131. Web 3 AI Entrepreneurship in E-Commerce Eric McHugh w/ Favazza

From personal finance to the innovative world of e-commerce, the conversation pivots to $SHOPX, where my Eric McHugh entrepreneurial spirit shines. Discover how this Web 3 venture is redefining the shopping experience by merging AI and blockchain, empowering brands, and revolutionizing customer interactions through unique NFT loyalty programs. The synergy between strategic thinking in chess, the discipline of Muay Thai, and the cautious dance of credit management and Bitcoin investment is dissected, revealing the art of balancing risk and reward while fortifying mental resilience.

Websites: https://www.ytspod.com

Transcripts: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2242998/14547245

EPISODE LINKS:

Eric's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericdouglasmchugh/

Eric's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ericmchugh0

$SHOPX Twitter: https://twitter.com/shopxlabs


OUTLINE: 

The episode's timestamps are shown here. You should be able to jump to that time by clicking the timestamp on certain podcast players.

(00:00) -  The Future of Currency and Bitcoin

(11:21) - $SHOPX, Bitcoin, Credit Cards, Muay Thai, Chess

(15:07) - Web 3 AI Entrepreneurship in E-Commerce

(27:45) -  Positive Mind, Trauma Healing

(31:22) -  Navigating Energy and Healing Trauma

(40:46) - Energy Healing Retreat Discussion

(47:23) - Transformative Podcast Support and Connection

Transcript

Gregory Favazza: 0:00

I've talked with a lot of people and they're in its it's 5050, where some are saying it's a risk and others are saying to Put your money into something else. I mean to diversify, have a well-diverse portfolio. And you're saying that Bitcoin is something that we are transitioning to. Or are you alluding to that? That that's what we should be focusing?

Announcer: 0:24

You're listening to a podcast that encourages you to embrace your vulnerabilities and authentic self.

Eric McHugh: 0:30

This is your transformation station and this is your host Greg Favazza you.

Gregory Favazza: 0:50

Eric me, you come on downtown like that.

Eric McHugh: 0:56

It's quite dentures.

Gregory Favazza: 0:58

Yeah, not really. How's it going, though it's going low on pilot yourself Not too bad. I'm gonna apologize for the zoom thing. Like I, I'd press something on my profile and I don't know what I pressed, and now it's making everybody need a password when it was just fine Not even a little bit ago.

Eric McHugh: 1:16

Honestly, dude, it's all good. I'm just glad we found, I'm glad we're just meeting face-to-face versus we just found each other, yeah just. Oh, it's so cute, but versus like just like a sorry, another round of like email tag in that bullshit.

Gregory Favazza: 1:26

We're just like ah yeah like damn it, what the fuck are you doing? So tell me about yourself, tell me about, like, what you got going on over here. What is, uh, what is shop X? Or is that what I?

Eric McHugh: 1:37

see, yeah, so I got two companies going on. One is shop X, web 3 e-commerce and the other is Data in AI powered matchmaking. Hmm, what got you into this? So, overall, I just kind of follow my genuine intellectual curiosity and whatever it leads me, it leads me. So a little bit of backstory. Do you want like an intro, or just right into the meat and potatoes of it?

Gregory Favazza: 2:03

I just want something authentic and not rehearsed.

Eric McHugh: 2:06

Yeah, cool. So Right after. So my overall goal is to live a nice, peaceful life. I couldn't really do that if I'd be the money system as being corrupt, which it is, and that originally led me to like gold as a solution and that eventually led me to Bitcoin as a next step for gold. So at that point in time, I was a consultant which, as a consultant, but at the same time really researching Bitcoin and all that ethos being a consultant for bankruptcy, bankruptcy companies didn't align with Bitcoin ethos, so I quit that.

Eric McHugh: 2:40

I'm start going to cryptocurrency meetups because I'm like, okay, I need to work in space, this is where I need to be. And then I met their original shop X team and then we started that company. So what shop X is? It's a way for an e-commerce brand, a web to e-commerce brand, to download an app and then interact in web 3. So back to my like goal of a nice, peaceful life. Rather than onboard like my mom or grandma or whatever like over like four or five Thanksgiving's by Bitcoin that type thing be annoying. This is a way for me to onboard people into the crypto ecosystem at scale. So like, let's say, nike, whoa, don't go any further.

Gregory Favazza: 3:14

All right. I don't like is this is it's a big concept as it is, but I want to just back up a little bit, like let's go back to like with currency. Do you think that's a scam?

Eric McHugh: 3:25

No, I mean, I view currency, money, I just energy so like, let's say, in a perfect world, you provide product or service to me, I provide you with currency, you, that's my energy transfer to you, but you gave me value, so then you can use my energy or currency whatever you wanted to go and do whatever you want. The issue so I think currency is good. I think it's just technology. I think the scam is the fiat version of currency. So what fiat is just base currency.

Eric McHugh: 3:51

So it's essentially when the government comes in, they let's say the government prints like a trillion dollars. What did that? What did they effectively do by printing a trillion dollars? When they printed trillion dollars, the money I own the money, you own the money, everyone owns that money loses a little bit of value. And if you think about it from the lens like, let's say, the average salary is like 60k in the United States or something you divide, 60k, buy it. Whatever a trillion is Ever so, that number is like how many years the government has technically stolen from the people's work, because if you work 60k, they printed trillion dollars. They're taking money from you. And then, on top of that, what's happening with the money? Oftentimes using it really dumb ways. They're using it to bomb people, they're using his bribe, so it's just, it creates a wrong incentive structure. So, like in the currents, it's more like a systematic problem. Where it's like in the current system, like what about?

Gregory Favazza: 4:41

with. How do they? What's the reason behind Printing the money in the first? Let me rephrase that like how do they get this baseline number of? This is the amount of money that we have to print? Because? Is this based off how many bursts are happening within the United States or within, I mean, the globe, are like, what are they fork? How are they forecasting to print a specific amount?

Eric McHugh: 5:05

Well, so they don't really have a forecast, nor do they have data, nor do they have anything. They just print based on their need. So whenever, like the politicians on capital is like we kind of need more money, how do we get this money? Well, we can't produce anything of value, let's just print it. And then it's like okay, of course you're gonna vote to print yourself more money. So who's like you want to do that? So, like and like, of course I have some stuff to have to manage, like right now, if you look at the US debt clock, it's some ridiculous number that no one could ever pay back. So they have to print. They have to print money to a like, manage the debt and pay off their debtors, but they also have to print money to pay their own salaries. They have to print money to fund their own wars, to pay their own friends and government contractors who pay charge like 100 bucks per fork or something done like that. And that's because of a position of power where they put their friends. It's like okay, you're my homie, I'm a corrupt politician, your contractor will give you 100 bucks for fork. And then we both like split the profit segment thing. Okay, that's like it's a systematic thing, and the reason it's systematic is like, let's say, I think most people want to become rich, wealthy and healthy. Like, how would you, how do you become wealthy in what's the easiest way to become wealthy in our current system without producing any value? Okay, let's put yourself in a position near the money printer.

Eric McHugh: 6:17

Ak politicians so like, okay, I want to get rich. What do I do? Like, look at Nancy Pelosi, look at all their networks Is there right near the money printer. And what happens then is they're close to the money printer, they get to decide where the money goes. They give it to their friends, and now there's like, let's say, one politician's corrupt. They give it to three other politicians. Now there's three corrupt politicians, three corrupt politicians in the system, and those three will beat the non-corrupt ones because they have money and they're doing corrupt means. And now there's six politicians who are corrupt and obviously it just kind of spreads like a disease where it's concentrated at the top.

Gregory Favazza: 6:52

Well, I know there's other ways that I mean, if you're working for an organization, you can be incentivized to do good things and you can also be incentivized to do bad things. So I like what you're saying as far as follow the money but even further, find where the fucking money printer is and just nest up right next to that and then now you can kind of do like a quit pro quo situation to build a network of other kinds of yeah.

Eric McHugh: 7:22

Yeah, I'm just I'm just yeah, that's what I call it like the web employer. But, yeah, I think Bitcoin helps fix that because, let's say, in a Bitcoin standard, gold worked as well too. But I think Bitcoin is just like a new technical version of that where, as a Bitcoin standard, you can print the money. So what do you do if you can't print the money? You have to produce value. So let's say hypothetically you, greg, you have Bitcoin.

Eric McHugh: 7:44

I want your Bitcoin because I want your Bitcoin, I want the freedom of provides what the security provides. How do I take Greg's Bitcoin? Well, I can't just print it. So now, options out, I have to provide something of value to you and then you would give me your Bitcoin. So it creates an incentive structure where, instead of the incentive structure being like becoming like a parasite and taking from the productive class of society, which is what I think a lot of them do Now, the incentives are okay. Well, I want to be rich. What better? Produce a ton of value for a lot of people and that's how I'll get rich. So I think Bitcoin helps with that.

Gregory Favazza: 8:15

Okay, but see, I've talked with a lot of people and it's 50-50, where some are saying it's a risk and others are saying to put your money into something else. I mean to diversify, have a well-diverse portfolio and you're saying that Bitcoin is something that we are transitioning to, or are you alluding to that? That's what we should be focusing.

Eric McHugh: 8:41

So another thing I say is financial bias.

Eric McHugh: 8:44

I think, on an individual basis, you should put your money where it makes sense for you, like, for example I think we're younger, we have higher risk tolerance. I wouldn't recommend my grandma put all of her money in Bitcoin, nor a store, nor even interact with it, because she's a grandma, but I just think it's the future. So what I do with my choices is I would put well, pretty much 100% in, but again, that choice may not be for everyone and again I was like in the Bitcoin system, we encourage you to do your own research. So I've done the research, I came to the conclusion myself and my actions reflect that. But if you do your own research and you come to a different conclusion, maybe it's like 5%, 3%, 10%, 50% or even 0%. The important thing is if you've done the research and you made a decision that's in the best interest of yourself, whereas I view it's in the best interest for myself to purchase Bitcoin. But not everyone thinks so and I think everyone's okay with doing whatever is in their best interest.

Gregory Favazza: 9:33

And what was the work that you've done that gave you that conclusion to go all in?

Eric McHugh: 9:38

So that's a long, just like years of just bombarting myself with Bitcoin content. So it really is like a rabbit hole, so like when I started it started off with my couple of friends, so like, of course, when, like myself, how I got into Bitcoin is pretty much how everyone gets into Bitcoin it's like, okay, you should be like what is this thing? Oh, I can make a bunch of money off of that. I can get a sweet pump. So then you buy the Bitcoin, you catch a pump and you're just like, okay, this is cool. But then, since you caught the pump, you're kind of more invested. You have a skin in the game. You're more likely to research it yourself and the more you research, the more into it you get and the more you buy. And then the more you buy, the more skin in the game you have, the more research you have. So it's just like countless hours of like books and podcasts and just like conversations and all that stuff. There wasn't like one thing.

Gregory Favazza: 10:22

And that makes sense. So have you ever like caught yourself in like some cost-balancing kind of moment where you're like, whoa, I put too much into this, it's time to move away?

Eric McHugh: 10:34

No, I'm gonna constantly say that I wish I had more. Oh, okay, that's never changed. It's like and I would use leverage stuff too. Where it's like, okay, I'll borrow against it too, and they got hurt from that, there's a lesson. But like I would go and like and I'm not recommend anyone do this, not even myself, because I learned my lesson but like I would borrow money off the credit cards to purchase a Bitcoin. I'm like well, that's not enough anymore, let's open up more credit cards.

Gregory Favazza: 10:56

Definitely I'll relate with you Like I did a Robert Kiyosaki event with real estate investing and they were showing us how to get money quick to establish a business and they were saying like I guess when it worked back then was to have like five credit card companies open and have your little application all set right about ready to press the send button which will send it to the company. You have like five of them up and you got personal loans over here and it's all ready to go and you have to do it quick, like all of them at once, and then somehow it would work for people trying to establish themselves and it doesn't work like that anymore.

Eric McHugh: 11:38

No, I tried that again too. I just I want what I open. Too many they're just like now I just can't open anymore. They're just like what do you do and do it? What do you need this for? So what I would do is I'd open the credit cards. And how do you get because you can buy it?

Eric McHugh: 11:51

They make it really difficult to buy Bitcoin with credit cards, so you need like cash to do it, or like you need like some physical cash. So, like how me and my friends would do, is we would we just have a bunch of Venmo accounts and you can do Venmo to cash, so you can send Venmo with a credit card for like a 3% fee. So we would send each other Venmo's from our credit card. Like we open credit cards and each other Venmo's from our credit card, then cash out our Venmo. So that would result in a cash like it's like a loan for 3%, so which is not bad. Then we'll use the cash to buy Bitcoin and then, once the Bitcoin's in the crypto ecosystem, that's more free for allowing it to play around with other crypto assets and do whatever you want with it. That's interesting it resulted in right now, but I think it was shit.

Gregory Favazza: 12:33

But I don't know, I think it's kind of better, like I mean, to have I mean poor credit if you're going to invest it into something like. I don't recommend it just to go on a spree, but if you're trying to go after something, I mean, yeah, that's kind of what it's for, but not just how you want to look at it, I don't know, yeah, I agree.

Eric McHugh: 12:50

To me it's like the number doesn't matter. First of all, the person assigning the number. They're like $40 trillion of debt, so who cares? And then the other thing is like, okay, well, if you have a bunch of hard assets like, let's say, you had a bunch of gold it's like, okay, I have a million bucks of gold, I'm going to buy a million dollar, alice. It's like, well, yes, my credit card, my credit score may not be the best, but I have the little cash, so what do you want to do here, man? And of course it'll take it. And again, not financial advisors need to clarify. Just because this is kind of like it's full. I think this is more just like DJ mode. But yeah, robert Kiyosaki thought that was a good book too.

Gregory Favazza: 13:22

Yeah, no, definitely Tell us about. So you do Muay Thai and you play chess. Is that on? That's on your LinkedIn, right?

Eric McHugh: 13:30

Yeah, it's just part of like it's obvious they're good at obvious no, I used to do.

Gregory Favazza: 13:36

I used to be an instructor in Muay Thai.

Eric McHugh: 13:38

Oh, in a way yeah, yeah, so.

Gregory Favazza: 13:40

I got the basic, like level one, instructor certification. It was hard as fuck Like I cried afterwards I was crying but it happened yeah like after that. It was just like a gauntlet of just clenching and throwing it up.

Eric McHugh: 13:56

Oh, the clinch is the worst. Yes, it just kept going and going and going.

Gregory Favazza: 14:02

It's just like we don't stop. It's like a 12 hour event and I'm like, okay, oh Jesus Christ, 12 hours of clenching, Just a combination of different things, but by the end that's what was like. The final gauntlet was the clenching is whatever. You have left, all the energy you got, you just got to do this to the best. And then they're watching you and if you're not putting the full effort in, you're not doing this, then you're gonna get dropped. So it's like motherfucker.

Eric McHugh: 14:27

Yeah, but that is a motherfucker moment. Dude, the clinch is the most tiring thing. It is. Yeah, it's the hardest, and no one feels like doing it ever. You like scratch it on your neck too, it's just, you just like.

Gregory Favazza: 14:39

Well, I don't see, I was lucky Like I growing up. Like we would always go boating on the Mississippi and our thing was tubing. So I was afraid Like I'm an introvert, I was afraid as fuck to fall into the Mississippi rivers. Nasty, it's gross. I won't ever go in there again but I would hang on for my dear life and I guess over time that adapted into helping me clinch, so that that's actually good for me. I don't know. Yeah, tell me about with the Web 3 AI entrepreneur. Like go deeper into your expertise a little bit.

Eric McHugh: 15:17

Yeah, so I think it would go. I think both companies would like that and so, like I said earlier, I just kind of fall. But I think the universe presents opportunity when it does, so I just follow my. I think everyone's given specific gifts and I think everyone is happiest when they're surfing other people and I think the best way to serve other people is to just be authentic, because if you're authentic, you're like I'm the best at being me. You're the best at being you Like. If you want to try to be me, you'd lose, but if I try to be you, you'd lose. So just do what feels right and I think that comes with the best result, and that's resulted in both ShopX and doting. So what ShopX is and again, my overall goal is not more people on a crypto scale. So what ShopX is, it's the Apple Web 3.

Eric McHugh: 16:01

Long term, we're going to be a suite of products for an e-commerce brand on Shopify or WooCommerce to download our app and then get whatever Web 3 benefits they want to pay on their need in the product. So right now we have two products live. The first is ReserveX and that's an NFT-powered loyalty program. So if you're a brand, you're on Shopify, you can download our app, get our tokenized software licenses which are also a first of this kind and then, directly within the Shopify app, you can launch your NFT collection in less than five minutes. So we've created a no-code solution for you as a brand, like dude.

Eric McHugh: 16:32

It's so easy. It's just two forms. It's like a name, a picture, a description, a price. You just fill in two forms and then on the back end, your NFT collection is deployed and then you could add e-commerce benefits to that NFT. So, for example, if Nike were to launch a gold, silver, bronze outpass collection, the gold members could get product A for free. Silver members could get product A for 50%. Enough. Bronze members could get the product for just before everyone else and the brand gets to keep adding e-commerce benefits to that pass. Like OK, you're a gold pass holder, you get this limited-time drop. Like a software out thing, you get first dibs in everyone else. Ok, you get this discount, so they can just keep adding benefits to the pass.

Gregory Favazza: 17:14

So is there a? I know with financial institutions they offer a protection if with somehow I don't want to say someone hacking. I mean, if you lose access to this, is there a protection plan or is there some sort of reinsurance in this?

Eric McHugh: 17:37

No, because there's unneeded. So it's not like storing anything, because you're just deploying as a brand. You deploy a smart contract collection. There you get to display a smart contract.

Gregory Favazza: 17:47

I'm learning this. As you know. I have no fucking clue, so we're learning together.

Eric McHugh: 17:51

Yeah, so you're a brand, you want to do some NFT stuff in terms of loyalty, because it increases loyalty, increases conversion, all that stuff. So you deploy your NFT collection and then you get a URL and then you as a brand get to add products to that pass. And then your customer comes in and he's like OK, I want the specific hat, I want this product thing, I want whatever comes with this pass. They purchase the NFT or pass or whatever you want to call it. They purchase with credit card or Ethereum and at that point in time, the customer has ownership of the NFT. So they get the benefits and you as a brand get paid. So there's nothing really to hack, it's just you just kind of get paid.

Gregory Favazza: 18:27

OK, it's like an ambassador kind of thing, like where I'm trying to understand it. I don't know. I'm trying to connect the dots here to what I do know, because if you were to try to say what's the point of having an NFT and what's the point of having this, make it very simple. If I can get it, everybody can get it.

Eric McHugh: 18:45

It's a loyalty pass for a brand and as a brand, as a customer purchasing the NFT, you feel like you have ownership in the company because you own the NFT, and then this increases a lot of things. So, brand loyalty, think of it like a timeshare. If you own a timeshare in Hawaii, everyone's saying your timeshare, whereas if you own, if you don't, just who cares? Plus, it increases convergence. So let's say a brand, so it's 500 passes to 500 customers. They release 500 products attached to those passes. Since the customers already bought into the pass, they're much more likely to purchase the product that came with the pass. So we've seen the conversion rate at around 80%, which is compared to like one to two in e-commerce. And on top of that you get the organic word of mouth-barking factor. We're in crypto.

Eric McHugh: 19:33

It's common for people to change their PFPs to NFTs and just be knowing and telling everyone about it. So we've seen that on the brand side too. Whereas like brand customers, they change the PFPs to NFTs because they're like OK, I'm part of the brand, and then they start just telling everyone about it. So in one specific case, with our first launch, it was with a brand called the MagPark. So it's a cool brand like the guys at home.

Eric McHugh: 19:54

We have a thing where it's like his customers are like they're chill, like it's an LA dude. He has a basketball hoop in the store, they come in, they shoot and all that stuff. So his issue was whenever he'd released a lemon vine hat or anything along those lines, bots would come in, purchase, buy out all his inventory in less than a second than resell on the second name market for like 10 times the profit. So then his core customers wouldn't get the. They obviously wouldn't get the product, which is a bus kill for everyone. So now with his NFT collection, they get early access, they get guaranteed, they get to relax gives their product to the reserve. They get early drops, they get exclusive products. He has a Discord channel for his specific pass holders where he talks to them. They help them design products. So it's like a close connection with a brand owner Wow, all right, yeah, this is something that everybody should be doing.

Eric McHugh: 20:44

Excellent, I can break down web one, web two and web three pretty easily. If you want, just cause Please.

Gregory Favazza: 20:47

Yeah.

Eric McHugh: 20:48

Yeah, cause I talked to a lot of web two, brand executives and they're kind of old and don't obviously don't get it all. So, in terms of web one, let's think of read only. So if you're on web one, you can go online, you can read stuff, great, yeah. Web two let's frame it as social media like Instagram or YouTube or whatever, so you can read and you can write, but you don't own. So, for example, I could create an Instagram post, you can, so I get. That's me writing content.

Eric McHugh: 21:12

You can read that post by viewing it, interacting it, doing whatever you want with it. So you can read it, but the thing is Instagram owns that post, meaning they could sell my data, they can retroactively cancel me anytime they want. So it's like okay, we say something as podcasts. 10 years down the line, who knows what's okay? To say, like, cancel them both and then both our accounts are done and we're just like well, that sucks, especially if, like, let's say, I'm nah just cross any of this term, but let's say I'm like an influencer and that's my business, that's my livelihood, and all of a sudden it's like it's gone. He's like well, you should not look at that point.

Gregory Favazza: 21:42

Yeah, that's what YouTube is cracking down now.

Eric McHugh: 21:45

Oh, they're cracking the whip, yeah, so that's why it's implanted. Yeah, and so web three is a read, write and own. So in web three we can read content, we can write content, but we also own the content. So in the brand's NFT case, let's say I create NFT, I own that NFT, you purchase that NFT. Now you're the owner of the NFT. There's a connection between me and you, so I could keep sending you value and you can keep sending me value with no third party. And since you owned NFT, no one can take it from you, like Instagram can't take it from you, I can't take it from you, it's your NFT. So that's web three. I like to joke. I like to joke and say web four is like the whole ready player, one type of thing where it's like metaverse, ai, vr, just like kind of dystopian. And web five is what I think. We're all going back outside. We're just like enough of this, we need the sun. Never swear one. Let me start over again.

Gregory Favazza: 22:39

Wow, like this is like something that I have not even noticed, like I'm just always grinding, creating content and like I'm only on web. Two is like there's so much more that I'm missing. That could be a possibility for like expansion.

Eric McHugh: 22:54

Yeah, and I think you'll. You'll get there when you get there. But to be honest, it may not be neat. I don't think it's needed for people to research it Because right now there's not people. There's not many people in web three, and the reason is pretty simple.

Eric McHugh: 23:05

First off, the UI is jank Like. Imagine this like I send my money, I send my crypto somewhere, I'm doing a bridge, which is some technical temper. It's just sending it across chains. It doesn't. It doesn't show up. So I'm just like where's my money? Who, who? Where's customer support? Well, there is none it's like. And then you have to go on like Reddit and just find some obscure problems. So I had years ago. The UI isn't there.

Eric McHugh: 23:26

And the second reason is the incentives. For most people, there's simply no reason to interact with them Web3. But I think both of those are getting fixed. For example, shopx is offering e-commerce incentives. In our product first launch, over 50% of the people were 100% brand-new to crypto, but they wanted the hats, so they bought it. And the UI is going to get fixed too, because once the bigger brands get in, for example, they have the resources and incentives to actually making good for everyone. Nike's not going to send their customers a shitty UI experience so that'll fix it for everyone. And then from there, if Web3 wins again, nothing is guaranteed, like, if Web3 is to be successful, it has to be done in the back end. So, mia, you just aren't even knowing that's happening. It has to be just like tap, tap, tap. My mom has her pass. She's like oh, fancy pass, oh, tap the pass, I get my discount. She gets her product, she's happy. And she's never asked me to hear the word Web3, crypto or NFT.

Gregory Favazza: 24:17

So with the UI there's nobody that is taking accountability, or there's not a position or an understanding on that. So that means anybody can kind of just climb in and start saying I'm the one that knows how to do this.

Eric McHugh: 24:32

And so the thing about Web3 is it's composable, so it is complicated. Where it's like Web3 is composable, meaning there's a compounded interest of software, so if a problem gets solved once, other people because most code is just copy and paste If a problem gets solved once, it just gets solved. So it's a complicated thing that a bunch of people are trying to work on and they're trying to work on it together, so people are pooling their resources to do it and it'll eventually solve itself. For that reason. But again, it's like a decentralized protocol, so there's no authority, they just know whatever. So it creates a good solution, everyone's just going to use that solution. If someone creates a better solution, they're just going to use that solution.

Gregory Favazza: 25:07

That's interesting. Have you ever participated in one of those little congregated kind of teams to solve a problem like that?

Eric McHugh: 25:16

Yeah. So that's kind of what ShopX did and, for example, again, everyone kind of works to get in this space. So one of our major projects was, I would say I think our baseline is definitely Fox TV Studios. So if you watched Rick and Morty, if you heard about the weird of Capopolis no, I have not heard about that. Ok, so it's their new show, but it's created by Dan Harmon.

Eric McHugh: 25:36

So they have an NFT collection called the Crap Chickens. So it's kind of funny. Actually I own one. Mine is Lord Tomologo, the first master of the void. It's a one-piece reference and he's like a retarded looking chicken. But so for the Crap Chickens, because I own the Crap Chicken, I get access to merch, I get exclusive access to content. My Crap Chicken could go on the show. So that project took a bunch of parties working together. Like, for example, someone had to supply Fox with the ability to create the graphics and mint the NFTs. Shopx is handling the token gated connection for the NFTs, someone has to handle the payment structure. So it's like a team of like four different companies working together in tandem to make that project a reality and the end result for the Crap Chickens holder is things just work.

Gregory Favazza: 26:26

OK, so this is good. Now we can finally dive deep into this. So, with having this team together, when you're trying to communicate but also delegate and send this work strictly just through virtual systems like, how does it work? How does communication go back and forth? Is there somebody in charge? Is it just an all-knowing understanding that, oh, this is the end goal, this is what we need to do.

Eric McHugh: 26:55

It's honestly not that hard. So, in terms of, everyone knows the end goal, they know what they need to do and everyone builds a specific piece to ensure that end goal happens. So let's say, shopx builds our puzzle piece, everyone else builds their specific puzzle piece. Then they see if it fits. If it fits, it fits, great, you move on. But if it doesn't fit let's say, pieces don't work together seamlessly, which usually happens, and at that point you have the base done. But there's bugs and shit, and that's the point. You too, the dev teams, would work together to QA to find the bugs, to ensure everything works. So what you do is you plan everything out like overall scope, and then you break up and then, as parts, finish. You just have work. There's obviously constant communication where it's like oh, we need this from you, we need this information from you, and they're happy to provide that. But it's more so working on different pods for one project and then coming together to see the final project Interesting.

Gregory Favazza: 27:43

That's really interesting. Now let's transition into a wrap up here, and would you like to share with the audience that I have not asked you? I know I'm sure there's probably a lot, but whenever you'd like to share with them, so I just got back from an Imposta 10-day meditation retreat in Joshua Tree, california.

Eric McHugh: 28:02

It was a very beautiful, transformative experience for me. So it's 10 days full, noble silence, like no, nothing, no electronics, no writing, just really introspective. So yeah, just the point of that was to help. So it's the method of booty use to reach enlightenment. So what you do for the first three days is you just focus your attention on the area around your nose. Eventually, after focusing on it for so long, you feel different sensations and then you just scan your body back and forth and this extracts the traumas that are stored in your body. So think of it like if you had a piece of metal, that's like you need 100. You're saying in space or something you need 100% pure, you'd want it through magnets to extract impurities. So you're just doing that with your body and traumas. So after you do that process over and over again, you become a positivity generator.

Eric McHugh: 28:51

And I believe the outer world so I view everything in terms of frequency, energy and vibration. So I believe the outer world is a reflection of your inner world. So if you're sad, happy or whatever, like you're sad, your world's going to be depressing, just like a radio frequency. When you're sad, you're really just saying I'm vibrating at frequency X and then, just like a radio station, you tune it to a specific frequency. That's why everything is sad.

Eric McHugh: 29:11

But if you're happy, positive and everything like just loving in general, then that's the frequency you're on and then everyone who you interact with wishes you the best and they're happy, positive and loving it too. So like yeah, I don't know, that's kind of like the power of the positive mind. So where it's like after that work was done, I just became like and they close out the meditation, where you just like store all your energy in the head and you just wish happiness and love to like literally everyone in the world. And then I've realized, since I've done, that people wish that back on me, which is that really really nice result.

Gregory Favazza: 29:39

So no, I like that One because, like, if you're carrying around all that stress, all that trauma, it's taken a lot of bandwidth to kind of push down and just be able to put on this smile that is you, but you can't essentially do it naturally comfortably, so you're almost fighting yourself but also forcing yourself at the same time. That's probably putting a lot of stress on your body and wearing you out. So you're not recognizing opportunities and conversations or noticing that when your picture is being taken you actually look depressed or sad when really you thought you were happy.

Eric McHugh: 30:18

Yeah, I saw it's kind of like, but like I've the social media point where it's like I know it's a while ago like I'd see someone take a story and just had watched them like you know, like an Instagram story, and just watch them like right after the social media post. They all look, they always look depressed when we're just like, oh Jesus.

Gregory Favazza: 30:32

Yeah, I'm guilty. I'm guilty Like that's for me, like I dealt with a lot of shit and I'm going through this 40 day challenge to get all of this out and to show like you can address all this trauma from someone that you trusted your life with. I mean, that's a long story, but by the end of this 40 days, it'll be my birthday and I'm trying to get my birthday back because every holiday has been ruined. Everyone, like literally every one of those holidays, has been taken from me, and I'm no longer going to let it happen anymore.

Eric McHugh: 31:07

Nice Cause, yeah, and then you get to decide if your holidays are taken from you or not. So I'm sure this will. I'm wishing you the best, I'm sure you'll work through it and then on the other side it'll probably be pretty great. Yes, yeah.

Gregory Favazza: 31:19

You got this. I appreciate you. How can our audience get in touch with you if they want to learn more about your companies and you in general?

Eric McHugh: 31:29

Yeah, so if you're interested in ShopX or Web3, the best place will be our website, shopxco. If you're interested in AI, prior to matchmaking, be dotting d-a-t-a-i-n-g dot i-o. But my overall goal is to be helpful and positive. So you can just want to like talk shit and reach out, just have any questions in general, probably my Instagram, so I can do like, we can do like pull voice messages things, because those are pretty nice. So that'd be Eric D-M-E-R-C-D-M-C-H-U-G-H.

Gregory Favazza: 31:56

Beautiful. I appreciate you coming on the show today. No dude, thank you too. I had a blast. Excellent. Do you like that? How was that?

Eric McHugh: 32:03

It was fun. It was all that.

Gregory Favazza: 32:05

Yeah, it was hard, like I didn't know what the fuck they talked about, but I kind of tried to go into the situation as an audience member and just kind of if I can paint it where I'm like them and this is what I want to know. And the majority of the people that listen are different versions of me, whether they're higher or lower, and they always resonate with how I approach things.

Eric McHugh: 32:28

No, that makes sense from my very short thing. It's like of course, the people who listen to you are different versions of the view, and that's how I view like. Well, I think everyone's a different version of it. So I think of like. It's like think of like the sun, where each individual is like an array of lights, where individual it's like individuals in that sense, but then we come in the same source and we're technically the same. So I think everyone's a different version of each other.

Eric McHugh: 32:50

Yeah, no, I like that's a unique way of looking at it so that in that sense it's like hating on someone wishing someone ill will. It's also just stupid, because why would you wish yourself ill will? It makes no sense, it's dumb. And then, of course, when you harbor that like resentment and negativity, it just gets blown back in your face, always too, so it's like it doesn't even serve you, it doesn't serve others, it's pointless.

Gregory Favazza: 33:11

It's like even if you come across someone who is negative.

Eric McHugh: 33:15

Oh, you can feel it?

Gregory Favazza: 33:16

Yes, because if, like my ex, like I've been around her for a long time I lost myself. I used to be this like. I mean, I was in the military for five and a half years, so I had a solid structure that was built and little by little I was getting like just chipped away and after three years somehow I just went, just went down like what the fuck? And that's when I noticed it's every time, it's every time. She would just take a little bit and there was the whole. The whole thing was it was a horrible experience. I wish this on nobody, but every time I encounter it's just like I fall back. If it's even more than 20 minutes I'm around this person, I start to mirror this individual of her energy. I'm like, no, I'm not this person, I'm not you, I'm a happy, good person. I don't want to be like this. So that's why I stay away. I just can't be around it and honest.

Eric McHugh: 34:08

So yeah, dude, it's like it really is like death by like a thousand cuts in that type of situation. But no, the first step is realizing that there's an actual problem, because most of you don't realize the problem. It just kind of like they just kind of remain oblivious. But once you realize it's like this is someone I need to like oh, which is probably painful, just because I'm sure it sounds like you guys have, like there's obviously like history, but like, like you know, it's what you, what you have to get done.

Eric McHugh: 34:31

So like you go back to the energy. Like each emotion is like a different energy or different frequency, like shame is the lowest. So shame is like 50, fear, anger, hate and all that stuff. They're around like less than like 100 to 200. And if you're above 200, like love and light I mean joy, peace, those are all like 500 Jesus, christian and the Buddha. They reached 1000. So just scaling it went to 1000. So if you're below 200. So that's when people are taking energy from you. So if you ever talk to someone, you're just like you know you can feel drained after you're like blah, it's because they're below 200. But if you talk to someone as above 200, they kind of give you energy. So that's when you talk to something like they're all like nice, this is, this is pleasant. I'm happy after I'm like doing stuff because Whoa why do we start with this?

Gregory Favazza: 35:18

Like this is totally cool. No vets to you and your hard work.

Eric McHugh: 35:22

Like this is this is this, is this, is this, is this interests me more too, because I think everyone has an inner purpose and now their purpose. So the inner purpose is again raising the consciousness level of scale, like my overall goal and that's everyone's inner purpose. Like I'm trying to raise my own level, my own vibrational scale, like if, again, it's easier to just put your pictures and numbers and when I raise my own, that raises people's around me and then when they raise their own, it raises people around them. So it creates like a nice little positive spiral where the outer purpose is how do I, how does this manifest in, like the business world or whatever? So that's where, like the shop acts and dating coming, because I think they're both positive, helpful companies but they support the inner purpose.

Gregory Favazza: 36:03

That's a lot better to paint the picture. I like that with understanding these frequencies, like I'm aware of the, the energy that I give off. I'm aware of other energies, I'm empathic, so I can naturally pick it up and then I just I can feel like the ones that are targeting me because they want that energy. I do feel trying afterwards they're.

Eric McHugh: 36:27

They're literally there's. I'm an empathic to where it took a while for me because I mean I had to become, I became, I learned how to become social, but like no, there's like straight up energy vampires, so like where they are, especially if you're doing like the righteous type thing and you're living a good path there and I think would. It sounds like I don't know her, but sounds like that's what your ex girlfriend was who's like a just a straight energy vampire, just like sucks the life out of you.

Gregory Favazza: 36:49

But yeah, yeah, yeah, and like once I go, my identity took off. My son hit me with her car, tried to put me in jail a few times yeah, like I want to do like a TEDx for she used my military PTSD against me, along with my childhood PTSD. So I ended up losing everything, going back to the house where I was sexually abused as a child and I was surrounded by boxes from, like, my son's room in my own room and it was embarrassing Like I hated my life and she still kept coming and coming and I just I wanted to quit, like I literally I mean suicide was the option, there wasn't anything else. I lost it all and I I'm stubborn, I guess I didn't when I really wanted to and slowly but surely, I got myself a place again. I started the show because she destroyed the show.

Gregory Favazza: 37:38

She took me out of online school because she stole a computer which had everything on everything, had all my passwords. It was attached to my other MacBook, which is now a paperweight, so I got another one. It was attached to the cloud. It was attached to my school, my home security system. Literally. I walked out of the house and she changed the password and turned it on and then the police showed up. I'm like what the fuck? It was literally every day was something. I was in fighter flight mode for over two years.

Eric McHugh: 38:12

And that's, that's hair roll for your health. Because, like, think about, like this way, like olden times, if there's like a fucking tiger chasing you, your body be stressed and release certain chemicals because of the tiger chasing you. But after the tiger is chasing, you go back to normal. But if you're living in that state of stress for two years, like you're, if you like, there's two to like parallel ones a peaceful version of you and ones version that happened, like they're, your body is producing two entirely different chemicals, resulting in you being a two entirely different person and living in that state of stress. Because it sounds like it's like a constant thing. It's like you wake up.

Gregory Favazza: 38:46

It was started from like the minute of what the fuck's going to happen, because the police would always show up and it was always first. So literally like can like. Can you look at my record? Like I was in the military service, I have nothing other than occasional speeding tickets because I have a heavy foot, and usually not all the time. And then bam this bullshit with my ex. So she literally controlled the narrative, with everybody saying that I'm just dangerous person. I'm like no, I'm not. I'm literally good guy, like Jesus Christ. And then it makes me feel crazy because I'm telling them I should have to tell you I'm the good guy. Look at my actions, look at what I'm doing online. Like I love my son, I just want to be around him, and it was to the point where I finally got a. I got a hold of it by going back to Fort Carson, colorado, which were that's where I served and that's where I got a hold of myself. But it comes back when I'm around this individual for 20 minutes.

Eric McHugh: 39:45

I think she needs to go. I think, yes, I think you need to wish her the like again. There's no point like it's probably hard, because she does sound like a piece of work. So I do it as like she's. She's trying her best their own fucked up way where it's just like clearly not bad, but she's still trying her best in her own mind, which is probably batched insane. So I think you need to. If I were you again I don't know, I would just cut her off at the same time, wish her the best because, again, harboring ill will towards her thinking of like a, do you want to DBZ where, like they look like they're putting in two percent energy fields? No, I don't.

Eric McHugh: 40:15

Maybe I don't remember whatever it's like you have an energy field around you so like if you send out negative, negative negativity towards her just stains your own energy field. So there's no.

Gregory Favazza: 40:26

like you know it's hard because yes, she has my son, and yeah, I get off with them and it's like I have all the proof in the world to get him, but there's, I need to heal, like I gotta be 100%, and this is what the 40 days is to get to 100%. And then that's where I I finally get. I don't know if you can see it, but this is. It's a. So that's him. What's his name? A gherman, gregory Favazza, and, and, yeah, it is normal, he's looking good, yeah, he's. He's just like his daddy, he's an empath, and that what's happening is the energy is affecting him.

Eric McHugh: 41:07

Oh, I'm sure it's just a dendritus toxic. Just it's like if you, if you play video games, like you know, when you play video games and you're like a poison area where your character Just comes in every second, your health they're just getting zapped, and you mentioned that. That's what I'm guessing it's like for her.

Gregory Favazza: 41:21

Yes, oh, my god, I just can't do it.

Eric McHugh: 41:24

We need to get him out soon rather than later. Because to? Because right now it's like I'm, you know, but he's young, this is.

Gregory Favazza: 41:31

Yeah, yeah, it's, it's affecting him and it affects me not being with him, and that's that's where it's like I have to. I have to keep going. I gotta keep going.

Eric McHugh: 41:41

You'll do the 40 days. You'll get him back soon. He'll be happy. Yeah, let me know what. Once you do get him back, we got face. I'll call it, like to meet him and say what's up. That'd be awesome I appreciate you.

Gregory Favazza: 41:51

Yeah, of course I'll get this all set up and I'll get in touch with you and through email and send you everything.

Eric McHugh: 41:59

Yeah, no, it's whenever you want to send it up like dude, there's no rush. I think you do it with other stuff.

Gregory Favazza: 42:05

Yeah, it's all part of the. It's all part of the 40 days.

Eric McHugh: 42:07

I gotta toss it yeah because that's all you have to do, cuz you're an army, you know, you know you just have to keep drinking for it, just have to keep going forward, because how shitty you can and eventually I'll get better.

Gregory Favazza: 42:17

Yes, it's hard, it's. It's a whole new challenge. Like physically, I can dissociate, that's easy, but now it's like it's something I can't dissociate from because I don't want to, I don't want to kill the feelings I have for for him and then the memories that were created that included the monster. So it's like I got a rise above it to the point where it it does no longer affect me.

Eric McHugh: 42:43

I just send you something on the chat that that's really helped me with healing stuff. So if you go back to the, for me it always circles back to energy for you to vibration these type of beats. If you play one, yeah, they.

Gregory Favazza: 42:55

Dude, I used to rock those out when I was in active duty. Yeah, it actually helps me retain information.

Eric McHugh: 43:03

Oh yeah, no, like there's different ones. Like I like to matter, these are just like Sit and just kind of relax and they call me down and do the fucking. Let me send this to you. Right now we have the chance to do this like the Vimposs and meditation retreat, and it's a full 10 days. That's not like that easy to like, yeah, but it was the most helpful thing that I've ever personally done and it's completely free, like everything's taken care of.

Eric McHugh: 43:25

I'm in California so I went to a center around California but you sign, you sign up, you have a. You have a like Nessau dorm. You have like food is provided for you just show up at close, you sit there for 10 days. You learn the meditation. It. It helped me pretty much because the whole day you're working through everything in your life, so all the trauma that you start up in your body. You're just working on that for a full 10 days, complete silence, which, as an introvert, was pretty amazing. Actually, we're just like imagine like no one reach you out to you, just nothing, just kind of like. So you just yeah, it's a, it's a full thing. You start up like you stop at like four, meditate breakfast, meditate more, lunch, meditate more and they have a discourse at the end of the day. You have your meditation hall, you have your room dining hall and there's a walking path and that's what. That's your activity for 10 days. So if you can like, you get the ability to like. If you can just check out for 10 days.

Gregory Favazza: 44:15

I can actually, I have that ability.

Eric McHugh: 44:19

So it sounds like you're from the Mississippi, but they have centers all over the world, so there's probably one near you. But if, if not, I mean Missouri. Missouri, missouri. But if there's not, like I know there's, there's plenty of centers. I obviously never checked if they're in Missouri, because why would I do that? Yeah, if you can go to one around you like.

Gregory Favazza: 44:35

I'll fucking go travel to California, like, yeah, I can just up and do that.

Eric McHugh: 44:42

So, like it doesn't you have to go to California like I. There's some of these coasts or some of the west. There's probably some Missouri, I just haven't checked. But yeah, dude, apply to the class, get in the club. Like you just have to sign up, just go. Go in the open mind. You can leave whenever you want to. It's not like I'm cold where, there's like your trap here. You can take your car, just like I'm done. I'll leave if we so choose.

Gregory Favazza: 45:02

But it's not like a cold or anything, and now you must join us. Yeah, that's what your truck.

Eric McHugh: 45:07

That was my fear. Okay, I'm like Because I'm like mom, do this thing. Is this kind of cold like I even find like, yeah, I could just leave, but now, dude, it's looking. Especially if you're dealing with stuff, probably the best, the best thing you can do is roll, and especially like my narrow beats I chose you're kind of open to at least like the door, like the doors.

Gregory Favazza: 45:25

I welcome everything in as an opportunity. I mean, if it's supposed to help, I will take. I'll try everything, at least once that falls around my ethics, eco ethos or Overall character. So this is right in line with what I like dude, it's fucking sweet.

Eric McHugh: 45:40

It's hard, don't get me wrong. Like it's a, it's not easy but it's good, now it's a challenge. Oh yeah, no I challenge accepted, I will do it, let none. I'll be your accountability partner. So let me know when you sign up, let me know when you get accepted and let me know when you're done. Definitely I'll do that today.

Gregory Favazza: 45:56

I'll sign up for it. Sweet yes.

Eric McHugh: 45:59

It's sweet that like things then you get, you get less little spiritual practice for the rest of your life. It's a powerful experience like something like the ones in India go hard, where it's like ours are 10 days, so it's easy, but some people do like once years of just yeah.

Gregory Favazza: 46:15

Yeah, it's cool. I can only imagine what they're feeling inside after that long of doing that. You feel well.

Eric McHugh: 46:23

Yes, it's, it's trippy though because, like, obviously it's the traumas come up in different forms. You like I remember something. I was like four or five. They come up in different sensations. Your dreams are gonna be gnarly. You just, it's a long time of you just working on yourself.

Gregory Favazza: 46:38

Yeah, that that's a lot I it'll be interesting to see what the fuck comes up. Yeah, I'm definitely gonna get this started here and yeah, let's just jump into it. But uh, no, dude, this is cool. Yeah, I'll definitely reach out to you when this is done. We can stay connected. You know you're a good dude. I like being around good, positive people it's that are, that are healthy, so Like attracts, like right, exactly. Yeah, all right, brother. Well, I'll stay in touch with you and I'll give you a holler here when I'm done.

Eric McHugh: 47:10

Yeah, I'll add you on whatever social media shit and we just spent us that way, oh yeah definitely Waiters.

Announcer: 47:19

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