The Human Advantage: Evolving Consciousness in the Age of AI . A Conversation with Derek Rydall (Epi. #265)

The Human Advantage: Evolving Consciousness in the Age of AI
A Conversation with Derek Rydall (Ep. #265)

As artificial intelligence rapidly reshapes the world of work, creativity, and decision-making, a deeper question is emerging beneath the technological revolution:

What does it mean to be fully human in the age of AI?

In this opening episode of our April series on Spirituality, Intuition, and AI, Shilpa sits down with Derek Rydall, author of A Whole New Human: Ten Ways We Must Evolve to Survive and Thrive in the Age of AI.

Derek’s journey spans coding, neuroscience, Hollywood, and decades of spiritual practice after a near-death experience that reshaped his understanding of consciousness and identity.

At the heart of his message is an ancient insight that feels more relevant than ever:

Know thyself.

Because in a world where machines are learning more about us every day, the greatest human advantage may not be smarter technology — but deeper self-awareness.

In this conversation, Derek explores why reconnecting with our inner intelligence — our intuition, values, and lived wisdom — may be the key to thriving alongside AI rather than being defined by it.

In this episode we explore
• Why the AI revolution is also a human evolution moment
• Derek’s journey from coder to spiritual teacher
• The difference between artificial intelligence and authentic human intelligence
• Why the ancient wisdom “Know Thyself” may be the most important guidance for the AI age
• How awareness, contemplation, and purpose help restore our agency in an automated world

Your pause is your compass.

🧭 A Question to Sit With

As technology becomes more intelligent,
 are we becoming more conscious?

📘 Book Mentioned in This Episode

A Whole New Human: Ten Ways We Must Evolve to Survive and Thrive in the AI Age

In this book, author Derek Rydall explores what it means to remain deeply human in a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence. Blending ancient wisdom with modern insight, he outlines ten ways we can evolve our consciousness, creativity, and purpose so that technology amplifies our humanity rather than replaces it. 

Affiliate note: The book link above is an affiliate link, which helps support the podcast at no additional cost to you.

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A mini app where neuroscience meets mindfulness. Reflect through Foundation, Transition, Vision — across mind, heart, and somatic body. AI-powered prompts + HeartMath + somatic awareness to keep your why as your north star.

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PAUSE WITH PURPOSE QUIZ

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👉 quiz.omnimindfulness.com/pausewithpurpose

Transcript

[00:00:00] Shilpa: well, welcome Derek. 

[00:00:02] Derek: Thank you. It's an honor and a pleasure to be here. 

[00:00:05] Shilpa: It's an honor and pleasure for me as well. Um, for those who may not know, I just recently came across your book, a whole new human, 10 ways we must Evolve to Survive and Thrive in the AI Age. And it's so timely and I wanted to just start from this particular conversation piece that I also started in the techie space from a young age.

[00:00:35] Shilpa: War games, I believe you mentioned in your book Yes. Was my era, so, which it kind of dates me. I started coding at 14. 

[00:00:44] Derek: Yeah. 

[00:00:45] Shilpa: And I was part of an early test group in Irvine to learn how to code on Apple computer. And then later went on to study ai well before people knew it was a thing. 

[00:00:56] Derek: Yeah. 

[00:00:57] Shilpa: So I wanted to really go to the [00:01:00] heart of that is we have this similar thread going on in our life.

[00:01:05] Shilpa: Where did technology begin for you and when did something shift for you? 

[00:01:10] Derek: Yeah. Like I think you said you were starting to read the book, so you would know a little bit about the journey. Yeah. As a kid, even earlier than I think definitely preteens. I was, I was coding, I mean, I was coding on like Commodore and like the early days of stuff, you know, I wasn't an expert, but I was, you know, the war game story.

[00:01:29] Derek: I came home after watching that movie with Matthew Broderick and somehow thought that hacking into the government and accidentally starting global thermonuclear war was cool, man. So I came home and built a program to break into the government, and then I couldn't actually do it, but I was able to create a simulation of doing it, which was enough to freak out my mom and, and press the heck out of my friends.

[00:01:55] Derek: And, uh, so I was, I, I thought I was gonna be a programmer. I mean, I was making games and other things, [00:02:00] and obviously as a kid mostly was making games and things. But then as I grew, got a little older, went to high school, I got much more interested in, in the brain. And was gonna become a neuroscientist. So I would study the, I studied the brain a lot and, and then that led into, and I was a scholarship student and all that.

[00:02:17] Derek: So for sure I thought I was gonna become a neuroscientist or a neurosurgeon or something, but it was gonna be the brain. So I went from the computer outside to the computer in our, between our ears, and then I got interested in art and acting and performing, and ultimately left school early to go to Hollywood basically.

[00:02:37] Derek: So then I became more interested in the mind and the heart and this more ephemeral dimension of us where I could create something out of nothing, just with my thoughts. And then that eventually led, uh, to studying the mind and mental capacities and the power of thinking and that whole realm. And then while I was [00:03:00] doing a movie, I, I had a near death experience, almost drowned.

[00:03:05] Derek: We talked about that before in a coral reef. And in that moment. The veil parted and I touched a dimension beyond my ego, sense of self and beyond what really all, all forms of intelligence, you know, the mind, the brain, computers something that I could only say was the source of intelligence. And I had a big opening where I saw that the self I've been trying to improve and fix, and the self of me that had been looking for the cheat code to life, to hack the game of life, that that self was a fictional character, an amalgamation of, of parental fantasies and peer pressure and societal conditioning.

[00:03:46] Derek: And there would be no, there was no cheat code to that self, that ultimately there was another self in the midst of that. And that self didn't need a cheat code because that self was already whole and complete and [00:04:00] perfect. It just needed to be known and to, to come into alignment with it. In the near death experience, it was just a flash of light and a knowing and something shifted.

[00:04:10] Derek: I didn't have all those words for it, but then I pulled out of society, out of acting, out of everything and became a monk briefly. Um, very, in fact, we were talking before about Yogananda and I went to one of his mon, one of his temples monasteries in, I think it was in San Diego, the really beautiful one on the bluffs there.

[00:04:30] Derek: In SI live, 

[00:04:32] Shilpa: that's where I live. 

[00:04:32] Derek: Okay, great. You live on, on the grounds or you live in that area? 

[00:04:34] Shilpa: No, uh, in that area. I wish I could live on the 

[00:04:36] Derek: grounds. Yeah. Uh, and I had a very intense experience there of my first time really in silence for a long period of time and meditating and fasting and all these things.

[00:04:48] Derek: I didn't really know what I was doing. And I got very sick and had an out-of-body experience for the first time. Got really scared, freaked out, packed up and, and ran from the monastery and decided I would just [00:05:00] cloister myself in my apartment in North Hollywood and just meditate and read scriptures and figure out what the heck was going on with me.

[00:05:10] Derek: And, and that's where I began to understand and put words to the vision and the download that came during that experience. And, and then I was able to go back and read many of the great texts, which all were gibberish to me before, you know, the Buddha, Buddhist teachings, Bava toads, the Bible, whatever.

[00:05:30] Derek: They were all door stops, you know, in my apartment basically. I could suddenly read them and understand them. Not completely, but be the beginnings of it. And that began the journey of this outer unfoldment and of, of what was inside of me. And this understanding of what I call the law of emergence, that like every seed already has a pattern in it.

[00:05:54] Derek: And when the conditions are congruent with that seed pattern, then the potential of that [00:06:00] seed naturally emerges. And you could say that that inner pattern is the SEEDS program, it's original program, it's source code, and, and I began to recognize the program's already in us. We came factory loaded with the perfect pattern.

[00:06:18] Derek: We didn't have to, we weren't an empty seed that had to fill ourselves up. You know, the acorn isn't a, a broken oak tree or an inadequate oak tree. It's a perfect acorn. And it doesn't prove itself or earn its way or make an oak happen. Or achieve an oak. Or attract an oak. The oak is already there in the seed and in the field.

[00:06:38] Derek: Quantum. In the quantum field, um, as a potentiality. And, but again, it needs the right conditions and, uh, and nature is indigenous, so it needs the right outer conditions. But we are endogenous, which means we need the right fundamental inner conditions. Were like walking [00:07:00] greenhouses. So, so I went from this outer technology incrementally to inner technology and, and as I began to integrate and come into alignment with my inner technology, my life began to work.

[00:07:15] Derek: For the first time. And it began to unfold and to flower and to flourish, not without challenges. And over the years since I've had my share of challenges. But um, then several years back before AI was again in the mainstream, obviously it's been in the laboratories for a long time. I had a, a download. I was not looking for it.

[00:07:36] Derek: I was meditating and the voice said, build an arc. The flood is coming. And I did not, as I said on the call that you heard me on, I did not think I was a prophet. I did not rush to Home Depot and buy a bunch of lumber. But it was a metaphor, but it was very, very powerful. And it showed me what was going to unfold in more than just [00:08:00] showing me.

[00:08:00] Derek: It was a knowing, it was a feeling that we were about to enter into our greatest existential crisis. And. The greatest opportunity for us to become the humans and the beings that we have always been meant to be. They're simultaneous. Just like the Jack Pine needs a forest fire to crack open its seeds. So it's a conflagration, it's a terrible thing, but it cracks open the seeds and allows for them to grow.

[00:08:27] Derek: It opens up the canopy, it fertilizes the soil. It does all these amazing things, but it's just a raging fire. But if without that fire, the, that particular species would go extinct. And so this existential crisis is gonna crack us open and uh, and it's going to give us the opportunity to reclaim our inner technologies to remember that we are the real super intelligence, that we are the original ai.

[00:08:56] Derek: Ancient intelligence, ancestral intelligence, [00:09:00] authentic intelligence, maybe even angelic intelligence, but nevertheless, made in the image and likeness of God or the creative principle of the universe. We are the creative focal point and we have to re, re remember and reclaim that agency. And right now, and over time with technology, we keep giving away that agency, right?

[00:09:22] Derek: We build towers of Babel, we build Golum, we build Frankenstein's, we build ais, and it's all a projection of our inner technology. It's not bad. I'm not anti-technology. I love technology, but we just have to put ourselves back in the driver's seat or put, if you believe in a God or a higher power, put that in the driver's seat and use the tools to scale.

[00:09:48] Derek: Human wisdom to scale your super intelligence to scale love, et cetera. So that's like not so brief, but that's kind of the journey of what got me here. 

[00:09:59] Shilpa: Oh, I just love 

[00:09:59] Derek: it. And my new [00:10:00] book, as you show, the whole new human, the 10 evolutions we must make to survive and thrive in the AI age is the byproduct of this journey.

[00:10:07] Derek: And really the embodiment of 25 years of helping people all around the world to discover and to use their inner technology to live their greater purpose abundantly successfully, and even to heal and get through some of life's biggest challenges. 

[00:10:25] Shilpa: Absolutely. And you use the word amplify, um, and authenticity.

[00:10:30] Shilpa: And I love how you say there's ai, artificial intelligence, but then we've got authentic intelligence, ancestral intelligence, and drawing parallels to that. Um, this is a perfect segue for the next question I had for you. Um, so you use this image of a IS flood and. It's a metaphor I realize and progress is accelerating.

[00:10:51] Shilpa: While wisdom may not have kept pace. Yeah. And while under just 

[00:10:55] Derek: remove the may not have and just wisdom hasn't kept pace. 

[00:10:59] Shilpa: [00:11:00] Exactly. And un the undercurrent. What I'm hearing from the outside world, um, anxiety, job anxiety, identity questions, which align with what you just said, articulated, and then there's a deeper fear.

[00:11:13] Shilpa: What, um, I call it the elephant in the room. I've recently started writing articles called the Elephant in the Room. What is the fear underneath the fear that you keep seeing, and what is, what are the modalities that humans can start adapting now proactively? 

[00:11:33] Derek: Yeah. Well, the stated mission of the hyperscalers, the ones that are building the big, large language models and stuff, is to replace all human labor.

[00:11:43] Derek: It's not like it's a secret. And, uh, even though it's funny how they keep talking outta both sides, you know, oh, it's not gonna replace labor. It's not, it's gonna be a long time. It's, don't worry. Nothing to see here. While they're also having to say, well, how can you justify the [00:12:00] biggest CapEx spending the biggest amount of spending and investment in history, um, this fast if it's not going to, there's not gonna be any way to profit from that if it's not displacing a lot of human labor, obviously, and increasing productivity and all that.

[00:12:15] Derek: So that's their stated mission. And, and replacing all human labor means replacing a vast majority of what makes humans useful and necessary. You just gotta scratch the surface. Well, what does that mean? What is labor? What are we doing right now? The intelligence, the cognition, all the things that humans can do at a computer, and very soon all the things they can do in a body.

[00:12:38] Derek: You know, that's, that's, that's. The plan is to replace all that. And, and then the other side is it's gonna be an age of abundance. It's gonna be amazing. Everybody's gonna have universal basic income or universal high income. And first, first of all, in all previous industrial revolutions. That's the the idea.

[00:12:57] Derek: And it never actually happens [00:13:00] for the generation that suffers through it. Though the benefits rarely accrue to the laborers and the workers of that time. Entire generations are lost through that transitional period. And that's when it happens. Over decades and decades, this is happening over months or years.

[00:13:22] Derek: Um, very, very less than a decade. In a decade. The world will be unrecognizable in a lot of ways if you just were to jump there right now. So we're not prepared for it. The government's not prepared for it. The big companies are not prepared for it. We have to, and most humans don't even fully even understand it's happening.

[00:13:44] Derek: And the ones that do, a lot of them have cognitive positivity bias, which is, it's not gonna happen to me. Like we're characters in that movie. Don't look up where there's a meteor heading for earth. And we're like, nothing to see here. Nothing to see here. No, we're, we're fine. Um, [00:14:00] and so that, so first thing we have to do, 'cause humans are very reluctant to change.

[00:14:05] Derek: It's built into our ego to keep us the same, while convincing us we are changing or that we can't change. It's a survival strategy because we evolved where if you change too quickly, went somewhere too fast, you could end up with the enemy or a saber-tooth, tiger, cat chasing you, uh, no water. So you would die.

[00:14:24] Derek: You wouldn't ev, you wouldn't survive as a tribe. And humans wouldn't have survived as a species if we changed too fast. So we learned to change slowly. We're literally adapted for that. We're not adapted for this pace of change. And so we have a lot of resistance, but there is a secret to getting change to happen, and that's called pain.

[00:14:44] Derek: And unfortunately, and so the way we, you know, the movie Scrooge, you know where he goes in the Christmas future and past and all that. What is it that gets him to finally change? In a matter of a few days, the ghost of Christmas future takes him into his [00:15:00] grave and shows him that he dies prematurely alone.

[00:15:04] Derek: And it's a journey of him exp having to confront where he's really living, the impact of his life and the waste of it all. And that so shakes him to his core, that he wakes up and is a changed man. And so what I'm trying to help people understand is that we do need to become aware of what's actually going.

[00:15:25] Derek: We have to have eyes wide open and see this is really happening. Um, it's happening fast. It's already estimated it will eliminate 50% of all white collar work in the next 12 to 18 months potentially, or at least really be on track. That's un unprecedented. And then we have to be willing to. Slow down and take a little bit of time to ask what does that mean for me?

[00:15:50] Derek: If it's gonna do what humans can do better, faster, cheaper, what's a human for? What's left for a human and what's left for me? [00:16:00] And we have to be in these conversations because there's only a few little places in people in pockets where they are. They're having 'em behind the scenes. The big successful people are already adjusting things for their kids.

[00:16:13] Derek: Some are quitting their jobs and writing poetry because they're recognizing, they already know where the AI's going way farther than we do. And so we have to first get real, like if a doctor gives you a diagnosis and it's, you got six months to live, you don't stick your head in the sand. You get to work and you go, how can I heal myself?

[00:16:35] Derek: How can I prepare myself and on one hand live the best life I can, but also heal and prepare to. You know, go beyond it. So that's why people don't, in our space, like spiritual and mindful and heart-centered, don't like hearing this kind of stuff. Right? It sounds like we're being too negative or just tell me positive things or tell me just what to do.

[00:16:58] Derek: And the problem is, is if [00:17:00] you just stay positive, um, and you just want to focus on. Strategies, but it's still coming from ignorance or fear. You're gonna just recreate the same outcomes. You know, you might get a bigger paycheck, you'll just be broke at a higher income bracket. So we have to first get real, and then we have to go, okay, well what's a human for?

[00:17:23] Derek: And then what I share with people in this book and beyond is there is that unique and original program in us, that seed pattern, that purpose what I call your life code. And it's both a unique purpose, a function, a reason you are here. Because nothing shows up in this world except as the answer either to a question, a problem, a need, or a prayer.

[00:17:49] Derek: Nothing. Everything you look around you is the answer to a need. That means you. Appeared as an answer to a real need [00:18:00] and that need cannot be fully done in the unique and necessary way by anybody but you. And when you understand that there's something you have the world didn't give you and the world can't take away, AI can compete against.

[00:18:15] Derek: And we can maybe get into a little more why that's so, but that's the first thing to know. You are a unique, singular expression of life that is unprecedented, that is unparalleled, that can't be competed with. But you've gotta know who you are. And this is why the Oracle of Delphi, the OG self-help guru, issued a warning and she said, no thyself.

[00:18:42] Derek: Because if you don't know yourself, somebody knows you better or something, ai, and that means you're not the user. You're the one being used. You're not even the consumer. You're the one being consumed. So we have to know ourselves and then we have to have the courage to be true to ourselves. [00:19:00] Those two things are the first master codes.

[00:19:04] Derek: It's, it's the wax on, wax off of spiritual martial arts. Know yourself, be yourself, and, and, and that comes with it. Tremendous power, tremendous wisdom, tremendous activation of so many gifts and talents, and your unique genius. It's all built in to the code of you. And, and it's mechanics for fulfillment.

[00:19:29] Derek: So I would say that's the most critical first foundation. And it's also the one that is absent from almost our entire system, education. And otherwise, parents don't raise you to get to know yourself. They raise you to feed you and fill you with. And then educational systems fill you with how to make you fit into the existing systems like a cog or a widget.

[00:19:55] Derek: And by the way, that's the exact opposite of what education means. [00:20:00] It comes from Latin. That means ed, ed or ed, which means to duce out of someone. So the real meaning of education is to discover what is inside that being and help it emerge, help pull it out. That's not the system we have. And the problem is people have been trained to be a cog in a machine.

[00:20:23] Derek: But, but that's when humans, were the, the users. But when the machine is the one in control, it's a very different world. So we, we, but if we know who our, so we cannot try to fit in anymore. We cannot copy anybody else's blueprint anymore. We cannot just punch a clock or go by status quo or go along to get along, or you will be left behind.

[00:20:47] Shilpa: And it is interesting. You should, um, talk about knowing yourself. I very intuitively, beginning of this year, made a point that my, this is the year. I mean, I spent years being very mindful and [00:21:00] spiritual, but this was the year I called it amplify. I want to amplify, but not 'cause of being louder, but my soul's purpose needs to be amplified and what I was articulating to others.

[00:21:13] Shilpa: It feels like you're saying that, that what if. This thing, AI, the technology part can amplify our true purpose, amplify why we are here and know our souls. 'cause I'm no longer having to do the, you know, dredge work where humans were spending our time or labor or time. Yes. 

[00:21:36] Derek: Well we were trained to be machines already.

[00:21:39] Derek: And so the good news is we are gonna have completely machines to do all that. Just like when the tractor came along and, you know, the industrial revolution for farmers and we didn't have to use our body and break our backs. We had a machine that could be an extension of our body and it, it [00:22:00] scaled or magnified.

[00:22:01] Derek: Muscle, so to speak. Human, you know, power, locomotion, you know, cars beyond even horses put the horses under the hood. These are all extensions of our power and our capacity. And then there was the information age, which, you know, we were allowed to extend that further. So all of that's good. And um, and little by little we're, we are outsourcing the parts that are for machines.

[00:22:29] Derek: The problem with AI is. At least initially is AI the one thing that makes us, you know, unique as humans. I'm, I'm just leaving sort of the deep spiritual mystical work to the side for a minute. 'cause I don't see any sign AI is going to do that. So that is truly the ultimate moat for human beings. That deep sense of intuition and spiritual connection and the, the, the transcendent.

[00:22:57] Derek: Uh, that's something that I don't see any machine ever [00:23:00] doing. Um, but, but from a more practical standpoint, it was our ability to think. To create, to be innovative, to have agency, to have metacognition, which is to think about what you think about, which is a form of meditation. It's the foundation of meditation.

[00:23:16] Derek: That's what got us to be able to think outside of our conditions, outside of time. So other, unlike other animals, we could think ahead. We could look back and learn from it. Not just instinctually, but cognitively. And that's what got us out of the trees on the Savannah and, and allowed us to shoot into the stars.

[00:23:36] Derek: But, and so, but AI is the first thing, the ultra and first ultra, I think it was l Lj Good, who said the first ultra intelligent machine will be the last invention man ever makes. Right? Because it will make all other inventions. It will think all other thoughts. It will create all other creations because embodied cognition and thinking [00:24:00] is what made us the apex predator, so to speak.

[00:24:03] Derek: So we have to be mindful. That, yes, we could scale who we really are. We could scale our greatest humanity. We could scale love, we could make love go viral. We could make real wisdom go viral, but that's not what we're doing right now. And if you look at technology, as we started to get beyond just scaling muscle and strength, as we started to get into the information, age, look online, doesn't take, uh, a brain surgeon to look online and see what are we scaling?

[00:24:35] Derek: And then you start to see, well, what are the algorithms trained to scale? They're not trained to scale wisdom and love and unity and connection. They're trained to hijack our limbic system to hijack our primitive nature. Rage bait, click bait, polarization, tribalism. That's how the algorithms are designed to.

[00:24:59] Derek: [00:25:00] And, and that has to do with incentives and, you know, trying to get engagement and clicks and all that. So we have to be very aware of that. And I know increasingly most people are that we're not using Facebook isn't the product we are. And, but, but it's, but the smarter the algorithm gets and it's getting really smart.

[00:25:20] Derek: The ai, it knows how to manipulate us and to weaponize our intimacy and, and use it in such a way that we don't even see it happening. And like, and, and, and again, it knows us in many cases better than we know ourselves. So we have to. Acknowledge that, and we have to make sure we are really putting an investment in knowing ourselves.

[00:25:46] Derek: 'cause when you really know yourself, know your triggers, know your shadows, know what you really value and really stand for, as the saying goes, if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. If you don't really know yourself, and I'm [00:26:00] telling you, most people don't. I've been trying to know myself for 30 years, and I'm still some days like a complete idiot.

[00:26:08] Derek: So, uh, I mean, I've spent 30 years trying to know myself and be myself. Knowing yourself is hard enough. Being true to yourself is like, whew. You know, like some days I joke that this is full of tequila because it's, it's hard. And that's why Emerson said God will not do his work through cowards. And I say, you need a backbone, not a wishbone.

[00:26:34] Derek: So, so it's hard, but. But we, we can, and I again dare say we have to, because otherwise we will look ahead a generation or maybe much less and realize we've outsourced the one thing, that we cannot actually function well without our own agency, our own purpose, our own sense of I [00:27:00] matter. And even though in the short term it'll be a Faustian bargain, we might get cheaper stuff, greater productivity, we will reach a point where we'll, we'll realize, like we did with social media to late, that it was literally killing kids and ruining their mental health.

[00:27:17] Derek: And now that generation is really messed up. It's like it's gonna take generations, if ever, to heal them. It's too late. Not for, not for the future generation. We can maybe help it, but now here comes ai. Just while we're coming up for air and if we, and, but AI is the one thing that if we keep outsourcing our own cognitive abilities, our ability to think for ourselves, our ability to know ourselves, what really matters, and forge our own paths from a place of our deepest values and ethics, because we get Amazon faster and we get the right movies faster, and we're able to create all kinds of interesting memes and be more productive in the short term.

[00:27:59] Derek: That's the [00:28:00] Fian bargain. And we'll, we will reach a point in, in a decade or two and we'll realize we've got a whole generation of people that do not have the capacity anymore. To function other than being plugged into the system that does all the work for them. And so, and that's really the metaphor of the matrix, right?

[00:28:20] Derek: Literally feeding off of people and, and they're literally in a virtual reality. So, uh, this is not hyperbole. I wish it was, this is not science fiction. I wish it was. In my book. I show the trajectory from history. We've been outsourcing more and more of ourselves to technology and our inability to think to competing thoughts at the same time.

[00:28:44] Derek: Is one of the, the byproducts of having lost our ability to think deeply. And, you know, our, the fact that we're at each other's throats and so polarized is largely in part because we've been trained over the last decade or two from media and social [00:29:00] media. And, and we've lost, you know, like the MTV generation lost a degree of patience and focus 'cause of all the fast cut, fast cut, fast cuts.

[00:29:09] Derek: And now that it's happening even worse, it's changing our cognitive structure. And even MIT just did a study showing kids, um, using ai, their cognitive abilities are falling off a cliff. Unless, and this is the key to get back to the good news, unless 'cause it is really good news if you heed the warning, you know, beware comes from a root means.

[00:29:35] Derek: Be aware. They just collapsed it together. Beware. It means be aware. Um. The really, really good news is you can use AI to get to know yourself. You can use, and I built tools for this. In fact, when people get the book, I'm giving those tools away. An AI evolutionary coach, focus coach, you can use it [00:30:00] to begin to see what you're really made of and made for what you really value and care about.

[00:30:05] Derek: And, and then you can also use it as a partner, a research partner, a creative partner, an editorial partner, uh, a building partner. But again, to build from the inside out, not from the outside in, not to become just the raw materials for some algorithm, but you knowing you what you care for, what you stand for, what's unique and original and authentic and irreplaceable about you.

[00:30:34] Derek: Now you can use those tools. To write that book, but in your voice to scale that business, but with your heart and soul and vision in service of others for a worthy goal, whatever the case may be. Or to put together a learning plan for yourself, for your children, for your students, that will make them fricking brilliant and fast.

[00:30:57] Derek: Not write me an [00:31:00] essay, boop. And then, you know, like, no, I wanna understand this. Give me the lesson plan that will work for me, that will help me get it. 'cause you, because knowledge is in power only the embodiment of it is you gotta dig the well to drink the water, so to speak. So if we can do that, and I show people how to do that and give them the tools.

[00:31:20] Derek: We can accelerate our own self-awareness, our own awakening. We can accelerate knowing what we're really here for, and we can accelerate actually doing it, whether it's growing spiritually, raising great kids, educating people, helping save the planet, helping save habitats and animals, or helping create real art that speaks to the heart and soul of people.

[00:31:47] Derek: Because there's going to be hundreds of millions of people scared, struggling, and they're gonna be looking for guides. People that can trust people that are human and are authentic, [00:32:00] and that can be us if we choose. Or again, if you're not into that, that can just be you helping your family or your loved ones or yourself.

[00:32:09] Derek: But again, you don't want to just use the tools and outsource yourself. You don't want to just accept what it tells you. You want to use it as a mirror. Right. And use it as a mirror to see yourself, to heal yourself, to grow yourself. And then you can scale wisdom and love and, and virtue and what you really value.

[00:32:28] Derek: And I've been doing that as well. But, but again, it, that takes work and it takes some effort. You know, the benefit is you can, your effort will go a lot further in the long run. But in the short run, learning it, learning how to do it, it takes real effort and it's hard. And again, humans don't like hard. But, but the only reason we're here is we evolve by doing hard things for a worthy purpose.

[00:32:58] Derek: And when you can do that, [00:33:00] you will become so resilient and so capable. And we could, as humans have a whole new renaissance. 

[00:33:09] Shilpa: And that segues so Perfect. 'cause one of my questions is, in an ideal world, if you were to project. The level of utopia we're capable of, where humanity is able to amplify their soul's purpose.

[00:33:28] Derek: Mm-hmm. 

[00:33:29] Shilpa: How do you see that then affecting people's sense of wellbeing? Like, a lot of people will say, well, what will I do? I've heard this. Mm-hmm. There's fear, like I, I'm, I've written about it, but I've had people reach out telling me I won't use ai. Um, and I don't wanna lose my identity. 

[00:33:51] Derek: Yeah. Was there more, were you gonna say more?

[00:33:53] Derek: I didn't mean to interrupt you. 

[00:33:54] Shilpa: Oh, no, no. And I have a couple of ideas 

[00:33:56] Derek: Yeah. 

[00:33:57] Shilpa: Thoughts around it, but I wanted to elaborate. 

[00:33:58] Derek: Sure. I mean, first of [00:34:00] all, I get it, you know, I was also, you know, averse to it, even though I'd had that vision. But, you know, it's like, and, and, Hey, let me just be very clear. Not, it's not a fact that everybody should be using it.

[00:34:16] Derek: It's not a fact that everybody should even have a cell phone or internet connection. If, if you wanted to have your own Walden pond and be tho and go, go live on, in a cabin, on a lake, although he did go into town every weekend to the bar to get drunk. But hey, if you want to live, live, um, out in the woods, just don't be the unabomber.

[00:34:36] Derek: But, but that's perfectly fine. Um, it's so, it's about the individual. It's about asking This is why. That's a defensive reaction. A judgmental reaction. Totally understandable. We often fear the new and the unknown, you know, like back, you know, before my time I guess, you know, the parents were like, rock and roll, you know, it's the devil's music, you know, and, [00:35:00] and Elvis the pelvis and you know, it was all, so whenever new thing is.

[00:35:04] Derek: Who is gonna want some stupid phone walking around with a phone all the time, you know, or, um, and, and so it's under even the automobile, you know, that was a crazy invention. They're like, sure, if you go over 19 miles an hour or something, you're gonna blow up. Or like, we, we just are always afraid of new stuff for the most part.

[00:35:25] Derek: And, and some healthy skepticism is good, but if, if you know what you want is to whatever, start that business, or, you know, help educate your children for the modern world, or write a book, or launch a podcast, or really make a difference and, and magnify and amplify a message to the world, well then, unless you're gonna just walk around like peace pilgrim around the country.

[00:35:56] Derek: Which is fine too, if that's, if that's what you want to do, you're gonna have [00:36:00] to understand technology and you're gonna have, you're gonna want to do it in the most optimized and efficient way so that you can actually achieve the goal you say you want to achieve. And when I work with people, and I've worked with hundreds of thousands of, you know, coaches, teachers, authors, creators, heart, you know, mission centered entrepreneurs as well as Fortune 500 execs, Oscar and Emmy winners, billionaires, like, so it's a, it's a scale and, and there's always this some place where they hit the resistance, right?

[00:36:31] Derek: And, but it's almost always an act of self-sabotage. And that is, again, why don't you like it? Why aren't you gonna use it? Like, I have editors and publishers and things, and they're like just totally anti, and I, and I'm like. You're going to be outta business if you don't embrace this, and if that's okay, great.

[00:36:50] Derek: If you wanna stand on some value and be outta business, you can. But if you want to still publish books or be an editor, or be a writer or whatever, a thought leader, [00:37:00] change maker, what you need to do is what we're talking about first, double down on who you really are, what you really value, what you really stand on, stand in what I say you have understanding that gives you a solid inner standing, and that leads to a powerful outer standing.

[00:37:14] Derek: And that's how you become outstanding. You're rooted inside of you. You want to be an influencer. You need to be less influenced by the world and more influenced by your own heart, your own soul, your own values. That takes work. So that's the foundational work. But then if you actually want to get results or make a difference, then you have to ask, what's the best tools?

[00:37:41] Derek: To get me there in the least time with the least effort and the least resources. That's just smart and logical. Um, unless your way of doing it is, how can I get there with the most suffering, the greatest struggle and the big, the most cost and the longest time it takes, which is [00:38:00] just stupid. So then you have to look around and say, what are the best tools to do that?

[00:38:04] Derek: And then it's incumbent upon you to keep coming back to yourself and making sure you are using the tool responsibly, right? So that's the first thing I would say, um, to those that are naysayers, unless you want to be the, the savages, like in a brave new world or the digital Amish and live off the grid, which again is perfectly fine.

[00:38:26] Derek: Hey, different strokes for different folks. Uh, some days I feel like I wanna do that, believe me. But if you want to do what we're talking about and you, you, you know what you want, then it's actually. Out of integrity to eshoo the way that is the best way for you to fulfill your purpose. That's actually self-sabotage in spiritual religious terms.

[00:38:50] Derek: That's sinning, that's a blasphemy against your own soul. Like Jesus would've used AI if he was alive. Buddha's not gonna be like, oh, what's [00:39:00] this email? Crap? No. He would be sending emails if that's what it took to get the message out, and he'd be driving cars or planes, trains and automobiles. Jesus said greater things than these shall you do on some level.

[00:39:11] Derek: He knew there would be greater advancements to, uh, spread the word. So it's all about, like we said, what are you amplifying? Right? You don't, you, you know, I'm on a, I'm on a microphone right now. How dare me Ampl use this technology? It's amplifying my voice beyond what's natural. It's so you can hear me better.

[00:39:32] Derek: It makes sense, right? Or a megaphone. So it's the same thing, but we just, because AI is intelligence, cognition, it's a, it's a, a more dangerous, risky, um, you know, precarious straight and narrow that we have to walk in terms of people being afraid, um, uh, that, like we've talked about, they, they just have to understand that there is something about you that is [00:40:00] irreplaceable.

[00:40:01] Derek: There really is. I've worked with people for 25 years and I've never yet found somebody that didn't have a story that was valuable to share. I like to say the workshop you're meant to be living is the one that you've, I mean, the workshop you've been living is the one you're meant to be giving, and your greatest life's work is encoded in your life story.

[00:40:22] Derek: And so when you understand that you've got real wisdom in you, you've got lived experience, perception, taste, the, these are all things AI can't do, and that's what you need to get in touch with. You know, again, what is it about me that AI can't do? Your lived experience, your embodied wisdom, perception, taste, your intuition, your capacity to connect, empathy, different things like that, and the deep and profound, innovative and creative nature of the human spirit.[00:41:00] 

[00:41:00] Derek: And the indomitable nature of the human spirit. These are these, and so many more are capacities that we need to now double down. They used to be a nice to have. You'd go to a retreat center, you'd read a book, go on a yoga retreat, whatever, go to a silent retreat and then get back to business. But now that kind of stuff has to come back to the center again.

[00:41:24] Derek: The center of our lives needs to become about as much as we can, 'cause many people are struggling just to make it through the day. I get it. But as much as possible, we have to make knowing ourselves what matters, what we value, what's unique about us, what we really want, not just what we think we should or have to.

[00:41:44] Derek: And then the courage to live that life, and the practical knowledge to design our life intentionally in a way that it supports us being our true selves. Most people live. On [00:42:00] accident and we have to live on purpose. Again, hard to do, especially if you're trying to make ends meet, especially if you're raising children and trying to make ends meet.

[00:42:10] Derek: It's difficult, but it's only gonna get harder if you don't do these things. And everything I do is to support people in doing each one of those steps in a container, in a community so that you're supported. 'cause you're not meant to do it all alone. We're not meant to just hold it all together. We're meant to hold it all together.

[00:42:32] Derek: And that's the new model of the world. The new currency is community and authenticity and your uniqueness. So that's, there is great hope and more than hope. If you can claim this, you will become you'll. You'll future proof your life and your work and your wealth and your wellbeing. Because if you learn these tools.

[00:42:55] Derek: How to use them, but in service of who you really are and what you really [00:43:00] value, anywhere you go, businesses, education, whatever you're gonna, you're gonna incre increasingly be the one they want to not fire, the one they want to hire or the the one they want to guide them in. Whatever your endeavor. I'm telling you for sure what I know.

[00:43:17] Derek: I mean, I know what the big boys and girls that are leading all these things are talking about as well as, you know, I'm in that conversation and those individuals will become the ones that stand out. So you can't put your head in the sand. You can't just say, oh, I'm not gonna learn ai. 'cause you will struggle unless you're intentionally wanting to get off grid and live in a cabin and, you know, hunt for your own food or whatever the case might be, which again, is fine, but if you wanna live in the modern world, but have to figure this out.

[00:43:50] Shilpa: Um, one of the things, and I I agree with everything you just articulated, I'm just all smiles 'cause my heart is singing. You say somewhere that, [00:44:00] uh, you are the ultimate interface and you talk about it on the, on the level of depth that I truly resonate with. Particularly you talk about the inner world in our, like you just mentioned, our inner stories.

[00:44:15] Shilpa: That becomes our, our blueprint of who we are. And so my question is, what does it look like to upgrade that interface? Not the apps alone, not the tools, but the human running them. What are the modalities that we can use to do that upgrade? 

[00:44:36] Derek: Well, there's some basic tech human technologies. I mean, the first of which is just our ability to contemplate and meditate.

[00:44:44] Derek: Contemplation Meditation is one of the greatest technologies on the planet, if not the greatest. 'cause it taps in. In fact, in my book, the first evolution is AI will think for you, think for yourself. And the core of thinking for ourself is what I touched on, [00:45:00] metacognition, which again, is the ability to think about what we're thinking about.

[00:45:06] Derek: It's the ability to notice what are the thoughts, where's our awareness, and, and to like look down into our mind and see the patterns running, right? It's like the creator being able to look inside the creation and see all the gears turning. But to do it at the level of the creative imp like right at the level of thought.

[00:45:30] Derek: Because our thoughts, thoughts don't create ultimate reality. Reality is already created. But thoughts give us our what, determine our experience of reality. We don't experience reality as it is. We experience reality through the filters of our thoughts, beliefs, and story. As Jesus said, it is done unto you, as you believe.

[00:45:52] Derek: So if you believe in God or nature or evolution or quantum fields, whatever, there's already a perfect [00:46:00] reality of information. Quantum fluctuations, divine patterns, Plato's perfect forms, whatever you wanna call it. We can't improve upon reality. Reality is complete and perfect, but we, we experience where our attention is.

[00:46:17] Derek: We experience, again, what we believe. We experience where we're coming from, we experience what we're looking for. These are all forms of mental cognition. So with metacognition, the ability to contemplate even just some people have never meditated. And when you first start, your mind is very busy, you know, monkey mind.

[00:46:38] Derek: And, and it's difficult to do if you don't have any kind of instruction or practice. But there's apps out there, you probably teach it or guide people. I know I do. But it can be very simple. It can be as simple as just sitting down every day. And you know, like the artist's way Julia Cameron did has the morning pages.

[00:46:56] Derek: Um, do something you could, you could sit down and just write for five [00:47:00] minutes or write three full pages. Just dump out everything in you every morning. That's a form of contemplation, and it's, it's thinking on paper. And what happens is when you write it, you slow down your thinking. This is why lawyers are such great thinkers, whether you like 'em or not, because they gotta write a lot of things down.

[00:47:20] Derek: They gotta write out their briefs. So when you write down everything in you for three full pages or so, every morning, you start to notice what you're thinking, especially over the days that follow. Oh, there's that same thought, there's that same pattern. There's that story again. Oh, I'm blaming them. I'm, I'm feeling guilty.

[00:47:40] Derek: Oh, look at that. This is really important to me. This really matters. And again, when you're just moving through the day, the lights are on, but nobody's home. You know, people are afraid. Robots are gonna replace us. Newsflash, we've already been replaced in our mind by programs that have been colonized for millennia and by media [00:48:00] and religion.

[00:48:01] Derek: But this thinking on paper slows it down. And when you start to see the story written down and then you start to see it over and over again, you start to get a bit of a gap. And that gap is what we call response ability. The ability to respond from where you want versus merely react. It's like putting brake pads on when it was metal to metal before, and you can now go, once you go through that process, and I go through this in depth in the book, you're like, well, what do I want to think?

[00:48:41] Derek: What's the story I want to tell? Because again, you're not experiencing reality and it's not happening to you. It's happening through your story about it. And when you change the story or you change the central character. The story [00:49:00] changes, your belief changes, and it changes what you're looking for, where you're looking from and the filters you're looking through.

[00:49:10] Derek: And because life is not happening to you, although it appears to be, it's happening through you, through your filters, through your perception, your life changes because you are made in the image and likeness of the creative principle of the universe, which means you have the ability to create out of nothing.

[00:49:31] Derek: And you're doing that every day. You just don't realize it 'cause there's a bunch of junk all around you. You don't realize you're creating outta nothing, but you are. And because we think the same thoughts pretty much every day, unless we interject it, the life doesn't look like it changes that much because we are creating it every day.

[00:49:51] Derek: There's already so much here and we're thinking so many of the same things that we don't notice where the whole universe is going on [00:50:00] off, on, off, on, off, on, off all the time. And every time it goes off, it goes back on. It recreates the whole universe through that current model or filter. But if your model or filter or story hasn't changed much, it's gonna look almost the same.

[00:50:13] Derek: I'll just say this one quick joke. There was a comedian, Steven Wright, and he says, I woke up this morning. He has a funny dry sense of humor, and he is like, thieve's broke into my house. They stole every single thing I had and replaced it with exact copies.

[00:50:35] Derek: I mean, it's just like, whoa. Um, but that's kind of our life, right? So, so that's the first major technology, and you can play with it from a lot of angles once you've gotten used to that. You can start to spend a few minutes in the midst of that with your eyes closed. Just noticing your thoughts, noticing your body, noticing the sensations.

[00:50:58] Derek: Not doing anything about it, [00:51:00] but just witnessing it. And again, through those two processes, what starts to happen is you reclaim a little bit of dominion over your own attention. 'cause right now your attention is hijacked and it's caught on a hook and being pulled all over the place by old thoughts, other people's thoughts, the media, et cetera.

[00:51:21] Derek: But when you start to get your attention back and you can see people are like, you need to look over here. No, you need to be afraid about this. You need to be like this. That's your attention being pulled. You can start to pull it back and go. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for sharing.

[00:51:38] Derek: But I think I'm going to put my attention over here like on what I want. On who I am, on what matters to me. Like people ask me, how, how's life treating you? And I say, I don't know. And I don't care. I only know how I'm treating life, how I'm treating my life, and how I'm living my life. Or how's your day going?

[00:51:58] Derek: Don't know, don't care. [00:52:00] I know how I'm going about my day. You know, in the Wizard of Oz, there's a secret code hidden in there when it says we're off to see the wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz. Because, because, because, because, because, be cause don't be at the effect, don't be a victim. And that's the message the wizard gives.

[00:52:22] Derek: You always had a brain, you always had a heart. You always could go home. The power was always in you be cause don't be at the effect of the world, but you can't be in cause if you are. So caught up in everything else and you haven't taken a chance to really know yourself, know what's triggering, you know what matters to you, but if you do that, all kinds of options and new roads and new possibilities begin to unfold.

[00:52:53] Derek: So that's the most important technology I believe. Then from there, you can pour all of [00:53:00] that into like the evolutionary coach. I'm gonna give people when they get my book or the focus coach, or even if you don't do any of that, just use regular ai. If you prefer, it's not as finely tuned obviously, but share all of this stuff you're coming up with every day.

[00:53:17] Derek: Make it, make your journal a, a chat, GPT session or whatever. You can use the free version and I know some people don't want to 'cause they're afraid it's gonna know them too much and steal their information or whatever. But all I would say is. It's not, and, and it doesn't care about your information.

[00:53:35] Derek: There's literally a billion people using it. But the point is you can use it then you can ask, you know, after a few days, what, and it'll already tell you, but it's like, what are you getting to understand about me? Help me understand myself. Help me understand what's running me.

[00:53:49] Derek: And lemme tell you a little about my childhood too, and what happened when I was a kid and this, that, and the other. Now help me to see the connections and the story I'm telling and the story I'm living and, and what [00:54:00] it means and how I can, and start to engage in a conversation. Again, you, you don't want to do it merely to take its answers at face value, but it's just another perspective and it's, and you are putting your real stuff in there, so it's gonna help you make sense of it if it doesn't resonate.

[00:54:21] Derek: Push back. If you don't agree with it, push back and and tell it. And this is really important because AI will be a sycophant, uh, a yes man or woman. So you wanna say, don't just agree with me. Don't just be nice to me. I want to know the truth. I want to know, I want, I want real honest feedback. No BS. And you gotta keep reminding it and training it that way.

[00:54:48] Derek: And eventually, you know, it will give you the honest truth. And if you do that, so be first starting with self contemplation and meditation and then using AI to amplify your [00:55:00] awareness. And then saying, this is what I really want. Getting clear on what's the life I wanna create, not the life I think I have to, or should or must, but the life I really, really want.

[00:55:13] Derek: The person I really want to be. The difference I really want to make. Then you can also use it once you've excavated that between your inner story and that it will help you, especially if you use the tools that I built for this, which are free for people. It will help you begin to decode your unique path to that alignment and to that fulfillment.

[00:55:38] Derek: So these are some of the positive ways to use it to accelerate your self-awareness. And then once you get the the clarity and you know where you want to go and you know who you want to be and you understand what are some of the patterns in the way it takes support, and AI can give you some of that, but [00:56:00] humans tend to be the best at that.

[00:56:01] Derek: Somebody like you who could really hold them accountable, lovingly or whatever. Or if they have a coach or if they're in our communities, either one, but we need each other because it's really scary and hard, even when you have clarity. Right. First, the difficulty is, I'm overwhelmed. I'm scared. I'm burned out.

[00:56:21] Derek: My job could be at stake or my kids, or whatever. And so you're just too frazzled. That's where you need to start. By reconnecting with yourself, create space. Otherwise, you're, you're no good. You're gonna just be a ball of reactions and you're gonna cause more stress and struggle for yourself and everybody.

[00:56:38] Derek: So you must make that space, make it a priority, even if you think it's wrong. Some people even feel like it's selfish to take an hour out for themselves. You know, you gotta take it out. The most loving thing you can do for anybody in your life is take time to be with you, to fill your cup, to resource, and to know yourself.

[00:56:58] Derek: And then the second thing [00:57:00] is to use these tools to help you make, get clarity, you know, make progress, make a plan. But you always hit what I call these thresholds, which is you hit the edge of your identity. Or your map of reality and it feels like danger and it has really good reasons why you shouldn't go any further.

[00:57:20] Derek: Why you can't. I don't have the time, the money, the energy. It's too soon. It's too late. I'm too tall, I'm too short, I'm too fat, I'm too skinny, I'm too gay, I'm too straight, I'm too this, I'm too that, whatever. And it's all a stall tactic of the ego. And so that's when you need somebody who can support you and say, I got your back.

[00:57:38] Derek: Keep going. And that's where community brings about a, an immunity to these fears and makes you more resilient and stronger. And then you cross that threshold and that's where real evolution and growth happens. And if you're willing to do that right now, even just those few steps, it's like the first three, step [00:58:00] three evolutions in the book.

[00:58:02] Derek: If you're willing to do that, you will already be ahead, most human beings on the planet right now, and you will. You will become somebody that is a trusted resource for others, you will start to feel more confidence. Um, if you don't at least do that, it's gonna be really, really hard. 

[00:58:26] Shilpa: It's definitely clear that, um, your passion, that you've put your energy into this, the book, your life work and all the stories that I know of about you now, it's come to this point where you are able to help generations of souls through this contemplative approach where AI is looked upon as a way to help further your inner evolution.

[00:58:59] Shilpa: And [00:59:00] then coupling that contemplated piece with community, which is what you created, is just the, the perfect timing in our. In our generation. 

[00:59:11] Derek: Yeah, I mean that's, I mean, I guess I'm, I'm a human evolution coach. I'm an architect of human evolution and, um, or an engineer of human evolution. Or when I, when I, when I think about my work, the law of emergence, I'm an engineer.

[00:59:25] Derek: I'm engineering the emergence and the unfoldment of individuals and, and again, the, the three components are humanity or, or human super intelligence first. Now you can take that from a secular or non-secular place if you don't believe in God or other higher powers. It's just human super intelligence.

[00:59:45] Derek: It's just, remember our ancestors were wandering the desert and tapping into quantum physics and atomic physics and, uh, chemistry and string theory, like the, our ancestors tapped into many of [01:00:00] the biggest ideas before we had telescopes or microscopes. So we have to super intelligence first. US first, humanity.

[01:00:07] Derek: First. Self-awareness. Self con. You know, consciousness first. That's the first technology. If you start anywhere else, you're already out of, out of, you know, like people talk about the alignment problem with ai. No. The alignment problem is with humans. We are the ones out of alignment and we have to get in alignment with ourselves.

[01:00:25] Derek: Remember who we are. That's step one. Step two is use AI now to help accelerate and amplify your self knowledge. Your self capacity. Help AI use AI to help you activate your super intelligence to become smarter, better, stronger, more resilient, more self-aware, and then use it to help you scale your impact from that place.

[01:00:56] Derek: And then use other humans and community [01:01:00] because community is the new model. Even the new model of enlightenment, you know, it used to be like one person gets enlightened and no, the new model is two by two, where two or three are gathered in agreement. There I am, we will not be enlightened or find real freedom except in service to each other, right?

[01:01:24] Derek: As Dr. King said, anybody can be great because everybody can serve. So that's when you put those three things together, know myself, use technology to amplify who I really am and then serve other humans and let myself be held by other humans. And that locks it all in and creates a container where it can really flourish.

[01:01:51] Derek: And that's, those are the three core pieces. And, and there's other elements in there, but like that's fundamental to our, to our future [01:02:00] proofing our life and our work and our wealth and our wellbeing. 

[01:02:04] Shilpa: This is wonderful and you've created this ecosystem and a, a sy a system where there's a community as well as an a deeper understanding of how those AI tools can be the companion for people.

[01:02:18] Derek: Yes. 

[01:02:18] Shilpa: Name those, uh, few tools you mentioned. 

[01:02:21] Derek: Yeah. So right now for people when they, when they get the book, you know, you can get it anywhere, books are sold or they can just go to my website to get it. I don't know if you have a link somewhere if I need to say it, I can say it otherwise. Um, but, uh, they, uh.

[01:02:36] Derek: When they kind of put their information in and say they got the book, et cetera, they get instant access to an AI evolution coach, which embeds or has been embedded and embodies the, the 10 evolutions and the content from the book, as well as a lot of my teaching over the last 25 years. And you can, it's like having me in your pocket 24 7.

[01:02:58] Derek: You can just say what's going on. [01:03:00] I think you played with it a little bit. And, uh, it'll guide you on how to future proof your life or you can share it with your kids or do do it together, whatever, wherever people are at. Um, if you looks like you're about to be one of the people that loses their job, they estimate 50% of white collar work in the next 24 months, maybe less could, could lose their jobs.

[01:03:19] Derek: This will help you find your edge. And then there's the. Also what to work on specifically. 'cause it know it'll get to know you and know the evolutions and be able to guide you on what to work on and then, and what to do specifically and practically, not just theoretically. And then the focus coach embodies the My Best Year blueprint and best day blueprint, which will help you.

[01:03:42] Derek: Now put that into very clear, a very clear target, help you define what I should be focusing on, what's most important, what's the highest leverage, and then what are the steps in between. So you can, because [01:04:00] again, without a vision, without a plan is a fantasy, right? And a plan that's not on your calendar actually is just wishful thinking.

[01:04:08] Derek: You're not gonna do it. You're gonna get caught up by everybody else's agendas or by your own moment by moment emotions. So you have to have. A clear goal, a clear plan broken down on your calendar. It doesn't have to be overwhelming, but it's just so that you stay in alignment, right? And it has to be created ideally out of this self-discovery so that again, it's not just you living somebody else's agenda, which is what most people are doing.

[01:04:37] Derek: We're living our parents' agenda, our spouse's agenda, our kids' agenda, our politics agenda. We gotta get back to ours, and then we can create a life that really is congruent, really is in alignment with us, like a farmer or gardener who understands what a seed is, and they create the conditions uniquely for that seed.

[01:04:58] Derek: And not every seed has the same [01:05:00] conditions. Some need more light, some need less, some need more water, some need less. And you want to create the conditions that allow you to flourish. You can, it's literally what you were designed for and it's what we help people do. 

[01:05:17] Shilpa: I love that. I, um, will include the show notes with the link and the details that you've mentioned.

[01:05:24] Shilpa: And, um, I could ask 20 other questions, but we're gonna wrap up. We'll 

[01:05:30] Derek: just have a part two at some point. 

[01:05:31] Shilpa: I would love to, 

[01:05:32] Derek: we don't wanna overwhelm people too much. Hopefully they got enough info and you know, again, the book will give you a lot more. My YouTube channel will give you a lot more. My podcast will give

[01:05:42] Derek: tons of trainings and content. I give away 98% of everything. And, and this is a mission. It's not, you know, just a business. It's, and it's, and it's urgent. And so I encourage people, you know, in Proverbs it says, where there is no vision that people perish, doesn't say [01:06:00] they just have a bad day, right? So we really need to understand we're at an urgent inflection point for us, for the sake of our children, our loved ones, and our future.

[01:06:11] Derek: We must allocate a bit of our time right now urgently to get our life in alignment again and get prepared before the tsunami is literally a wall of water staring us in the face. And now we're trying to outrun it. It's gonna be too late then. And if, and also understand that if we do prepare, this isn't just about surviving, it's about the possibility of you having a life.

[01:06:39] Derek: And us creating a, a new renaissance and a world that is the fulfillment of so much of what we all have sensed is possible for us and for our children and for their future. It's real and it's possible, and we could accelerate it, our progress again, so much faster right now [01:07:00] if we're willing to make it a priority, even in the midst of our busy lives.

[01:07:04] Derek: So I encourage people to do that. 

[01:07:07] Shilpa: Just like meditation. I consider that my non-negotiable. 

[01:07:10] Derek: Exactly. 

[01:07:11] Shilpa: Very 

[01:07:11] Derek: good. If you spend, you wanna have more time in your life, spend more time in the timeless. 

[01:07:18] Shilpa: Oh, that is a beautiful way to close. Thank you so much, Derek. I really appreciate you. You 

[01:07:22] Derek: too. 

[01:07:22] Shilpa: Have a wonderful day and I would love for you to be back in the future.

[01:07:26] Derek: You got it. It's my honor. My pleasure. Many blessings to you and to everybody. 

[01:07:32] Shilpa: Thank you.