SKIP THE BOAT is more than just a brand. Since its inception, its mantra has remained constant: to inspire and empower people to chase their dreams. From unmatched underground shows to wearable stories through their garments,  SKIPTHEBOAT evolves constantly, and it's becoming a beacon of resistance against mediocrity.

Resembling a cult-like dedication, followers of the movement are more than mere customers; they are what carries it forward.

My conversation with the visionary Herman Jagpal was both fun and insightful. I eagerly anticipate seeing him take this dream worldwide and ultimately become a household name. 🔥

(2:13) - 🗣️ “Not great adventure ever starts with someone being rational” - Unknown

(3:22) - 🚤 Skip The Boat (Origin)

(7:21) - 🇳🇿 How the F do you even get people to your shows? NZ is tough.

(8:53) - 😠 I annoyed the fuck out of people.

(10:22) - 📈 The Tipping Point

(12:57) - 👥 The Youth is the Future - STK’s Demographic

(14:42) - 🎉 The Events need to be special

(16:35) - 🍦 The moment I realised I was creating something special

(21:44) - 🤝 Jagermeister Partnership

(23:50) - 🎬 We are making a short film

(25:39) - 🧘 Our Mantra

(27:44) - ⛵ What “Skip The Boat” means

(29:11) - ❤️ Do what you love. No matter what.

(31:09) - 👥 Brands forget about their communities. Air Walk Example.

(32:21) - 🎵 Music Scene in New Zealand

(35:15) - 🏎️ The Car Enthusiast Community

(37:45) - 👣 STB Team

(40:04) - 📖 Storytelling + More

(41:43) - ⚽️ Sports Management? Daaam!

(43:03) - 🚫 Getting Banned

(45:34) - 📱 Social Media, Mental Health

(48:58) - 🤝 Treat your community like people

(51:03) - 🧠 Mental Health & Donations to charities

(55:12) - 🦸‍♀️ Social Media is simply a fabricated version of reality

(56:32) - 💼 “I never treated the brand as a company”

(58:12) - 💸 If I had a billion dollars

(58:53) - 📖 The most important story told. To date.

(1:02:07) - 🏪 Opening a store in Auckland. Economics.

(1:05:43) - 🛍️ Design & Customer Experience

(1:10:59) - 💭 Brand this & brand that. What is the AVR STB fan feel?

(1:12:27) - 🏆 What is success?

(1:14:47) - 🎛️ THE SOUNDBOARD Q&A (New Segment)

(1:21:31) - ❤️ Herman RECOMMENDS…Books, Music, Films + More.

(1:24:55) - 💧🏋️✌🏾

🎟️ MERCH OFFICIAL STORE & SITE:

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▪️ NZK Creative Collective | https://neziak.co/

At only 20 years of age, Alejandro Tellez is a young, promising MMA and Muay Thai fighter from Colombia, training out of the prestigious MMA gym City Kickboxing. A humble but ferocious athlete hungry to conquer the big leagues of Mixed Martial Arts.

Now under the guidance of one of the best coaches in the world, Eugene Bareman, I can’t wait to see him rise through the ranks making his dream come true.

I enjoyed this conversation very much, and it was very special to have a fellow Colombian who proudly represents us in this amazing sport.

(2:51) - 🏁 Beginnings (Abuse, bullying, and finding martial arts)

(8:50) - 🥊 First fight at 13 yo

(11:50) - 🔄 Switching to City Kickboxing

(12:30) - 🇹🇭 Thailand

(14:30) - 👑 King In The Ring

(15:50) - 🌎 Training in Colombia vs New Zealand

(18:49) - 💪 King in the ring is for the real gs

(21:31) - 🏋️‍♂️ Conditioning

(22:57) - ⚖️ Weight Cut

(26:02) - 🧠 Mental Preparation & Studying your opponent

(28:39) - 🛡️ Biggest Weapon against Dominic Reed

(31:50) - 🧠 Fighting Smart (Setting up traps to show my power)

(33:11) - 🎯 Game Plan

(33:38) - 🎨 Creativity inside the ring. Reading and responding

(37:32) - 🥋 Do you look at other martial arts or just Muay Thai?

(38:49) - 🤔 Why moving to City Kickboxing?

(42:21) - 🥇 Making it in the MMA game

(45:41) - 🥋 Wrestling, BJJ

(48:58) - 🌟 A fighter I admire

(52:07) - 🤜 Sparring with killers

(54:56) - 🥋 The Impact of Martial Arts on Life

(58:18) - 🤼 Mom I wanna be a professional fighter!

(1:00:48) - 👨‍👩‍👧 Reconnecting with family you don’t know. Who am I?

(1:02:33) - 🇨🇴 Colombians, we are different

(1:10:41) - 🎨 What else do you like doing dude?

(1:11:35) - 🎤 I rap sometimes

(1:12:58) - 🛡️ El Guerrero is born

(1:13:41) - 🙏 A MESSAGE OF HOPE

(1:16:19) - 💧🏃✌🏾 DWE&P

ABOUT 🫠 THE MELDING MUSE PODCAST 🟢

A "mean as kōrero" with rapper & musician Swizl Jager. His bi-lingual lyrics, blending Te Reo Māori and English, coupled with a background in metal, allow him to produce an eclectic range of music. Born and raised in Tauranga Moana, of Ngaiterangi and Te Rarawa descent.

(8:04) - Swizl’s Musical Journey 🚀

(13:29) - Write a story about an alien encounter to do with you & Burger Fuel (Becoming a Rapper) 👽🍔

(15:36) - Music at home. Was that a thing? 🎶🏡

(16:33) - What type of lyrical content were you writing at that age? ✍️

(17:13) - Catharsis with music 🎧

(18:57) - When your creativity is blocked by your own ideology - Open your eyes 🧠👀

(20:06) - Tuning into Mexican Mariachi! Leshgooo! Spectrums of music 🎺🎵

(23:38) - Moving onto Reo Raps 🎤🌊

(26:08) - Latin music making it into the mainstream (A story of resilience) 🌎🎵

(29:44) - The Power of Maori Music & Performances 🥁🎤

(31:30) - The new wave of Maori Artists 🌊🎨

(34:27) - Early Musical Influences 🎧

(36:11) - Listening to music was a luxury 💿💰

(38:20) - An artist that gave you tools 🎨🔧

(44:55) - How I discovered kiwi rap artists (Scribe, Tom Scott) 🥝🎤

(46:45) - Why do Kiwis undervalue local artists? Tall poppy syndrome 🌱🔪

(49:47) - The scene is hard to say the least 🎤😓

(51:19) - Yes, I played at Te Aroha. Let me tell you a story 🎤📖

(55:18) - Having a band is fucken hard 🎸😅

(56:41) - The highs and lows are extreme 🎢

(1:01:11) - Bullying the crowd haha 😂

(1:03:54) - Growing up in rural NZ 🌄

(1:06:56) - Let me tell you a crazy story 😲

(1:06:56) - A kid living with Gangs, What’s that like? 🧒🏽🕶️

(1:12:53) - Drinking Culture in New Zealand 🍻

(1:14:26) - Activating the NZ economy outside major cities 💼

(1:16:10) - Te Puke thunder (Weed) 🌿

(1:18:35) - Moving away from the cycle & chase a dream 🌠

(1:25:30) - Native Cultures - Why do I know how to dance? 🌍🕺🏽

(1:31:20) - Connecting with your Maori Roots & Whakapapa 🌳

(1:38:53) - Maori means normal or original. Tribes 🌏

(1:42:28) - Creative Process 🎨🧠

(1:50:37) - A sneaky jam over a reggae beat. Leshh gooo! Why not 🎸🎤

(1:55:08) - Humor 😂

(1:56:01) - Content Creation (Serving a Purpose) 🎥✨

(2:01:19) - 💧🏃✌🏾

Last week I cracked the Weedka bottle as I sat down with the powerful Emma Kirkman. In her own words “A bad as b**** out there living life”. She opened up about her journey of introspection and self-discovery. Driving her down a path of reconstructing her role and the value of great employee experiences. We covered A LOT from AI & the “risks” to facing your fears and realising your ideas. So look down at the timestamps for some of the topics.

(09:30) - 🔄 Dealing with Change (Self Re-branding & Introspection)

(17:00) - 🚨 WTF is EXD (Employee Experience Design) Crisis #5

(19:20) - 🤝 Understanding the teams you are empowering (from the inside)

(20:26) - 🚀 “I’m resigning from my job on Monday” - Nurturing the inner entrepreneurial spirit

(22:22) - 💡 Small changes, big results. Start by “Doing something.”

(24:22) - 📊 HR data?

(25:14) - 👥 Hiring the right people for the job.

(27:54) - 🕵️‍♂️ Tips to dissect the good interviewers. “I interview like s***”

(30:10) - 🎯 Mission Impossible? What?

(32:10) - 🌐 How other avenues reflect different qualities

(33:40) - 🏠 I did a residential at Stanford

(35:44) - 🦘 Australia is poaching all the talent!

(38:12) - 🌱 Facilitating growth

(41:00) - 🛠️ Wanna be a leader? Taking the strong tech lead and making them people lead. Lol

(42:40) - 📉 Flat(er) org structures - What does this do?

(44:12) - 🤔 Well, what do you do about it tho? If you don’t have those natural leaders

(47:39) - 📏 Are you measuring tho?

(48:57) - 🚫 Don’t you dare talk to my boss!

(50:20) - 🌟 Building that culture that fosters innovation

(52:19) - 🗣️ A small rant before asking about company culture (Weedka kicked in)

(55:39) - 🏢 What can companies do to build “company culture”?

(58:04) - 📢 Company values (show don’t tell)

(59:49) - 🔄 Making tipping points.

(1:01:13) - 🧠 Artificial intelligence and its exponential growth that could lead to…

(1:13:04) - 🕑 Productivity. What’s the big deal? The strategy first.

(1:21:28) - 🌀 Doing agile everywhere. Not impossible.

(1:27:33) - 🎢 Dealing with uncertainty is so important. Especially for leaders.

(1:28:38) - 🔄 Enabling change

(1:32:37) - 💭 Experiencing s*** culture is great. What’s the ROI of this culture bs?

(1:38:20) - 🌟 Making an impact. Being proud of what you do.

(1:43:56) - 📚 Life as a mother. Atomic Habits.

(1:45:00) - 🧊 Cold plunge club

(1:46:30) - 🌬️ Breathing is good. Dah.

(1:49:09) - 💡 I had an Idea. A rant about realizing your ideas and stopping being the blocker of your success.

(1:55:12) - 🚀 Try! Nothing wrong with being rejected

(1:57:59) - 💧 Drink Water, Exercise & Peace!

Yes! Finally, a design episode is here and my guest today is none other than Brendan Jarvis. A leading voice in the UX community with his podcast BRAVE UX, but he’s also the guiding force behind UX Research Lab, The Space in Between.

ABOUT 🫠 THE MELDING MUSE PODCAST 🟢

Fitness journeys like life itself have ups and downs. In this episode, I sat down with former New Zealand Police Officer now BFT studio owner & coach Prakash Hira. We talked about BFT (Body Fit Training) and how their gamified, science-based & technology-driven program helps make exercising FUN and therefore easier to be part of everyday life.

By sharing each other’s fitness journeys we discussed:

Join us for an insightful conversation with Wared Seger, the visionary founder and CEO of Parrot Analytics, the global leader in audience demand measurement for entertainment.

Under Wared’s leadership, Parrot Analytics has revolutionized how the industry understands global supply and demand, capturing data from over 2 billion audiences across more than 100 languages and 200+ countries.

This data-driven approach empowers industry leaders to make informed decisions about content creation, distribution, acquisition, and marketing, driving growth and audience retention on a global scale.

Timestamps:

(06:51) - I want to change the world

(23:28) - Learning Entrepreneurship

(30:06) - When your vision starts Impacting People's Lives

(32:55) - Resilience is the single most important thing

(35:54) - Validating "an Idea" - The Beginning of Parrot Analytics

(41:04) - 2 years of Experimenting

(48:49) - Creating "Demand"

(51:55) - What does Parrot Analytics do anyway?

(56:27) - The president said "I fucken knew it"

(1:01:56) - Product Market Fit & Pricing

(1:09:00) - Currency in The Attention Economy

(1:15:11) - Always follow the money (How does your product impact your client's wallet?)

(1:18:15) - Disrupting Hollywood

(1:21:17) - Category Creation?

(1:28:20) - I'm horrible at "enjoying the journey"

(1:30:50) - Redefining Work, Life Balance

(1:40:12) - “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Is that true?

(1:45:18) - Two privileged idiots talk about how to find meaning in your job.

(1:56:34) - How the fuck do you even CEO bro? Doing 8 full-time jobs

(2:00:00) - A biological machine (Mental & Physical well-being)

(2:15:26) - How to reset (Hit the bag & Talk about it)

(2:23:40) - A word of advice to myself (Impostor Syndrome)

(2:31:50) - Be borderline arrogant