Matt Thomson - Love trust and admiration - How to raise our kids and foster good company culture

This week we sit down with Matt Thomson  - Recent TEDx Halifax speaker, entrepreneur, and children’s book author—to unpack what it really takes to “lead courageously toward love” in work, relationships, and community.

Matt traces his shift from hustle culture and people-pleasing to a values-first life where courage means action from the heart and complacency is the real opposite. We explore how love shows up on an ordinary Tuesday: creating space where people feel seen and heard, telling the truth even when it’s hard, and setting strong boundaries so open hearts don’t burn out. Along the way, we talk ADHD, overcommitting to volunteer boards, and the resentment that builds when giving has no guardrails.

We go deep on the five regrets of the dying and the tiny course-corrections that prevent them—texting a friend you’ve avoided, choosing presence over performance, and admitting anxiety out loud. Matt shares how his firm humanizes hiring with mindful, conversational interviews and a shift from “culture fit” to alignment and contribution, building psychological safety and belonging. We also wrestle with AI’s duality: the environmental cost and existential worry, alongside its real power to clarify thinking, compress admin, and even mirror back a personal North Star—kindness first, creation without fear, connection always.

Matt’s children’s book, “I Love You, I Trust You, I’m Proud of You,” lands the message with heart, and his readings at the Ronald McDonald House reveal purpose at its simplest: bringing joy where it’s needed most. Leave with one clear action: reach out to someone and say, “thinking of you.” If this conversation resonates, follow, share with a friend, and leave a review—then tell us: what fence are you building around your wide-open heart?

Chapters

• 0:00 Pints, Hosts, And Setting The Scene
• 1:30 Beers, Colours, And The ADHD Club
• 3:24 TEDx Halifax And A Whimsical Look At Heavy Topics
• 5:09 From Hustle Culture To Leading With Love
• 9:38 Courage, Love, And Acting On Tuesdays
• 13:08 Defining Love, Self-Love, And Vulnerability
• 17:18 Expertise, Imposter Syndrome, And Authenticity
• 21:03 Love As Service And The Cost Of Overgiving
• 25:23 Burnout, Boards, And Hearing Your Own Voice
• 29:13 Comedy, Darkness, And Finding Universal Laughter
• 34:23 Suicide, Regret, And Learning From Loss
• 38:13 Friendship Guilt, Anxiety, And Reaching Out
• 41:08 Living True To Self Versus Expectations
• 44:23 Work, Culture, And Humanizing Hiring
• 48:28 Mindfulness In Interviews And Real Connection
• 51:08 Fit To Alignment: Belonging Over Transaction
• 55:23 Creative Jobs, Autonomy, And Client Trust
• 57:28 AI’s Promise, Peril, And Power Consumption
• 1:01:18 Using AI As A Mirror For Clarity
• 1:05:43 Kindness First: North Stars And Insight
• 1:09:08 Bridging Divides And Shared Humanity
• 1:12:08 The Children’s Book: Love, Trust, Pride
• 1:17:13 Ronald McDonald House And Purpose
• 1:20:03 Ten Quick Questions And Lighthearted Debates

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:14

Cheers. Cheers. Welcome to the afternoon pint. I'm Mike Dobin. I am Matt Conrad. And who's with us today?

SPEAKER_00: 0:20

I'm Matt Thompson. Matt Thompson. You might hear a little puppy in the background.

SPEAKER_02: 0:26

We're at Garrison Brewing and uh Oxford Tap Room. Or Oxford Tap Room, yeah, yeah. With Garrison. And uh the dog O just left, so I think I might get a little quiet now.

SPEAKER_03: 0:37

Yeah. So yeah. Um I I just right off the bat, I have to just address the one thing that right away. Matt, you had a light beer, you get the tall ship. What did you get? Yours is like an amber color. Garrison red. So it's right, okay. And I got the moo, like the nitro stout.

SPEAKER_04: 0:53

Can we put those next to each other? Well, that would be great.

SPEAKER_03: 0:55

This is this is exactly as soon as we cheers, like one of these is when I see an image like this on social media, cold glasses, the three different colors with a beer. I never want to drink a beer more ever than when I see the three different colors. Oh, the three different colours of beers, all that. I'm just like, I want to go get a flight right now. And that's all I thought about when we cheers right there. So just had to get that out of the way.

SPEAKER_02: 1:21

So, Matt, you had ADHD. Tell us about it. We don't know anything about that.

SPEAKER_03: 1:25

We don't know anything about that.

SPEAKER_00: 1:26

Welcome back to Oh Squirrel. Um, yes, this is uh this kind of a fun show.

SPEAKER_02: 1:32

So uh I mean, really quick, I met you yesterday um at the NSFM event, uh, and I was here for work, and we just ended up having a chat on our kind of under a break or whatever. And uh come to learn that you know, you you know, I recognize your TEDx talk. Um you just recently spoke at TEDx Halifax, and that was an excellent talk, by the way. It was awesome. We're gonna get into that. I showed it to you, and you said, like I showed you his response, right, in real time. He was pretty impressed by it. So we're both really happy to have you here. And uh I think um, you know, given that you you you're diagnosed ADHD, and Matt and I are also in that very same club, he he's the most recent of the ADHD. I'm the most recent, yeah. Officially diagnosed club. So congratulations, Matt.

SPEAKER_03: 2:14

The TV show they're like a show, like a it could be like, oh yeah. That could actually be like a dot dot dot oh yeah exclamation mark. Could be another show.

SPEAKER_02: 2:24

So you might just be the perfect guest for today. So thanks so much for coming by. Um, but I wanted to maybe let you talk a little bit on your show, or our like what we should head axe a belt, and uh, I guess what got you there?

SPEAKER_00: 2:37

Well, um now I'm just thinking about oh yeah, and I'm thinking at the end of this episode, we're gonna have 17 different threads that this media empire that you two are building is gonna go down, and maybe we'll get some content and the Kool-Aid man will just break through the brick wall behind you.

SPEAKER_03: 2:50

My wife my wife sent me a meme that that said that simply said, I was supposed to clean the toilet, but I started a company instead.

SPEAKER_00: 2:58

I was I was telling Mike yesterday, I was like, my for the last couple years, uh the the running joke in the in the home is we're not starting any new companies this year. That's that's what that's that's what we're trying for. Um so I'm gonna set the bar low here and say you you y'all have been very um complimentary of the TED Talk. Um it took me you 36 years uh to kind of build that, build towards that. It took me three months to write it collaboratively, and I've had 24 hours since that conversation to prepare for today. So set the bar low and don't expect any jobs other than that. Um but uh yeah, I guess the background for the TED Talk, I mean, kind of funnily enough, the the way that I describe it to people, it's kind of a whimsical look at stress, suicide, and the meaning of life.

SPEAKER_04: 3:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:45

I I think that's kind of how I I try to approach it. Um uh because it deals with some you know heavy issues. It deals with with you know the stress that we all live under, what the the society places upon us um in this day and age, but um, but also um it's kind of you know it's built on the background or the uh the backing of of my journey through life as uh feeling like I was letting everybody down around me and and trying to overcompensate by being a codependent people pleaser um and realizing that um what really matters is the you know the seeds that you're planting each and every day and where you are right now in the presence.

SPEAKER_02: 4:21

So, Matt, yeah, so I mean your old approach was kind of the the hustle lifestyle, if you agree, like you know, push, go, go, go, work so hard.

SPEAKER_00: 4:29

Like you were living that lifestyle, correct? Yes, I the only correction I'd make to make to that is uh the old lifestyle as though I've moved beyond that. It's a con it's a constant journey to remind yourself not to.

SPEAKER_02: 4:41

You're still there, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But uh you're kind of your new philosophy, I guess, in in a sense here. It's like um to lead courageously towards love, right? I mean, what does that look like on a Tuesday at 10 a.m. when stuff needs to get done?

SPEAKER_00: 4:57

Well, that was uh the the that was a life-changing moment when I came to that realization. I was actually uh on a retreat um at uh location that's now called Acitulisk at the time. It was uh Windhorse Farms in New Germany, uh in the middle of Nova Scotia. And I was working with my business coach um and uh and some other folks at the time on identifying our own values and purpose in life and uh and and going through some iterations, identifying, going through some processes, you're writing your own eulogy, you're you're thinking about you know everything that's kind of built you up into what you are in that moment. Um, and uh I came to this realization that something that has always sparked, inspired, and and and really motivated me was to lead courageously toward love. And what does that actually mean to your point? Well, I really had to like I I I studied English and and history uh in in university, and I and it so I really want to get into like the etymology of the of the words themselves, because like I for a long time ran away from love. I didn't tell people I loved them for a very long time. Um and I was always I always felt like ashamed of even using the words courage when I was talking about myself. But what I realized in looking into courage is the two definitions of courage really, really strike a chord with me. One is one of its roots is courage, curr, living of the heart. Um, and the other is the opposite, the opposite of courage is not cowardice, but complacency in its original words. So to answer your question about on a Tuesday, um, it's doing something. It's doing something, it's it's it's not leaning away from the hard thing, it's having the courage to act and turn the having the courage to act authentically, which for me is acting in uh in a in a loving manner, which can sometimes feel really vulnerable because um you know you know the the the concept of love is is sometimes challenging for for some folks and um and everybody has their their own kind of unique uh relationship with it. I certainly did growing up, and um um for me it's just creating a space uh where hopefully everybody can feel seen, heard. Um, and to me that's like a really powerful act of love.

SPEAKER_02: 7:03

That's great, man. Like, how would you describe love now?

SPEAKER_00: 7:07

In in life? Yeah. Probably in that way. Like it, like the the way actually, I was uh if we really want to get into it, when I was in therapy yesterday, um I was I was uh I was I was talking about some of the recent podcasts I was listening to in some of the journaling I was doing. Um, and the way that I describe love now is the opportunity to uh have light shone on the deepest, darkest parts of yourself and accept it. And I think that that's that's something for me that um uh I'm I'm experiencing now for maybe even the first time individually from a self-love perspective. Um, and also I'm lucky enough to experience that in my relationship as well.

SPEAKER_03: 7:46

That's a great answer. No, yeah. The um it's uh it's interesting that you you must find it strange because when you go up there and you have TED talks and you kind of become like a subject matter expert, people kind of look at you as like a subject matter expert. How do you how do you like kind of reconcile with the fact that you say that you're it's still a work in progress, it's still a journey I'm going on, and yet you have people who are coming you coming to you for that expertise, guidance.

SPEAKER_00: 9:01

Yeah, I mean it's an interesting one. It it's uh it for a long time I kind of you know um shied away from it. Um, but I think the approach that I take now is is the opportunity to ask questions. Like I'd love to know what your definitions of love are because I think that there's you know uh you know, there's another definition of love is is just you know uh living our everyday life and seeing ourselves and others. Like there's there's so much, like, because when I shine the shine light on on the deepest, darkest parts of myself to love myself, the same is true from a universal perspective for others as well, right? So um I I I like to think that there's just like interconnectedness of us all. And if I can if if I can if I can um if I can create a space where uh people can realize that I am literally just uh an authentic living, breathing, flawed human being um in the same way that they are, then um maybe they can take some of that shine off, but recognize that like man, like we're all just we're all just trying a human. Um I'm I'm I'm not the subject matter expert nonsense is is not something I'm comfortable with. Because I think what it does is it can also create um like there's so much imposter syndrome out there. Because everybody thinks that everybody has everything together, I don't have anything together, like I'm still trying, man. Like, you know, the more that you kind of rely on that like curated image, um, the more of a the more you're kind of you know feeding into that narrative that everybody's got things together. But I think uh if you can say, well, thank you for seeing what I put out there, because it it it was a lot of work to put that TED talk together, but also here are all the things that you know I'm trying and failing at. Um, it can kind of humanize it a little bit more and make it a little bit more accessible.

SPEAKER_03: 10:40

Yeah, I think that that makes a lot of sense. I mean for me, like kind of for me, like when I think about like definition of love, I think there's lots of things you can talk about, but in my life, I guess it's like I've always and you can see you know your thoughts on this would be interesting, but is uh like I always feel and I think it's biblical, but it's like uh you know, to love is to serve has always kind of been a thing for me. Um you know, I always feel like doing things and trying to leave things better. Um you know, it's sometimes like you know, it doesn't it means doing sometimes hard work and it sometimes means doing things that people might not understand in the moment, but just trying to do things that and invest into something, whether it be your community, your family, those around you, company, whatever. That's just kind of like for me, that's always been like that.

SPEAKER_02: 11:26

Like I think that's all I kinda understand it too. Like I'm kinda kinda with you on that. Like, you know, it's a there's a certain loyalty, there's a certain perseverance to it, and there's a certain kind of uh uh pushing. You know, you gotta get you can't give up. Yeah, right, you know, and uh you know it's enduring, you know. You know, it's also it's it's also magnetic. There's great parts about it, there's fun parts about it, there's getting away with each other, there's enjoying a moment with somebody. So there's a lot of different things about love, right? Like it is comp comp complex.

SPEAKER_03: 11:56

Well everyone has their love language too, right? Sure, right? Like I think I just more uh relate, like like my parents have two very different love languages uh in in terms of how they show they care. My mother is someone who likes to like give. She's a very generous person. But sometimes I'm like it, you know, sometimes it's like eh, you don't stop. You don't have to give. Like you don't have to display your love in like, here's this, here's that. Dad, I relate more to it, is dad's the type of guy that will get up at five o'clock in the morning and go shovel the old lady's uh driveway and uh not say anything to anybody and just go back to bed. Right?

SPEAKER_00: 12:35

And so it's like gift giving, it's acts of service. Those are the languages, yeah. Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_01: 12:40

What do you think of that?

SPEAKER_00: 12:41

Well, I think it's uh so a couple different I mean I think I think a lot of different things. First of all, I appreciate the answers. Um it's it there's there's a there's a little bit of like a um love is in the eye of the beholder answer that I would give, which is um uh uh one of the things I've learned is just because there's different love languages, kind of like one of the things that you said is like, well, you know, you don't have to, you know, you know, there's enough gift giving. I'd say you know, it's not you know, thanks for that, mom. Um but um but there's also something really beautiful about her like acting in a loving way in in in the way that she interprets it. And and if you can see that service and you can see that action beyond the gift itself, um then what a beautiful way to kind of hear I love you. Now, the way that I've had to interpret it is like what you know, my my mom um used to have a uh a puppet, she used to go to elementary schools and she and she had a puppet called the I Care Cat. Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 13:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 13:38

And that's kind of, you know, the biblical kind of definition that you gave, Matt, is is is similar to that. But what I had to learn with that is I think there's something beautiful about that act of service, but that doesn't necessarily always have to be outward, it can also be inward. And that's where I'm really trying to challenge myself these days is to recognize that, you know, um, you know, there's a fine line or there's a direct correlation between love as an act of service and hustle culture. Yeah if you don't also recognize that you need to be of service to yourself and you need to be of service to your values, you need to be of service to your love language, and you need to recognize that you can't be giving at the you know at uh at the expense of everything that you are and everything that you have.

SPEAKER_03: 14:16

I'm interested in your thoughts because you know we talk about hustle culture and things like that, but like it's um there's also that fine line of like hustling for the life that you want, which could it be the end game being, you know, the financial freedom for your family, and hopefully, you know, you can get wrapped up and obsessed with it, and then you get lost in it. But I mean, I hope at some point you can get to a point where all of us can get to a point where uh you know you've made enough money where you're financially free, and then you can start really choosing to slow down.

SPEAKER_00: 14:52

There's also that, like how how like any thoughts on like how you balance that and I mean I don't know, man. I was still trying to figure it out. But like I I think I think you you you mentioned one point, kind of you know, you don't want to lose yourself to it. Yeah. Um I think that what we need to be really careful of these days is making sure that we're doing it for us and for the right reasons and not just because it's what we see or it's because with what we see promoted, or it's because it's the noise that's out there. Yep. So I think the more that you can live authentically towards whatever it is that you know, if that's if if if that's where your values are and if that's what you want to live towards, and you want to be able to to to have that financial freedom, then go out and do that, and that's awesome. Then it's it then you're not hustling for for others or or for the projection of self. You're just you're you're you're doing it for yourself, and that's an act of self-love right there. But there, I feel, at least for me, there's a lot of like, well, what am I actually doing this for? Right. Um, am I just doing this for because I feel like I have to, because I feel like that's how I'm a value, maybe because I'm doing it for other people. So a lot of it just comes back to that introspection, that self-reflection, to be like, well, what am I doing this for? Like, how how can I actually um you know truly feel like fulfilled and challenged and and whatnot? Maybe that is through hustle culture, and maybe that is through starting a record label.

SPEAKER_02: 16:08

Something you just said there makes me think too. I think if you go living a life of doing everything for everyone else, you might eventually start to resent that a little bit about yourself, right? And then you might end uh start putting that guilt on others. It's like, well, I did all this for you, right? That's a valid point, you know. And uh so to your point, right?

SPEAKER_00: 16:25

Well, and and then you and then and then you expect them to be like, Can you uh can you acknowledge that?

SPEAKER_02: 16:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you almost like, well, you know, that person, you've done that for them and you've given yourself that part to them, but they might have not even asked for that, right? I think that that's a huge like it's you know, it gets uh confusing, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 16:41

Yeah, I mean, and being diagnosed with ADHD this year through like uh you know yeah, thank you. Um we uh I've learned that that is a a kind of a component of the ADHD is for a long time, like for the last 20 years, I'm 40 years old. Since I've been about 19, 20 years old, I've been doing a lot of volunteer work. And again, that kind of goes back to that love is the serve, like I want to be involved in my community, I want to do that stuff. But at one point I was sitting on like, no joke, like four boards, and the you know, sitting on these boards, sitting on these things that get done, and I mean, and over my time I probably sat on like eight. And a lot of it was like I I struggle to say no, because I feel like if I'm saying no, then I'm like letting you know my community down or whatever it may be. Uh but then it just got to a point where it's like, oh my, I just can't, I just can't do this, and I had to scale way, way, way back, right? But there's something about what you were saying about how the expectation is there, uh, you know, trying to pleasing and all that it totally resonates with me because at some point I I think I got burnt out with volunteering. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 17:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 17:56

Well, I I and I, you know, for and you know, we can get into the nonprofit sector and and why and what that is and the challenges that are faced, but I think what what's really interesting about the hustle culture piece there is that like it comes back to like are you losing yourself? Because if if you if you find yourself in a place where you're creating animosity and resentment because you feel like you're doing things for others, but you're not doing it for yourself because you don't even you have the space to hear yourself think, uh to hear to hear your own voice. Like for for me, it's it's less a matter of serving on boards, but I'm at my best when I'm not ingesting a ton of content, when I'm holding space for myself to actually be bored and think and hear my own voice. Like there's this Jimmy Carr um quote where he talks about he's a comedian, I think. Oh, yeah, great comedian. We saw him live. Oh, yeah. We just saw him live, yeah. So so he he does this. Like, I'm I'm a I'm a big podcast Jimmy Carr fan because I think he's a really deep thinker. Um, and one of the things he talks about is trying to figure out um, he started to to write a class um so that comedy could be taught in schools, which many comedians feel like you can't do that, you either have it or you don't. But what he realized in writing that class was all he was doing was creating a vessel in which people can get to know their own authentic voice because that is what the the way that's where the funny comes from. And his biggest fear is that there are so many people in this world that will live and die without actually hearing their own voice.

SPEAKER_02: 19:21

I've done comedy classes before, and they're more like AA meetings. Like they're not they're not funny, dude. Like they well, I mean they're funny, but like what you're trying to do is like everyone first has to kind of let themselves know, write a little bit about themselves, share a bit about themselves. And it starts with Luann, who's never laughed in 20 years since her since her cat died, right? Like, you know, and it goes and it no, but seriously, though, it goes and it goes deeper and darker and darker, and you're like, holy frig, right? Like, what's out, you know, there's a you know a lot wrong with everybody in this room, you're thinking, right? At the beginning, and yourself, and uh then all of a sudden you start finding the humor in that, making other people laugh with that, and then it's it is a really cool way. I I think comedy uh and comedy classes should certainly be taught in schools. I think it's a great thing. If yeah, if you can uh you just need to realize what you're you're not teaching knock-knock jokes to I think comedy needs to be taught sometimes just so people understand it, and it can be naturally be endearment and love towards one another, and it's not necessarily hate.

SPEAKER_03: 20:17

Uh yeah, actually, um Jimmy Carr actually is someone who talks about that because Jimmy Carr does a lot of uh like charity comedy shows at uh hospitals where people are terminal. Yeah, yeah. And he makes a he's a dark humor guy, and he makes a lot of dark humor jokes, yeah, yeah, particularly at these people who are dying. Like he makes jokes about them and everything. He's like, Oh, it's great to see that couple faces return this year, kind of thing, things like that, right? Like he's pretty dark and pretty but the thing is that he does it because it's making those people laugh. And they you know, the same with the saying goes, laughter's the best medicine, right? Yeah, and I think there is something to be said. I think people who have a dark sense of humor, maybe I'm biased because I do, but I think people who have a dark sense of humor are more mentally equipped to handle really messed up things in their life because of that.

SPEAKER_02: 21:04

Sure. I mean, I mean my partner, she's a nurse, and like she'll she has a crazy sick sense of humor, and they all do, and so do uh paramedics, right? I mean, they all have really disturbing senses of humor and police, uh, you'll find like a lot of people in those industries that see some of the most horrifying stuff. Usually got the most warped sense of humor you've ever seen.

SPEAKER_00: 21:22

Well, what's what's interesting about that is just like the the concept of like I think laughter is also a uh like universal. Yeah, it's and it's such a it's such a universal language where where if we can if we can strip away um you know, there are things that we will all deal with in life, right? Uh and some of those are beautiful and some of those are terrible, but there's there's something universal about that. And if you can if you can find the laughter and the joy, the humor in that, um what a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_03: 21:51

Absolutely. Uh that's the thing. And for me, like I'm someone who's like nothing's really off limits, right? Um and I know I know I know yeah, but like nothing's really off limits for me. And I'll like as long as it's delivered in the right way, and and there you you know, there's a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02: 22:05

If you know that person likes the other person, like you know, for me, it's if it's good of good intentions, I mean I'm all for anything, right? That's the thing.

SPEAKER_03: 22:11

I think it all comes down to intentions and things like that. Like, you know, I listen to your TED talk. I know you've had uh uh you had a close friend who uh ended up end taking their own life, and yeah, uh I have a I had a close cousin who did the same back in 2008, um, and and I had another cousin who unsuccessfully attempted that as well. And um you know, I am on my serious side, take that stuff very seriously, and I you know try to make sure that I'm there for people, and I've had those moments where I've had to like you know, kind of haul people off to the side and be like, you you good, calm down, kind of like let's talk, whatever, right? Um but at the same time, I will probably laugh at a joke about suicide because I just think like that like darkness in my brain helps me with the having to cope with the real life things of those things too.

SPEAKER_00: 23:03

Yeah, well it's it's uh well first of all, sorry you had to you know go through that. I think there are so many of us that have, right? Yeah, uh for for whether it's you know close friends or acquaintances or colleagues or our family members, right? Um but uh yeah, like you know, there even even sometimes joking about it uh is something that's helpful. Like I always say, you know, uh like I say in the TED Talk, uh I I found myself reading this book after Kinger died, and he was my buddy, um, called The Five Regrets of the Dying. Um which was this book by um this Australian palliative care nurse who put 30 years of having conversations with patients that were going through palliative care and and compiled it into these five regrets. Um and uh and and and the reason I I got to that point was because King always said he wanted to live a life of no regrets. And uh and those of us who knew him knew that if anybody should have regrets, it was that idiot because he did like there were so many things that he should not have done that he did. Um and I and I and I joke about that because in in in in life um he was he brought so much joy, he brought so much humor, he brought so much like nonsensical ridiculousness, and uh, and and you know, we're talking about universal truths earlier. Like the fact is, like, it was you know terrible and and and sad what has happened. Um uh and also in life, he was one of the most like jovial humans, and and it's important to kind of keep that alive through that laughter as well.

SPEAKER_01: 24:31

What were some of the points in the book? If you can kind of give us a couple takeaways from that book you read.

SPEAKER_00: 24:35

Oh, the points, well, I mean, um the the so as far as the takeaway is concerned, the wildest part for me was how like platitudes are sometimes real, like the things that you hear as a as a kid growing up, like like if I were to give you 10 guesses, you'd probably get four of the five top regrets. And and and and that really got me thinking because I was like, well, like if we know these things, why do they keep happening? Like, I wish I hadn't worked so hard. Uh like like those types of things, right? Um, I wish I'd stay closer with my friends. Like you guys have this beautiful thing where you where you're you're you know you're connected through work, you're connected through podcasts, you're connected through all these boards, and I mean you're fucking sick of each other at this point, but yeah, yeah, but uh you know. Funny enough to not, but not really.

SPEAKER_02: 25:20

No, but like, I mean, I mean you do miss other friends though, you miss other connections. Like I got friends all the time that I feel guilty about. Yes. I was telling you one that I'll tell everybody here because I think it's a really good example. I had uh I was invited to something this Saturday, and I think you know what I'm like. Um I like friends in a small group setting, and as soon as it gets too big, I usually I'm like bail. But I never really knew why that was, I just thought it was grouchy, and uh, you know, realized that too. Well, it has a little bit to do with anxiety, and I didn't really know about that about myself until this year doctor diagnosed it, and I didn't even believe it because I didn't think I could have anxiety because I'm like, I do all this crazy shit. What are you talking about? Like I've I've I've you know, I felt then I've always kind of ran into things almost fearlessly. I've gone, I've been on stage as a comedian, as a rapper, as so many different variations and versions of myself. I'm like, I'm not I don't have anxiety, but I mean I did I always have get sickness and uncomfortableness when I had to do something, you know. I always uh dreaded it when it wasn't just those core people that I trusted, and it was a bunch of new faces, right? And I'd have to interact with people on a more private level and blend my private life into my public life, you know what I mean? So I was feeling anxious about that. 100%. Yeah, yeah. So like super anxious. But the point that I just want to do it, yeah, right. So so uh a friend of mine that I'm just gonna go and see this weekend because he was like kind of piling more and more invites on to his, you know, get together this Saturday, where I bailed, like all them up the next day and say, Hey man, sorry. And uh I want to let you know I'm gonna come up Saturday night, and this is why I was kind of bailing, and uh I apologize, but I'm gonna see I haven't seen you in a long time, I want to see your new house.

SPEAKER_00: 26:56

You know, so so like that's a that like that's such a beautiful story because it's an act of love, it's an act of like self-awareness, but you're also you know, one of the one of the five regrets was I wish I'd stayed in closer touch with my friends, yeah. Right. So so you like I think that what what to answer your original question or like the you know the takeaways from that, like the well the one that I talk about in the in the TED talk is I wish I'd live a life that was true to myself and not the life others expected of me. And that one really hit home for me in in a big way. And you know, we've gotten through three of the five, but essentially what what my biggest takeaway was was if these are universal platitudes that we that that we've all kind of heard or inherently know and could probably guess, then what better way to honor those that have lived their life with those regrets than by making sure that we don't and we don't end our life with those. Maybe we'll have different regrets. I hope to God I have different regrets. My top five regrets are gonna be very different than those five, but um, but we owe it to those. Like what a what a beautiful act of love towards those lives that were that were that were lost with with those regrets in their hearts by being like, you know what, I'm gonna I'm gonna learn from that. Yeah, and you did that. Yeah, yeah. You you reached out to that friend and said, What a beautiful act.

SPEAKER_03: 28:05

Yeah, no, that's true. And the friends too, especially. I mean, you know, we work, we have families, yeah. And we're you know, Mike and I are trying to get this thing like kind of growing constantly, kind of thing. Friends do kind of fall in a little bit of the wayside, and I get I get a little bit guilty. I feel guilty about that sometimes. Where sometimes when we're doing things, I'll try to like invite a friend. So I'm just kind of like, hey man, you want to come along with this? It's like uh that's just me saying, like, I have to do this thing, but also I'd like to see you and hang out with you. So you want to like come along? Kind of thing? Try to do it, right? But yeah, there's times there's people who I would see a lot more often that I don't because we got this to do. I have a family that I obviously won't spend as much time with, and uh yeah, you know, we work.

SPEAKER_00: 28:46

You're like your your your like love language is is the third wheel. Uh let's invite somebody to be the third wheel. But but here's like with regards to like calls to action, like how cool would it be as it like here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna leave this podcast, I'm gonna reach out to somebody I haven't talked to in a couple weeks just to say, hey, thinking about you, man. Yeah, like you do it. Like just do it. Like that that that kind of like random, beautiful message that you hear from somebody, like that can really change somebody. You have no idea the level of impact they can have.

SPEAKER_03: 29:13

You know, someone someone in the in literally, probably in the last year and a half, two years that has become like a low-key kind of person I look up to, uh, is Adam Sandler. Like, obviously, I've always liked him, he's always been funny, some of the funniest movies ever. But behind the scenes, did he buy you a sports car by the way?

SPEAKER_00: 29:30

Because I hear that.

SPEAKER_03: 29:31

Yeah, no, yeah, but seriously, you gotta get in a movie or two first. The thing is, is that that guy makes movies, he does what I would like to do if I was in his situation, which is like he brings his family on set, he puts them in the movies, like he puts his daughters and his wife in the movies, gives them a part, makes sure his friends are always working, things like that, like checks in them all the time. I think it's like I mean, that's that's a real person in Hollywood. In a world full of fake people, that guy seems like he's 100% real.

SPEAKER_00: 29:58

I 100% agree. Yeah, yeah. As somebody who watched Happy Gilmore one and two with my kids this year, uh I thought two wasn't so bad, man.

SPEAKER_02: 30:06

I just appreciated seeing the seeing his character continue like what happened to him. I was just really didn't like what they did with his uh uh wife.

SPEAKER_03: 30:14

Yeah, we did we both didn't like that. I didn't like how they killed her.

SPEAKER_02: 30:16

Yeah, it was like I was like I was like, what the f like? I mean it was shocking. It was shocking. Yeah, I didn't know. Ten minutes in. Yeah, and I mean, you know, I'm also watching that show she's on uh with Andrea, where that's like our bedtime show right now.

SPEAKER_03: 30:27

Oh, you started watching uh Modern Family.

SPEAKER_02: 30:28

Modern Family, so we never started watching it until this year, and uh yeah, so like I thought she was a pretty popular character, right? To kind of kill off so quick. I was like, oof, yeah, I didn't see that coming, but uh what do I know? Creative liberties, creative liberties, yeah. So we gotta go back to you, Matt, because we've been we've been going all over the place, which which is awesome. I love this. So, like, uh, what do you do for a living, man?

SPEAKER_00: 30:52

I have interesting conversations with interesting people, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 30:56

So, like. You you were in the corporate world, right? Stepped away from it uh because of a lot of the reasons you've I think people could probably put that together from all everything we just talked about. But you know, what's the business that you started? What are you doing now?

SPEAKER_00: 31:08

Yeah, so so uh eight years ago, kind of stepped away from the corporate world um because of hustle culture, because a lot of the stuff we talked about, and and it's been a journey ever since, but stepped into to uh uh wanted to set my own hours, so started my own business because that's easy, right? It's uh it's that way it's you don't work more hours that way. Oh, what are you talking about? Not like I had two kids and third on the way and then like oh quit quit the job. Um, but essentially, um, like what it what it boils down to is there was a couple different kinds of things that came to fruition. Um the first was there was this thing called the IVNY report that came out in in Nova Scotia. And it was all doom and gloom. People are coming to Nova Scotia to retire and die. Like, you know, nothing is gonna happen. Um, I had just moved back to Nova Scotia with my wife to start my family. Um, and uh and and we're we're seeing this, and it was all doom and gloom, and we're like, well, like what can what like again, courage. Like the opposite of courage is not cowardice, it's complacency. So, what can we do to address some of these things? And we recognize that there's an opportunity to um, you know, if people are leaving Nova Scotia because they didn't see opportunities, well, let's let's let's create something where people can see opportunities. Um, and uh, and so we started to work with employers on being able to kind of align them with talent and and and seeing if we could kind of attract and retain folks into organizations. Um, and and we realized, having gone through the processes ourselves, that oftentimes when organizations are hiring, it can feel very transactional. It can feel very chuck a resume at a wall to see what sticks. Um, and we recognized that like holding space for people to feel seen and heard, where you can be seen as a person and as opposed to just uh, you know, what you've done, uh, or as opposed to just like you know, words on a page, um really made a big difference. So we started working with organizations on on revamping, you know, like like we we do mindfulness uh exercises um as part of a of a pre-screen when we're doing interviews to be able to to have folks be like, listen, like you know, we we there's data out there that says like a quarter of the people would rather have uh root canals and go through a job interview. Like, well, that's a low bar. Like we can do better than a root canal. Like it's we could probably do better than that. So we recognize that you know, if you can just hold like have a conversation like you folks do on a regular basis in this podcast format, where you can just say, I'm genuinely interested in who you are, then you can break down a lot of those barriers, a lot of those walls, a lot of those things that people try to project and say that I've done this, I've done this, and and and they may not be right for the job. You can actually have a real authentic connection. So we started doing that, and uh, and we've been doing that for about eight years or so, and recognize that working with organizations through that and being able to um help kind of uh create not only um the environment that helps bring people in the door, but also helps support them once they're once once you know their employees are through the door. So we do things like uh workshops, like um organizational culture work. Um uh there's a lot of speaking that that we do as an organization, just kind of built around uh creating environments where where people want to be and people want to stay. Um so placemaking 4G has had the privilege of working with uh you know with nonprofits or not nonprofits, with First Nations, um with municipalities, um with uh with associations, with colleges, with for-profits, nonprofits, everybody in between across Atlantic Canada and across the country, um, as we've built up this kind of trying to take a more humanized approach uh to the work that we do.

SPEAKER_02: 34:30

I mean, there's two sides of me when I hear that, and I mean it just hopefully that other people can hear this too for themselves. Like, so one part of me really leans into that. I understand mindfulness, like something I've really been focusing on this year and last year, but this is very recent. Two years ago, Mike would have been like that. Sounds like a bunch of hippie, you know, baloney, and I'm not interested in sitting there and getting to know you intimately, right? I um I'm here to work, um, you know, so you must see that in other people in some sense, like even maybe on a more executive level, or how do you feel like how do people normally react to this? Because I'm sure not everybody reacts holistically to it.

SPEAKER_00: 35:10

Like senior financial roles, yeah. Um, um, and even you know, we're we're talking about you know, within that context, but also, you know, a couple weeks ago is doing doing work with organizations across Atlantic Canada that are that are looking to build and grow their export businesses, and we did a six-minute-long mindfulness exercise. Um, um, so you know, it's it's you know, to to to answer your question, it you know, it's across the spectrum to who's doing it. Um less resistance than you would think, but I think a lot of that comes from um it's not forced, it's like it's it's something that's a big part of my life, even just as far as like we always you know make sure that that people understand who we are first. So I'm saying, you know, if I'm if I'm let's say I'm leading an interview with you, you're gonna get an introduction video to me before we ever meet. You're gonna get to know me, you're gonna get to know who I am, what this process is all about. And you might be able to say, Well, this is gonna be a bit of an interesting experience, but here we go. Um, and you know, the quote that I often use from Oprah is when you start in stillness, everything that comes from that flows from a place of power and not from a frenzied state.

SPEAKER_01: 36:14

Damn, Oprah.

SPEAKER_00: 36:16

Pretty good, yeah. And and and so so like oftentimes she's pretty successful, she's too okay. Yeah, yeah. I think uh do we have a podcast sponsor?

SPEAKER_02: 36:25

Do we want to uh if she wants to, if she wants a spot, we'll see if we can fit her in, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 36:29

We'll fit her on the on the O network, yeah. Yeah, um, but it but essentially, you know, what that does is it it all it does is it just creates a space where we can be like still for a moment and then like hear our inner voice, even if it's just at the beginning of an interview process where all you're doing is you're taking a couple deep breaths. Maybe you're buying into the process, maybe you're not, but you're calm, you can maybe feel your shoulders relax a little bit, and then you can actually speak authentically and not pre-rehearse lines and not try to project. Um, so you know, I'm sure that there's different depths of of of like uh of of impact that it has on folks, but it's probably the number one piece of feedback that we get back is how important that process was on that person's journey.

SPEAKER_02: 37:08

Do you think corporate life sometimes pushes people not to be authentic? Because there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of um how do I say, you know, ways you're supposed to act. Like, you know, ways you're supposed to behave. You might not be supposed to say that question to that person or make that criticism to that executive or or whatever, right? So it it it gets challenging because as soon as you kind of let the uh creature out of the box, or to speak, it can do wild things, right?

SPEAKER_03: 37:35

Like, you know, so it's like some people don't know how to get over that. Yeah, that's another thing. If you have people who get hurt by that, hurt by it, but also people some people who just like once you've burned an image of who you are in their brain, that's it, that's all you ever are. And if it's someone who's above you however many degrees, that can be a problem. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00: 37:55

I had that happen to me literally. I had a conversation with somebody yesterday who came up to me and was like, Man, I watched your TED talk and I did not expect to feel so emotional. He's like, I had this image of you, you were this was not at all what I was like, what I was expecting. And and so in that case, I like I like to think it was a positive change that uh that that like I do have the depth of emotion to be able to bring that out. But dude, it's such an interesting question, Mike, because like one of the things that used to give me, you know, you're talking about anxiety, used to give me the most anxiety is like, oh, so you run a firm that does uh you know organizational culture work and like helps organizations with recruitment and stuff. So what's your advice uh going into job interviews? And I say I always preface it by saying, I can only provide you with advice based on what I know about the processes that we run.

SPEAKER_01: 38:41

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 38:42

Because I don't want to set you up for failure and saying it's like universally what happens out there, right? Um so I think it's really important because you know you have to feel safe to be able to feel authentic, and safety is different for everybody, and psychological safety is not something that happens everywhere in the corporate world, but there is movement. So, for instance, there's this big shift that would like we've been talking about it for eight years, and it's there's articles in Forbes dating back to the early 2010s, and now people are really starting to adopt it, is like this movement from fit to contribution or from fit to alignment. Yeah, and and and and that's an indication that don't you don't, you know, essentially asking somebody to fit something is asking them to change who they are in order to fit your vision of of what culture should be, and then you end up with a very transactional relationship.

SPEAKER_01: 39:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 39:30

And and so there's there's there's there's movement, maybe not as fast as I'd like to see it at like the corporate level where um where where there is progress that's being made, and it's important to celebrate that. And it could it be better? Absolutely. Um you know it can everybody go out and be like authentically their their full selves in every space. If they feel safe in doing so, then absolutely. And if not, then no, put up those, like put up those fences to protect yourself if that's the if that's the case. But what what's important to to know is that there are people like yourself, uh like what we're doing, that are looking to kind of push that culture forward to allow for those more, you know, big ship big ships turn slowly type of uh environments to be able to allow for folks to truly uh feel safe being authentic.

SPEAKER_03: 40:16

Yeah, yeah, I I think that's like one of the things that I've come to come to realize is in my kind of working life is you know, I've always uh originally kind of had like for a long time I had this uh mentality is like, okay, well I want to, you know, rise up to the top. I want to be, you know, the VP of something someday or whatever. And I think if I self-reflect more and more of like, you know, would I really truly like doing that job? Maybe, I don't know. Um, but I think the my driving factor is that the higher you go up, the bigger your umbrella is of who you can affect within the workplace. And a big part of why I like being a manager is I like to be able to create a positive workplace and uh you know like uh you have more control, obviously, when you have a team. And then the higher you can go up, you have a bit, you know, you can you can affect more people and how that goes. So that's the thing, is like I find myself now in a situation where it's like I'd like to be the VP because I want to instill my mentality on how people should be coming to the workplace, but I don't necessarily want to do all the other stuff. I don't necessarily want to be too close to the sun, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05: 41:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 41:30

Yeah, I get that. That makes sense. I mean, I mean the other thing though, it's like I mean, you know, I I I I can't I can't help but think that like with with work culture, we still with larger corporations have a thing where it's like kind of keep your head down, right? You know, how do you be successful? Keep your head down, do the work, right? While the ones that are successful are not doing that.

SPEAKER_00: 41:53

Well, it's I mean it's it it's uh you know first of all, I haven't had a real job in many years, so uh so I I don't I don't know how accurate and I'm probably more prone to be the Icarus uh flying too close to the sun, yeah, as you mentioned. Um I I I think that there is, but I think that honestly, a lot of this just comes down to like if if we just break down one wall here and say that you know, I don't even know if it's like corporate versus not, or like I think a lot of it is just like the way that systems are designed right now, there's systems that are designed to help promote this this like weird fris facade. And instead of, you know, as you mentioned, like if we can have leaders emerge with curiosity, where like even you know, I'd I'd be curious to know, like, you know, maybe it's less about instilling what your vision of what culture can be, but instead of being curious to being able to to ask folks, like, hey, what do you want to see in this workplace, to being able to to to help, you know, lean into a little bit more co-creation, a little bit more collaboration, um, as opposed to what these systems that have been built tend to promote, I think that can go a really long way. And there are some really good examples of that too, even just within this province. Like, there's some really fantastic organizations and leaders that are able to kind of create this sense of safety and evolution and growth as as as as we're evolving, and and this like this this tired old kind of sense of like this doom and gloom kind of corporate job, I think is going away. But again, I haven't had a real job in a few years, so you might want to ask somebody who has.

SPEAKER_02: 43:26

No, I think jobs are getting more creative and there's more nuance, and there's certainly some nuance to the role that I have now. I mean, I I I I appreciate it. Like, you know, my professional job is I I actually love my job right now, right?

SPEAKER_00: 43:37

Because you get to create authentic relationships with your client base, right?

SPEAKER_02: 43:40

Yeah, and they kind of yeah, and I kind of get to work in my own way a little bit, right? Which I which I really like, right? You know, I don't like being put into systems, you know. But, you know, which great segue, AI, you know, is gonna take a lot of those those systems and those difficult things. Uh I mean, you know, we we we we talk both pog positively and negatively about AI, but I mean I think it's a great time to talk about this now. I mean, in your role, um, how do you see I AI uh uh playing uh into this future?

SPEAKER_00: 44:09

Oh man, well, I mean, playing into the future of like everything, really. I mean, the the future of work, I mean, it like first of all, it's a it's a nuanced conversation because even like so I use AI quite a bit, and I also recognize that I have to um like you almost want to think about how you can have like carbon offset credits for the amount of energy that it takes for you know for things to process. Like I was at an event the other day where they were talking about how um uh the the server farms in the US Um uh have more energy consumption than a small European country, and that small European country is Germany. Whoa, that's gross. So and that's just the so it's like you know, there's there's like again, there's like there's duality of things.

SPEAKER_02: 44:55

It's a whole new whole new problem.

SPEAKER_00: 44:56

Yeah, it it's wild. But and then with that, you're getting, you know, are there clean energy sources? Are there are there different ways to kind of power?

SPEAKER_03: 45:02

I don't think people realize that. Like, I honestly don't think people realize how much more energy it takes. I think people just generally think like it's all just the internet, yeah, but it's not. It's like you know, AI is using ten times the amount of energy to make than a than a simple Google search to make an image of you on a unicorn, yeah, you know, yeah. Like it's using so much energy, and I think that is one of the handful of reasons of why I am not afraid of AI. What do you uh what about you? You you worried what what worries you about AI, if anything?

SPEAKER_00: 45:33

I mean, a lot worries me, but I mean, like I'll start with the positives and say that I actually have like so AI has really helped me do things like sometimes I really have to talk through my thoughts before I can get to a cohesive answer, as many of your listeners can say as they're skipping through to be like, what's he actually trying to say here? Um but sometimes before I talk to my team, before I I I I you know, if I'm trying to deal with a complex thought, I'll talk through it um uh with my chat GPT agent, um, and it'll help me kind of cohesively condense what it is I'm trying to say in a way that I can communicate it clearly to my team or or to whoever I'm working with, and that really helps. I think it it in that way it helps improve our communication. I think there's an opportunity for for AI in many different ways to be able to take a lot of the administrative functions away from the work that we do so that we can hold more space for each other to actually communicate authentically and take some of those um some of the paperwork off of our plates and whatnot, um, which I think is fantastic. And that's where we are now. Like, who knows we're gonna be in one month, let alone a year, let alone 10 years. Yeah. So, I mean, what frightens me, I mean, I don't know, the Matrix? Like, like, hey, well, you know, you know, like let's let's let's use a segue, okay? So let's let's thought experiment. So uh right now, server farms uh in the US use more consumption use more energy than Germany. Um, you know, in The Matrix, they figured out what a great battery source was, right?

SPEAKER_02: 46:56

What a great energy source, the human mind, yeah, yeah, the humans, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 46:59

So so I I mean I I think we're all living through this time of like wild and rapid change. Um, and and I think it's important for us to approach it with curiosity, um, with like a healthy dose of skepticism, but also like I like I I feel I I feel you know, in the same way that I take a whimsical approach to stress, suicide, and the meaning of life. I think you can also take a whimsical approach to all right, so let's let's figure out like where's the good in this? Because I think there's some pretty good stuff that can happen with this, it's not necessarily all doom and gloom. Um, and uh, and I say that as somebody who couldn't code to save his life. So maybe we're way further along and down the rabbit hole that I might actually.

SPEAKER_02: 47:41

I was reading this morning, Elon Musk's plan is to build a million robots right now. A million. He just became a trillionaire. I just became a trillionaire on that 10-year plan. Yeah, but like with the caveat of building a million robots, yeah, human service robots.

SPEAKER_00: 47:53

Like, what the like that's crazy. I mean, I don't know. What would you like? Okay, so here's a question. What so let's so take a moment. You're a trillionaire. What are you gonna build?

SPEAKER_02: 48:04

Oh, absolutely robots. Absolutely, absolutely. Like, get me, yeah, get me the the if it I see.

SPEAKER_03: 48:10

This is my thing. Like, I don't think trillionaires should exist. Yeah, so well, yeah, no, no. If someone came to me and was like, hey, you have you know billions of dollars, what are you gonna do? It's like I'm gonna give most of it away. Yeah. Like 90% of it. I'm gonna make sure that I'm extremely, extremely good, and then other than that, I'm just gonna be like extremely good. Well, I mean, you're gonna be set for like generational wealth that my grandkids are good or whatever, all that stuff. But I mean, in his world, I don't know. You need like a hundred million dollars and you're good for the rest of the day.

SPEAKER_02: 48:39

The definition of extremely, extremely good is almost never good enough, right? Because once you get to an extremely good level, the hustle. It was like, yeah, yeah, the hustle, the hustle, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 48:48

The fight of like I have to be the richest person on the internet.

SPEAKER_02: 48:50

I told you about this already. I don't think I had a chance to tell you about this yesterday when we met, but um I I had recently used Chat GTP because I saw it, I saw this online, it wasn't my own idea. Um, did I say it right? Chat GTP? GPT, Chat GT GPT, because Andrea keeps calling me out saying it wrong, eh? She's like, You said it wrong like three times in your podcast last week. I was like, whoops.

SPEAKER_00: 49:10

Andrea, yeah, he said GPT. We're landing on GPT, we're good.

SPEAKER_02: 49:14

Okay, okay, we're getting there. But, anyways, you can ask, and I I encourage anyone listening to try this because it is super cool. Oh, you told me with I did this, by the way. Did you do it? The tech question experiment. Did you agree that was super cool? It's very cool. Okay, where the heck is it?

SPEAKER_03: 49:28

I I have to go back and remember what I wrote down.

SPEAKER_02: 49:30

And if you want to know of how much I use this thing, it's just like there's a billion things here. I can barely find what I did last week on it. Um, but uh I guess basically you you ask uh you ask it to um ten questions about yourself, yeah. Uh one question at a time to kind of learn who you are, uh like really kind of like deeply inside. Um I I'll put the exact description on the thing. If anybody wants a message us. But uh, but anyways, it asks you one question at a time. One of them are in your ten questions, by the way, because I loved the question. Um, can we do 10 questions at the end of this show? Uh uh so it really puts things in perspective at the end of your life what's gonna be the most valuable to you. And I mean, for me, long story short, it was like hopefully Andrea would still be around. Did it say hopefully? I said hopefully. Oh, okay. I don't know what could happen. I'm just hoping. Yeah. Uh uh, and you know, maybe a cat, right? You know, and other than that, I'm kind of good. Like, I don't really want a lot. Like, you know, I like uh I would like a little house, I would like it to be comfortable, I'd like to be maybe in nature. That's where I am now. I mean, but there's not really much more that I want or need than I actually have at this given moment, right? I just probably you know want to hold on to that, right?

SPEAKER_00: 50:43

How how cool is that though?

SPEAKER_02: 50:44

Isn't that kind of cool?

SPEAKER_00: 50:45

Yeah, like uh you know, you know, hopefully Andrew's around. Now that you've got GPT, GTP thing sorted, I think we're gonna be good. GPT, we're good to go. Andrew has got no reason. Um, but like what like in that case, like of course there's so much like complexity and and and bias and energy consumption and stuff that's coming coming from this. But if that tool can help you just take a moment, moment's reflection to be like, I think I have what I need right now. It gave me the whole northern star by the end of it. It was unbelievable. And then you can have that perspective where like hopefully what I would challenge you on is to recognize that those answers are just a reflection of your thoughts, and you are not dependent on the AI algorithm to be able to answer the questions for you, and instead, it's something that is echoing back the feelings that you have.

SPEAKER_02: 51:33

I gotta give you the Northern Star that it gave me. Because this is from all the things that I wanted to have and be and do and who I wanted to be. So I said it said to me, it said, uh and I just as well say this to our listeners, because I mean, you know, I would really, really encourage you to try this, you know. So it's in ten questions. What could you ask me about myself that even I don't know? Ask me the questions one at a time without telling me the reasons for the questions. And then it does its thing and asks you ten randos. Yeah. And then uh so, anyways, getting to the bottom of this, I I'm not going to go into my all my answers here, but the North Star vision, or I'll I'll even boil it down to a North Star phrase, it said kindness first, creation without fear, and connection always.

SPEAKER_03: 52:16

That's pretty sweet. I didn't get a North Star. I got an insight. Ask it for a North Star right now. Well, I'll I will start here, but the insight it says for my insight from the questions is you're someone whose life is guided by love, reflection, and independence. You hold deep emotions and aspirations, yet sometimes practical or self-focus focus actions are deferred. There's a tension between humility and self-restraint, and the urge to fully express your passions and impact. Uh, the lifeline is intentionality. You may not always act immediately, but your choices are deeply aligned with what matters most to you relationships, purpose, and emotional authenticity. Yeah, yeah, you got like a whole horoscope there. Yeah, I did, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 52:55

So uh well, like it's like a customized to you. But like in both of the in the North Star and in the the insight that you just got, like, we've already talked about some of those things, right? Like you know that you defer. You you know, you like to do service to others, but you sometimes defer what your own, like, but those are things that have been covered. So what a wonderful mirror to reflect back what it is that is your essentially North Star, your insight, right? So so in that way, if you know, if if if the tool can allow for us to have like a uh uh uh uh relatively fearless way to be able to get to know ourselves better, I think that's a good thing, is it not?

SPEAKER_02: 53:35

Yeah, absolutely. I made a joke with or I was using AI for uh uh something else that you know we'll hopefully be able to bring up next year. Um but uh anyways, the project I was using is I uh asked AI to be sarcastic, give a sarcastic answer to this gentleman who was very critical of it, right? And put what he said in about it, you know, kind of destroying the earth and destroying humanity and all these horrible things. And I wanted to have like get a kind of a humorous response from the AI to see what it would say back. Um, long story short, basically said, I'm a mirror, so all the terrible things you see in me are you. Jeez like and I was like, Whoa. Well, I mean that's pretty it's pretty sharp, and it was it was meant to be satirical. Um it's like if you want to see a better image, you know, work on yourself, right? And uh I was like, I was like, that's pretty brutal.

SPEAKER_00: 54:25

Um and insightful. And insightful. And you're burying the lead a little bit because I've got gifts for you guys that are very aligned with what really well I listened, I listened to uh to Serena. So Sr Serena Haynes.

SPEAKER_02: 54:41

Oh yeah, she was awesome, eh?

SPEAKER_00: 54:42

Yeah, so she's fantastic.

SPEAKER_02: 54:44

Yeah, go back and listen to that when you haven't heard it, please. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 54:46

Uh so so she's the best. Uh she she she did uh TEDx Argyle with me. Um she I had the uh unenviable task of going right after Serena. Um so I will I walked out on stage, and the biggest laugh I got was when I went on stage and I was like, I feel like the cigarette after sex right now. Inappropriate. Um so anyway, needless to say, I know that she brought uh she brought goodies, different goodies. Oh yes. Um I'm not I'm not gonna that's not that's not what I'm bringing. But uh anyway, just a big fan. But anyway, part of part of that that uh gift bag is very related to that uh chat GPT snarky answer that I gave.

SPEAKER_02: 55:25

There you go. There we go, cool. Oh, I think I know what it is. I know what it is. Maybe I'll guess before you mean the gift thing. Okay, cool. Um, where were we now? I don't know. We're talking about stuff. Okay, we're talking about chat. We're here still at the uh Oxford on Garrison. Uh oh it's now Tuesday. But but uh but yeah, so anyways, I like I I guess the theme of what we've just been saying is is is all this AI stuff is is a tool. And use it um if you use it as a tool for kindness, empathy, trying to find wings to bring people together as opposed to as what we're obviously all doing now seems to be is going in other directions, um, it'd probably be quite a useful tool. And if you use it as a tool to try to save humanity, then yeah, work with it, you might actually get that result.

SPEAKER_00: 56:16

And imagine if like so so use it as a tool to save yourself and get to know yourself. Because what if that that same, you know, that same snarky remark to that same gentleman in that thought experiment that you had, where what would you say to the person who doesn't like AI um see that as somebody who has different political views of you than you. Yeah. What you don't like in them is how entrenched they are in their political views, or how unbending they are, or how unwilling to change or compromise or listen. Right. Like there's there's there's there's lessons in that that I think we can really apply to what we're living through every day. So that we Especially now, right?

SPEAKER_02: 56:51

Because I mean it often leaves with discriminate contents, com comments one way or the other. Uh and that's what brings us so far apart because we're seeing people almost actively discriminate against others. Either you're on the right and you might not, you know, oh you're not intelligent, or something very hurtful, right, is often said about the right and and to the left uh could be sometimes racist, even right? Like, you know, it's it's very hurtful on both sides, right?

SPEAKER_00: 57:14

So if we if we can find our like shared like universal language and universal humanity, many and if chat GPT can play a little role in that, I think that's a good thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 57:27

So there you go. Some optimism with Chat GPT. GTT P GPT. I'll never get a run.

SPEAKER_00: 57:35

Sorry, Andrea. We tried.

SPEAKER_02: 57:37

We're an hour in. Uh we got 10 questions. Are you ready to get into that?

SPEAKER_00: 57:40

We're an hour in.

SPEAKER_02: 57:41

Uh well, you know what?

SPEAKER_03: 57:42

Actually, just before we do that, um I know we had a lot here, but I just wanted to just let him uh talk a little bit about your book. So uh because yeah, and then we'll move into the book. Well, I wrote a book. You wrote a book?

SPEAKER_04: 57:52

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 57:52

For children. Or you know, did AI write that for you?

SPEAKER_00: 57:56

It was before AI. Uh it was well, it was before my my awareness of AI. Um, I guess so. Here's what I'd say. I threatened for years to write a book. Um, and uh I my I tell my kids every night, I love you, I trust you, I'm proud of you. And what I did was I decided to turn that phrase into a story that I can tell my kids uh and that maybe everybody can tell their kids because I recognize that not everybody gets to hear that at night.

SPEAKER_03: 58:22

Um it's kind of your like I love you 3000 version of that. I don't know if you're familiar with Iron Man or whatever, like if you watch the Marvel movies, but um I'm not familiar with I Love You 3000, but okay that's that's the thing in Iron Man is his that's what that's what Iron Man is. No, it wasn't Stan. Well it was MCU. So it's Iron like Tony Stark in the uh when you know before he died and all that stuff in the endgame or whatever. That was what he said to his like his daughter, or that's what his he and his daughter shared with each other. I love you three thousand. There you go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 58:50

So let me just it's my I Love You 3000. Um so essentially, uh so I I so I wrote this book and it's and it's uh it's a story about a dad who puts his kids to bed, and and they're like, Oh, I know you tell us this every night. And then they start pushing back and they say, Well, what if I do this? Or what if I look like this, or what if I make this decision, or what if this happens? And and the answer is always, well, you know, those are things that you do or say or look like. That's not who you are. I love you for who you are. Um, and uh, and and so writing the book was this like fantastic experience. Um, but uh uh and you can really you can buy it anywhere and you can you go to my website or you can get it on Amazon or Indigo or anywhere. Um, but uh one of the coolest things that I've done now is uh and in like in every aspect of my life is when you go and you do a book reading at the Ronald McDonald House and you get to sit down and you get to just hang out with some kids that might have just come out of treatment, yeah, and you get to just insert some whimsy, insert some silliness, insert some real life away from all of that nonsense, away from all the noise, away from all the tubes, away from all the tests, and you get to just see them be kids for a little bit. Yeah, and you get to read them this story that sometimes they laugh and sometimes they're like, oh, that's heartfelt. Um, and then you get to see their kid, their parents see their kids be kids. Yeah, like that's cool. Like I walked out of that uh when I when I was able to do that at the Ronald McDonald House, and I was like, this is this is this is what life is all about right now. So this is kind of come to come full circle. I felt like when I left that moment, when I left that reading, or when I left the library in the valley or in Quebec or wherever I was when I was doing a reading, where you get to see a kid really kind of sink into that message, yeah, that's leading courageously toward love. Amazing, and that feels so in line with like my heart, my soul, my purpose. I love that, man. That's really cool.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:45

Cheers to that, dude.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:46

Yeah, it's uh it doesn't matter if you're gonna get it. What about those colors though?

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:51

No, the colors are gone. Um, all right, just like the leaves on the trees. Okay, Matt, do you want me to? To lead these off, or do you want to go? Start start with one. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:59

How many of these did you write and how many of these are from ChatGPT?

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:02

These are mostly by me full disclosure. I started with ChatGPT and I started to kind of tailor them, and then by the end of the hour, they were pretty much all rewritten. Okay, perfect. But started with J uh the thing. Yeah. Started AR. Just say AR. I just don't want to say it anymore. I'm just saying. Okay. So your recent TED Talk was largely about bridging divides between people. Through some things. Oh I didn't write them very well. Your recent TED Talk was about bridging divides between people. Um so do you butter your toast before or after cutting it?

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:43

Before.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:01:46

And no judgment.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:47

No judgment.

SPEAKER_03: 1:01:48

Well, tons of judgment. Who the hell butters the toast after cutting it? Oh, I d I butter it before. Yeah, of course. Somebody might. There's probably some afters out there.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:56

Yeah, listen, you you do you. It doesn't affect me at all. It doesn't affect something that I would do. I think it's weird, but I mean, like, it doesn't.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:03

You're right, it doesn't affect me. If you want to have crappy toast, go for it, right? You know, so so we're not going to hate on people that.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:09

Who would have thought the toast would choose like cut their toast first, Matt?

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:14

That's the dumbest thing in the world.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:16

The whole point of this was to not get too angry at the people that choose to cut their toast first, Matt. You missed, you missed the point I missed. You missed the whole point of this exercise. We're trying to bridge people together.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:26

For those of you listening and that aren't watching audio, Matt who freaked out about the toast is not Matt the guest who did the TED talk.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:35

Yeah, like no, like as I said, do what you wish. Do as you wish. People can live their lives. Just you know.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:43

Awesome. Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:45

I have a better way. Great. Great, great.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:48

Great and great answer. Yeah, you're building that bridge.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:52

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:52

Okay, your turn.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:55

Uh so if uh if your company, uh P4G, had a cartoon mascot, what would it be?

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:02

Uh we do have a cartoon mascot. Oh really? Yep. Uh, and it is a uh lovable blue um humanoid style.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:13

I did not see this. I was I was researching too.

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:15

Oh, it's deep in the archives. I think we had to uh so his name is Namu. Okay. What is it? Which is human back backwards.

SPEAKER_03: 1:03:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:24

Um we'll see if we can dig it up in the archives. Uh we realize that I mean a lot of the work that we do is in the we, you know, we call human dynamics what like the industry calls human resources, and we realize that having a mascot that doesn't have any pants on, like not in a sexual weird way, but you know, yeah, having a no-pants uh mascot as a as a as as an animated character is probably not something that is you know, appropriate from that perspective. So it's anyway, Namu, the wonderful blue, cuddly, uh humanoid style thing.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:56

Very cool. Okay. You wrote a children's book called I Love You, I Trust You, I'm Proud of You. How do you think you could translate this message so it could be used in today's workplace?

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:09

Um Segway, can I do a segue to that? Because I think I I think that uh there is always an opportunity for um somebody's uh confidence, some somebody's contribution to come when they feel that sense of of of self-love.

SPEAKER_02: 1:04:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:27

Um so as far as how it can be translated into today's world, I know that I mean I the podcasts that I listen to are around an hour, an hour and fifteen. So maybe we won't get to the actual gift giving component, but full disclosure, you're both getting books, you're both getting stickers, and you're both getting mirrors. Stickers. I knew we were getting mirrors. That's the thing I guess.

SPEAKER_02: 1:04:48

About the mirror to yourself thing to me yesterday. Exactly. So so is that.

SPEAKER_03: 1:04:52

Stuart Smiley on S NL. Insider information. Stuart Smiley on Saturday Night Live. Remember that? I don't follow. No, sorry. Stuart Smiley. Yeah, for sure it was S NL. I remember Stuart Smiley. Yeah, and that was Mad TV, wasn't it? Maybe he was mad TV. Anyway, he was the guy who used to sit in the mirror and he'd be like, You're good enough, you're good. Gosh darn it, you're gonna whatever, right?

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:11

Like it was that really so basically uh it's my I Love You 3000 and and Stuart Smiley. Everything's recycled. But to answer your question about the workplace, I think if people can uh can find their own voice through uh self-reflection, through looking in the mirror, through saying, I love you, I trust you, I'm proud of you. Yeah, you know, your your your contributions are worthy. Speak up in that meeting, provide that uh provide that insight. Um, you can contribute to culture change, to impact to growth, all those kinds of things.

SPEAKER_03: 1:05:40

Love the answer. Yeah. Okay, cool. I like it. All right, so question number four uh pick one fictional character from television or film that you would love to have on your team and why?

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:55

Oh, what a great question.

SPEAKER_03: 1:05:59

Um Mickey Mouse is though, because he has no pants. Or no, he does have pants, or Donald Duck. Donald Duck has no pants in it.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:07

Um okay, so uh I'm torn between so probably because of the mustache uh and because of the general vibe, like the Ted Lasso comes to mind. Um I talked about Ted Lasso uh so just having you know Jason Sadeikis as Ted Lasso or Jason Sedeikas as Jason Sadeakis would be amazing. Um I'm gonna go deep cut and I'm gonna say um Isaac from Sports Night. Look it up. He's Isaac uh I don't know who that is, man. I don't know who that is. Sports Night is this like is this old Aaron Sorkin show that was around in the 90s for three or four episodes, um and or sorry, three or four seasons rather. And uh and Isaac is like the old wise uh like senior producer, uh I guess he's the executive director of of this like sports night, which is like you know, it's it's third to ESPN and whoever else is as far as the program is concerned. Um, and he's uh he's lived so much uh life, and anyway, he's fantastic. So I'm gonna go Isaac from Sports Night. Look it up. Cool answer. I'll look it up then.

SPEAKER_03: 1:07:08

It sounds like a show I'd actually kind of like. All right, buddy, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:11

No, it's over to you. Okay. If AI takes half of the jobs in the workforce, should AI get a vacation?

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:20

Uh I thought you were gonna ask me, should AI be buttered first? And I was gonna be like, You gotta stuff because butter stuff me. Um if AI gets half the jobs in the workforce, should AI get a vacation? Um, no.

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:34

No. So, okay, interesting. So you don't think we should treat the robots as human eventually?

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:40

Um, well, I didn't I didn't say that, and not in that, not in that aspect. Not in that aspect. Not in that aspect.

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:47

It was a tour overlords, I disagree.

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:53

I love you, I trust you, I'm proud of you.

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:55

Go for uh you'll go for a little ride. 0011, 0011. You guys are great. All right, no, that was that was a lose-lose question.

SPEAKER_03: 1:08:05

I'm sorry. We like number six. Yeah, go on. Uh so when you imagine yourself very old, sitting somewhere quietly, what do you see around you?

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:24

I see uh trees swaying. Um I see like kids and family and and uh community just you know um laughing, playing. Um I see a lot of love. I actually it's funny because I was I was talking about this recently. I actually hear more than I see, I think. So I hear um like laughter, joy, and love and and insert what that imagery is. I like that.

SPEAKER_04: 1:09:02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:03

It's a good podcast. That's a good podcast.

SPEAKER_03: 1:09:06

It is a good podcaster, but also sounds are like a really big thing, and we talked a little bit about sounds with uh with Jenny. Jenny, yeah, Jenny Bovart. And like and like the sounds that kind of like bring back certain things.

SPEAKER_02: 1:09:16

Oh man, she had a wicked sound, uh like the sound of a bicycle. So she's uh she's visually impaired, right? And she just started in the first show where she was uh starring as a visually impaired uh albino, which like a role like that had never existed before, and she started a show called Pretty Blind, which was pretty cool. And uh, anyways, yeah, she was uh favorite sound was the sound of a bicycle chain going as she was wishing down the street.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:37

Oh, that's yeah, it's such a cool because it it brings like it's like it it creates the foundation upon which you build your own imagery, right?

SPEAKER_02: 1:09:44

A certain nostalgia of freedom or whatever, right?

SPEAKER_03: 1:09:47

You know, such a cool such a cool sound. I've come to re like the reason why that hits so much for me with Jenny is because I've come to realize with having a four-year-old who we don't allow him to have screens, um we've come to kind of really realize the power of just listening to things. So instead of getting TV, he has Yoda, which they tells little Marvel stories or Spider-Man stories and stuff like that, or we'll play Spider-Man stories in the car, and he doesn't watch these things, he listens to them. And what we've learned is that he's he's just his imagination goes crazy, right? And he's paying attention way deeper than you'd ever think. Like I remember one night he asked me, or I said something, he said, like, oh, this superhero is gonna like beat this bad guy. Because I said, Oh, who would win? This superhero, this bad guy. I was and I was and he told me the superhero said, Why? And he says, 'Cause he has a cloaking power. And I said, does a three-year-old, four-year-old know what cloaking is? But he's paying attention so deeply. And he and I said, What does that mean? What do you think that means, bud? And he told me. He told me he did defined it. And I was like, and then I walked in and talked to my wife, and I said, You know what cloaking is? She's like, No, I'm like, that doesn't count. You're French. It doesn't count. Let me second. I called my mother, who's in her 60s. You know what cloaking is? No? What's that? Right? The power of sound.

SPEAKER_00: 1:11:05

First of all, okay. Les Français savent des fois qu'est-ce que sometimes French people know what cloaking is. Okay, so I'll apologize to your wife for that one. But um, but I but because because the imagination is so limitless, right? If you can create that, I mean, same thing for my kids, like reading stories, listening stories. Like my my kids are the uh like oldest kids in in in Canada. They they listen to Stuart McPain vinyl cafe stories and they love them. And it just like creates your own imagery, right? It create like you're you're you have limitless capacity for imagination.

SPEAKER_03: 1:11:37

Well, I mean, we talked about boredom earlier and how it can like reset things like that. I I learned through COVID that boredom is a privilege. Yeah, yeah. Great point. Awesome. Me or you, uh we're on seven, so it's you.

SPEAKER_02: 1:11:48

Okay. Finish this sentence. A truly inclusive workplace would finally have belonging. Oh, belonging. That was quick. That was very quick, and not a humorous answer I was hoping for.

unknown: 1:12:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:12:01

Pinball. Unlimited sandwiches. I'd be like, unbuttered and buttered, halves of toast, is that it?

SPEAKER_00: 1:12:10

All right. No, but belonging comes up, yeah. Belonging comes up a lot. It's the opposite of fit. I mean, uh, like we talk about it, Brennan Brown talks about it, everybody talks about it. Um, but if you truly feel like you belong, you truly feel accepted as a human, um, it's being seen and heard. Cool. Love that. Love the answer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:12:24

Okay, go ahead, man.

SPEAKER_03: 1:12:25

Number eight. So uh where do you imagine humanity will be a century from now?

SPEAKER_00: 1:12:32

Oh where will it be? I think it's gonna be in a better place. Yeah. Yeah. I really do. I think uh I I think we're we're always learning, growing, evolving, um, and challenging ourselves. Um, I think that systems and structures will very likely be different. Um, you know, I've got my own thoughts on capitalism that is you know shared in in a lot of different writings out there, but I think that uh what we're recognizing is that um treating each other kindly, um you know, kindness comes up again, right? Um if if if if we're able to recognize that being there for each other through collaboration, through kindness, um is what's what's most important for us, then maybe um creating or or um allowing for systems that previously existed to re-emerge um would be cool. So I think it's gonna be in a better place.

SPEAKER_03: 1:13:31

I like that. I I I I kind of think the same. I think we're in a point of maybe that's just my optimism, but I think we're at a point now where just we're in like the rough patch before things will get a lot better.

SPEAKER_01: 1:13:46

Yeah, let's hope.

SPEAKER_03: 1:13:47

Yeah. I think it's starting to, I think that tide is starting to turn a little bit already. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 1:13:52

Well, can so I'm I'm so like No no, we gotta wait. So so uh like what one of the things that I try to remind myself of is I was watching Seinfeld the other day, and there was this whole episode around uh around this answering machine. And you know how they it goes to believe it or not, George. It actually wasn't no, it was a different episode about our answering machine. Oh, really? For those of you listening at home who are under the age of 25, an answering machine was something that was connected to your home phone, which was why you would go like this. And uh so what was uh what was so fascinating about it was he did the stand-up bit and he was talking about the sense of adrenaline that you get when you walk in the door and you see the red light flashing on your answering machine. Right. And oftentimes you have messages from people who don't actually want to talk to you, they just want to let you know that they were calling and they don't want to, and then and then you know the joke goes on from there. But I realized that that's kind of the rush that you get from a like on social media, and and and it's it's a it's a similar thing where it's a similar like peripheral relationship where you get that adrenaline rush, and you know, uh so the reason I bring that up is to say that I don't know how rough the patch is now compared to when that joke was written in the 90s, compared to what was happening in the 70s. Yeah, yeah. Like I don't necessarily think it like I think there's so much that's going wrong in this in the world right now that we can see, but there's also also there's a bunch of shit that was going wrong in the 90s and and previously. That's true. There is rapid change. Yeah, yeah. But I I I just I find great solace in that to be like, you know what, maybe we aren't just like we're we're not like the first first ones to to take a step on the moon. Like maybe maybe we're not as unique from that perspective. Maybe there is a little bit of history not repeating but rhyming.

SPEAKER_02: 1:15:32

Question number nine. Uh, because it's November and you have a great mustache, you truly do. Okay. What what's one good practice you'd like to share about mustache hygiene?

SPEAKER_00: 1:15:47

Um German face cream. Why German keeps coming up?

SPEAKER_01: 1:15:52

German face cream.

SPEAKER_00: 1:15:53

So there's this German face cream called Velda, so W-E-L-D-A.

SPEAKER_01: 1:15:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 1:15:58

Um, because I get really dry like here. So I get really dry in my mustache.

SPEAKER_04: 1:16:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:16:03

Like skin. Yeah, I think that's normal, yeah. And uh, and so I use this moisturizer called Velda. Um and uh and it's fantastic. It kind of smells a little bit like grapefruit, I've been told. Okay. Um so and it's and it's and hey, you know what? You can you can you can moisturize and have a mustache and and and still be a dude. Um nothing wrong with that. Absolutely. You gotta be careful because it also is like uh it's a thing about yay big. Um, and I may or may not have had a sleepover uh with my nephews when they were over, and they may or may not have commented on how bad our toothpaste tasted, and they may or may not have used the toothpaste uh slash face case.

SPEAKER_03: 1:16:40

Yeah, so that's all does it taste like crepefruit?

SPEAKER_00: 1:16:44

Uh based on my nephew, I would say no. Yeah, I'm so sorry for telling that story on a podcast.

SPEAKER_03: 1:16:51

Question number 10. Uh, so band or artists. Uh which band or artist would you love to see in concert the most, dead or alive?

SPEAKER_00: 1:17:02

Oh that's such a tough one. Uh, we were talking yesterday about Spotify and about how the like I'm the same way with regards to music all over um the spectrum. Um I've gotten to see some really cool bands. Like, I like one of the coolest experiences I got to see was um um was uh The wall. Uh and it and it's it was just a wonderful experience. So I I've gotten to see some really big things, Peter Gabriel and all kinds of like big bands and stuff. I'd love to see Coldplay, I'd love to to like experience something big like that, but I'm gonna bring it down to like the most simplest thing, and I'm gonna say like a 1A and 1B. Um 1A, John Batiste. Okay, one B, Tom Waits. Oh man, Tom Waits.

SPEAKER_01: 1:17:52

I'm a big Tom Waits fan. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:17:54

In like a dingy jazz club bar, um along for the ride. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03: 1:18:02

I think I'm more of a Tom Waits fan than a Tom Waits music fan. Oh, really? I just the guy himself was just a character. Oh man. And every interview I ever saw with him, I'm just kind of like, man, that guy. I would like to spend one night with that guy.

SPEAKER_00: 1:18:18

Have you ever seen The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus? No, I haven't. Oh my god. So he's been other stuff. He plays the devil. Really? So that was that was um uh so you're you're a comic book guy. So that was Heath Ledger's last movie. Heath Ledger died making that movie, and uh, and they rewrote the script and they brought in like Colin Farrell and Jude Law and stuff like that. Like all these different mirrored versions of and Tom Waits plays the devil, which is like, of course, Tom Waits plays the devil. Yeah, and it's just it's it's a trip, it's great. Uh we're heading into a long weekend, so maybe that's what I'll be uh watching with Megan this weekend.

SPEAKER_01: 1:18:57

That's great.

SPEAKER_02: 1:18:57

Great answers, man. Awesome. Well, that concludes our 10 questions. You did a great job. That's the hardest part's over. We have one last thing. We just like to call it the last call. So we ask every guest this question what's one piece of advice you were given in your lifetime that you just like to share with our listeners today?

SPEAKER_00: 1:19:15

I already use that hands if helping thing for my mom. Um okay. I'm gonna go with um uh lucky enough to have stumbled upon uh a mentor, and uh she came in and spoke with our uh with myself and our team a few years ago, and she said um she said that she's looking around and she said, I see a lot of wide open hearts in this room and a lot of people who want to do really good. And what you need to remember is that wide open hearts need big fucking fences. Whoa. All right, I was not expecting that quote from you, dude. And that that that really resonated with me because I recognize that some similar to you and your and your AI agent, um, that oftentimes you can you know you can give so much that you give yourself away, and you need to recognize that you need to love yourself and build those fences to be able to protect yourself in order to be your best self.

SPEAKER_01: 1:20:27

Awesome answer.

SPEAKER_02: 1:20:28

Perfect quote. I love it. Thank you so much for having uh a beverage with us and uh hanging out. Anything you want to just kind of plug for the last minute?

SPEAKER_00: 1:20:37

Uh I didn't even have to eat hot wings and I get to say that. No, no, you don't. This is like a hot ones thing. Yeah, um, I just want to say thank you so much for doing what you're doing, for being able to have conversations with folks and allow for them to have their voices heard, because I think that's the best thing that we can do. It's what I strive to do in life through work, through P4G, um, through the book. Um, watch the TED Talk, find something that inspires you. Um, and uh, and and here's what I'll plug. If you made it to this far in the episode, reach out to somebody in the next hour or two. Just say, hey, thinking about you. Cheers. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:21:11

Cheers to that. Thank you so much. Awesome episode.