This time we sat down with Borgore, a producer, songwriter, and rapper who hails from Israel. I loved this conversation with Borgore because he says whatever is on his mind, and he’ll tell you straight up how he feels. I had a blast with this one. On this episode, we talk about extreme sports, how Borgore got into Dubstep, serving in the Israeli army, and more. Without further ado here is our wide-ranging conversation with Borgore.
This time, we sat down with Bren Orton (@bren.orton), a professional kayaker, one of the founders of SEND, a group of kayakers who chase the biggest waterfalls, hardest rapids, and capture it all on camera, and one hell of a human being. I am amped, electrified to be bringing you this conversation. I got to know Bren back when I was working for another publication, The Frynge so it was great to catch up again.
In this episode, Bren shares how he would do anything to get into the kayak, getting malaria 8 times, bombing down waterfalls, some of the fuck-ups that have let to even greater successes, and more. Without further ado, please enjoy this wide-ranging, exhilarating conversation with Bren Orton.
What defines success in business and relationships? Making a shit ton of money? Investing in the right company? Providing value? Writing 1000 words a day for a week? Having the most meaningful interactions you can on a day to day basis?
Sahil Lavingia, the guest on this week’s episode, has defined success differently at different stages in his life. As a teenager into his early 20s, Sahil lived in Silicon Valley, the home of cutting edge startup culture. He was the second employee at Pinterest and then left to start his own company called Gumroad, an online platform that enables creators to sell products directly to consumers.
In 2011, At 18 years old Sahil raised 8 million dollars for Gumroad and declared his mission to build his first billion-dollar company. Things did not go as planned. In 2015, Sahil laid off 75% of the company, was no longer venture-funded, but today Gumroad is strong as ever. What happened? To quote Sahil’s blog post, Reflecting On My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company, he writes,
“For years, my only metric of success was building a billion-dollar company. Now, I realize that was a terrible goal. It’s completely arbitrary and doesn’t accurately reflect impact. I’m not making an excuse or pretending that I didn’t fail. I’m not pretending that failure feels good. Everyone knows that the failure rate in startups — especially venture-funded ones — is super high, but it still sucks when you don’t reach your goals. I failed, but I also succeeded at many other things. We’re simply focused on building the best product we can for our customers. On top of all that, I’m happy creating value beyond our revenue-generating product.”
In this podcast, Sahil shares what triggered this change in the mentality of how he views success, moving from Silicon Valley to Provo Utah, the most conservative and religious city in America over 100,000 people, painting with retired moms, the DNC debate format and more. Without further ado, here is our wide-ranging conversation with Sahil Lavingia.
This time, we sat down with SHY Martin (@shy.martin), a bada** singer-songwriter who has collabed with people like Bebe Rexha, Kygo, and The Chainsmokers. She broke onto the scene as the featured artist and songwriter on Mike Perry’s The Ocean, which has nearly 600 million streams on Spotify alone, and her songwriting catalog has generated almost 3 billion streams. In this episode, we talk about SHY Martin’s songwriting process, going to school in Sweden, dealing with anxiety, and more. She is a beautiful soul and I'm grateful to be able to bring this podcast to you. Without further ado, here is our wide-ranging conversation with SHY Martin.
This time, we sat down with Jason Khalipa (@JasonKhalipa), a CrossFit champion, the founder of NCFIt Collective, a husband, and a father. Really had fun with this one, this guy’s the real deal. In this episode, Jason discusses the process behind winning the 2008 CrossFit Games, his background in BMX, and the AMRAP mentality.
This time, we sat down with Gavin Chops (@gavinchops), a man of many hats. Gavin drums on tour with Chelsea Cutler, owns the artist management group Bear and Owl, is part of the group Obvious Yellow, and DJs around NYC. In this conversation, Gavin discusses tripping on mushrooms at Joshua, his practice of loving-kindness meditation, drumming on tour with Chelsea Cutler, and more.
This time we sat down with Jordan Beau, a highly successful Youtuber with over 1.2 million subscribers. On this episode, we spoke about Jordan’s background in extreme sports, creating a career out of making content, the mental health effects of social media, what separates the good from the great vlogs, and more. I really enjoyed this talk with Jordan, and as a podcaster, I highly respect anyone who is willing to put themselves out there as a content creator - basically baring your soul to hundreds, thousands, and in Jordan’s case millions of people. Without further ado, here is our wide-ranging conversation with Jordan Beau.
This time we sat down with Ed Latimore, a man of many hats. Ed has a B.A. in Physics, is an author, speaker, former heavyweight boxer, and an army veteran. In this episode, Ed discusses learning to create a network and de-escalate conflict in the hood, the defining characteristics of a great online entrepreneur, how love is a choice and not just a feeling, his decision to stop drinking, and more.
In this episode, we talk about Marshal’s introduction to Intermittent fasting, the physical/mental benefits of IF, how Marshal’s father’s diagnosis of ALS inspired him to build a life for himself around fitness, the victim mentality, and more. Without further ado, here is our exhilarating conversation with Marshal Mackenzie.
This time, we sat down with producer Justin Caruso who has toured the world with top acts like The Chainsmokers and Tiesto. Justin recently released his latest single ‘Good Parts’ which is an absolute jam. The acoustic version is live now as well so go slap that link wherever you listen to music.
Justin also performed at Moonrise festival earlier last month and will be supporting Loud Luxury on their “Nights Like This” tour in October and November in LA, Chicago, Philly, and Boston. In this episode, Justin discusses playing Jäger pong with Tiësto, studying music business at USC, developing an original sound, Fortnite, and more. Without further ado, here is our exhilarating conversation with Justin Caruso.
This time, we sat down with Nomadic Matt, real name Matthew Kepnes, a New York Times best selling author who traveled the globe for ten years straight. On this episode, we discuss why Matt does not have a set morning routine, starting conversations with strangers, relationships on the road, maximizing travel time, his new book Ten Years A Nomad and more.
This time, we sat down with Andy Nguyen (@andythenguyen), the owner and founder of Afters Ice Cream, Groundhouse Burger, PigPen Delicacy, and many other top-notch food establishments on the West Coast.
As a lifetime creative entrepreneur, Andy has grown powerhouse ventures from scratch in real estate, fashion, and now food. He is a master of putting the pieces together, getting the most out of his teams, and positioning his brands to build hype and deliver high-value products.
For Andy, the customer experience and story behind the brand is inseparable from the product. In this conversation, Andy discusses his passion for dance, bringing his streetwear mentality to the food business, how Afters Ice Cream changed the game, dropping out of school, and more. Without further ado, here is our wide-ranging conversation with Andy Nguyen.
This time, we sat down with Andrew Meagher and Cody Savonen, the brains behind Mugatunes.com. Mugatunes (@mugatunes) is a community of Tastemakers from around the country who come together to share the best music. No bots, no algorithms, no shitty music. It’s human music curation from people you can trust.
As an avid Spotify junky, I have had my heart ripped out by mismanaged playlists. So often, money, pressure from major labels, and other factors come into play for getting the top spots on Spotify and Apple Music playlists. Mugatunes is the cure for shitty music curation. Playlist creators, who Mugatunes refers to as Tastemakers, are vetted individually before being allowed to create playlists on the platform. From there, real humans vote on the best songs and playlists, which you can see out in the open on Mugatunes.com. No shady algorithms, just human-driven jams.
I’ve been bumping Mugatunes playlists for the past month since I met Cody and Drew at a rooftop party that Mugatunes was sponsoring in Brooklyn. I can attest that these playlists are miles beyond some of what some of the other major players have to offer. To put it simply, I’m addicted. On this episode, we discuss how Mugatunes works as a platform, the beginnings of Drew and Cody’s interest in music, the conversations that sparked Mugatunes in a college dorm room, and their upcoming 20 city Blockparty tour. Without further ado, here is our wide-ranging conversation with Drew and Cody of Mugatunes.
This time, we sat down with Randal Koene, a well-respected neuroscientist and founder of CarbonCopies.org, the outreach and roadmapping organization for advancing substrate independent minds. What is a substrate independent mind? Fair question. According to Carbon Copies, substrate independence is when “our cognitive processes are then no longer tied to a single version of the brain’s processing architecture. Instead, our thoughts and feelings will be able to exist on a variety of processing substrates.”
In other words, our minds, our consciousness can exist outside of our brains, the mushy stuff, potentially forever on another platform. Randal Koene has dedicated his life to mind uploading, whole brain emulation, and making it possible, as he puts it, “to choose our brain and body much as we can choose our winter or summer clothes to suit our needs.”
Randal explains the concept of mind uploading and its implications far better than I will ever be able to so I’ll let him take it from here. This topic is important, and although mind uploading may not seem like a reality, it may be closer than you think and can solve many of the problems we deal with today as we are limited by our biology. So without further ado here is our wide-ranging conversation with neuroscientist Randal Koene.
This time, we sat down with Zuby (@ZubyMusic), a professional rapper, podcast host, public speaker, and an overall creative entrepreneur. He recently gained a massive amount of attention by destroying the British Women’s Deadlift and Bench record. The video of him doing so currently has over 1.7 million views on Twitter and he’s been invited to speak on platforms like The Candace Owens Show, Louder with Crowder, The Ben Shapiro Show, and more. How did HE break the women’s records and why did he do it? We’ll get into that soon.
An Oxford graduate with a degree in computer science, Zuby quit his corporate job to become a full time, independent music artist. Since then, he has sold over 25,000 albums and recently surpassed 100k followers on Twitter alone. As a British Nigerian who grew up in Saudi Arabia, Zuby has a unique perspective of how different cultures operate. What’s normal to you is not normal to everyone else, something that I am still learning every day.
On this episode, Zuby and I get into the mindset behind breaking the Women’s British lifting records, the modern-day attack on free speech, waxing balls in women’s salons, his music career, how to talk to strangers, and more. Without further ado, I hope that you never experience getting your balls waxed and please enjoy this wide-ranging conversation with Zuby.
This time, we sat down with Will Witt (@TheWillWitt) of PragerU. In their own words, PragerU’s mission is to promote what is true, what is good, what is excellent, and what is noble through digital media. Will Witt runs the Man on The Street Series for PragerU where he asks strangers questions like:
Are The Police Racist?
Can someone be Gay and Republican?
Should Healthcare be free in America?
I very much enjoy Will’s videos and I’m a dedicated listener to the Candace Owens show, also a part of the PragerU Network. Like myself and many others, Will has shaped his values and political ideologies overtime alongside his view of the world. In a time where a loud minority of extremist views on social media can sway the public’s actions, it’s important to voice reasonable opinions and back them up. Will does that interestingly and effectively.
In this conversation, we discuss affirmative action, equal pay for women’s soccer, long-distance relationships, and porn. Not hard to see how those last two fit together. Without further ado, here is our wide-ranging conversation with Will Witt.
This week, we sat down with Deryck Whibley, the lead singer, songwriter, and producer of the band Sum 41. I have been listening to Sum 41 since I was 12 years old and I am incredibly grateful to have been able to sit down with Deryck and have this conversation. We spoke about the rockstar mentality, the early days of the band, their latest record Order In Decline, Deryck’s journey to sobriety, and more.
On to this week’s episode. This time Cole Cuchna, host of the Dissect podcast, sat down with us. Dissect is one of the most popular podcasts out there today. In Cole’s words, “Dissect picks one album per season and analyzes one song per episode, measure by measure, word by word.
Last year, Dissect got picked up by Spotify and Cole know makes a living off of creating the show, which puts him in an elite group of podcasters. But that was far from the case at the start of Dissect. Cole started the first season with Kendrick Lamar in his basement, while caring for a family, and working full time as the creative director of a coffee shop. He somehow managed to spend 20 hours on each episode to get it just right. 20 hours for the love of the podcast, on each episode, everything himself, and he had no idea how big this would become.
I am a regular listener of the Dissect podcast and it was an honor to speak with Cole for over an hour. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is changing the culture. As someone who makes a living off of doing what he loves, Cole is someone that I look up to and I’m grateful that we had this conversation. I hope that this episode can add a little bit to your perspective and without further ado, here is our wide-ranging conversation with Cole Cuchna.
On this episode, we sat down with tattoo artist and painter Jason Ackerman (@jasonackerman) of Soho Ink. In Jason’s own words, he likes to make people uncomfortable. And I like exploring topics that make people uncomfortable, so let's see if I can succeed in making Jason uncomfortable, if only for a moment. On this episode, we talk about drug abuse, the weirdest tattoos Jason’s ever given, painting controversial figures like Bill Cosby and Donald Trump, reuniting with his son, and more.
On our podcast with filous, we discussed the art of giving and receiving criticism. This is something that I've struggled with on both ends. How do you give someone actionable feedback on a product or service while maintaining brutal honesty? How do you take the feedback? Here are some things that have helped me and hopefully can help you.