Your Life Is in Your Hands: Miles Spencer on Transformation, Storytelling & Legacy

  What would it take for you to fully own your life — and leave something meaningful behind?

In this episode of The Asset Mindset, host Daniel Fielding sits down with entrepreneur, adventurer, and founder Miles Spencer for a raw conversation about transformation, legacy, and the stories that define us. Miles shares how extreme experiences — including a parachuting incident — reshaped his understanding of ownership, risk, and purpose. He introduces Reflector, a technology platform using AI to preserve intergenerational stories and family legacies for future generations. Inspired by T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Miles recounts an epic adventure across the Middle East and what it revealed about shared humanity and culture. From building a quality tribe to the adventure of fatherhood, this episode delivers powerful insights on personal growth, entrepreneurship, and living with intention.

⏱ Chapters

•       00:00 — Introduction to Miles Spencer

•       01:03 — Transformational Moments in Life

•       02:58 — Lessons from Parachuting

•       08:28 — Introducing Reflector: Preserving Stories with AI

•       12:08 — The Impact of AI on Storytelling

•       20:17 — Miles' Adventure Inspired by Seven Pillars of Wisdom

•       24:44 — Shared Stories Across Religions & Cultures

•       26:38 — The Power of Adventure and Storytelling

•       27:31 — The Importance of Starting Your Transformation

•       30:18 — Building Your Tribe

•       35:07 — The Adventure of Fatherhood

•       40:12 — Following Your Passions & Making Choices

•       47:58 — Final Wisdom: Pick Your Heroes Wisely

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Produced by Security Halt Media

Transcript

Introductions And Transformation Focus

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome to the Asset Mindset Podcast, where we don't wait for opportunities, we create them. I'm your host, Daniel Fielding, former Green Beret, and author of the Asset Mindset, a motivational speaker and a life coach. But enough about me. Let's go and meet today's very special guest, Miles Spencer. Miles, say hello and introduce yourself to the audience.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Hey Daniel, thanks for having me. I'm Miles Spencer, just a curious kid from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

A Teen Chooses Agency And Football

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Well, it's great to have you here, and I can't wait to dive into all your curiosity because you have lots of curiosities I've seen when I've uh done my little bit of research on you. You've done quite the array of things. But in each episode, we dive deep into the mindset, habits, and mission-driven thinking that turn everyday people into high performers like yourself and real life warriors. This isn't about motivation, it's about transformation. So I'm going to ask you what was your first major transformational moment that you decided like, I can't live like this. I need to change.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

I'm going to go back to uh when I was 14 years old. Uh again, Carrie's kid from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, always asking who, what, why, where, when. Drove my parents crazy, by the way. And without consulting me, they decided to move from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the center of uh pretty good football, to Stowe, Vermont. Very nice part of the world, but no football team. Uh I was a fish out of water. Uh I I played soccer for about five minutes. And uh then I realized I wanted to go find a school where they played football. So back in the day, I would go to the library and look up different schools. I can remember the moment. I said I want to apply out to boarding school. And parents are like, uh, really? And there's a guy by the name of Chris who was in the kitchen. And he said, like, well, if you want to do it for football, go to this particular school. I called him, I said, Hey, you have a football team? Yeah, send me an application. And sure enough, when I did my interview, it was the football coach who worked in admissions, who knew the coach from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, actually Beaver, Pennsylvania, coach Pat Tarquinio. Kind of just like tore the corner of the application. He said, like, I'll see you in September. And that was it. So it it it basically was transformative in that at 13 years old, I realized I could take agency on my life. I could go out uh on an adventure and discover and be curious and learn some things and bring them back home. And that was the one that came to mind when you asked the question. I probably have a couple more.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

I'm sure you do, but that's a very defining one, especially at that age to learn a lesson like that that you can help take direction of your life, that you're the driver of your life. You're not just a victim to circumstances and things that happen. So, how did that change you going forward?

Parachute Lessons On Ownership

SPEAKER_02 3:05

Well, I'm gonna share another story, and this came from last weekend. Uh we're jumping with a round canopy parachute team because we're gonna jump with the 82nd Airboard in Normandy, um, commemorating the 82nd anniversary of the D-Day invasion. And what I learned was when you're out the door, this happened to be a caravan, but we're jumping to C-47 in uh in March. There's nobody else gonna come help you. Your life is in your hands, and you could bitch and moan. Can I say that? Oh, yeah. Say whatever you want. Speak freely. Bitch and moan about like the sticker that the jump master had on his helmet, and the pilot gave me a weird look, and he hurt my feelings. Okay, well, great. If you're free-falling, that 10 seconds just cost you 2,000 feet. And if you're in a round canopy from 1,200 feet, you only got 60 seconds to figure it all out. You got the rest of your life to figure it all out, but it's really 60 seconds, right? So nobody's coming to help you. You gotta figure it out for yourself. Sure. Others will come along, others will be on the team, but having that understanding that it's on you, your life is on you. Those are the two bookends, so it's 13 years old and 62 out the door this weekend.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

I love it. I love it. And one of the things I'll give you advice, and that I I do with a lot of people, like you're saying, take ownership of it. When you jump out of a plane and say you have a cigarette roll or a major malfunction, don't fight it. When you got to cut away, cut away and move on to your reserve. If you're a divorce situation, yes, right. You gotta you gotta go through a change in relationship and divorce cut away. It's a bad it's a bad job situation, cut away and start fresh. Because otherwise you're just wasting your time, and sooner or later that time runs out and it's gonna go splat. So that's right. That's my little jumping advice there. Um, and don't forget to bicycle, don't panic right away. If it spun up a little bit, you know, do your legs and bicycle moves and you can straighten your shootout, but don't spend too much time with it.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

I I did I had a twist on uh a jump this weekend, and um, you know, just uh I remember that slide in trainings like yeah, like uh pull bicycle, worked out fine. I had a little less time to figure out uh my my optimal landing location, but uh I didn't hit the tarmac.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

So well, that's good. And hey, you're here, so you had a great, wonderful landing. Well, yeah, I've had a few twists. Have you had a collision yet? Have you ever collided with somebody in there?

SPEAKER_02 6:03

You know, spread eagle, right? Push away, uh, go back out the way that you came. Uh I have not having I practiced them in harnesses. I've not had uh one of those yet. Uh there are only whatever uh four on the stick in each stick in a caravan. So it's uh probably less likely to happen.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

But uh no, I haven't had haven't jumping double doors like the 82nd, right? One on each side, that's when it happened to me because we both ended up you start off, yeah, staggering, but once people are going out the door, you know, they're doing what they're doing.

unknown 6:41

Right.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

And depending on the altitude, the wind's blowing up there, right? It's like it gets interesting pretty quickly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

So did you serve? Um, what's your interest with jumping and the 82nd? Tell us a little bit about this story of yours.

Collisions, Risk, And Composure In The Air

SPEAKER_02 6:56

Yeah. So answer no. I came from a military family. I I basically had to make my bed in the morning and pass inspection, like uh military, but I was just growing up. Um, but I did not serve. Having said that, a lot of friends that did, uh, I happened to have taken a long hike. Remember, Curious Kid from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I decided that seven pillars of wisdom was a very good way to understand the Middle East and Sus T. E. Lawrence book. And so we hiked uh 1,100 kilometers from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to Damascus, Syria on camel and foot and horseback. And I did that with a Navy Special Forces parachute rescue uh uh um veteran that um was also parachuting with me this weekend in Palakka. And um I I've been around lots. I have a tremendous respect uh for those that serve. And uh we had the opportunity through my existing business to actually record and preserve the stories of these men and women. Better than a book, better than a Polaroid picture, better than a love letter, better than a last letter. We actually have a platform now that uses AI to enable a spontaneous and dynamic conversation based on those stories. And so we'll be doing that for a heck of a lot of veterans. We started out with uh those from Round Canopy.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Nice. And this is Reflecta, you're talking about, which is also the sign behind you, correct?

From Military Roots To Desert Trek

Reflecta: Preserving Voices With AI

SPEAKER_02 8:39

That is correct. Uh do a lot of podcasts with uh with that behind me. So yeah, Reflecta is uh uh platform that we created nine months ago. I've always been about legacy and family and stories and this concept of intergenerational storytelling. Now we've had the technology to tell stories for well, look, you know, back in the day it used to be just the word of mouth. They would pass them on, and then the Egyptians did a pretty good job with the cartouches and the pyramids, and uh then, you know, the monks, you know, sort of got pretty good at the calligraphy, and you had Polaroid pictures and you had the gyrotypes during the Civil War, right? These are all devices that allow us to perpetuate memory, but they're not very good, right? They're usually up in the attic in a shoebox gathering dust, right? You go back to Thanksgiving, like, oh, wow, yeah. Well, who was this again? Like, what? Whose writing is that? So nine months ago, myself and my co-founder Adam Drake realized that a new technology had arrived. And we could actually pull all of this into a cloud, analyze it through AI, and create a timeline and a persona and a recognizable image and likeness of a loved one where whether they have passed or they're living. And those stories last for eternity. So my father on his last day, he said to me, son, this body is temporal, right? It's gonna go. It's like an envelope, it's gonna get stamped. But my spirit and soul are eternal. And when you can reconnect with that, you'll have me the rest of your life. So that was eight years ago. We didn't have the technology. Like, all right. Well, we found a copy of his voice in his granddaughter's voicemail five years after he passed. Combined that with all the stories that we had put into the Reflecta platform. And you could go on Reflecta right now, sign in, it's free. You could talk to my dad. Uh I'm looking at it right now. Uh 6,950 people have had conversations with my dad in the last 30 days. Wow. Right? A very popular guy. That voice was printed off of a voicemail. And his stories will live forever because of the technology. So imagine what that could do for you, your family, whether it's someone that's passed that you'd like to recreate their stories and pass them down, or someone that's a senior or military or a person of faith, or maybe perhaps they have Alzheimer's, perhaps they have uh some other life-ending disease. You know, as an African saying, when a person dies, an entire library burns to the ground, the library of their stories. And so, you know, you get those stories and you get them on our platform and you can preserve them for uh not just a lifetime, but for eternity. My father read a bedtime story to my daughter last night, and then they talked about it until she fell asleep. She knew him for five years, but she hasn't been able to speak to him for eight, and now she's reconnected with him and she considers him part of the family. I'll add one more. Thanksgiving. My sister forgot the recipe for elderberry pie. Now, this is a dramatic situation. This is this is like this is drama in the Spencer household, all right? So we dialed up mom on the iPad, and she walked my sister through making the elderberry pie with the flaky crust because she used fluffo shortening and the right amount of sugar to combine with the very tart elderberries to make a perfect pie. My mom passed away 25 years ago.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

Wow, incredible. So it's not just entertainment stories, it's knowledge too that can be passed down through generations. What a powerful tool. What an amazing time to be alive where we are now transitioning to that. You know, a lot of people get scared of AI. And, you know, just like anything, I think it's a tool. It can be used for good or bad. You could take a hammer and build a house, or you could smash someone's skull in. I think AI's getting a bad rap in a lot of ways. I do think there's people out there that could be bad players, but your story and what you're doing now, I think that's incredibly positive.

SPEAKER_02 13:31

Thank you. It's it's uh when we debuted at AI4 in Vegas last year, uh we were called like AI for humanity, right? And uh that you know, that's very nice. But those that are scared, the you know, it's Black Mirror, it's Ghostbusters, it's you know, you're you're conjuring up spirits that shouldn't be here, etc. It's there's there's that crowd, and then there's the crowd that AI's gonna take my job, so they're afraid of it, right? Um, but you hit it. It's just another technology. We happen to be using it for intergenerational storytelling to be more efficient. Remember when the web first came out? It's like there was AOL, right? It's like hang around, AOL is safe, it's a walled garden, no one will call you names, etc. Don't want to go out to the world wide web on your own. And uh, yeah, we got over it. Um, daguerreotypes, civil war. I remember asking to take over this one, the civil war, but I I was taking uh um an old-fashioned photo in Kenya and I asked some aside tribesmen, like, I take your photos, like people dressed up, looking good. And he said, No, some some part of my spirit will be taken. I don't want that technology in my life, right? And to a certain extent, some people feel like that might be what's going on here. But I'm I'll make this perfectly clear. Look, Reflecta is default private, family to family, so it's not gonna go uh it's not gonna go out there demon dialing for credit cards. Um all of the information is approved by the keeper person that is the editor. And so there's no deep fakes from outside, there's no celebrity retell, there's no hallucination. You know, what you put in is is what you get, right? So that addresses some people's uh concerns, but still half of the world's not ready for this. That's okay.

Reconnecting With Parents Across Time

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Yep. No, that's what happens, but I'm sure there's a lot of people that are gonna be grateful for it, you know, those that are ready and willing to take the leap out the plane, right? You know, they're ready to take that jump. So um I know for myself, you touched something in me, because my father's passed as well, too, um, 11 years ago now, uh in 2015, and you talked about stories, like we had stories, different things. Uh in my book, I share a story about cutting um a tree down with him, and then I dug the stump out by hand for a hundred dollar bet. And you know, I was 12 years old, and they're like, No way a kid's gonna be able to do that. And nobody really knows that story, like him and I. You know, his buddy was there, he was like, hey, take the bet. He needs to learn, you know, what his word is, and if he can't do it in the weekend, then he needs to pay you that hundred dollars. And you know, back in the 80s,$100 was a lot of money for a 12-year-old kid. And uh yeah, that story's gone. Boy, would I love to hear him laugh or joke or talk about that story again, even if it directly wasn't him, but it resonated, that would be a special thing.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

Daniel, on my heart, uh and and and uh actually uh I got my pins this weekend. I was not aware of the tradition in which they actually hammer said pins uh into the leg so on my blood wings, uh promise you those stories aren't gone. You start when you're ready, when you're past grieving, when you're into preserving that legacy and passing it on for future generations, you have a conversation with our biographer and you start to build that timeline of the person, um it doesn't have to be gone. You can you can use Reflecta to make that into an intergenerational story for your family.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

Yeah, and that would be great for my daughters, because um my son knew my dad. Just like you know, your daughters spent time with your dad. But my um middle middle child daughter, she was born after he died, you know, like 11 months afterwards, and then my youngest obviously wasn't around. So neither one of them, they see pictures and hear stories about Grampy and all that, and they don't know, and I wish they did. And that's for me, one of my things and goals in life with trying to be healthy at 50 years old, fitting 50, is I want to be there for my kids' kids. I wanted them to be able to, you know, interact with me and know who their grandfather was. Because I had a grandfather I never got to meet, Bill Maverides, my mom's dad. He passed away before I was born. And so I've had that experience, like, gee, I wonder what my grandpa was like. Because most people have their grandparents, at least for a little while. And I didn't have that, and then my daughters are not having that, and I'm like, I don't want them to go without it. And it sounds like there might be a way that there will be a greater connection in the future, which is very uh warming and it's it's about yeah, it's a bit it's Daniel, it's about the connection.

Addressing Fears: Privacy And Deepfakes

SPEAKER_02 19:07

Um we have a woman on our team, it's on the website, her name is Kelsey. Her father passed away three months before she was born. She's twenty-five now, and she got engaged. And the first thing she wanted to do is introduce her fiance to her father. And so she used the reflection of her father, and her fiance had a conversation with her, and her father gave some advice for the uh uh the the toast on the the wedding day, and it um it was what she she really needed. Uh it's a beautiful story. It's uh there's a video of it on uh on our website, but just one of many beautiful stories uh from people on our team that uh and others now that um have used Reflect uh to preserve those intergenerational stories. Um otherwise they will be lost.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Yeah. What a special time to be alive. But I want to dive into stories too, because you have your A Line in the Sand. Let's hear about that story. You brought it up a little bit earlier, your adventure and your curiosity. Tell us about that story and how it became a book. It did.

Personal Grief And Legacy Potential

A Line In The Sand: The Trek

SPEAKER_02 20:25

Uh there's a second one I'll tell you about in a minute, but uh I have uh a wonderful adventure partner, Wells Jones. I mentioned uh Navy X special uh parachute rescue team. He was actually, I believe, the fifth person out the door at Antarctica. Uh Halo Jump, 61 degrees below zero, rescue mission. Like not as much fun as it sounds. Okay. So, so, so he and I uh were talking after 9-11, a couple years after 9-11. It's like, what is going on over there? And what are those people thinking? And we couldn't really get our hands around a decent explanation until we fell upon the book Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence. Both had read the book and kind of looked at each other and said, like, wow, this is this is really prescient. Um, what should we do next? Let's go. So luckily I had a prior book. I got an invitation to speak in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in front of a business group, and uh that business group introduced me to uh us both, to uh Prince. His name is uh uh Prince Halid, uh Prince Halad bin Faisal al Saman, and he gave us free passage through the kingdom, and the note still worked pretty well in Jordan and also in Syria. So we went from Jeddah to Damascus, Syria. About twenty six days, got to know. People, places, really retracing the route that T.E. Lawrence took during the Arab Revolt. The deal was back then, you know, you talk about basically the major theme of the book and the all of those that have followed, is white men behaving badly in clubs in London and Paris and the rest. So what was it about? It was about, oh, okay, look, if we get the Arabs to revolt against the Ottomans, then that'll help us, you know, uh offset a little bit, right? It's like a side guerrilla force. Oh, Lawrence, not an Arab, ended up leading said Arabs. But the deal was if you get to Damascus first, you can have a pan-Arabic uh kingdom, and the Heshemites who were in the Hijas uh would rule it. It's like, uh, good deal, let's go. Uh at the same time, uh, they had also promised the French that since so many French had died in the trenches in World War I, that they could have it too. But news didn't travel so fast back then. So Lawrence and and Faisal roll into uh Damascus and like first. And uh General Allen B said, like, uh, did some paperwork. Um, uh, let's manage our expectations. And uh he said, come on, you know, like just like appointment. Anyways, he said, I'm a military guy, I don't govern, you know, the guys with the paperwork are coming. It was the French. Like, hey, look, we've been here a thousand years. You know about the crusade, so yeah, that's us. And uh Lebanon, Levant, uh Syria included in that, uh, it should be ours because uh a lot of ours died, yeah, 10,000 miles away. Uh the Arab revolt was ended, or did it just begin? Right. And so that's agreement, it's called the Sykes Picot Agreement. They literally, when you see Arab protests around colonialism, imperialism, etc. Somebody's gonna have a sign that says F Sykes Picot, right? It's basically double dealing from white guys behaving badly in clubs in Europe. Right? Uh so we had this adventure. P.S. We ended up working with with uh the prince uh for several years. Which is interesting. Which is very interesting. So so we had access at a level that was uh you know unbelievable. Um one thing we learned, among many others, um, were I'll give you two things. We're approaching uh Magar al-Shab, and this is a um this is a holy site in the northwest corner of Saudi Arabia. You could see Jordan, you could see Israel, you could see the Amabay from there. And our guide is going on about Musa, Ezra, Hagar, and it's like, you know, where'd you get those stories? Like, oh I got them from the Quran. It's like that's from my book, that's in the Bible, right? And so I called a friend, I got a satellite phone, I called a friend in in Tel Abi, uh Talmudic scholar, and I said, Hey, look, how many of these prophets are in the Torah? We went like 12 for 12. Well, the reality was my takeaway was these three religions share all the same prophets, all the same sand and desert, all the same stories, just slightly different interpretations along the way that get magnified and turned into extremism, and that's where the trouble begins. Right. Um, that's one of the things that we learned on our trek. And so uh we wrote a book, uh, it's called A Line of the Sand. Um, it was a number one seller last year in in uh uh historical fiction category on Amazon Digital Publishing in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Syria. First time that's happened. Um, but the two adventurers, their name is Magnus and Finn, loosely based around somebody I've just been talking about. And and you know, historical fiction is much easier to write because you don't have to do all the research. Uh they have a second adventure which comes out um next month, which is called Havana Familia, and that's about a similar adventure that happened in Havana, Cuba. And presto, guess what? Havana Cuba is in the headlines because of what's going on in Venezuela and what's about to go down in Havana. So it's called Havana Familia, and it's on Amazon as well. The Cuban family familiar. Well, and and interestingly enough, it's spelled the family with a G because the people that ran Cuba for from the 20s to the almost 1960, 1958 was the mob. I mean, Havana was 10x what what Vegas is today. Uh uh until things got dodgy with the revolution, the the mob controlled Havana, and uh it was a swinging place.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

Oh, it was super happening.

SPEAKER_02 27:40

It might be again. It might be again.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

Yeah. Well, the world's always changing. That's one of the consistency. And let's get into that change a little bit and transformation. For people that are maybe listening right now, what advice would you give them to like transform their life or make a difference or find a purpose?

Sykes–Picot And Shared Prophets

SPEAKER_02 28:02

Well, there's three to unpack there. You know, um to transform, I believe the most crucial thing is to start. Right? Like I didn't know we were gonna do this when I first set foot in Saudi. Or I didn't know we were gonna create a AI company that did intergenerational storytelling. I didn't know I was gonna get arrested interrogated in Havana, Cuba, and make a great story out of it. But it began with the first step and that curiosity, which allowed me to do the research, be prepared, and then have the ability and the confidence to observe what was around and to bring that back right to people for a chance at understanding, a place they may never go, a cuisine they may never eat, a culture they may never experience. And so we call ours adventures of understanding, journeys of understanding, because we're not just going to say, like, hey, I did Everest, like, good for me, right? We bring something back from each adventure. Uh and that was crucial. And I guess that's the the final part of my multi-part answer to your question. And that is uh yeah, it's not the destination because frankly, you don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

It's wise, wise words right there. Just start because I never thought I'd have a podcast. I never thought, like you, you know, like I grew up blue-collar family, whatnot, and working, join the million. I never thought I'd write a book, you know, but I did. Like these things, you just have to start moving. And it's amazing when you start moving, how the path can take you in different directions. And it turns and twists, and it can change you and take your life in an amazing adventure, and you'll reach goals and dreams you never thought you could. But if you don't start, you don't take the first step, you don't leap out of the plane, whatever it is, you know, you you gotta move. You gotta move. You gotta move. So, in all of this going on that you have and your history and your curiosity, what have you learned about people and building a tribe or surrounding yourself with good people?

SPEAKER_02 30:40

Well, the first thing I've learned about people is you can't control what they do. You can only control how you respond to what they do. Even in the military, they're given an order, you think you control what they do, guess what? They can choose to not obey that order, there will be trouble coming. Um, but in life it is humbling to learn and to accept that other people make choices and you don't get to choose for them. You don't necessarily get to stop them from making those choices. If you try to, they're probably gonna resent it and let it happen. And then you get to choose how you respond to it. So that's my uh the first half of the question. How do you build that tribe of people around you? You know, I I I said to someone near and dear to my heart last year, I said, you know, one I want to spend more time with less people. It's not about the number of likes and the number of comments and the number of friends on social or this or that and the other thing. It's not the number of people that come to the party, etc. Right? I would trade all of it for dinner for six and uh five-hour conversation on a picnic tree picnic table under the willow tree for any of the rest of that. Solve the problems of the world. So to be honest, I have a uh, you know, it's nickel d nickels, dimes, and quarters of friendships, right? I have a handful of quarters. I spend most of my time with them.

New Book In Cuba And The Mob

SPEAKER_01 32:45

No, it's wise words. I have a good friend of mine that's like that. He's reached a level now that's uh most of us would never dream about. He started a foundation, actually do um mission trips with his foundation down to Guatemala and whatnot. And we were talking over New Year's, and he's like, you know, I could hang out with so many different people right now, or people want to be around me, but he goes, I find myself, I just want to be around good people doing good things. I don't care their status, I don't care this or that. If they have a purpose, a good heart, and they're making the world a better place, that's who I want to hang around. And I was like, I hear that. Lima Charlie, loud and clear. You know. And that that will shape and change the quality of your life, too. We all hear like, oh, it's the five people you surround yourself the most with. And there's a lot to it. That's why it is a saying, and that's why people share that. And if you can get the quality people around you, they're gonna lift you up and they're gonna open doors for you, or they're gonna give you a boost, or when you're feeling down. But don't forget, be an asset for them too.

SPEAKER_02 33:51

Uh yeah. So you a net taker or net giver. Um and and that's not just material things, but um, you know, spiritual and emotional things as well. You know, you ask yourself after spending time with this person or that, I feel uplisted, do I feel fulfilled? Do I feel drained? Feel exhausted, and use that marker to make the decision about the next time you get the invite.

unknown 34:25

Yeah.

How To Start Transforming Your Life

SPEAKER_01 34:26

No, absolutely. You know, you you can tell people's energy and different things. And if you're exhausted and drained, or people are just complaining on you and they bring you down, you know, and we all have family members like that or friends that we grew up with. And I hate to say it, but that's you know, setting boundaries becomes very important as we move further in life because you know, sometimes you want to help them, but there's a point where, you know, they have to take ownership. Like you spoke about earlier, you can't control other people. They're gonna do what they do. And sometimes setting a boundary and saying, hey, this is left and right limits, like I'm not hanging out with you. If you're gonna be like that, sorry. That might help them grow. That's tough love sometimes. And tough love can be very important. It is, it is. So you're a dad. Talk to us about that. You have all this curiosity, wisdom in life. What's it like for you being a dad?

SPEAKER_02 35:24

Well, I talk about ventures and adventures. That by far is the biggest adventure of all, which is uh having kids at 50. And so, yeah, my goal was to be, you know, not just fit at 50, but um I did the math, and I'm thinking, you know, I want to be returning punts and and uh kicking the ball around with my son or daughter when they're 18. Um now, unfortunately, uh my son chose rugby, which is not conducive to being 70. That's not an easy sport to be hanging around. Um, I do my best. Um, God bless we get, you know, I say yes a lot. Hey, when it goes out possible, yes. Like, there's no more, I'm busy, I gotta finish this proposal, I gotta finish this. Like, yes. Because I can work after their sleep. Um and uh my daughter, God bless her, chose wisely. She likes volleyball. I was a beach volleyball player for 10 years. So I know once again, she says you want to bump the volleyball. Yeah. That's an automatic yes. Um, but I'll be able to play that long after I can play rugby with my son, I can guarantee you. Um so I I'll give you that. Say yes, um, be fit, but also know that they are sponges. And so how you treat other people becomes crucially important, right? 'Cause they'll watch how you treat their mom, how you treat uh uh other uh adults in their life, how you treat other kids, uh what you say, how you handle yourself. Uh man, they're sponges, and you really gotta up your game because they're watching. They're watching.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

Yeah, and I think that's so powerful for listeners out there. They're watching, because you can tell them and say whatever you want to say. Your actions speak louder than your words by far. You know, you can say, hey, be kind, be nice, use your manners, but if you don't use yours and you have an attitude sometimes, yeah, that's what they're gonna truly learn.

SPEAKER_02 37:50

Yeah, try getting your kid to make their bed and clean up their room if you don't make your bed and clean up your room. It's another thing I learned from the Saudis. Energy. Energy, energy.

SPEAKER_01 38:02

Yeah, energy is important, especially with AI. You must know all about that.

Building A Tribe That Lifts You

SPEAKER_02 38:08

Uh yeah, they they've actually um we could do a whole nother podcast on um the Saudi vet um using oil money to basically become number three in the world in AI in the last 12 months. They have the power, uh, energy to do it. They bought the compute from all the big players, and now they're using it basically to create stories, which is why we'll probably partner with them.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

Hmm. Interesting. Yeah, there's a lot of dynamics, world changing. But then again, the world's always changed. I hate when people get so stuck on the doomsday, you know, doomsday, doomsday. You can go back in time, you know, Y2K, doomsday, doomsday, you know. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:54

You know, like, oh my God, the world's gonna fall apart. Computers weren't programmed to handle 2,000 years, you know.

SPEAKER_01 39:00

There's other things, whether it's global warming, you know, freezing, well, there's just there's always been something. And yeah, someday something bad's gonna happen, but I call it chicken little syndrome, right?

SPEAKER_02 39:15

I mean, a lot has been made out of chicken little syndrome. Um, and and to be honest, the last hundred years, the ones that made a good chunk of it was media. Yeah, like traffic and weather. Right? Tune in, because it might be a storm coming. Okay, right. And like Home Depot selling salt and and and and and and plywood or whatever it is, right? Because a storm may be coming. That's true. It may be.

SPEAKER_01 39:50

Yeah, it may be. And uh the funny thing about reality is it's pretty much never an extreme. You can think of the worst case scenario and the best case scenario. And reality's probably gonna be somewhere in between, because the odds of the worst thing happening are very slim. The odds of the perfect thing happening are very slim. Yeah. So reality's in between, usually. Anyway. So I want to get into all the things that you've built. This entrepreneur style, curiosity, I guess, is a big part of you know what you attribute your entrepreneur um lifestyle and all the different things you've done. It's very eclectic all over the place. Even painting, I love it. Talk to us about following passions.

SPEAKER_03 40:40

Well, people ask me, you know, what do you do?

Boundaries, Energy, And Tough Love

SPEAKER_02 40:47

I I admit, number one, I am entirely unemployable. Um just it's just never gonna happen. Um but my dad told me, find what you love, and it's not work. And, you know, I find some cool businesses along the way. I had a touch for uh media and entertainment, and that seemed to work for me, and it was fun. Um, I don't know how much I actually gave to the world as a result of creating that. Um, Reflecta has been a big culmination of all those things. But again, kind of do what you love, which is storytelling, intergenerational legacy, uh, respect, morals, values, they all kind of come into one, you know, big purple logo, which is Reflecta. And that's um so following that passion, figuring out a way, finding what you love, and then figuring out a way to make money on it or to support yourself. That's uh uh I'd say that's number one. You can go get a job anywhere, right? And burn yourself out, fine. But um find what you love. And it's just not, it's not, it doesn't feel like work.

SPEAKER_01 42:07

Yeah, no, absolutely. And I tell people all the time, you know, if you're stuck working, that's fine. But after work or on the weekends on days off, you need to work for yourself. Work for your dreams, work for your passions. Because what I see sometimes, especially in my younger years, is boy, people work all week just to get to the weekend, to sleep in, to, you know, then go out, have some drinks with friends, watch a football game or whatever sports that weekend, and spend all their time just decompressing or whatever, and then they're right back at work and they don't work on their dreams. So that's a choice.

SPEAKER_02 42:48

It's a choice. I mean it it's okay. I mean, frankly, it's okay. Um, but don't complain later. Right. Um, look, I mean, podcasts are the ultimate example of the fragmentation of the media. It used to be like, uh, get on the big three shows or never mind, right? And now you have all these different segments with all these different topics and hosts like you that have have created a following around uh uh this topic or that topic or this demographic. They never, you know, that never existed before. It's a great side hustle until it becomes a business, right? It's like, you know, uh, I know especially immigrants that'll have two or three or four things going.

SPEAKER_01 43:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:31

Until one gets so big that like you know they leave the others behind. God bless them.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

Yeah, and that's what people need to do. And that's part of the asset mindset philosophy is working towards your goals and dreams, surrounding yourself with good people in positive environments, and then you be a positive person and then asset to others. You do those three things, that's a recipe for having a good life. Amen. Yeah. So what do you Think and I I have a feeling you just go to curiosity, so I'm gonna take that off the table. What do you attribute your greatest success to?

Fatherhood, Fitness, And Saying Yes

SPEAKER_03 44:09

Like what characteristic or I think it's important to recognize luck and timing like a lady at the door.

SPEAKER_02 44:28

You know, there's a knock. It's like it don't open the door like or the little panels. Who is that? Why are you here? Like, come on in, have a seat, sit down, put your feet up. What would you look you know? How can I help? Etc. Make yourself comfortable. If you're a luck and you're timing, stick around, right? And so let them in. Second, and this go probably goes to before the knock on the door comes, is be prepared, which goes to do what you love. Be extremely good at what you love. Before you hike 1100 miles through the deserts of Saudi Jordan and Syria, read the book, learn the language, do the KR training so the insurance policy actually kicks in when your beacon goes off. Right? Like, you know, as they say in in the desert, Wadi Rum.

SPEAKER_03 45:32

So it's like, look, trust in God. But tie your camel to a tree. Right.

SPEAKER_01 45:43

Absolutely. Yeah. I I hear one like, you know, you can trust in God and God will take care of you. You know, He takes care of the birds. Well, guess what? The bird still has to get up and get the worm early in the morning. You know, it's not that giving. Like it's out there. God puts it out there, but you still need to take.

SPEAKER_02 46:02

Do your part.

SPEAKER_01 46:04

Please do your part, people. Oh, that's fantastic. So you've talked about life and all these things, and you have so much wisdom, and I see the joy in being a dad, and I know you get to share that wisdom with them. If you could do the time machine, what wisdom would you share with like a I don't know, say seven to ten year old you?

SPEAKER_02 46:30

Hmm. So we're going back, not forward. Yeah. All right, kid. Two things. One, as we've said, do what you love. Uh two, pick your friends and partners wisely. Uh three, good mustard will save any dish.

Passion, Work, And Side Hustles

SPEAKER_01 46:57

I love it. A little comic relief, but truth. I think it's really good that, you know, children, I don't think they realize, and heck, some adults don't even realize this, is that you need good friends or good people around you. You know, what's cool isn't necessarily cool in life. You know, when you're growing up and you're trying to figure things out and trying to create those friends in school and whatnot, boy, it it would be nice to know to pick them wiser. I think that's great advice. Yeah. You know. So, well, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with the asset mindset audience and crew. And please, everybody that watched, don't forget to listen, like, and subscribe. And please do that because we're doing positive things. You know, Miles is doing positive things. Reflect is doing positive things. And you can go in the description and find out more about Reflecta as well. And more than anything, before we go, I want you to leave some last wisdom, Miles, because you have so much.

SPEAKER_03 48:09

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 48:10

Um, I think my last uh piece of advice uh might be yesterday was uh MLK, Martin Luther King's birthday, right? And we put posters on walls and things up to remember those that we revere and those that we want to model ourselves after. But think of who they are and why we want to model ourselves and think about the challenges that they had, yet still they're up on the walls because of the choices that they made. And so pick your heroes carefully.

SPEAKER_01 48:59

Yes, and make wise choices. I love it. Thank you again. It was an honor to have you. I appreciate you having you on here. You've shared some great knowledge, you're doing great work. And thank you, audience, for being a part of the asset mindset team. And don't forget, more than anything, always own your power.