn't to die. Maybe the goal is to live in, you know, to live, to peak live, right? And whatever that means. And that's one of the things the, you know, say the riffs that I had around following Brian Johnson for the last couple years. I remember him specifically talking about him going to a concert and, you know, basically he up past his bedtime from 9 p.m. and getting all this lights and all this noise and how he didn't sleep as well and how he's basically saying, I know you guys are going to, you know, whatever, my goal is to not die. It's not to experience life to the fullest. It's not to die. I'm like,

well, that just didn't resonate with me. Like, I don't think most people don't want to not die. They want to experience life to the fullest. So that's what I hope for Brian Johnson is that he can really get that spark of, and it felt like from his first post, he was almost already there. And he's going to do a few, I think, a few other more journeys in the next month or two. So I'm curious to see after a couple high-dose psilocybin journeys where he comes with his whole business model of don't die and what that changes in his perspective and how he approaches that. Because that, that to me feels like the biggest shift for him is he's got this whole thing as like, hey, like I just, he had messed up his health to a certain degree. He's kind of brought it back 180. His whole focus is not dying.

Okay. Well, maybe the focus is like, say, is to live uppeak life and to really have a. experience like no one else that has lived before you that feels worthwhile and I'm not to say who you know what do you should do with his life but it feels like he's getting getting more meaning in his life already yeah I was following it too and for me on one hand like it's so hard for me to as a billionaire and I I can only see it through my lens of life which is not a billionaire and I look at it I'm like that's so amazing not yet man Man, not yet, maybe one day.

Some of my... I'm getting close. You know, I'm doing all right. I'm doing all right. If you woke up and had what I had, you'd jump out of window. But I'm doing all right. But when I look at Brian Johnson, it's like, I can't... And maybe this is me being a hater, but I can't help but think it's like Peter Pan a little bit.

Like, here's this guy that's talking about, I want to live forever. I want longevity. We can cure aging. And it's like, no, you can't. you cannot cure that like you can't have life without death and then i just recently read he came out with his uh a really eloquent piece about his trip and what he learned from it and his thoughts on it and like it was awesome like it was really well written but it just seems to me in his journey to live forever what he's really explaining is the process of dying he's talking

about like what if we could live without aging you know what if we could my senses were reinvigorated like I was back as a teenager. And like all these things he's describing to me aren't longevity, but the process of dying. I'm like, dude, this is kind of fascinating to think about it from that aspect. Like, he's talking about these incredible ideas. And I see it all over Twitter. I see like Peter Diamante and a lot of the people in the space with AI

are talking about the idea of fighting aging. But it seems, while beautiful, it kind of seems pedantic to me. Is that too far? What do you think? I get it. I see both sides of it. I feel as a man, you know, I'm over 40 now. And I understand the concept of like wanting to stretch your years, especially when you have them.

Yeah. Right. Like you think about something like Ryan Johnson. I don't know if he's a billionaire, but he's a centimillionaire for sure. He's got hundreds of millions of dollars. Money is a non-object, right? So when you have that type of power and resources, then it's like, okay, of course I can do all these things, but I really want to live forever.

and or like you know basically like live longer and be and what we know is we get older at least this is right my my wisdom is that the younger me didn't really know a whole lot and i'm just now getting started in a lot of senses right so like 40 on point being if you can if you could live to 120 in an effective manner that's getting shit done how how you know how great could that 80 year run be from 40 to 120 or something to that so i see the even impact in a good way that you could for the right people and I say it's like I think I look at the sentence the Senate and the our government have all these old old people right part of me is kind of like we need to have old people out of the system and what I realize is that we need it would be great to have really wise embodied people

in the system as opposed to people who are in the system and basically corrupted around them right they're in or they're part of the system now so all they're expected it's around age right like what does it mean to not say not age, but to age more gracefully or age, you know, more or in a longer period of time, that's what I think he's really going to be getting to in a sense of like, hey, like I've got to this point where I'm a peak human, you know, I'm, of course, still evolving and still learning and still growing, but it's like, hey, I have all this wisdom from business and from life and now from the psychedelic realm and this spiritual, you know, whatever I'm learning. How can I put that into a, you know, some sort of actionable plan that

is, you know, benefiting humanity. I think that is where I get excited in the sense that I don't believe any of these guys are really going to live forever like i don't think that's possible i mean i don't think that's the geographic or the uh you know the biological you know we're not in that cycle right so i think there's a right there's a thing where he can he can set the bar and or set the example of what we can do or we can start to iterate on for the next you know generation so that we can live longer healthier right i've already and i think maybe we've talked about this or maybe not but i'm 41 now four years ago i made i got the the download and the inclination that was a third of the way through my peak life. So 37 times three is 111. So I'm planning to be peak and doing stuff until

I'm 111. So the point being that, it's not that crazy to think, hey, like, maybe I could live to. I think Dave Asprey's talking about he could easily live to 150. I don't know, maybe. And it's not about the time as much as it is the journey on the way to get there, right? And, you know, if you're doing things that are impacting people's lives in a positive, positive way, if you're doing things that you're feeling fulfilled in the work you're doing and you're, you know, creating a family or creating a community of people that are doing great work as well like we want those people to live forever right we want these people to live longer because they're you know net positive for the world so i think that's the the thing that gets excited me but of course the other side of that there'll be people who use it for

evil and or use it for to continue their reign for a longer period of time and that's the dichotomy of you know say good and bad good and evil but it's kind of like well all these things are just tools right and how we use them really what matters and i think that's the that's the point i take away from brian's like hey how can he be a good an example how we use this for good And, you know, I believe in general, we're more good than bad. I think we're way more good people than bad people. So I'm on the, you know, future looks bright side of things that I think this is going to be a net positive for the, you know, for the world.

And I say, I think he's going to get over his, his ego and his, you know, whatever around, you know, not wanting to die. And I think that'll be a net positive for him as well. Yeah, that's what I said. It's such an interesting turn in the world of psychedelics where we are right now. And I love to see the citizen science aspect of it. It's sort of like the evolution of James Fademan's protocol where he invites people to try these things. And I think Brian Johnson is doing the same by putting that out there.

Like, here's what I've learned. Here's how I've done it. And he's not telling people to do it. But he's definitely laying a foundation for people to see it as a pathway to move forward, which I guess it kind of brings me up to this next question of, what an interesting time in psychedelics right now. We've got Beckley buying a tie. You got Brian Johnson. You know, we kind of see ship, we see school starting to pick up regimens and stuff.

What do you see the world of psychedelics? Are we expanding? Are we expanding? Where does the inner circle or where do you see it from your lens? It's definitely expanding. You know, I think it's been 15 months now or 14 months since we have the MDMA rolling. And, you know, since then we've had a bit of a, you know, wind out of our sales, if that makes sense. Just from everything's momentum and or energy, right?

So it's like, you know, it had a bunch of energy leading up to last year and then just like kind of fell off a cliff because it's kind of like, oh, it didn't happen. and now that's going to you know all the possible potential possibilities from that just died right not died permanently but died in the temporary so it's like we've basically been like picking ourselves back up from a from a regulatory standpoint uh you know connected to a bunch of people who are doing amazing events that are like say Brian um Brian Hubbard right if you know from Brian Hubbard he got the 50 million dollar grant in Texas they're taking that whole blueprint now in a couple weeks they're hosting something in Philadelphia called Philadelphia which is similar they're basically bringing Brian a bunch of all these senators and congressmen and um

the New Jersey governor and Pennsylvania governor and few other people are getting there. Point being, we are just at the precipice of everything. So it's like the consumer sentiment and or the business sentiment really did take a hit last year because there was all this excitement and kind of build up and then, you know, the falling flat. But then this year, of course, Denver slash Colorado really opened up the gates for people to take and get licensed and start to practice on a more legal level, which is kind of bringing things, you know, more excitement back into it. that's a new model or kind of like figuring out how that's going to work and or how can we extrapolate that into

new markets. We're still, you know, just 10 months into that experiment. So we're still just figuring that out. All the point is is that we're still nascent, still very early. And as much as we, you know, we're riding these roller coaster waves because we're part of it day to day, you know, from the outside looking in, it's going to be this like, you know, slow, you know, rise to where we're going to eventually be. I hope that eventually is that we have, you know, access to these compounds in a greater and effective way that's not controlled by big pharma and not necessarily the medical route of things. now I think that's possible and that's definitely one of the possibilities and or I think that's probable that's definitely part of the possibilities that we'll end up with but I don't want

that to be the only possibility that's why I love what what color I was doing and essentially giving people options and or decriminalizing it so you can tap your own experiments and or take on your own bodily autonomy you know the whole libertarian and he loves that in a sense that hey like people need to have choices and we're adults here and you know we have choices of our own consciousness and we want to expand or experiment with our consciousness like that's not I don't think the government has any say in how we do that or why we do that so i think we're on the right path i think it's just you know it's like the stock market everything consumer sentiment and right now the consent consumer sentiment's been set somewhat low um but like say we had a great june uh experience in

denver there's definitely things still going on you know we'd hosted the psych tank we got people that have businesses actually getting funded and there is some things that are you know looking bright but it's still you know still so early and it's still so illegal you know we think about the the money coming in, it's just barely trickling in right now just because it's just can't. I mean, we can't really get real funding into these sectors until there's some movement on legality because that's not the way money works. Money's all about risk reward. And when the risk is so high and the reward is, I don't say so low, but essentially not

anywhere close to it, the risk has to be, you know, the reward has to be way higher than the risk, right? And right now it's just inverted. So there's no real money other than angel investors and, you know, some things going like all like that. But the real money, the big money, still just waiting on the sideline, still. just kind of waiting to come into play. And, you know, that's both, you know, both good and challenging because there's, you know,

good projects out there that want the funding and there's good people out there that, you know, leaders that are operating that have a good vision and have something they're already building. And it's just going to take time and patience. And here's the real thing. It's like, are the real players, are the real leaders going to be able to stay in game, it's in the game, in business long enough to be here when we get the real legality and we get the, you know, the support and the structure that we need? I hope so. But I'm not cautiously optimistic that's going to be the thing.

You know, part of what our circle does is just help support those people, help bring those people together, help create strategic partnerships or help make connections where we need because like I say, this mycelium web is fragile. And, you know, they're not a lot of money in this ecosystem. You know, it's all about other resources. Like, how do we help each other out? How do we help build, you know, strategic partnerships? How do we create win-win scenarios amongst us? because it is still, you know, it's still a very, very cutthroat at this point as far as, you know, there's not like, there's not a lot of resources to be, you know, split up among the pie of people. So we're still, we're still early as the whole point of it.

And, you know, as much as there was momentum a year ago and that's falling off, we're still starting to kind of build that momentum back up with everything within Colorado and with everything within the, I think the regulatory system that I see that is potential, you know, I think the Texas thing was big as far as getting $50 million allocated for Ibo game. Like, that's a huge next step. And, you know, they say you just got to follow the money. When the money starts flowing, then you're like, oh, okay, there's something there. Because once the money starts flowing, that's when you know things are going to start moving.

Because that's what moves things. Unfortunately, that's the, that's the lubricator for all these programs and all these potential projects is money. And whether it be federally allocated funds or state allocated funds or, you know, having the risk-reward ratio be balanced enough where then private equity or private money can actually come in. We need that, that, you know, we need that liquidity in the space. Yeah. It's interesting to think about. I think there's some parallels to cannabis, which brings me to, and you have an incredible background in cannabis. And some of the people that you work with have been at the forefront of cannabis for a really long time.

Have you seen this new measure that's coming up where they're trying to, I think it's Rand Paul that's trying to put something in there to stop Delta 8? Or did you read up on any of these, on this policy that was coming through? I did read a little bit about that. You're not referring to the Mitch McConnell, hemp bill. thing that they're basically rewriting right now. Is that we referring to or no? Yeah. Yeah. Can you explain that? I don't know enough about it, but I thought that I'd throw it to you

because I don't thoroughly understand the concept of what happens if we let Delta 8 go or go. I didn't pay attention to the news today. I don't really pay attention to the news. But yesterday, of course, it's in the conversations to reopen the government. Basically, the 12th hour, Mitch McConnell, anyone doesn't think who that is. He's the Kentucky senator who, he's, like I say, he's the one of the ones we're talking about. He's, I don't know how he's, and he's barely still alive.

and he's basically making decisions for us, which is really inferior for me. But he slipped in these little rider basically saying that, you know, hemp can't, you know, hemp will contain 0% THD from now on, is the long and short of it. They're basically saying, hey, hemp is zero percent THC. Now, I don't think, I don't know if it passed yet or whatever, but they're essentially going to pass that to reopen the government with basically the rider that's saying, hey, within the next 365 days, this has to change. So basically we'll have 365 days to fight that combatant. And here's the thing. They're basically trying to, they're trying to pit hemp against cannabis, right? They're trying to say, oh, hemp is the, you know, the non-THC, you know, non-whatever.

And cannabis is the, okay, maybe, maybe. If we actually open it up and regulate them all under that guys, maybe. But this is all hodgepodge and whatever. And I get it. There's a lot of pushback amongst the gas station THC that's out there that's unregulated, on, you know, no certificate of analysis. You know, you don't know what's in it. And there are people who have gotten, you know, sick or just had bad medicine, right?

But the reason that exists is because we have federal legalization of the real stuff of the actual cannabis from, you know, legal farm. So this is a kind of a shit show in a sense that there's basically going to be, you know, I don't say a war, but there's going to be a war for the next 12 months to figure out how we can regulate these, this plant. Because it's all the same plant. That's the thing people don't realize. It's just, it's just like what genome, like what strain is it? Like what's, you know, we're all humans, right? like what's your DNA background? You just have a slightly different DNA background, but you're still a human.

You're still, you know, whatever. So there's this, this fight that's going to go down to see, hey, what are we calling cannabis? What are we calling hemp? What is THD and how does it impact people? I think this is the conversation we need to have. I think there's going to be more movement in the next 12 months than was previously ever, right?

Because this is the conversation that needs to happen. I think the current administration is at least open to, you know, hearing and talking about it and, you know, something about it because no one else has been wanting to do anything about it, obviously. So I'm actually cautiously optimistic that this will be good because I say it's a short term. It's like, oh, man, they're going to ban him. Okay, well, but you have a year. We have members.

I was talking to him yesterday. Like, you know, we have a year. Worst case scenario, we wind down our business and we do something, you know, different. Okay. Oh, that's the worst case scenario, which you don't want to have to do that. But, you know, if you have to do that, you have to do that in a sense that, you got to go with the current legislations and keep moving. But the point being, I think there's going to be more conversations and now more

movement to try and figure out how do we differentiate these things how do we you know create a legal landscape that actually lets these products because here's the thing like people don't realize that most CBD is hemp derived right because most people are not you know driving almost all CBD's hemp derived right so and people don't realize as well or you know Mitch McConnell definitely doesn't realize that hemp the naturally occurring thing has small amounts of THC in it it's the it's the entourage effect it's one of the cannabinoids that helped build all the other cannabinoids one that synergizes with all the other ones. So I personally do not use or do not recommend, you know, CBD, like pure CBD is not really that effective. It's just, you know, it's better than like Advil, but it's not like

it's not your, it's not going to give you the impact of a full spectrum CBD. So all that to say that there's just education that needs to go on and it's education slash, you know, fitting into the current, we'll say billing structure or what's the word I'm looking for, you know, fundraising structure of their current people, because there's a lot of people in their fundraising that don't want these compounds to be free and or open and or accessible to everyone, because that would mean way, and say, I don't know if you're following alcohol, big alcohol in that, but big alcohol's down 20 to 30 percent over the last three years. The last three years, people drinking 20 to 30 percent less alcohol. And of course, you see that going into beverages, T.D. beverages and, you know,

functional mushrooms or, of course, psychedelics and cannabis. With all that to say is they see the things coming and they're basically trying to hand it over to their constituents in a way that you know allows them the most profit and or control of these plants future so we get that we have we have a we have a year here to fight I'm very optimistic we have some fighters in our space of course educated and people who have voices and you know we'll see how it goes like say I'm hoping that you know we can yeah the Mitch McConnell's of the world and then can be educated and or just maybe out the door I say he's I don't know if you follow him but he you know he fell down couple weeks ago and he looks like he's barely alive and like he's out there he's i don't know what his

role is but he's one of the leaders of the republican party and it's like come on guys like what are we doing here like this is not it's not representation of the people right yeah not at all so much of the people in positions of authority or almost octogenarians i'm grateful that they got to serve the time they did and a lot of them had some great ideas but it's time to pass the baton like We can't have change unless we get fresh ideas and let old ideas die. Shout out to Alan Romano over here. Alan, first off, thanks for being here, man. I hope you having a beautiful day.

He says, yes, great things are happening in the field and have been for a while in terms of research and scientific data, showing the effectiveness of these medicine. However, this is not new. We have had this data for almost a full century going back to the 50s and 60s. There were thousands of articles written about the effectiveness of these medications. Not to mention that the National Institute of Drug Addiction itself knew about ibogaine before the Controlled Substance Act came out. They were about to. I think it goes on there, but, yeah, Alan, great points.

Like, this has been around for a long time. We have seen this before, Matthew. We saw this in the late 50s and into the 60s, man. Are we going to, you know, is there, is there some truth to the old idea that history doesn't repeat, but it rhymes? I do like that, actually. And, you know, I wasn't around in the 50s and 60s. I don't really know the sentiment of how things happened, but we live in a different age today with information and education with how we can transmute, you know, conversations just like this.

And I think that the, you know, the propaganda of the 50s and 60s really held down any movement of that education and that data set that he's talking about because you're right, the data's there's not like, you know, and these have been safe and effective for thousands of years amongst tribes. There's not really any, there's no real risks compared to like the normal pharma model that we have, right? Compared to the normal pharma model, this is like gold. And anyway, I digress on that. But I think for sure we're going to see, and I talk to those people all the time, I think we're going to for sure see movement on psychedelics. But it's one at a time. People think psychedelics is some broad thing. It's like every psychedelic compound one at a time will go through, but it needs to go individually, right?

So MDMA, psilocybin, DMT, ibupane. I think it's crazy they're starting with ibogaine because that's one of the strongest, you know, most. you know, impactful, not that that's bad, by my point being, I think psilocybin would be a better when to start with, especially because it's better for microdosing and or, I don't know, that's a whole other thing. I don't care which order they go in as long as they can each individually get their time in the sun and get their due court process as far as education, as far as, you know, knowing what, what they do and or do not do as far as, you know, activations. That's why I believe psychedelics will be way easier to, is going to be way easier to make legal because cannabis,

they've been muddying the waters around oh does it actually do anything you know the science says this oh no the science says that you can't you can't muddy the water around psychedelics there's such a black and white you know transformation for people especially with PTSD or people have traumatic injuries or whatever you can't muddy those waters you can muddy the water saying oh like god you know his pain went from a 10 to a 7 with CPD oh that's that's subjective right whatever you can't muddy the waters on the psychedelics so they're basically going to be forced to reclassify and deschedule these compounds one at a time because of the actual impacts they're having in people's lives in a positive way. I think that will obviously open up for cannabis and other things, but I think these

compounds will be legal first before THC will be on a better level. Wow, that's a bold statement to see, to see these coming through. I've kind of flipped a little bit. Like I, part of me thinks that I went way down the rabbit hole of like psychedelics will never be legal because they dissolve boundaries and there's no way to centralize them and without centralization you can't set up supply chains and without supply chains you can't set up real rules around it so I went down that rabbit hole for a while but then when I started seeing like recently we saw Beckley buy a Thai life science as high as a phenomenal company by the way if you get I'm not a financial advisor but I'm thinking that's a pretty awesome stock just throwing that out there for people but um you know

but then I came to this yeah yeah then I came to this realization like maybe we all win like why not let the big players buy the small players spend their fortunes in clinical trials and then i just buy my bag of iboga or my bag of iboga or my bag of mushrooms from chewy down the street now i have clinical proof from the clinical trials like i already know it works like maybe do we both win in this situation so you're saying let them take on all the you know the money or the uh the figuring out what works or what does it in the safety regulations and then we're just going to buy it on the black market like they're proving what we already know like it works why do you need to prove it unless you're going for a patent or something well exactly i don't need you're

approving i think what most people need or what the regular how the regulatory system works is you have to prove it in order for us to put our stamp of approval on right right right yeah so i think that's you know that's the inevitable end because you know most people here's the thing we're not most people now obviously we'll never try something that's not regulated and or right right i mean honestly pre-covid pre getting into the cannabis space i was a little i was way more like oh the fda is regulating our things to make sure that we're safe and effective let's make sure that we're not eating bad things or consuming bad things i don't believe that at all anymore i literally don't believe that at all that's not their goal that's not their vision their

vision is to basically steward in the the drugs that are you know that they think they making the most money on i hate to say that but it really is and it's because you know 40% of their funding comes from all the you know the pharmaceutical companies yeah now i think there's things in place that you know they're not i don't think they're just green lighting things that's killing us but they're not they're not green lighting the things that are the best and safe and most safe and effect is for us that was the case they would go out and study all these things and say hey no one's ever died from cannabis no one's ever died from psilocybin maybe we should try these right that's not what they're doing so my point being is that they're controlled if they can only

really look at and review the things that are being pushed to them, which are being pushed to them by the pharmaceutical company. So it's like a whole system that's basically corrupted that you just can't. It's really hard to break into that system, which we're like saying, having someone at the top, like Bobby Kennedy, I think helps. Yeah. That's why I'm cautiously optimistic that we could have some movement here in the next four years. But it's a process. Like I say, and honestly, you know, being American and looking at our constitution and all the craziness has happened in the last five years, I'm kind of not mad.

our process takes a little longer than I would like it to because I think about other things. I think about free speech or other things like that that they could easily just change if they wanted to, but they can't. And what I've really grown to appreciate about the USA is that we have a constitution, that Canada doesn't have, that, you know, New Zealand doesn't have or Australia doesn't have. We think these countries are the same as us. Not even close, man. It's not even close. So my point of all of that is that we will, as the people, for the people, by the people, have more say in what we do, then countries like that. And that, to me, is exciting in a sense that we can have a voice.

And I think we can have an impact on what these things, you know, how these things shake out in a way how people get access to them, how people are educated around them. And that's really the, you know, the background for inner circles. Like how do we, how do we connect and create leaders to create the best product, services, and education to steward these compounds into the mainstream in a safe and effective way? How can we bring these things to the people in the way that they need them in a way that is safe, that it keeps you know people trust it's all about trust right how do we build this trust because anyone who's taking a substance that may change their life they wouldn't be it's pretty

delicate right so you're in a very trusting situation if you're going to do that so the more trust we can build that's a human thing humans you know you don't trust products you trust humans right so the people behind the products and behind the services behind the whole system is what we need to build and that's what inner circle is about like how do we build the best humans to go out here and help build the system. Yeah. Man, now you're speaking my language. Like I, in my, in my idea of what would be greatest for us is a full disruptive force.

And I think you see that happening. I think you see an incredible force of disruption happening, not only in business or through AI, but in government, in laws, in trust. And it's interesting that all these. things go together whether it's Mitch McConnell or the FDA or some of these ideas like they're all beginning to fracture and die and while it may seem like chaos to most people I see the birth of something beautiful I see birth pains happening of people finding their own way finding trust in themselves rather than trusting a system that may or may not have their best ideas in mind like

that to me is exciting and I'm hopeful that we see this explosion of creativity with psychedelics and music and artwork, I think that's on deck when I start looking at some of these younger Gen Z people coming up with just these radical voices. I'm like, I might not agree with everything they say, but these people are talking about fundamentally changing a system that works for them. And that, to me, that's psychedelic, and that's exciting. It's disruptive. Yes.

It's needed. Nothing, it's disruptive. Yes. You can go one or two ways. It can go great or can go poorly. So disruption is not a, you know, it's not. the thing the thing is how you move past the disruption right the psychedelic experience is not the thing the integration and the embodiment is the thing right so that's that's why i agree i love that

in a sense that psychedelics is a as within so without right or as without so within yeah i think when we have that disruption internally then we have the option or the awareness and the ability to externally disrupt and i think that's what psychedelics are by nature there are a way to get us out of our normal states disrupt whatever current reality we have and you know hopefully give us some introspection on how we can be better and how we can make that disruption you know move us in a way that is positive and that's impacting of course our lives but of course the lives and the people around this i think that's the biggest thing psychedelics does is it kind of connects not kind of it connects us to the greater good of people you know making us feel connected in one whatever that is and then from there

knowing that how can i do things that are hurting other people because i'm connected to them because i'm feel like on a cellular level, we're brothers, we're connection, right? So that, that to me is where, you know, I had my psychedelic journey for 15 years now, but now just thinking back to the initial, when you have those initial disruptions, that was the disruptor of me, like, oh, my God, we're connected. I remember, I remember, like, seeing in this fly, you know, I was in the shower, I had, you know, whatever dose I was in, saw this fly, like, and it, like, got drowned, and I almost started crying, oh, let's all this fly drowning.

But you just feel the connection to all living things. And when you have that connection, you can't unsee that. You can't unfeel that. And when you have that integrated into you, then you do better. You do things that are more, you know, impactful for all, right? You're thinking about people, planet, profits, purpose. You're quadruple bottom line. You're doing things that are different, right?

You're thinking about your, in an elevated perspective, right? Yeah. That's why I have a great called elevated executive. Like, how do we get people to think in an elevated way? How do we get people, you know, specifically executives, people who are leading companies, These people are leading organizations who are leaving movements, who are leading, you know, communities and networks. How do we get them to think at that elevated level? Yeah, I love that, man.

I got to jump to some questions over here. People are blowing me up. Sophia, Araf, thank you so much for hanging out. I see you guys over here. Let me jump to them over here. So this comes to us from Sophia from Los Angeles. Sophia, thank you for being here. She says, Matt, what's the first step for someone trying to build trust in a new industry where hype outweighs integrity?

well I'm still a firm believer of looking people in the eye coming in person connecting so skipping the zooms and getting in person that's where the trust is really built I you know I host every other month I do an in-person mastermind I do every other month here I do a psychedelic salon here in San Diego how do we get people to come together connect in person as humans for humans and then from there we talk business we talk whatever but it's more hey we're all humans and You know, when we're in the same, because there's the thing, energy only transmits so much. You can kind of get a feel of my energy right now, but if you're in the room, it's just different, right? Where in physical, like say, if you look, if you're a nerd like me, I'm, you know, there's a brain called heart math. And I've been using heart math for over a decade. And the point being the heart and the brain have these energy fields. And the heart is 10 times stronger than the brain field. So when you're in a room of smart people, yeah, you might feel kind of interesting, like whatever.

If you're in a room full of heart-centered, open, you know, align people that have their heart, heart in their in their in their business and what they're doing that's different it just different and people in point being that's where you get trust like oh this person's on this person is for real this person is doing some stuff they're not just talking a good game they're actually i can feel their energy's grounded i can feel their heart is centered right that's how you build trust is get in person with people you can do that to a certain degree online you can do it to a certain degree virtually but that in-person stuff you cannot replace yeah how does that translate man like obviously you're spending a lot of time around a lot of influential people that are building incredible

things. But from your perspective and maybe some of the of the perspectives of people that you represent, how do you translate that feeling into an actual movement? You know what I mean? How do you take idea and translate it into real-time, actionable things happening on the ground? Great question. That's not an easy task because you got to go from, you know, everything starts as a concept, right? Everybody's a thought. And then it goes to potentially words and potentially into action, right? Right. It's the human process. So what I do, what we do is we bring people together. You know, we're connecting. We're just, you know, communicating as humans. And then we're sharing, you know, business ideas. Or we're sharing, like, say, we do roundtable masterminds

where people get a hot seat. And you say, hey, my name's George. I got the True Life podcast. And this is my wins for the week. I'm so grateful to whatever. And my biggest challenge is X, Y, and Z. I need, you know, I need a resource for this or I need for that. So we start to mastermind, right? That's the idea of a mastermind. We all have so many, you know, resources within our network, our beingness. And when we truly sit down and, you know, offer that to other people, magic happens. And, you know, one plus one equals five in that sense.

So we can have a group of five or, you know, 10 to 20 people mastermining together. And there's people who pop in, right? Like, oh, yeah, I have a great person resource for you over here. Oh, cool. You need to meet my friend Jimmy because he does this or whatever. Or, hey, like, let's go do the true life podcast with George. I think you'd be a great guest. Whatever, right?

Whenever you're in conversation, things just synergize. And it's really hard to replicate that virtually. And we do it. We do virtual masterminds as well. And you can, of course, the people you know and the people you're already connected with and you already know their heart, it's much easier. But how about building trust and then putting these ideas of action? That really takes, it takes some, you know, take some time to get to there, right?

So it takes some time to be able to trust the people you're doing it with. And then it takes you being to put it into action. sometimes that's a, you know, a moment and sometimes that's a week to integrate it. Sometimes it's a year. I highly recommend not waiting a year, right? The faster we can go from thought to embodiment to action, that's what's all about, right? Like, how can we go to these, you know, how can we shorten the process to making, you know, getting shit done, getting stuff happening, right?

And that's what the mastermind's about, getting people to be unlocking their genius, connecting with other, you know, resources and synergies, and then being inspired and holding each other accountable to take action on the things we're taking action on. And then, you know, we come back and you do it again a month later or a week later and keep, you know, hey, this work, this didn't work. Hey, I needed this resource. I needed that resource. And it's just a continual, we talk iron sharpening iron. Like, we're all just, we're, you know, we're not sparring in a way that's, you know, hurting each other.

But it's kind of like you're, you're sparring for a fight, right? You're all sharpening each other. You're making each other better. You're showing each other how to do it or showing, you know, my techniques on this and your techniques on that. And it's a beautiful game. Yeah, it is. I'm beginning to see this new, and maybe it's an old. idea. My grandpa used to say, if you want a new idea, read a really old book, but this idea

that can you do it without hierarchy? You know what I mean by that? Like, it seems to me the best ideas are like, if you and I are in a room, like, I know that you have this particular set of skills of building masterminds. I'm going to hand that part off to you. George, I know you're awesome at me. I'm going to hand that part off to you. It seems like an absence of hierarchy and more of an accumulation of trust and community, but it's very difficult to move without a hierarchy. What are your thoughts on that? Yeah. I've been studying people and leaders for a long time and just think about it. I mean, you're a man obviously and you've been or you hung out with a group of men before. There's almost always a natural hierarchy that forms. Of course. And it's not it's not

like chosen, it's not regiment and it's just almost forms naturally, right? So there's always going to be that in a sense. There's always going to be leaders, the leaders amongst leaders and the one A, one B in that sense of like, and I'll be fully transparent. I'm like a one B. Like, I'm okay taking the back seat to a really great leader. And I think that's honestly a great sign of being a great leader. Like, hey, like, I'm not always the best person to leader. I'm not always the most, you know, educated or the one doesn't have to be me, right? So I think that's where it really comes in.

It's like we all know we're really great at something. And when we all come together, we know that that you're better than me at a lot of things or you're better than me at your thing, right? And I think that's where the genius really comes in and we see each other as equals. Yeah. Sit it at that way called the round table. You know, everyone's at the same spot. Everyone's, you know, there's no hierarchy.

There's no head of the table. There's no, I'm the leader. And of course, I'm kind of leading the conversation, but it's not like, I'm better than you and I'm going to tell you what to do. It's not like, okay, I'm just kind of keeping the order, right? So in that sense, there almost always is a hierarchy of some sort, even just in that sense of like me leading the leaders and or we talk about like those natural hierarchies that occur.

And I say, what when I find for the best leaders and the best people who get the most synergy and the most growth is that they come in the beginner's mindset, like, hey, I know I'm a great leader. I know I'm doing whatever, but I'm, I'm coming as a beginner. Like, what can I learn from you guys? Like, what are you doing better than I'm not? Or how can I do this with my team that I'm not doing or whatever? Those are the great leaders.

And those are the, that's the synergy. And that's the stuff where we, that's what we cultivate. It's like we have the right people, bring them in for the right conversations, hold the right? And, you know, they say there's, and there's never going to be no egos, right? Especially with men and especially building businesses, there's always, especially even in psychedelics, right? Yeah. Egos still exists and hierarchies still exist to a certain degree.

so to fight the you know to try and fight hierarchy or to you know say oh we're all equal whatever it almost seems a little silly so it's like how do we how do we play with the current you know the current but how do we play with i think that's a natural law of you know the universe is like just hierarchies in general kind of form if you look look at nature like you know there's a hierarchy so i don't think it's a bad thing like i always thought like hierarchy like oh flat corporation works better yeah maybe in certain things and whatever and and i get the concept of a you know lack of a hierarchy. But in general, I hate to say this, but most people are not ready to be at that that table and be at that round table. You have to earn that. And that's not just, you know, even

building a business or whatever. It's like, how do you, you know, how do you be a leader, a leader of people, right, a leader of leaders? And, you know, it's a process. It's not like, say, people aren't just born with that. It's a process. It's like any other skill, leadership and humans and communication and all these things are just continual skill sharpening. So that's part of how do we bring the people together, bringing the table, and, you know, everyone gets a chance to be the leader and everyone gets a chance to be the student. And that's the beauty of the masterminds that you're both. You're both a leader and a student. And that's the, you know, those are the best leaders and, you know, business people that I've seen are the people who have that mindset

of knowing their belief and strong belief in what they do and also realizing they're a beginner and they don't know everything that other people are better than them at other things. Yeah, it's well said. Arif coming from San Francisco. What's all? Arif, thanks for being here, man. I appreciate it. He says, how do you spot the difference between a true collaborator and someone just looking for leverage in your circle? Good question. Well, I say I have these types of, you know, even virtual connection calls with everyone before we talk about, you know, being a part of our network. So for me, one of my superpowers is within 15 minutes or less to know if you're full of shit or not.

Or, you know, where you're at in your, in your, that's a very harsh comments. I apologize. where you're out on that journey of giving and receiving, right? And there's a lot of people who are early entrepreneurs and just kind of looking, hey, what can I learn? What can I get? And that's okay, I get it. That's a season of life.

And once you found some sort of stability offer and baseline, then it's kind of like, okay, how can I give back to other people so I can get more of what I want, right? And that's what the inner circle and that's what a mastermind is all about, giving yourself first and receiving 10x from the group because you're giving your zone of genius and then you're getting 10x the zone of genius back for you, right? So there's a lot of people who just aren't there, especially in traditional business, I don't think there's really a whole lot of incentive

to mastermind and to share ideas or to kind of help you first before you help me, right? That's not the normal M.O. for business. But we're flipping that. I mean, I've been doing it for 15 years in different industries, but like that's not, it's not crazy to think of now. And I say, honestly, the best leaders

and almost all the best business people I see, that's kind of the model they have in the sense that they say they know that they're great leader and they're awesome what they do, but they know there's other people out there better and do something different. So long story short, it's about knowing them. And sometimes, you know, I've been fooled a few times here and there, but not for very long. And it's people's true colors always come out. It may be in the first conversation and maybe in the 10th conversation,

but you can't hide who you are, especially in these types of conversations and these types of work, that's the work we're doing, right? And if you're going to hide and whatever, then that's all, you know, that's, you're not even doing the work. Right. So all that you say is that just for me, and in exit, this is a superpower. Everyone can learn. It's not like I'm special, but just I've had so many conversations with people. I've done enough stillness work and meditation work and, you know, psychedelic work where I'm able to like just be present with people and kind of feel their energy of like, what are they really wanting?

What is their value set? Now, they say one thing, but what is behind the words, right? What's the energy behind the words? I talk to my kids about this all the time because, you know, you can say the same words and different energies, they have way different meanings, right? So the energy behind the word, the intention behind the word is really what we're looking for when you have is initial conversations and just to see where they're at because vocabulary means it's so big what people are at because you can tell are they in a victim mindset are

they blaming them people are they taking responsibility are they impact you know where they at where the language telling me that they're at they can tell me one thing but the language and their energy tells me the real story man that's brilliant language is language is everything to me on so many levels you can really get an understanding of someone's inner dialogue by their outer dialogue and you're like oh i see what i wonder why they said it like that or why do they use that word but it's i agree It's brilliantly said. Mateo coming from Miami. What's up, Matteo?

How's Miami out there, man? Thanks for being here. He says, Matt, when starting a community, how do you balance inclusivity with the need to vet members for integrity? Well, yeah. We're kind of coming through the whole inclusivity, DEI conversation, right? And, yeah, it's a great conversation. There's a great question.

It's not that hard of an answer, though. Like, say, it kind of goes back to what we just. talked about and you know of course we won't include i'm back up i don't want to include everyone because you have to be somewhat exclusive to have the type of community and networks that you want to be in if you just take in everyone we'll just you know we'll extrapolate think about our our immigration policy we just take in everyone right it's probably not going to be the best you know if we have 500 million people come here in the next you know five years it's not going to be best right if we vet and look at the you know it's an meritocracy right we need to and that doesn't

mean, this is straight America to meritocracy, because it could be about heart and vision, right? You haven't maybe accomplished the things yet, but I can feel your heart. I can see the vision you have. So, okay, if you have the heart and vision, let's build. Or I can see what you've built, you're great, but you need to work on your impact and your heart. Okay, come in. Let's work on that. Where are you at on your journey? What are you willing to step into? I forget the original question. How do you build community and be inclusive without, you know, being exclusive? Yeah, I mean, here's the thing, if you're, if you're, you can't be both. You can't be fully inclusive and exclusive.

It's just this polar sides of the thing. But that doesn't mean, that's not saying I'm looking for all women or all white guys or who shows up, who's showing up. Like, I don't care. I don't care what you look like. Right, right. And that's why I think inner circle, we have way higher percentage of women than the industry does. I think we have 40 to 50% of our members are women, right, which is way higher than the

industry because they show up. They want to do the work. They need the support. They need community. They're more community, you're creatures of community than men are. So you have to be somewhat exclusive to be, you know, to have the type of community you want. Because if you just let anyone in, then it just pollutes and or just waters down the community, right? So it depends what you want.

There's layers to it too. You could have, you know, anyone come into the greater community. And then you could have more of an exclusive community that meets at a different level. There's levels to it. You have to keep, you have to keep some sort of guardrails up or else it just kind of becomes Facebook, right? Or whatever. It just becomes, you know, everything. together. And that's okay, but that's not how I build networks. The strongest networks are

more exclusive and smaller. You know, we have 100 plus members in ours, but, you know, we don't have 1,000. We don't have 10,000 members. We have 100 good members, you know, that's a lot of people. Yeah. If everybody's awesome, no one's awesome. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I want everyone to be awesome. So, I mean, if that were awesome, I mean, if that were that case, that's great. But as we know, we're humans and we're all on journey and I didn't used to be this awesome. So, you know, I'm not, you know, excluding me on that thing. I, you know, we're all in our journeys and working. But yeah, I think there's just needs to be a, what do you want to get out of the group, right? If your goal is just to have the biggest

group of people who like a certain topic, yeah, just let everyone in and just have conversations and or whatever you want to do, that's fine. But if you want to have, like for me, the goal is to have high integrity operators to work together. And you can't just let anyone in for that. You have to have both the skills and the integrity. We've held plenty of people out that didn't have the integrity but had great businesses and vice versa. We've had a lot of people who don't have great businesses but have high integrity, so we let them in

and we help them build, right? Because that's the skill we're not that. We're building both skills. We're building your integrity and or your leadership skills, but you're also building your business. I'd much rather work with somebody with a, you know, with great leadership skills in a craft business and help them build their business

as opposed to having some hot shot coming with a great business and not want to do the leadership work and pollute the conversations and pollute the overall energy of the network. And we've done a great job in keeping that out. I think we've only had one member that I've had to remove from the membership over the last five and a half years. And, you know, I'm not afraid to remove more people, but we've just done such a good job vetting people and had such magnetism for the right people, it just really hasn't been an issue. So until we get, you know, 10,000 members, I guess we'll, we're not going to get 10,000 members, but the point being, it's a numbers game and eventually you're going to get someone who makes

it through or it becomes a, you know, a problem. And that's just the way communities work. But you just got to have a system for everyone's a, it's a values aligned system. So if people are not values aligned, it'd be easy to see. Other one else can see like, what's Jimmy doing showing up on the call drunk or whatever? You know, he's just like, you know, he's just not in our values line, right? So, yeah, I think it's kind of a self-selecting community when it comes down to in the sense that people, you know, either selecting in the way in the values they have in the way

that they're building or they select themselves out. And I can just be, I'm just basically the steward of that at this point. And eventually I'm going to be, you know, someone else is going to take over that and, you know, I'll be doing other things. But in general, that that's the hardest thing to translate is like, how do we keep the community clean, how to keep the network tight, how we keep it high integrity. Yeah, it's well said. Now, Richie, I walked you right up to this 1030 mark, man. You're doing okay on time or you got some other engagements you got going on? I don't have anything at 1030, but I find need to wrap fairly soon.

Okay. Okay. I got one more question coming in from Noah, then. And let's see what Noah. Noah says, how do you foster a circular economy? How do you foster circular economy practices in a competitive industry where people usually think about only themselves? Good questions.

These are good questions. Yeah. Shout out to Noah. Thank you for being. Are coming from Austin, Texas. Thank you, Noah. What's up, Noah? Yeah.

So we can repeat the exact question again? Yeah. you foster circular economy practices in a competitive industry where people usually think only about themselves? Well, if you've been following this conversation, you'll know that our members are not in that mindset, right? So the idea that they're, we call it pay it forward, right? If you come in with the idea that you're going to take or what can I, what can I receive, you know, what can I get back to the mentality that most businesses have. Like, I'm going to come in here and how can I, how can I maximize my membership? I'm going to talk to that person over there and I'm going to go

to the membership or go to the things and ask all the right questions and get all the information right that's that's a certain type of level of leadership and or you know business leader so the idea of a circular economy is that everyone in there is paying it forward first they all have a great service or a business or whatever they have but they're paying it forward first and what that creates then is that it creates that trust right they're not just you know when you connect with somebody in the network they're not going to be like oh this guy's just trying to sell me something right or you know whatever like if you're a part of network you've connected on some level whether it be at a mastermind or even just in the directory

or you send them a DM or whatever and there's a trust level there that you know is started and then they know that you're not trying to sell them you're not trying to screw them over there's accountability built into that if they screw over another member that's a they're probably going to be out of the network right but be like and here's the thing i think generally most people are doing the best they can with the information and you know whatever they have available to them most people that are low integrity are just bad operators too much one at the end of the money to you know too little experience on how to operate and how to make decisions, whatever. So I don't, I generally think most people are doing the best thing they can.

They're not generally out there trying to like screw people over, you know, it's just, it's just not the case. I think most people are doing the best they can. And that doesn't mean they're great operator. Doesn't mean they know how to make good decisions. Doesn't mean they know what it means to create a strategic partnership. So, you know, for us, creating that circuit economy is easy, you know, creating the right, getting the right people, magnetizing the right, you know, opportunities where they'd be

brands that need these ancillary businesses, whether it be media people who can help amplify the message, whether it be marketing people who can do paid ads, whether it be compliance people who can help keep them compliant, whether it be, you know, whatever. We have people kind of doing, you know, you need insurance, you need this, we have people who are doing everything. So it creates this trust amongst people. And then we talked about earlier, once you have trust amongst the people, then of course, then let's do business together. It makes it easy because like once I trust you as a human, I know you're not going to screw me over, whatever that, you know, whatever that looks like, then I know we can do good business together.

And that makes it just simple to create the circular economy, knowing that I'm going to get the best deal. I'm going to have no issues working with them. There's accountability essentially baked into the whole system. And here's the thing. When you hold expectations for people, they tend to meet them, right? Especially in containers like this. When you hold that expectation high, people will meet you there.

And that's what I love about our circular economy is that just keeps everyone accountable. It raises the expectation level for everyone and it really just keeps, you know, keeps everyone, you know, operating at that elevated space as far as how they deal with people, how they follow up with people, how they communicate with people, how they charge people money, everything just kind of keeps that to that highest integrity level. And that for me, I say that's a, it's really hard to create a circular economy outside of that trust because how can I do business in a, you know, with people that I don't

trust or how can I create that accountability or that container without the trust? So all that basis around the human factor and being trusting. And from there, then you can create whatever systems you want, whether it be circular economy or mentor-mente or the mastermind concept or whatever, all that builds from the trust. Yeah, it's well said. Matt, Richie, always an awesome conversation, man. But before we land the plane completely, man,

where can people find you? What do you got coming up? What are you excited about? Yeah. Well, we're winding down in the year here. I think it's already, you know, first weeks of November here. I'll be doing my last mastermind in Bel Air here next week on the 18th. If you're in LA area, reach out to me if you'd like to come out and meet in person.

Like so, we have a few seats left, I think, for that. We limited that to 20 people. But yeah, we're just excited for next year. Like I said, we're launching another brand. I say InterCircle's been building, but elevated executive is my other brand that I've been building on the side for the last year or two. Basically, it helps executives and small teams and even small businesses. basically create harmony and or strategic partnerships and or, you know, placement for their

executives. So I'm really excited about all the stuff in the psychedelic space and the Canada space as well. And what we're realizing is that that's, you know, it's a slow drip. And that's, you know, nothing's changing overnight. Although we had a little bit of a change last night after they officially signed in the back to work for the government. But either way, it's just been such a slow evolution and we've built, I have a few other businesses, but I've built the inner circle for this community. And I feel great about the network we've built. I see the 100 plus members we have. And, you know, as we continue to kind of just build that, I say we have our whole East Coast team, Kyle Rosner is now based out of New Jersey. We've been, we just did

our first large event there after hollow flowers. You know, we're going to be doing more events on the East Coast and other cities next year. So keep your eyes peeled. But it's really going to be about, you know, the right opportunities for the right leaders to come together, to network, to mastermind, to, you know, bring the right conversations to the right people at the right time. That's all what it's all about. So InterCircle is five years in, almost six years in now. It would be six years in March that we started InterCircle. And yeah, it's been crazy to think this ride through the pandemic, through everything that's

happening now. And, you know, I think there's plenty of more growth for this industry, but it's going to be a, it's going to be a a low drip here for the next year or two. And then I say we'll see how the legality of all the compounds shakes out. And we're going to be here. I say it's all about creating the systems and creating the communities to take advantage of these opportunities when they come and obviously creates the opportunities by pushing legislation, by pushing these conversations and pushing the people at the top to move and take action, right, whether it be legal or otherwise. And I think inner circle is going to be a prime place for people to connect and

have those conversations and continue to be in action towards these visions and these goals so i appreciate everything you do george bringing people on having these conversations going deeper around you know all these compounds and just all the just the the transformations around them and or the you know the epiphanies and the conversations that we tend to have on this side of the the aisle that i think most people outside the psychedelic space not most people but a lot of people outside the psychedelic space aren't really thinking about and the you know the human consciousness stuff and i think it's all i say it's all scary because it's all being disrupted right now. But I think that's, that's a good thing. I think that's a, you know, this short term

uncomfortable disruption will be, you know, setting the foundation hopefully for a longer term, you know, stable, growing industry and or, you know, access to these compounds. And I'm just super grateful for that because I feel like, you know, between my health and my family's health, you know, I owe so much to these compounds. I know so much of my, my mental health and my, you know, my current elevated space and where I live in is just, it wouldn't been, it would have been possible if it weren't for cannabis, if it weren't for psychedelics, it weren't for all these different, you know, healing modalities, even just, you know, coaching and integration work. I think this is all so key to being, you know, your best human self and to do good things

in this world. I think this is psychedelics aren't for everyone and those who are called to it and those who want to have the experience. I think it's such a great tool. So thank you for continuing to put that shine on it for the, you know, putting the shine on the people who are doing it. I think the humans are the most important thing in a sense that they are the ones to build the trust, right? Because no one's really trusting the compound. No one's trusting a brand,

but trusting the humans behind it. And I think that's the element that we're looking to do the most with is how do we great, you know, create great humans to, you know, create great products and trusted resources and trusted education. And that's the game, man. And it's a slow drip, and it feels like you're hearing as quicks in sometimes. But having conversations like this and, you know, knowing the reach you have and, you know, the good conversations, you're percolating all over with these, these, you know, these conversations is exciting. So thank you, George. Yeah, man. You're very welcome. And everybody that joined us today, Ethan, Imani, Noah, Zara, Mateo, Leila, Arav, and Sophia. Go down to the show notes.

Check out Matt's links down there. Reach out to him. He's got an incredible outfit that he's working on with some incredible people. Matt, hang on briefly afterwards. But to everybody else from the sound of my voice, hope you have a beautiful day. That's all we got. Aloha. You can't be able to be able to be, wow, way, bye, blah, blah, way. It's me a heart. Yeah. You go. Better know.

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