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

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 

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

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

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

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

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 

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

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

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