The "Delusional" Mindset Behind Global AI Impact and Fortune with Akil Wade

From Detroit to Global Impact: Akil Wade’s Journey Through Creativity, Travel, and AI

Discover the extraordinary story of Akil Wade, a Detroit-born entrepreneur and AI pioneer who has traveled over 100 countries and built influential communities. In this episode, Akil shares his insights on delusional thinking, the power of travel, and how AI can enhance human potential and social impact.

In this episode:

• Akil’s beginnings in Detroit and early influences
• How traveling beyond his environment shaped his mindset
• The role of mentorship, especially Eric Thomas, in his development
• Building the nonprofit Black Kids Travel to inspire youth
• Lessons learned from crypto investments, including a $150,000 loss and $3.8 million profit
• The transformative power of travel and cultural exposure
• Akil’s vision for AI as a tool to free up human creativity and connection
• Creating collaborative AI communities with millions of followers
• The importance of living delusionally and pushing beyond perceived limits
• Practical advice for listeners to activate their potential

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction to Akil Wade: From Detroit to global impact

01:30 - Akil’s childhood and neighborhood environment in Inkster, Michigan

03:45 - Early entrepreneurial ventures in high school through Vima

05:20 - How mentorship with Eric Thomas and others influenced Akil’s path

07:10 - The shift that traveling and exposure created in his mindset

09:00 - Building Black Kids Travel to inspire underprivileged youth

11:25 - Lessons learned from crypto investments: losses, gains, and integrity

13:50 - The importance of values over impulses in decision-making

16:00 - Insights from traveling the world and cultural lessons from France, Africa, and others

19:00 - How travel enhances intelligence, adaptability, and cultural understanding

21:20 - The significance of living comfortably and maintaining high standards

24:00 - Building AI communities: from followers to collaborations with industry giants

27:30 - AI’s role in freeing human time for more meaningful creative pursuits

30:00 - The future of AI: from chat interfaces to controlling consciousness

35:00 - Akil’s "delusional" mindset and radical goal-setting for extraordinary impact

41:00 - Advice for people from limited environments to unlock their potential

44:00 - The lessons from crypto: risk, values, and resilience

50:00 - How feedback accelerates innovation in AI and entrepreneurship

55:00 - The impact of collaboration over competition in tech communities

60:00 - Envisioning a human-AI integrated future focusing on authentic living

66:00 - The power of being delusional: thinking big and beyond constraints

73:00 - Final reflections on potential, influence, and living aligned with values

Resources & Links:

• Black Kids Travel - Inspiring youth through global travel
• Obsidian - Visualize and organize your thoughts
• The Self Discovery Blueprint 
• The Mental Edge Coherence Diagnostic 
• Books That Built the Life 

Connect with Akil Wade:

• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Facebook 
• YouTube 
• Website 
• Photography page 

Living life delusionally and intentionally—Akil Wade’s story reminds us all that with vision, persistence, and a willingness to dream big, anything is possible, regardless of where you start.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Life Is Podcast, where creativity, culture, mindset, and intentional living come together through real conversation. I'm your host, Cloy Brown. Each week I sit down with entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, travelers, and visionaries who didn't stumble into a life they love, they built it. We go deep into how they think, how they reconstructed themselves, and what became possible on the other side. This is not just about what people have accomplished, it's about the internal work that made it sustainable. Because when you build from the inside out, life expands. Let's get into it. This week, I'm sitting down with someone I've known for years, and that actually makes this conversation more meaningful, not less, because I've watched Akil Wade live this. He went from a tough Detroit neighborhood to over a hundred countries, from network marketing in high school to traveling the world as Eric Thomas' videographer, from losing 150,000 to crypto scams to generating 3.8 million in two months, and surviving a partner led betrayal that left real scars. From early AI experiments before anyone was talking about AI to leading communities of 2.4 million followers. And through all of it, he kept asking the same question. Who else deserves access to this world? Black Kids Travel is the answer he built. This is not a highlight reel. This is a full story, including the chapters that did not look like winning while they were happening. Here's what Akil actually lived. Well, good afternoon, and uh welcome back to another episode of the Life Is Podcast, hosted by myself. And uh this week, man, we have another phenomenal guest, Akil Wade, AI entrepreneur, founder of the Black Kids Travel, and he's traveled over a hundred countries. Yes, a hundred countries. Former videographer for Eric Thomas and uh now an AI events builder. But with that being said, Akhil, man, it's good to have you on the show. I know you're super busy. I always joke, man. You're busy president. So you know it, man. Thank you, bro. It's good. But no, man, it's good to be good to have you on here if you can, man. Uh, how are you doing? How you feeling there in uh South Africa?

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Bro, I'm feeling amazing, man. I got a little 19-month-old son. So yeah, I know you know you know it's like, yeah, bro. He's been running, I've been in the trenches. His mom's away right now. Yeah, so me and him have just been dialed in together, bro. Feeling amazing, bro. I can I can I cannot complain.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Man, I love it. I love it. For those who are not who are tuning in, you'll see this on YouTube. A man, Kiel's smile is is an uh infectious. But uh man, your your your child, man, he looks just like you. Beautiful eyes and uh just adventurous, right? You see, adventurous guy, bro. Lil' dude is crazy. Right, right. Well, hey, man, I I I appreciate the warm introduction there. Um, but for those as we move forward, man, if you can, for those who are just listening, right, getting on here um and just meeting you, right, Akillo can tell them who Akill Wade is, where you started, what you're building right now, and what brought you up to the specific point.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Wow, it's a load of questions. So, yeah, Akil Wade, I am a creator, I am him. Um, so so yeah, bro, I just love to create. I love to just like use my body or my mind or everything to my ability to just like be as true to me as possible. And I feel like by doing that, in turn, I help people around the world. So I got my start, like you mentioned, from Ashley Vima. So that's where we met. So back in the day, you know, we used to slang these energy drinks, go door-to-door sales, you know, and to try to enroll anybody, like as many people as possible into this company. So started that when I was in high school, that opened up a lot of doors, mate, meeting people like Bob Proctor, working with people like Eric Thomas to be to be a video videographer, to travel the world to see how these guys do it. So for me, I would see these motivational speakers that I would work with, because it wasn't just E.T., it was this whole crew too. And I just noticed that there was no difference between them and me. The only thing is they just shared their thoughts and their their opinions, and they just talked about what they believe to others, and other people started to believe what they believe. So for me, I just followed in that footsteps. I started to go down an entrepreneur career, went into the crypto space, went into social media marketing, made millions of dollars in crypto, moved to Bali, moved all around the world, and I wanted to travel the world to just, I guess, get out of my environment. And that's ultimately what helped me start Black Kids Travel, my nonprofit that you that you mentioned. Basically, I'm a kid from Detroit, Michigan, and I just feel like that I'm no different than anybody else that's still stuck there. The only thing that was different was I just got out of my environment and I started to travel. So me and my buddy, me and my best friend, we created a company called Black Kids Travel. And we wanted to just be that we wanted to be the inspiration, we wanted to be the representation in the space. So that when they turn on the TV, they don't just see, you know, national geography out there traveling. They also see people that look like them traveling, which can in turn get them out of their environment and get them on a different trajectory. So really that was my goal with the nonprofits. I started to map brains online. I did this thing where I took a note-taking app and took all the notes. So if you think about some of you guys probably use Apple Notes or Notion or Google Notes or whatever, and I basically compiled those notes and I wanted to be able to visualize those notes. And I did that through a platform called Obsidian, where I can see my thoughts in a brain-like structure. I ended up turning that into a business and made six to multiple figures doing that business. And in turn, I had so many clients that I had to use AI to mine the web to find more about these clients. And this is before the whole ChatGPT boom and before things happened. So that's how I got into the space early. Started some reshare pages, one called AI to Revolution with 800,000 followers, partner with another company called ChatGPT Tricks. We got 2.4 million followers there. Power AI, I think we got around 800,000 followers and my personal brand across platform with hundreds and hundreds of thousands of followers. So that's where I'm at now, not just on the followers tip, but the impact tip. So events, just being cool and traveling, that's me, brother. So thank you for the loaded question.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Yeah, yeah, you know, I hey you you unpacked it perfectly. That was it. That was from A to Z. And I, you know, someone listening, they're probably thinking, man, all the stuff you've done is amazing. And that's just a tip, right? So we're gonna we're gonna dive into it. Uh we're gonna actually take it back. You mentioned Detroit, right? So it's actually where I want to start at, taking it back to Detroit, VMA days, and really what you were exposed to of like what was possible, right, before all this kind of transpired. So if you can kind of tell us about maybe, you know, what was a neighborhood, you know, like? What was that environment, and what did you believe about what was possible before anything changed?

SPEAKER_00 6:41

So I think that, yeah, my neighborhood. I grew up in an area of Detroit called Angster, Michigan. It's a very small town. Um, the population is, I think, like 20,000 or something. It's very small. Everybody knows each other. Like everybody's your cousin, but it's just one of those areas. Um Martin Luther King actually, I mean, not yeah, Martin Luther King came per before, but it was actually Malcolm X that uh lived there. He had a home there at a time. So um a little small town, most people don't know about it. But the thing about it was it it created an environment of family, and it created an environment of, I guess you can say, it was a hostile environment. So it it was just everything that I didn't want to be like in life, you know?

SPEAKER_02 7:25

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Like I loved family, but I just didn't want to be like my older siblings at the time. I didn't want to be like my cousins and things. I grew up with a ton of siblings, you know. I've got six brothers and sisters, and I've got cousins that live with us also, because we had some band members that passed away, so their kids lived with us too. So I grew up in an environment around a lot of people, and it was loving though. My parents are great, my dad is amazing, my mom's amazing. Um, got a uh a great relationship with both of them. Don't want to speak too much about that, but it got me to where I am. And I feel like a realization that I had early was if I wanted different and I would just have to do different. So I didn't want to do what everybody else around me did. And I feel like that got me on a trajectory to change my life and just to surround myself around other like-minded individuals like yourself and people that didn't grow up where I grew up that thought a lot bigger. Because I think that's the biggest thing, right? To adapt to adopt a mindset of how to actually be delusional and think bigger. And I feel like when you get around other individuals that talk about something that may be so delusional to you and it may not make sense, that's how it starts to make sense in your own head. So I guess that's how I really started. Um, what really impacted me or I guess influenced me to do the things that I did in my journey. So just staying delusional at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Yeah, I love that you start being delusional to see what's possible. Yeah, you really kind of crack that up. But I agree when you get around other people that are, you know, maybe had more money, have done different things than you, it's like it kind of does crack that ceiling of like, hey, here's here's what's out what's out here. And people um either in different fields that look like you or same age, it it really kind of um yeah, gives you gives you uh inspiration. 100%. 100%. Moving you also messaged to offline, right? You moved to a wealthier school district, which um getting involved, which obviously led to Vima, which we talked about. Um and obviously most people I would say, you know, maybe demiss dismiss that as hustle doing Veeama, but it sounds like that was really kind of your first um like real exposure, kind of you know, entrepreneurship 101, if you will. 100%. Um, what did that actually, I guess what did you actually um see there that actually changed something in you when you moved and then obviously getting into VMA?

SPEAKER_00 9:36

You know, I I think the biggest thing that I learned along those that time in my life was that everything is up to me. I think it's almost like the game of chess, right? The only way you lose the game of chess is if you make a wrong move. And I feel like what I learned in Vima was I was like, wow, this dude's white, he's Chinese, he's black, he's he's Mexican, whatever. It really don't matter. It's just about how many like cycles are they doing in the company. And it was completely up to them. So I knew that for me, like it was completely up to me to make those decisions to get me in a different place. So I think that was the biggest lesson that I learned. And still, I think that everybody needs that to know that like every single thing is in their control. It's not like AI coming to take their jobs, it's it's you losing your own job or you taking your own opportunity. Maybe a job that may disappear, but it's you taking your own opportunity because you're in full control.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Yep. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it was like what you put in, of course, what you what you get out. Yeah, man. And you gotta keep the momentum going. Gotta keep it. Obviously, speaking of VM, right? Because we were both in those days. Was there a specific person, right, in that environment uh who made you think like, wait, this is actually available to me? Like this is real?

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Yeah, I think it was a couple people. Um I think it a big one was was a guy, Luke Hessler, who I'm still in contact with. Talked to him yesterday. Luke was, he was just a guy that I got to spend a lot of time with and live close to. So, and he was like a mentor to me around that time, older than me, but just had everything that I wanted. And he came from a different environment than I came from, but he still showed me that like all you gotta do is really go at it. So one and then another guy named TK Cuperuno. TK was dope because he was an athlete at I went to Michigan State school, he was an athlete there, but he was black, just like I was, and he he did it. So for me, I was like, if a black dude can do it like that, you know, and make all this money playing sports and stuff, like yourself too, playing sports, you know, I can do it too. So I think that those were some big inspirations in my life at the time, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

Yeah, man. Shout out to Luke, shout out to Luke and TK. Shout out, shout out to the boys, yeah. Shout out to the boys. And it's it's it was yeah, in that time it was really cool to see young kids, young adults, man, really thriving to your point. It was very inspir inspirational to see that. Because they they you were you were right by them. Like you could touch them, feel them, it was real. Um exactly. So, yeah, man, awesome, man. Shout out to them, shout out to the boys, shout out to them. So obviously at your Vima, right, after school, you actually ended up moving to California, right? Yeah, which we can talk about. But at that time, right, it sounds like there was no stability, kind of living with family, struggling to find, you know, some footing, if you will. Um, and then you encountered E.T., right? Eric Thomas. Take me to that moment, right? What was it about that E.T. landed maybe differently than anything else that you had heard before?

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Yeah, so I think the thing about ET was I was in that position or moment in my life to receive the message. Like before my friend, one of my best friends, Caleb, he used to always always send me ET videos and I just never listened. Because I just was not, I thought that I had the whole world figured out and I was a victim, right? So I think at that time I was sitting on the side of a road and I was trying to make myself homeless when I really didn't even have to be homeless. And that was the perfect time for me to receive that message because like when I heard it, I actually heard it. Like when I clicked the video and he talked about like, you know, you gotta give your life 120. And he was homeless and he ate out of trash cans. And I'm like, this dude from Detroit making millions of dollars, and he's older, and you know, he he hood, he got the hood in him, and even like he had to be whitewashed. I was like, I can do it too. So I think that that was a perfect person. Because I think in life, too, you gotta always find the people that have been where you are and that that has have achieved something that you want to achieve. So for me, at that time, that was E.T. He's been where I was at, and you know, he looked like I look like, and he achieved what I want to achieve. So that was definitely a mentor for me. So I flew all the way to Michigan back to where I was from, and uh I hustled. I hustled and figured out a way to get myself in front of him and to add value by basically finding a way to refund him a plane ticket, which ultimately gave me a position on his team. But it was somebody I went from watching on a screen on YouTube to working for, which was insane. So it showed me the power of like, I guess you can say the power of the mind at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

Yeah, lock in determination.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Uh 100%. Um can you also too for those who are just turning in and listening, can you kind of take us back maybe the history of the story? So you were in California, what were you doing at that time? And then and then how did you actually getting the ticket for him?

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Yeah, so at that time, I was I was working, I got my first job, like got my first real job out in California, which was working at Express, the clothing line company. So I was there. I met a guy that let me stay on his couch, it was cool, his name is Isaiah, one of my best friends today. And at that time, like I was just I was all over the place. My mom was telling me I should go to the military. I didn't really know what to do. I didn't, I didn't, I actually didn't really know what I wanted to do at the time either. I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I know I wanted to make it work. That's all I knew. Yeah, and my mom at the time, she worked at Delta, and it was cool because I got to fly back to Detroit. I spent all my money though to get there and then to get on a bus to get all the way to Lansing, where E.T. was giving a speech. And I get all the way to Lansing. My my flight was delayed, so I actually missed his speech and I was just bummed. I flew all the way there just to see this guy live. And he posted somewhere, I think it was Facebook at the time or something, that he was going to a shoe place in Lansing. So I got to the shoe place, I seen him in person, poured my eyes out to this guy. Everything. I was just saying everything that I possibly can say, you know, to him, expecting him to be like, say something revolutionary or life-changing to me. And what he said wasn't. It was just like, you know, keep going and everything. And I think that the thing that I did right in that moment, though, is I connected with his nephew, his name's Black. I got his nephew's phone number, and I'm like, bro, you can do anything. Like, if I could do anything for you, if I can do anything, let me know. Like, I want to be around y'all. And he like, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, they hear it all the time, especially traveling. And I was just listing out things I could do. I was like, I could, I don't know how to pick up a camera. I'll pick up a camera, I don't know how to do this, I don't know how to do that. I was like, uh, my mom worked at the airport, I could figure something out. I know the management at the airport, you know, I'm just saying everything. He's like, okay, cool. But I got a call like two weeks later. And it was actually from his nephew, Black, and he was like, basically like, yo, um, you remember you said that your mom worked at the airport? We got this ticket. We went to, it was like they were going to speak at Taiwan or somewhere in Asia, Philippines, somewhere over there. And uh basically it got it got canceled because there was a volcano in the area. But E.T., they they wanted to get the money refunded back to the company because they had to, they knew that they were gonna have to cancel the flight.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

But what I was able to do is I told my mom, I was like, can you please, can you, whatever you do, can you please get this ticket refunded back for me? And it was illegal, like she wasn't supposed to do it, but she did it anyways, of course, my mom. That's that's why. And basically, yeah, she refunded the ticket back to ET's account because I gave her the account number and everything. And it was like, I'm talking about, it was like he was flying his whole team out there. So thousands of thousands of dollars. So basically, I gave him all this money because he didn't pay for it. It was the it was the actual company that was that was hiring him that was paying for it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They ended up getting a refund from Delta, but my mom issued it to E.T. So I just gave E.T. a whole bunch of money for no reason. So he wanted to meet with me. He gave, he was like, you know how to pick up a camera? I'm like, yep, I do now. So I started holding the camera. Exactly. But for me, it was just by any means. And and I still apply that concept to this day of like if you really want something, you just gotta move towards it by any means. There's nothing that can hold you back if you really want something.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Yeah, no, I'm I appreciate the the story. Man, that's a hell of a story of how that happened. Like I said, that's yeah, it's crazy. But uh wild, wild experience. Was was there anything like with E.T. was there anything specific that he said, uh, or maybe what he's what he said to you that you could unhear, like maybe a phrase or definitely, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

I think the the biggest thing that I learned from ET that stuck with me was one time we were traveling and it was like no hotels left in the place we were at. I think we were in New York or something. We was we were sharing a room and he like in a bed on the other side of the room, and I'm sitting in the bed too. And I asked him before then, I asked him, I'm like, man, what is it that really makes you successful? Like, what's that thing? You know, like so many people try it, they work really hard, they go 120, but what is it? You know, what could you tell me? And he let he let it marinate. And that's when we was in Michigan when I asked him that question. But when we in New York at like 3 a.m., he was like, I was like, wake up, I'm like, what the heck? I look over, and then he told me, he said that all you really gotta do in this lifetime is lock in. If you can, if you can, you'll be lucky to lock in with one other person, get on the same page as that other person, and you can really build an empire because you're moving as two. But he was saying he got on the same page as two other people, which was which was Carl, his one of his partners, and CJ. And they got on the same page and they were able to build an empire together because Carl stuck to the production, made sure that the videos got out there. ET was the mouthpiece, he was talking, he was the content, and CJ was the business, he was handling everything. So because they got on the same page, they was able to blow him up. So for me, I still apply that concept today, just knowing that, you know, you can you can be on the page of your team, you can be on a on a similar page, but you really want to get on the same page as somebody else you build it with. And that's in relationships too. Yeah, that's yeah, that's that's really good.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

That's another lot, I'm sure another lesson I was like, mm-hmm another nugget. 100%. Yeah, to definitely uh apply. Yeah. I want to kind of keep the conversation going with E.T., really your uh experience with him, Gary V, right? And now just world traveling, um, you know, as you were growing. So obviously you went from grassroots with E.T., right, or interacting with E.T., becoming his videographer and traveling globally with him. Um so that's no small gap to close on or anything to brush off. Um what did you have to show up as to earn that kind of success? And I know you talked about the story, but was there anything else that maybe you had to do, or you maybe you felt like, hey, I need to do this to actually show my work, prove to earn that.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

I mean, I wanted to prove myself, man. He like gave me the opportunity. He said he gave me the opportunity. He gave me the logins to his Snapchat, so I was able to just go live whenever I was with him and and really just learn how important it is just to turn on the camera and just film him because he was just being great, right? And then also, you know, it taught me how to that I can do it. It taught me that I'm really a beast and there's no limitations. Like I know so many people are like, you know, I need eight hours of sleep, I need that, I need this, but I'm like, bro, E. T used to wake up at four o'clock in the morning, and guess who had to be there at 3:30 filming them? You know? So like I had to be up and shoot and shoot the content. So yeah, it was difficult, but I knew that I can do it. And then from there, it just gave me that like muscle that I can do anything. Like, it does nothing that can stop me. I can do literally anything. I can stay up as long as I want to, I can work as hard as I want to, I can endure any pain, I can sit on the hot stones if I need to. So I think that that was really something that that stuck with me along the way.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

Yeah, it sounds like, you know, just listen to the story, man. A lot of conviction. Like you were picking up a lot of stuff that he was doing, right? What he was doing is rubbing off on you, and you're like, look, I I got this, right? Like, I'm I'm doing it. Um like you said, I'm him, right? I'm him, I'm doing exactly what I need to be doing. Um I guess also, too, along those lines, you know, was there anything, or maybe what did you observe, you know, traveling with someone like ET at that level, but you could not have learned um any other way, or maybe from you know, in a different environment.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

Yeah, I think that like when you city hop, especially like you from like I mentioned, I'm from Detroit. It wasn't like I was really moving around like that. But when you around somebody and they're just moving so fast to to to because they're important. It was like a signal to be on how I want to move. And also that you want to move with precision. You want to move like you got somewhere to go. You also want to move abundantly. So when I would move around with him, it was like whatever, it was covered, you know, the nice hotel rooms, the food was great. It was so many things that I was able to do because I was around this guy. And I think that even today, I make sure I keep the things that are important to me, especially comfortable, very comfortable. And it rose my standard to where I always want to, I only want to fly first class. I don't, I don't look at myself as a coach person. You know, I don't only want to sleep at nice places. You know, I want to take care of myself. So it's moving around like that. And also how I wouldn't say the word humble, but close to it, but just moving and treating people with grace and and respecting and seeing everyone. So that was one thing that I learned. No matter how many people we met along the way and want to take a picture, he would stop and actually be intentional with them and connect with them and listen to them. So that's something that I really took along the way on my journey too.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

Man, once again, man, just good things are picking up. You you said, you know, traveling in comfort, as you know, Bob Proctor always talked about that. Like, man, like, you know, if you want to fly on the jet, if you want to get the best room, you know, pay for it, right? Pay for it. You want to you wanna you want to travel, you want to travel in comfort, right? Um, and to your point, you definitely raise your standards, your uh I would call like a cybernetic set point of what where you want to be at moving forward. Um that is, you know, I wouldn't say not acceptable, but just um it's not conducive, it's not what you want. Exactly. Real quick, I want to tell you about something I created because honestly, I needed it myself. For years I could visualize the life I wanted, I could talk about it, write about it, even teach pieces of it. But living it, that was different. There was always this internal friction. Like a part of me was trying to grow, and another part of me pulled me back into what felt familiar. And I realized I didn't have a motivation problem. I had a safety problem. My nervous system didn't know how to feel safe inside change. So I wrote the self-discovery blueprint, not as another productivity guide, but as a way to create internal conditions where growth doesn't feel like a threat. It's grounded in neuroscience, polyvagal theory, belief reconstruction, and everything I've learned from studying consciousness and embodiment. It's for people who know there's more in them, who can see it, but haven't quite trusted themselves to step all the way in yet. And I'm giving it to you free. No email gates, no upsells, just a tool I hope serves you in the way writing it served me. Check the show notes, download it, come back to it as you grow. My next question, right, uh move forward, man. You you've been over to a hundred countries, which is crazy. Um, just one for those who are listening, that's crazy. A hundred countries. Um I don't know, you're quite a percentage. Even just even just going to different states in the US is crazy. Right. Not tourism, right? This is like your curriculum. Like you've been doing this. Uh what has travel done to you or done to how you see people, how you see business, and how you see yourself that nothing else could have produced.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

Well, I think that when you meet travelers, like true travelers that have been over, you know, 100 company countries and been all over the world, they're probably some of the most intelligent people you can meet on this earth. Because I feel like the lessons you learn in each country are they're undescribable. They are very you only can learn them by seeing it or by doing it or by being there, right? So for example, when I think about um, like I've also I also live in France. I'm about to head to France in a couple of days. And the French people teach me something that I couldn't learn in America just just by observing them or by being around them and learning etiquette and learning how to, you know, put where to put your fork in the right place and how to be respectful. I go over to Asia and then I learn about how to really, I guess you can say, respect nature and also just be in this abundant place of understanding how food works and just a culture of being happy, you know. And then you go over to you go to Europe and you go over to South America, you can go all these places, and everywhere you go, you learn some type of skill that you couldn't learn from just being set in one place. I I stayed in Germany for a long time, and the Germans really taught me how to be strict and and to be very straightforward with the things that I want in life, and and that's typically how I feel like I get things in my life. So I feel like everywhere you go, you learn new traits of the people in these lands that you that didn't grow up the way you grew up, or grew up in the same area that you grew up, that don't have the same mindset that you have. So I feel like it's just one of the purest forms of education or school that you can have. You learn so much from just real-world abilities or just people. You learn how people think and why people think this way. People that think different, that look different than you, that didn't grow up in the same tax system or programming or didn't have the same education as you. So it teaches you what's actually true and you can think for yourself.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Yeah. Beautiful explanation. I think the diversification of different countries, cultures, experiences to what you're elaborating on, man, is just like so important and so unique and rich to your point of why I would agree, right? Those people who travel, real travelers, um are so intelligent because they're able to gain and absorb and see and be a part of, right? Different backgrounds from all different countries. So yeah, I mean, it just it's uh it's important. And I and I love that we'll talk about it later. Black kids travel here shortly, but I think that's so important to show why traveling is important. How to get out of your box, get out of your country, see different people, um, different ways of life, philosophies, culture, art, all that's important. Um and just builds you up, makes you a better person. 100%. Was there ever a specific country or moment that changed something uh in you permanently? Uh maybe a yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

Definitely. I mean, I think that uh a country that changed me forever was like well, traveling. This is technically in America, but Hawaii definitely changed me. Hawaii changed me. I lived in Maui for a while. That was the first time I tried plant medicine and really connected to myself in that way. Um that was something that really changed me. I've gotta say that the country of Andorra, which is a small country in between Spain and France, that country changed me to just the way of people. They speak four languages natively. They speak English, Spanish, Catalan, and French just off the cuff. And I think they're just being, you know, in a lot of places people aren't just being. And I would have to say my number one is South Africa, where I live now. And just Africa in general is the such a rich, beautiful place, a people, abundance. You know, the the reason why we're able to communicate right now in this moment is because of Africa. Like when you think about the the silicon that's mined there, and the the cobalt and the the material that comes from the earth, that's because the soil is is is rich in material and it's able to technologically advance this entire world to where we're able to communicate all around the world and be able to operate these machines that are insane because of these chips, these chips that's powering, but it's basically like us connecting to the earth. So we're we're like plugging back into the earth to be able to use what people are calling AI, you know? But really, it's just it's just some stone, some rocks, and some electricity that people put together when you dumb it all the way down. But it's us just connecting to the intelligence of the earth. And I think that for me, it's one of the best places you can be. And it definitely changed me in so many different ways when it's just the just the way I show up in the world, I guess you could say.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I I love the breakdown too of like you're right, how we're connecting. People miss that, I think, right? We're so busy with life and we just think, oh, this this is just works because it works, but like you miss the reality of like where is this coming from, right? The resources, the rich resources, materials that are natural are coming from the earth, like you said, Africa, um, or any other country that's you know has a good amount of natural resources is like that's the foundation, right? That's when you're done with that, that's it. And that allows us to be connected to the earth or the world, but also to other people across the world. So um beautiful break. Appreciate that. My my next segment here is uh right, black kids travel, right? And really the mission behind the movement, which you you briefly kind of sprinkled on a little bit in the beginning, but um really kind of want to take a stab at this and and kind of hear your your uh perspective from it. But as you said, you found a black kids travel, right, to give young people from unprivileged backgrounds access, right? Access to the kind of travel that changed your life. Tell me about the first time you took a kid somewhere that they had never been, and what did you see in that person? Maybe what um maybe emotional change or just the the excitement from what uh that experience was like.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

So I think that the first part of your question I missed a little bit. It was it was a little buggy in my ears, but I heard the part where you were saying, like taking the kid and also like what impacted me. I would have to say, so so for black kids travel. So what we do is we travel as adults as a representation. So for example, like me and you and all my boys and everybody, we come together as these adults, and we actually go travel and we film this content of us traveling. And then with that content, we generate revenue from promoting, you know, donations, from people trying to buy our content, and then with that money, we actually help kids travel. So we don't go traveling with the kids, we partner with foundations and organizations that actually do take the kids traveling, which is cool because it's less liability, you know, we don't have to think about taking the parents with us, and we actually get to enjoy ourselves or be our full selves and not feel like we have to wash over them. So, but this year, in August, we're actually taking a group of 10 kids to the Maasai Mara in Kenya, so to see the the big five for the first time. So that's gonna be it's gonna be insane to travel with. Yeah, that's gonna be awesome. But I yeah, but I think the thing for me is like when it comes to it, uh we were we were traveling to Oregon and we were in Portland, Oregon at the time. And we went through some hood in Portland. And mind you, we are from the Midwest, you know, we from the Midwest. So the thing is, I thought that all the kids in America that struggled was from, you know, the Midwest or from the South or maybe from the East Coast, or maybe like some pockets of LA. But I was thinking that like everything else in the country was just, you know. Yeah, exactly. So we're going through Portland, and this is a hood. And I'm like, what the heck? It's a hood too, and I see these kids are struggling. I was like, man, I would love to get paid to travel, but also to get paid to help kids travel. Like that'd be the ultimate thing in this world. And me and my friend was like, yo, let's do it. So it kept evolving from us living in Indonesia at the time. So we were helping Indonesian people and and and helping the orphanages there. Because it was like, yeah, we want to help these black kids travel. Let's document us actually helping out. Not just, you know, not just, you know, like the the regular people you see on the internet, but us, people that look like me and you. So it's really where where the the inspiration or the touching with souls hit us to where we were like, damn, we can make an impact. Then we start sponsoring passports. We start going back, and then people from where I'm from, we start giving them passports, taking them to get their passport. Because for us, it was like that was a big step. So I think that that was something that ignited something inside of me that I was just like, nah, this is definitely where I'm supposed to be at right now. Yeah, yeah, this is dope.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

It's really cool to see those experiences. You know, I'm sure you're seeing these kids even when you go to all in August, when you go to Kenya, um, just to see the light turn on. Once again, to your point, right, in your childhood, the possibility of there's you can crack outside of your environment to see something different. And uh that allows you to think different, see different, do different, and then hopefully become different. Definitely. Yeah. So you you you have uh you've documented countries and supported or I think you said orphanages, right? Is that correct? Yeah, orphanages, water wells, hospitals, all that. Um can you kind of kind of share what's maybe the long-term vision for what black kids uh travel becomes or what what you see that to becoming in the future?

SPEAKER_00 34:35

Yeah, so what I see is you know, it's just a vessel. It's a vessel that I get to pour into. Like I don't look at it as I think right now it's being exactly what it needs to be, and it's gonna continuously expand as we think more grand and we partner with more people and we just dream bigger. Like this year we're partnering with My Brother's Keeper, which is Obama's nonprofit. And we're actually taking them to Ghana this year. So we're doing a whole trip with them. So I think that in the future, right now, the media goal is to document all 54 countries of Africa and make impact in every single country in Africa as we can. And uh that's what we see right now. And from that, I know it's gonna lead to something bigger. And I know we just go as far as we can see, then when we get there, we always see further.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it sounds like you know, keep the mission a mission, right? And I think anything just added on top of that first layer is just a plus, right? Exactly. More impact, more engaging, um, just refining refining the process. Yes, 1,000%. Keep refining. Yeah, exactly. Keep refining. So you grew up in Detroit over 100 countries later, right? You're using that dream to open doors for kids who look like who you are or where you came from. 100%. What does it mean to you personally to be that bridge?

SPEAKER_00 35:47

And maybe you kind of already gave me touch on this, but yeah, I think it's just to me personally, I think that my purpose here is to strive for as much influence as possible. Because I feel like there's like with influence and becomes impact, right? Like you can help as many people as possible by me just being the best version of myself that I can be. It's not like I have some ulterior motive or something. I feel like for me, it's just as long as I continuously just work on myself and just let what comes through me come through me, then I'm gonna continuously impact as many people as possible. So I think that that's that's what it is, just by me just learning that I that I can continuously go deeper on who it is that I really am, and I can continuously shed the layers of what I think don't align with me and go closer to my values and what I actually believe. So I think I just believe that I need to just continuously learn how to be myself and it continuously work on myself and it'll get me closer to where I need to be.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

Yeah, man, I love that. Just a continuous evolution of just um shedding the old you, getting better, um you know, cutting the fat off and just continuing to dig in, continue to look inward. Exactly. I mean, that's the goal. Is there a younger version of a queue that you're specifically maybe trying to reach out through uh through this work? And I and I asked you answer because I think like most people, right? Yeah. Um, like therapists or speakers or even like myself, kind of consulting stuff I'm doing, a lot of stuff you're coaching and talking about is also talking to yourself, right? Like you wish you had those resources, the tools when you were at this age, but now you have the opportunity to do it for others.

SPEAKER_00 37:31

Exactly. Yeah, because there's so many people that like I just know that people like E.T. was making videos and then by be watching those videos might like completely change. So why wouldn't I be that person for other people also? And I feel like we do ourselves a disservice when we're not just doing. So if I just have to do, then I'm going to impact the younger me, you know? Yeah. And I'm gonna change that, and I'm uh and then really when I'm thinking about the younger means as you probably feel, it's like that's my son, you know. My son is is he's the younger me. So for me, I just do things to be a great representation for him and also to be a role model.

SPEAKER_02 38:06

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 38:07

So definitely, definitely.

unknown 38:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 38:09

Well good.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

I was I was curious there. Um Before we keep going, what if AI didn't replace your work, but actually freed up your time to earn more money? If you're ready to stop feeling overwhelmed by tech and start using it to build financial autonomy, you need to plug into Akil's world. He's helping everyday individuals leverage automation to unlock real freedom. Head over to Akilway.com to join his AI community and start building today. All right, man. So let's move to the next segment here, man. We got really kind of the crypto chapter, right? This is gonna be good, man. I think we're gonna obviously I'm sure they're still tuned in here, but the crypto chapter, the $150,000 loss, $3.8 million made, and then what it costs, right? So all of it, right? Kind of the grief, the the the change and continue report. So the crypto chapter, right, man. So over 200,000 um and 150,000 lost to scams, right? Yeah. Um and then um 3.8 million made in two months, which is just astronomical. And then a partner-led attempted to rug, kind of rug pull. Um yeah, definitely. That kind of you described, kind of cause I don't know, you say meant real mental trauma, which yeah, which honestly I think is normal. Like friend to friend, I think that's normal, even humans. If you can walk me through what that season actually like felt like from the inside, maybe not no so the numbers, but more just like that experience of that what happened.

SPEAKER_00 39:29

Yeah, I mean, I I learned a lot, man. I I learned that for me, I think that the biggest lesson that I learned, and I was talking about this earlier today, but don't choose your impulses over your values. And that's really what I learned in that case scenario because my impulse was like, oh, I'm around these guys and making money at the time. I met a guy that was into crypto, you know, I met another guy who was really good at trading and stuff, and I didn't really know what I wanted to do in my life, so I was just trying to cling on to something that looked like money, and I wanted to do every opportunity, and for me, that was against my values with what they were planning, I guess you can say. When we were joking around with with the rug pull thing, and and it was jokes, you know. But I feel like when someone tells you who they are, you should listen. And I feel like at that time I wasn't really listening. I just wanted to do whatever it took to make money, so I put down everything I had at the time. Went negative, had to borrow money from people and um to to be a part of this thing to where we went through ups and downs, lost everything. I tried everything in those those months to to get this crypto thing to work, so stayed on a call, the AMA, which is like a Discord chat. I stayed on it three times a day. So from when I woke up pretty much to when I went to bed, just like lived my life. I didn't talk to anybody, stayed in the house, stayed on these calls, building this community, which we built a community over 100,000 people. So that taught me how you can really get it out of the mud too. You can make anything work when you when you stick to it. You just have to have the imp to to get people and talk to as many people as possible. So that was a huge thing for me. And yeah, I would just have to say that that it was when you give something, you're all. And even when you get the thing that you want, and I thought that I got the thing that I wanted, which was money. And my business partners didn't have the best intentions, which they wanted to rug pull, which they did, and and then fortunately I didn't lose all my money. But what it taught me was even though I still made money in that case scenario, and it taught me a whole bunch of things, I still felt like at that time I chose my I chose the impulses over my values. So in turn, I had to also suffer the consequences. And that was mentally for me. And I feel like no matter what you do in this world, if you always you you choose your impulses over what you value, you're gonna always face those consequences. And I think a bit like a credit card, right? Like when you spend money on a credit card, it feels good in the moment. You just swipe it, you swipe and it feels so good, right? But at the end of the day, you gotta pay that money back, no matter what. So the more you swipe, the more you gotta pay back. And I feel like when you just choose those impulses, you just swipe it. And you eventually gotta pay that back. And if you just choose your values, then it's like you're using debit. You don't really have to worry about that debt thing. So I think that's really what I learned in that experience. But that took me all the way to Cape Town, South Africa. So I'm happy I did it. You know, uh my girl was there for me at the time, took me to Cape Town. I grew so much through that through that that period of my life, and and now I feel like I'm in such a better place because of those lessons that I learned. So I wouldn't regret it or I wouldn't take it back for anything. It taught me a whole bunch of lessons. And uh it taught me how crypto works. You know, I learned what cryptology is, the language of code, I understand why it was important, understood how the blockchain works, I understood what is an NFT, and I understood, you know, every little thing, the, you know, what a DAO is. So I think that what I learned also from that is the importance of understanding. Because I didn't really get it at the time, that that really what we're trying to do is understand more things. Because if we understand it, then we act as self. So for me, that was a big, big lesson that I learned.

SPEAKER_01 43:24

100%. You you actually took uh my next question, so you answered it because I was gonna ask you, what did you what did it teach you about risk, about partnership and about your own judgment? But I I really honestly, man, as a friend, I I appreciate you sharing that because I know it can be heavy. Um something you don't want to relive. But I'm also uh I admire you honestly because I think what you kept on saying was values. And I feel like that's this is the reason for the podcast is living coherently, right? Which is like your thoughts, your beliefs, your ideas, and your values. And there's this reduction of internal contradiction, and you were at a forking point of like my values. And money, or what I want to do, was a there was a contradiction. And yeah, I'm saying to your to your analogy, you felt you felt that, right? And that's heavy. And I think um the more we live coherently, the more our life expands, which is really the byline of this podcast. So um anyway, I just wanna say, man, I think that was really good awareness, and I appreciate you sharing really a vulnerability that that's um yeah, absolutely mess. It's a vulnerability, man, for for most people don't want to talk about whether it's this situation or something else, they lost something or failed. Um yeah, it's important. And I and I love once again just kind of kind of hammered down as like going back to your values. Because I was asked that question the other day from a gentleman, Mark, Mark uh Waltz. Shout out to Mark, and um he's a consultant, but just in this example, he was like, Man, what what are your values? And you create I already had him my phone, right? And I think it's important for listening and tuning in, maybe take the time to what Keel said is you know, find your values because those won't steer you wrong. Um and like I said, I I've had my values down my phone for a while, so just so leading with those is is important, I think. What what I was hearing from your message of impulses, um, right wrong direction. 100%. All right, so I want to move forward here, man. Right the AI world. I think this is really where I'm I was actually excited to get into in a tree, because uh this is what I wanted to get you on as well, man. Really the AI, the events, um, and what you actually believe is coming, right? So actually I'm really curious about your thoughts here from uh the early crypto to now and all your your background. Um so obviously you we were working on something called searchable brain, which you talked about, right? Transforming finding content to searchable knowledge grass for clients like Joe Dispenser, which I don't think you mentioned, Dr. Joe Dispenser. Is it Lewis is it Lewis Hose or House? Yeah, yeah, Lewis Howes, yeah. Lewis Howes. Um and really this was before AI, like you said, this is before any Chat GPT, open eye, any of that stuff, right? Um, which is remarkably early. What did you see coming that most people did not at that time?

SPEAKER_00 46:06

You know, uh it's interesting because I was just following my own curiosity. I wasn't even looking forward to be honest. Like I was loving to I found something that was actually valuable to myself, which was being able to find my own notes. Like I've got this brain where I'm like, where are things at? Like I write things down all the time, even today. And I'm like, damn, I can't find what I wrote down. And then for me to be able to have an organizational system where I can find every single thing I've ever said out of my mouth, and on uh on a video, on everything. What my mentor said, I thought it was so dope. So it was me following my curiosity, and I think other people thought it was dope too. But as things got so heavy to where we got so many clients, we had to do it faster. I had to hire some people from Venezuela to go ahead to mine these brains. I hired one lady, then she hired another, she hired her cousin, then I got like six people in Venezuela that are working for me to be able to build out these brains and search online all the information about a company. At first, I had them literally go on Google, search these people's companies, and just like, you know, push command all, you know, get all the information on the page, push command C, copy it, paste it, copy as much information as possible. And one of the Venus Way little ladies was like, hey, I found this thing called machine learning that we can use. That's a lot more powerful than what we've been doing with this command, like this this copy-paste strategy. So it was really just me following my curiosity and having a team that was trying to do things as efficient as possible, which led me into the AI space. So I don't even think it was me really leaning too forward it. I think it was just me following my intuition and following what really was um yeah, what made me feel like I am the most connected to myself, which was seeing or improving myself. I think that's the same thing today. I just continuously look at how I make myself better, and that takes me to the AI space.

SPEAKER_01 48:03

Yep, yep, yep, yep. Totally agree. Was also when you got in this curiosity, I love that you loved that you said that you loved your your curiosity, it was kind of the uh the tail, if you will, to kind of get you there. Um once you got to this, once you're like, oh, this is kind of nice, like one, personally connected to you, right? Because like you said, your notes, you're trying to keep everything in one spot. Did is is that when you maybe reach out to companies, or were I guess where was that next step? You're like, okay, I got this in play. Now do I reach out to companies?

SPEAKER_00 48:30

Or already Yeah, so so the cool thing is I never reached out to any companies. The thing is, I just from there I would follow my curiosity, build these brains. I started to make videos online about AI, about obsidian, about all these tools that I was using inside of Obsidian. And then when the whole open AI chat GBT thing blew up, then people online just started to naturally search what is AI. And a lot of my videos were popping up because I was making videos on it before anybody else was. Right. So from that, I just rolled the wave. I was like, you know what? Let me just look at these AI tools and keep just documenting what I'm learning. So as I would learn a tool, I would literally watch it and then I would tell people about it. I'm like, wow, this tool is really cool because it does this thing. And people are like, wow, they were learning. So people were watching. And I think that uh I kept following my curiosity. Companies started to notice how much power because of the following came, and then people were like, Wow, I want to influence his following. So that's when brands started to come in, and then I started working with the bigger brands like the Adobe's and working with the Cap Cuts and all of the big brands out there. And I think it just basically came from me just following my curiosity and also just talking about the things that actually that I was actually interested in.

SPEAKER_01 49:46

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, that's important. Was there a specific inside that made you certain that this was kind of the direction everything was going? Maybe at that or maybe heading with what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 49:56

Yeah, I think that I think that definitely when I first realized that this thing is almost thinking for itself, like when I started to do research on what an open AI is and and these type of things, I just I was just mind blown. And I was like, wow, like this is dope. I actually see the use case for this. So for me, I just knew it was the future from when I realized that there's something that can do work better than I can do, and anybody else that I can hire can do, why wouldn't that be the next thing? It's just us evolving as humans and and we look like we're always just merging closer to technology, so that's what we've been doing. So the only thing that makes logical sense to me. You know, I'm not a type of person where I just I just follow things blindly. I just when I see something, then I believe it. Like if I see somebody jump off of a roof and they fall and they splat, I'm probably not gonna jump off their roofs because I know I'm gonna like falling splat. And I think it's the same thing. When you when when I seen AI come out and it was doing things better than I can, I'm like, okay, obviously this is gonna be everywhere. Yeah so that's just basically my bare-done insight that I've always realized. But yeah, from diving in that space when I got so deep, that ungodly, ungodly amount of people in the space to where learning how things work and learning and researching and also seeing times where AI did things without humans' consent and how AI created a blackmail system or AI was able to do things that we couldn't even imagine they can do. So uh yeah, that was really a big indicator where things were going ahead in this world. Now we see it all. Everybody is going to see if they haven't seen yet.

SPEAKER_01 51:34

Yep, exactly. Also, too, man. I obviously with um you know things are changing infrastructure, uh, AI, NVIDIA, right, with their infrastructure building, kind of AI factories and 100%. Now we got Mythos and Fable Five kind of getting governmental. I guess just this is kind of offline, kind of off script here, but like where are your thoughts now from like inception where you kind of got on the front end till now? Do you think um because before, right? It's more of like, you know, prompt, get an answer, right? Prompt, get an answer. It sounds or my my belief is that it's kind of moving away from that. Um what are your guess maybe thoughts, or maybe your just your you know, two cents on what things can't changing?

SPEAKER_00 52:12

Yeah, I just look at it as if you look, if you think about I always try to go to the top and then work backwards, right? Like start at the end. If you try to start at the end or start at the top and you think about governments or people that are in power, like what are they thinking the next steps are? Right. And I think that that if I was the government, I would want to control this system or this thing. So I would probably create a universal or a one system that everyone uses, which is true. If you look at these big companies like Groc or Anthropic OpenAI, they're looking on how how do they control all human thoughts in one place. But when you have that much power, what are you able to do with it? You know, you can you can program the way people think, you can move mountains before mountains are already moved. So I think that um, yeah, I think that the biggest thing, like you mentioned, is yeah, they're moving away from a chatbot-like interface to where you have to chat back and forth to like, well, people now they're using this buzzword, they're they're like, oh, claw code, the codex, you know, anti-gravity. Now they hear these words and now they think it's cool to go from from not knowing how to code or not knowing how to do something to being able to think of thought and be and have it visualized as fast as possible. So I think we're going from a crace, uh, a place of creation, like being people being able to create at such a fast rate, which is influencing everything. It's influencing us being more into events, you know, going to like in-person events or us moving away from the traditional jobs. And I think that as it keeps progressing and keeps moving faster, where people hear mithos and and they're waiting for the Chat GPT to drop another model, you know. It just things just keep going to where, you know, we'll see.

SPEAKER_01 54:07

Yeah, there's a lot of how it works. But that's a good way to look at it. I think you're right. Like go up to see what is what would the government think. 100%. Um shout out to my guy Brandon, B Tumbler on on X and Substack. But you know, to your point, I think the the the fear is if you control everyone's mind, you kind of reduce the intelligence of humans, right? If you can take all this input, you have all this data, um it becomes kind of a flat line of of thinking rather than creativity, and to your point, kind of control and create an own silo of what you really actually want from the top. So yeah, there's there's a lot of things that I think going on, but I just I was I was just curious of uh your input because you're you're in it. Like you've been in it before a thing. In it. So I was curious. Uh also, too, I don't know if we talked offline about this, or maybe you have a quick moment to share before we move forward. Did you ever, I guess, how did you stumble into search social searchable brains? Was that um what was kind of that origin?

SPEAKER_00 55:05

Yeah, so I think from searchable brain, how I started that was I I like I mentioned, I wanted to be able to visualize my own thoughts. Right. There was a program called Obsidian that I was able to put all of my thoughts into one place. And a buddy, Anton Wasbizki, a buddy of mine, yeah. Anton, he basically planted this the seed in my mind. He was like, you know, wow, you know, we can help all these clients do it. Like we should turn this to you should turn into an actual business because people need it for a client retention. If they can, if I can show it to all my clients, then from that, then we'll be able to like, you can you you tell a client, like, oh, I've got a whole brain of your company. Of course they want to stay with you. So that's when it really sparked. I was like, oh, let me turn this to an actual business. So I think the origin was just like I mentioned, just following my my curiosity, and then that just blossomed into me just picking a name. Because I didn't want to do second brains. There's a guy named Tiago Forte that does the second brain thing. So I was like, I don't want to go second brain, I want to go searchable brain. So that was really the the the role that I chose to go down 100%. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 56:15

Good, good. I appreciate it. I was like, man, I don't know if uh, you know, someone's probably listening, like, hey, go back a second. I didn't know. Didn't you actually get into it? Yeah, yeah. So I did it. So my next question here, man, you built AI communities up to 2.4 million followers in a weekly mastermind with 40 leading AI influencers built around collaboration rather than really competition, which is I think really, really intriguing. How did you build that and what made serious people um I guess take a step back and what made serious people willing to show up to it in that field?

SPEAKER_00 56:47

So I would say from the community aspect of the boys, my buddy Liam Otley, he's amazing. He's one of the big, he's got the largest AI community in the world and on school and huge communities. But basically, I've just seen what he was doing, and I remember the moment where I saw his content, and at first I was like, damn, this dude is killing it. Right, right. This dude in New Zealand right now just murdered him. So I was just like, you know what? Let me just DM him and just hit him up. I DM'd him and I'm like, bro, I love your stuff. He's like, thanks, dog. Like, let's jump on a call and everything. We jumped on a call, and he told me, he's like, man, I'm thinking about putting this group together with all of these people and everything. And he went ahead and did it. He started a group, he started adding people from his community that were successful, and other entrepreneurs we saw that were killing it in the space. Because we were like, yo, instead of like competing with these guys, let's get on these weekly calls with each other and then become boys. And that's what we did. Started this group, then made it uh a necessity to meet up every six months somewhere in the country, in the world. So at first, you know, we went to Dubai, then we went to uh went over to Thailand, Morocco, went to Cape Town, our last one, and now we're about to meet up again in Montenegro. And and we do speaking events to where we basically host 200, 120, 100, you know, hundreds of people to where we speak, because they got all the biggest guys in the AI space of one place. And it's it's if you really want your business to catapult, it's the place to be. Because you got all the large people giving away all the socks that they have, and we're just adding so much value in that room. And that's what we envision and that's what happened. So it's been it's been rolling. Yeah, yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 58:22

You got the uh jokingly, my mind's like you got the monsters all in one room.

SPEAKER_00 58:27

Exactly. Exactly, exactly. So man, people people make excuses. They be like, oh, I gotta do this, I gotta do that, I gotta do that, I can't be there. But I'm like, bro, look, I'm in a room full of people that are 24 years old that have made millions of dollars in a month, every month. Like, they know something you don't know. So that's what we did. We built an environment for people that are seeking to find those answers.

SPEAKER_01 58:51

Also, we'll make sure uh we'll tag you on the back end too on the show notes. Uh they can tap in. What has surprised you, man? Like, what has surprised you most about what happens when you put like 40 serious people right in the AI space in a room and tell, tell them to share rather than compete? Like, what was that?

SPEAKER_00 59:07

I think that it's it's crazy, man. Is it's just like because the thing is, what I've realized is like, I guess you can say feedback has been my mentor recently. So people are always mentors, my mentors feedback. And to be able to get feedback from people that have been where you are and have done what you want to do, and is doing so much better than you want to do, and they just give you feedback on what they would do differently, and obviously they know what they're talking about. And you're getting you're getting it from 40 different angles from all the best in the world. And it's impossible to not improve. And I think that a lot of times we just don't have enough feedback. We do something a lot, and we're like, oh, I think it looks good, but it looks good to our standards. But let's just say we all had the biggest, you know, whatever, the biggest people that created batteries for for cameras in the room. Like, and then you got this dude is just starting to make batteries, and you like, no, it's this one company in Taiwan that makes these cases, and then they give it to you for free because they just want you to fill it up with the the um the lithium ion and all you gotta do. And so now you know you're like, What that's what I can do. Like, you know, so I think that that's what you really need to do. You need to get into a place where where people can can help you accelerate the thoughts that you have in there. Yeah, man, I love that feedback.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:24

Yeah, more feedback. Yes, definitely. So you your version is not right, AI replacing human connection, which I think you're pretty uh straightforward on. It is actually bringing up human time for more.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:36

I think that's I think it's doing the the the opposite. I think that it's yeah, it's actually like making like humans connect more. I know people are like really against that and stuff, but then again, I'm like, okay, we have social media, which was really ruining human connection because everybody was living on their phones, but now AI is coming in to where now they're freeing it up, so I don't even have to make videos on social media anymore, but I can still push uh push my message to people that want to learn, and now I'm gonna get off of social media and live in real life because of AI.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:05

That was my question. I'm like, what do you think are getting wrong, right? Because to your point, I'd be like this AI data centers and are soon gonna take my job, which I think, yeah, some jobs might get, I wouldn't say taken, but more improved.

unknown 1:01:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:18

I mean that the job that you're doing will just get get re just accelerated.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:21

It's like a more accelerating. Yeah. Um so yeah, really that was my question. Like, what do you think people are getting wrong? And it sounds like more just it's it's allowing you to get more connected.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:31

Because it frees up your heart.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:33

Exactly. I mean, you can look at things in a negative sense or a positive sense. Yes, okay. It's probably gonna make a lot of people stay slaves. It's gonna make people, you know, it's gonna make people work even more. It's gonna make people the gap between people like us and people that are just starting or people that aren't really curious, it may make that more difficult for you to be to gain wealth and stuff, yes. But it gives you more opportunity, it gives you opportunity to to learn. I think the thing to, oof, this isn't talked about enough, but like learning is it. Like you like learning is in your full control. Like no one is taking that from you. You can go on YouTube University and learn right now. You can learn all about AI. You can learn about how to make a uh everything is there. Everything is there online. And AI gives you the ability to learn so fast. You can tell it to learn, you can learn exactly the way you want to learn. I tell people when I'm when I'm helping them with building AI OS, which is an artificial intelligence operating system in their business. Basically, they need to tell AI to communicate like them at their level. So their level is if they think like a 16-year-old or tell it to communicate to you like you're a 16-year-old. Yeah. So you can actually understand. Because when you understand something, that's when change happens. But if you don't understand it, then nothing's gonna change in your life. So it gives you the ability to change the things in your life. 100%. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:55

I I appreciate that. My next question, too, maybe a um a unique unique question. Um, because what I'm really kind of asked is like, what does a well um well-integrated AI future actually look like day to day for a person living inside it? And that's more maybe theoretically kind of you know, kind of paint the picture.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:14

Yeah, I think it's just you being able to just be, right? Like, I feel like sometimes when you feel like you have to market or you have to sell something to somebody, it doesn't feel like a referral, right? If we go watch the movies, we go watch Avatar right now. It like if you tell if I tell you about Avatar, it's not like I'm selling Avatar to you, I'm referring it to you, right? Absolutely. And I feel like I feel like that's how things are starting to become. So I feel like in a world where AI is doing the things, we just live as humans to do actually what we want to do. If that is play guitar, not feel like we gotta go online and play guitar so that other people are learning guitar to make income. It's like, no, I get to play a guitar because I want to play a guitar. Okay, what else do I want to do? You know, like like you actually get to do the things you want to do. And then by you doing those things, is you being because doing is being. Like if you want to, if you want to be in this world, if you just want to be, you want to be, you have to do. And I feel like it when you feel like you can't do because of someone else wants you to do a certain thing, then you don't have control over your doing, and you feel like you can't be. So I feel like AI in a perfect world is allowing you to just be by it operating the things that you don't want to do.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:27

Like that's flat out. Flat out. Yeah, I think that's a perfect world.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:34

Yeah, good, yeah, good perspective. Because I like I said, I'd be inclined to agree. Like I said, that's exactly what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:39

I mean, you can you because you can go so far with it, you can go to augmented reality and you can go to like VR and you can go to like um to to really go on ahead to where we can, you know, see different dimensions and and see things you can't see. Like we know right now I can't see thoughts, I can't see the way that I'm thinking. Um I know that my brain's a transmitter and receiver of frequency, but we can't see that frequency. Maybe we can see that frequency in the future. So it's things or levels that we might unlock. Yeah, no, I agree.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:09

Quick note Akill reminded us that the real power of AI isn't replacing human connection. It's automating the repetitive so your team can focus on presence and high value collaboration. If your company or leadership team is trying to navigate what's actually coming in the tech landscape, bring Akil Wade in. From 40% elite masterminds to scaling digital communities, over two million followers. Akill helps organizations build serious trust infrastructure. Connect for corporate consulting, events, or speak engagements directly at akillwaite.com. All right, man. So as we uh as we hit the exit coming up, man, um, right, you you've kind of your whole art, man. You went from tough neighborhood, right, Detroit, to over a hundred countries, from ET's videographer to AI communities with millions of followers, from losing 150k to generating over 3.8 million and from experience of world, right, building an organization to give that experience to the next. generation with black kids travel. When you look at that, right, that full expansion, that full arc, what do you know now about what a human being is actually capable of capable of that you could not have known at the beginning?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:14

Wow. It's a really great question.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:17

Yeah, that's I think that's where my brain went when you said that is you know I'll give you I'll give you an example of someone that I really look up to right now. I'm working closely with um and he taught me something the other day. Basically he I asked him how did he get in ahead of because he's a one of the heads of OpenAI. I got to uh to sit down with him and we talked and he told me a story about like how he got there. But he worked at Twitter at a time. He's at Twitter. He's like a a junior guy at Twitter. He does he just in a room right but he worked in like this African sector like trying to help Africa develop stuff. But it was a meeting that was about how they had to figure out how Twitter can basically be used all over the country of Ghana. So that was a meeting. And in this meeting it was kind of important they Twitter wanted to to be over Ghana so basically Jack Dorsey who was the was the owner of um yeah Jack Dorsey who's the owner of Twitter he basically said like yeah at the time he's like he's like hey how are we going to get this like basic how are we going to how is Twitter going to dominate Ghana? And and the guy who I'm talking about right now was in this room a junior and everybody was coming up with all these ideas. They were like we can get to enterprise companies we can do that we can do the social media ad push we can try to get these influencers do all that he was like he raised his hand he was like you know what I think how we can do it is we can get you Jack Dorsey to meet with the president of Ghana and then the president of Ghana will push on his people and there you go. And then Jack Dorsey looked at him and he said okay make it happen in two weeks and he was like shit how am I supposed to reach the president of Ghana so he said he started doing everything he started calling every person he knows they got a cousin in Ghana he like bro put me in contact with somebody in Ghana he said he started calling he started calling the airport he like I don't know what to do I just gotta figure this out I got to figure out how to get this guy on the phone. But he ended up doing it. So after two weeks he got in touch with the president of Ghana to meet up with Jack Dorsey. And then he became the head of X in Africa. So then from there he moved on to OpenAI and all his positions but basically he told me that like in life what he realized and and from being around these people in San Francisco and all these tech companies is you have to be super delusional. You have to be so delusional that it just doesn't make sense to anybody. And I think that's the biggest thing that I learned along the journey is the reason I'm at where I'm at right now and I got this castle in freaking Cape Town and the most beautiful most expensive neighborhood in all of Africa. And I got a house of friends and I get to fly around I do the things that I gotta do I get to sit here with my baby. My son's upstairs I can spend all my time with him and fly my family around everywhere that we want to go and do the things that I want to do and be the person I want to be and smile and just feel like I'm leaving the the world in a better place is just because it's delusional. And I feel like if you sit there at home and you think what you're doing is okay, it's probably okay. It is okay. But if you somebody that wants bigger and you like okay I want to go to the next step just think about the craziest thing and try to do it. Think of it just think about the craziest thing that would be wild and try to do it. You maybe fall short of doing it. But by you falling short you'll be so much higher than where you were before and I think that's a summary of my life right now. I thought it'd be crazy to to have a company to where we help black kids travel when we get paid to travel around with all my boys and and we go to a country like that and meet all these tribes and take pictures with tribes and and ride on bulls and all of this stuff and go to the data we did so many things but it was just us being delusional and somehow circumstances situations events and people come into your life to bring it and make it a reality so gotta owe it to that just be delusional.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:19

Yeah also thanks for the story man I think that encapsulates everything that you're you're talking about and you know having that mindset to like really take it one step further think beyond the box get delusional because anything is possible because it is crazy like I think even your journey like as you as as friends right like seeing your growth as like yeah I'm sure black kids travel is like that first level of like damn this is and when you're in it you're like damn like we're actually doing this. Yeah you know X months ago this was like an idea right crazy crazy idea delusional and here we are then it's the next step in the AI right and then now like you said we're traveling around the world we got a house in France got a beautiful house in the neighborhood to take down it's like all these things but I think that delusional mindset in in my opinion right can kind of have this invisible hand to push you to stretch to expand and to look at things in a different way of like what is actually possible. Because that's when you start to explore that's when you start to discover that's when you start to do things differently that you wouldn't have done because you're not thinking in the same right framework right traditional or conventional way of thinking it. So anyways my my I love I love that just simple phrase is like be delusional.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:36

Please brown right now right who grew up in a limited environment uh has not you know maybe given themselves permission to believe the world is available to them right what do you say to that person that I feel like wow to a person that that I just feel like you gotta realize your power and I think that just look at the the evidence right the evidence is you're breathing right now the evidence is you may have been a motivation to your niece your nephew your your brother your sister you you you're a good person just look at the evidence and by you looking at the evidence all the evidence of the things you've done that are great in this world it builds up who you actually are and from there I feel like sometimes people just feel low. They feel like they're not worth anything but you are you literally worth you you just need to give yourself credit and stop being so hard on yourself. And I know a lot of people that grew up the way that I grew up they're just hard on themselves because that's how you survive right that's how you survive when you when you when you come from nothing and you're in survival all the time and everything you though you feel like the world is against you. You feel like somebody always trying to take from you since you've been born because your parents taught you that and their parents taught them that like you just got to realize that you know you are amazing. You you're you're a fucking cre like I had to convince myself that I'm the shit because I kept looking I kept trying to be humble I kept trying to be be shy I kept trying to hide the insecurities that I have I kept not liking that I was black. I kept kept trying to trying to talk with a twin and not I I kept trying to like hide how I actually was because I thought people were gonna judge me. At the end of the day I'm like I'm the shit bro like the reason why I'm I'm sitting and I in the way that I generate revenue is because I'm me. I'm a black dude from Detroit in the AI space. I'm not a white kid from Germany you know and I think that that's make that makes me who I am and then from you you gotta own you. And a lot of people especially that's listening to this they might be from America. And the thing about America is Americans don't realize how privileged they really are. You were born in a country where you speak English. Do you know that when you think about it especially even if you're black it don't matter especially if you're white or you're black it don't really matter if you're black how many black people in this world naturally speak English? Not that many I live in Africa right now. These this this summon seventh language you know they'd be big Moshe they speak Zulu and everything. So by the time they even get into a place of a workforce like us they gotta unlearn all those languages they got to learn a new language they got no opportunities around them that it literally is impossible. Like we'll try to I like the the loops that I have to jump through to even get a working community people want to create a school community or make money online they can't have a stripe they can't have a PayPal so you got to think about all of these layers and also like yeah you might get a computer but what you gonna do with a computer that you can't do nothing with because control right so I think that like you got to look at how privileged you are just by speaking a language of English. My girl she's French bro when I first met her she didn't speak English. She's a a white woman that grew up in France that grew up around she didn't grow up in poverty at all. But the thing is by her just speaking French I'm so I've got I've got such an advantage over her straight up. Yeah so like she has to learn English and then try to learn how to market in English because the market's bigger so I'm like bro y'all got to take advantage of that you know you got us Americans you got some South Africans you got some Australians with ain't that many black Australians or that many black like South Africans that fluently speak English really good. And then you got people from the UK you know like in England and stuff but just look at the percentages and not just black people white people too like it don't matter like just look at where you are right now and just just look at all the things you've got and use that as power because it is power. And then from there you just you always have to keep fear there. You have to fear you have to fear something because I feel like when you fear something your actions follow. So for example if we're playing sport right now we play football right and you play football you was over there at uh bowling green and basically why don't you go out of bounds? Why like why I'm like like the the reason why is because you're gonna get the ball gonna be turned over it's gonna be it's a stop it's it's punishment it's punishment from from going out of bounds. You should fear the out of bounds because if you don't then you're gonna lose the game and I think it's the same thing in life and I understand why some people are religious because they fear when when when the doors are closed and they start doing dirty that that they're gonna go to hell right but it's the same thing you got to fear you got to fear being in the same place that you're in right now you know and that's the out of bounds that's really that's where you that's where you're not going no more.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:32

So since that you move with action every single day because you can't I think that's just like the advice that just came off the top of my man hey I ain't gonna lie we have to put the little clap clap uh background because that was uh that was it like that's that's I can tell that came from that's that's that's interpreting that's you know what I mean so on YouTube right later um but those who are listening right to different platforms I hope you know honestly you were listening you took what Kiel said because um right we're really a runway right that's that's that's just process of what what needs to happen and I think too to your point as I've done this podcast just honestly I think I had to find my voice to your point of like being so like you know as when you're young and you're building you want to be likable and you want to be like um I don't know you want to be a part of these communities so you kind of stifle and suppress who you are to what you were talking about being authentic. Like I'm me like this who I am I'm black um you know from Detroit same thing I'm here I'm from Elkhart County like I'm from this area and just being okay in your own skin being authentic showing up and using whether you want to say affirmations or the word program of like I'm him I'm me this is me what I'm good at this is the value I bring this is the type of person I am this is the character um I say all but to say like you know I've had it get to that point of like nah man this is me like this who I am comfortable in that and not playing small essentially right not playing small anymore and then point right uh knowing how privileged we are the opportunity we have in front of us the people right the circumstances and then um you know putting the action there right letting that feel kind of fuel you forward so all those lessons man are are like perfectly articulated that that you said there yeah my last question uh well second to last question here is right where can people find you man like join your AI community follow black kids travel and really plug into what you're building now definitely I mean just look up my name it's a kill way at a K-I-L W A D E can find me on Google find me on anywhere you'd be able to uh reach out you know reach out to me on Instagram reach out to me through email I'm sure you can find my email online would love to see what you guys are working on and see how I can support in any way so I think that's yeah that's how you can find me. Perfect and then um I'll make sure once again as always I'll put in the show notes all your social handles any other websites that you you're a part of so people can plug into you try to get in contact if um you know they want to get into AI space but uh more importantly man here the last question the famous question on this podcast man right it's called the life is podcast and I asked every guest at the end man um if I ask you right life is blank right and you fill in that last little blank a phrase or a word what would you fill that in as it's it's funny because like the first thing that came to me when you said that is just it shouldn't even be a word there.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:33

Right that's the way that's crazy life is life is like that's my phrase bro like life is everything.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:42

We'll take it because it's so real it really is.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:44

I think that's the beauty of it's deep it's deep because when you think about life life is life like you can't really explain what life is you can try to put a a thing alone on to know something but you don't really know it. You know it's just we make our own assumptions so it's just life is it's just you just be and you create right you create and do.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:06

Well I'm gonna take that man because I think that's so true. I think that honestly that was that was the reason of the podcast life is and whatever people put a label on on the back end or you just want to leave it blank um that's that's your prerogative that's your thought process but I think that is the beauty of it um we can operate from that mindset. 100% other than that man akill man this has been uh this has been great man I love it uh I really appreciate honestly from from a you know person to person friend to friend I appreciate the time that you're taking because I know you're six well I don't know six seven hours ahead of us and uh in the future one little one in the background right I heard them earlier so I get it but uh I appreciate it taking the time for myself but also those who are going to be tuning in and be able to pick up the value that you're sharing your wisdom your experience and your journey and uh hopefully able to package that up and use it for their own lives. Appreciate you brother that was amazing. Yes thank you well hey man I'm gonna let you get back to it continue to do great work man. Likewise bro thank you brother all right now take care thank you I have known Akil for years and what I've watched across all of it the travel the crypto the AI communities the betrayals the breakthroughs is someone who keeps choosing expansion over contraction. Every time something ended he asked what was next rather than what was lost. That is not resilience as a buzzword. That is a practice orientation toward life and black kids travel is what happens when a person turns that orientation outward when the expansion you earn becomes a door you hold open for someone who was told the world was not for them. That is not charity that is coherence. Life expands in proportion to internal coherence and Akil Wade has been proving that across six continents. Till next time I'll see you in the next episode That's a wrap on today's episode of the Life Is Podcast. If something in this conversation landed for you a shift in perspective a reminder or something you needed to hear don't let it stay there. Take it with you put it to work if you're ready to go deeper I have tools built specifically for this journey a self discovery blueprint and a diagnostic designed to show you exactly where your foundation needs attention. Links are in the show notes. And if this episode added value share it with someone who's building leave a review help us grow this community of intentional people doing real work. Remember, fulfillment isn't found it's built. Life is art in motion and you are the artist. Until next time, keep building