Your Transformation Station - 131. AI in E-Commerce: What Actually Works

Episode Date: February 22, 2024

From personal finance to the innovative world of e-commerce, the conversation pivots to $SHOPX, where my Eric McHugh entrepreneurial spirit shines. Discover how this Web 3 venture is redefining the shopping experience by merging AI and blockchain, empowering brands, and revolutionizing customer interactions through unique NFT loyalty programs. The synergy between strategic thinking in chess, the discipline of Muay Thai, and the cautious dance of credit management and Bitcoin investment is dissected, revealing the art of balancing risk and reward while fortifying mental resilience. EPISODE LINKS: Eric's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericdouglasmchugh/ Eric's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ericmchugh0 $SHOPX Twitter: https://twitter.com/shopxlabs OUTLINE:  The episode's timestamps are shown here. You should be able to jump to that time by clicking the timestamp on certain podcast players. (00:00) - The Future of Currency and Bitcoin (11:21) - $SHOPX, Bitcoin, Credit Cards, Muay Thai, Chess (15:07) - Web 3 AI Entrepreneurship in E-Commerce (27:45) - Positive Mind, Trauma Healing (31:22) - Navigating Energy and Healing Trauma (40:46) - Energy Healing Retreat Discussion (47:23) - Transformative Podcast Support and Connection PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com⁠⁠ Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/apple⁠⁠ Spotify: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/spotify⁠⁠ RSS: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/rss⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/youtube⁠⁠ SUPPORT & CONNECT: - Facebook: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/facebook⁠⁠ - Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/instagram⁠⁠ - TikTok: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/tiktok⁠⁠ - Twitter: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/x⁠⁠ - Pinterest: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/pinterest⁠⁠ - Linkedin: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/linkedin⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I've talked with a lot of people, and it's 50-50, where some are saying it's a risk and others are saying to put your money into something else. I mean, to diversify, have a well-diverse portfolio, and you're saying that Bitcoin is something that we are transitioning to? Or are you alluding to that that's what we should be focusing? You're listening to a podcast that encourages you to embrace your vulnerabilities, an authentic self. This is your transformation station, and this is your host, Greg Favaza. Eric Mehew, come on downtown. Something like that.

That's quite intro. Yeah, not really. How's it going, though? It's going well. I'm not how about yourself? Not too bad. I apologize for the Zoom thing. Like, I'd press something on my profile, and I don't know what I pressed, and now it's making everybody need a pass. password when it was just fine not even a little bit ago honestly dude it's all good i'm just glad we pumped i'm glad we're just meeting face face versus we just found each other yeah just oh it's so cute but versus like just like a starting another round of like email tag in that bullshit we're just like damn it what the fuck are you doing so tell me about yourself tell me about like what you got going on over here what is uh what is shop x or is that what i is that what i see yeah so i got two companies

going on. One is shop X, Web3 e-commerce, and the other is Data-Eing AI-powered matchmaking. And what got you into this? So overall, I just kind of follow my genuine intellectual curiosity and whatever it leads me. It leads me.

So a little bit of backstory. Do you want an intro or just right into the meat of potatoes of it? I just want something authentic and not rehearsed. Yeah, cool. So Radatrick. So my overall goal is to live a nice peaceful life.

I couldn't really do that if I would be the money system as being corrupt, which it is. And that originally led me to like gold as a solution. And that eventually led me to Bitcoin as a next step for gold. So at that point in time, I was a consultant, which I was a consultant, but at the same time, really researching Bitcoin and all that ethos. Being a consultant for bankruptcy companies didn't align with the Bitcoin ethos. So I quit that. I started going to cryptocurrency meetups because I'm like, okay, I need a work in the space.

This is where I need to be. And then I met their original Shop X team. And then we started that company. So what ShopX is, it's a way for an e-commerce brand, a web two e-commerce brand to down on an app and then interact in Web3. So back to my goal of living a nice piece of life, rather than onboard like my mom or grandma or whatever, like over like four or five Thanksgiving's by Bitcoin, that type of thing to be annoying. this is a way for me to onboard people into the crypto ecosystem at scale. So like let's say Nike. Well, whoa, whoa, don't go any further.

All right. I don't like is this is, it's a big concept as it is. But I want to just back up a little bit. Like, let's go back to like with currency. Do you think that's a scam? No, I mean, I view currency and money. It's just energy. So like, let's say in a perfect world, you provide product or service to me.

I provide you with currency. That's my energy. I'm transferring to you. but you gave me value so then you can use my energy or currency, whatever you wanted to go and do whatever you want. The issue, so I think currency is good. I think it's just technology. I think the scam is the Fiat version of currency.

So what Fiat is just based currency. So it's essentially when the government comes in, let's say the government prints like a trillion dollars. What did they effectively do by printing a trillion dollars? When they printed trillion dollars, the money I own, the money you own, the money everyone owns, that money loses a little bit of value. And if you think about it from the lens, like, let's say the average salary is like 60K in the United States or something.

If you divide 60K, buy it, whatever a trillion is, so that number is like how many years the government has technically stolen from the people who have worked? Because if you work 60K, they're printing a trillion dollars, they're taking money from you. And then on top of that, what's happening with the money? Oftentimes, you're using it in really dumb ways. They're using it to bomb people. They're using it as bribes. So it creates a wrong incentive structure. So, like, in the current, it's more of like a systematic problem where it's like in the current system.

What about how do they, what's the reason behind printing the money in the first? Let me rephrase that. Like, how do they get this baseline number of this is the amount of money that we have to print because is this based off how many bursts are happening within the United States or within, I mean, the globe or like, what are they for, how are they forecasting to print a specific amount? well so they don't really have a forecast nor do they have data nor do they have anything they just print based on their need so whenever like the politicians on capital it's like we kind of need more money how do we get this money but we can't produce anything of value well let's just print it and then it's like okay of course you're going to vote to print yourself more money so who's like you want to do that and like you want to do that and like of course they have some stuff they have to manage like to manage some stuff they have to manage the debt to manage to manage the debt they have to manage their debt like right now right now if you look at the us debt clock it's some ridiculous number that no one could ever pay back so they have to print money to pay off their debts but they also have to print money to pay their own salaries. They have to print money to fund their own wars to pay their own friends and government contractors who charge like a hundred bucks per fork or something done like that. And that's because of a position of power where they put their friends. It's like, okay, you're my homie. I'm a corrupt politician. Your contractor will give you

100 bucks for fork and then we both like split the profits type of thing. Okay. So it's like it's a systematic thing. And the reason it's systematic is like, let's say, I think most people want to become rich, wealthy, and healthy. Like, how do you become wealthy in, what's the easiest way to become wealthy in our current system without producing any value? Okay, it's put yourself in a position near the money printer, aka politician. So like, okay, I want to get rich. What do I do? Like, look at Nancy Pelosi.

Look at all their networks. Because they're right near the money printer. And what happens then is they're close to the money printer. They get to decide where the money goes. They give it to their friends. And now there's like, let's say one politician's corrupt. They give to three other politicians. Now there's three corrupt politicians, three corrupt politicians to the system.

And those three will beat the non-corrupt ones because they have money and they're doing corrupt means. And now there's six politicians who are corrupt and obviously it just kind of spreads like a disease where it's concentrated at the top. Well, I know there's other ways. I mean, if you're working for an organization, you can be incentivized to do good things and you can also be incentivized to do bad things. I like what you're saying as far as follow the money, but even further, find where the fucking money printer is and just nest up right next to that. And then now you can kind of do like a quid, a quid pro quo situation to build a network of other kinds of. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm just, I'm just, like, the web of blah. But yeah, no, it's like, I think Bitcoin helps fix that because let's say in a Bitcoin standard. Gold worked as well, too, but I think Bitcoin is just like a new technical version of that. Whereas a Bitcoin standard, you can't print the money. So what do you do if you can't print the money? You have to produce value.

So let's say hypothetically you, Greg, you have Bitcoin. I want your Bitcoin because I want your Bitcoin. I want the freedom of provides, what the security provides. How do I take Greg's Bitcoin? Well, I can't just print it. So that option's out. I have to provide something of value to you and then you would give me your Bitcoin. So it creates an incentive structure where I would, instead of the incentive structure

being like becoming like a parasite and taking from the productive class of society, which is what I think a lot of them do. Now the incentives are, okay, well, I want to be rich. Well, I better produce a ton of value for a lot of people and that's how I'll get rich. I think Bitcoin helps with that. Okay, but see, I've talked with a lot of people and it's 50-50 where some are saying it's a risk and others are saying to put your money into something else. I mean, to diversify, have a well-diverse portfolio, and you're saying that Bitcoin is something that we are transitioning to?

Or are you alluding to that, that that's what we should be focusing? So, no thing I say is financial bias. I think you should, I think on an individual basis, you should put your money where it makes sense for you. Like, for example, I think we're younger. We have higher risk. So I wouldn't recommend my grandma put all of her money in Bitcoin, nor historic, nor even interacted because she's a grandma. But I just think it's the future. So what I do with my choices is I would put, well, pretty much 100% in.

But again, that choice may not be for everyone. And again, I was like in the Bitcoin system, we encourage you to do your own research. So I've done the research. I came to the conclusion myself and my actions reflect that. But if you do your own research and you come to a different conclusion, maybe it's like 5% percent for you, 10%, 50 or even 0%. The important thing is if you've done the research and you made a decision that's in the best interest of yourself. Whereas I view it's in the best interest for myself to purchase Bitcoin, but not everyone thinks though,

and I think everyone's okay with doing whatever in their best interest. And what was the work that you've done that gave you that conclusion to go all in? So that's a long, just like years of just bombarding myself with Bitcoin content. So it really is like a rabbit hole. So like when I started, it started off with my couple friends. So like, of course, when like myself, how I got how I got into Bitcoin is pretty much how everyone gets into Bitcoin. It's like, okay, you'd be like, what is this thing? Oh, I can make a bunch of money off of that. I can get a sweet pump. So then

you buy the Bitcoin, you catch a pump and you're just like, okay, this is cool. But then since you're since you caught the pump, you're kind of more invested. You have skin in the game. You're more likely to research it yourself. And the more you research, the more intitch you get and the more you buy. And then the more you buy, the more skin in the game you have, the more research you have. So it's just been like countless hours of like books and podcasts and just like conversations and all that stuff. There wasn't like one thing. That makes sense. So have you ever really like, caught yourself in like a some cost-falicy kind of moment where you're like, whoa, I put too much into this. It's time to move away. No, I'm in a constant state of I wish I had more.

Okay. That's never and that's never changed. It's like, and I would use leverage stuff to where it's like, okay, I'll borrow against it too. And they got burnt from that. There's a lesson. But like I would go and like, and I'm not recommend anyone to do this, not even myself because I learned my lesson. But like I would borrow money off the credit cards to purchase a big one. Like, well, that's not enough. I need Let's open more credit cards. Definitely. I'll relate with you. I did a Robert Kiyosaki event with real estate investing,

and they were shown us how to get money quick to establish a business. And they were saying, like, I guess when it worked back then, was to have like five credit card companies open and have your little application all set, right, or about ready to press the send button, which will send it to the company. You have, like, five them up, and you got personal loans over here.

here and it's all ready to go and you have to do it quick like at all of them at once and then somehow it would work for people trying to establish themselves and it doesn't work like that anymore no i tried that again too i just at one point i open too many they're just like now i just can't open it anymore there's like what do you do and do what do you do this for so what i would do is i'd open the credit cards and how do you get because you can't buy they make it really difficult to buy bitcoin the credit cards so you You need like cash to do it or like you need like some physical cash. So like how what me and my friends would do is we would,

we just have a bunch of Venmo accounts and you can do VEMO to cash transaction. So you can you can send VEMO with a credit card for like a 3% fee. So we would send each other Vemmows from our credit card. Like we open credit cards and each other Vemos from our credit card. Then cash out our VEMO so that would result in a cash like it's like a loan for 3%. So which is not bad. Yeah. And then once the Bitcoin's in the crypto ecosystem,

and that's more free-ful willing to play around with other crypto assets and do whatever you went with it. That's interesting. It resulted in right now because of shit. I don't know. I think it's kind of better, like, I mean, to have, I mean, poor credit if you're going to invest it into something. Like, I definitely don't recommend it just to go on a spree. But if you're trying to go after something, I mean, yeah, that's kind of what it's for, but not just how you want to look at it. I don't know.

Yeah, and I agree. To me, it's like the number doesn't matter. First of all, the person assigning the number, they're only. like $40 trillion of debt, so who cares? And the other thing is like, okay, well, if you have a bunch of hard assets, like let's see it a bunch of gold, it's like, okay, I have a million bucks of gold. I'm going to buy a million dollar house. It's like, well, yes, my credit card, my credit score may not be the best,

but I have the little cash. So what do you want to do here about? And of course, they'll take it. And again, not financial advisors. And you're clarified just because this is kind of like, it's full. I think this is more just like DJN mode. But yeah, Robert Kiyosaki thought that was a good book too. Yeah, no, definitely.

Definitely, definitely. Tell us about, so, so you do Muay Thai and you play chess, is that on, that's on your LinkedIn, right? Yeah, it's just part of like, it's, like hobby. They're good hobby. No, I used to do, I used to be an instructor in Muay. Oh, that way. Yeah, yeah. So I got the basic, like, like, level one instructor certification. It was hard as fuck. Like, I cried afterwards. But I would cry, but it happens. Yeah, like, after that, it was just like a gun. gauntlet of just just clenching and throwing you up it just the click the clinches the click the clenches the clenches it's just kept going and going and going it's just like you we don't stop it's like a 12 hour event and like oh jesus jesus christ 12 hours of clenching just a well a combination of different things but by the end it that's what was like the the final gauntlet was the clenching is whatever you have left

all the energy you got you just got to do this to the best and then they're watching you and if you're not putting the full effort in, you're not doing this, then you're going to get dropped. So it's like, motherfucker. All right. That is a motherfucker moment. Dude, the clinch is the most tiring thing. It is. Yeah.

It's the hardest. No one feels like doing it ever. You can scratch it on your neck, too. It's just like. Well, I don't see, I was lucky. Like, I, growing up, like, we would always go boating on the Mississippi and our thing was tubing. So I was afraid, like, I'm an introvert. I was afraid it's fuck to fall into the.

Mississippi Rivers. Nasty. It's gross. I won't ever go in there again, but I would hang on for my dear life and I guess over time that adapted into helping me clinch so that that's actually good for me. I don't know. Tell me about with Web 3 AI entrepreneur, like go go deeper into your expertise a little bit. Yeah, so I think I would go. I think both companies reflect that. And so like I said earlier, I just kind of follow my, I think the universe presents opportunities when it does. So I just follow my, I think everyone's given specific gifts.

And I think everyone is happiest when they're serving other people. And I think the best way to serve other people is to just be authentic. Because if you're authentic, you're like, I'm the best of being me. You're the best of being you. Like if you want to try to be me, you'd lose. But if I try to be you, you'd lose. So just do what feels right.

And I think that comes with the best result. And that's resulted in both shoppex and dotting. So what ShopX is, and again, my overall goal is on more people on a crypto scale. So what Shoppex is, it's the Web 3, or the Apple Web 3. Long term, we're going to be a suite of products for an e-commerce on Shopify or Google to download our app and then get whatever Web3 benefits they want depending on their need in the product. So right now we have two products live.

The first is Reserve X, and that's an NFT-powered loyalty program. So if you're a brand, you're on Shopify, you can download our app, get our tokenized software licenses, which are also a first of this kind. And then directly within the Shopify app, you can launch your NFT collection in less than five minutes. So we've created no code solution for you as a brand. Like, dude, it's so easy. Like, it's just two forms.

It's like a name, a picture, a description, a price. You just fill in two forms. And then on the back end, your NFT collection is deployed. And then you could add e-commerce benefits to that NFT. So for example, if like Nike were to launch a gold silver bronze style pass collection, the gold members could get product A for free. silver members could get product A for 50% off. Bronze product members could get,

bronze members could get like the product for just before everyone else. And the brand gets to keep adding e-commerce benefits to that pass. So you're like, okay, your gold pass holder, you get this limited time drop, like the solid graph thing. You get first dibs in everyone else. Okay, you get this discount. So they can just keep adding benefits to the past. So is there like a, I know with financial institutions,

they offer a like protection if with, with somehow, I don't want to say, like, someone hacking. I mean, if you lose access to this, is there like a protection plan or is there like some sort of reinsurance in this? And no, because there's none needed. So it's not like, you're not like storing anything. Okay. Because like you're just deploying like as a brand new to play smart contract collection or you get to deploy a smart contract. I'm learning this.

As you know, I have no fucking clue. So we're learning together. Yeah. So your brand, you want to do some NFT stuff in terms of loyalty, because increases loyalty, increases conversion and all that stuff. So you deploy your NFT collection and then you get a URL. And then you as a brand get to add products to that pass. And then your customer comes in and he's like, okay, I want this specific hat. I want this product thing. I want whatever comes to this pass. They purchase the NFT or pass or whatever you're going to call it. They purchase with credit card or Ethereum. And at that point in time, the customer has ownership of the NFT so they get the benefits. And you as a the brand get paid. So, like, there's no, like, there's nothing really to hack. It's just, you just kind of get paid. Okay.

It's, like, a ambassador kind of thing, like, where I'm trying to understand it. I don't know. I'm trying to connect the dots here to what I do know. It's like, if you were to try to say, what's the point of having an NFT, and what's the point of getting, having this? Like, make it very simple.

If I can get it, everybody can get it. It's a loyalty pass. Okay. Or a brand. And as a brand, as a customer purchasing, with the NFT, you feel like you have ownership in the company because you own the NFT. And then this increases like a lot of things. So brand loyalty, like think of like a time share.

If you own a if you own a time share in Hawaii, everyone's saying your time share, whereas if you own like, if you don't, just like who cares? Plus it increases convergence. So let's say a brand sells 500 passes to 500 customers. They release 500 products attached to those passes. Since the customers already bought into the past, they're much more likely to purchased the product that came with the past. So we've seen the conversion rate at around 80%,

which is compared to like one to two in e-commerce. And on top of that, you get the organic word of mouth bargaining factor. In crypto, it's common for people to change their PFTs to NFTs and just be knowing until I went about it. So we've seen that on the brand side too, whereas like brand customers, they change the PFP to NFTs because they're like, okay, I'm part of the brand. And then they start just telling everyone about it. So in one specific case with, so our first launch,

with a brand called a mag park. So it's a cool brand, like the guy's at home, each other thing where it's like, his customers are like, they're chill, like it's an LA dude.

He has a basketball hoop in the store. They come in, they shoot and all that stuff. So his, his issue was whenever he'd release like a Lemonvine hat or anything along those lines, bots would come in,

purchase, buy out of his inventory in less than like a second than resell in the second name market for like 10 times the profit. Then his core customers wouldn't get the, they obviously wouldn't get the product,

which is a bus, everyone. So now with his NFT collection, they get early access, they get guaranteed, they get to relax because their product is reserved. They get early drops. They get exclusive products. He has a Discord channel for his specific pass holders where he talks with them.

They help him design products. So it's like a close connection with a brand owner. Wow. All right. Yeah, this is something that everybody should be doing for. I can break down web one, web two, and web three pretty easily if you want. Please. Yeah. Yeah. Because I talked a lot of Web2 brand executives and they're kind of old and obviously don't get it at all.

So in terms of web one, let's think of read only. So if you're on web one, you could go online, you can read stuff. Great. Web two, let's frame it as social media like Instagram or YouTube or whatever.

So you can read and you can write, but you don't own. So for example, I could create an Instagram post. You can, so that's me writing content. You can read that post by viewing it, interacting and doing whatever you want with it.

So you can read it. But the thing is Instagram owns that post, meaning they could sell my data, they can retroactively cancel me any time they want. So it's like, okay, we say something this podcast, 10 years down the line, who knows what's okay to say? They're like, cancel them both and then both our accounts are done.

And we're just like, well, that sucks. Especially if like let's say I'm, I'm in, oh, Jesus Christ, I hate this term. But let's say I'm like an influencer, and that's my business, that's my livelihood. And all of a sudden it's like, it's gone. He's like, well, you should not look at that point. Yeah, that's what YouTube is cracking down. Oh, yeah, they're cracking the whip.

Yeah. So that's why it's important. Yeah. And so Web 3 is a read, right? and own. So in Web 3, we can read content, we can write content, but we also own the content. So in the brand's NFT case, let's say I create an NFT, I own that NFT, you purchase that NFT. Now you're the owner of the NFT. There's a connection between me and you. So I can keep sending you value and you can keep sending me value with no third party. And since you own the NFT, no one can take it from you. Like Instagram can't take it from you. I can't take it from you. It's your NFT. So that's Web 3. I like to joke. I like to joke. And so,

say web 4 is like the whole ready player one type of thing where it's like metiverse, AI, VR, just like kind of dystopian. And web 5 is that I think we're all going back outside. We're just like, enough of this. We need the sun. That we're just square one. Then we start all over good. Wow.

Like this is like something that I have not even noticed. Like I'm just always grinding, creating content. And like I'm only on web two is like there's so much more that I'm missing. that can be a possibility for like expansion. Yeah, no. And I think you'll get there when you get there. But to be honest, it may not be neat. I don't think it's needed for people to research it.

Because right now, there's not people. There's not many people in Web3. And the reason is pretty simple. First off, the UI is jank. Like, imagine this. Like, I send my money. I send my crypto somewhere. I'm doing a bridge, which is some technical temper.

It's just sending it across chains. It doesn't show up. So I'm just like, where's my money? Who does it? Where's customer support? Well, there is none. it's like then I have to go on like Reddit and just find some obscure problems someone had years ago so the UI isn't there and the second reason is the incentives like

for most people there's simply no reason to interact with in Web 3 but I think both of those are getting fixed like for example shop X is offering like e-commerce incentives like in our product first launch over 50% of the people were 100% brand into crypto but they won the hats they bought it and the UI is going to get fixed too because like once the bigger brands get in Like, for example, they have the resources and incentives to actually make it good for everyone. Like, Nike's not going to send their customers like a shit of UI experience. So that'll fix it for everyone. And then from there, like, if Web3 wins again, nothing is guaranteed.

Like, if Web3 is to be successful, it asks just to be done in the back end. So me or you just aren't even knowing that's happening. It has to be just like, tap, tap, tap. My mom has her pass. She's like, oh, fancy pass. Oh, tap the pass. I get my discount. She gets their product.

She's happy. And she never asks, I hear the word Web3, Crypto RNFT. So like with the UI, there's nobody that is taking accountability or there's not a position or an understanding on that. So that means anybody can kind of just climb in and start saying, I'm the one that knows how to do this. So the thing about Web3 is it's composable. So it is complicated where it's like Web3 is composable, meaning there's a compounded interest of software. So if a problem gets solved once, because most code is just copy and paste. And it will probably get solved once, it just gets solved.

So it's a complicated thing that a bunch of people are trying to work on, and they're trying to work on it together. So people are pooling the resources to do it. And it'll eventually solve itself for that reason. But again, it's like a decentralized protocol. So there's no authority. They're just no whatever. If someone creates a good solution, everyone's just going to use that solution.

If someone creates a better solution, they're just going to use that solution. It's interesting. Have you ever participated in one of those little like congregated kind of teams to solve a problem like that? Yeah, so that's kind of what ShopX did. And for example, like, again, everyone kind of works to get in this space. So whatever our major projects was, I would say, I think our biggest client is definitely Fox TV studios.

So if you watch Rick and Morty, if you heard about the, have you heard of Capopoulos? No, I have not heard about it. Okay, so it's their new show, but it's created by Dan Harmon. Okay. So they have an NFT collection called The Crap Chikins. So if you, it's kind of funny, actually.

I own one. Yeah, mine is. Lord Tamago, the first master of the void. It's a one piece of reference, and he's like a retarder looking chicken. But so for the crap chickens, because I own the crab chicken, I get access to merch, I get exclusive exit to content. I get, my crap chicken could show go on the show. So that project took a bunch of parties working together.

Like, for example, someone had to supply Fox with the ability to create the graphics and mint NFTs. Shop X is handling the token gated connection for the NFTs. Someone has to handle the payment structure. So it's like a team of like four different companies working together in tandem to make that project a reality. And the end result for the, I guess, crap chicken holder is things just work. Okay. So this is good. Like now we can finally dive deep into this. So with having this team together, when you're trying to communicate but also delegate and send this work strictly just through virtual systems, like how does it work?

communication, go back and forth. Is there somebody in charge? Is it just an all-knowing understanding that, oh, this is the end goal? This is what we need to do. It's honestly not that hard. So in terms of everyone knows the end goal, they know what needs to do. And everyone builds a specific piece to ensure that angle happens. And so like let's say shoppex builds our puzzle piece. Everyone else builds their specific puzzle piece. Then they see if it fits. If it fits, it fits, great. You move on. But if it doesn't fit, let's say pieces don't put together seamlessly, which usually happens. And that point you do a dot, like you have the base done, but there's like bugs and shit. And that's the point you two with the dev teams would work together to QA to find the bugs to ensure everything works.

So what you do is you kind of plan everything out like overall scope. And then you kind of break up. And then as parts finish, you just have work. Like there's obviously constant communication where it's like, oh, we knew this from you. We need this information from you. And they're happy to provide that. But it's more so working on different pods for one project and then coming together to see the final project. Interesting.

That's really interesting. Now, let's transition into a wrap up here. And what would you like to share with the audience that I have not asked you? I know, I'm sure there's probably a lot, but whatever you'd like to share with them. So I just got back from an imposter 10-day meditation retreat in Jocetri, California. It was a very beautiful transformative experience for me. So it's 10 days, full and noble silence. Like, no nothing, no electronics, no writing, just really introspective.

So, yeah, just the point. of that was to help. So it's the method of booty used to reach enlightenment. So what you do for the first three days is you just focus your attention on the area around your nose. Eventually after focusing on it for so long you feel different sensations. And then you just scan your body back and forth. And this extracts the traumas that are stored in your body. So think of it like if you had a piece of metal, that's like you need a hundred, just saying in a space or something like you need a hundred percent pure. You'd run it through magnets to extract

the impurities. So you're just doing that with your with your body and traumas. So after you do that process over and over again, you become a positivity generator. So you just and I believe the outer world, so I view everything in terms of frequency energy and vibration. So like I believe the outer world is a reflection of your inner world. So if you're sad, happy or whatever, like you're sad, your world's good depressing. Just like a radio frequency, when you're sad, you're really just saying, I'm vibrating at frequency X. And then just like a radio

station, you tune at your specific frequency. That's why everything's sad. But you're happy, positive, and everything, like I'm just loving in general, then that's the frequency you're on. And then everyone in who you interact with wishes are the best and they're happy, positive, and loving it too. So, like, I don't know. That's kind of like the power of the positive mindset where it's like after that, after that work was done, I just became like, and they closed out the meditation where you just like

store all your energy of the head and you just wish like happiness and love to like literally everyone in the world. And then I've realized since I've done that, people wish that back on me, which has had really, really nice results. So no, I like that. One, because like if you're carrying around all that stress, all that trauma, it's, it's taken a lot of bandwidth to kind of push down and just be able to put on this smile that is you, but you can't essentially do it naturally, comfortably. So you're almost fighting yourself, but also forcing yourself at the same time. So that's probably putting a lot of stress on your body and wearing you out.

So you're not recognizing opportunities and conversations or noticing that when your picture's being taken, you actually look depressed or sad when really you thought you were happy. Yeah. It's kind of related, but like, I've a social media point where it's like, I noticed a while ago, like I'd see someone take a story and just had watched them. Like, you know, like an Instagram story and just watch them like right after these social media posts. They all look, they always look depressed. I'm just like, oh, Jesus. Yeah. I'm guilty.

I'm guilty. Like that's for me. Like, I dealt with a lot of shit. And I'm going through this 40-day challenge to get all of this out and to show, like, you can address all of this trauma from someone that you trusted your life with. I mean, that's a long story. But by the end of this 40 days, it'll be my birthday. And I'm trying to get my birthday back because every holiday has been ruined everyone. Like literally every one of those holidays has been taken from me.

and I'm no longer going to let it happen anymore. Nice. And then you get to decide if your holidays are taking preem or not. So I'm sure this will, I'm wishing you do the best. I'm sure you'll work through it. And then on the other side, it'll probably be pretty great. Yes, yes. You got this.

I appreciate you. Yeah, you too. How can our audience get in touch with you if they want to learn more about your companies and you in general? Yeah. So if you're interested in Shop X or Web 3, the best place would be our website, S-H-O-P-X. If you're interested in AI prior matchmaking, it can be Dante Inc, D-A-T-A-I-N-G.I-O. But my overall goal is to be helpful and positive.

So you just want to talk shit, reach out, just have any questions in general. Probably my Instagram. So I can do like, we can do like the whole voice messages things because those are pretty nice. So that'd be Eric D, M-K-E-R-C-D-M-C-H-U-G-H. Beautiful. I appreciate you coming on the show today. No, dude. Thank you, too.

I'd bless. Excellent. Do you like that? How was that? It was fun. It was all that made. Yeah. It was hard.

Like, I didn't know what the fuck they talked about, but I kind of tried to go into the situation as an audience member and just kind of, if I can paint it where I'm like them and this is what I want to know.

And the majority of the people that listen are different versions of me, whether they're higher or lower and they always resonate with how I approach things. No, that would make sense from my very show thing. It's like, of course,

the people who listen to you are different versions of you. And that's how I do like the, well, I think everyone's a different version of like. So I think of like, it's like, think of like the sun where each individual is like a ray of lights who are individual. It's like individuals in that sense. But then we come with the same source and we're technically the same. So I think everyone's a different version of each other. Yeah. No, I like that's a unique way of looking at it.

Yeah. So in that sense, it's like hating on someone wishing someone ill will. It's also just stupid because why would you wish yourself ill? It makes no sense. It's dumb. And then of course, when you harbor that like resuscary. I'm in a negative. It just gets blown back in your face always, too.

So it's like it doesn't even serve you. It doesn't serve others. It's pointless. God. It's like even if you come across someone who is negative. Oh, you can feel it. Yes, because if like my ex, like I've been around her for a long time, I lost myself. I used to be this like, I mean, I was in the military for five and a half years.

So I had a solid structure that was built. And little by little I was getting like just chipped away. And after three years. Somehow I just went, just went down. I'm like, what the fuck? And that's when I noticed it's every time. It's every time she would just take a little bit. And there was the whole thing was a horrible experience.

I wish this on nobody. But every time I encounter, it's just like I fall back. If it's even more than 20 minutes, I'm around this person. I start to mirror this individual of her energy. I'm like, no, I'm not this person. I am not you. I'm a happy, good person. want to be like this.

That's why I stay away. I just can't be around it. And honest. So yeah, dude, it's like, it really is like death by like a thousand cuts in that type of situation. But no, the first step is realizing that there's an actual problem because most of you don't realize the problem. It just kind of like, they just kind of remain oblivious.

But once you realize it's like, this is someone I need to like go, which is probably painful just because I'm sure it sounds like you guys have like, you know, there's obviously like history. But like, like, you know it's what you, would you have to get done. So like you go back to the energy like. chart like each emotion is like a different energy or different frequency like shame is the lowest so shame is like 50 fear anger hate and all that stuff they're around like less than like 100 to 200 and if you're above 200 like love enlightenment joy peace those are around like 500 Jesus

Christian and the Buddha they reached 1,000 so just scaling it went to 1,000 so if you're below 200 so that's when people are taking energy from me so if you ever talk to someone you're just like you know, you can feel drained after you're like, bleh. It's because they're below 200. But if you talk to someone as above 200, they kind of give you energy. So that's when you talk to someone, like, they're all like, nice.

This is, this is pleasant. I'm happy after. I'd be like doing stuff. Whoa. Why do we start with this? Like, this is totally cool. Like,

no vets to you and your hard work. Like, this is, this is, this interests me more too. Because I think everyone has an inner purpose and another purpose. So the inner purpose is, Again, raising the consciousness level of scale.

Like my overall goal, and that's everyone in their purpose. Like I'm trying to raise my own level, my own vibrational scale. Like, again, it's easier to just pitch it to the numbers. And when I raise my own, that raises people around me. And then when they raise their own, it raises people around them. So it creates like a nes little positive spiral where the outer purpose is how do I, how does this manifest in like the business world or whatever? So that's where like the shop X and dating coming because I think they're both positive

helpful companies. But they support the inner. purpose. That's a lot better to paint the picture. I like that. With understanding these frequencies, I'm aware of the energy that I give off. I'm aware of other energies. I'm empathic so I can just naturally pick it up. And then I just, I can feel like the ones that are targeting me because they want that energy. I do feel drawing afterwards. They're, they're funny. They're literally, there's, because I'm an empathic too, where it took a while for me because I, I mean, I had to become, I became, I learned how to become social, but like, no, there's like straight up energy vampires.

So, like, we're there, especially if you're doing like the righteous type thing and you're living a good path, there. And I think what sounds like, I don't know her, but it sounds like that's what your ex-girlfriend was. She's like a straight energy vampire just like sucks the life out of you. And yeah, yeah. Yeah. And like, once they get my identity, took off my son, hit me with her car, try to put me in jail a few times. Yeah, like, I want to do like a TEDx for, uh, see, use my military PTSD against me along with my childhood PTSD. So I ended up losing everything going

back to the house where I was sexually abused as a child. And I was surrounded by boxes from like my son's room in my own room. And it was embarrassing. Like I hated my life. And she still kept coming and coming. And I just, I wanted to quit. Like I literally, I mean, suicide was the option. There wasn't anything else. I lost it all. And I, I'm stubborn. I guess. I didn't when I really wanted to. And slowly but surely I got myself a place again. I started the show because she destroyed the show. She took me out of online school because she stole a computer which had everything on everything.

It had all my passwords. It was attached to my other MacBook, which is now a paperweight. So I got another one. It was attached to the cloud. It was attached to my school, my home security system. Literally, I walked out of the house and she changed the password and turned it on. and then the police showed up. I'm like, what the fuck?

Jesus Christ. Dude, it was literally, every day was something. I was in fighter flight mode for over two years. And that's, dude, that's terrible for your health. Because, like, think about it like this way. Like, at olden time, if there's, like, fucking tiger chasing you, your body would be stressed or release certain chemicals because of fucking tigers chasing you. But after the tiger's chasing you, you go back to normal.

But if you're living in that state is stressed for two years, like, you're, if you like there's two two like parallel universe one's a peaceful version of you and one's the version of happened like your body is producing two entirely different chemicals and resulting in you being a two entirely different persons and living in that state of stress because it sounds like it's like

a constant thing it's like you wake up it was start from like the minute of yeah just like what the fuck's going to happen because the police would always show up and it was always and I literally like can you look at my record like I was in the military service I have nothing

other than occasional speeding tickets because I have a heavy foot and usually not all the time. And then bam, this bullshit with my ex. So she literally controlled the narrative with everybody saying that I'm just dangerous person. I'm like, no, I'm not. I'm literally. I'm a good guy. Like, Jesus Christ. But then it makes me feel crazy because I'm telling them.

I should have to tell you I'm the good guy. Literally look at my actions. Look at what I'm doing online. Like, I love my son. I just want to be around him. And it was to the point where I finally got a hold of it by going back to Fort Carson, Colorado, which that's where I served. And that's where I got a hold of myself. But it comes back when I'm around this, an individual for 20 minutes.

It comes back. I think she needs to go. I think you need a wish of the, like, again, there's no point. Like, it's probably hard because she does sound like a piece of work. So I view it as like she's trying her best in her own. up way where it's just like clearly not bad but she's still trying her best in her own mind which is probably batch and insane so i think you need to if i are you again i don't know i would just cut her off at the same time wish of the best because again harboring ill will towards her

thinking of like a did you watch dbz where like they have a super sane energy fields no i don't maybe i don't remember whatever it's like you have an energy field around you so like if you send on negativity negative negative negative it just stains your own energy field so there's no Like, even though it's hard because... Yeah, she has my son. And she took off with them. And it's like, I have all the proof in the world to get him. But there's...

I need to heal. Like, I got to be 100%. And this is what the 40 days is to get to 100%. And then that's where I, uh, I finally get... I don't know if you can see it. But this is... It's a... So that's him.

What's his name? German Gregory Fabaza. And, uh, yeah. Oh, dude, he's adorable. He looks like he looks like good kids. Yeah, he's just like his daddy. He's an empath, and what's happening is the energy is affecting him. Oh, 100%.

I'm sure it's just a dent of just toxic. It's like, if you play video games, you're not even when you play video games and you're like a poison area where your character just comes in every second your health is just getting zapped and you eventually die. That's what I'm guessing it's like for her. Yes. Oh, my God. I just can't do it.

We need to get him out soon rather than later. because right now it's like you know but he's young this is very yeah yeah it's affecting him and it affects me not being with him and that's that's where it's like i have to i have to keep going i got to keep going you'll do the 40 days um you'll get him back soon he'll be happy and yeah let me know once um you do get him back we got face i'd like to meet him and say what's up that'd be awesome i appreciate you yeah of course i will uh i'll get this all set up and i'll get in touch with you and through email and send you everything. Yeah, no, whereas whenever you want to send it up, like, dude, there's no rush.

I think you're dealing with other stuff. No, yeah, it's all part of the, it's all part of the 40 days. I got to keep moving. Yeah, because that's all you have to do, because you're in the army. You know, you just have to keep tricking forward. Just have to keep going forward because of how shitty you can. And eventually you'll get better. Yes, it's hard.

It's a whole new challenge. Like, physically, I can dissociate. That's easy. But now it's like, it's something I can't. can't associate from because I don't want to. I don't want to kill the feelings I have for him. And then the memories that were created that included the monster. So it's like I got to rise above it to the point where it does no longer affect me.

I just sent you something on the chat that has really helped me with healing stuff. So if you go back to the, for me, it always circles back to energy. If you can get some vibration, these type of beats if you play one, yeah. Yeah! Dude, I used to rock those out when I was in active duty. It actually helps me retain information. Oh, yeah, no, like there's different ones, but I like to meditate. These are just like sit and just kind of relax.

They calm me down. And do the fucking, let me send this to you right now. If you have the chance to do this, like, the Vimposa meditation retreat. And it's a full 10 days. That's not like that easy. Like, yeah, but it was the most helpful thing that I've ever personally done. And it's completely free. Like, everything is taking care.

I'm in California, so I went to a center around California. But you sign up, you have a, you have a nest at a dorm, you have, like, food is provided for you just show up with clothes, you sit there for 10 days, you learn the meditation. It helped me pretty much, because the whole day you're working through everything in your life. So all the trauma that you start up in your body, you're just working on that for a full 10 days, complete silence, which as an introvert was pretty amazing. Actually, we're just like, imagine, like, no one reach you out to you, just nothing. So you just, yeah, it's a full thing.

You start up at like four, meditate, breakfast, meditate more, lunch, meditate more, and you have a discourse at the end of the day. You have your meditation hall, you have your room, dining hall, and there's a walking path, and that's what, that's your activity for 10 days. So if you can, like, you have the ability to, like, if you can just check out for 10 days. I can actually. I have that ability. So it sounds like you're from the Mississippi, but they have some resolve over the world,

so there's probably one near you. but if not I'm in Missouri Missouri Missouri but if there's not like I know there's plenty of centers I obviously never checked if they're in Missouri because why would I do that yeah if you can go to one around you

like dude I'll fucking go travel to California like really I can just up and do that unfortunately oh yeah no like you don't have to go in California like there's some in the east coast or some of the west there's probably some Missouri I just haven't checked but yeah dude apply to the class

get in the class like you just have to sign up just go go in an open mind you can leave whenever you want to it's not like fucking cold where there's like you're trapped here you can take your car just like I'm done I'll leave if you so choose but it sounds like a cold already thing and now you must join us yeah that's what went your truck that was that was my fear car get to like because I'm like mom dude this thing is kind of cold like are you five like yeah I could just leave but now dude it's fucking especially if you're dealing with stuff probably the best the best thing you can do is probably especially like binary beats that shows you're kind of open to At least like the door, like the doors. Yes. I welcome everything in as an opportunity. I mean, if it's supposed to help, I will, I'll try everything at least once that falls around in my ethics, ethos, or overall character. So this is right in line with what I like.

Dude, it's fucking sweet. It's hard. Don't get me wrong. Like, it's not easy. But it's fine. Good. Now it's a challenge. Thank you.

Now I challenge accepted. I will fucking do it. None. I'll be your accountability partner. So let me know when you sign up. Let me know when you get accepted. and let me know when you're done. Definitely.

I'll do that today. I'll sign up for it. Sweet. Yes. It's sweet. Then you get nice little spiritual practice for the rest of your life. It's a powerful experience. Like the ones in India go hard, where it's like ours are 10 days, so it's easy.

But some people do like months, a few years of just. Whoa. Yeah. Yeah, it's cool. I can only imagine what they're feeling inside after that long of doing that. you feel well yes it's it's trippy though because like obviously it's the traumas come up in different forms you like i remember something i was like four or five they come up in different sensations your dreams are going to be gnarly you just it's a long time of you just working on yourself

yeah that that's a lot i it'll be interesting to see what the fuck comes up yeah i'm definitely going to get this started here and yeah just jump into it but uh no dude this is cool er yeah i'll definitely reach out to you when this is done. We can stay connected. You know, you're a good dude. I like being around good positive people that are healthy. So. Like a track's like, right? Exactly. Yeah. All right, brother. Well, I'll stay in touch with you and I'll give you a holler here when I'm done. Yeah. I'll do on whatever social media shit and we just stand in touch that way. Hell yeah. Definitely. All right. Later, dude.

Waiters. Thanks for joining us on this adventure of growth and discontes. If you're ready to achieve a sustainable transformation, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And hey, if you've enjoyed the show and want to support it, take a moment to leave a podcast review on Apple or your favorite podcast platform. Stay connected with us on social media for behind the scenes sneak peeks, inspiring quotes, and the latest updates. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Just search for why? T.S. The podcast.

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