Built On Purpose

Nate Harris on Finding Strength in Adversity

Nathan Harris, CEO, and co-founder of Ease, an AI-assisted global talent platform that connects leading companies with the world’s brightest people based on culture fit and allows you to collaborate remotely within our virtual workspace. Listen to find out how it all started!

Interview Transcript

Announcer: [0:03] Live, it's the behind the resume podcast, with why scouts, Max Hansen, where you get to know the person behind the resume. The interesting stuff people never hear about just by looking at a profile here intimate conversations with leaders to learn their story, life hacks, life experiences, and any other interesting practices or learning experiences that have made them who they are today. You know, the interesting stuff. Now, if you're ready, let's go behind the resume. here's your host, why scouts back sanson.

Max: [0:43] Welcome to Episode Two of behind the resume with Max Hanson brought to you by why scouts Today's guest is Nathan Harris. Nate is originally from Milwaukee, a Korean and current Scottsdale resident Nate is a successful restaurant here, tech pioneer. Think it's a word I just made up growth strategist, podcaster, consultant, motivational speaker and so much more. Nate's story is an incredible example of the American Dream from growing up and during periods of homelessness to becoming a successful entrepreneur and multiple companies. I can't wait to get behind the resume with Nathan Harris. Welcome to the show, Nate.

Nathan: [1:16] Thanks. I appreciate the value in intro.

Max: [1:18] You got it. So let's start out what is a motto that you live by? Let's just jump right in.

Nathan: [1:25] Yeah, one of the biggest things, it's also the only tattoo on my body is a is the strength in adversity, I feel like the greatest strengths that you find in life. And in pretty much anything that you do is largely when you're facing some form of challenge. And you have to push through that. So that's one of my biggest mottos.

Max: [1:42] Got it. It makes sense. So I know a little bit about you. So I'm going to ask some questions. Normally, on this show, I like to start with the professional stuff, and then dig into the juicy stuff. But you have such an amazing story that I want to jump I want to go back. And I want you to tell me about your journey as a child, and you know, being homeless for short periods of time, or maybe they're long periods of time, we'll find out no father figure your mom's role, your brother's role, like let's start with that story. Because I think there's so much there to unpack.

Nathan: [2:12] Yeah, I mean, I think that that is the most significant part of what made me who I am today is, you know, having a single mom, being able to try and provide for kids and still grow as an individual as well, is really, really inspiring, you know, to see someone that you know, eight to 20 years old, two kids, and at times, he had to live in a shelter, you know, just to get us to that next chapter. But her willingness to keep us happy and to keep us motivated. And always finding that positive spirit, even through the face of that adversity. So she could give us a better opportunity, or at least the best opportunities you could set us up for. That was just something that inspired me and really having her now even we're walking miles in the snow, you know, with, with no money and just carrying groceries, she keeps us singing, even if our, our feet were freezing. And eventually, though, a lot of that kind of took a toll on her. So by the time I was around 12 years old, my mom attempted suicide out of just facing depression that wasn't really addressed, right. And there's no one there for her to call on. She was all by herself raising two kids. And it created a level of awareness. And in that moment, it was when my brother really kind of showed me what what real man is he decided, you know what, I'm not gonna let us get separated, he basically asked me to go with the flow. Because right now, if we tell anybody that mom's not here, they're gonna take us. So in this moment, he had to decide like, he's got to now be kind of like, we got to be our own dads. So that's really was the turning point for me that, you know, from there forward, it was on us to kind of provide for our families. And it's been that way ever since.

Max: [3:48] such an amazing story. How will what's the age difference between you and your brother?

Nathan: [3:52] He's about two years older than me. So I was 12, he was 14. And we really had to like band together. And so what we did honestly, to survive as a mom would get these checks and melfin disable, we just take him to the corner store and in the ghetto, like no one's gonna, like was there full girl like cashing a check? I don't know. But that's just how it was. So we would go there with cash, we don't have to, like manage bills. So like, a lot of times we'd be showering with candles, because in the winter, like they would cut the lights off, but they won't cut the heat off. Because like illegal in Wisconsin, we kind of figured out the loophole or the guy, well, we may not have lights, but at least you have enough money for food. So like, that's really kind of how it was growing up. It's like, you had to pick a struggle. It wasn't like you were gonna have any hair, you just have to pick which one. So um, that was my early part of my life. And through going through that ended up taking a toll on me. So by the time I got to my senior high school, I gave up, I didn't want to finish I actually didn't graduate high school on time. I was just like, I want to find a way to live in the streets. And with all this opportunity I had like I was class president I was set up for success, but I just didn't believe myself. So then, when I did that, my brother's like Alright, well then I'll I'm not going to college you then because I'm not leaving behind. So I seen how I was kind of impacting him. And he just basically it really broke me Actually, after a while I was like, I can't be the dragon a family we've been through enough. So then I do a lot of tears decided that I'm going to literally live every day and be better no matter what happens. And I don't know what that better looks like. And I think I was 19 at the time, and a mom do want to hold us back either. So eventually, I moved and got my own apartment and I started working at UPS. I was a receiving manager. I loaded the trucks first, then I became manager. Yeah, but that was kind of like my origin of really breaking out because I got promoted for months to like management. And I started seeing like a different world. And that's when I moved to Milwaukee. And I had to like kind of leave my mom on her own. And she did so great. Like she would go to the grocery store all by herself, which was not a thing. So yeah, that was kind of my origin of like, really want to spread my wings. But I eventually stopped the corporate route about a year in two years to end and start a digital agency, which was my first business.

Max: [6:07] Got it. Got it. So did you did you and your brother like play sports? Or like, Did you have any? Did you get to compete when you're younger? What was your childhood like?

Nathan: [6:15] He did. So my brother was amazing track athlete reward winning, you know, he went to stay metalled Gold all that wrestling conference champion. He was all those great things. I was class president like, and also the number one talent guy because I was a breakdancer. So that was my thing is like I didn't really like sports. I love dance. So I created my own crew called the fresh bombs crew. And because we live our lives on the ground, but we're still fresh. So we really competed a lot on computer multiple stages. And it was it was my escape.

Max: [6:48] That's awesome. I love how breakdancing goes from generation to generation because that was a thing when I was younger, too. And clearly I'm you know, a little bit older than you at least 10 years.

Nathan: [6:57] It's a lot of fun. It's a it's something that like I could control but then push the limits still at the same time.

Max: [7:04] Yeah, that's what I was gonna I was gonna dig into that a little bit like how do you connect, being a competitive breakdancer to being good professional at what you do now.

Nathan: [7:12] Um, they called me dream all the time. And I think it all ties in everything. So rather be how my bars or how I remind a software company or anything that I'm a part of, like a dream it right is it's this weird thing I have where like, I'll even get up and just drive my car for 30 minutes and just like visualize things. So I've always been like that as a kid. So I was right on right all the time. So like, I could see stuff. And then I connected writing and music. And as I listen to music, I would see my mom like moonwalking and stuff in the kitchen and stuff because my mom loved to dance. And apparently like you know, my dad was like a DJ and the dance when he was younger. And I was like, oh, man, it's in the blood. So like, I just got really addicted. And I would dance in front of like the mirror. But it was always like I would Daydream visualize. So it really taught me that in order to dance, you got to be able to create nothing from just to be in a movement or something to be inspired by a trigger, right? So now today rather be when I'm consulting people or are trying to build an ecosystem grow company, my ability to have foresight, my vision, my ability to visualize and created create those experiences in real life, I think is immensely impacted. Because that's all I do. And it's all I've done is just visualizing and execute on officialize.

Max: [8:26] Yeah, love it. And I think, you know, one of the things that sticks out to me is that you would dream visualize, and then you would write it down. Because a lot of people you know, I for a long time would think of great ideas. And if you don't write them down, they're very hard to execute on upon that, because they will just be fleeting thoughts. So yeah, it sounds like you develop some good habits early on through breakdancing, which is amazing. Now let's let's change gears a little bit, I will jump in to your company. ease and I'm pretty infatuated with it. Just because I think we're both somewhat in the same industry. Obviously we don't compete but you know, it's it's around recruiting. Yeah. And hiring. So tell me tell me about your your company ease. I know a lot about it, but I want to hear it from you. And, you know, kind of dig in that way.

Nathan: [9:10] Yeah, then ease is a was accidental brainchild. Everything I've done is an accident. I was actually working on like my first like bar deal. And it went bad. And like I ended up like kind of on my own. I was like, I don't want to work for anybody ever again. But I got where I was because I had an agency. My agency was virtual. So I had all these smart people all over the United States that were awesome engineers, awesome. Marketers, you're just super brilliant. They were part of a forum that we were on. And I realized, like the thing that I really liked the most was really getting into different business environments and solving problems, but I didn't really like the execution. So what I would do is like, Hey, guys, like I'm gonna code sell strategy, and I'm going to send you guys a bunch of work down for that. Yeah. Okay, great. Now I have this, you know, repertoire of things that I could execute on, as I started, essentially about building a community first. So then as I built this community, a really smart people started connecting them a jobs started then building the platform where they can manage your projects on, they can connect and send messages, and then eventually file share. So I just kept building more tools that they called on. And then now after a while, I had so many different clients managing talent, that I said, What is the real problem? Now at scale? How do we scale this without the human interaction component. And the only way to really scale it is to be able to predict what the key things that make up an ideal fit for a job are. So those key characteristics are around behavioral dynamics, cultural dynamics, and learning styles. So utilize disk, and a variety of predictive analytics tools now today, to predict who will be the best fit for opportunities primarily focused on freelancers. So we are always been focused on remote work digital nomad, brilliant people that want to solve complex problems. And that's really was the brainchild of users really just already had the smart people and I just built a community around giving them what they asked for

Max: [11:08] God, what's that's unpack this a little bit. So what I love is, and I think this comes more natural to younger folks and millennials. I don't know, I don't know your exact birthday. But let's just say it's a millennial, I'm just guessing. So the cultural aspect that doesn't come natural to you know, people that are older, and we we got infatuated, I had been in the staffing business for a long time has started to realize that it was it was the differentiating piece, you know, being able to do a job is one thing, being able to fit in with the culture and do the job was, you know, kind of what you're looking for. But how did it just naturally that was just one of the pieces of the puzzle that was super important from the beginning? Or was it something that you figured out through, you know, the your other work that you're involved with,

Nathan: [11:52] it was something that I figured out when I was at UPS, honestly, when I was there, I looked at the way that corporate culture worked from the back in the day, and why they even need the unit just to protect them from the policies are set in place, there was nothing about culture was about get the job done and get out. And it didn't allow you to have retention. And it didn't allow you to create what I call the launch pad, right? Every individual today is looking for diversified opportunities, short term burst to get to the next chapter. So realistically, everyone has to think about if you can't be like the only way to be a launchpad, you have to know where they want to go. So I dove deeper into where do somebody want to go? And how can I set you up for success to get there through what I have to offer today. So that was really, really important to me, then and I always brought it in every business I have is I really want to know where my employees want to go. Or anybody in my community wants to greet my friends. Like, I want to know where people want to go, and how can I help you be there? Because even as easy as a product at the end of the day, like I built my career on being a connector, so just happen to build a product around it.

Max: [12:55] Yeah, that's it. That's awesome. And it sounds like from it being a technology base being around freelancers. It sounds like one of those businesses where COVID it might you might have had seen some growth during COVID. Is that true? And tell me about your experience in with ease during COVID?

Nathan: [13:15] Yeah, it's honestly to the set weird to say this as COVID has a negative impact on society. It's been a blessing, honestly, because what it did was, it somewhat validated what I had been screaming from the mountaintops for so many years, where I'm like, the world is going to go remote. The world is going to go remote. These are the things you need to understand about your employees. And my first ever, like big conference workshop was around how to build a team of self directed workers. And what does that look like? And how do you make what leadership look like in that environment? So for me, we got about 400% increase in our talent pool, and about a 54% growth rate in sales for just COVID. Because not because we found a bunch of new customers is because the customers that weren't listening, decided say, Yeah, he talked about that a couple months ago. Didn't he call that guy?

Max: [14:09] Yeah, that's amazing. It's amazing to hear those stories. So looking back at when I when I kind of skimmed through your past and just looking back, it looked like there was a pivotal point, in my view for entrepreneurship. And it was when you're working for uglies, you started as a director mark and then you had an opportunity to get a stake of ownership through helping them turn the business around or reap rebrand it from kind of what I understood. Tell me about that, because I kind of felt like from my perspective, and obviously I want to hear from you. But tell me about that. That journey or that pivot? Was that was that when you've your first taste of entrepreneurship, or was there stuff before that?

Nathan: [14:50] I guess the only other taste I have is when I was in like my dance crew, we would have like performances you'd pay for so they don't count. That's like selling lemonade. But I think for realistically, that was my Real first tastes, it was first good and bad taste. That was that negative journey that was talking about. Now I came in as Director of Marketing for a business and quickly became the inovio. Like I'm designing the place, I'm getting us to fire code and turning a grocery store, which was a three and a half million dollar construction project, you know, a multi level bar in front of a dead basketball team called the bucks, which are now like number one. And it's like I visited before that and everyone's like, You're an idiot, there's no way this the guys you're working with, they're going to fail. And why are you putting all your eggs in this basket, because I wasn't even getting paid for it for free in exchange for set sweat equity. But, um, so I just grinded for two years on that project. And then finally, I hired every employee. And then my birthday was August 5. And then the week after that, they literally like deleted my email, and then like, fired me, out of nowhere, like didn't, they really never signed my contract so I can do anything. I was sleeping, I just moved out and got a new condo, I was like, literally, all I have is a couch and TV. Like, alright, well and I just bought an office like I've no income or at 300 bucks for office $500 apartments 15. Like, I got three weeks to figure this out. And that's what I came up with ease. And it worked. But that was the time where I realized that the world isn't all sunshine and rainbows and the capital world is very predatory. So you have to really, really dig deep. And that's where the values came into play. As I said, I will never work with anybody again, it doesn't have the same values as me. So then that's what I that's what I did. I started aligning myself with amazing mentors like Kevin Kawasaki, who first investor in ease and person has been a great part of my life and snowballing into just like Chris ably who has been a mentor and a guide. I mean, God like to have Chris ably to see me at like 22 years old and say, I believe in you. And never actually like I never asked for anything. I mean, this guy's dad founded Boston Scientific and he went on to become Walker County Executive and, and you know, the most active VC in Wisconsin, he's I was just able to sit in a room with these types of guys. So for years, I just kept grinding and trying to grab their attention. And what ended up happening was, I won, took the bar back, because the guys who screwed me over, they ended up failing three months in, and then they literally had a judge contact me to come in and turn it around. And then I basically bought them out of the next few years. So like, after me doing the right thing, I actually ended up taking a bar that screwed me. And then in two years after that, somebody should just sue me Cody ugly for like something for having named uglies. They ended up closing, I end up taking their bar. So it's like, whenever you do the right thing, somehow justice will come and find you. You don't have to go find it yourself. So that's where like, I learned so much about that side of entrepreneurship, because the intellectual stuff will always come right. But the entrepreneurial side is, is is a little more cutthroat and more agile in your mindset. And it's a lot about like values. I think that that I learned during that time.

Max: [18:02] Let's dig into I mean, it sounds like you had some amazing, you know, people to look up to and people you could use as resources. But how did you get in touch with those people? How did you get connected originally? And how did you you know, stick stay in front of them? And how were you able to use them as resources?

Nathan: [18:19] Well, I was really blessed. When I first came into Waukee. Like, I didn't hang out with people my own age, you know, 19 years old, and all my friends like 25 to 35. And I'm like, No, he's going down to city hall meetings, I'm hearing about what's happening in the city because I could feel the walk. He was onto something. But I didn't understand it. And I don't know why or how so like, I'm looking at everything I possibly can learn about entrepreneurship score, which is like free stuff you can get. And then I'm the only young person in the room. So eventually, they're like, why is there one young guy here, and they were just drawn to me. And people were just like, Hey, I'm gonna keep watching you. I was always giving business cards. I was just really active, like, I didn't want to party. I wanted to like figure this thing out. So that's really how I started meeting people. And then eventually, my work started speaking for itself. So I took a couple retail stores in Milwaukee and a bunch of bars and increase your sales by 50 60% of my name started getting around town that like this guy knows, you know, these parts of business. So I ended up getting hired to take on growth marketing for a startup called chitters at the time, and just Kevin kawaki was a lead investor, that startup didn't work out. But what he seen from me working, he said, Hey, I want to stay in touch. So then when I finally came up my own idea, he said, Hey, I want to support you. Same thing happened with Chris ably. I'm working my butt off to just really bring this dream forward. And I get accepted into one of the top ranked accelerators in the world generator. And all of a sudden he find out you are an owner that I'm like, oh, wow, it's amazing. Like how do you own this and all I got about dial back. Well, when I opened my bar, I didn't know that the Milwaukee Bucks are gonna get bought. So actually find out 2016 some before the public even knows, because they're coming around like what you sell. Like, let me see your plan. No, like not going anywhere. So like our building owner, all of a sudden on board, we're like we're not leaving. So they ended up buying every single thing around us. And eventually, the deal was going to not go through because a lot of city people are fighting it. And they decided to have one bar be the commercial to talk about what would happen if the Milwaukee Bucks left walking went to Vegas or something. And I was in that commercial little nose for Chris ably politician. So I this is like, I want the Bucks here. And also I want to be on TV. So I end up doing it. He ends up to us brings me down to thank me. And they end up talking for three hours, he canceled the rest of his day. And like every since then he took me to every basketball game political meetings flew me to different parts of the country to meet some amazing people of his because he just straight up told me like I believe in you, I love your story and where you're going. And so when I got into generator, he's like, you know what, don't touch any other investors, all of us to half a million. Take this company off, and I'll introduce you to everybody I know. I really help build it because I believe in you. So same thing always happens is I just asked for advice. And then I get investment or support. But just showing up I think really was the key.

Max: [21:22] Got it, tell me about Milwaukee. I've only been in Milwaukee. Once I'll tell you I was going to Lambeau for a football game and I couldn't fly in anywhere closer. So I flew into Milwaukee. So I drove by. And it was the most amazing city as I was driving away. But I never went back. And I know you know those are you built some routes there. But I'm just curious as to you know, what, what did you love? And what do you love about Milwaukee

Nathan: [21:45] Milwaukee is such a vibrant city with deep culture that we call a small Waukee the ones that live there is because when you're there, you feel like you know everybody, you know, the guy walking down the street, it's selling the same CDs every day, or the guy that you know, the best burger in town, you know who every restaurant owner, like it's just so small and tight. Where the focus is raw food, good times, cultures, festivals, and just good integrity. You know, that's one thing I like about about smaller cities is that they the love is so much stronger. Because when you do something like everybody knows, right, it's like, we got to have each other's back, then Everyone's so proud of our city in our state. So they rally together in such big events. I mean, our bar crawls everything. It's just, it's just a city that people sleep on, you know, rather be winter or summer. You can dance on though and you can boat on the water or go dance on the ice in the winter. Like, it's whatever you want to do. So I think that that's really it, man. It's just a great food and community that's really, really tight knit.

Max: [22:46] And what my what brought you to Scottsdale Arizona.

Nathan: [22:50] You know, what's funny is the traditional story of a girl. So I was bored, I got my bars to autopilot. And I really handed over operations and ex girlfriend was basically, hey, I'm going to ASU, I'm like I vacation there every year. I love to go check it out. I started checking out even more. Also north, I'm getting a place here. So then all of a sudden I'm on vacation home became my main home. Adele, I basically ended up living here full time as of about two years ago, mainly. And I fall in love man like it is just such a great landscaping and more diverse mindset here. You know, there is a lot of walking on cigarettes in America, a lot of barriers there for African American entrepreneurs, that I don't feel here. You know, it's people are a lot more open to work with new people because everybody's transient, nobody's from here. So you don't have that generational closed mindedness that I feel that the Midwest can have when it comes to like the entrepreneur ecosystem.

Max: [23:51] Gotcha. And how old are you now? I'm 31. You know, when I graduated from college, I went to North graduate of Northern Arizona University, I moved right by ASU. And so I felt like I got to go to ASU after graduate college too. So similar, similar, similar background, but I'm going to switch gears a little bit here. Tell me you're just looking back. And this has been an amazing conversation so far, but tell me about kind of a best you know, the best experience in life that you've had so far. I know. It's big question. And and obviously, you know, you've had a incredible childhood and a tough childhood and then then incredible runs since then. But what are your best life experiences look like? And then I'm going to flip that to and I'm going to say hey, what does what's the worst been like?

Nathan: [24:38] Man, that's tough. I think the best for me, and I always attach my best experiences to professional things because that's really all I know. But I think mine was getting into my first accelerator and graduating from our first accelerator, and you know, getting a fully funded stepping on premier knife. First time I've never actually walked across the stage before. I've never graduated from anything. So either just don't want to show up. I used to be really shy. So for the first time graduating and stepping on stage and being introduced on stage by like Chris ably and being welcomed by 700, Executive leaders and that like believe my idea, that was like a special moment for me, because my brother and everybody, my family, like they've got me a graduation cap, everybody signed it, because they remembered that like, I've never graduated from anything like this is this first graduation. And everybody made that super special, because they knew how important it was to me, even though I didn't say anything. Like even my dog was there. So that was one of the most memorable moments.

Max: [25:40] That's amazing. That's amazing. I don't like my kids to hear from people that didn't have to graduate that are as successful as you. But Congratulations, because then they're like, see, I don't have to go to school that guy's successful. I can do what he did. And I also, at one time, I always felt like I was the youngest person in the room, and then all of a sudden, I wasn't. So have you crossed that gap yet, where all of a sudden, you're looking around and you're not the most the youngest person in the room?

Nathan: [26:03] Yeah, I'd say I have crossed a gap. Because I'm being in the startup ecosystem. It's constant, where I'm like, man I did so well in life, then like a 19 year old wage raises $20 million. I'm like, Oh, okay. I'm doing all right. But not that great, because there's just so many brilliant people in the world.

Max: [26:18] Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's how I feel. And I was an eo I was the youngest person to join eo when I joined. And now I was in eo for 10 years, and I've been YPO for seven. And now I'm far from the youngest person in my forum, even like, when I look around, I'm like, Oh, my gosh, these people are crushing it. So what Tell me tell me a little bit about generator. I don't know a lot about it. Obviously, you've talked a lot about it. It's been very impactful, and getting to where you're at today. So I'd love to hear more about I think it deserves from, from what you've talked about so far, deserves a little airtime. And I'm curious as to you know, what it is and in what the process is like, because it sounds like it's a pretty successful process.

Nathan: [26:58] Yeah, it was created by Joe cargas. And Troy vossler. To law graduates from University of Madison, they wanted to solve the problem of the drain of venture capital that the Midwest is experiencing. So they wanted to find the best and brightest startups from anywhere, and bring them to Wisconsin. And if they're in Wisconsin, investing in them, and each startup gets about 100, hundred and $50,000. In venture capital investment. They pick five startups out of thousands that apply per cohort. So is less than a 1% chance of getting in? No sir survived seven years in a row never got in, I was so honored to get into my first try. And it was just a blessing. And what they do is they take you and have you pitch round, Robin 20 pitches a day for two to three weeks, over and over to the biggest executives that are like in all of the Midwest around the country, just as practice, then they put you in like about another month of refining, and Griffin going after marketing, coordinate customers trying to raise up your metrics. Then after that, to take you on a roadshow across the US and nine different states to pitch 300 investors. By the end startups typically raised between one to $2 million and follow on capital, and then go on to got do bigger and better things. So they've done that started in 2016. I believe in today, they raised about a half a billion dollars and created 10s of thousands of jobs for startups all over the Midwest and acquired about 13 other markets and startups. So they have music accelerator it Motown Warner Brothers, you know, everything, you name it, they have it now, and they just snowball of growth. And Chris ably is backing that as well. So they're all part of what CSA partners. So my company is a portfolio of CSA partners, which is crusade was very fun. And so it's generator. So really awesome for anybody that's building technology, trying to solve technology problems. And then I also were alumni of plug and play tech center. So that's the largest corporate tech innovation hub in the world. It's located in Santa Clara. So your favorite people like Google and Dropbox came from there. We were blessed to get into that. And I've been able to see two worlds this does San Francisco Silicon Valley startup strategy, then the Midwest, more traditional strategy. And that makes me come up with this idea. But I always call it like, we're a zebra startup, where I like to remain profitable while raising capital for growth. Wow, instead of traditional burn capital method.

Max: [29:26] Sure, it sounds like just that process that they put you through even if you didn't end up getting, you know, the capital that you would be set up for success just based on that process. They put you through,

Nathan: [29:37] yeah, hundred percent, because when you're done you get access to hundreds of corporate partners, right. So for plug and play, I can say, hey, I need to connect with someone at Nike. That's in this role. They'll give me that connection tomorrow. I mean, like that's all I really been building my podcast to because I'm also eases a partner in HR transform in Las Vegas. So really transformative HR conference in Vegas, where we Bring some of the best leaders and chief people officer from fortune 500 together and really talk about not just people operations, but how is tech impacting culture and corporate ecosystems? And how do we put ourselves in front of tech? How do we not make bias tech. So really, really cool innovative ideas around people and technology that that really give us access to these things. And I didn't get that until generator got me into that. So that's where that's where it's so great to be a part of accelerators, they take equity in your business, but they buy it. But it's not about the money, like you get 100 grand for them, and they give you millions of dollars worth of connections,

Max: [30:36] how much do you think in that program? Look, going back to generator How much? What percentage of it is based on the business idea or the leader? Do you think just from your experience?

Nathan: [30:46] Oh, it's, I would say it's the 8020 Wait, 80%, the leader 20% the idea because ideas don't matter without execution. And also, the entrepreneur that you're looking for, has to have grit, like so many people forget about the grit part. And I think only about the intellectual and metric metric, measurable parts, but that you can't measure every year predict every challenge. So that grit component, I think, is an imperative part of their selection process, as well as your idea of strategic strategy. And then the another thing that's important is Who else is a part of the company in terms of your advisors and investors? Because there is a entrepreneur world's a gatekeeper of society. So you know, you're not going to run a Facebook ad to get the big deal. It's all about who you know,

Max: [31:29] Yeah, Absolutely, absolutely. Well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna jump in a little bit. Obviously, you've seen a lot of success, and and you've been fortunate, but you've worked very hard for it. So I'm going to break this down, like on a day to day basis. What do you do on a day to day basis? Like, what habits do you have? Like, how do you break down your day, I want to try to figure out and suss out what has gotten you to where you're at? Because you're super humble. So I'm gonna have to dig a little bit. But when what how do you how did you get that grit? How did you you know, take those ideas, how do you act upon execute upon it on a daily basis,

Nathan: [32:00] I've actually done the same thing every day since that day, I said, I want to be better. And I used to start off with the only thing that's changed is the sound in my head. So in the beginning, I would start my day by listening like Eric Thomas and townville use like motivational like YouTube reels, or like two hours long, they're like, I could do this, because I needed to see that it was possible, like, I just chip on my shoulder at something to prove. But then today, it's more of a gratitude approach to my day. So I start my day with gratitude versus this burning desire, or chip or rage, I want to fight. But the methodology is the same, or I don't even have to use an alarm anymore. Every day, my body wakes me up at 530. And immediately I look at I don't want to touch my phone, because they're going to create anxiety is going to do things that I don't want and allow somebody else or something else to take control of my focus or day. So what I do is I make myself extremely selfish in the first hour. So I get up, I do my little routine, I'll get one my car up, then I go for a nice drive. And I'll go to the mountains. And I'll play music and I drive up to like the same houses that I've drove up to, since before I had a nickel. And there's this beautiful view off a Lincoln drive. And I just go over there and I just like look out and I think about what I'm grateful for. and really think about where I came from every day because I don't want to forget that. And it's sometimes an emotional experience. And then after that, I go back and then I set up by like 8am or even 730. I'm going to sit down, I'm going to eat I'm gonna do my typical routine. So I'm big into fitness. So I'm always make my meals in the morning. And then from there, I go into my workday, it's my part until 9am, then the other people can take my day. Now I just organized that because I've read Daniel Pink's when I've realized that the difference between an owl and a lark, and because of my Lark behaviors, I know that my inhibited controls are at their greatest peak right when I wake up in the morning. So that's why I got to be crucial to protecting that. Because my chronotype tells me that I can work diligently on these tedious meticulous tasks until halfway through the day when I start to have what they call a trough. And when that trough happens, that's when I go to the gym. That's what I need to get out, I need to lift some weights, I need to really push myself and get everything fired up again, then my inhibitor controls are going to go back up, but they're never going to reach the level they were when I woke up. So that's when I do my creative tasks, because now I've had outside things going into my head. But in the evening, it's great because that's what I want. I want outside influence to execute on finding new ideas. So I've always followed that methodology. And a lot of it's coming from reading Daniel Pink books.

Max: [34:43] Love it, I just realized and that's exactly how I am. But I now have five kids and the only way to get ahead in life with five kids is you got to beat them up in the morning. That will work out first thing in the morning. But if I had my choice, I would design it just like that. That's how I used to do it. And let's speak about working out the guy Scott who works in my office, I think you know him from probably Milwaukee, he's from Minneapolis, but he said, You guys are gonna, you guys are gonna hit it off. I mean, you're both, he said, You're both jacked, he probably not jacked like you because I'm old now. From working out the workouts for me, I always felt like when I was building businesses, when I worked out, I could control that. And so I've always stuck with that. And I still will say that I like the, I can always tell when I stick to my workouts and things going good. It just happens that business kind of follows. But it really helps me keep in control. And I just want to say I just want to ask you, if that's how it is for you. And that's what has kept you working out like you do or where does your inspiration come from?

Nathan: [35:44] I feel like we have alot in common because I feel like the exact same thing. When I'm working out my life is so it's like clockwork, man, I'm in my stride. I call it sync, I'm in sync. So it's like but when I'm not, you know, and I feel like I start to get a little lethargic or when I like have to travel a whole lot. And I'm like, man, like I need to get back in my routine. Like, even though it's great traveling for work. It's like if I need my routine, I need my gym time to get that clarity, Alyssa felucca I'm getting buried, but when I'm in my, my daily routine, I can be in the city and just get stuff done that I've never, I can't even put into words how much more effective I am,

Max: [36:22] yeah. Oh, no, I can put it in a lot of words. I sometimes I can't wait to get back to my routine when I'm traveling or, you know, out of town. So I know exactly what you're talking about. When did you like thinking back on your journey? When were you called to be a leader like most times, I most of the time, I talked to successful entrepreneurs, and they always tie it back to like, you know, being a being competitive on the basketball team and playing sports. And since you didn't have that, I'm just thinking about when did when we were called to be a leader like when did you know you were going to be a successful leader, and have the confidence in building businesses like you like you are today.

Nathan: [36:59] I think the turning point was when I had a successful outcome, because in the beginning, when I first started, I didn't always have successful outcomes. There's times I wanted to achieve something I just couldn't figure it out. But right after that, when I got kind of kicked out of the bar, and I had the successful outcome of building ease and seeing it scale so fast, you know, like, literally went from zero dollars to $20,000. In my first month. I was like, what, like, didn't do that every month. But it was like, wait, what, like, how do I do that again? Now I was like, Alright, the way I did it was by taking all these different people and leaving them towards a mission. Well, how do I do better at that. So instead of focusing on getting better and better and better and better at one craft, I started realizing that every person that I looked up to, they weren't great at one craft, they were great at being the champion, they're great at being the spearhead. They're great at seeing wherever we wanted to go, and being able to pull them behind them and take all the punches along the way to protect everybody else in the back. So that's really what I started looking at, like, I want to be that person, that's essentially the hero of the story. Right, like so that's really what motivated me.

Max: [38:11] Do you feel like you found your purpose in life yet? Are you do you feel like you're still pursuing it,

Nathan: [38:16] my purpose is, is going to be an ongoing thing, because my main job is I have a mission. And my mission is, I have to do enough in my life to set my next generations up for success. So they don't have to, like deal with any of the stuff that I went through. And I feel like I'm almost there. But if I let off, there's going to be some generation is going to get left behind. So I feel like if I can just push my life as far as I possibly can, that when I do die, my kids can say, Man, like your grandfather did all this for us. And this is why we are here. And like, you know, this, you know, my legacy can kind of leave on. And like, really keep moving forward. So I think that that's my purpose. I mean, it's to be essentially like this champion right now to do what I can of our family for.

Max: [38:59] And just like fill in the blank, leaders would become better if they did blank...

Nathan: [39:06] listened.

Max: [39:10] That doesn't surprise me. Let's talk about like, let's talk about fun, leadership lessons you've learned over the years, I'd like on a little lighter note, like what what have you I mean, you've stubbed your toe, um, things that you've learned that that might help you become who you are today and really improve and continue, you know, becoming a better leader.

Nathan: [39:29] Honestly, I, oh, my dad always told me like some alluded to just now as you give two ears, one mouth, so like, Listen twice as much as you speak. Because I'm always listening to so many things. It allows me to step back, think speak less, and innovate more. So like, I have so many like compartmental things out here that are problems that I dream about solving one day. So I think that that's helped me to be leaders because I'm always thinking into the future and always listening to what people's problems are and trying to help them and it's kind of I think comes from my mom and My brother's, like, if you've ever meet my mom or brother, like, we're gonna meet one day, formally, in person, you're gonna see like, we're really nurturing people. And I think that nurturing behavior is something that's been fun. And it's been great. And it's why like, I love creating experiences for my staff, my bars, my friends, I mean, I've got an event company solely just because like, I just love creating experiences. And that's what's been fun about entrepreneurship is like, I would have so many brilliant people, I just love bringing them all together. Like even for Halloween, like I'm written like this extravagant, like mansion of red carpet. And just like saying hey, you guys are all my friends, but you don't know each other. So tonight you're gonna meet? And like, of course, you're gonna have masks on maybe. But, uh, yeah, so like, I just really want to make sure that like people don't forget that, like, the best part of entrepreneurship is not what you're working on the day, but the relationship you're building to create, like what you're gonna do tomorrow.

Max: [40:55] I love that. I love that. What are you most curious about now?

Nathan: [40:59] Ah, man, like behavioral psychology. Like I'm so so. So in that right now where, like, it's all I want to read about, it's all we talked about, because you have a certified behavioral consultant, our team, and assessment like architects. So right now, we're literally building this technology that is going to be able to predict not only and create a profile of that individual, but to be able to then collect feedback from their peers, as they work on jobs in the field, to then get a more robust profile to predict better matches for jobs in the future. Like if I could like figure out how to get the right data points, to create the roadmap, have a blueprint of our ideal organization, and personality types, really good blueprints for your career path based on these characteristics about you? Like that would be magic to me. So that's something I'm just super addicted to. And no, I didn't get a PhD. But I'm sitting with people that have them. So it's working.

Max: [41:55] You know, one thing I want to go back to, just because I've been listening and reading and this has come up countless times, I feel like in the last, I don't know, two, three months, but it's your routine in the morning about not getting to the cell phone, and really owning your own time and then grabbing your cell phone. I think so many people, they're on Instagram and going through their their routine, and you know, before they when they go to bed, and then they first wake up and they get all these texts and emails. So I mean, I just really want to highlight that because if you're not, you know, this is this is this conversation has come up so many times, but just want to kind of point out your discipline in that and in, you know how important that is? Because I do believe it's, I've heard it from a lot of successful people recently.

Nathan: [42:38] Yeah, this is about producing content, not just consuming it. You know, like in the morning, I may make a video, but I'm not consuming something. I'm creating something that I can offer value on. So you'll see a lot of my morning wake up routine videos, I'll say something maybe inspiration or all my mind. I think that's okay, but you consuming it leaves you subject to so much, especially during election time. I don't wanna look at my phone at all.

Max: [43:01] No kidding. Don't get in text, like I keep getting text like, oh, how do you how did you get my number? Nobody texted me anymore. I'm done with the election or at this point, I already voted. If you if you knew a blank 10 years ago, you would have done what?

Nathan: [43:15] Oh, has that means I have to say I wish I would have done something differently. Know what that would be. If I would have known that we will be where we are 10 years ago, I would have told my brother to quit his job sooner. Because I feel like you know, now that he's in the entrepreneurial world, he can really accomplished even so much more, because he was doing great work at Amazon. He reason all those packages come to your door so accurately. For those flex drivers here. He built that here. So he did that with Amazon. But he was like, in that box. I'm like, Man, you got to see the world and travel. So like, I think that, you know, it's been so great having him as my partner, and in this business and, and to be able to work side by side, I have always dreamed of working and building the company, my brother. So I would have definitely done that even sooner.

Max: [44:02] So how was that conversation? So I have a brother he's two years older than me. He's actually very successful entrepreneur, but we've never really been true business partners. We found some stuff together. We've lost some money together and some investments, but we've never really been in business. So did you courting him or was it a constant conversation? Was there like some monumental, you know, conversation that started the relationship? or How did it go down?

Nathan: [44:24] Yeah, we never really figured out how the heck we were going to work together because he was in supply chain logistics and it and I'm in like this entrepreneurial, but digital transformation consultant kind of role. So I'm doing my thing, no thing and all of a sudden was I did come up the idea of ease. And he was simultaneously building the on demand independent contractor platform for Amazon, primarily focused on obviously flex drivers package delivery, but I'm doing it in a digital space for like we were both solving the same problem but in two different industries. What would you think about join that over here, so we both did. uses a side project. Well, I had my safety net my bar revenue, and he had the safety net of Amazon. It was like, wow, like this thing's taken off. It's working. And I told him, Hey, if I raised this money, and I get in this program, you can have to quit your job literally, like, next week. So I pitched generator in three weeks go by didn't hear anything. And all of a sudden, they called me and said, Hey, you got in and you have four days to be in Madison, Wisconsin. I'm like, oh, shoot, saw you got to quit. He's like, well, what I've been in two weeks knows, like, not today. So he ended up just click it fill up there with me. .

Max: [45:39] It's amazing What's one thing that you wish people would stop saying,

Nathan: [45:43] man? Um, I would say the word hate. I think that, like, so many people hate so many things today. I wish people instead say I don't understand. Because I think that when people will have that inkling of hatred or animosity towards anything, it's just a lack of understanding of somebody else's perspective, and at least a confrontation. So if you can stop trying to hate or judge or dislike something and start trying to moreso ask, How can I better understand I think the world would be in a lot better place.

Max: [46:12] And you should run for public office of some sort. We should blast this out from the hills. So in on that same note, like what's, uh, what's an unpopular opinion that you have, it doesn't have to be around politics obviously just in general.

Nathan: [46:26] know. I mean, I, I definitely have an unpopular opinion, that's been kind of my gears as of late. I feel like in current, like, in my life, right, I'm an African American entrepreneur from a really struggling Trump background. And as I work towards getting to the next chapter in raising my family up, it's been really, really hard, right. And one of the things that's bothered me, I think, as of lately, regardless of politics, or side of the party, is that it's now being convenient for people to kind of monetize a minority pain. So now it's cool to get behind it. So I think that as of today, on that long that understanding, train, is a list of focusing on how to monetize and capitalize and commercialize a problem. Let's focus on actually getting stuff done the solver, because I think that that's one thing that the people maybe may not like to have to say, but like, I want to see legitimate accuracy and not monetizable. Advocacy.

Max: [47:20] Got it. And another thing we start you you mentioned this earlier in the conversation, what are some positive like things that COVID has served up to you? I mean, obviously, your company has, you know, has picked up some momentum. But what are some other things? I love having this conversation? Because I think there's so many I mean, there's people, there's a lot of people that went through a lot of misery. But I think when they really sat down and thought about it, there's a lot of positive things that came up. But what is some for you?

Nathan: [47:46] Yeah, I mean, I think the things for I'm in two worlds, so having bars and startup and pandemic are two of the worst things you can have. And somehow it's worked out. But like, for me, the positive parts of of, of it is we're growing our business, we're able to see through the between the cracks, and we're able to also get a better understanding from people and a lot more empathy of around the problem or solving. So that's been really good. And like really being able to get access to a lot more talent. So many people have left work or different jobs, and now they're exploring the idea of what if I was just self employed, what if I just free as a freelance economy grew by 20% in the pandemic, that's like, that's like point $2 trillion. So you got to think about that. And that's really important as a whole. And then I think the other thing, from my bar side is I got so much more close and connected to my community, the mayor, the health and City Health officials, and really having them rally behind us instead of kind of shutting us down. Waukee did an amazing job of saying, Hey, we're gonna work by you, we're gonna make sure that we can get rules in place that keep you in business. And I think that that brought our community together more than it tore us apart.

Max: [48:55] Wow, that's amazing. I was just gonna ask how how it was affected in Milwaukee? How was how's the business going? How's the bar business going? Now?

Nathan: [49:03] It's been up and down. I mean, we lost like $2 million or more because we lost the NBA Finals. We had the Democratic National Convention. We had a variety of different major events that it was supposed to be the biggest year in history for Wisconsin in Milwaukee. So like that was like a low blow man like I was like no way and I'm at the entrance of the arena we're all that is like you can't go into the arena without walking through my guard your guard so like you walk up you shoot big uncle box last all that but the thing is, though is sitting walkie does it shut us down for a period of time. They had his create real COVID policies, they brought all the best restaurant leaders together and said, Hey, we're gonna come up with things that makes sense. Have you be our consultants? So they've allowed us to survive and thrive so now we're back to in the green. They are trying to put some restrictions in place in from up top from the governor level. But right now the city is really fighting for us to be able to stay open because about 30% of all right bars city are permanently closed.

Max: [50:02] Wow, man, that's crazy. I'm gonna throw some quicker questions at you. And then we'll start wrapping up pretty soon. But I just want to kind of go through kind of a rapid question section. So we know what you like to do when you first wake up. So I want to ask you that. But what what book Have you read more than one time?

Nathan: [50:20] Drive? by Daniel Pink and War of Art? Love it

Max: [50:25] What? Which person has had the greatest impact on your life? A mom doesn't surprise me. What's something on your bucket list that you're waiting to check off? A skydiving? If you could teach one subject to schoolchildren? What would it be?

Nathan: [50:41] Social Studies.

Max: [50:43] And obviously you're you're a morning person. That was one of my questions. Yeah.

Max: [50:48] All right. And do you think leadership can be taught? Absolutely.

Nathan: [50:51] Absolutely. Well, everyone has an opportunity to be a leader if you know which characteristics to tap into.

Max: [50:56] If you could change one thing about the world now what would it be?

Nathan: [51:00] I'm a big make it more peaceful making people listen to each other more, because we're all trying to get to the same goal, but no one's hearing it.

Max: [51:09] Now, it's amazing. I'm gonna start wrapping up. But I think about what a great breakdancer you are and how that comes in handy. Like he just did a wedding and somebody's like, hey, do you want to dance? And you know, he's just like, yeah, sure you break it out. So I just kind of laughing to myself of like, being able to be an incredible dancer would be a handy tool to have in your tool belt for sure.

Nathan: [51:29] Yeah, it's been so awesome. One of the things that was really transformative is one time I was really young, not really, I guess I felt like 20 common, who's like one of my favorite artists was rapping on stage. And I looked at all my voices. Like, we have to do this right now. They're like, what are they we don't do this right now. No one's ever gonna notice this. We rushed the stage while he was dancing or singing rapping on stage. security's like trying to pull us off. And we're like back flipping and dance all over. And then eventually, as yankin is off stage, he tells him to bring us back on. And that was like one of those moments where I was like, I knew it, if we just got up there broke, and then he actually broke dance with us.

Max: [52:07] Oh, man, that's amazing. That's amazing. One other thing I do want to cover with you gotta love that. from a standpoint of managing your time, I'm just trying to think back through our conversation, like make sure I'm able to pull out things that can help listeners really be more successful in. So but managing your time. So I think, you know, I think when you get married, you have kids things change a little bit, I can attest to that. But so you have a battle with manage your time, how do you effectively manage your time? And is it getting easier or getting worse,

Nathan: [52:40] it's getting easier. Every single day, like the past in 2016. Sounds crazy about 26 a guy, it'll all run I need to fight, I want to do something different in my life. So I finally got my bar open. And I found the amazing GM Lawrence. And he took this pace under his wing. And I was like, You know what, like, you've been here since I started. Like, he knows it plays back and forth, I literally had to do nothing anymore. And still to this day, he's still there. And I am so thankful for him. Because now the team, they come up their own marketing ideas, their own events, and everything. And I have amazing partner. So like my partner and their operations, I'm the bright ideas. And now I get to come down and see be the owner where it's just building its own thing now. And that place will be there forever. So that's gotten easier. And then with ease, same thing, like I just every business I start, I empower build the people up, my goal is to walk to the next one within two to three years of starting it. Either a solid exit or IPO. I'm the type of guy that I'm not trying to build 1000 person 2000 person company and be a public face and CEO. Even if ideas that great, I will literally build infrastructure and be a part of the core ecosystem of the business. But hand off those tedious tasks, somebody that's going to be better at them. Because my thought process when you look at my psychometrics, I'm not designed for a job. I'm designed to ideate innovate create. So that's why it's become easy for me because I just refused to do the things I'm not good at. Love it.

Max: [54:13] I love it. Well, if I can part on one note, refuse to do the things that you're not good at is one of them. So that was an amazing conversation. This was the first time we've met but I look forward to spending time with you outside of this conversation for sure. Thank you so much for sharing everything you did. You know to learn more about Nathan you can also go check out his website, which I believe is I Ts ease calm, right?

Nathan: [54:36] Yep, I Ts s e.com.

Max: [54:39] And he also has a podcast it's called life with ease. Is that right?

Nathan: [54:43] Yes. Hashtag life with ease all one word, and then you'll be able to see it'll pop up everywhere.

Max: [54:48] Awesome. All right, you're listening to behind the resume podcast brought to you by why scouts we find purpose aligned and performance proven leaders. For more information about why scouts please find us at why scouts.com Thanks. For listening to behind the resume with Max Hanson

Max: [55:06] thanks for listening to the behind the resume podcast with why scouts max Hansen. Join us next time as we continue to have intimate conversations with leaders to learn their stories, life hacks, life experiences and other interesting practices or learning experiences that have made them who they are today. You can learn more about your host max Hansen and why scouts at why scouts comm Join us next time as we go behind the resume with why scouts max Hansen on demand 24 seven right here at Star worldwide networks.com or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.

Ian Lopatin the Spiritual Gangster

Today's guest is Ian Lopatin, the Spiritual Gangster.

Announcer: [0:03] Live, it's the behind the resume podcast, with Y Scouts, Max Hansen, where you get to know the person behind the resume. The interesting stuff people never hear about just by looking at a profile here intimate conversations with leaders to learn their story, life hacks, life experiences, and any other interesting practices or learning experiences that have made them who they are today. You know, the interesting stuff. Now, if you're ready, let's go behind the resume. here's your host, Y Scouts admin max Hanson.

Max: [0:42] Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode One of behind the resume podcast with Max Hanson. We're purpose driven leaders dig deep to share insights on what got them to where they are today, even more importantly, where they're preparing themselves for better tomorrow. Today, our guest is Ian Lopatin who's currently the co founder of spiritual gangster, a hip yoga line. That's all about spreading good vibes, giving back and choosing kindness. Before creating spiritual gangster Ian was a lawyer turn Yogi, where he started ran and sold at one yoga to lifetime is a close friend and one of the positive most positive people I know. Ian, welcome to the show.

Ian: [1:14] Glad to be here, Max. Thanks for having me.

Max: [1:16] I have so many questions for you and so many things to talk about. So I can't wait to get going on this. This could probably last for like four days.

Ian: [1:22] I'm looking forward to it. All right, well, let's go. I ate before I came here. I don't know four days will work. But I didn't

Max: [1:27] Robin four days. Okay. So this is episode one. So no pressure. But we did have a built on podcasts before this. And there was 39 episodes with Brian Moore. So this is my first episode a little nervous. But let's get after it. First of all, frame it. This is behind the resume is the vision of this podcast is really to Front Load the business stuff and then go deep. So we'll get there. And then for all the listeners out there, Ian has not been given the questions, so he's not prepared. With that said, Ian, if you want to pass on a question. I have lots of good questions. Feel free to just say pass and we'll pass. So here we go. And then at the very end, then I'm going to go into a rapid fire section. We'll go through questions a little bit quicker. Good. Awesome. All right. So here we go. Tell me about your nickname, The eagle. I just discovered this at a current text conversation with him. I asked if he had any nicknames. And he said the eagle and I couldn't wait to hear where did it come from?

Ian: [2:19] So this is interesting. It comes back you know from we used to live in LA. And it's if we would always be wanting to deliver you something special. They say the Eagle has landed. And it really became from like, we're flying high. So we got the eagle.

Max: [2:35] All right. All right. I love it. The eagle makes a lot of sense. All right, what's the most interesting thing going on in your life right now?

Ian: [2:44] Well, one thing I'm really excited about spiritual gangster I've been a lifelong fan of the Grateful Dead. And in two weeks, we're launching a collaboration with spiritual gangster and the Grateful Dead. So it's an amazing way for me to share with everyone in spiritual gangster how much the Grateful Dead has been an influence on my life. And you know, we're we're bringing that ethos and vibrations and getting out to the spiritual gangster gang community. And to me, I'm super excited about that, because as a lifelong, Grateful Dead fan, and seen, you know, over 50 shows, and they've been a massive impact and how I see the world. And now I'm really excited to get to share what I love with you know, people that I love.

Max: [3:26] I love that i i know i know you so well and I didn't know this was going on. We also went to a Grateful Dead show right before COVID hit was dead

Ian: [3:34] Dead Company, which was amazing. And they're they're doing they're doing amazing. They're keeping on the vibrations of the grateful that you know, even one thing I was saying is God bless John Mayer, I love what he's doing. And I love how he's really, you know, made the Grateful Dead music relevant with younger generations now. So that's awesome, too.

Max: [3:51] Yeah, Brian Moore be so proud of this podcast, starting out with the Grateful Dead content here. But so spirit, speaking of spiritual gangster, it's a brand I love. How did it come to be? I know it's a big question. We'll dig a little deeper in there. But how did it come to be anything about spiritual gangster?

Ian: [4:07] So spiritual gangster, it's always been a movement to us. And you know what I used to teach yoga here and we had a chain of yoga studios and we would teach yoga really all over the world. But one of the things that I used to do is I used to teach yoga to hip hop rap music, and it would be anywhere from like Tupac to Biggie to Nelly back and a friend of mine after class one day she came up to me and she said, You're a gangster. You're like a spiritual gangster and we started selling t shirts that we sold in our yoga studio here. And once we ended up deciding to sell the yoga business at one yoga lifetime fitness, you know, we kept spiritual gangster because it really started as the house brand that we were selling in the yoga studio. And then you know turn from really a hobby to an expensive hobby and passion into you know, now a global movement.

Max: [4:53] Oh, I love it. I love it. Where When was that? When did you first No, it was a movement

Ian: [4:58] from the beginning. I mean, we you know intentionally what we realized is when we created the yoga studios, you know, we created almost I mean, like Howard Schultz, they were the third place where people would come in and be like a fitness thing, it would be a social element and also have a spiritual component. So they come and they could mix with community. And what I realized in the yoga business, it was extremely labor people dependent, and in order to scale that you just have to manage. And so what we wanted to figure out is how can we take the vibes? And really what what we learned from building the yoga community, and how do we share it with the world versus our local community here? So that was always our intention behind it.

Ian: [5:38] And now, it's really, you know, snowballing.

Max: [5:41] Yeah, I feel so good. When I wear my spiritual gangster stuff, man, and I've heard you talk about this, you've said this to me before, but you talk about how people represent brands. And then when you wear your spiritual gangster shirt, you are the brand.

Ian: [5:54] So I feel like it's superhero clothes. Sometimes for as adults, I mean, we get more letters from people who are, you know, whether they're dealing with a cancer treatment or something, then the the shirt makes them feel better about themselves. And I wear it every day, or they're going to, you know, give us big speech, and they put on a special shirt. But I think it allows people to feel better about themselves. And you know, a friend of mine who used to have an ESPN show, and he would travel all over, and he would wear our brand. And he wore a couple other brands. And he would say, hey, he and when I'm wearing these other brands, I feel like I'm repping the brand. When I'm wearing spiritual gangster, I feel like I am the brand. And that's what I think a lot of people, you know, there's a lot of spiritual gangsters out there. And people define it in different ways for themselves, but we want it to be empowering for people. And I think that, you know, you are the brand when you're wearing it.

Max: [6:40] Yeah, no, I definitely feel that way. So let's talk about Tell me about the at one yoga journey that led to spiritual gangster I just realized as I was kind of digging around preparing for this, that that was like a 13 year journey. Is that right?

Ian: [6:53] Exactly. So I went to law school in California. And in my first year law school, I was, you know, law schools are very competitive stress environment. And I was looking for ways to just, you know, de stress and I was learning to surf and I wasn't good. I was just getting pounded, and I go running. And my mom said, you know, go check out a yoga class and yoga. This is about 25 years ago, but yoga was starting to boom in LA. And I went to a class and it felt amazing. And then I had a like a lot of synchronicity and serendipity happened. But one of the greatest things that happened to me is I was flying back from I went to see my mom in Florida. I was flying back from Florida to LA. And she gave me a yoga book. So I got on the airplane, and there's an Indian guy sitting next to me in a satin jacket with a tiger on the back and his wife. And I take my yoga book, I'm like, he's like, Oh, you do yoga, I am Bikram I'm like you want to see my book, I've no idea who the guy is. At the time. He goes, I have my own book 2 million copies. So I landed I went to the border bookstore, borders Bookstore at the time when they existed in Westwood bought his book and he was literally 10 minutes from so I would go to Bikram once or twice a day. And I then I ended up taking a teacher training at yoga works. And this time when I first started going to yoga, there was like 10 or 15 people. And by the end of the year, there was like 80 to 100 people in the class, it was just like at a tipping point. But it was only happening in New York and LA. So I come out to Arizona on family vacations, and I look for the yoga studio. And it was, I mean worse than like the basement of the dirtiest motel six, and it just didn't exist here. So you know, one thing led to another but I took some business classes at UCLA business school and wrote a business plan. And I had some friends who sent me money. And while studying for the LA bar, I ended up opening the yoga studio in Arizona. And then for the first like six or eight months, I would be a yoga teacher on the weekends and fly back to LA be an entertainment lawyer and then like twice a month fly out here. And you know, what I realized, you know, pretty early on is that for our business really to work, I had to quit being my being a lawyer and move out here and really run it.

Max: [8:56] Yeah, how long were you an attorney for?

Ian: [8:58] So I was an attorney briefly. You know, I got the job my second year, and I worked there less than four months. I knew immediately like, I just, it wasn't for me. And was really, this is a funny story to like, I came back on vacation, I went to go quit my job like four days, five days in a row. And I kept going into the office to quit, but none of the partners are there because it was over over the holidays. And they had given me like a big like bonus to start, you know, and then they gave me another holiday bonus. And I offered the bonus back. And they're like No, thank you very much. But if you want to come back, you can come back. And then after that they changed the clause that if you quit being a lawyer within a year or two you to pay back the bonus. It was funny.

Max: [9:37] That's amazing. That shit only happens that Ian lopate and by the way, in fact, I'll jump in there now, because I think this is hilarious. There was one point when I first met Ian and a couple years ago that I ran into him like four times in a week. And so I hadn't really I didn't know him that well yet and I kept saying like what's crazy I keep running into you. And I will say that the better that I've got to know Ian There really is no coincidences, like, you just you open yourself up for what's going to happen and it just happened. So I mean, talk about that. I know there's this couple of things I want to touch on with that. But you kind of take that run with it. I know things just you just feel like they just happen if you set yourself up.

Ian: [10:15] And I'm a big believer, like interesting coincidence gets misinterpreted. Coincidence comes from the Latin terms when two angles coincide. And that means perfect alignment. So everything's coincidence. The idea is just to be open to it. So I, you know, I'm a big believer of like, showing up open and seeing what's here for me and you know, one of the things and I, I call it creating friends and Fred's are one of my teachers, Dr. Berry taught me this, but as friends in the energy, so everywhere I go, I create friends to be like, oh, they're like, you know, this is a great story. Just a simple one. The other day, I was flying back, I went to see my sister for and took my son. And we ended up flying back. So we we got to the airport. And, you know, I got there a little bit early, and I wanted to come home for my other son's birthday. And I saw Oh, there's another flight there. And it's, it's open. So I kind of do my energy exercises, tapping on the energy. And I walk up and say, Hey, can we get on this earlier? flight? They said, Well, we have policy. We can't you check bags. We can't put you on the earlier flight. Okay, thank you. But uh, let me see what you can do. Five minutes later, the ladies like check. So the supervisors come back to me, she goes, Oh, sir, we got you on the flight. No problem. You just gotta get your own bags. I'm like, No, she's then then I sit on the airplane and they tapped me when I get on the airplane when I'm supposed to be on. They said, Oh, sir, we want to go sit up in first class. I was like, perfect. And then my bags got there. And I didn't have to pay anything. But that kind of stuff happens me all the time. Like you find someone lets you in the door. There's Fred's available everywhere if you if you create them. So I'm always looking in the moment. Okay, how's this supposed to work out for me? You know, one of, you know, my favorite trips, like we talked about is like, you know, going to the, the NCAA, I mean, the NBA Finals game, I show up to the wrong airport at like two in the afternoon after the dead shows we were at together in LA. And I get to the airport and I go to the wrong airport, I go to Burbank instead LA. So I'm like, okay, tip office in three hours. There's no commercial flights. I ended up getting a ride from another friend of mine who owns the wires on their jet, we circle the arena, I walk in the arena, I get to hang out with Tony Robbins before tip off, and then fly home on another private jet all because I went to the wrong airport and missed the flight. So I just I'm a big believer in, you know, everything always works out. You just gotta stay open to it. I think that a lot of times the best plans happen once once the first part of the plan kind of goes awry.

Max: [12:34] yeah. No, that's awesome. I think you and I talked about you just feet you you can walk in as basketball Stadium, but he is very into basketball, run into it. In the front row. It's son's games. And he can walk into the stadium and end up in the front row. Even if he doesn't have tickets. Like, he's just how does that work?

Ian: [12:51] It just always works. I mean, I have to, you know, have to say last year, I think I was in seven different arenas and got to sit on the floor and all the different games and just not even having a plan. You know, Phoenix, we have courtside seats, but just sort of would happen one thing would lead to another and I think to that when you share what you love, then it comes back to you 10 acts. So I mean, one thing I love is basketball is sharing and VA and it comes back to me and I think that just planting the seeds for that flow to come back to you always. You know, just it just works if you stay open to it.

Max: [13:21] Yeah, yeah. Well, speaking of that, so everything kind of just happens for a reason. And things have worked out pretty well for you and, but he's also into a lot of personal development stuff. And I know this personally, because he was in we took a positive intelligence course and we're in the same pod. And I think he told me he took a happiness course at Yale. He's been the it's at least two or three Tony Robbins events that I know of. But tell me a little bit about why personal development such a priority to you and then let's talk about some of the personal development experiences that have been that you would rank the highest

Ian: [13:55] i think you know, one of the things from the positive intelligence class that I learned when we did together is my one of my number one drivers. I'm curious, I love to learn and I love to grow and I also realize I'm my own graves asset. So I'm always learning I'm always reading I'm spending it's just part of who I am and allowing myself to become you know, just you know, I like to get healthier wealthier, smarter, more intelligent everyday and continue to expand we live in expanding universe. So I love to keep feeding myself. You know and i think that i've you know, Robin Sharma has been a really good friend of mine You know, I've done a lot of stuff a Tony Robbins has been incredible. You know, someone I'm working with right now who's absolutely amazing. As Dr. Barry Margolin, he does energy for success. We've done landmark stuff together. So I'm always consuming different different types of stuff and beyond just intellectual stuff. We've done Wim Hof breathing, you know, we have a couple trainers we work with all the time. So you're we're working mentally and physically all the time to to have more energy to have more vitality and also just grow and learn and I'm a big believer of like, once you get the lesson, then you can move on. So how do I get the lessons quicker? How can I learn from others? So I don't have to make mistakes the hard way. And, you know, so that's a part of, you know, my life philosophy. And it's really allowed me, you know, to continue to build who I who I am.

Max: [15:19] yeah. Well, speaking of that, I have spent some time with you. And some of my favorite memories are showing up to his office, and he'd have a, you'd have a bathtub full of ice for us to do ice ball. And so let's talk about daily routines and rituals. I mean, I've done you know, some some stuff with you bio chargers, stuff like that. Let's talk about what you think works the best and in an ideal world, and then maybe talk about what you've been working on. I know you and Craig, we're working on some stuff, as far as you know, the kind of the biohacking side of things. But let's talk about first of all, your favorite daily routines and rituals. Let's talk about that first.

Ian: [15:53] So, you know, things that I do daily are I do a journaling, I actually keep three journals, I keep a five minute journal, which is how I started journaling. And my mother passed away about three years ago. And I've journaled every single day since she passed away. And the other two journals I keep, and this comes from the Dr. Barry Morgan's course, energy for success. I keep one journal, which has all my goals for the day. And then I keep the whole idea is that I'm building a platform to live my life on and this platform is not only am I building, I'm building it, so I can take it with me. So I write goals and all these different areas and relationships and expanding finances and creativity and intelligence, and health and vitality and serendipity. And so this, this platform continued, I feel it every day. And then there's a whole second journal that keeper only my wins. So when something great happens, coincidence, serendipity things drop into my lap, I keep journaling and writing those. So I'm, I'm keep investing energy. And it's like momentum, life works and momentum. So those are my momentum practices. I do breathing exercises every day. So a meditation slash breathing exercise, you know, we have a cold plunge in our house, I'm a huge, I did a cold punch before I came over here today. And then I I work out, you know, I have a trainer, I have multiple trainers who come to the house. And, you know, someone told me this is funny, because we're kind of recording this at the end of COVID. But these people said, you're going to come out at COVID three ways, a hunk a drunk or a chuck. So I think it's you know, you right now, you know, a lot of what I've always been working from home, you know, I've always been working from zoom, I've kind of like created this thing. And now a lot of things are the world's moving in that direction, where you can be casual, where you can get a lot of stuff done, you know, without having to have an office and go to a lot of people. And I think that, you know, what I'm finding is that I've been doubling and tripling down on all these practices over the last like three months. So instead of a trainer twice a week, I've had three different trainers twice a day. So really stepping up these practices. And you know, what I find personally is my coincidence, increases my synchronicities, my vitality, my energy, and also like my abundance and prosperity. I think everything's related. And I think that, you know, you have to raise the entire platform. Because if you're wealthy and even though healthy, have nothing if you're healthy, and you've no access to abundance, it's a much different life. And I think that you have to have relationships and creativity and all this stuff, his life is set up for us to succeed. And I think the whole key is fueling yourself to have enough energy and vitality and be open enough to take advantage of that and enjoy it.

Max: [18:30] Yeah, yeah. And I've heard you talk about how life is happening for you, not to you. So think about in thinking of how COVID How has COVID happened for you, and not to you?

Ian: [18:42] You know, I more blessings. I mean, our business has never been better, you know, we have a business that is gone now, even more and more direct to consumer online. So that's fantastic, we'd have a better relationship with our customers. You know, I've had more I used to have to travel a lot our office or in LA. Now I have way more quality time. You know, we both both have four kids, two younger boys. So I got to spend way more time with my kids and I ever had not been traveling and just also to building fitness and routines and getting the trainer's to come over and really working on a real platform and a home base. These have been all massive blessings, my relationship with Vanessa, like so many things have really blossomed and even like working on our house because we're all traveling. We never really did all this stuff. So for me, it's been building a great platform to really thrive off of and also getting in better shape physically and mentally. I think now more than ever, people are afraid. And that's what I think this thing is brought up and people it's brought up fear, money and health, which are like the two most root basic. And I think it's more important now than ever to take care of your own mental state and your physical state.

Max: [19:55] Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I was lucky to I got to Idaho, and We are a 200 yards from the fitness center for the first two months of it. So

Ian: [20:03] when I mean I would love you to show me pictures of your, your red light deal. And I mean, it's, it's all these things and you realize when you're doing these things to take care of yourself, you feel so much better you have more time for your kids, you have more energy to do the things you love. And I just think that the number one biggest thing that people should be investing in is themselves and their own health and wellness.

Max: [20:23] Yeah, I agree. I was doing great. At the beginning of the summer, I was in really good, really good shape all of June. And I was eating a lower sugar diet. And I was up in Idaho. And this bartender that I had been to a few times I was drinking a little bit more often than I normally do because we're at the lake. And I told him, Hey, can I just do the vodka soda, the North 44 and soda, because I'm not really eating a lot of carbs. And he said to me, this is my kind of downturn where I started to gain the COVID-19. Now I'm starting to take it off again. But he said to me, he said, You know how much sugar is in that vodka? I'm like, Oh, shit. So So from that point, I, you know, kind of threw the diet out the window for a little bit. But I'm coming back. I'm coming back. So speaking of like, extreme body hacking treatments, I've done some pretty extreme stuff. I mean, I don't know, I used to plunges that extreme. But when you're jumping in a little ice bath with ice on it, that's, you know, pretty extreme. What would have been the most extreme, you know, kind of treatments or things that you've done? How would you rank it?

Ian: [21:25] So I think, you know, it all depends. I think the Wim Hof stuff can be very extreme. Because it's all mentally it's very way more mentally than it is physically challenged. And the idea to be able to get yourself to go in the ice bath and not freak out and regulate your breath. And also the breathing exercise. I've been really into breathing practices lately. There's a great book by Daniel Nestor called breathe, and I just finished another book called The oxygen advantage. I think that breathing is like the new meditation, you know, people are really becoming aware which in meditation was a new yoga, people are really becoming aware of how important conscious breathing is and to breathe through your nose. So there's a lot of different breathing exercises that I've been doing that can be extremely intense, long breath holds like four or five minute breath holds. So that and I think it's overwhelming more mentally than physically. Those are the things that I'm kind of playing with now that I seem that I feel, you know, I mean, we do a lot of fun stuff that people heliski we do a ton of heliskiing and things that I don't necessarily look at as being extreme. But it's, it's one of the happiest places on the planet for me out in the middle of nature skiing powder with no one around. And it's so that that I think that's a spiritual practice for me as much as anything.

Max: [22:43] In it, Ian will just disappear and he'll all sudden be surfing or heliskiing. Somewhere, it's just part of part of being Ian. So what is a model you live your life, I'm gonna change gears a little bit here. But what is the model you live your life by?

Ian: [22:55] Share what you love.

Max: [22:57] love it. Tell me about an experience that changed your life. You can pass

Ian: [23:01] almost, I almost failed out a law school. And then I studied and applied myself. Really, really, really. And I finished the top of my class like top five people in my class. And that really led me let me realize that I could do it my way versus having to do it the way everyone else was doing it.

Max: [23:19] And that was you graduate from UCLA. Right.

Ian: [23:21] I graduated from UCLA. So

Max: [23:22] it wasn't an easy school.

Ian: [23:24] And it was just it was a great experience of of trusting that I can get it done doing it the way that I wanted to do it versus kind of falling in the matrix or getting getting stuck where everyone else was going.

Max: [23:35] Yeah, going back to the foundation, because I think this is important. And I don't know if I've ever asked you about this. So I might as well learn some stuff and share it with everybody else that's listening. How did you first get into yoga to because I think that was kind of one of the foundational things if you talk about, you know, just the the positive nature and just you know, how you carry yourself, what was the building block, like when you're younger.

Ian: [23:56] So, you know, it's interesting, my mom was very spiritual. My dad was a lawyer, but my mom was very spiritual. And she had some health problems that, you know, open her up to a bunch of alternative healers. But one of the things we used to have, she would have this guy come from Swami satchidananda, his ashram, this guy, Bob Burns, and he would teach yoga, and I used to think it was like crazy, but we do like shoulder stands and headstands. And I got away from it. And then my first year of law school, I was, you know, I was going through an ending of my college relationship with my old girlfriend and just feeling stressed with law school. My mom's like, you should go to yoga, and I went into yoga, and it felt amazing. And I do think that yoga, you know, it's not like a magic bullet for things. But for me, what it's done is it's opened me up to this whole world of, I don't want to call it self help but self discovery, and going deeper and learning how to work with my own body and getting into it. And it really, you know, changed my path like I was extremely not flexible. I mean, I think I was not flexible mentally as well as physically and it's really really opened me up. And it's also allowed me to experience so many different things that came from that.

Max: [25:06] Gotcha. Ian, by the way, is one of the only guys that will walk up to me and fix my posture from behind him grab my shoulders and open me up. But I will say, I, since you've done that the first time, and he didn't just do a once every time you'd see me walk up, and it was like my mom, you know, grabbed me and put me in the right position. But so he grabbed me and opened me but I, since then, I always do this and that he you can't see it, because you're listening. But he's got his arms open. And he's, you know, stretching out, but he's opening himself up to talk about posture and like, Why so that's so important.

Ian: [25:36] You know, I think they all these different things about body language, but what you're saying is only a portion of how you're communicating. And there's a great thing we should share with your audience. There's a Stanford professor called Amy Cuddy, who did a TED talk on posture. And it just, it's amazing. Just how physical posture affects everything not only affects your mood, but it affects how people perceive you. And, you know, I'm a big believer of like we talked about earlier, if you're gonna make the most of your environment, you have to be open to it. That's why I like heliski. And that's why I'm getting the fly fishing, you have to be tuned into your environment, like even golfing what's happening in the, in the elements around you. And when you're closed off physically, you're not tuned into your environment. So I think that how you carry yourself, you know, we have all these sensors, we're more than five senses, we have hundreds of different sensors in the body. It's like when you learn to ride a bike, no one teaches you ride a bike, all of a sudden, you get it right, you turn on the sensor of balance, someone's sensor balance is so good, they can walk across a tightrope in the middle of the Grand Canyon. And once you learn how to ride a bike, you never forget it. So life is like that. How do I get these sensors open, that are closed. And then I have all these different experiences their sensors around money, there's sensors around intelligence, there's sensors around everything, but getting your body open is is massively important. And most people close as they get older, when we you know, we're for me, I'm that's why I'm learning. I'm growing. I'm doing all this self discovery. So I every day, I want to be more open than I was yesterday. more flexible.

Max: [27:02] I love it. I love that to my goal, too. So tell me on that note, and this is kind of in the same vein, what do you attribute your success to? And we're talking about I mean, all of this does, but if I asked you that question, like how would you answer it? Like what, how do you what do you attribute your success to?

Ian: [27:19] I you know, it goes back to me of the notion of planting seeds. So I think there's a, I grow things in my life where other people are like hunters or gatherers. So like I have, there's a one of my greatest teachers, a guy's greatest geisha, Michael Roach, and he wrote the book, the diamond cutter, and he's the only white guy who's like a master of Isa. He's a geisha like, which is like, I'm a cardinal of like Buddhism. And he has a four step process to get what you want. One is like, figure out what you want. Step one, pretty, that's not even most people can't even get to that. Step two is find someone else who wants what you want. Step three is go help the other person get it. So that's counterintuitive. Most people you know, it's like in order to get it, you got to give a fourth and the fourth step, which is like the real magic how you fertilize it is like when you're at home and you feel really good about helping the other person get it. So I'm a big believer of success comes from planting seeds and being generous. You know, one of the things we talked about, we didn't talk about this, but since we started spiritual gangster, you know, we've done I think over 13 million meals now with Feeding America plus we do a bunch of other stuff with but we found what I call karmic business partners. So when it's not just the company, spiritual gangsters winning, every time we sell an item online, we donate a meal. So the customer gets the karma donating the meal, and someone gets fed. And so it's it's important that you know, I call it 360 degree winning or even things that happen spiritually, when someone walks in the office. It's not just the owners who when the employees when the customers win, but the FedEx or UPS guy wins the everyone feels good and feels the energy. And that's how I think it's important to build things. And I think that's why it's successful. Because we're having a real positive impact, and it's intentional.

Max: [29:06] That's what I love, too. If you go to their website, they don't brag about this. They do it for the karmic reasons.

Ian: [29:11] For years, we didn't even share about it. And now I feel a lot like way better about sharing about it. One thing you know, you know, one of the greatest things that we talk about, you know, you do things and all these wonderful things come from it, like you know, we had a great thing. And one day we were on Good Morning America, Savannah Guthrie, whose initials are SG love spiritual gangster, she got to pick one brand in the entire country. And she made her shirt called like you with my wife. And in five minutes, we sold enough to sell to give 3 million meals. And we got Tony Robbins to match it. And that's how I ended up getting connected. Tony Robbins who ended up inviting me to date with destiny. Of course that's how it happened. So it's just like these things snowball in a way better than you could ever expect it.

Max: [29:56] yeah. No, I love the given back piece of spiritual gangster, it's one of the reasons I love the brand. It Tell me about the challenges and finding one's purpose or challenges you've had and kind of finding your purpose. I mean, it sounds like you're a spiritual gangster, you know, I kind of know you and met you just a couple years ago. So you're pretty far down the journey, but in finding your purpose in life, and maybe maybe you're still in the search purposes, a journey for sure. But tell me about the challenges and finding your own purpose and, you know, kind of share the challenges other people have that you see and finding their purpose.

Ian: [30:32] I think clarity is powerful. So, you know, one of the things the practices that Tony Robbins I got from David s&c is you get really clear of like, you know, what are your drivers? What do you value the most, and we even, you know, did a little bit of that in positive intelligence, but what's important to you and then every year I keep a board of these are my four goals for the year. And then when you get them you want to always be setting new goals. I think a lot of people some people are super successful, they reach their goals, and they don't set new ones and they kind of plateau. So you always want to be you know, right as you get close to hitting a goal, you want to set another one. And I think that it's you know, one getting clear what you're going for because clarity is power. If you don't know what you're aiming at, you don't know when you're gonna hit the target or not. So I'm a big believer of like writing things down even the journaling, like I write daily goals and things I wanted to have a great podcast with you and be able to share the energy with people so it's very you know, important for me you know, specificity like being clear like you the way you can work with the universe's you'd be clear, you know, and I think one of my one of the greatest examples, and this gets back to it is not only people like you know, we like to golf like you want to focus the fairway, not the water. But Ghostbusters, one of my favorite movies is the greatest example of like, how most people work with the universe. Most people figure out their I don't want this, I don't want this. I don't want this their biggest fear the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. And guess what peers the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man bigger than ever. So most people are focusing on all the time of what they don't want or talking about what they don't want. It's important to be positive and speak about what you want in a way that you're having it versus the universe doesn't understand. No. So it's just you're always manifesting your your fears and nightmares. And I think most people are stuck on that channel.

Max: [32:18] It's a frequency. Yeah, yeah, we were in our positive intelligence course together on our pod. So we'd have these conversations. And every morning I get up to work out I'd see a deer. And so we're trying to figure out what that is. And to Ian's point, he said, my dad died three years ago, and he loved coralayne rows that he said, Every time I saw a deer, it was probably my dad, which I don't know if I think I probably mentioned this before, but since that time, I probably saw 10 deer a day there. So it was well, there's

Ian: [32:44] another great book for your readers called signs. And there was she was just on the goop deal. And, and I read that book, and I shared it with you. And you know, both my parents have passed away. And I think you know, it's just with my son and you know, deers, hummingbirds, dragonflies, birds, if you're aware of their environment, they're your people, they're always communicating to you. And then once you become aware of and see it, they'll do it even more. And it's, it's amazing. It's just, there's so much out there that's available to us, if you open up our sensors, you know, it's like, the thing is, most people are missing it. That's what we talk, you know, it's like, why is it so hard for so many because they're missing it, they're closed, they're not even, they're not even where they are

Max: [33:25] They're stuck in the matrix,

Ian: [33:26] they're fully in the matrix. I mean, one of my favorite movies is the matrix, you want the red pill or the blue pill, you know, it's like, what reality is going to be and and I think, you know, even now the vibe of the matrix is so thick with fear, you know, like, we talked about fear around money fear around health. And what it does is it close closes people down. And it's a frequency of, of lack versus abundance. And then the other side of the coin is, you know, you're in the energy and you have coincidence, and you have serendipity in your, you're in tune with the animals and wonderful things drop in your lap. And it's even better than than could be expected. Yeah, but there's, there's two frequencies. And whichever one you invest in, the thing of this is really important. That's what we talked about building a platform, is the matrix is always going to want to crush you or bring you down. So that's why it's so important to do these practices and build your energy up. So you're at a different frequency, and that you're coming out with vitality versus coming out of it. In a broken state of lack.

Max: [34:25] Yeah, yeah, he had such a good example of what he's talking about, too. So if those of you that don't know, um, I can attest to. He just lives by the stuff we're talking about. So coming back to fill in the blank, leaders would be better if they did, blank...

Ian: [34:41] listened

Max: [34:43] They listen. If you could sit down with one person and ask them something, who would it be and what would you ask

Ian: [34:48] Tony Robbins? And I would just how do I continue to dial it up? You know, what are my three greatest things that I could tune into right now?

Max: [34:58] Yeah. You went to been to two?

Ian: [35:01] I've now probably been to maybe five to eight live events, I've got a two day with Destiny's and I'll redo that again, I find it's like one of the, it was one of the greatest, it happened right after my mom passed away but I went there and I was able to really author my life versus there was so much default programming in there that I was unaware of. And it was just a massive wake up call for me. And I had, you know, there have been different people and things that have shined the light on it. But all of a sudden, at that moment, like all the lights in the room got turned on, it was a it was a huge, huge beginning of, you know, a massive breakthrough that's continuing to this day. Yeah.

Max: [35:45] So this is why I love asking you this question. Because it may be difficult because you have this abundance mindset. But if you knew x 10 years ago, you would have done what?

Ian: [35:58] So if I knew half of what I knew now, I mean, you know, one of the biggest things that I've learned is, is really being aware with people and learning how to, to size up people better. You know, I think there's different types of people, there's people who are win win win, people like you and I are always looking to help others and contribute. And, you know, and then there's, you know, other types of people, there's some people who are win lose are always out to kind of take a little piece from you. And you know, and then there's people who are massively win losing their job, they're gonna carve you up and take as much as they can. And then there's another type of people, which is a complete narcissist, who pretend their win win win, and they got your back and they got your interest, and they're just out there to like, completely crush you. And if I had could realize that everyone's a type one, and how to how to really categorize the type one from the narcissist, and learning how to win with all these different types of people. Like, you know, that's what I've done over the last, you know, I'm a total win winner, and I'm always looking at how to have other people win. And I had a huge education and realizing that not everyone's set up that way and you also to the more the bigger light you are the narcissists are there to kind of take you out. So getting into reality and not saying everyone's the greatest guy in the world, because there's a lot of people out there that are narcissists who are out there looking to, to, to win at your expense, where I'm out there looking to win with you and everyone else involved.

Max: [37:22] I love it. I love it. I think, coming into the business world, I played a lot of sports, and I was very competitive. And it took me a long time to figure out how being competitive was to my advantage in the real world of the business world. And I think if you're overly competitive, you focus on just being a little bit better than your competitors, which if that's what you're focused on, what I've learned over the years, is you missed a huge opportunity to just crush everybody not in a bad way, but crushed like the game and and change the game. So I love that. So what is the one thing you wish? People would stop saying?

Ian: [37:57] I'm trying? I'm like, can't try either do it or don't? Like, it cannot? You know, that's annoying when people I'm trying? I'm trying like,

Max: [38:06] either doing or you're not? Yeah, yeah, do try. And by the way, his son's name is Jedi. So he's the only guy I know who named his son Jedi. So you do not try you? Do you do it or you don't do it? Yeah. If you had only one sentence, describe yourself what would you say?

Ian: [38:22] enthusiastic, positive. generous

Max: [38:26] Yeah, me too. Me too. What are you curious about now? I mean, obviously, you're very curious person. That's almost all we've talked about. But like, what are you most curious about today?

Ian: [38:36] right now I'm very curious about breathing. And you know why there's such a disconnect in our society of people don't know how to breathe. And I think a lot of the health issues, anxiety, over obesity are all due to people breathing through their mouth. So I'm very curious about breathing correctly, and finding ways to share that with other people. I mean, I've even been this sleeping now taping my mouth when I sleep.

Max: [39:05] It's amazing. And we do we meditate at least once a week at my for my office, and we usually do it by zoom. Can we have you do blood? breathing? 100%? All right. All right, we've got them. We've got them committed. So why Sal's going to have them do our meditation this upcoming week. So what do you find most challenging?

Ian: [39:25] So the thing that I find it's keeping the energy and using the energy with my kids, and staying in a positive state and always, you know, one of the things that I really, you when you're in a positive state, when you're energy rich, when you're things work better. And what I find is sometimes with my kids, that's where I'll get, I'll respond or react from an A low energy state and it's never the great way. So what I'm really working on is only responding especially with my family, my wife, then as we work together and my kids when I'm in a good energy state. And that's, it's it's more challenging than the sounds I've gotten. They're pretty good around business stuff, but around family and even little kids of, of not reacting from a from a low energy place.

Max: [40:13] Yeah. What's it like, being in a successful partnership with your business partnership with your wife? And I, you know, I've been by your house recently. But what is there is there challenges in that?

Ian: [40:23] Oh, there's tons of challenges. And I think it's like any relationship, it just brings, you know, different, this whole other dynamics, you know, we work together, we live together. Now, we don't have an office over, you know, we're trading and we're in different parts of the business, and she's incredible. She's super creative, and passionate, and, you know, but we've learned, you know, over the years, how to communicate with each other how to share and give feedback. And I think, you know, like, we really making massive evolutions, and we're growing and learning together, I think, you know, any relationship and it's all about growing and learning together and having each other's backs and, and just, you know, it's the same thing as raising. It's like, the, the kids are our main business and then spiritual gangsters, but we're, we're partners in life, and then all of them, you know, she's granted a lot of stuff that I'm no good at, and I'm good at other stuff that you know, so I think it's figuring out like, where to play with your strengths, and even most importantly, how to communicate.

Max: [41:20] Yeah, no, that's awesome. That's awesome. All right. Well, this is uh, this has been episode one. I think he's setting the bar high for for our last guest. What a great guest have episode one. I think I planned this out perfectly. If you if you have a bad interview or conversation with Ian, it's probably not you is what I have come to the conclusion. But I'm going to start wrapping up just a little bit. We're gonna go I'm trying to create like segments. This is the first time I've ever done a podcast before so we're just kind of feeling this out. But I want to break into some segments and I always want to end like on a rapid fire question like segment so I'm gonna just kind of throw some questions at you. quick answer, actually answer as long as you want whatever you feel like needs to complete the answer, but they are in a rapid approach. So what's the first thing you do when you wake up?

Ian: [42:04] I do my energy exercises. Like, like, I one of the things I learned from Dr. V, one of my meditations before I go to bed, do him like do a mantra to myself and do in the mirror.

Max: [42:14] But what book Have you read more than once?

Ian: [42:16] the game of life and how to play it Florence Griffith Shin,

Max: [42:19] I still have not read it. You've told me about that more than once now. So what person had the greatest impact on your life?

Ian: [42:26] Yeah, I would say Tony Robbins, massively impactful. There's been a lot of people who have impacted me in powerful ways. But recently, Tony Robbins. Dr. Barry Moreland very good. Sadhguru geisha Michael Roche, I've been very lucky to have like, awesome influences.

Max: [42:44] Love it. What is something on your bucket list that you're waiting to check off?

Ian: [42:47] Play Augusta.

Max: [42:49] We have to we have to do it together. If you do that. If you could teach one subject to school children, what would it be?

Ian: [42:58] mindset, the value of positive mindset and posture.

Max: [43:03] Are you a morning or night person?

Ian: [43:05] Both.

Max: [43:06] Yeah, you know what? To think about that question. I couldn't.

Ian: [43:08] I mean, I feel like I'm on like, as long as your eyes are open, yeah, I'm on that I like morning and night. And

Max: [43:14] if they're not on the way Oh, and you're feeling pretty good. Probably. What's the most spontaneous thing you've ever done lately?

Ian: [43:20] lately? That's a good one. I mean, I feel like a lot of spontaneity. This is a little bit not super recently, but you know, within last year, and so I was in LA I was out there. And uh, one of my best friends has his own private heliski place I'm in it's in Canada, and I don't have a passport. And I'm there for a bunch of meetings. I'm interviewing like a couple people and he calls me it's like, 99. He's like, We're going skiing tomorrow. What do you mean, I got a bunch of meetings. He's like, we're going to ski tomorrow. So I'm like, Okay, I'm like, I don't have a passport. He's like, don't worry about it. So I end up moving a bunch of my meetings doing one morning, get on an airplane. And then I have to come I'm like, I got to come back the next night because in Phoenix my this is my son's favorite player was Russell Westbrook. I promised I take him to the game. So I go we go up we heliski all day. And then I get into Canada using the energy with no passport. So getting the energy, use the pack, go to Canada, no passport, all that even asked and then now I have to fly home. So he's going somewhere else. And I have to get back to take my son to the game. So I end up getting back and having my assistant Meet me at the airport with my passport. So I get this heliski all day and then pick up my son and get to take them to see see the songs play Westbrook and he gets to hang with Westbrook and we get there in time for the warm ups and was was amazing. So and that just fell out of the blue like that was, you know, an amazing day

Max: [44:49] Yeah, that's amazing. That's amazing.

Ian: [44:51] But I think the biggest one for me was learning how to get in another country without a passport.

Max: [44:56] That Canadian one or two. That's not exactly right. All right, well, I'm gonna have to bring this to a close. Luckily, I get to continue to talk to Ian today and moving forward. But thanks for being on episode one, you set the bar, like I said extremely high. We're grateful to have you and we look forward to having you at why scouts to the lead our breathing and our meditation practice next week,

Ian: [45:18] Max. Thanks for having me. You know, you're tremendous friend. And I know this is gonna be an awesome success. You've got so much to share, and thanks for having me.

Max: [45:27] Awesome. Thanks for being on behind the resume. Thanks, Ian.

Max: [45:34] Thanks for listening to the behind the resume podcast with why scouts max Hansen. Join us next time as we continue to have intimate conversations with leaders to learn their stories, life hacks, life experiences and other interesting practices or learning experiences that have made them who they are today. You can learn more about your host max Hanson and why scouts at why scouts calm. Join us next time as we go behind the resume with why scouts max Hansen on demand 24 seven right here at Star worldwide networks calm or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.

Chip Conley - Modern Elder Academy Founder

Today's guest is Chip Conley, the founder of Modern Elder Academy.

Rebel hospitality entrepreneur and New York Times bestselling author, Chip Conley disrupted his favorite industry... twice. At age 26 he founded Joie de Vivre Hospitality (JdV), transforming an inner-city motel into the second largest boutique hotel brand in America. He sold JdV after running it as CEO for 24 years, and soon the young founders of Airbnb asked him to help transform their promising start-up into the world’s leading hospitality brand.

Chip served as Airbnb’s Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy for four years and today acts as the company’s Strategic Advisor for Hospitality and Leadership. His five books have made him a leading authority at the intersection of psychology and business. Chip was awarded “Most Innovative CEO” by the San Francisco Business Times, is the recipient of hospitality’s highest honor, the Pioneer Award, and holds a BA and MBA from Stanford University.

In today's episode, Brian & Chip Discuss:

- What it's like to have your birthday fall on Halloween

- Choosing to go to a high school where Chip knew he would be in the minority

- Having a very engaged, passionate father who wanted nothing more than for Chip to become a better version of his dad

- Starting a hotel brand in one of the worst neighborhoods in San Francisco

- How Maslow's Hierarchy has influenced Chip's Leadership & Business Philosophy

- Meeting AirBNB Founders & joining the company as both a mentor & an intern

- Why today's workforce must embrace the wisdom of our Modern Elders

Connect with Chip: Website | LinkedIn

Check out Modern Elder Academy: Website

Connect with Brian Mohr: Website | LinkedIn

We Help Leaders Hire on Purpose: YScouts.com

 

Chip Conley Podcast Interview

 

Brian Mohr: [00:07:43] Well ladies and gentlemen welcome to another edition of the Built on Purpose podcast.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:07:49] I am incredibly excited to have with me today hotelier, author, social alchemist, disruptor, student, sage, and modern Elder the one and only Chip Conley... Chip:

 

Chip Conley: [00:08:08] What is up man.

 

Chip Conley: [00:08:10] I am wearing way too many name tags... All different.

 

Chip Conley: [00:08:17] You know I dig it.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:08:19] It's a good thing. I guess you've been constantly reinventing yourself or should I say continuing to learn more about who you are and what you're capable of.

 

Chip Conley: [00:08:29] Thank you. Thank you very much.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:08:31] Absolutely great to have you. So I want to start off.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:08:34] You were born on Halloween and I am just so curious. As a guy born on Halloween as a youngster was having your birthday on the same day as Halloween. An exciting thing? Or did it just piss you off that Halloween was robbing you of your special day?

 

Chip Conley: [00:08:52] I think it meant it meant that my special day meant that I was just a weird kid, you know, everybody and you got dressed up really strangely on this, like "what was all that about" No, I - you know - I have lots and lots of photos of birthdays with people dressed funny and I still have those because every five years I do have a birthday somewhere in the world starting at age 30.

 

Chip Conley: [00:09:17] And now I'm 58 so I've got the sixtieth coming up soon. But it's been everywhere from Bali to Marrakech and I promise you we do have a master party one night.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:09:27] I love it. I love it.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:09:28] So as you as you think back on all of these Halloweens is there any one particular costume of yours that just really brings back me or the most vivid memories as the costume itself.

 

Chip Conley: [00:09:44] Interesting question.

 

Chip Conley: [00:09:48] No not quite. I mean I you know. I did show up at one point in what looked like a birthday suit. Like....

 

Chip Conley: [00:09:55] Nothing. But it wasn't I actually; it was a body double... Gave me a suit, like showed me how to actually create in essence what looks like...

 

Chip Conley: [00:10:06] A naked body, but it's not my naked body. And I did show up at a birthday party like that once. And the shock factor was enormous. You realize:

 

Chip Conley: [00:10:16] Oh! Chips wearing something!

 

Brian Mohr: [00:10:19] I'm sure the looks on people's faces were were pretty priceless.

 

Chip Conley: [00:10:24] The good times good times.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:10:25] Thanks for indulging me on that. I'm always curious there's you know you always meet folks who have their birthdays coincide with that with a big holiday and you were the first person I met who was born on Halloween social super curious about that.

 

Chip Conley: [00:10:41] You know I will say one thing that's interesting Brian is that you know, I live in Mexico for more than half the time. And I was in San Miguel de Ndadaye which is not too far from Mexico City a couple of years ago. And going to the day of the dead which is actually after Halloween. It's in early November and doing the day of the dead experience in Mexico that is how they do their Halloween. Or their post Halloween, right? I mean it's really quite an experience. And I think probably of all the places in the world, there's no place that does that - That period around Halloween day. The dead are better than men in Mexico.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:11:24] That's awesome. That's awesome. Well that sounds like a whole 'nother conversation we could probably hear.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:11:30] And I'm really curious, and I want to kind of rewind the clock here, and this may be super interesting or maybe absolutely not an interesting topic but I'm curious when you attended Long Beach Polytechnic... You're enrolled in the PACE program which stands for the program of additional curricular experiences. And having not attended Long Beach Polytechnic or having not been a part of any kind of a program like that: Is there any impact? I'm curious as you think back on the impact that program had on who you are and the experiences that you pursued after you left Long Beach Polytechnic.

 

Chip Conley: [00:12:12] Oh my gosh wow! Well I appreciate you doing the homework. I've rarely been asked that question or anything close to that. So Long Beach Poly is a famous high school. It's actually where Snoop Dogg went to high school. And Cameron Diaz. And it's pretty famous because it's the number one school in the country for being a feeder school for the NBA and the NFL. So it's a big inner city high school public school. But it's also the number one feeder school for the UC. System in the state of California for the public state universities system. So it's an academically relatively strong place. PACE, my program, was the first graduating class. PACE Was meant to be a way an alternative to bussing. So I'm 58 - this is back in the 1970s. There was a strong desire in us to integrate high schools. And one alternative was to create a bussing program and there are just all kinds of protests around bussing from school. So what long beach did was different. It actually took all of the best programs academically in the school district where there were five high schools and they put them all in the inner city high school. And they said if you want to do college prep programs, you can do it. And we've got great programs but they're all in inner city school. And what that was meant to do was, to sort of - Instead of forcing people to be bussed it was giving choice to say I want to go to school in a neighborhood that is generally not integrated.

 

Chip Conley: [00:14:00] So I was known as curious white boy is my older nickname.

 

Chip Conley: [00:14:06] And I would say that's the combination. To answer your question.

 

Chip Conley: [00:14:08] The two elements to it. Number one is going to high school in an inner city school where I was a minority as a white guy was a great experience because I think all of us in our life need to live in a place for some extended period of time...

 

Chip Conley: [00:14:23] Where we are the "other." And when I say the other I put that in quotes. The "other" being the person who is not in the majority because it helps students understand and have empathy for what that means. To be in the minority whether it's a woman in a boardroom or a person of color. In most companies or me at AirBNB as an old guy. So I was the "other" by being a white person in a predominately non-white school. And then the PACE program was a really intense college prep program that prepared me well for going to Stanford. And so, you know, you wouldn't expect an inner city high school to have had five or 10 grads be accepted into Stanford but that's exactly what happened because the program was strong enough that this. The Inner city public school system allowed that. So I think it really helped me also get really connected to purpose. My own sense of like... How do I give back? Because I was able to see in an inner city community how so much of society wasn't really giving back to that community. And so for me, one of my chief things I did with my foundation is to have it give money as well as project support to inner city youth programs because of my experience growing up there.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:15:51] That's awesome. I appreciate you sharing that.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:15:54] As you finished Stanford, and if my research is accurate, you spent a couple and a half years in the real estate business and from what I gathered it sounds like you realized pretty quickly that that was not where you were going to spend your career and after a couple and a half years you got out of it. Was there anything in particular about the industry or any incidents that you encountered where, you know, that sense of purpose you talk about where you just knew that that wasn't where you were going to dedicate your life's work?

 

Chip Conley: [00:16:42] You know, I went directly to Stanford undergrad business school so the years you're talking about are after getting an MBA and I felt that business can be very money driven. It's somewhat of a mercenary business on the brokerage side on the development side, etc. and there are some visionary developers and I really admire them and the developer I was working for was moderately visionary. But at the same time it felt like I didn't have enough creativity. What was really fueling my decision that I wanted to take my real estate background and apply it in a more purposeful but also more creative way - was the need to sort of feel I was going to. And to do something that was pioneering that haven't been done before and that's when I decided to start a boutique hotel company in the mid 1980s at a time when boutique hotels were just getting off the ground in the US. And I love the fact that the purpose of the company or the mission of the company is to "bring joy of life." That was also the name of the company in French. I also like the fact that I can use my real estate background, but apply it in a more creative way and also in a way where if I did my job well and our team did their jobs well, we would make people happy and that's really what the hotel business is about. So yeah - that's how I got started. Age 26: got my first boutique hotel and in a bad neighborhood.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:18:12] Yeah right. Right. Yep. Yep exactly.

 

Chip Conley: [00:18:16] Yeah.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:18:26] So at some point I would assume during the early part of you hotel career, you had - please correct me on how the interaction occurred - but you had a chance meeting or a chance connection with a legendary concert promoter Bill Graham and then I think there's somewhat of the story as Bill had impressed upon you that as musicians are coming in and out of San Francisco that there's really isn't a property that psychographs and there was a real opportunity there. I'd love to talk just a little bit about your experience with Bill: What you picked up from him and what kind of a figure he was in your life.

 

Chip Conley: [00:19:03] So when I was working for the real estate developer for two and half years out of business school, one of the projects that I was assigned to was a potentially joint venture with Bill Graham and his organization to build the Shoreline Amphitheater which is right down your Google headquarters.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:19:20] Now down near STANFORD UNIVERSITY, Yes.

 

Chip Conley: [00:19:23] And so the truth is that there was a joint venture that didn't really need us. And so the question was: How are we supposed to be partners with them? And over time I got to know Bill a little bit, and that's when he said listen: "You know what you guys really should do instead of trying to be our partners on this project, is you should try to create a hotel that accommodates musicians on the road." And then he told me why. And that's what led me to saying: "OK you know I'm going to get a broken down motel in the tenderloin of San Francisco which is a tough neighborhood and turn it into a rock n roll hotel called the Phoenix. And that was more than 32 years ago and it became a surprising success against all odds. And led me to creating 52 boutique hotels over the next 24 years. As my role as the founder and CEO of what became the second largest boutique hotel company in the U.S. and yes it certainly was doldrum.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:20:24] Yeah that's super cool and as I understand it the original name of the Phoenix was Magnolia Court, if I'm not mistaken.

 

Chip Conley: [00:20:34] You've done your research. Funny, I saw my mom & dad yesterday at the Phoenix. We had an annual owners meeting at the Phoenix yesterday and they're investors and I laughed at my dad and I said that you wanted to call this place Magnolia Court. And I said: "We want to make sure we're in play and that our primary customers - families from the Midwest that were coming didn't say: 'Dad, this is a motel surrounded by hookers & pimps in the neighborhood...this is not where we're going to go' "

 

Chip Conley: [00:21:08] And so the Phoenix is what we became because it was rising from its own ashes like the mythical bird. The Magnolia Court - My God - it sounds like a place where you go to retire for sure, at least a very nice assisted living facility or something like that.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:21:34] Yeah, for sure. You know, I don't want to spend too much time on it, but was it hard to have your dad one of the lead investors in the Phoenix? Did that present challenges or was it pretty easy?

 

Chip Conley: [00:21:46] I mean at first it was very hard because I was young and let's start with that - I was way too young to be doing what I was doing. So having my dad help.. He was a small investor but he was somebody I would bounce ideas off of. But what became clear was there are certain things like traditional business stuff -Yes he was helpful. Anything that related to theoncept of a hotel, what kinds of services were offering, the design of the hotel, the branding of the hotel. All of that... He was so much a fish out of water. And what was problematic was that he didn't really get my vision. And it was almost up to me, the way I thought it was. He didn't have confidence in me or my vision or what I was going to be doing, and it was it was a tough time.

 

Chip Conley: [00:22:31] You know, we had almost a wrestling match & the hotel staff was watching like "What is going on here?!"

 

Chip Conley: [00:22:43] But over time it was hard. And my dad you know let's also recognize, I was always in his shadow. Or he was always there right next to me and that was supportive. And yet it was also a little oppressive. And I'm even his Junior, which is another "Chip off the old block" which is part of the reason I have the name Chip.

 

Chip Conley: [00:23:06] And I went to the same high school as my dad and swam and played water polo there just like he did and went to the same college as my dad - Stanford - and joined the fraternity just like he did. I'm a mathematics major just like he was. I went to business school just like he did. And he was my Boy Scout leader and Eagle Scout and I became an Eagle Scout. And he was my baseball coach and I was a star pitcher. So, bottom line is my dad was ever present in my life. And I would say if he had diluted that by 20 percent it would have been perfect. Because it was a little too much. And yet from those whose fathers were not in their life at all, you know, I would rather have my dad in my life the way he was not in my life at all. But I would say it would have been probably healthier for my dad if he had been about 20 percent less active in my life, because I felt like I was very much on my dad's path.. He wanted me to be a better version of himself. And he even admitted that yesterday we were talking he says: No, I want it. I want you to be a better version of myself."

 

Chip Conley: [00:24:08] And it's like: "Well if you if you'd said you wanted me to be a different version of yourself that would have been helpful because I was a different version. I was just trying to be a better version of you."

 

Chip Conley: [00:24:20] Because that would actually have limited my path in so many ways. And as it turns out, I am a better and different version of my dad - I'm both. It didn't have to be an either-or; it could be both.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:24:32] Yeah, sure. Absolutely. I appreciate you sharing a little of that insight. That's really good stuff.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:24:40] I want to shift a little bit here and I want to make a reference so Jerry Seinfeld.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:25:02] I think he's an absolutely brilliant comic and I think so much of his brilliance comes from his keen awareness of paying attention to simple acts of daily life. And, you know, finding the humor in the daily things and I want to draw an analogy because I think in many ways your leadership follows a similar path - at least what I've seen and read and experiences I've had - Where you have looked to your frameworks like Maslow's hierarchy and instead of recreating the wheel you're finding what is a Truth. You adopt them and then figure out: "All right. How can I leverage this framework as the way to run a business?" And you talk about joie de vivre the joy of life and to bring a sense of joy to the people that you're serving. To me, using Maslow's hierarchy makes so much sense, but I'm curious. What might seem like common sense to some is very uncommon to many. So my question is: When did you know or how did you know to simply look for these common sense frameworks and use them as the basis from which to grow everything that you've been involved in?

 

Chip Conley: [00:26:20] First of all, thank you Brian - I appreciate that. For me, I am a voracious learner and reader. So I like to constantly learn new things feed and feed my head. So I'll just give a couple examples using Maslow and Viktor Frankl. So with Maslow - I took one psychology class in college. I liked it but I didn't do anything beyond that. I do rememberin one classs that the guy who had the halo around his head as a psychologist was Maslow because most that most psychologists were focusing on neuroses and deficits as I was focusing on best practices and human behavior and what we learn. From them created this hierarchy of needs theory. So when I was struggling in the dot com bust we were the largest hotelier in the SF Bay Area. At that point we had 18 hotels in San Francisco alone. That's just in the city. And the city and everything was just falling apart. That's 16-18 years ago. I went to the local bookstore looking for a book or business book saying: "OK, I went out into business school so I learned something, like You know I need a clue right now" and I only after about 10 minutes in the business section I ended up in self-help and psychology and that's when I realized my problems are more serious than just business. And that's where I ended up running into one of massive books and I sat on the floor for two hours reading Maslov. I had to learn this stuff in college and this is really interesting, and I was really applying myself here to have actualisation on the level at the top. To myself, saying like "How can I feel self actualized in a time when I feel completely deflated right now?" And so I bought the book and then reading at night I just said "Well what if if companies are full of humans in masses - here is basically a human hierarchy of needs. How could you apply the same hierarchal image for an individual and apply it to a collective like an organization?" And that's again with my desire to read and learn it's sometimes a matter of reading, learning, and then reapplying it in a new way. And we took Maslow's pyramid, five old tiers, and turned it into a three level transformation pyramid to apply that hierarchy of needs principle and sort of paradigm to employees customers and investors who are our three most important stakeholders in our company. And ultimately we tripled in size in the dot com bust which was a big surprise to everybody because everybody said we were a goner we were the biggest foothold in Bay Area. Kimpton and Schrager who are two biggest boutique competitors were losing hotels to the banks & turning some hotels going into bankruptcy. And instead we know we did really well and it was partly because of this theory which ultimately led me to reading a book called: "Peak: How Great Companies get their Mojo from Maslow." And then a few years later, you know the great recession once again it was a Jewish psychologist who actually came out of it out of the woodwork...

 

Chip Conley: [00:29:38] And you know on the library shelf it was like "OK I'm going to read that "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl, a guy who had been in a concentration camp in World War II and apply it to myself. And that's how I sort of got reacquainted with the idea of:

 

Chip Conley: [00:29:53] "How do you find meaning in the darkest of times?" And for anybody who's who's having a difficult time and lamenting, you know reading Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" about what it was like to be in a concentration camp and you'll realize that you are you are just in your pity pot because your life is probably not bad compared to what he was going through and the people he was in the camp with. But his books are very very powerful books and it lead to me reading a book called "Emotional Equations." And led to me just sort of start looking at how do we apply emotional intelligence in a more fundamental way in leadership in organizations. And that's what I did in my company and that's ultimately what I used when I went to AirBNB.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:30:38] Yeah let's talk about that. It's a perfect segue.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:30:42] You know I'd love to hear how did you originally connect with AirBNB as a gender neutral team there and you know clearly this sense of value from all of your experience and your your building of emotional intelligence and as you talk about that exchange of Iike EQ for DQ and I'll let you explain it. You know, how did you meet the team? How did you guys decide that this was a good idea? And how did you find your way through with the maze?

 

[00:31:21] Yeah I mean, it was funny - when I read "Man's Search for Meaning" I read it at a time when I was struggling and it made me really realize I needed to sell my company which is a hard thing. You know when you start a company at age 26 you can run it for 50 or 60 years and 24 years into it, it's like"You know what I'm over this. I need to move on." It was a hard thing to do but I did and a couple of years later as I was in a new era, there's a great great quote from Robert De Niro in a movie where he says "Musicians don't retire, they quit when there's no more music left inside of them." And I think that really was appropriate for me I was 52 I knew there was a lot of music inside of me but. And that was when six years ago Brian Chesky Co-Founder of AirBNB and CEO approached me and said I'd love to have you be my intern and in-house mentor and help us become a hospitality company because we're a small tech company that's growing fast but we have no hospitality or travel industry people in the company. So I delved quite deeply into helping run the company with those three and a senior leadership team that helped. To work with them ws a full time job and what it taught me quickly when I was as much as I was the mentor - I was older than everybody else, twice the age the average person in the company - but I was the intern as much as I was the mentor. Yes I had a lot of wisdom around hospitality and leadership and strategy. I had a strategy for the company as well. But I didn't know a damn thing about technology. Didn't know a lot about millennial travel habits, didn't know much about the Silicon Valley tech world of investors, and so often I was learning as much as I was teaching. And so it led ultimately that coined the term in the company people started calling me "The Modern Elder" and the modern elder is different than a traditional elder in the sense that the modern elder is as much a curious learner as they are a wise teacher. And it's that combination of curiosity and wisdom that makes them relevant and elder. The past is all about you give reverence to your elders. But no one does that anymore in Western society. So it's about having relevance and relevance allows you to use your wisdom but apply it to modern day problems. And so that's what I did. And EQ for DQ that you mention is I traded my emotional intelligence for their digital intelligence. And the truth is that power is moving 10 years younger in most companies and we're all going to live ten years older and so all of a sudden create a 20 year irrelevancy gap. If powers were younger and were going to live older and that's what I've tried to do in terms of those speeches I have been giving and the book I wrote which is called "Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder."

 

Chip Conley: [00:34:23] And then the Modern Elder Academy which we created in Mexico.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:34:27] So I want to hang on this for a minute and specifically talk about - I'm not sure if there's a better word for it so feel free to jump in here - ageism and what is happening within the workforce right now. I think we are in the most fiercely competitive labor market certainly in the last 20 years if not longer. And you know with great technology and platforms out there like LinkedIn that have certainly proliferated the resume and you can find people and learn about what they're up to at the same time. You know you've got photos on there and people are making judgment calls based upon college graduation dates or what their photo looks like or the number of years of experience and you know whether we want to believe it or not people are discriminating. I'm curious: what have you learned or what did you learn from the AirBNB experience and what are you learning from the Modern Elder Academy as you are working with individuals that have had and gained such amazing wisdom and continue to share it but maybe are running up against these invisible brick walls?

 

Chip Conley: [00:35:43] Yeah. Yeah great question. And yes ageism is the last form of socially acceptable bias in our society. Now the others still exist but they're less socially acceptable and we laugh about, we joke about, eccentric such a senior moments etc. And the truth is let's be honest that there are certain things as we age that don't get better with time. And other things do get better. What we've tended to do as a society is have a societal narrative that gets very fixated on what doesn't get better without focusing on what does. Let me use a specific example so it doesn't sound too abstract. As we get older our recall memory and our quickness with our mind isn't as good as it was say 25 years earlier. Fine. But what a lot of people don't know is there are a series of studies as shown in the last five to seven years. As you get older you're more adept at doing what I call the left-brain right-brain tango which means you actually have all wheel drive. You're better at being able to move from logical to artistic and back and forth and do that. Left brain right brain which what why is that valuable. It allows you to be more holistic in synthetic meaning - being able to synthesize things in your thinking. It allows you to get the gist of something faster. It allows you to actually tap into your intuition and use it in a more fundamental way. So what does that mean for a company? Well if you have somebody who's older who's got a great ability to get the gist of something, there's someone who actually doesn't get caught in the weeds. And that is exactly my role. I mean all this I've learned since joining AirBNB six years ago but it's exactly true of what happened to me. I joined and was like "Oh my gosh 30 strategic initiatives why don't we just have like four - let's get clear about what the four are what essential what's important what's good." So that's the kind of thing.

 

Chip Conley: [00:37:58] So the point is that we have a narrative in society that much says as people get older, the best times are behind them and in some ways that's true if you're talking about the playing field of your body that may be true. If you're talking about the playing field of how much money you make a year salary wise you top out at age 45 in the tech industry and age 50 in the general population so when it's 55 or later you're late probably making less salary.

 

Chip Conley: [00:38:31] But your emotional intelligence gets better with time: your ability to synthesize and have wisdom can get better with time etc. So what's my answer to the ageism society? Number one is is to go out and give lots of speeches write books like this one and try to help people see the value in intergenerational collaboration. I'm not suggesting we go back to the era where we revere our elders. That's not coming back but I'm also saying that diversity of all kinds is valuable in the workplace and we are very familiar with diversity of gender and race and sexual orientation but there's a lot less familiarity with gender of age and cognitive diversity which sometimes has nothing to do with age. Can be about neuro-diversity but often age is an element of cognitive diversity in the sense that you get somebody at the table who's going to look at things a little differently and that means you have less likelihood for group think. Finally I'll say one last thing on this subject which is I was talking with a well-known executive recruiter not long ago. And she said to me something really interesting s- she said "You're right if you just get caught up in the robots, the artificial intelligence looking at your resume you're in trouble because people perceive you as older and that could be a problem." So you have to use soft contacts -sometimes people who know people to get in the door. Or actually go to a networking event or things like that. But she says the key thing to know is this: when you do have that face to face time which will happen occasionally, the key thing to know is that when you are curious and passionately engaged your wrinkles start to evaporate and what people notice is not your face and it's wrinkles what they notice is your energy, and if you've got that kind of passionate energy that people want to sort of feel a part of it becomes a bit magnetic. You can overcome people sort of looking at you and judging you based on your age. And that's probably true of any bias we out there but the truth is I think it's more frankly for someone with age in terms of those two qualities: curiosity and passionate engagement.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:40:49] So as you think about the team you built at the Modern Elder Academy and having folks on board like a resident Shaman and a yoga and meditation teacher and massage therapy are the folks who are enrolling in the academy embracing with open immeditely? Is there some resistance given that some of things like - I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that some of the folks coming to the academy may know what a Shaman is in principle or in theory but having one is probably a new experience for some of these folks.

 

Chip Conley: [00:41:32] That's optional. No one has to work on that. That's an optional added benefit.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:41:42] Got it. Got it got it. So really meeting people where they're at and allowing them to pursue what they believe is going to create the most impact for them.

 

Chip Conley: [00:41:50] Yep yep yep. So I think that first of all, the key thing that people need to know is that they are not alone. And first of all one of the biggest surprises of the academy has been the following. That people are showing up at a much younger age than I thought. So almost 20 percent of the people who apply are are people under 45, when it was originally said there was a 45 to 65 year age range. But what we found is we've had people as young as 30 and people as old as 74 in the program. But we've had between five and 10 percent of our actual grads at this point have been in their 30s. So people are feeling a little irrelevant in their 30s or have a desire to sort of somehow start to cultivate their wisdom. The average age is about 52. So these are not people who are elderly. There are people who are at a stage where they may be an elder in a more relative term in the sense than it typically means. You are older than the people that surround you, so if you're a 35 year old surrounded by 20 year olds which is how it is many tech companies, you could be an elder. The key that we do at the academy is we help people frame their mindset, but on a personal level in terms of the actual world nd then also from the perspective of the societal narrative on Aging. The thing that's really interesting, Brian, is that there's a ton of evidence and a lot of them made this about the curve of happiness. There's even a book that we came out last year called "The Happiness Curve" that's quite good. And the happiness curve shows the following across all societies except Russia. Russia is the only one that's a little bit of an aberration. But across all societies on the planet, there is a huge curve of happiness where people start seeing a decline in their happiness that goes from about age 28 to about age 45 to 50 and then it bottoms out around 45 to 50. And then it starts getting better and people in their 50s are happier in their 40s. People in their 60s are happier than the 50s and people in their 70s are happier than in their mid-60s. There's a bunch of reasons for this but it's not actually woven into our societal narrative on aging. So that final narrative on aging is you hit midlife you have a crisis. You don't love your life as it is then you actually go out and, you know, have an affair and buy a sports car or whatever you do and then you get through the crisis. But on the other side of midlife is aging which is awful. It's for decrepitude and disease. And that's what people know and when we actually start introducing some action, some research - scientific information that helps people to understand that a new narrative that they could add a new mindset that they could actually adopt it it helps them to see I have some wisdom that I've learned along the way that it can be applicable. In a whole new industry that might be a better habitat for for me because. I am in you know I'm a I'm a computer engineer and I spent 20 years doing it but now I'm in my 40s and I feel. You know over the hill. But I've learned team collaboration skills and I've got to tell you those companies are full of really smart technology people but they're full of teams too. So maybe I start shifting my skill set to being a team leader. More than that the individual contributor is a rock star as an engineer.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:45:55] So as a tech entrepreneur, since so much of this modern elder philosophy came from the experiences you had with AirBNB, Is there any advice that you would want to deliver to tech entrepreneurs who are brilliant in the products or services that are creating the technology that they're building but have yet to have that realization that there's this massive massive well or reservoir of elder talent - modern older talent that they can tap into to help them with building teams, collaboration, focusing on whittling down 30 key strategic initiatives... How do you help them realize that they need this when they are so smart smart and maybe you just haven't had those laps around the track - help them realize?

 

Chip Conley: [00:46:43] The thing I'll say to them is the same to anybody is: do not hire people who are just like you. I mean your natural tendency is to do that because you like them, you're socially adept with them, and they agree with you a lot of the time. But actually go beyond that. Because I understand the age side of things: maybe somebody who has some experience. The thing I would also say is don't hire somebody who's just stuck in the past. If you're hiring somebody because they actually just tell you the way they always would have done it or they don't have a curiosity and an appetite for learning - that's not a modern elder, that's just sort of an older person who's trying to sort of live on the fumes of their past. So I think what's really important is to look at people, especially - let's say your technology is disrupting an industry like health care, and you know health care deserves to be disrupted because nobody likes the industry and all that's true. But that means maybe you should go out and hire a really serious modern elder. From the industry. He's got a big Rolodex and I know you don't know what that means.

 

Both: [00:47:57] --Laughter--

 

Chip Conley: [00:48:00] But they also know how the industry works - that person while they are wedded to that if they're wedded to the past and they don't really believe in their technology, then don't hire them. I believed in Bryan and in AirBNB as a disruptor in the lodging industry. Not to actually take over the hotels. The good news is I'm still here. I still own hotels. I just don't manage the company but I still own the real estate of hotels. So I didn't think that AirBNB was going to come in and just ruin the hotel industry. So you know, it was easy for me to be part of a disruptor that I knew was going to still keep me in the industry, and intact in general.

 

Chip Conley: [00:48:37] But the new way of doing things would actually help maybe improve innovation in an industry. So that's what you want to look for. How do you find those people? Maybe ask your parents, they may be an alma mater in common and you might need to actually go out and literally look for that person.

 

Chip Conley: [00:48:57] If you've got a venture capitalist or an investor involved you might sort of say to them: "You know what? I want to hire somebody as our head of strategy that I actually want them to frankly be 10 to 15 years older than me." Let's look for that and not only exclusively deals for anybody exclusively based on a demographic. That's a very dangerous path to be going on but you can say that you want some of the following experiences as well. And so. Long story short is that this is part of what a lot of younger people don't think about as a possibility. Partly because they feel like they don't want to hire their parent. Or their preacher. And a lot of times that older person is a parent or a preacher and are lecturing most of the time.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:49:39] You know, that's fantastic advice. So, I saved what I hope would be the best question for last. Are you ready?

 

Chip Conley: [00:49:51] Yeah.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:49:51] --Spanish words that this transcriptionist doesn't understand--

 

Chip Conley: [00:50:05] So actually give it to me in English.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:50:10] I'll give it to you in English. And this is about the extent of my Spanish.

 

Chip Conley: [00:50:16] It sounds like it was about listening potentially, or something.

 

Brian Mohr: [00:50:19] You're super close. The question is I understand you are learning Spanish - How's it going?

 

Chip Conley: [00:50:31] Yes - Oh, yes yes. I just answered. Still I'm learning Spanish and surfing in my late sixties and I'm enjoying it. But I mean I've only had six lessons for Spanish & my Spanish is better than my surfing.. Clearly it didn't work.

 

Both: [00:50:42] Laughter

 

Brian Mohr: [00:51:01] There ya go. It's my pleasure. What an amazing, amazing conversion - my curious white boy friend Chip. Thank you so much for joining us. And I could chat with you for hours. I really appreciate it. Take good care and good luck to you.

 

Chip Conley: [00:51:10] All right. Thanks. Bye bye.

 

Lauren Bailey - CEO & Co-Founder of Upward Projects

As the CEO and co-founder of Upward Projects, a family of restaurant concepts, Lauren Bailey knows firsthand how hard work, passion and grit can help pave the road to success. 

There's a lot covered in this episode, including: exploring Lauren’s passion for art and design and how she was able to find her calling in the restaurant business, the philosophy of Upward Projects - putting employees first no matter what, the disruption happening in the restaurant business, and how Lauren and her team are monitoring the trends. Lauren also talks about one of the biggest mistakes she's made, and how she and her team responded to the challenge.

This episode also explores the importance of women in leadership - an interesting topic given the late 2017 explosion of sexual harassment claims happening across entertainment, business and politics - Lauren’s infamous ‘cookie monster’ story is one for the ages, and finally, we touch on Lauren’s inaugural Conscious Capitalism experience and the impact it is having on her and the business.

Listen to this podcast interview and more episodes from the Built On Purpose Podcast at http://yscouts.com/podcast

Alexander McCobin - CEO of Conscious Capitalism

Alexander McCobin is the CEO of Conscious Capitalism. His life's purpose is perfectly aligned to the purpose of Conscious Capitalism - to elevate humanity through business. In this episode, Alexander shares experiences and stories from his life including: his experience joining the wrestling team in 7th grade, his choice to pursue undergrad and graduate degrees in both economics and philosophy, and how a simple idea led to a global student movement known as Students for Liberty, Meeting his wife and the now hilarious story of the morning of their wedding day,Joining Conscious Capitalism as the Co-CEO and the transition to the sole CEO and the elements that make the Conscious Capitalism movement so powerful.

Alexander’s passion for liberty and free enterprise in undeniable. For every business leader out there, get ready to experience the inside story of Alexander McCobin and the rise of Conscious Capitalism.

Listen to this podcast interview and more episodes from the Built On Purpose Podcast at http://yscouts.com/podcast

Rob Kelly - CEO & Co-founder of Ongig

Rob’s purpose can be summed up pretty succinctly - “Rob believes everyone should love business and entrepreneurship”. Why does this simple statement summarize Rob? Well, he believes in creating value for others, and he sees business and entrepreneurship as a direct path to achieving it. Rob’s journey may very well be a perfect example of how many of our journeys look.

His current passion, helping employers create and promote their career opportunities with job ads that don’t suck, Rob and the team at Ongig are turning talent acquisition into the marketing focused activity it’s meant to be. This episode is, what I would call, organized chaos. There’s a potpourri of wisdom, stories, and opinions on everything from going to college, to starting a business, to swimming with dolphins, and even a little music trivia sprinkled in.

Listen to this podcast interview and more episodes from the Built On Purpose Podcast at http://yscouts.com/podcast

Garry Ridge - CEO of the WD-40 Company

Garry Ridge joined WD-40 in July of 1987, and became the CEO in 1997. One look at their financial performance and even the most skeptical on the topic of purpose-driven and servant-based leadership will begin to take notice. In this discussion, Garry shares his wisdom on: why empathy should always trump ego, why the most important leadership lessons date back to kindergarten, the reason Garry and the WD40 team refer to themselves as a Tribe, the WD40 Maniac Pledge that all tribe members sign, Garry’s advice to all current and future leaders and, of course, this episode wouldn’t be complete without a few stories of the uncommon uses for WD-40.

This episode is chock full of amazing lessons on leadership, culture, how to sustain high-octane performance, and some ripping good yarns along the way.

Listen to this podcast interview and more episodes from the Built On Purpose Podcast at http://yscouts.com/podcast

Cameron Herold - The CEO Whisperer

Cameron Herold wasn’t the smartest kid in school. In fact, if he would have allowed his C-average in school determine his fate, he would not have achieved the level of success he has so far. From his earliest days, Cameron was destined to become an entrepreneur. He built and led several businesses — many you may have heard of, including College Pro Painters and 1-800-Got-Junk. He admittedly suffers from ADHD and believes this form of neurodiversity has allowed him to see the whole picture when confronted with everyday business challenges. He’s the author of three high-impact business books, “Double Double,” “Meetings Suck,” and the “Miracle Morning for Entrepreneurs.” Cameron has been called the "best speaker" by Forbes magazine publisher Rich Karlgaard. He’s also spoken in 28 countries around the world.

This episode also happens to the first episode I’ve recorded live in our studio in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was an absolute blast. I decided to take the in-person opportunity and swerve into some lesser-publicly known interest areas about Cameron, including his Burning Man experiences, his fascination with art, and our shared love of music. This is a great conversation with the man known as the CEO Whisperer. Enjoy this one-of-a-kind episode with Cameron Herold.

Listen to this episode and more from the Built On Purpose Podcast at yscouts.com/podcast.

Luke Larson - President of Axon (TASER International)

Luke Larson is the President of Axon, formerly TASER International. There’s no doubt the news media has been sharing what seems like a massive increase in the deteriorating relationship between law enforcement professionals and the communities they are paid to protect and serve. An element of the story that gets very little attention, if any, is the way in which technology is helping our law enforcement professionals do their jobs better, especially given the fact that our world is being disrupted in every way imaginable.

Enter Axon. In my conversation with Luke, he articulated the purpose behind Axon — to make the bullet obsolete. Think about that for a moment — think about a world where law enforcement professionals don’t have to rely on the bullet to keep order and peace. Imagine a world where technology can replace the almighty bullet with something less lethal, and more powerful. In this very special episode, Luke Larson shares:

• The often untold story of how TASER, now Axon, came to be
• We touch on Luke’s two tours in Iraq and how that experience has helped him in his role as president of Axon
• The evolution of a product-manufacturing company to a SaaS and technology company
• The power of assembling a great team and the importance of clear & concise Values to guide the behaviors
• The way in which law enforcement is positively impacted by technology

I’m really excited about this episode — and I hope you enjoy hearing Luke Larson's story as much as I did.

Listen to Luke Larson and more Built On Purpose Podcast guests at yscouts.com/podcast.

Ben Brooks - Founder & CEO of PILOT

I am Brian Mohr, co-founder and Managing Partner of Y Scouts, and today I am interviewing Ben Brooks, the founder & CEO of PILOT, a career-management company designed to facilitate positive results for both business leaders and employees, with the end goal of making work more satisfying and fulfilling. Ben discusses his professional history, ranging from assuming great leadership and responsibility roles through top-tier companies like Lockheed, Enterprise, and Oliver Wyman.  After years of high-profile consulting work, Ben transitioned from management to human resources and began to delve into his passion for working with people, developing a fascination with psychology, influences, and motivations. He then decided to focus of his professional work exclusively in HR, and derived several important lessons about human engagement and performance. Ben eventually founded PILOT, a project that has truly and efficiently married his extensive HR and career-coaching experience. Ben is currently focused on providing a powerful coaching technique that helps thousands of employees empower their own jobs and careers. Ladies & gentleman, Ben Brooks.

 

For this episode and more on the Built On Purpose Podcast, please visit yscouts.com/podcast.