The Kurty D Show: Recent Episodes

View Details

Episode Highlights:

• How Did Brett Brewer's Early Real Estate Ventures Shape His Entrepreneurial Journey
• The difficulty of raising pre-seed financing, the role of accelerators and incubators, and the process of raising $300,000 for the business.
• The impact of the dotcom crash on e-commerce businesses and the shift to casual game development.
• The launch of Myspace, and the initial user engagement strategy.
• Brett's role in scaling Ad Knowledge, its rapid growth, and eventual sale to TPG and other private equity firms.
• The founding of CrossCut Ventures, and the evolution of its investment focus.
• The challenges of recruiting talent to LA, the evolution of the LA tech ecosystem, and CrossCut's role in connecting and supporting the community.
• The difficulties and challenges faced by venture capitalists.
• The significance of technology in education and the need to bridge the gap between the haves and have-nots in accessing educational resources.
• Brett Brewer's investment philosophy and insights into private versus public markets, influenced by Annie Duke's book "Thinking in Bets.”

Tweetable Quotes:

• “Be the straw that serves to drink.” — Kurt
• “So that starts to become a self-fulfilling prophecy when you have that many smart people controlling that much capital living in the actual market.” —Brett
• “Understanding the best use of your time and how to be productive is a real challenge and ends up being the downfall of some VCs.” —Brett
• “Politics and infighting is the death of a startup.”—Brett
• “If you're gonna have an environment where people don't trust each other- where they can't give each other candid feedback, they will fail.”—Brett
• “And I think there's something really magical about being honest.—”Kurt
• “Culture isn't just values, it's the actual way ideas get put into practice. It's the behavior.”—Kurt
• “So it's more important than ever that as a society, we realize that we do have a moral imperative to invest in and believe in and educate all kids and give them a chance.” —Brett
• “Every individual and every company has a certain set of advantages. You have to take full advantage of them to greatly increase your chances of being successful.” —Brett
• “It's comforting when you realize there are just lots of things out of your control and the less time you spend worrying about them, the better off you'll be.”—Brett
• “You have to do something extraordinary and the only way you're gonna do something extraordinary is by actually doing some action.”—Brett

Links Mentioned:

• Kurt’s Twitter
• Kurt’s Instagram
• Kurt’s LinkedIn
• Brett Brewer
• Crosscut Ventures
• Aber Whitcomb
• Adam Goldenberg
• Brian Garrett
• Josh Berman
• Peter Tomasulo
• Ross Levinsohn
• Scott Nolan
• Thomas Anderson
• Alliance
• Amazon
• EdVoice
• Fabletics
• Fedex
• Foundersfund
• IGN
• LAtech
• Microsoft
• MySpace
• News Corp
• NVIDIA
• Real World Asset Group
• SoftBank
• SpaceX
• Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America
• The Wall Street Journal
• TPG

View Details

Episode Highlights:

• The evolution of technology
• The Importance of Understanding History in Law and Tech
• The Role of History in Technology and Design
• The concept of calm technology, its principles, and the need for historical context in product design.
• The importance of long-term tech design and changing the narrative on what's considered cool.
• Amber's journey in founding Geoloqi, the challenges faced, and the early development of location-based technology.
• The importance of understanding the history of technology and innovation, and its impact on product development.
• Geoloqi's mascot and privacy-first approach
• The significance of long-term thinking, learning from history, and the impact of small problems in business.
• Amber's personal journey, early experiences in entrepreneurship, and the impact of economic constraints on decision-making.
• Discussion on trusting oneself and persevering in the tech industry amidst challenges.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “It's really hard to build something when everyday life doesn't look like the thing you're building yet.” - Amber
• “It's OK if it takes a while and it's OK if these things are informed by something in the past.” - Amber
• “Everybody should be able to make their own thing instead of just assuming that just one culture makes something.” - Amber
• “I think things are going so much faster and we seem to have linear time instead of slow time is that we keep thinking that we're moving forward and that we're modernizing in some way. But I think we're more like Victorian 2.0 times.” - Amber
• “But the more stuff we look at online, do we remember at the end of the day, what we actually looked at?” - Amber
• “Abstraction is actually causing us a lot of pain.” - Amber
• “Humans are social creatures and we’re always comparing status.” - Kurt
• “Hospitality does not necessarily feel like what a shiny ad for technology looks like.” - Amber
• “Every company and every start-up, everything is hard or it can be really fun.” - Amber
• “People overestimate what can be done in a year or two, but they radically underestimate what can get done in five or 10.”- Kurt
• “A lot of people don't live their lives with enough slack to handle the turbulence when it comes up, they're, they're on the margin because they don't leave any moment unpacked and it's not really a huge risk..” - Amber

Links Mentioned:

• Kurt’s Twitter
• Kurt’s Instagram
• Kurt’s LinkedIn
• Amber Case
• Case Organic
• Calm Tech Institute
• Jeff Bezos
• Paul Ollinger
• Robin Jones
• Roger McNamee
• Scott Morehouse
• Vanessa Camones
• Ableton
• Esri
• Geoloqi
• Seventh Generation
• Teenage Engineering
• University of Oregon
• Zappos

View Details

Episode Highlights:

• Paul Ollinger's transition from an executive at Facebook to pursuing stand-up comedy.
• Discuss the focus of Paul Ollinger's podcast, "Crazy Money," and its exploration of living a fulfilling life beyond financial pursuits.
• How comedy has shaped Paul Ollinger's communication skills, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and handling unexpected situations on stage.
• Insights into the dynamics of the comedy industry, including the significance of connecting with fellow comedians and the audience.
• The gift of comedy is pursuing personal truths and presenting a unique perspective on the world.
• Paul Ollinger's reflections on enoughness, living without regret, and managing passion like a business.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “I think the gift of comedy is the pursuit of truth.” - Paul Ollinger
• “I don't think being an authentic person means saying every single thing that's on your mind.”- Paul Ollinger
• “Rich isn't about how much money you have. It's the ratio between your resources and your needs.” - Paul Ollinger
• “We're never going to stop wanting unless we control our desires. That takes a lot of awareness and a lot of self-control and a lot of reminding yourself of enoughness.”- Paul
• “Self-actualization is something to be pursued not to be achieved.”- Paul Ollinger
• “The richest people we know of in our society are people who aren't thinking about the money because they would have sold out decades ago.”- Paul Ollinger
• “The desire to have money makes us do crazy things, and money doesn't solve our problems the way we think it will before we have it.” - Paul Ollinger
• “There are tricks, there are shortcuts, there are things that you know what to do when something happens in the room. There are ways to react to that: you learn after repetition and by watching other people.” - Paul Ollinger
• “Not every battle’s worth fighting.”- Paul Ollinger
• “Living your dream doesn’t always mean perfect.” - Paul Ollinger
• “It’s not a value unless it costs you something.” - Kurty D.
• “I think time has a wonderful way of redeeming things.”- Kurty D.
• “If you want something, you have to sort of. Be willing to give it away or say no or do the opposite. If you want love, you have to give love. If you want money, you gotta give money.”- Kurty D.

Links Mentioned:

• Kurt’s Twitter
• Kurt’s Instagram
• Kurt’s LinkedIn
• Paul Ollinger
• Aaron Ross
• Dave Atell
• Emo Philips
• Facebook
• Jack Dangermond
• Judy Carter
• Kim Scott
• Matt Rife
• Nicole Aimée Schreiber
• Vince Thompson
• BBDO
• Esri
• Improv
• Lime
• Tuck School of Business
• Yahoo

View Details

Episode Highlights:

• Small is Better: How small, autonomous teams can spearhead targeted missions.
• The Paradox of Failure and Success
• Breaking the Fear of Failure: A New Mindset for Organizations
• How to be adaptable and nimble in taking risks
• The need to change mindsets within organizations
• Taking risks in many different places in the organization

Tweetable Quotes:

• “Time is linear. Knowledge is exponential. And a book is a great way to memorialize that knowledge and make it accessible.” — Brady Brim-DeForest
• “Vulnerability is such a powerful medicine.” — Brady Brim-DeForest
• “Failure is a necessary ingredient for success.” — Brady Brim-DeForest
• “I think the nest real value in cross-functional is that you have unbounded thinking, and it encourages first principle reasoning too. ” — Brady Brim-DeForest
• “The closer you are to the higher density information, the more efficient your decision will be.” — Brady Brim-DeForest
• “Large organizations tend to concentrate on resources, human resources, and capital, but they are also the breeding ground for innovation.” — Brady Brim-DeForest
• “Autonomy doesn’t just mean at the edge; it is a way of efficiency and decision making.” — Brady Brim-DeForest
• “None of us can accurately predict the outcomes of any hypotheses we’re testing. So, the only way to proceed is to take the risk.” — Brady Brim-DeForest
• “Risk comes along with failure.” — Brady Brim-DeForest
• “Increasing the speed at which you fail is the critical path and requirement to succeed.” — Brady Brim-DeForest
• “We see failure as a negative thing and must change our mindset and the organization we work to embrace failure. ” — Brady Brim-DeForest
• “You will never reach the upside if you don’t stumble along the way.” — Brady Brim-DeForest
• “Waste is the byproduct of experimentation.” — Brady Brim-DeForest
• “People have the freedom to fail because that’s where sort of improvisation in the ensemble happens.” — Kurt Daradics
• “We all could be looking at the exact same information and come to totally different conclusions, but that only happens if we are looking at the same set of data.” — Brady Brim-DeForest

Links Mentioned:

• Kurt’s Twitter
• Kurt’s Instagram
• Kurt’s LinkedIn
• Brady Brim-DeForest Website
• Smaller is Better Book Website
• Aaron Ross
• Duke Stump
• Jack Dangermond
• Katie Decker
• Ken Burns
• Myles Sutherland
• Talia Jacqueline
• Esri
• Formulamonk
• Lime

View Details

Episode Highlights:

• The smile box analogy and the Fluxus art movement
• Self-actualization and enlightenment
• The dysfunctional nature of living in the past and the need to focus on the present.
• Exploration of the common presence of trauma in high performers and how it can drive their actions.
• The impact of taking things personally and the importance of humility in relationships and communication.
• The correlation between personal work, culture, and business growth.
• The influence of neuro-linguistic programming and the learning process through mentorship and practical application.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “Having a golden handcuff is really challenging, and I think it's it's not a value unless it costs you something.” — Kurt
• “Values are meaningless in words; it's lived out.” — Kurt
• “Everything that we do in business is all relationships, and we all know that.” — Talia
• “There's so much psychology behind how relationships are built, how the report is built and broken and what you contribute to that based on what your own experiences are in life.” — Talia
• “For as long as you're growing, you need a coach.”— Talia
• “Every word has its own connotation and energy.”— Talia
• “When we go through things in life, we really have two choices: we can numb, or we can kneel, and a lot of us as a society were so accustomed to numbing.”— Talia
• “A lot of those high performers are using the fuel of their past and the pain itself to drive, and sometimes they get so afraid of letting that go cause it's their fuel for so long.”— Talia

Links Mentioned:

• Kurt’s Twitter
• Kurt’s Instagram
• Kurt’s LinkedIn
• Talia Jacqueline
• Talia Jacqueline
• Visceral
• Brain Koppelman
• Christopher Daradics
• Derrick B. Grüner
• Gabor Mate
• Justin Mitchell
• Michael Nitti
• Stacey McKinnon
• Staci Gray
• Tony Robbins
• Morton Wealth
• Organize to Scale
• Real World Asset

View Details

Episode Highlights:

• Background and experience in data science, content creation, and storytelling
• Applying storytelling principles to content creation
• Challenges of pivoting content focus on YouTube
• Importance of storytelling in content creation
• Application of data science in careers
• Experiences in corporate America and improving presentation skills
• Transitioning to own YouTube channel to focus on data science
• Maintaining creativity on YouTube
• Creating online courses
• Insights and experiences in the field of data science and content creation

Tweetable Quotes:

• Life is all about depth, and that's where the joy comes from. So, whenever I do anything, I try to go to the depths of it. - Ben Sullins
• I really like startups; they're so fun because you can really get stuff done and make a difference. - Ben Sullins
• “The bigger the company is, the less fun it is.” — Ben
• “Knowing the difference between an absolute difference and a relative difference can really make a big difference in how you understand what message that's coming across.”— Ben
• YouTube is a very interesting place. It's such an amazing thing for people to share what they know, to entertain and educate. For me, it's just an ever-evolving journey. - Ben Sullins
• See, feel, change. When we see something, it creates an emotion that gives us some conviction to go and make a choice. That's really the insight and the power of data visualization. - Kurt Daradics

Links Mentioned:

• Kurt’s Twitter
• Kurt’s Instagram
• Kurt’s LinkedIn
• Ben Sullins
• Ben Sullins YT
• Free the Data Academy
• Elon Musk
• Jack Dangermond
• Nancy Duarte
• Naval Ravikant
• Quentin Tarantino
• Satya Nadella
• Adobe Premiere
• AngelList
• Atrix
• Bard
• ChatGPT
• Descript
• ElevenLabs
• Energy Sage
• Esri
• Figma
• Hollywood Bowl
• Microsoft
• Microsoft Copilot
• Mozilla
• NFL
• Pluralsight
• Power bi
• Python
• SquadCast
• Tableau
• Tesla

View Details

Episode Highlights:

• Insights into the Broken Marketing Ecosystem and the genesis of Hawke Media
• Publishing of Erik's book, "The Hawke Method."
• Brand building and energy management
• Shared roots in Ventura County and experiences growing up
• Significance of the “Red Hawk” with the brand and emotional aspect of marketing
• Importance of managing energy and balancing business responsibilities with personal pursuits
• Impact of AI on the future of work and the economy
• Challenges of entrepreneurship and the importance of maintaining mental and physical health

Tweetable Quotes:

• “I'm a firm believer that the brand is what you make of it.” — Erik Huberman
• “People use logic to justify emotions, but we're emotional creatures.” — Erik Huberman
• “I think the logo needs to be a symbol that people can rally around. But the symbol needs to be meant more internally than externally.” — Erik Huberman
• “Businesses fail for two reasons only; one: they get underwater on debt or capital and they can't get above water and two: the leaders give up.” — Erik Huberman
• “The consistency of what you do is what becomes your brand.” — Erik Huberman
• “When you’re part of an early company that turns into a powerhouse, that’s really rewarding.” — Erik Huberman
• “If you want to keep something long-term and sustainable, fight for that!” — Erik Huberman
• “If you're gonna jump into something, you should have some proprietary knowledge or some connections to build a business.” — Erik Huberman
• “It is really easy to find the energy when you feel like your time is gaining momentum and you're on the upswing and everything is going well — that energy comes easily.” — Erik Huberman

Links Mentioned:

• Kurt’s Twitter
• Kurt’s Instagram
• Kurt’s LinkedIn
• Erik Huberman
• Hawke Media
• Alex Jacobson
• Andrew Stewart Leahy
• Christian Garrett
• Clark Landry
• David Connors
• Duke Stump
• Janine O'Neill
• Julian Steinberg
• Paige Craig
• Robert Leshner
• Simon Sinek
• Tony Delmercado
• 137 Ventures
• a16Z
• Barstool Sports
• Fly kitt
• Getty Museums
• Hunt Club
• Lime
• Lululemon
• Martech
• Nike
• Oak Grove School
• Sequoia Capital

View Details

Episode Highlights:

• Kurt and Doug reminisce about the Mindshare LA event and its impact on their lives and careers.
• Doug shares his experience and background, from his education in the UK to his diverse experiences and travels across the US
• Doug’s exploration of generative AI for nonfiction writing, detailing the creative process and the successful launch of his book
• The impact of AI on creativity and the empowerment of individuals to be more creative.
• The process and challenges in creating the Rube Goldberg machine, including the team effort and the number of takes.
• Doug’s transition from personal adventures to consulting on incorporating AI into business workflows.
• The importance of leveraging technology to improve efficiency and creativity, and Doug's approach to helping others achieve this.
• The benefits of leveraging technology to streamline tasks and reduce stress in day-to-day operations.
• The societal impact of the money game and the challenges associated with consumerism and debt.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “AI revolution is not just about automation or replacing humans. It's a wonderful chance for people to become even more creative.” — Douglas Campbell
• “While there is a lot of upset and talk about how AI is ruining industries, a lot of people are actually spending time focusing on how to use this as a new tool.” — Douglas Campbell
• “If you wanna see what addiction looks like, you can see it in the eyes of the 10-year-old who hasn't gotten their full-screen time today.” — Douglas Campbell
• “If really your joy is painting, figure out a way to work with the AI so that you can live a life as a painter.” — Douglas Campbell
• AIs are giving us more spaciousness to play and to be creative.” — Douglas Campbell
• "To first step to get started with AI is mindfulness; the first step is looking at your flows." — Douglas Campbell
• “The reality is every day, terrible things are happening with human drivers.” — Douglas Campbell
• “No matter how many people said” that was amazing”, you're not gonna fill that hole until you actually figure out how to make yourself feel whole from within.” — Douglas Campbell
• “I feel like people are saying to me, “you're so valuable”, and I'm feeling it more than I ever had in the past.” — Douglas Campbell
• “AI is a quantum leap. It’s a sea change.” — Kurty D.
• “Money is one easy way to measure value.” — Kurty D.
• “I think the thing that's wild about the human experience is that we're not truth-seeking creatures, we're social creatures.” — Kurty D.
• “People are getting in debt buying things they don’t need to impress people they don’t know.” — Kurty D.

Links Mentioned:

• Kurt’s Twitter
• Kurt’s Instagram
• Kurt’s LinkedIn
• Douglas Campbell
• The Intelligents AI Podcast
• ProjectFresh
• Andrew Huberman
• Brent Bushnell
• Christopher Daradics
• Efren Toscano
• Eric Gradman
• Jim Young
• Nolan Bushnell
• Tim Ferris
• Aehr
• AMD
• Bard
• Chuck E. Cheese
• ElevenLabs
• Esri
• Harrow
• IO Fund
• Marvell Technology
• Micron Technology
• Mindshare
• NVIDIA
• OK Go
• Real World Asset Group
• RISD
• Skirball Cultural Center
• Super Micro Computer
• Task Us
• TechZulu
• Two Bit Circus
• UCLA

View Details

Key Takeaways:

• Christopher’s journey and experiences around the world
• Fulbright grants and Christopher’s participation in the organization
• The concept of cultural production and definition of art
• Cultural Production and Language Learning
• Soft Power vs. Hard Power
• Descartes and Computational Theory of Mind
• Extended Mind and Ecological Validity
• The dawn of AI
• Art and Philosophy
• Fluxus and its influence on art, its disruption of traditional art forms and relationships.
• Embracing Complexity

Tweetable Quotes:

• “I think that God is something like the middle voice, and it's something like sunsets.”— Christopher
• “Cognition is not something that's constrained. This is, from the ecological perspective, from the extended theory of mind perspective, cognition is a distributed process.” - Christopher
• “The environment is too complex to control.” — Christopher
• “So, are we fundamentally irrational? I think that there are parts of us that are profoundly irrational and that the rational parts of us have an incredibly difficult time wrapping our rational minds around. But I think that we're also rational.” — Christopher
• “My personal belief is that Descartes was not as dualistic and sort of Cartesian as history has painted him to be.” — Christopher
• “The hardest part about taking a very long trip around the world is leaving; the hardest part is just clearing your calendar enough to get away.” — Christopher
• “Complexity is simple rules playing out at scale. The simplicity and the fullness, and that it's really beautiful to embrace complexity.” - Christopher
• "To engineer something is hard power. Soft power is like cultural influence."— Christopher
• “Mind is not present in the object; it is only present in the subject.” — Christopher
• “Games are an amazing site for practicing, for using language. And then there's fan fiction and all of this stuff. So here's where we're starting to get into this sort of territory of cultural production.” – Christopher
• “So the world is getting more complex, it's getting more dynamic, and the questions emerging are like… It's incredibly non-linear, life is non-linear, and the rightness and wrongness of things has a lot to do with cultural preference like we described before.” - Christopher
• “We have this incredible capacity to process information, and we do it in ways that we absolutely cannot understand.” — Christopher

Links Mentioned:

• Kurt’s Twitter
• Kurt’s Instagram
• Kurt’s LinkedIn
• Christopher Daradics
• Andrew Huberman
• Dan Siegel
• Descartes
• Duke Stump
• Jack Dangermond
• Jane Bennett
• John Cage
• John Lennon
• Julie Sykes
• Yoko Ono
• Center for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS)
• Esri
• Institute of International Education
• Pocket Guide to Revolution
• St. John's College
• University of Oregon

View Details

Key Takeaways:

• Dave's experience in the legal industry and working with startups
• Aligning Interests and Creating Incentives: A Key to Success in Business
• Turning Challenges into Opportunities: A Zen Master's Perspective
• The Power of Giving: How Givers Outperform Takers and Matchers
• The Importance of Health and Personal Growth

Tweetable Quotes:

• At some level, you just have to realize that everything is a business decision, and that includes taking risks. — David Young
• The better lawyers are the ones who are using their judgment to help their clients. — David Young
• Life is 10% what happens and 90% how you handle it. — David Young
• Often times people push to close for no specific reason, because they know that time kills all deals. — David Young
• If you’re going to give the point and you think it’s reasonable, just give it. Some lawyers enjoy the arguing—that's just how some lawyers are wired. — David Young
• When negative things happen, try to turn it into a positive.— David Young
• Life is hard. So we have to choose our hard wisely. — Kurt

Links Mentioned:

• Kurt’s Twitter
• Kurt’s Instagram
• Kurt’s LinkedIn
• David Young
• Adam Grant
• Andreessen Horowitz
• Jason Nazar
• Jim Jonassen
• Rachel Horning
• A16Z
• Cooley LLP
• Lime
• Real World Asset Group
• Siemens

View Details

Key Takeaways:

• The benefits of putting your work online as a photographer or someone in the creative industry.
• How everyone is uniquely beautiful in their own way from a photographer’s perspective.
• How beauty inspires Kris Krug to step things up for himself.
• How adding the context of time to a photograph deepens its meaning.
• How AI is changing our response to beauty.
• Internet culture and how it has allowed people to be more expressive with their fashion.
• How Kris uses English and language to change the world around him.
• Why copying the same camera systems that your friends use and simply switching equipment is a good practice.
• The importance of getting your work online to accelerate growth as a photographer.
• Why it’s important to visit places like Discord and Flickr to see some interesting activity with not just photography, but all sorts of mediums.
• How AI has helped Kris speed up his editing process.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “I make beautiful portraits of all sorts of people.” - Kris Krug
• “The more you put yourself out there, the more you give yourself away, the more value there is in your work and in your name, more people want you involved in their stuff.” – Kris Krug
• There's something about everybody that really speaks to me.” – Kris Krug
• “I often walk away from an encounter with beauty feeling inspired or called to a greater part of myself to step it up.” – Kris Krug
• “This idea of giving space in the context of time gives a better kind of a more of a wider perspective.” – Kris Krug
• “As we enter into this AI age, I wonder what our response to beauty is going to change because these computers can make perfection all day long.” – Kris Krug
• “The ways that people express themselves through fashion is more interesting than ever. And I think that a lot of it comes directly from internet culture in some ways.” – Kris Krug
• “I've always tried to use my relationship with language and English to kind of like change the world around me.” – Kris Krug
• “If you want to accelerate your growth as a photographer, get out there and make stuff. Get it online, read the comments, and incorporate it into your work.” – Kris Krug
• “The most interesting things on the internet are happening under the surface.” – Kris Krug

Links Mentioned:

• Kurt’s Twitter
• Kurt’s Instagram
• Kurt’s LinkedIn
• Kris Krüg
• Kris Krüg
• Andrew Warner
• Asa Mathat
• Barack Obama
• Bill Clinton
• Brian Eno
• Duke Stump
• Frank Gruber
• Ian Rogers
• Jack Dangermond
• Malibu Babie
• Matt Wolfe
• Mikhail Gorbachev
• Paige Craig
• Rick Rubin
• Robert Scoble
• Shaquille O'neal
• Stewart Butterfield
• Zane Lowe
• Zsofin Sheehy
• Apple Music
• Canon
• ChatGPT
• CitySourced
• Creative Commons
• Discord
• Esri
• Flickr
• Internation Space Station
• Javascript
• Kelly Slater Wave Co.
• Lincoln Group
• Microsoft
• Midjourney
• National Geographic
• Nickelodeon
• Nikon
• Nvidia
• Phyton
• Postmates
• Rolling Stone
• Supermicro
• Techcrunch
• TED
• Topspin
• Trinity Western University

View Details

Key Takeaways:

• Unpacking the Journey: Real Estate, Tech, and Finance
• The Perfect Office and Unexpected Connections
• Unforgettable Meeting and the Birth of a Business
• Uncovering the Truth: A Risk Manager's Journey Through the Financial Crisis
• Building a Community and Embracing the Power of Giving
• The Power of Giving: How the Universe Rewards Selflessness
• The Impact of Macro Trends on Risk Management in Real Estate
• The Ultimate Music Fan: Dream Band and Venue

Tweetable Quotes:

• “Trust, but verify.” – Justin Mitchell
• “People pay back, but properties don’t. When you focus on creditworthiness and the borrower, you, most of the time, stay out of the trouble.” – Justin Mitchell
• Sometimes, the best deal you’ll ever do is the one you didn’t do.– Justin Mitchell
• “One of the things that made me relevant in this business is that when you deal with the best in the business, they start to appreciate your opinion and your insight.” – Justin Mitchell
• “Saying no is probably the best trait I have where not everything will work out, and it's not meant for me. It doesn't mean that someone else won't do it for them.” – Justin Mitchell
• “When you start doing business with the best borrowers, their competitors want to know why they're doing business with you and what makes you special. That leads to referrals and inquiries from the best borrowers.” – Justin Mitchell
• “We know what it's like to be a borrower and the sensitivities and speed of execution. Most of all, creativity is everything, and there's a balance to that.” – Justin Mitchell
• “It's being creative, but also managing risk, whether that's with the asset that I'm lending on, or maybe I take additional collateral outside of that asset.” – Justin Mitchell
• “In the context of private credit, if you don't do any background or underwriting on the borrower, that can lead to problems quickly.” – Justin Mitchell

Links Mentioned:

• Kurt’s Twitter
• Kurt’s Instagram
• Kurt’s LinkedIn
• Justin Mitchell
• Aaron Ross
• Andrew Smith
• Brian Standing
• Brook Fain
• Charles Schwab
• Elias Badin
• Gregor Watson
• Howard Marks
• Jeff Sarti
• Rob Bloemker
• Stacey McKinnon
• 1Sharpe Capital
• AFLAC
• Bank of America
• Blackstone
• CohnReznick
• Fidelity
• Genesis Capital
• Goldman Sachs
• Morton Wealth
• Oakland Capital Management
• Quanta Finance
• Realworld Asset Group

View Details

Key Takeaways:

• Highlighting Frank Gruber’s career highlights
• From Blogging to Tech Ecosystem Development: A Journey of Innovation and Entrepreneurship
• The Evolution of Technology and the Importance of Business Model Innovation
• The Business Mechanism as a Path to Self-Actualization
• Investing in Next Gen: A Journey of Early Stage Funding and Partnerships
• Overcoming Challenges and Embracing Resilience

Tweetable Quotes:

• “The people that can tell their story the best usually do the best.” - Frank Guber
• “A lot of times what I tell founders is just, pick one that you're best at rather than try to do everything because it's just exhausting trying to do all the different things.” - Frank Guber
• “If you can start early when you're not comfortable, it's better because once you get comfortable with all the things you're used to, it's harder to do it.” - Frank Guber
• “Some of the stuff that we had to do was to make those sacrifices so I can get done with school.” - Frank Guber
• “These people that are out there have that ability to be able to tell that story and convince people that this is the direction that we're going.” - Frank Guber
• “Everyone's got a social channel, there's so much noise, it's how do you get ahead of that now?” - Frank Guber
• “As an actual investor, you gotta make those relationships before you need them.” - Frank Guber
• “You just never give up - you learn and get stronger along the way.” - Frank Guber

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Frank Gruber

Dan Mendez

Dave Matthews

Gary Vee

Jack Johnson

Jen Consalvo

Jesse Torres

Mike Arrington

Steve Ressler

AOL

Atlantic Sea Farms

AWS

Capital One

Chicago Tribune

Greater Colorado Venture Capital

Huffington Post

Kauffman Foundation

NASA

Nextgen Venture Partners

Purdue University

TechCrunch

Techstars

Tech Cocktail

TikTok

Verizon

WGN

Wim Hof

View Details

Key Takeaways:

• How mentorship is a two-way street where you teach someone and learn from them too.
• The impact that you can get by operating from principles vs. a playbook.
• The importance of letting yourself be uncomfortable.
• Why it’s essential to learn that what works in one culture will not automatically translate into success in a different culture?
• The requirements for greatness.
• Why you need to be self-aware and understanding of yourself.
• The power of language in life.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “The goal is not to create magic. It's to create the conditions for magic to happen.” – Duke Stump
• “We all want greatness but we're not willing to have the courage to accept what it quite often takes to get there.” – Duke Stump
• “Self-awareness or self-understanding is the key ingredient in any journey.” – Duke Stump
• “Language has the ability to pierce through the barbed wire of life when it's done well.” – Duke Stump
• “Make yourself uncomfortable because it's one of the few times you know you're growing.” – Duke Stump
• “Life is about impermanence. It's this mercurial, ever-changing, ever-flowing thing like we don't have control on much other than maybe our chosen response to things.” – Duke Stump
• “Financials are not a predictor of success. They're a function of doing other things.” – Duke Stump
• “Rather than just focus on a number of financials every day, focus on other things that will deliver the numbers.” – Duke Stump
• “Freedom and aliveness for me is being in an environment where there's a real beautiful level of trust.” – Duke Stump
• “I think if we learn differently, we would invite so much more possibility.” – Duke Stump
• “My parents were high school teachers and they always said teaching is about mentoring and being mentored.” – Duke Stump
• “I didn't operate from a playbook, but I operated from a set of principles.” – Duke Stump
• “I'm proud of the fact that, once again it wasn't a playbook but it was a philosophy and a different approach around how to build something.” – Duke Stump
• “Because something works in one culture doesn't mean that playbook is transferable.” – Duke Stump
• “I'm just obsessed with the human condition that can create possibility versus stifle it.” – Duke Stump

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Duke Stump

Chris Zimmerman

Chris Daradics

Ellen DeGeneres

Gregg Hoffman

Janine Benyus

Jeffrey Hollender

Laura Lee Brown

Martha Stewart

Ophra Winfrey

Rick Rubin

Steve Wilson

Tim Ferriss

21c Museum Hotels

Apple

Bauer

Biomimicry

Bonfire With Soul

Esri

EQT

Lululemon

Nike

Overhear Episode with Gregor Barnum and Duke Stump

Patagonia

Seventh Generation

Target

TechCrunch

The University of Vermont

The Wall Street Journal

View Details

This week, I'm excited to share my conversation with my friend, Paige Craig- the Founder and General Partner at Outlander VC- which is launching its third early-stage VC fund.

Paige has one of the most incredible stories of any of my friends- from growing up dirt poor outside of Sacramento, California, to getting to Westpoint, then becoming a Marine, and starting the Lincoln Group- a Private Military Company operating across the Middle East, Africa, SE Asia that he grew to 1,000 full-time headcount.

After Paige sold the Lincoln Group, he transitioned into an angel investor and has 17 unicorns from early-stage investments, including Postmates, Lyft, AngelList, Gusto, Wish, and more.

Paige and the team at Outlander are finding diamonds in the rough- founders who have what it takes to win but aren’t part of the elite networks of the top schools, top cities, or social networks.

Paige’s background all comes together to deliver returns that put him in the top 1% of tech investors, and I’m excited to share this honest and inspired conversation with one of the most interesting people I know.

Key Takeaways:

• Paige Craig’s remarkable story of growing up.
• Paige’s experience at Westpoint
• What spurred Paige to enter and serve in the Marine Corps
• What it was like trying to start a business without access to money.
• The origin story of the Lincoln Group, and when Paige sold it.
• The lessons Paige learned from working alongside people from poorer countries.
• Why and how analyzing people forms a core pillar and differentiator in Paige’s business.
• The importance of establishing trust and understanding with your investors.
• Why a startup’s success lies in its founders.
• When the true value of a business shows itself.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “My job is to find incredibly special people who can create incredible value and create profitable companies eventually that change the world.” – Paige Craig
• “It's about finding out who is your ideal customer. Are you serving them?” – Paige Craig
• “I love learning, but even more than learning, I've always really enjoyed doing.” – Paige Craig
• “When I look at founders now, I understand how hard it is when you don't have access to money.” – Paige Craig
• “The most incredible value typically takes a decade or longer to find and build.” – Paige Craig
• "If you build incredible value for customers and you run your business right, you will get revenue." – Paige Craig
• “If you're going to go after certain types of people, you have to understand them; you have to understand why they perform or outperform in certain environments.” – Paige Craig
• “The very basic pillar of our business is to analyze people and realize that our mandate is picking exceptional, rare type of Founders.” – Paige Craig
• “I think too much money corrupts founders early. And there's great value created when there are restrictions on the money given to them.” – Paige Craig
• If you want to be a great investor, particularly at the early stage, the number one most deterministic thing in a startup's success is its founders.” – Paige Craig
• “But that's one of the great benefits of being in the military. I fully utilized all my education benefits in the Marine Corps.” – Paige Craig
• “As a company gets later on in life, you can analyze the product and the customers, and there's lots of different ways to become a great investor.” – Paige Craig

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Paige Craig

Ana Gabriela Bon

Bailie Salk

Blaine Davis

Blake Hall

David Tisch

Jack Dangermond

Joshua Reeves

Leila Chreiteh

Leura Craig

Lucas Hoffmann

Pete Wilson

Peter Szulczewski

Clubhouse

Dam Neck Virginia

DARPA

Esri

Gusto

Hunt Club

Lincoln Group

Marine Corps

NASDAQ

Navy Federal Credit Union

Outlander VC

RIA

Sacramento State University

West Point

Wish

View Details

Key Takeaways:

• Words from Margaret Cho and other comedians that inspired Nicole.
• How the pandemic opened up a lot of new perspectives on Nicole.
• The scary thing about growing old.
• How Nicole figured out how to navigate the loss of her dad in the mindset of a global pandemic.
• What it’s like for Nicole to look at things with a microscope perspective to pick apart things and discover what’s funny.
• The role of competitiveness in our lives.
• Why it's important to be a good sport whether you win or lose in life.
• How living your life transparently can get people invested in you.
• The impact of political correctness on comedy.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “I didn't worry about dating anybody, I dated comedy.” – Nicole Aimee Schreiber
• “The pandemic put a lot of things into perspective about what matters and chasing a dream matters.” – Nicole Aimee Schreiber
• “When things are bad and you’re at the bottom, the only place to go is up.” – Nicole Aimee Schreiber
• “The whole reason we are competitive in nature is to win.” – Nicole Aimee Schreiber
• “Don't lose, go for winning. And if you lose, be a good loser, don't be a sore loser.” – Nicole Aimee Schreiber
• “Getting older is a scary thing because you lose your relevance. Like you're not as much of a hot topic anymore.” – Nicole Aimee Schreiber

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Nicole Amy Schreiber

Brian Ingram

Dana White

Darwyn Metzger

Dave Chappelle

Dave Attel

Eddie Murphy

Fahim Anwar

Jacob Tell

Jack Johnson

Jamie Drake

Jaimee Lee Curtis

Janis Joplin

Jason Calacanis

Joe Rogan

Judy Carter

Madi Diaz

Matt Rife

Margaret Cho

Michell Yeoh

Nicole Noren

Neal Brennan

Peter Pham

Sarah Silverman

Taylor Tomlinson

Tomm Hannigan

Tyler Crowley

CitySourced

Comedy Cellar

Comedy Corner

District 216

Dole

ESPN

HBO Max

Liquid Death

Monster of Folk

Netflix

NFL

Sherwood Country Club

Phantom

Tim Tebow

TechCrunch Disrupt

The Comedy Store

View Details

What We Covered:

• The importance of having a purpose behind what you’re doing.
• How something that doesn’t cost anything can't be called a value or a principle.
• How Jacob and his team became a much fuller service by not just building the assets but also designing the strategy.
• How Jacob and his team used “technology mashups” to leverage his business.
• What it means to build a foundation around the things that you are passionate about.
• The importance of building a foundation before launching a bigger corporation/company.
• The impact of creating a safe place where people are allowed to have conversations about mental health, death and dying, and more.
• The concept of “edutainment” and how it does a better job at teaching compared to more traditional methods.

Tweetable Quotes:

• You can tell if a brand or an organization is being purposeful and truthful about making that emotional connection with the audience when they have a purpose behind what you're doing.” – Jacob Tell
• “We do our best work at the intersection of storytelling and technology now. It’s not just the technology piece, it’s also the storytelling and creating the brands.” – Jacob Tell
• “We create a culture of positive disruption and that's been a throughline for all the ventures that I'm involved in.” - Jacob Tell
• “Entertainment meets education is the idea behind edutainment” – Jacob Tell
• “You have to be fully lit up and aligned in whatever you do and be able to draw that inspiration from within.” - Jacob Tell
• When you have the right mindset, the right environment, and you know what you are after, You then create the conditions for the magic. – Jacob Tell
• “It's creating conditions for not just magic but for healing.” – Jacob Tell

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Jacob Tell

Ben Harper

Bruno Mars

Duke Stump

G.Love

Gary Gersh

Ian Rogers

Jack Dangermond

Jack Johnson

Jason Kiesel

Jengo

Jimmy Iovine

John Legend

Joseph Campbell

Kelly Slater

Ken Burns

Kim Johnson

Kurt Cobain

Lenny Kravitz

Paul McCartney

Rob Machado

Steve Jobs

The Beatles

The Wailers

Dolby Atmos

Dreams Tour

EMI Records

Esri

Facebook

Lodo Studios

LVMH

MySpace Music

Nike

Oniracom

Pepsi

Revolver

Sony Music

Spotify

TechCrunch

Topspin

Universal Music

University of California Santa Barbara

Warner Bros.

Yahoo Music

View Details

What We Covered:

• The back story behind the “Betsy and Irv” documentary movie.
• The story behind NBA player Enes Kanter.
• The importance of mental health and focusing on this issue.
• Mental health is not exclusive to gender but is connected to physical health.

Tweetable Quotes:

“I like humanizing issues.” — Nicole Noren

“I want people to think, and I would hope that after they're done watching something that I've made, they're going to be thinking more broadly and differently.” - Nicole Noren

“So I think the only way you can do that (promote advocacy) is by showing people fair pieces of work that make them think rather than telling them how they should think.” — Nicole Noren

“It’s been a fascinating evolution to get to this point now where it’s becoming so normalized to talk about brain health, and it’s wonderful.” — Nicole Noren

“Honestly, women have made me aware of mental health, and now men are catching on” — Nicole Noren

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Nicole Noren

Enes Kanter

Sasha Menu Courey

ChatGPT

ESPN

Murrow Award

NBA

NCAA

Spotify

View Details

What We Covered:

• Success and people behind TEDx
• Dos and Don’ts of storytelling
• The Power of Narrative, Communication, and Sharing
• The importance of authenticity in a story
• The explosive viral effect of TEDx
• How widely you can spread ideas
• How you can bring together curious people
• “See, Feel, Change” framework by Duke Stump

Tweetable Quotes:

“It’s special to hear people tell stories of the TED talks that were meaningful to them. Talks that help people understand themselves and understand the world better or spur them into action in some way. Anytime you hear like that, I feel so grateful to have been part of the TED journey” — Kelly Stoetzel

“The hard things that you struggle with, even if someone has not experienced the same thing, there are so many people who can relate, and there’s something that is also really useful knowing we’re not alone.”— Kelly Stoetzel

“I would always tell speakers to be as much yourself as possible when you’re standing on stage. It’s like almost being yourself with the volume turned up just 10%.” — Kelly Stoetzel

“As people write their talks—instead of thinking about what’s the thing I have to say, it’s like what is the thing I have to give to people that they would like to receive from me — that would be useful for them to receive.” — Kelly Stoetzel

“But there is no formula, and the best talks are just like what someone wants to design for themselves. And that’s authentic to how they think, talk, or live. So, I think that’s important.” — Kelly Stoetzel

“As part of my career journey, I got to this point where I just realized I wanted always to do work that makes an impact and purpose for me, and the situation with our planetary health that we face right now is as important as anything can be.” — Kelly Stoetzel

For anybody who may be listening to that is preparing for a talk, no matter what, it is always always always so useful to run it by someone. If you can do it with a speaker, coach, or something. — Kelly Stoetzel

“I used to pray “God, if you give me ears to hear, I’ll do my little part to change the world.” — Kurt

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Kelly Stoetzel

Adam Grant

Amber Case

Chris Anderson

Duke Stump

Heather Mason

Jack Dangermond

Jason Calacanis

Jim Young

John Calkins

Richard Saul Wurman

Susan Cain

Stephanie Simon

Talia Jacqueline

Tyler Crowley

Z. Hayley

Atomic Maps

City Sourced

Clubhouse

Cochlear

Esri

Edelman Fossil Park

LXD (the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers)

Lululemon

Nike

TEDx

View Details

What we covered:

• Why storytelling matters, and how a simple sentence can unlock profound impacts.
• The importance of blockchain in the economy.
• How to move and think as a CEO
• Why “thinking above the line is so important” and why context matters more than content.
• Why imagination is essential, both as a CEO and as a person.
• The importance of self-awareness

Tweetable Quotes

• “User-owned networks will grow faster and become more valuable than corporate-owned networks or investor-owned networks.”
• “My framework to storytelling is to iterate, iterate, iterate until it feels like you can feel the reaction is like yeses and nods and smiles.”
• “If you can't explain in a sentence why what you're doing matters to who's listening, the odds are that every sentence you say after that, they're tuned out.”
• “If you can't convey why, what you do matters to who it should matter to, you may as well not do it.”
• “The whole world is driven by storytelling.”
• “Brands, sales pitches, whatever, they have to have an emotional reaction. And if they don't, the reaction will be boredom and apathy.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Adam Jackson

Chris Bordeaux

Rob Leshner

Compound Lab

Duke Stump

Gabriel Luna-Ostaseski

Jack Dangermond

Julia Crass

Airbnb

Blockchain

Braintrust

Doctor on Demand

DoorDash

HuntClub

FedEx

LuluLemon

Uber

View Details

What we covered:

• Why passion is a key ingredient to living a life you love.
• How Rick’s passion for music and surfing made him into the person he is now.
• How Rick has helped progress the punk rock genre to how we know it today.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “It’s just amazing when you’re passionate about something. It didn’t feel like work.”
• “If I’m gonna put a lot of time into something, I get very passionate about it.”
• “You gotta be passionate, you have to have a ton of discipline, and you have to be consistent, and THEN you get results. And then you get that result, and you have a little win, and then you keep going and redo it every day and keep going.”
• “Everyone that helped me, I’m gonna pay it forward and help out.”
• “I love music, I love surfing, I love surfers, I love podcasts, and I love your guitar collection behind you!”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Rick’s LinkedIn

Rick’s Instagram

Bill Silva

Bob Hurley

Chris Bystrom

Taylor Steele

Timmy Curran

Ryan Gleason

Vince Vaccaro

Bad Religion

Blink 182

Billabong

Hoodoo Gurus

Hurley

Loft 100 Studios

Sitting on Stacy

The Aquadolls

The Red West

The Specials

The Sully Band

The Warped Tour

Unwritten Law

Quiksilver

View Details

What we covered:

• Learn more about addictions and sobriety as a whole.
• Get to ask yourself the questions that you need to know yourself better.
• The importance of interventions and sobriety in the long run
• Why trauma can lead to substance abuse
• Why it’s essential to give out second chances to people who are recovering from addiction
• The importance of creating a safe space for people who aim for sobriety.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “If your definition of success is going into rehab, it works. But it takes a lot more to get somebody into recovery. You can’t trick someone into a program of rigorous honesty.”
• “People are greater than the sum of their faults.”
• “If there’s someone I’m a victim of, it’s myself.”
• “When you think you’re smart and larger than life and have a successful career, the idea of being an alcoholic is preposterous. How would you not be able to control this? You can control everything else.”
• “It took me ten years to stop drinking and recognize my problem.”
• “I can’t undo what I’ve done. I can’t undo what he has done, either. But what we can do together is face forward and fix the future. Create healing. But we’re not going to do that while we’re wallowing in our despair. We have to find out how to recover from that. Find ourselves and make that a place of power.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Stop, Pause, Play website

Clay Johnson’s LinkedIn

Clay Johnson’s Twitter

Jack Dangermond

Duke Stump

Kirk DeWitt

Ronald Reagan

Blue State

CNN

The Sunlight Foundation

View Details

What we covered:

• Colin’s experiences with his evolution of transforming being a “salesperson”.
• The lessons that Colin learned that led to him writing “The Unsold Mindset” with Garret Brown
• How showing your flaws and imperfections lets people see that you are authentic as a person.
• How Colin shifted things around by asking questions he wanted to know the answers to instead of asking questions he was supposed to.
• The reason why successful salespeople do so well, and the same thing they are all doing
• Distinguishing ‘transformational’ vs. ‘transactional.’
• The value of vulnerability and authenticity when connecting with other people
• Why finding a niche is essential for sales.
• The importance of a healthy and competitive culture for sales

Tweetable Quotes:

“If you can’t move people, how do you change the world? How do you change anyone’s world if you can't move people?” - Colin Coggins

“One thing that we found was that all these great salespeople permitted themselves to share. Not because they knew the law of reciprocity but because they showed up on the call and chose to share something about themselves. That is probably the inflection point across almost everyone we've spoken to.” - Colin Coggins

“People want to know what's inside of your head.” - Colin Coggins

“What you love doing and what you're good at doing are not always the same.” - Colin Coggins

“There's a bunch of definitions for valuable but one of them is that you make people around you better and that you can turn that into a culture like even in sales, I mean especially in sales.” - Colin Coggins

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Colin and Garrett’s Instagram

Colin and Garrett's Twitter

Colin and Garrett's Website

The Unsold Mindset

The Unsold Mindset - Amazon

The Unsold mindset - Barnes & Noble

The Unsold Mindset - Target

Anna Barber

Aaron Ross

Bryce Maddock

Dave Matthews

Dave Matthews Band

Duke Stump

Garrett Brown

Jon Wexler

Kelly Perdew

Paige Craig

Ryan Burke

Roy Choi

William Barnes

Lululemon

M13

Shell Vacations

Uber

Wyndham Fractional Ownership

View Details

What we covered:

• The importance of hiring pure talent.
• Why CEOs should hire talent rather than anything else.
• The importance of a good interview session with prospective employees to gauge their capabilities.
• The importance of momentum, especially from a business standpoint.
• Why aiming high for your business helps you have fewer bottlenecks and the like.
• Why having fun is just as important as succeeding.
• Why having a substitute plan is always a good idea.

Tweetable Quotes:

“I feel like in this bizarre macro, talent is the only leverage.” - Jim Jonassen

“We feel like we can add more value if there are higher stakes” - Jim Jonassen

“The changes that Covid brought on us will not sort themselves out next quarter, next year. It's gonna be a decade. Among them is the rapid digitization of everything.” - Jim Jonassen

“You can't piggyback on anybody else's due diligence. You gotta do the work; you got to get to the unit economics, and the business plan and the product market fit and everything else on your own.” - Jim Jonassen

“Don’t hire for a job ‘til you’ve done the job.” - Jim Jonassen

“If the work is done, if the rigor is maintained, if you keep that forward momentum, that's what you've gotta have, you gotta have a real partnership and engagement. If you do, it’s going to work real flawlessly.” - Jim Jonassen

“You can’t comfort the afflicted without afflicting the comfortable.” - Jim Jonassen

“Why get a “B Meal?” when you could say,” Hey, let's go raise a little bit more money and hit the bit at Nobu or Maestro's?” -Jim Jonassen

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Jim Jonassen

Adam Miller

Christian Chabot

Jason Nazar

Ray Dalio

Ryan Scott

Esri

Boys and Girls Club of Sta. Monica

Hunt Club

JJA.Co

Pixar

Sequoia

Stone Eagle Golf Club

View Details

What we covered:

• The fear of failure can be your biggest struggle and your best ally
• The importance of failure and why giving up isn’t an option.
• Why belief in yourself is your biggest weapon against difficulties and adversities.
• Why happiness shouldn’t be the end goal.
• How important motivation can be when you want to know what it’s like to succeed.
• The importance of having a strong mindset, especially when you’re just starting out.

Tweetable Quotes:

“I love being happy as much as the next person does. But if you set happiness as your goal, you’re setting yourself up for failure. The key is fulfillment, not happiness.”

“People aren’t afraid of failing so much that they’re being afraid of being a failure.”

“All people need is permission. They just need somebody to go “yeah, go ahead. You can do this.”

“Once you realize that failure doesn’t mean that you’re a failure, it gives people the license to act more broadly”

“It can be a little overwhelming. But if you take things really slow again, just starting out real simple (and) childlike.. You’ll find it immediately..

“Learning is a lot of failures.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Joshua Grange

Aaron Embry

Conor Oberst

K.D Lang

Lex Price

Natasha Bedingfield

Nick Cave

Robert Randolph

Temple Grandin

Todd Hannigan

The Echo Guild

Guitar Institute of Technology (GIT)

The Joshua Tree Inn

Tiny Buddha

The New York Times

The Red Hand File

View Details

What we covered:

• Why it’s essential to stay curious, even if you’ve already figured everything out.
• How hard work and having your eyes on the prize can land you toward your end goal.
• The importance of hard work and perseverance to reach your dreams.
• How Jake has juggled both his career as a hockey player and a musician
• Jake’s creative process and his love for creating content
• The fear of failure can be your biggest struggle and your best ally.
• The importance of creating a headspace where your actions don’t matter to those around you.

Tweetable Quotes:

“The biggest thing I’ve learned is that it’s okay to be bad at something. You’ll crawl your way out.” - Jake Hutt

“Everyone is so much less aware of what everyone thinks. No one is looking or caring as long as you get your attitude and keep everything up.” - Jake Hutt

“If you put in the work and you don’t know what’s gonna happen or when, but if you keep doing it and doing it and doing it, at some point, something’s gonna change as the product gets better.” - Jake Hutt

“If you can combine the niche, you can be the best boss.” - Jake Hutt

“For me, the biggest hurdle has been the fear of failure, and that’s essentially why I didn’t get where I want to with hockey.” - Jake Hutt

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Robyn Ward

Jake Hutt Adeel Yang Jack Dangermond

James Clear Kelly Slater Steven Pressfield

Shannon Ellis

Dryvebox

Esri Forbes

National Hockey League (NHL)

Picmonic

PGA

View Details

What we covered:

• Challenging yourself can open you up to being a better version of yourself.
• How startups need to prioritize their people better first to prosper.
• Creating the right ecosystem can make things better for you and your business.
• How her growth as a person can help other people find out what they want in life.
• Why coaching is her real goal, and why it’s never bad to hire a life coach when you need one for yourself.
• Coaching is more than just telling people what they need to do.
• Her journey as a woman has empowered her in all her life experiences.
• The importance of equality, both in life and in business.
• Loving your work can make you much more functional and empowered in what you do.
• How coaching works, and how it’s supposed to build businesses up.

Tweetable Quotes:

“I realized nine times out of ten, startup companies struggling have nothing to do with their product or technology - its people stuff. You do not understand your blockers as a leader.” - Robyn Ward

“It was actually through a work with a coach that I thought, “I just really love working with the founders.” - Robyn Ward

“My superpower is helping in grow and develop great leaders.” - Robyn Ward

“We had the right mix of people. It was very formative to what it takes to build an ecosystem. You need the universities, and you need the city to be excited to do this.” - Robyn Ward

“Coming off of it (9/11 attacks), I feel like there;’s a unified America that we’ve lost since.” - Robyn Ward

“I got enough equity in various things to use as toilet paper.” - Robyn Ward

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Robyn Ward

Kathleen Allen

Amazon

Docstoc

Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette

FounderForward

Greg Sales

Hudson Institute

James Davis

Jason Nazar

Milken Institute

OANDA

United Talent Agency

University of Southern California (USC)

Verified Person

View Details

What we covered:

• How COVID has changed everyone’s perspective, especially regarding employment.
• A disciplined mindset from childhood can help make you much more efficient as an adult.
• It’s not always about how long you’ve worked or how many jobs you’ve had, but how much you’ve learned from them in the first place.
• A career path isn’t always linear unless you’re in a specialized practice.
• Your career isn’t always set in stone; sometimes, you just need to find out what you’re good at and what you need to do the hard way.
• A loving community can help you with your growth, both personally and professionally.
• How small business owners can make the best of their situation using government-provided services (like sba.gov)

Tweetable Quotes:

“The main takeaway from the pandemic is that we shine a light on just how important community, communication, and interpersonal relationships are. And when we shattered those opportunities for people to connect, how quickly we kind of devolved into real negativity,” - Jesse Torres

“There are tremendous amounts of resources available for small business owners nowadays.” - Jesse Torres

“Nothing comes easy all the time. Sometimes, the most important lessons come from failures.” - Jesse Torres

“To be successful, you need to drive yourself right and learn how to become your own boss.” - Jesse Torres

“I’m a big believer in great things that come from creating teams and connecting others.” - Jesse Torres

“I think everyone’s trying to figure out what the world’s going to look like,” - Jesse Torres

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Jesse Torres

Gil Cates Jr.

Gil Cates

Mike Sams

Ray Dalio

Vince Thompson

America Online

ArroyoWest

Bridgewater

California Small Business Development Center Network

Dojo Man

Geffen Playhouse

Pepperdine University

Real Vision

University of California, Los Angeles

University of California, Sta. Barbara

U.S. Small Business Administration

View Details

What we covered:

• How to create a brand new software category
• The secret to scaling a business.
• A deeper connection with yourself and what your true purpose in life is.
• Why taking your time can be just as impactful as going all-in.
• How his obsession with computers during the 80s eventually proved to be his “gold mine.”
• The importance of clear and efficient communication when it comes to growing a business
• How being an entrepreneur means thinking two, even three steps ahead.

Tweetable Quotes:

“I think my purpose on this planet is to grow my soul. And I think I do that best by helping other people grow theirs. And if I could help other people achieve their dreams by building relationships to key relationships they need at scale, then I'm doing my job.”

“I'm a testimony to the brave souls who got on boats and came to America and allowed me to realize the dream.”

“If your intention is to help the person you're engaging with to grow and achieve their goals or dreams, I think you're doing your job as a salesperson.”

“Leveraging the trusted advisor of your prospect is key to scaling a business, especially if you're going to do it in a bootstrap way.”

“It's a long game in technology, and you just gotta keep putting one foot in front of each other daily. And it's a lot of believing.”

“Our purpose on this planet is to grow in the time that we're here, and the best way to grow is by helping other people grow, and that's my biggest reward.”

“I love to hire liberal arts majors ideally from Midwest schools or even hairdressers because they know how to listen and communicate, and in life and business is about listening and communicating effectively.”

“An entrepreneur is a certain beast; I think they need to evolve and grow.”

“The best way to grow your soul is by being present with people who love you, especially your kids.”

“If you go to school, you should do internships or work throughout that time to get experience and knowledge.”

“I actually recommend that you lean into community colleges because you can save two years of costs, and you have much smaller classrooms and much more intimate, and you could transfer into university.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Dan Bricklin

Jon Ferrara

Natalie Burdick

Ziff Davis

Banyan

California State University, Northridge

Dan Bricklin's Demo Program

Goldmine

Google Workspace

Microsoft 365

Nimble

Nuvel

UCLA

University of Southern California

Sta. Monica City College

View Details

What we covered:

• How the way you were raised by your parents/how you raise your children can help create better interpersonal relationships in the future.
• The path towards personal growth is not always the easiest, but one that everyone needs to take.
• Why competitiveness can help you improve yourself and your craft.
• The importance of empathy and interpersonal skills when it comes to building your business even further.
• How honing your interpersonal capabilities can help make you become a better CEO and business owner.

Tweetable Quotes:

“If you’re ever not growing or working on your craft, either somebody will come by and pass you or you won’t be able to rise to the level to go to the next level of the plateau.”

“(COVID) has changed the way people are hired, the talent they can attract, and how they use network effects that can actually get them interested,”

“Learning the right way to (communicate), how to create transparency and do it authentically I think is something that I’m constantly working towards as a CEO.”

“I don't think of myself as a CEO. I never have, I think of myself as a teammate in a 100-person room trying to build a business.”

“If you care about performance and doing a great job and you’re learning how to work with others and with a team of different sizes that are changing every 3. 6. 12 months, it’s a constant evolution of learning how to manage those instincts.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Nick Cromydas

Brian Schwartz

Egon Zehnder

Jeffrey Sternberg

Scott Kacyn

Stephen Corby

Acre Homes

Binti

GoPuff

Hipcamp

Hunt Club

KPMG

New Coast Ventures

Vanderbilt University

View Details

What we covered:

• Aaron’s journey throughout the years as a professional.
• How his career in sales was more of an accident rather than a career path he actually wanted.
• How the idea of “doing the things that you love and you don’t have to work a day” lead to burnout.
• The importance of having “good” and “bad” days if you want to succeed even more with your career.
• The importance of not letting your ego dictate your career path.

Tweetable Quotes:

“Whatever you do, some days you’re gonna suck and some days, you’re gonna be better. Everything I’ve done, there are some good days and bad days. You’ll be surprised, maybe tomorrow or next year things will change.” - Aaron Ross

“It’s easy to go back to what you used to before, but it doesn’t always work.” - Aaron Ross

“Don’t be an asshole in the way you write. Get your ego out of the way.” - Aaron Ross

“So much about doing startups is about luck.” - Kurt Daradics

“Some people may not believe in luck. They believe in fate or everything happens for a reason, and I tend to be in that camp, honestly.” - Aaron Ross

“I took the job because I knew I needed to learn that craft. And you can’t learn it by reading books. It’s a way to get paid to learn.” - Aaron Ross

I didn’t let my ego get the job that I want to. It wasn’t the title and definitely wasn’t the pay.” - Aaron Ross

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Elon Musk

Tom Cruise

Tom Williams

Apple

Lease Exchange

Pandesic

NASA

Robertson Stephens

Sleeq

Stanford University

Stanford Graduate School of Business

UC Sta. Barbara

View Details

What we covered:

• The importance of spending a good amount of time on hiring.
• The importance of continuously adapting to modern technology, even after you have graduated.
• How ideas are born from even the most unlikely of sources.
• Personal growth is also a great deciding factor if you want to succeed in your current endeavors.
• The importance of persistence and hard work, especially if you have a goal in mind.
• Burnout can be formed even when it comes to the most unlikely places.
• Working with a goal in mind can help alleviate and prevent burnout.
• How entrepreneurship can drive the country forward.
• Why building a business where people care and need is an important part of your business’ growth.
• The importance of pain and personal growth towards your success.

Tweetable Quotes:

“The easiest way to learn is through imitation, the most painful way to learn is through experience, and the most notable way to learn is through reflection.” - Minnie Ingersoll

“If your heart is set on solving a problem, then it’s possible.” - Minnie Ingersoll

“I graduated as a woman with a degree in computer science. And it did make me feel like I’m not missing some secret handshake or something.” - Minnie Ingersoll

“I’ve learned a powerful secret- to find a way to get to yes.” - Minnie Ingersoll

“Entrepreneurship is one of the bright spots of our country.”

“Sometimes, you just have to get through things.”

“Charity starts at home.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Elon Musk

Brian Garrett

Gil Elbaz

Eytan Elbaz

Patrick Pichette

Ev Williams

Omar Hamoui

David Waxman

Eric Pakravan

Brett Brewer

TenOneTen

Polytechnic School

Caltech

Stanford

Google

Harvard Business School

Applied Semantics

Yahoo

Innovate Pasadena Chapter

View Details

What we covered:

• How Neil’s journey throughout the years has helped him be the individual that he is today.
• Why consistency is much more important as compared to intensity.
• How struggle plays a huge part in our development as businessmen and as individuals.
• The importance of making, and learning from past mistakes.
• The importance of making time for the things that matter the most.
• How creating engaging and smart content can be the most powerful thing that you can do if you have limited resources.
• The importance of playing smart and thinking outside the box, especially if you have limited resources.
• Why it’s important to continuously learn from your line of work.

Tweetable Quotes:

“I’m just an entrepreneur or a marketer, whatever you want to call it. I create businesses, and never really worked much with other people, most of my life I spent as an entrepreneur, and specifically, I focus on marketing as an entrepreneur.” - Neil Patel

“Some people always think (that) the journey is easy, but it’s never really easy. It’s a lot of little things that add up to get to where you are. It’s a lot of grinding for a looong time.” - Neil Patel

“No matter what you do, you’re probably not gonna get it right the first time. And that’s okay! But if you keep at it and learn from your mistakes then it can get you to wherever you want.” - Neil Patel

“People aren’t patient and consistent. They just keep going through whatever they’re gonna go through with.” - Neil Patel

“If you say you’re gonna do something, then do it.” - Neil Patel

“You gotta create time for what’s important. And when you spend time, you gotta make it count.” - Neil Patel

“There’s always so much time in this world. Make it count, give it 110%.” - Neil Patel

“The point is if you create something amazing that people love, you can do well either way.” - Neil Patel

“You learn from your mistakes.” - Neil Patel

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Charlie Munger

Ilya Pozin

Jack Dangermond

Warren Buffet

Applied Semantics

California State Fullerton

Comcast

Crazy Egg

Esri

Google

Hello Bar

Kissmetrics

Paypal

Pluto TV

Ubersuggest

Viacom

Yahoo

View Details

What we covered:

• The importance of knowing what you want and what you’re capable of.
• Why it’s important to find an environment where you can shine to your best potential.
• The value of hard work, and why it’s important to work on problems you want to solve in order to get more clients in the long run.
• Why it’s important to create a marketing strategy that can perfectly compliment your company.
• How to figure out what to do next after a major step back.
• How to find out your particular niche if you want to succeed, especially online.
• The value of finding a place where you can grow even further, both as an individual and as a businessman.
• Knowing that sometimes, miracles are something that we create for ourselves.
• How challenges forge us to become a better version of ourselves.
• It the importance of becoming committed to growth and progress to ensure that you and your company are moving forward.

Tweetable Quotes:

“You want to create an environment where you can create an ambiance and an ecosystem for you to be comfortable enough to focus.” - Brady Brim-DeForest

“Kindness is different from niceness. Kindness is speaking the truth, even if they’re not going to make them happy.” - Brady Brim-DeForest

“I think most of life is just about being at the right place at the right time.” - Brady Brim-DeForest

“You always have to come face-to-face with your failings. And it’s certainly character-building, that’s for sure.” - Brady Brim-DeForest

“Growth is binary. You can either grow or you can sink.” - Brady Brim-DeForest

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Brady’s LinkedIn

Brady’s Twitter

Brady’s Instagram

Drew Casper

Duke Stump

Jack Dangermond

Sir Martin Sorrell

Warren Buffet

Berkshire Hathaway

S4 Capital

TheoremOne

University of Southern California

Wire and Plastic Products (WPP)

View Details

What we covered:

• How life isn’t always the easiest, and how hard work always pays dividends, no matter who we are.
• Why it’s important to choose a career path that you love to live a life you’ve always wanted.
• Why sobriety is a difficult thing to achieve, and why it’s one of the things that people should be proud of going through.
• Why learning from past mistakes is essential to ensure that you’re living a wonderful life.
• The importance of forgiveness to live our best lives.
• Why creating a work environment where people can be the best versions of themselves can ensure that everyone succeeds.
• How his business model relies on the work-life balance and how it works for them.
• How his past experiences have forged his way towards success.
• Why curiosity is important if you want to succeed even more.

Tweetable Quotes:

“People understand that you’re human, you’re not perfect, and you make mistakes.” - Kevin Miller

“There’s nothing that feels better than making a living in amends, doing the right thing. Proving that you’re learning from your mistakes, what could be better.” - Kevin Miller

“You can’t really enable somebody. You gotta let them fall on their own. That’s how it works.” - Kevin Miller

“Nothing changes if nothing changes.” - Kevin Miller

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Kevin Miller

Kevin’s Twitter

Kevin’s Instagram

Arjun Sethi

Armie Hammer

Chris Gadek

Ilya Pozin

Jon Zacharias

Judd Schoenholtz

AdQuick

Genexa

Google

Gr0

Open Listings

Pluto TV

Spire

TradeCraft

Tribe Capital

True Ventures

View Details

What we covered:

• The strong points of Amazon, Apple, Google, and NVidia, and how business startups can emulate them towards success.
• Why having a belief system, or something that you can look up to, is a great thing that can aid us in our own personal journeys.
• How privacy is becoming more and more of a luxury, especially with today’s current trends.
• How his idea for the future of mankind and computing can drastically change within the next 20 years.
• Why Physics can greatly contribute to a business's success
• How technology has evolved and continues to evolve into the creature we know today.
• How his humble beginnings as a journalist have forged him on the right path towards the leading names in the industry.
• How his time at Microsoft as a technological evangelist has changed his mind about how the industry worked.

Tweetable Quotes:

“A dictator can move fast, this is why we miss Steve Jobs.”

“Soon, we’re gonna move from computing at flat pieces of glass to computing everywhere.

“The speed at which technology is building neural radiance fields is exponentially changing, it’s crazy. And that’s just one technology among all that.”

“Many of us have different belief systems, and that conforms to who we are.

“I mean, it’s amazing how far we’ve come to be and where we’re about to go.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Steve Jobs

Steve Wozniak

Eric Ross Weinstein

Elon Musk

Tim Cook

Mark Zuckerberg

Marc Benioff

Jensen Huang

Tesla

Apple

Amazon

Nvidia

Walmart

Facebook

Google

Google Maps

Youtube

Niantic

Esri

Omniverse

View Details

What we covered:

• How the internet and creating viral marketing strategies have evolved over the years
• How social media is the key and the way to success in today’s modern world.
• Why it’s important to properly view and analyze metrics to ensure success.
• The importance of peak hours and adding CTAs to every content can make or break a business.
• Why having fun with your business can make your business that much more prosperous.
• Sometimes, slowing down can be the secret to accelerating your business.
• How influencers and modern celebrities dictate what sells and what does not.
• Why adapting to different client needs can ensure that you’re going to give them the best experience.
• Why mindset and being around positive people can help you have a better perspective in life.
• How his time at Walt Disney has forged his career and made him view things in a different way.

Tweetable Quotes:

“Influencers are a key component of viral marketing. Which viral marketing really at the end of the day is word of mouth plugged into the power of the internet.”

“One of the big lessons outside of resilience is awareness because I think awareness is really, really important.”

“One thing people need to understand is everybody has an ego, and everybody is replaceable.”

“The body is easy. The mind is a difficult one.”

“You always have to think strategy before tactics.”

“The people who gravitate towards negativity will manifest those negative things.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Schirmer McCord

Launchpreneur

ViralBrand

Rachel McCord

The McCord List

Senator Mitch McConnell

Melissa Patack

Robert Iger

Magic Fashion Trade Show

Republican National Community

Pepperdine university

Walt Disney

Chick Fil A

Kellan Lutz

View Details

What we covered:

• Insights on how to scale a global technology company from 40 to over 7,000 employees.
• How SJ’s leadership strategy is to lead his people to grow and be better than he is after he was gone.
• The importance of great leadership is to create people that can serve their clients better.
• How my years of working with SJ made me a better team member.
• Why it’s important to properly identify what your niche is first before transitioning into adjacent niches and/or another field - this will help your organization function better and find product-market fit quicker.
• Why making maximizing making money is not always the best end goal when it comes to a fulfilling career.

Tweetable Quotes:

“Human nature (dictates that) you’d want to be in your tribe.”

“The requirements and the needs and the way that you dealt with startups vs. larger organizations are much different.”

“One thing people need to understand is everybody has an ego, and everybody is replaceable.”

“Products need to be products. That’s how you run a product company, and it’s different from services. We found the balance at 80% products and 20% services.”

“At Esri, we felt everybody should be compensated equitably across the organization.”

“Sure, I’ve made mistakes, but that is where the learning comes from”.

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Esri

ArcGIS

SJ Camarata’s LinkedIn

SJ Camarata’s Twitter

Jack Dangermond

The University of Utah

Harvard University

Richard Toth

Carl Steinitz

Charles “Chuck” Killpack

GIS

Scott Morehouse

Jared Diamond

View Details

What we covered:

• How his platform as a Governor of Arkansas can help Arkansasans discover their true genius.
• Teamwork makes the dream work is not just a saying. It’s a legitimate strategy that can help pull you through difficult situations.
• Learn that everyone’s a genius in their own little ways, they just need to discover it by themselves.
• The deeper connection between science and spirituality.
• How humility is the best value you can have as a person.
• How important childhood is to know where you want to be in life as you grow older.
• How to solve complex problems using the most basic solutions.
• The importance of bringing out the genius in everyone.
• Why it’s important to learn how to “humanize” success.
• The importance of taking failure to reach brand new heights of success.

Tweetable Quotes:

“Get an education. Because if you get it in your head, nobody can get that.”

“It’s important to frame childhood to start discovering who you are.”

“When you come together with a group of people different from you, when you allow yourself to truly explore your passions, that’s when you can solve big problems. And that’s when you can begin to shape the future in ways you never thought you can do.”

“When you go through that crucible that forces you to work with others, the outcome is that every time we work together, we produce things that are far better than we do when we work alone.”

“Any complex problems can be solved if you break it down to a series of really basic problems and bring it back together.”

“Humility is one of the most important values you’ll need to have.”

“An acronym I made up that works wonders for me is “FADAF” - failure and difficulty are feedback.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Chris Jones’ Twitter

Chris Jones’ Instagram

Chris Jones’ website

Ronald McNair

Bill Clinton

Blanche Staton

Richard Lester

Brick Howze

Neils Bohr

Jerrilyn Jones

Franklin R. Chang-Diaz

Arkansas Innovation Hub

7 Habits of Highly Effective People

View Details

What we covered:

• The power of intentional selling
• What is soul-centered selling
• Learn the process and criteria for getting a venture debt
• The difference between debt facility and term loan
• The ideal client profile for equity financing
• What to expect during the equity financing process
• The difference between a community bank and a national bank
• How Pacific Western Bank works, and how they work with some of their clients.
• The importance a good introduction can give when you want to work with certain clients.
• How a “competitive” business model can do more harm to both your employees and sales.
• The value of breaking generational trauma to make a better future for our children.
• How letting go of your anger can be the best thing that you can be and the best thing you can do for yourself.

Tweetable Quotes:

“People like to do business with people that they know, like, and trust.”

“It's hard to get from know to trust on a zoom call, you need people to be there, to experience people’s energies and connections, and be able to look them in the eye and see a smile on their faces.”

“You got to be who you are. You be you!”

“Great salespeople have always been leaders, and great leaders have been great salespeople.”

“Sales is a service, it’s helping people and serving others.”

“What’s amazing about listening is that so many of us are listening to respond as opposed to listening to understand. And when you’re listening to respond, you’re thinking of what it is you want to say and respond to whatever you’re hearing as opposed to listening to understand where you are focused on what the person is saying and asking good follow-up questions.”

“When you talk about transformations, sometimes there are bigger ones, sometimes there are smaller ones. Sometimes, it takes two seconds, sometimes, it takes 20 years.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

View Details

What we covered:

• The importance of building relationships with the right audience.
• How to monetize the right business the right way.
• His experience with journalism, and how it can help local businesses grow even further.
• Giving minimal supervision to the people you hire can sometimes be the key to growth.
• How publications and media are responsible for the growth of a company’s ecosystem.
• The decentralization of tech has paved the way for smaller hubs where people can grow.
• Why there are larger opportunities for the media to cover, connect and expose the smaller hubs for the entire world.
• How to optimize, cultivate, and monetize a business in the right way by tapping the right audience.
• How giving context and “connecting the dots” to their audience can give quality content as time goes on.
• How providing quality content written with good intentions can help potential clients differentiate between good and bad information.
• Why geographical locations are still relevant, even in today’s age where the Metaverse is slowly creeping towards us.

Tweetable Quotes:

“Good journalism and media can play a catalyzing effect in the growth of an individual company.”

“Oftentimes, the simple answers will be misleading or inefficient.”

“Being immersed into a different culture and getting a different viewpoint on the world is such a treasure.”

“You have to trust people to be able to differentiate between (good and bad information), but the difficulty in doing so is a big problem.”

“Until we’re all living in the Metaverse, there is a crucial role for hubs and communities, and that’s the premise we’re operating on.”

“Keeping the focus on the mission and being flexible about how you can accomplish that because you’re always going to be bounded by the possible and the available. But I think as long as you hold on to your key guiding principles, then I think that’s the key to success there.”

“Being able to take some pointers about how to make everyone feel included and feel like everyone’s on the same page… is something that I’m trying to learn as much as I can.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Sam N. Adams’ Linkedin

dot.LA

Sam’s E-mail

Techcrunch

Spencer Rascoff

View Details

What we covered:

• What is Futureforth - How it helps fast-growing tech companies, CEOs, founders, VCs, and more by improving culture and retention
• The methods that Futureforth uses to help talent and communication within companies
• How kindness goes a long, long way, for both your personal life and company growth
• How The Dunbar’s Number can directly correlate to your company’s success
• Dave’s epiphany and insight on how and why he developed the “Nice Method” for helping companies
• Why he loves connecting and networking with people
• How to be kind and spread that message.
• Where being nice breaks down and doesn’t work
• How you can train yourself to be nice despite being triggered
• How & why Nashville is a fast-growing modern tech market

Tweetable Quotes:

“In this day and age when so many companies have gone fully remote, Professor Robin Dunbar (Dunbar’s Law) believes that this will not work long-term for most businesses unless you bring your team together.”

“I30% of new hires leave within 45 days if there’s no recognition, no onboarding, or anything like that. So that’s a big problem spot that I aim at solving”

“Everything I do, I do because I genuinely love connecting with people and bringing people together.”

“Basically, my rule is to treat people the way you want to be treated. Not just that, but also be nice to yourself and do that first.”

“Call it karma, call it planting seeds but really it’s always been about meeting cool people, bringing people together, and just providing value.”

“Being nice is a matter of slowing down and giving yourself some time to pause.”

“Don’t burn bridges and keep in touch with people.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Dave Delaney’s e-mail

Dave Delaney’s personal website

Peggy Pup Delaney’s Instagram

The Futureforth website

Dave Delaney’s Linkedin

The Dunbar’s Number

Dave Delaney's Twitter

Dave Delaney’s YouTube page

The Futureforth website

The Dunbar’s Number

The ROI of Nice

The Great Resignation Calculation

Emma - Email Marketing

Marcus Whitney

View Details

What we covered:

• How she pioneered social media marketing with brands like LiveNation and TicketMaster
• Strategies for effectively dealing with COVID pandemic burnout
• How to properly deal with burnout as a leader while leading a group of burnt-out people as well.
• How to deal with suppression and be honest with what you really feel
• How working with horses has helped her elevate her consciousness to the new levels.
• How her “rebel spirit” pushed through and helped her become successful.

Tweetable Quotes:

“If all leaders are kinder, more empathetic, there will be a ripple effect”

“If you’re not prepared to live in this modern world, you’ll always be caught flat-footed”

“I’m aware that I’m not fully recovered from burnout, but now I’m more aware of the orange and red zones”

“There’s the thing you’re experiencing and the narration of the thing you’re experiencing – and oftentimes the judgment is the worst part.”

“Everything we’ve learned as coping skills are survival skills.”

“Business is the biggest lever that we have to fix the world. And if business changes into a force for good, then we can right all the mess that we have.”

I do work on myself constantly to dismantle the errors of my ways and the things that I’ve learned and the ways that business has been done for a long time. It’s not nice, actually.”

“Be a part of the change that we need in the world. The world right now is a dumpster fire of problems, but it doesn’t have to be.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Gretchen Fox Palmer on Instagram

Gretchen on Twitter

View Details

What we covered:

01:33 – Kurt welcomes to the show, Ed Wilson and gives his background

03:55 – Ed & Kurt recall their first meeting at Ed’s Santa Monica office with a sublime Pacific Ocean view

08:00 – Ed talks about his growing up and school journey

11:11 – Ed shares about the transformative learnings he got from school which propelled him to where he is today

28:09 – Ed talks about their thesis and deals in Impulsum Ventures

28:49 – Background on an Impulsm investment— Care Connections Network

39:35 – Ed shares how his semi-professional skateboarding journey has been the unlock for his Ikigai

51:23 – Ed talks about what’s hard about being an investor

53:41 – Ed shares about the hurdles he went through and what he had gained from them

59:35 – Ed spills a fun fact about him

1:04:24 – Kurt thanks Ed and expresses his appreciation to him

Episode Sponsor:

Hunt Club

Tweetable Quotes:

“But I'd also say on the flip side, there are bigger funds out there as well, that actually still love co-investing with people. Because I think there is this idea that if you're bringing more kind of smart people around the table, people who have different skill sets, it only kind of accelerates the business's chance of success.”

“Through the development studio, we build constantly. So, we know what the latest technology is, we know what's happening right now. And being able to advise companies with that information is so beneficial.”

“And you know, you get older and think more about what really matters at the end of the day- it's how you spend your time and who you spend it with.”

“I love the neuroscience side of things. I've always been interested in the brain. When I was in the fourth grade, I was diagnosed with dyslexia. And so began this process of discovery, understanding, and celebration about what makes us different. What makes us think differently. What are the positives? What are the negatives?”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Ed’s LinkedIn

Impulsum Venture’s Website

Impulsum Venture’s LinkedIn

View Details

What we covered:

01:41 – Kurt welcomes to the show, Adam Struck and gives his background

04:50 – Adam shares his personal story about growing up in South Africa and immigrating the United States

09:04 – Adam talks about his background in law and how it helped him in business and gives him an edge in investing by helping his founders with legal advice

13:19 – Adam shares how he found the leverage to quit his job as an attorney at a prestigious law firm and striking out on his own to found Long Island Iced Tea Brands

16:47 – Adam talks about his journey as an early investor doing Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs)

19:58 – A walkthrough on Struck Capital from how the firm started

28:36 – Adam shares more about Struck Capital, including portfolio highlights and how the platform has evolved from core VC offering to Struck Crypto and now a Venture Studio

38:41 – Adam talks about the challenges he has faced

42:21 – Adam shares about how his parents feel about his decisions and about what he’s currently doing

43:07 – Adam talks about his brother Greg being his best partner

49:22 – Rapid-fire general interest questions

Episode Sponsor:

Hunt Club

Tweetable Quotes:

“And I sort of took that entrepreneurial spirit and decided how could I take my learnings and my success, and really share that with as many individuals as possible, and I thought venture capital and backing young founders is an amazing way to do that.”

“That chip on my shoulder, and that adversity that I that I've gone through, it has really given me an edge actually, especially when it's seed-stage investing. And it really is about sweat equity. At the end of the day, who is willing to show up first, and leave last, that's the mindset.”

“I feel very lucky in a very sort of young age, to get some very robust legal and operational expertise. And I take those learnings and try and channel them, to helping the founders that we work with to be as successful as they can be when they're trying to get from zero to one.”

“So, my advice to anybody listening is if you're going to bet on yourself, do it when you're young. Because you're in a situation where you can, you can fail, you can take a few falls, and you can get back up.”

“It’s both a privilege and responsibility to be the first money in seed investor. I'm proud to be an ally with the Founders. I think it says a lot about sort of our next-gen mindset and our ability to spot massive companies way before they become in vogue.”

“Life is tough, things are hard. Just continue to persevere and bet on yourself. And you'll hopefully find what you're looking for.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Adam’s LinkedIn

Struck Capital’s Website

Struck Capital’s LinkedIn

View Details

What we covered:

01:42 – Kurt welcomes Ross the and highlights their unique coincidences.

05:57 – Ross shares his experience about what makes Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch unique

09:42 – When and how Ross started surfing, and where he surfs now

12:54 – Ross shares what he learned from his time at UC Santa Barbara

19:58 – Ross covers career highlights, including his time at Pivotal Software

24:00 – Ross shares what he was gratefulness and proud about his startup experiences

28:14 – A walk through on Pivotal Tracker and how it evolved

41:15 – Kurt and Ross peek into the emerging future

43:00 – Ross shares thoughts on thinking machines (computers)

01:03:44– Kurt thanks Ross and expresses his appreciation to him

Episode Sponsor:

Hunt Club

Tweetable Quotes:

“So, we kind of realized that was those three things, it's software development, capability, talent, strategy, and leadership strategy. And like, if you can do all three of those, that's a software development capability in a box.”

“That's where I want to spend my time. And I think those, you know, those are the people that I think, are also worth spending time with, you know, the people that want to build something and want to make an impact out there.”

“I think that's what life is all about- pushing our boundaries and trying to become the best version of yourself. I think that's the most satisfying thing, most satisfying when you're surrounded by people that are doing it with you.”

“Surfing itself is such a humbling activity, right, the ocean is always going to when the wave has so much power, you're really at its mercy. And so, I think for the people that engage with that, it creates a natural humility. And that humility just makes it so much easier to connect with one another authentically.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Ross’s LinkedIn

Artium’s Website

Artium’s Instagram

View Details

What we covered:

01:18 – Kurt welcomes to the show, Brick Howze, and shares how they met.

06:00 – Brick shares his thoughts on what makes the surf ranch unique

08:11 – Brick narrates when and how he started surfing

18:35 – Brick talks about what surfing has given him and how he feels about it

20:57 – Brick shares about Timothy Leary

23:22 – A walkthrough on Brick’s journey in school

37:47 – Brick talks about what urges him to use his creative skills and his voice to congregate people through surfing

43:19 – Kurt asked Brick on any other channels that folks could plug in to learn more

01:11:39 – Kurt thanks Brick and expresses his appreciation to him

Episode Sponsor:

Hunt Club

Tweetable Quotes:

“And I felt like no matter what group of people you were to put together from around the world, no matter who they were, no matter what their background is, or what they do. Or whether they knew how to surf or not, I think that’s one thing about that’s basis it’s such a novelty.”

“The real prize in all of that is when those moments are happening, just appreciating them as they are and when they are.”

“Then, time goes on and I’m doing videos for him, doing his photos for him and I’m just like being myself and I’m just getting interested in other things.”

“The problem was like there was nowhere for us to console and congregate so through the creative skills that I have, and just my voice and even the platform, we can actually make noise about this and it’s just cool.”

“The problem was like there was nowhere for us to console and congregate so through the creative skills that I have, and just my voice and even the platform, we can actually make noise about this and it’s just cool.”

“It’s just cool to trust your process, whatever it is!”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Black Sand Surf Website

Black Sand Surf Instagram

View Details

What we covered:

01:23 – Kurt welcomes to the show, Tim Curran, who speaks to his background in surfing, in music, and eventually in construction

05:30 – Tim talks about Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch and what makes it unique

10:45 – Tim shares those times he played music with Kelly Slater and their jams

17:36 – How surfing became a blessing to Tim and how the waves make him feel better

24:00 – A walk through of Tim’s musical journey and some of the highlights

28:57 – Tim narrates how his construction journey started

33:40 – Tim speaks about the Thomas Fire in Ventura and how it affected them

36:41 – Tim opens up on his plans about the possible surf ranch development

38:52 – Tim talked about his challenging time dealing with Celiac disease

41:25 – The best boss Tim ever had, the best team he’s been a part of, and what makes them special and different

46:21 – Kurt thanks Tim for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can connect with him and how they can be of service to Tim

Episode Sponsor:

Hunt Club

Tweetable Quotes:

“You never know- in 10 or 20 years that dream of yours could be something big- that you really worked hard for. So, dream big and work hard, otherwise, you'll never know!”

“I think what I could say is like, surfing was such a blessing. It is just jumping into the water, jumping into the water just like being baptized. So even if like, life’s crazy or stressed out, just like jumping into the water, catching a couple of waves, even if it’s not good, you just feel better.”

“You never think you’re good or you’re always striving to get good or better but I think when I was around 14 when I was able to start doing the tricks that I watched in the surf movies.”

“I am thankful for the opportunity. Music was definitely just a hobby that turned into something a little bigger than I ever imagined. it was more like a super far out dream to play music and do shows.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Link to Deadwood Construction Site

Deadwood Construction Instagram

View Details

Key Takeaways:

• Surf Ranch discussion around the whole experience of the event
• Playing competitive volleyball at Stanford
• Taking an MBA to really find out what Brian is interested in
• What is Crosscut Ventures
• Sense of the emerging future for Los Angeles
• Just as entrepreneurs tweak their business and their business models, so do Venture Capital funds. The smartest / best VCs stay relevant to entrepreneurs by differentiating their capital.
• How we show up is more important than what we accomplish
• Flow and let go mindset

Quotes:

• All these things I face, I was just carrying the weight of this world. And it was so much about the next achievement instead of being able to stop and say, "You know what, I've achieved enough, like to what end you have to keep grinding?" And I was grinding. In a moment of clarity, I said, "Okay, how do I instead wake up and live in joy every single day?" "How can I wake up content with what I've done?" I'm not saying I'm stopping. I'm still competitive, but content in what I've done and realizing that how I show up is more important than what I accomplish." - Brian Garrett
• "Don't take any day for granted. It can end in a blink of an eye."- Brian Garrett, co-founder of Crosscut Ventures
• "How I show up is more important than what I accomplish." - Brian Garrett, co-founder of Crosscut Ventures
• "I'll take true domain and in the trenches experience, even if it's failed experience over pedigree any day." - Brian Garrett, co-founder of Crosscut Ventures

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/kurtyd

Kurt’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/kurtyd/

Kurt’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurtdaradics

Kurt’s newsletter – https://www.kurtyd.com/

Rate the podcast – https://ratethispodcast.com/kurtyd

Brian's LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/briangarrett1/

Brian's Twitter – https://twitter.com/brianmgarrett

The Inertia's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theinertia/

Crosscut's Website – https://crosscut.vc/

View Details

Joining us on the show is the founder and CEO of The Inertia, Zach Weisberg. The Inertia is a new media platform that has emerged as the definitive digital voice of surfing and the outdoors.

In this episode, Zach and I relived our experience in Kelly Slater's surf ranch in central California for an event called Making Waves- a premium event at Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch in Central California. It was an intimate retreat of investors, entrepreneurs, and service providers from the LA Tech Startup Community sponsored by Hunt Club, Crosscut Ventures, Fenwick & West, Artium, & Pacific Western Bank.

We dove into how the Surf Ranch "created the conditions for the magic" and how the power of imagination combined with follow-through is the key for bringing new businesses into market, with the Surf Ranch being one of many examples.

We also press rewind and survey Zach's early career, where he worked as a freelance journalist for The New York Times, Esquire, his time as online editor at Surfer Magazine - the seminal print publication- from 2007 through 2010, plus a fascinating story on why he left Surfer Magazine to found The Inertia in September 2010.

Zach also completed the MBA Program at USC Marshall School of Business, and Zach shares an unexpected insight about an important lesson he learned at USC that was deeply insightful, and useful- that relationships are the key.

This show has a lot to offer for anyone interested in surfing, story telling, online communities, the Los Angeles Tech Community, and more

Key Takeaways:

• Surf Ranch discussion around the whole experience from going to the venue to actually ride the waves
• Jack Dangermond - above the line (context vs. content) concept
• Education background in USC
• Earlier experience in Journalism at NY Times
• Impact of surfing on Zach's career
• What is "The Inertia" and the idea behind the voice
• Transformation from idea to reality

Episode Quotes:

• "I'd like to create that sort of magic and opportunities like that for other people too, the fact that the surf ranch exists and it was built. Anyone who goes through there is leaving. Happier, they're leaving feeling better. They're leaving, feeling fulfilled. They're leaving thinking what the possibilities might be. How could they translate that into their own life? What plays to make that kind of impact. And it's so just kind of got me sitting, like how can I help create magic like that in this world? That's my biggest takeaway was. And strive for that. Try to, because that was not a possibility, not very long ago, but now it is." - Zach Weisberg
• "I feel that those are often the most exciting time when you're making a pretty big change. That also in my view is kind of a fun zone to live in, and maybe not constantly, but that's when you would learn a lot, you question a lot what's going on and you make some big decisions and you see how they shake out."
• "An insight that one of my mentors, duke stump, quotes frequently is that we can't create the magic but we can create the conditions for the magic. And that's definitely what the surf ranch has achieved, are the conditions for the magic." - Kurt Daradics
• "Jack Dangermond, my former boss, over at Esri had that idea of living above the line and above the line is having context and below the line is having content. And he would talk about that frequently and say that part of the reason for his success is he would always try to sort of step back and look at the big picture and not get so caught up in the automatic stimulus-response function, but try to have some space" - Kurt Daradics

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Kurt’s newsletter

Rate the podcast

Zach's LinkedIn

Zach's Instagram

Zach's Twitter

The Inertia's Instagram

The Inertia's Website

View Details

Our guest, Yu-kai Chou, is an Author and International Keynote Speaker on Gamification and Behavioral Design. He is the Original Creator of the Octalysis Framework, and the author of Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards. He is currently Founder Partner/Chief Creation Officer of The Octalysis Group, the leading consulting firm on gamification and behavior design.

Yu-kai explains Octalysis framework, which is now the leading gamification framework in the tech sector. We get to hear what the framework is, how he developed it and how it has helped improve over 1 billion user experiences across the world creating behavioral change among their customers and employees.

Yu-kai was one of the earliest pioneers in Gamification, starting his work in the industry in 2003. In 2015, Yu-kai was rated #1 among the “Gamification Gurus Power 100” by RISE, and was also awarded the “Gamification Guru of the Year” Award in

2014, 2015 and 2017 by the World Gamification Congress and the Gamification Europe Conference. He has helped a variety of companies, from seed stage startups to Fortune 500 companies such as LEGO, Uber, Volkswagen/Porsche, eBay, Fidelity Investments, AIG Japan, Verizon, and more. His work has been featured in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, The World Journal, PBS, NBC, and many more.

This episode has much to offer to those in sales, marketing, product, and community & ecosystem development.

What we covered:

4:26 - Conversation about Taiwan and how World War III might start because of the feud with China

8:15 - Life compared to an idea of a game

10:10 - Inspiration on gamification

12:59 - Mentality shift from having to move from different places

15:05 - Introduction of the Octalysis framework - our 8 core drives

16:06 - Parts of the Octalysis framework - white hat, black hat, left side, right side

19:42 - Light bulb moment for the Octalysis framework

23:50 - Value created by the Octalysis framework

28:11 - Yu-kai's early experience and projects (Future Delivery and Reward Me)

33:51 - More about Octalysis - company's growth

36:34 - Yu-kai's sense of the emerging future and NFTs

43:58 - Overcoming failure and having integrity

Episode Sponsor:

Hunt Club

Tweetable Quotes:

• "Having a game-like mentality is like everything you face in life is an opportunity to learn, grow, score high. I think even just that one thing will change a lot of people's lives."
• "If you say yes to every opportunity, you have no strategy."
• "I think it's important for people to be able to respect and like themselves. I think that's worth a lot of luxury in life."
• "Even if everything was successful. If I did things against my moral principles. Like, I'd be super rich and successful. I'd be in a big house, a nice TV, a nice house and all that nice stuff will be surrounding a piece of shit. And that piece of shit is me. And I think that's not worth it. Like I need to respect myself. I need to like myself for me to enjoy my life."
• "When you move from country to country, you realize: Hey, what's like socially polite and expected in one country (and) is offensive another. And you realize, (oh) these are all variables. These are all up to change human systems. And that's when you can think the most stuff fluidly. So my work has inspired a lot of people to try to change their life into games and change their minds."
• "I think there are so many facets that life can improve if you see it as a game. Like just one simple thing is just attitude and mentality, right? Some people think, "why do you have so many obstacles in my life?" "so much bad luck," and they kind of give up. But if you look at a game, a game is really boring if there are no obstacles or resistance or bad guys that are going against you."
• "In a game, every obstacle is actually an opportunity to score more points and people tackle them with a strong attitude. And I think in life, a lot of the same people when they face any obstacles, any setbacks, they're just like, oh my life sucks. I'm not going to try anymore. Like even with the game of golf, right? If golf was just about getting to the goal, then it's kind of boring. Just pick up the ball, walk up to the hole, and put it in. But no one would want to play that. So we need to add a lot of difficulty and obstacles or we need to stand up far away, headed with a weird stick. There needs to be little sand puddles and ponds to make it more frustrating. And now it's a fun game."

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Kurt’s newsletter

Rate the podcast

Yu-kai's LinkedIn

Yu-kai's Twitter

Yu-kai's Website

Octalysis group website

View Details

Welcome to The Kurty D Show, a podcast presenting unique perspectives shaping the world. Today, Kurt welcomes to the show CEO of Arca and his brother-in-law, Rayne Steinberg. Prior to founding Arca, Rayne co-founded the NASDAQ listed asset management company, WisdomTree. There, he was responsible for raising capital, creating intellectual property, and building and overseeing the sales team responsible for raising $15 billion in assets under management.

In this episode, Rayne speaks to his background and the origin story of Arca, one of the leading hedge funds in the explosive category of digital assets and blockchain. Rayne shares about his role as CEO at Arca, what they offer their clients, and why digital assets (Bitcoin, Crypto, NFTs) have gained such traction over the past few years. Kurt and Rayne dive deep into a discussion on the digital asset industry, touching on passive tokenization and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). Finally, Rayne takes on some rapid-fire questions and lets listeners know where they can learn more about Arca.

What we covered:

01:29 – Kurt welcomes to the show, Rayne Steinberg, who shares his background in business, his origin story, and the lessons he’s learned throughout his career

10:48 – Rayne tells the story of WisdomTree

18:02 – Passive indexation explained

22:27 – Rayne provides his perspective on the Great Recession of 2008

25:35 – Rayne recalls the first time he ever heard about Bitcoin and digital currency

28:03 – The mission and vision of Arca

33:31 – Rayne provides his thoughts on regulation in the digital asset industry

41:07 – Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs)

47:02 – The value that Arca brings to its customers

52:21 – Passive tokenization

58:39 – Rayne opens up about the hardest challenges he’s had to overcome throughout his life

1:02:32 – The best boss Rayne ever had- his brother Jonathan Steinberg- plus an unknown fact about Rayne and the one band he would go see play live if he could

1:05:30 – Kurt thanks Rayne for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can connect and collaborate with Rayne

Episode Sponsor:

Hunt Club

Tweetable Quotes:

“What we’re seeing with digital assets is that a lot of the things that we thought were fundamental truths were really simply technological limitations to the way things were done.”

“You participate in a brand’s growth, you reap the rewards that everyone becomes a min investor or allocator of their time. This idea of reengaging people or leveling the playing field or aligning effort with reward, we’ve never seen something that could do it as much as [digital currency].”

“We think that there’s a world where investment vehicles – that space between investment and payment – is gonna go down to basically nothing. You’re gonna be able to pay for your coffee without ever leaving your allocation to the S&P 500.”

“It [Bitcoin] was an incredibly elegant solution to the concept of money and how one creates money and how one disperses it and how one secures it in a digital world and how one solves things like ‘double spend problem,’ and all done in a decentralized manner.”

“So we actually have a duplicative effort where we’re demonstrating to both users and regulators that you can actually have the same functionality of a transfer agent on blockchain and watch that work.”

“I think that’s really the power of this [cryptocurrency], more than the returns now, is the philosophical experiment that this is.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Rayne’s LinkedIn

Rayne’s Twitter

Arca Website

View Details

Welcome to The Kurty D Show, a podcast presenting unique perspectives shaping the world. Each week will showcase conversations and stories of personal fulfillment and overcoming what life throws your way. Today, Kurt welcomes to the show Tyler Crowley. Tyler is one of the smartest, most connected, and under-the-radar operators in the tech sector. Tyler is also the host of "Tech News around the World", a community on Clubhouse where tech experts from across the US, EU, ASIA, & MENA regions share local perspectives and invite industry insiders to discover the truth behind the headlines.

In this episode, Kurt and Tyler talk about some of the most intriguing trends in technology and how they impact society. Tyler speaks bluntly about the threats that genetic engineering poses to our way of life, the impact of major companies choosing to autotomize their factories, and the need for us to break away from domestication in the near future. Kurt and Tyler dive deep and discuss Tyler’s work building tech communities in Los Angeles, Stockholm, & Clubhouse and some of the challenges Tyler has faced throughout his life. Finally, Tyler tells some awesome stories about his time touring as a musician.

What we covered:

01:43 – Kurt welcomes to the show, Tyler Crowley, who speaks to his background as a musician and the decision to pursue a career in tech

10:19 – Tyler expounds on his academic background and some of the projects he worked on while studying

15:22 – Tyler speaks to the genius of his colleague Jason Calacanis and how they initially started collaborating together

27:02 – How the Swedish government hired Tyler to build a tech community

43:14 – Buying a resort in Thailand and the threat of genetic engineering

51:41 – Best practices for preparing for some of society’s challenges on the horizon

1:03:08 – The issue with Amazon autotomizing their factories

1:08:57 – Tyler speaks to the community he built on Clubhouse, Tech News around the World

1:17:09 – Tyler opens up about the hardest challenges he’s had to overcome throughout his life

1:21:54 – The best boss Tyler ever had, an unknown fact about Tyler and the one band he would go see play live if he could

1:27:41 – Kurt thanks Tyler for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can connect with him and how they can be of service to Tyler

Episode Sponsor:

Hunt Club

Tweetable Quotes:

“I thought I want to engage the politicians and use the engineering community that I’ve brought together at my events to try and focus on making solutions for problems like water and food and energy and the global problems. In trying to bring together these ministers and NGOs and foundations and UN-types, I learned that in doing these events, I familiarized myself with just how bureaucratic and ensnared in red tape all of those folks are.”

“Do you think people in Beijing knew what was going on in America under Trump and the essence of the nuance of the American political system? They do not. Do you think Americans know what’s going on in Venezuela and the essence of what’s happening in the Middle East? You cannot. You need to be deeply engaged in the culture to know what’s really going on.”

“You look at how society is already stressing under the weight of social media. Social media is kindergarten compared to the genetic revolution that we’re about to go through. If you think society is unraveling because of social media, wait until you see what happens when we have genetic engineering and militarized swarms of hundred-dollar drones.”

“It’s very difficult to achieve meaningful success, by society’s standards, independently with zero employees, with zero partners, with zero clients.”

“I wasn’t trying to climb a corporate ladder because I wasn’t on the ladder before that and I wasn’t ever gonna be on the ladder after that. And I knew that because I’m not a corporate-type person.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Tyler’s LinkedIn

Tyler’s Twitter

Tech News around the World Twitter

Link to Tech News around the World

This Week in Startups Podcast

Link to Pinduoduo App

Link to OEC World

Link to Stack Commerce

Link to Can’s Tago Mago Album

View Details

Welcome to The Kurty D Show, a podcast presenting unique perspectives shaping the world. Each week will showcase conversations and stories of personal fulfillment and overcoming what life throws your way. In this episode, Kurt welcomes to the show Andrew Warner. Andrew is an Internet startup entrepreneur and author who founded Mixergy.com, an organization that invites proven Entrepreneurs to teach how they built their startups.

In this episode, Kurt and Andrew talk about some of the entrepreneurs Andrew interviewed on Mixergy.com. Andrew goes on to talk about how vulnerability and humility have been critical components to his journey to success. Andrew also discusses his new book about mastering the interview called "Stop Asking Questions", and shares some of the insights he gleaned from writing it. Finally, Andrew regales the audience with the story of his Seven Continent Marathon Journey.

What we covered:

01:54 – Kurt welcomes to the show, Andrew Warner, who speaks to the work he’s been doing at Mixergy to help entrepreneurs and early-stage founders scale

12:53 – Andrew talks about some of the exciting entrepreneurs he works with and their creative concepts

20:47 – Kurt opens up about his struggles with hearing and speech throughout his life

25:17 – Andrew discusses why he sometimes likes to be contrarian

28:37 – Vulnerability and humility

34:24 – Stop Asking Questions

37:57 – The Shoved Fact

40:18 – Other insights Andrew had from writing his book

45:37 – Andrew defines what success looks like for his book

47:30 – The decision to move to Austin, what’s the same and what’s different

53:02 – The best boss Andrew ever had and the one band he would go see play live if he could

55:26 – Andrew’s seven continents escapade

59:50 – Kurt thanks Andrew for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can connect with him and how they can be of service to Andrew

Episode Sponsor:

Hunt Club

Tweetable Quotes:

“What I realized was the interviews that I learned the most from are the ones where someone interviews me and forces me to battle through some of what I believe and what I’ve done and question and think about and remember. That’s just incredibly useful.”

“To examine what you’ve done, to find the things that work, label them and remember the examples is just incredibly helpful. It’s a manual for doing the thing that you’re spending your time on, doing it better and passing it along to other people.”

“My big thing is I wonder how many people are out there who are dying to do interviews who just need a little bit of a push. All they need is to get on one of these platforms, find somebody and just set up the conversation with a real purpose, and guide the person towards answering the questions you’ve been wondering about. My hope for my book "Stop Asking Questions" is to foster more learning through conversations.”

“I don’t understand why connecting with people and leading people is not higher level than programming.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Andrew’s LinkedIn

Andrew’s Website

Andrew’s Email

Stop Asking Questions Book

Link to Damn Gravity

Principles In Action App

Principles: Life & Work by Ray Dalio

View Details

Welcome to The Kurty D Show, a podcast presenting unique perspectives shaping the world. Each week will showcase conversations and stories of personal fulfillment and overcoming what life throws your way. In this episode, Kurt welcomes to the show Steve Ressler. Steve is a serial entrepreneur with three exits under his belt, including his most recent company sale to Motorola.

In this episode, Kurt and Steve unpack Steve’s journey from academia into the public sector and now into the exciting world of Search Funds, which is a burgeoning new category of investment into the small and medium business market. Steve gets specific and talks about his entrepreneurial origin story as well as the obstacles and challenges he’s had to overcome. Steve loves to be of service to others and provides some best practices on how to win in business and in the job market. Finally, Steve answers some rapid-fire questions and share's how the audience can collaborate.

What we covered:

01:45 – Kurt welcomes to the show, Steve Ressler, who shares his background in government and as an entrepreneur and the work he’s doing with Search Funds

08:50 – Steve’s entrepreneurial origin story

12:30 – GovLoop

16:18 – Search Funds explained

22:04 – What’s driving the demand for Search Funds

29:33 – Spending time on Twitter

32:23 – Steve speaks to the challenges and obstacles he’s overcome throughout his career

39:34 – Learning how to win

42:20 – The best boss Steve ever had, an unknown fact about Steve and the one band Steve would go see play live if he could

45:53 – Kurt thanks Steve for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can connect with him and how they can be of service to Steve

Episode Sponsor:

Hunt Club

Tweetable Quotes:

“A lot of people go into working as a political appointee or working on Capitol Hill, but not many go into bread and butter government. So a friend and I started a Happy Hour for young government employees that grew from two, to twenty, to fifty, to one hundred plus. Eventually, a reporter called and asked us the name of our group. We didn’t have a group, we had a Happy Hour. But it got us thinking that maybe this should be more., and that's how Young Government Leaders, and eventually GovLoop got started”

“Steve Jobs was just a guy going to work every day. And Mark Zuckerberg was just a guy with an idea. When you think of these stories, they’re just people executing on concepts.”

“I think there’s a lot of folks that are just interested in entrepreneurship. It’s one of the most popular topics at undergrad and business school. A lot of people want to be entrepreneurs but don’t have the idea, and why Search Funds have become so popular.”

“It’s a sales game, getting a job. So you need to think, ‘What is the story I’m telling?’ And you need to be able to say that succinctly when you get that thirty-second or minute pitch, not just why you but how you can help that organization.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Steve’s LinkedIn

Steve’s Twitter

Steve’s Newsletter

GovLoop Website

Callyo Website

Alex Bridgeman’s Website & Podcast

Sam Rosati’s LinkedIn

The Sweaty Startup Website

Link to Real Vision Website

View Details

Welcome to The Kurty D Show, a podcast presenting unique perspectives shaping the world. In this episode, Kurt welcomes to the show Jonathan Shieber. Jonathan Shieber is the chief editor and a venture partner at Footprint Coalition. He previously worked as the Climate Editor, Contributors Editor, Senior Editor at TechCrunch, as well as a journalist for Dow Jones.

In episode 08 of The Kurty D Show, Kurt and Jonathan discuss the critical work he’s doing at FootPrint Coalition. Jonathan gets specific and talks about the climate crisis and why there’s still hope to reverse course. They speak about the importance of not losing the nuance or complexity of other countries and cultures. Finally, Jonathan shares a difficult challenge he had to overcome and turns the tables on Kurt by asking him a few questions at the end of the show.

What we covered:

02:07 – Kurt welcomes to the show, Jonathan Shieber, who speaks to the critical work he’s doing at Footprint Coalition

09:15 – Why there’s hope for us to reverse course on the Climate Crisis

15:07 – What it was like growing up in Louisiana and enduring endless hurricanes and natural disasters

19:31 – Jonathan opens up about a major challenge he’s had to overcome

23:53 – The decision to live abroad and what Jonathan learned about China

28:09 – An unknown fact about Jonathan and the one band Jonathan would go see play live if he could

31:14 – Kurt thanks Jonathan for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can connect with him and how they can be of service to Jonathan

33:18 – Jonathan turns the tables on Kurt and asks him some interview questions

Episode Sponsor:

Hunt Club

Tweetable Quotes:

“Even before I joined, I’d been covering climate innovations for a while. And despite the seriousness of the threat and the catastrophes that we’re all seeing unfold around us that are directly related to the changes that humanity has wrought on the climate, there is hope. There’s an opportunity to reverse course. We do have a window wherein we can mobilize the levers of industry that we have to create a more sustainable society and reimagine what the world looks like.”

“Nothing good happens when you lose the sense of nuance or the complexity of a place. And a place (like China) with over a billion people is a very complicated place. The same is true about the United States.”

“I try to supplement the work that all of the great storytellers that were already on staff at Footprint Coalition or working with the team from the production studio that they run on Team Downey (Robert Downey Jr's Production Company) trying to help support them in any way that I can.”

“There’s a lot of benefits to localized generation resources that can really help sustain communities and individuals in the event of a catastrophe.”

“The entire Gulf Coast is one of the places that’s Ground Zero for climate change to impact those communities. And, unfortunately, most of the Gulf Coast is not wealthy enough to develop the kinds of systems that are necessary to protect the residents from that.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Jonathan’s LinkedIn

Jonathan’s Email

Jonathan’s Twitter

Footprint Coalition Website

Invest in Footprint Coalition

View Details

Welcome to The Kurty D Show, a podcast presenting unique perspectives shaping the world. Each week will showcase conversations and stories of personal fulfillment and overcoming what life throws your way. In this episode, Kurt welcomes to the show healthcare venture capitalist, entrepreneur and bestselling author, Marcus Whitney. Marcus is a partner of Jumpstart Health Investors, the most active venture capital firm in America that’s focused on innovative healthcare companies with a portfolio of over 130 companies. He also recently launched Jumpstart Nova, the first Black healthcare venture fund in America. Marcus is the bestselling author of the book, Create and Orchestrate, about claiming your creative power through entrepreneurship.

In this episode, Kurt and Marcus engage in an illuminating discussion about the history of the American healthcare system and why it's broken. Marcus shares his origin story, from dropping out of college, to becoming a full-time coder, to eventually pursuing a career as a venture capitalist. Marcus gets specific and opens up about three incredibly difficult challenges he’s had to overcome throughout his career and how the experience has made him stronger, wiser, and more grateful.

What we covered:

01:40 – Kurt welcomes to the show, Marcus Whitney, who speaks to his background as a venture capitalist at Jumpstart Health Investors, and what inspired him to start Jumpstart Nova

10:57 – From Brooklyn and dropping out of school to Atlanta and getting into coding

16:43 – Marcus’ framework for screening founders

23:21 – Measure twice, cut once: Our broken healthcare system

27:56 – Comparing healthcare and higher education business models

29:19 – Marcus reveals which city is the hub for healthcare corporations in the United States

37:57 – Marcus gets vulnerable and opens up about three major challenges he’s had to overcome throughout his life

44:04 – How Marcus stays grounded and balanced

45:05 – The one band Marcus would go see play live if he could

46:13 – Kurt thanks Marcus for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can connect with him and how they can be of service to Marcus

Episode Sponsor:

Hunt Club

Tweetable Quotes:

“The healthcare system that we have today is really a result of Lyndon Johnson – which we all know was a transitional presidency – enhancing the Social Security Act with Medicare and adding onto the New Deal and setting up a business model that was cost-plus, meaning whatever the service cost, the government’s going to pay that cost plus twenty percent. That’s still the system we have today.”

“I’m not trying to have twenty companies where all the founders are carbon copies of each other. I’m looking for authenticity and people who certainly will have the grit, tenacity, and resilience, but also will listen. I want people who are uniquely qualified to solve the problem they’re going after.”

“There’s a reason why healthcare and higher education are the two fastest rising costs from a service perspective in the country. Those are the two things where the inflation has been out of control.”

“I set the expectation with [founders] regularly that I’m going to bring it to you and I’m gonna lean into conflict with you regularly because that’s where the progress is.”

“I started a new fund around this time last year called Jumpstart Nova. And it is a Series A Fund investing in innovative healthcare companies led by Black founders.”

“I can tell you, having been through those heavy things, I’ve never been better in my entire life than right now. I’ve never been better in those three areas. I’ve never been better in business, I’ve never been better in relationships and being sober is awesome.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Marcus’s Twitter

Marcus’ Instagram

Marcus’ Website

Marcus’ LinkedIn

Link to Marcus’ Book: Create and Orchestrate

Jumpstart Health Website

View Details

In this episode 06 of The Kurty D Show, Kurt is excited to share his conversation with his good friend, Melissa Rowley. Melissa works at the forefront of solutions-focused journalism and social change. As a contributor to BBC News, Forbes, and Rolling Stone, she writes about the intersection of culture, business, and social innovation. In the past few years, Melissa has spanned the globe, covering the international start-up scene, and is currently living in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Kurt and Melissa get into an honest discussion on her adventures covering the global startup scene, what it was like growing up in the United States as an adopted Korean, and how the stories we tell ourselves make or break us.

What we covered:

02:04 – Kurt welcomes to the show, Melissa Rowley, who shares her experience covering the international emerging tech markets and her relationship with singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel

12:43 – Globetrotting to spread social change

17:05 – Melissa’s insights on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

19:09 – Culture shock and the move to Puerto Rico

25:28 – The psychology of storytelling

35:37 – Melissa get vulnerable and opens up about her adoption, facing racism, and learning the truth about her birth story

49:05 – Rewriting your own narrative

54:53 – The one band Melissa would go see play live if she could

56:43 – Kurt thanks Melissa for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can connect with her and how they can be of service to Melissa

Episode Sponsor:

Hunt Club

Tweetable Quotes:

“We used the lean startup method and we created a whole conference around how entrepreneurs could strategize on how to incorporate more social impact and sustainability not just into their product, but into the operations. A company doesn’t need to be what’s considered a social enterprise to have a positive impact where they are.”

“There’s nothing wrong with rewriting your own narrative in a way that’s beautiful and appealing. And we have opportunities to do that all the time. It’s a moment-to-moment practice.”

“That’s where we get into tone. To be a thought leader in your industry, it’s important to develop your own voice and your own tone.”

“The culture [in Puerto Rico] is very friendly and open. It’s loud. I’ll hear a Reggae tone blasting from someone’s car at 3am. Driving or walking down the street, especially in the early evening, you’ll see Salsa dancing. It’s a very festive culture, definitely very warm, and friendly, and generous.”

“I don’t know that I’ve ever viewed being adopted as a problem. But it’s definitely been a part of my journey of self-love and realizing that I need to cultivate more self-love for myself.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Melissa’s Website

Melissa’s Twitter

Melissa’s Instagram

Melissa’s Facebook

Melissa’s LinkedIn

Books Mentioned:

The Trophy Effect

The Power of Now

View Details

Welcome to The Kurty D Show, a podcast presenting unique perspectives shaping the world. Each week will showcase conversations and stories of personal fulfillment and overcoming what life throws your way. In this episode, Kurt welcomes author, consultant, spiritual teacher and master life coach, Michael Nitti. Michael launched Tony Robbins’ coaching business and was on Tony’s executive leadership team as VP of Operations until going full-time with his own coaching practice in the mid-2000s.

Since 2017, Michael has been coaching Kurt, his wife, and he’s become a part of their family. Michael has a new book, Mastery: The Art of Living On Purpose, which he co-wrote with his daughter. In this episode, Kurt and Michael dig into how the Trophy Effect blocks us from getting what we’re capable of, the magic of synchronicity, and how Wendy Rhoades, the therapist from Showtime’s Billions was inspired by the coaching work Michael did with Billions’ producer Brian Koppelman.

What we covered:

01:42 – Kurt welcomes to the show, Michael Nitti, who speaks to what inspired him to pursue a career in coaching

10:53 – How Michael met Tony Robbins and ultimately ended up on his executive leadership team

16:28 – Michael’s formal coaching process and a cool story about the hit TV show, Billions

20:01 – The Trophy Effect explained

31:46 – Why the universe is always conspiring to provide you with what you need

34:08 – Synchronicity and Synchrodestiny

38:54 – Michael opens up about an incredibly difficult challenge he had to overcome

46:58 – An awakening of consciousness

48:38 – One unknown fact about Michael and the one band Michael would go see play live if he could

52:06 – Kurt thanks Michael for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can connect with him and how they can be of service to Michael

Episode Sponsor:

Hunt Club

Tweetable Quotes:

“I do know that it’s within each of us to contribute and make a difference.”

“Every once in a while, you take on something really big where there’s a risk it’s [The Trophy Effect] gonna whisper back in your ear. But you build such a muscle of living on purpose that you almost just intuitively ignore it. It’s a very powerful way to show up.”

“Hopefully there will be an awakening at a level of where people get that we are one and that we can work together and that there’s going to be an awakening with respect to human kind and consciousness.”

“The universe knew that I was built for something bigger.”

“The Trophy Effect is basically this. The way we are as human beings is we’re basically animals with a survival instinct. And the whole purpose of the mind is survival. Which means the mind is always looking for threats. So if somebody’s saying something and you don’t like it, or you feel like you’re being put down, or they’re smarter than you, that’s a threat.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Michael’s Website

Michael’s Facebook

Michael’s Instagram

Michael’s LinkedIn

Link to Michael’s Book: The Trophy Effect

Link to Michael’s Upcoming Book

People Mentioned:

Tony Robbins

View Details

In episode 04 of The Kurty D Show, Kurt welcomes media expert Clint Schaff, who shares how he’s evolved LA Times’ new media strategy into podcasts and how he initially got into media. Clint speaks to exciting new trends in media and inspirational voices that he follows. Finally, Clint opens up about some of the challenges he’s had to overcome and provides a fun unknown fact about himself.

What we covered:

01:42 – Kurt welcomes to the show, Clint Schaff, who speaks to his background, his career journey, and the work he does at LA Times Studios

11:27 – Why Clint chose to pursue a career in media

14:55 – Exciting trends in media

18:08 – What is a Media Diet?

21:35 – Inspiring voices in media today

26:31 – Clint opens up about challenges he’s had to overcome throughout his life

32:08 – Superheroes and their vulnerabilities

33:41 – The Japanese concept of Ikigai

38:55 – The differences between objectives and outcomes

41:29 – One unknown fact about Clint and the one band Clint would go see play live if he could

44:42 – Kurt thanks Clint for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can connect with him and how they can be of service to Clint

Episode Sponsor:

Hunt Club

Tweetable Quotes:

“I knew I always wanted to work in media. So being here at The LA Times Studio is a fulfillment of a lifelong dream.”

“That’s like getting to my Ikigai. The more that I focus on that service piece, it kinda gets me out of my head around some of the stuff that was holding me back. If I can focus on the service and my life mission, it actually helps me get past some of the self-limiting behaviors and thoughts that have sometimes held me back.”

“I love the idea of trying to have an inclusive media that as many people as possible can see themselves in it.”

“I’m so excited to have the opportunity to support public service journalism with the skills I’ve developed outside of journalism.”

“Life is short. And I want to go make an impact, and I want to do it in the ways that I believe need to be done.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Clint’s LinkedIn

Clint’s Twitter

Links Mentioned:

Stic

Brittany Ballard

Special

View Details

In episode 03 of The Kurty D Show, Kurt welcomes attorney and Matt Bilinsky to the show to discuss his wide-ranging legal and business background, plus what inspired him to launch his own news source, The Bilinsky News Network. Kurt and Matt discuss the lost art of critical thinking and the sorry state of our news sources. Matt speaks passionately about many issues he’s involved in and looking to change, including recalling LA District Attorney George Gascon. Finally, Matt shares some of the challenges he’s had to overcome to get to where he is today. Whether or not you agree with Matt's controversial point of view, critical thinking is promoted as foundational for a productive society that works for as many people as possible.

What we covered:

01:49 – Kurt welcomes to the show, Matt Bilinsky, who shares his background as an attorney in the business, tech and media industries and some of the exciting projects he’s working on

07:11 – How Matt launched his own news source, The Bilinsky News Network

11:03 – The lost art of critical thinking

24:52 – Vicious side effects of a broken education system

30:02 – What it means to live above the line

32:00 – The troubling lack of true news reporting

35:18 – How the Great Recession of 2008 impacted Matt’s professional trajectory

46:08 – One unknown fact about Matt and the one band Matt would go see play live if he could

48:05 – Kurt thanks Matt for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can connect with him

Episode Sponsor:

Hunt Club

Tweetable Quotes:

“Critical thinking is a lost art. People want to see, and are thirsting for, someone actually going through a forensic process to determine the truth, because news doesn’t do that anymore.”

“The traditional media sources, whether it’s the newspapers, magazine or TV stations, that we used to count on to do really good reporting and synthesize the facts in the world around us, they’ve corroded. They’ve decayed. They don’t have quality or ethics.”

“Humans are tribal, right? And there are always hierarchies in tribes. And we’re predisposed to feel good about things that show us with elevated on the totem pole and feel bad about stuff that shows us lower. Now, you’re getting hit constantly with where you are status-wise. If you’re not well-adjusted, prepared, and conscious, it definitely can do a lot of damage to people, and I think it is.”

“We’re not a forgiving civilization, modern America. It’s a harsh, tough, unforgiving society.”

“Even over this last year during the pandemic there have been winners and losers in the economy. In 2008, there were just losers.”

“You ask anyone who is being honest, homelessness in California, petty crime, everything is skyrocketing since Prop 47 was instituted that decriminalized a lot of lower level crimes, including making a misdemeanor robbing anything less than $950, and letting a lot of people out of jail.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Matt’s Instagram

Matt’s Twitter

Link to LA District Attorney George Gascon Recall Petition. You must be registered to vote in LA County to sign

Books Mentioned:

Link to The Pyramid Principle

Podcasts Mentioned:

All In Podcast

Fifth Column

View Details

Welcome to The Kurty D Show, a podcast presenting unique perspectives shaping the world. Each week showcases conversations and stories of personal fulfillment and overcoming what life throws your way. In this episode, Kurt welcomes Shira Lazar, Founder & CEO of the Emmy Nominated digital media brand, What's Trending. In this episode, Kurt and Shira talk about what’s trending in the digital creator space, Shira’s thoughts on building an online brand, and what wellness means to her.

What we covered:

00:53– Kurt welcomes to the show, Shira Lazar, who shares her background as a content creator

08:42 – Projects Shira is working on currently and how she maintains such a positive attitude

14:31 – Being authentic and true to oneself

20:37 – What Shira has learned about herself throughout life’s journey

26:22 – The Platinum Rule

29:21 – Advice Shira would give to aspiring content creators

33:48 – Current trends in the creator space

50:30 – The one band Shira would go see play live if she could

52:40 – Kurt thanks Shira for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can connect with Shira

Episode Sponsor:

Hunt Club

Tweetable Quotes:

“Little did I know at the time that my passion and curiosity would be the thing that would continue into something bigger.”

“I love the ‘Platinum Rule,’ which is ‘Treat others how they want to be treated.’”

“Whenever you have that foundational understanding of yourself and why you’re doing something, it supports you as you continue.”

“You can play more when you have a plan.”

“People that can mastermind businesses around a creator and creativity I think there’s more of that that is needed.”

“In the end, what’s really special about who you are is you.”

“To be clear, I’m not necessarily always smiles and rainbows. I do cry. I have many fears and self-doubts. I always encourage and try to be someone that’s not gonna be necessarily always happy, but I feel like I’m fortunate that I’m naturally a happy person. I try to be a positive break and reminder in someone’s day.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Shira’s Instagram

Shira’s Facebook

Shira’s YouTube Channel

Shira’s Twitter

Shira’s TikTok

Shira’s Website

View Details

01:42 – Kurt welcomes the audience to the first episode of the Kurty D Show and introduces today’s guest, his father, Peter Daradics

03:38 – Peter opens up about the challenges he’s faced amidst the Covid-19 pandemic

05:13 – Peter shares his road to recovery from drug and alcohol addiction

09:50 – Peter recalls the moment he first realized he had a problem and his first experience with rehab

15:52 – How Peter found the leverage to become and stay sober

24:44 – Peter talks about the tough love that was necessary to maintain his sobriety

27:55 – Mowing lawns with a Rolex on

31:34 – Peter recalls moments of humility throughout his recovery

35:32 – What Peter is most grateful for now

38:18 – The power of mindset methodology

40:48 – Peter talks about rebuilding a life with a wife and daughter and correcting mistakes from the past

43:33 – The best piece of business advice Peter has ever received and what Peter still hopes to accomplish in life

46:38 – Which band, past or present, would Peter want to play a gig

47:58 – Kurt thanks Peter for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can connect with him

Episode Sponsor:

Hunt Club

Tweetable Quotes:

“One of the things that recovery has given me is a clarity and a vision back into the past.”

“As long as drugs and alcohol were involved, it was blocking me from really being present and fully to embrace the opportunity and the gift to what it meant to be a father and to be really participating in your life, Christopher’s life, and other people’s lives, my life as well. But that’s one thing that those letters really spotlighted that ‘Wow, this is my path and my journey. This happened.’”

“I turned my back on you and Chris. That really is hard for me to own up.”

“You can’t want somebody’s sobriety more than they want it for themselves.”

“There was a lot of rehabilitation intellectually, physically and spiritually throughout this process because I didn’t have the confidence that I had at one time being in that space. It was just one day, one foot at a time moving forward.”

“In my experience, the individuals that really blossom through the recovery process, they have really cultivated a spiritual life that is really rich. And they keep growing and expanding it so that their emotional capital, their spiritual capital, their intellectual capital all benefits.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Find Treatment

Peter’s Email

Book Mentioned:

The Fourth Turning

View Details