5 Ways To Rapidly Scale a Mission-Driven Business | Ashley Heather, COO of Lumati (Podcast 460)
Resumen
TLDRIn this insightful conversation, Ashley Heather, co-founder of Lumati, shares his experiences from six startups, two successful and four failures. He emphasizes the importance of learning from failure, the right timing in business, and having a robust team. Lumati focuses on enhancing health span through innovative wellness solutions and aims to support a billion lives over the next decade. Ashley also provides strategies for COOs on handling rapid growth, building relationships, and maintaining a calm demeanor in high-pressure situations. He stresses the significance of surrounding oneself with a capable team and not rushing through life, reflecting on his personal journey and offering advice to aspiring leaders.
Para llevar
- 🚀 Learn more from failures than successes.
- 🤝 The right team is crucial for success.
- 💡 Strive for clear vision amidst challenges.
- ⏳ Don't rush through your journey; life is long.
- 👏 Empower your team to grow alongside the company.
- 📈 Focus on relationships and trust in your partnerships.
- 🤔 Embrace discomfort for personal growth.
- 🌱 Healthy living contributes to longevity.
- 💪 Mindfulness helps maintain clarity in stress.
- 📖 Reflect on your journey, celebrating small wins.
Cronología
- 00:00:00 - 00:05:00
The speaker shares insights from their experiences as an entrepreneur with six startups, highlighting the lessons learned from failures and successes, emphasizing the importance of timing and the right team in achieving success.
- 00:05:00 - 00:10:00
Ashley Heather, co-founder and president of Wumati, discusses his extensive background in building and scaling companies, particularly in health tech, and the significant growth he achieved during the COVID pandemic with the company Cleared.
- 00:10:00 - 00:15:00
The episode focuses on strategies for supporting teams during rapid expansion, the mindset shifts needed after setbacks, key skills for growth, and how to maintain vision during tough times, appealing to both leaders of growing companies and aspiring leaders alike.
- 00:15:00 - 00:20:00
Ashley introduces Wumati as a wellness company focusing on longevity to enhance people's health span, detailing their clinics in San Diego and Tijuana and their global ambitions to reach a billion lives over the next ten years.
- 00:20:00 - 00:25:00
The speaker identifies a vast market to improve health, citing a shift away from traditional medicine as many seek alternative solutions and acknowledging the effects of COVID on people's health, creating a demand for holistic and natural healing methods.
- 00:25:00 - 00:30:00
The speaker mentions the challenge of navigating the healthcare industry's need for a better solution, discussing the market's dissatisfaction and the shift toward preventative and holistic care amid growing chronic health conditions and the impact of recent vaccines.
- 00:30:00 - 00:35:00
Wumati aims to provide these alternative healing modalities, helping those dissatisfied with their current healthcare experiences while aiming to illuminate pathways to improved vitality through their offerings.
- 00:35:00 - 00:40:00
Ashley shares his background, detailing a journey into health care after a family tragedy, discussing his initial career in marketing and technology, unsuccessful ventures, and finally a successful pivot to health-focused entrepreneurship.
- 00:40:00 - 00:45:00
The speaker emphasizes the importance of relationships, experience, trust, and a calm demeanor in navigating high-stress environments and building rapid-growth companies, sharing personal strategies for maintaining resilience and mental clarity.
- 00:45:00 - 00:50:28
The conversation touches on the dynamics of leadership team structures, including how communication between CEO and COO is crucial for growth, outlining the importance of building trust over processes amidst rapid scaling.
Mapa mental
Vídeo de preguntas y respuestas
What is Lumati?
Lumati is a wellness company focused on longevity, aiming to improve health span and prevent diseases through holistic approaches and technologies.
What lessons has Ashley learned from his startup failures?
Ashley believes you learn more from failure than success, emphasizing the importance of timing, the right team, and recognizing opportunities.
How has COVID impacted Lumati’s approach?
The pandemic highlighted health issues leading people to seek alternative health solutions, which Lumati aims to address.
What is the goal of Lumati over the next 10 years?
Lumati aims to positively impact a billion lives through its wellness and health technology.
What advice does Ashley give to introverted COOs?
He suggests being comfortable with discomfort, building relationships, and focusing on empowering a strong team.
What does Ashley prioritize in his role as COO?
Trust, clarity of culture, and empowering teams to exceed expectations while focusing on the overall vision.
How does Ashley stay grounded during high-stress situations?
He practices mindfulness, exercise, and reflection while managing stress responses to maintain clear-headedness.
What advice would Ashley give his younger self?
He would advise to follow one's heart, surround oneself with great people, and not to rush through life.
What are Ashley's personal goals in the next few months?
He's excited about personal growth, expanding family time, and building meaningful connections.
How can someone reach out to Ashley Heather?
Interested individuals can email Ashley at ashley@lumati.com for inquiries regarding Lumati or topics discussed.
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- 00:00:00i've had six startups two successful
- 00:00:02four failures right so I've learned a
- 00:00:04lot as I say you learn more from failure
- 00:00:06sometimes than you do from success
- 00:00:08missing those opportunities being blind
- 00:00:10to it having the wrong people in the
- 00:00:12right seats you know wrong people in the
- 00:00:13wrong seats etc there's just a lot that
- 00:00:15goes into um knowing when the timing is
- 00:00:18right and having the right team members
- 00:00:19to execute today we are joined by Ashley
- 00:00:23Heather co-founder president and COO of
- 00:00:27Wumati he is an entrepreneur with over
- 00:00:3025 years of experience building and
- 00:00:31scaling successful companies from
- 00:00:34funding health tech ventures to leading
- 00:00:36a company called cleared for during
- 00:00:38COVID which was an exponential period of
- 00:00:40growth to over hund00 million in revenue
- 00:00:43in just two years ashley has seen
- 00:00:46firsthand what it takes to navigate high
- 00:00:47pressure environments sustain momentum
- 00:00:50through failures and maintain a clear
- 00:00:52vision when the road gets tough that is
- 00:00:54why in this episode we're going to
- 00:00:55explore how to support your team during
- 00:00:58rapid expansion the mindset shift needed
- 00:01:00to move forward after setbacks key
- 00:01:03skills required to grow at scale
- 00:01:06strategies for staying grounded and calm
- 00:01:08during high stress situations and how to
- 00:01:12hold on to your vision and belief even
- 00:01:14in the hardest moments whether you're
- 00:01:17leading a fast growing company or you're
- 00:01:19just looking to level up as a leader
- 00:01:21this conversation is packed absolutely
- 00:01:24loved this conversation i had some
- 00:01:26amazing takeaways myself and it is
- 00:01:28definitely a conversation you're not
- 00:01:29going to want to miss so let's go ahead
- 00:01:31and dive in with Ashley Smith all right
- 00:01:34here we are we are live with Ashley
- 00:01:36heather welcome to the show thanks
- 00:01:39thanks for having me great to be here
- 00:01:41yes all right well I am so excited about
- 00:01:43this conversation we were just talking a
- 00:01:46little bit diving right away you had to
- 00:01:48jump on a kind of urgent call because
- 00:01:49you've got some cool things in the works
- 00:01:51with your company and it led us down to
- 00:01:53some really amazing things that you guys
- 00:01:55are up to so give us a brief kind of
- 00:01:58overview of what are you doing currently
- 00:02:01with the company Bumati what's your role
- 00:02:03and how did you get involved
- 00:02:06uh great well yeah it's been fascinating
- 00:02:08conversation already hello everybody
- 00:02:09who's listening uh thanks for joining in
- 00:02:12um so Lumati is a wellness company uh
- 00:02:15we're really focused on the space of
- 00:02:17longevity within that wellness category
- 00:02:20essentially increasing the health span
- 00:02:21of people so making them avoid pain
- 00:02:25disease and other issues you know
- 00:02:27putting it off as long as possible uh um
- 00:02:30and so that's really what we are focused
- 00:02:32on as an organization we have a clinic a
- 00:02:34location in Entenus um San Diego and we
- 00:02:38have a second clinic in Tijuana Mexico
- 00:02:40where we do certain things that we can't
- 00:02:42do in the US clinic um and then we
- 00:02:44license a bunch of our tools and
- 00:02:46technologies and things that we do to
- 00:02:48lots of other clinics around the country
- 00:02:49and in fact around the world so that's
- 00:02:52uh that's Lumati uh the brand is
- 00:02:54relatively new many people on this call
- 00:02:56probably have not heard of it we are
- 00:02:57relatively small business but we do have
- 00:02:59big aspirations uh the goal is to reach
- 00:03:02a billion lives in the next 10 years um
- 00:03:05improving them you know in some positive
- 00:03:07way through the application of our tools
- 00:03:09technologies education etc uh so big
- 00:03:12goals uh we're just getting started the
- 00:03:14business is about three years old uh it
- 00:03:16was under another name we rebranded uh
- 00:03:18after I had joined to create this global
- 00:03:20brand of Lumati uh illuminating your
- 00:03:22vitality so it has both of those words
- 00:03:25in it it's also a six-digit domain
- 00:03:27lumati.com which is pretty hard to get
- 00:03:29in today's world a a short domain that
- 00:03:31feels right for the business and also is
- 00:03:33a global word that translates and you
- 00:03:35know all the stuff you have to do when
- 00:03:36you're branding uh so we got through
- 00:03:38that and and we are Lumati have been for
- 00:03:40about a year um I'm the president and
- 00:03:42CEO of the company so you know the
- 00:03:44number two uh joining an amazing
- 00:03:47gentleman David Perez who's the founder
- 00:03:49CEO of the business um and he's been on
- 00:03:52his own sort of health journey for
- 00:03:53himself and his family of the last 15
- 00:03:55years and through that journey stumbled
- 00:03:58across various modalities technologies
- 00:04:01he's not a medical doctor but is around
- 00:04:03medical doctors a lot uh he's a tinkerer
- 00:04:06an engineer an entrepreneur and through
- 00:04:08that um um you know and a philanthropist
- 00:04:11sort of figured out how to kind of
- 00:04:12create some pretty interesting
- 00:04:14technologies um and the way you know
- 00:04:17everything we do is holistic um and we
- 00:04:20really focus on a few different things
- 00:04:21but I don't want to answer your question
- 00:04:23too go into too much detail you can
- 00:04:25steer me you know where you want me to
- 00:04:26go but uh so yeah I've been there been
- 00:04:28there about a year and it's been a super
- 00:04:30fast growth company over the last 12
- 00:04:32months so very exciting okay awesome and
- 00:04:35I'm curious to hear because I know I've
- 00:04:38been in this space myself for five years
- 00:04:40overcoming some health
- 00:04:42issues finding different modalities that
- 00:04:44are outside of traditional medicine can
- 00:04:47be difficult knowing like where do I
- 00:04:50start there's so many different types of
- 00:04:52things that are coming available so I'm
- 00:04:54curious what how do you guys find the
- 00:04:56things that you want to specialize in
- 00:04:58and then who are you focusing towards
- 00:05:00serving
- 00:05:02yeah um I mean there are so many people
- 00:05:05out there that are are looking to
- 00:05:07improve their health uh so it's an
- 00:05:08enormous market and it's a $4 trillion
- 00:05:11industry the the healthcare industry uh
- 00:05:13sometimes referred to as the sick care
- 00:05:15industry um depending on how you kind of
- 00:05:18view it but essentially $4 trillion um
- 00:05:22and a lot of people have been going
- 00:05:25through especially in the last few years
- 00:05:26a couple of different angles so one is
- 00:05:28I've tried the traditional stuff and
- 00:05:31it's not working meaning western
- 00:05:32medicine u for whatever reason what I
- 00:05:35have they can't click their fingers and
- 00:05:37give me you know give me the magic pill
- 00:05:39or prescribe me you know some treatment
- 00:05:42that's working and so more and more
- 00:05:44people are fitting into that category
- 00:05:46where they're just not being served by
- 00:05:48the existing uh kind of western medicine
- 00:05:51medical setup so I think that's you know
- 00:05:53that's a big piece that that we're
- 00:05:55seeing is happening um and we can talk
- 00:05:57about why and all that kind of stuff in
- 00:05:58a minute um the second is that obviously
- 00:06:01we've just gone through this pandemic
- 00:06:03with COVID and the vaccines and there's
- 00:06:05a lot of evidence now uh coming out that
- 00:06:07for some people unfortunately the
- 00:06:10vaccine did not help them in their
- 00:06:12long-term health it may have had
- 00:06:14temporary benefit you know around COVID
- 00:06:16and so forth uh but ultimately it has
- 00:06:18triggered the vaccines have triggered
- 00:06:20other health issues or brought up things
- 00:06:22in the past that that user maybe was
- 00:06:25dormant and and the covid vaccine has
- 00:06:26has sort of brought it out and so that's
- 00:06:28really unfortunate because in essence
- 00:06:30the vaccine was there to help people but
- 00:06:32actually there are millions of people
- 00:06:34and in fact I think the US numbers is
- 00:06:35there's 10 million people with long co
- 00:06:38essentially meaning that some impact of
- 00:06:40covid is affecting their lifestyle their
- 00:06:42ability to work or you know look after
- 00:06:44their family whatever their issue is and
- 00:06:46so So that's 10 million people that's a
- 00:06:47lot of people um so that's kind of
- 00:06:49really where some of this comes from
- 00:06:52it's it's essentially people who aren't
- 00:06:53finding a solution um in the current
- 00:06:56network or setup of medical doctors or
- 00:06:58you know physicians and so forth and are
- 00:07:00looking for something different and then
- 00:07:02I think the third group is I think we're
- 00:07:04we're raising our awareness that that
- 00:07:08holistic and that natural ways to heal
- 00:07:11could well be better than non-holistic
- 00:07:13ways for healing in the long term and so
- 00:07:16I think there's a growing population of
- 00:07:18people that are just looking for you
- 00:07:20know different ways to heal their body
- 00:07:21where it's more about you know what
- 00:07:23they're putting in their body from a
- 00:07:25nutrition you know food is medicine
- 00:07:26exercise is medicine like what can we do
- 00:07:28with our bodies to get ourselves back to
- 00:07:31stasis and and and so that clean healthy
- 00:07:33living approach and not just be relying
- 00:07:36on some GLP-1 or some medication or you
- 00:07:40know some expensive surgery that's
- 00:07:42generally presented as the first thing
- 00:07:44oh you've got pain let's let's you know
- 00:07:46let's get some surgery let's kind of and
- 00:07:48and you know that means a lot of money
- 00:07:50which is great if you're in the medical
- 00:07:52business but not necessarily as an
- 00:07:53individual it can be expensive uh and
- 00:07:55often there's long recovery times
- 00:07:57associated with that so sometimes people
- 00:07:59are you know they they've had an
- 00:08:01accident an injury or something it's
- 00:08:02like how do I how can I get back faster
- 00:08:06um back to performance whatever
- 00:08:07performance means for that individual
- 00:08:09without necessarily going for surgery
- 00:08:11and without doing you know some of these
- 00:08:14um you know getting on a lot of
- 00:08:15medication and so forth which has a lot
- 00:08:17of contraindications you know a lot of
- 00:08:19these medicines you know if you do one
- 00:08:21or two okay but then you know people are
- 00:08:22on four 5 6 10 8 and it's like this just
- 00:08:25it's just unknown the impact it's having
- 00:08:26and a lot of people aren't getting
- 00:08:28through that process well so I think
- 00:08:29there's lots of type of people who are
- 00:08:31coming I think you mentioned mentioned
- 00:08:32earlier you know you suffered with mold
- 00:08:34and lime possibly limes and some other
- 00:08:35things i'm sorry if I'm saying that on
- 00:08:37on public if you didn't want that on
- 00:08:39public all good shared shared so um
- 00:08:42HIPPA violation sorry uh but anyway you
- 00:08:44know that's you know these are there's
- 00:08:46there's many of you out there that are
- 00:08:48developing and and I think nobody has
- 00:08:49the magic answer as to why i think a lot
- 00:08:52of people are putting forward theories
- 00:08:54you know Dr mark Heyman and others talk
- 00:08:56you know regularly about what's going on
- 00:08:58with our food systems what's going on
- 00:09:00with our environment with toxins
- 00:09:03microplastics and so this is kind of the
- 00:09:05world that we exist in we hear all of
- 00:09:07this and we're we're sort of building
- 00:09:09tools and technologies and treatments uh
- 00:09:11that can help uh individuals um and uh
- 00:09:15you know improve and you know improve
- 00:09:17their health and it's it's it's
- 00:09:19difficult but we never talk about curing
- 00:09:20you know treatments is this specific
- 00:09:22word that that's that's that's regulated
- 00:09:25uh but it's really about modalities and
- 00:09:28and doing things to improve your
- 00:09:30lifestyle um that are very natural and
- 00:09:32we can go into kind of more details
- 00:09:33about what some of these things are uh
- 00:09:35in a second sure cool well one of the
- 00:09:38things that you touched on was COVID and
- 00:09:40it sounds like this is my experience and
- 00:09:43sounds like yours too is the
- 00:09:44illumination of a lot of you know that
- 00:09:47may have being a trigger with the
- 00:09:48vaccines of people really starting to
- 00:09:50look at their health with the goal of
- 00:09:52serving a billion people and I was
- 00:09:55watching the the video that you guys
- 00:09:57have on your website and there's a line
- 00:09:59in there that I wrote down cuz I thought
- 00:10:00it was so cool said "The secret elixirs
- 00:10:03of the immortals are now available to
- 00:10:05humanity." I was like "Wow that's that's
- 00:10:07pretty cool." So I'm curious that's a
- 00:10:10really ambitious goal you've been with
- 00:10:12the company for a year what was it about
- 00:10:14you and your kind of track record i got
- 00:10:16to see a little bit about what you've
- 00:10:18built which is amazing why were you the
- 00:10:20perfect candidate to bring into this a
- 00:10:22year ago
- 00:10:23um a great great question so my journey
- 00:10:26into this world um uh I did a business
- 00:10:30degree i'm English so you know grew up
- 00:10:32kind of in London and around London
- 00:10:34worked there a number of years in pretty
- 00:10:36traditional marketing management
- 00:10:38consulting finance etc moved to America
- 00:10:41just before 911 uh to be sort of an
- 00:10:43entrepreneur and to be entrepreneurial
- 00:10:45and ended up building some technologies
- 00:10:47and platforms but mostly in the
- 00:10:48marketing uh industry building websites
- 00:10:51and and other kind of fun apps for
- 00:10:53different people and a few for myself um
- 00:10:56and you know it was great it was a great
- 00:10:57ride for 10 years essentially I sold
- 00:11:00things to people that they didn't really
- 00:11:02need you know the consumer economy and
- 00:11:04luxury products and services and things
- 00:11:07um and out of that ended up selling a
- 00:11:09company making some money and decided to
- 00:11:10kind of you know think about what you
- 00:11:12know what's my purpose and where am I
- 00:11:14going that was in 2012 so just 12 12 13
- 00:11:17years ago
- 00:11:18um and ended up you know leaning into
- 00:11:20health partly because my brother my
- 00:11:22younger brother had a terrible accident
- 00:11:24um and basically fell on his head on a
- 00:11:27off a hotel stairwell and made a you
- 00:11:29know 20 year recovery through a brain
- 00:11:31injury and just essentially was a
- 00:11:33different person after that injury and
- 00:11:35really kind of shocked me and and and
- 00:11:37sort of brought me into the health
- 00:11:38industry to try and figure out how can I
- 00:11:39use my skills to help other people be
- 00:11:42the best versions of themselves that
- 00:11:43they can be and you know avoid this this
- 00:11:45pain and tragedy of my younger brother
- 00:11:47so that was sort of part of the why that
- 00:11:49drove me so I'd made some money i had
- 00:11:51some opportunities to deal in something
- 00:11:52new health was there i'd gone through
- 00:11:54this traumatic experience um and also
- 00:11:57seen that healthcare numbers were rising
- 00:11:59spending as a CEO of a company which I
- 00:12:01was or healthcare costs were going up
- 00:12:04excuse me 25% every year almost and it
- 00:12:06was like wow my my rent's going up 3%
- 00:12:08and my salaries are going up 4% and my
- 00:12:11what's going on and and looked at it and
- 00:12:14lifestyle chronic diseases diabetes
- 00:12:16obesity heart disease basically things
- 00:12:18that theoretically can be reversed
- 00:12:20driving 75% of that what was then $3
- 00:12:23trillion it's now $4 trillion but 75% of
- 00:12:26that spend is basically due to people
- 00:12:28making kind of poor decisions or what
- 00:12:30seems from the outside as poor decisions
- 00:12:33um and so I started a company called Off
- 00:12:35the Scale in 2014 to reverse that and
- 00:12:38reverse obesity and diabetes and build a
- 00:12:40system and platforms around that so I
- 00:12:43was in this space of let's call it
- 00:12:44biohacking before the word biohacking
- 00:12:46was really popular really helping people
- 00:12:48think about their purpose their exercise
- 00:12:50their life what they're trying to do and
- 00:12:53and trying to be a healthier version of
- 00:12:55themselves and so that was back then it
- 00:12:57was a frustrating journey i was too
- 00:12:59early bleeding edge as many mo would say
- 00:13:01in the sort of you know entrepreneurial
- 00:13:03industry i had some great technology and
- 00:13:05some great applications saw some great
- 00:13:06outcomes but I had misjudged the medical
- 00:13:09business or the healthcare market
- 00:13:10thinking that they would really embrace
- 00:13:13quickly something that would reverse
- 00:13:15people's chronic conditions whereas know
- 00:13:17it's a difficult industry a lot of
- 00:13:19people are still in the FIFA service and
- 00:13:22doing more more surgeries more this more
- 00:13:24that and it's under the cover of health
- 00:13:26of course it is but there's an
- 00:13:27undercover of just doing more and our
- 00:13:31you know we were doing less you know
- 00:13:32with ours solution being successful
- 00:13:34there would be less surgeries there
- 00:13:36would be less need for some of this
- 00:13:37stuff and so there was a you know
- 00:13:39difficult pull and push in in many
- 00:13:40meetings around that and you know I
- 00:13:42understand it from both sides as a
- 00:13:43businessman as it were so so that was a
- 00:13:45failed a failed entity got into the
- 00:13:48world of COVID when COVID happened and
- 00:13:50built a COVID platform called cleared
- 00:13:52for which was basically became the
- 00:13:54largest platform for health information
- 00:13:56around COVID used by Netflix T-Mo large
- 00:14:00employers large colleges who basically
- 00:14:02needed to know do you have you been
- 00:14:04vaccinated recently you've been tested
- 00:14:06remember when there were rules and they
- 00:14:07were changing all the time we built a
- 00:14:09platform to manage all those rules
- 00:14:11across the US in fact globally and had
- 00:14:13you know amazing global clients and it
- 00:14:15was an incredible business ly went from
- 00:14:16zero to 100 million in enterprise value
- 00:14:18in less than two years um and you know
- 00:14:22so that was an incredible rise of hiring
- 00:14:24people and building technology and
- 00:14:26working with clients and all the stuff
- 00:14:28you have to do with a company um and it
- 00:14:30was a great rocket ship but then of
- 00:14:31course co disappeared um so quickly and
- 00:14:34faster than any of us you know we all
- 00:14:36knew it might be you know some kind of
- 00:14:38dip but it again went from you know sort
- 00:14:40of 100 million to essentially zero in
- 00:14:42the sense that nobody wanted to track co
- 00:14:44anymore and it was in everybody's
- 00:14:46rearview mirror so there was this
- 00:14:47beautiful system and technology that was
- 00:14:49integrated into door control systems and
- 00:14:52HR systems and great but it just it it
- 00:14:54just lacked a need it lacked a long-term
- 00:14:56need and we we couldn't as a team pivot
- 00:14:58into another area um so you know really
- 00:15:00unfortunate story an amazing journey an
- 00:15:02amazing experience for the dozens and
- 00:15:04dozens of employees that were with us
- 00:15:06and you know great team uh and that sort
- 00:15:08of ended in in 2024 so the the timing
- 00:15:12with Lumati was just sort of perfect in
- 00:15:15the sense that David was sort of
- 00:15:16building this vision he'd been doing all
- 00:15:18sorts of hard work in the space um knew
- 00:15:20he could have a rocket ship on his hands
- 00:15:22and needed you know extra help extra
- 00:15:24assistance of people who'd you know
- 00:15:26raised money built technology built
- 00:15:28processes built very fast scaling
- 00:15:30companies um and that was something that
- 00:15:32I was coming both personally from my own
- 00:15:34vision in this space of wanting to heal
- 00:15:36and and help people that I already had
- 00:15:38plus coming off the back of some
- 00:15:40experience of growing a very very fast
- 00:15:42scaling company those two things
- 00:15:43combined you know I guess made me the
- 00:15:45perfect candidate or there's no perfect
- 00:15:47but you know a great candidate uh to
- 00:15:49join David on on his mission of getting
- 00:15:51to a billion lives and so it's been a
- 00:15:52it's been an incredible journey since
- 00:15:55thanks for sharing that amazing and I
- 00:15:58think what stands out to me is both your
- 00:16:00passion and interest and exploring and
- 00:16:04finding different modalities and ways of
- 00:16:06healing while also being the brains
- 00:16:08behind actually scaling something i mean
- 00:16:11100 million in two years is so unheard
- 00:16:13of i'm curious for you what do you think
- 00:16:16are the skills that you've learned or
- 00:16:19built developed that allowed you to
- 00:16:22scale that quickly and like really seize
- 00:16:24the opportunity when you had it yeah I
- 00:16:26think there's a lot of things that come
- 00:16:27together
- 00:16:28um experience is one i you know I've had
- 00:16:31six startups two successful four
- 00:16:34failures right so I've learned a lot as
- 00:16:36I say you learn more from failure and
- 00:16:38sometimes than you do from success so
- 00:16:40missing you know missing those
- 00:16:42opportunities being blind to it having
- 00:16:44the wrong people in the right seats you
- 00:16:46know wrong people in the wrong seats etc
- 00:16:48there's just a lot that goes into um
- 00:16:50knowing when the timing is right and
- 00:16:52having the right team members to execute
- 00:16:54um relationships right knowing like I've
- 00:16:57got so many relationships now through
- 00:16:59just doing the all this stuff for 20
- 00:17:00years that in one phone call I can get
- 00:17:03to some people to you know execute on
- 00:17:05something with a trusted relationship
- 00:17:06that 10 years ago I wouldn't have had
- 00:17:08and so when you're moving quickly you
- 00:17:10can't move alone right you need to move
- 00:17:12with lots of other people not
- 00:17:13necessarily employees but partners and
- 00:17:15so being able to have people a rolodex
- 00:17:17of to leverage and and use and bring
- 00:17:20along with you on that journey um you
- 00:17:21know like building technology I'm very
- 00:17:23lucky to have the same technology team
- 00:17:25that I built four different platforms
- 00:17:27with so when I needed to build one very
- 00:17:28quickly I didn't have to do an RFP i
- 00:17:31didn't have to spend six months vetting
- 00:17:32different teams you know I had a known
- 00:17:34entity and of course they're not perfect
- 00:17:36nobody is but I knew their strengths i
- 00:17:38knew their weaknesses you can you know
- 00:17:39kind of manage the weaknesses and lean
- 00:17:41into the strengths of of building a lot
- 00:17:43of code very quickly and that was you
- 00:17:45know one of their strengths and so I
- 00:17:47think it's it's it's experience it's
- 00:17:50relationships
- 00:17:52um it's faith right i think there's a
- 00:17:54big issue
- 00:17:56um in startups it's it's very very hard
- 00:18:00and you put your heart and soul into
- 00:18:02these things happening whether it's a
- 00:18:04business deal or a technology working or
- 00:18:07you know whatever it is um and you have
- 00:18:10to believe and and and and everybody's
- 00:18:12looking around you you're at the top of
- 00:18:13an organization you have to believe in
- 00:18:16in whatever it is and it hasn't been
- 00:18:18done before you know rarely any of these
- 00:18:19things that have been done they've been
- 00:18:20done for the first time so there's no
- 00:18:22track record there's no path you are you
- 00:18:24are charting that and so you have to
- 00:18:27have a lot of belief and so how do you
- 00:18:29build belief
- 00:18:31you you the scars in your back help
- 00:18:34train you and understand that of of of
- 00:18:36you know what you can do and I love this
- 00:18:38phrase of a a man's it should be a
- 00:18:40person's but I'll use the original
- 00:18:41phrase of a man's mind once stretched
- 00:18:43never retains its original form right
- 00:18:45this concept that if you go through
- 00:18:48enough sort of pain and experience and
- 00:18:51whatever and you don't die you're kind
- 00:18:52of like okay okay I can handle that
- 00:18:54right and you just you can you can take
- 00:18:55on more and and have that belief that
- 00:18:58that it can happen um and so yeah as and
- 00:19:02there's probably 20 other things if we
- 00:19:03had more time to kind of go through on
- 00:19:04on but uh but speed nimble you know
- 00:19:09having the team having the resources um
- 00:19:12I've I've in in my career been
- 00:19:13relatively unfortunate in the funding in
- 00:19:17the traditional so Silicon Valley like
- 00:19:19hey here's 50 million here's $100
- 00:19:20million go you know I have not been
- 00:19:23whether it's blessed or unbed in that
- 00:19:24journey i have I have had some venture
- 00:19:26capital in the past for some ventures
- 00:19:28and some lots of angel money and you
- 00:19:29know so I've been around that but it's
- 00:19:31always seemed to have been what I call
- 00:19:34stone soup which is you know you're
- 00:19:35trying to make something delicious out
- 00:19:36of rocks you don't really have
- 00:19:38everything you need but you're still
- 00:19:40trying to create this delicious meal so
- 00:19:42we call it stone soup but um there's
- 00:19:44always more to be done less resources
- 00:19:46but I think years of that has trained me
- 00:19:49to understand where to put money where
- 00:19:50not to put money how not to waste money
- 00:19:53it's a very frugal
- 00:19:55Um and has allowed us now in this you
- 00:19:57know in the last company we raised $2.5
- 00:20:00million that was it in clip 4 $2 half
- 00:20:02million was all we raised from no
- 00:20:04venture was all just kind of angely and
- 00:20:05then we got profitable very quickly
- 00:20:07almost the same story here we've raised
- 00:20:09a little bit more than that but not a
- 00:20:11lot more we are looking this year
- 00:20:12probably to raise pretty significant
- 00:20:14capital but we're ready for it we're
- 00:20:15profitable we're growing you know 4x a
- 00:20:18quarter you know so we've we've now got
- 00:20:20the metrics that we can go out with
- 00:20:21traditional funding and raise but we've
- 00:20:24got here through a lot of you know hard
- 00:20:26grafting and stone soup and um you know
- 00:20:30we were just reviewing our numbers you
- 00:20:31know and it's it's we've had three
- 00:20:33profitable months in the last four and
- 00:20:35it's rare for a young startup that's
- 00:20:37growing quickly to be able to do that so
- 00:20:39um yeah yeah love it well there's a few
- 00:20:43a few things that I captured from that
- 00:20:44that I want to dive into but overall one
- 00:20:46of the biggest things that I heard in
- 00:20:48that is it sounds like four four
- 00:20:50failures two successes and those all
- 00:20:53combined kind of built this foundation
- 00:20:55of skills with just experiences
- 00:20:58relationships resources um that it's
- 00:21:01kind of allowed you to have the platform
- 00:21:02which to me as someone like younger in
- 00:21:04my my journey and after having what felt
- 00:21:07like a success and then also a failure
- 00:21:09at the same time by leaving the company
- 00:21:12the mental game of just coming back into
- 00:21:14confidence and belief and getting clear
- 00:21:16on what I want to do next and realizing
- 00:21:18like you said I've built this skill set
- 00:21:21and expanded my brain and my capacity in
- 00:21:24ways that whatever I do next that's
- 00:21:26already already available to me one of
- 00:21:29the pieces that stood out to me that I'd
- 00:21:31love to ask you because we have a lot of
- 00:21:33COOs listening and typically I'm an
- 00:21:36extrovert i'm more of an extrovert which
- 00:21:38is probably why we're on here and doing
- 00:21:41this together but there's a lot of COS
- 00:21:43that are a lot more introverted you know
- 00:21:46they prefer kind of being behind the
- 00:21:48screen you know that's why we're kind of
- 00:21:50second in command you know CEO take the
- 00:21:52vision lead the charge and we're kind of
- 00:21:54behind the scenes making sure that
- 00:21:56things are moving forward and balls
- 00:21:58aren't getting dropped however I do
- 00:22:00think there's a lot to be said about
- 00:22:02relationships and as a COO if you're
- 00:22:04bringing the right people into the
- 00:22:05company and filling those seats you've
- 00:22:07got to have some ability to have you
- 00:22:10know the relationships that you need and
- 00:22:12those skills of being personal with
- 00:22:14others so for any cos that are listening
- 00:22:17that are maybe like man that's kind of a
- 00:22:19weaker area for me i don't have a lot of
- 00:22:21relationships what advice or wisdom
- 00:22:23would you share to those people
- 00:22:26um I go back to the uh you have to be
- 00:22:29comfortable being uncomfortable another
- 00:22:31one of my key phrases that I live by is
- 00:22:33um I think in general we humans lean
- 00:22:37into comfort we're told we're educated
- 00:22:39that comfort is there it's a shining
- 00:22:40light and you know generally that's not
- 00:22:44taking you into the growth right growth
- 00:22:46generally comes from discomfort um and
- 00:22:49doing the hard things even though you
- 00:22:51don't necessarily want to but every time
- 00:22:54you do it again going back to the mind
- 00:22:55man's mind want stretch right the
- 00:22:57stretching that's that discomfort so um
- 00:23:00you know that's where growth comes from
- 00:23:01so if there are people who are more
- 00:23:03introverted and you know I think co
- 00:23:05unfortunately has led introverted people
- 00:23:08to be even more introverted and it's
- 00:23:10created a an ability for them to do so
- 00:23:12and live behind the computer and the
- 00:23:14screen working from a home office you
- 00:23:16know maybe they're not in have to be in
- 00:23:17the office as much interfacing with
- 00:23:18people in the same way um and I think
- 00:23:21that's that's a challenge and I faced
- 00:23:22that with my last company in a way that
- 00:23:24we were a virtual company we never even
- 00:23:26had an office uh because it was co and
- 00:23:28we we grew through that time um and so
- 00:23:31getting out getting to conferences you
- 00:23:34know meeting people and putting
- 00:23:36yourselves in those uncomfortable
- 00:23:37positions um I think you that's where
- 00:23:39the growth comes from and so if you just
- 00:23:42you know keep rinse and repeating all
- 00:23:44the skills that you have you know that's
- 00:23:46why you hire somebody beneath you to
- 00:23:48kind of do those rinse and repeat things
- 00:23:50like your job if you're in a growing
- 00:23:52company is to be growing because then
- 00:23:54you can be um given more things like I
- 00:23:58was always thought when I was younger
- 00:24:00that you know becoming at the expert at
- 00:24:02the job was the job and that taking more
- 00:24:04responsibility was the job and just more
- 00:24:07and more on your shoulders and piling it
- 00:24:08all up and like "Oh look at all the
- 00:24:09stuff I'm doing." But you know what I
- 00:24:11learned the reality is that the job is
- 00:24:15to get somebody else to do the work so
- 00:24:17that you could to then do more you know
- 00:24:19more things right is not to necessarily
- 00:24:21be doing all the doing but how do I
- 00:24:23build an an autonomous machine beneath
- 00:24:25me that's doing the doing so then I can
- 00:24:27accept another task to kind of automate
- 00:24:29and do the doing of and another task
- 00:24:31because if you if you just have so much
- 00:24:33you just can't you can't take on more
- 00:24:34you can't you can't grow so it's really
- 00:24:36empowering training leading
- 00:24:40um as much as it is doing and I think we
- 00:24:42and I suffer from this i'm in no way you
- 00:24:44know perfect at this at all but I suffer
- 00:24:46from you know I I I take a lot on
- 00:24:49because I can do things quickly i've got
- 00:24:50a lot of experience a lot of tools and
- 00:24:52and and sometimes it frustrates me when
- 00:24:54working with others that they're not as
- 00:24:56fast or can't do the same thing and I
- 00:24:57have to remind myself that you know
- 00:24:58someone else doing something 70% of my
- 00:25:01quality but without me doing it is way
- 00:25:04more powerful than me doing it 100% to
- 00:25:06my quality and obviously I want that 70
- 00:25:08to go to 80 to 90 over time but it
- 00:25:10doesn't have to be overnight and and
- 00:25:12it's the power that other people can do
- 00:25:14those things to some degree of quality
- 00:25:16that you're happy with that then
- 00:25:18empowers you to be able to take on more
- 00:25:19and lead especially in a fast growth i'm
- 00:25:21I'm really talking about these sort of
- 00:25:22hyperrowth organizations where workload
- 00:25:25is doubling every month of of of and you
- 00:25:28could just can't put it all on your back
- 00:25:30yeah well speaking of the the rapid
- 00:25:33growth what what systems or structure do
- 00:25:38you have in place between you and CEO
- 00:25:41we'll start there and then we can talk
- 00:25:42about team but between you and CEO or
- 00:25:45whoever is also on the executive team
- 00:25:47when you guys are moving so fast how do
- 00:25:49you make sure that communication is
- 00:25:52clear people are on the same page is
- 00:25:54that meeting structures is that uh
- 00:25:57different reporting systems that you
- 00:25:59have what does that look like for you
- 00:26:00guys um I you know I want to say yes to
- 00:26:04all of that but the reality is it's
- 00:26:07trust it it it it without trust
- 00:26:11everything else just there isn't time to
- 00:26:13build all the the processes and the
- 00:26:15machines and all the stuff again
- 00:26:16depending on where you are in the growth
- 00:26:18journey and how big you are like we were
- 00:26:20fiveish people a year ago we're now
- 00:26:22closer to 50 people so you know that's
- 00:26:2510x in 12 months that's just a lot of
- 00:26:27people and so I think having a clear
- 00:26:29culture where you set expectations of
- 00:26:32what type of organization this is and
- 00:26:34what it isn't because every organization
- 00:26:36is different in its culture based on its
- 00:26:38leader leader leaders uh the industry
- 00:26:40it's in and so forth um and so being
- 00:26:44clear on culture empowerment and trust
- 00:26:48um light on meetings you know you have
- 00:26:51to be light on meetings you have to
- 00:26:53empower your teams to just be good
- 00:26:55people and get the work done um and then
- 00:26:57between myself and in this case David um
- 00:27:00you know it's hard it is not easy and we
- 00:27:02don't have a perfect system uh we try
- 00:27:04and check in every morning and every
- 00:27:06evening right we try and do a check-in
- 00:27:08um I'm I'm certainly the one who's got
- 00:27:11more plans and more leading the team in
- 00:27:13terms of you know KPIs and documents and
- 00:27:16and and so forth and trying to free
- 00:27:19David and IO to be able to go out there
- 00:27:21and land the massive deals and to really
- 00:27:23build relationships that he's amazing at
- 00:27:25and such a good networker and so forth
- 00:27:28so you know empower him to that um and
- 00:27:30then give him the information that he
- 00:27:32needs to know where we're at as a
- 00:27:33business and and that could be scary
- 00:27:35because you know you go from highs to
- 00:27:37lows in days and some of these things
- 00:27:38you're putting a lot of bets in some big
- 00:27:40things and they don't come in and you
- 00:27:42know there's a lot of stress there a lot
- 00:27:44of stress on everybody's shoulders um
- 00:27:47and so I you know I think calmness and I
- 00:27:49you know I've turned I'm 52 now um
- 00:27:52certainly turned a lot of corners myself
- 00:27:55on on being a reactive
- 00:27:57personality to just being a much calmer
- 00:28:00person on on sort of taking whether it's
- 00:28:02bad news or difficult news or just just
- 00:28:04having belief and faith that just
- 00:28:06keeping a level head and working through
- 00:28:08the details and making the right
- 00:28:10approach rather than just you know that
- 00:28:11reactionary kind of stuff and so I think
- 00:28:13you know we play yin and yang quite well
- 00:28:15around that piece um and sometimes if if
- 00:28:18if the CEO isn't reactive as very calm
- 00:28:21maybe the CEO needs to be more to kind
- 00:28:22of create as another phrase um that
- 00:28:25somebody told me years ago which is if
- 00:28:27you and your let's call it CEO or
- 00:28:29partner or whatever agree on everything
- 00:28:31one of you should be fired right it's
- 00:28:33it's like if if if you are so alike that
- 00:28:37like a yes nod and it's just so easy you
- 00:28:40don't need both of you what's the point
- 00:28:41because without you both you'd have the
- 00:28:44same outcome and the same decision the
- 00:28:45whole point is 1 plus 1 equals 3 and so
- 00:28:48that conflict so long as it's not you
- 00:28:50know taken as conflict but that that
- 00:28:52discussion that diversity that approach
- 00:28:55generally drives through better
- 00:28:56decisions and somebody's got to
- 00:28:57compromise in some of that and obviously
- 00:28:59the number two probably compromises more
- 00:29:01necessarily than the number one but so
- 00:29:03long as there is some compromise on both
- 00:29:05sides and and having conflict and
- 00:29:07disagreements again I thought was a
- 00:29:09weakness but now I see it as a strength
- 00:29:11and so long as there there's a process
- 00:29:12of handling it um then um you know then
- 00:29:16it then it's healthy mhm amazing i the
- 00:29:20reactionary to grounded piece stands out
- 00:29:23to me i the the company that I was
- 00:29:25involved with a couple years ago we our
- 00:29:29executive team was consisted of me and
- 00:29:32three others we were all salespeople
- 00:29:35before we started this company uh so
- 00:29:38very similar personality types and I
- 00:29:40would say there was a couple of us that
- 00:29:42were a little bit more grounded
- 00:29:44evenheaded and then some of us that are
- 00:29:45a little bit more you know saleseople
- 00:29:47let's go like a little bit more of that
- 00:29:49reactionary type energy um for me it's
- 00:29:51been a big part of my evolution and
- 00:29:54learning how do I have a big problem
- 00:29:57come in and keep it clearheaded and
- 00:29:59still operate with the same level of
- 00:30:02just trust and certainty that I had
- 00:30:03before that came in what have been are
- 00:30:06there any practices that you've you know
- 00:30:10utilized to develop becoming more
- 00:30:12grounded or has this just been something
- 00:30:14that over time just naturally it's come
- 00:30:16i think it's combination uh never one
- 00:30:18see you know one magic pill I think
- 00:30:20obviously experience
- 00:30:22um and you train the brain to realize
- 00:30:25that oh you did that calmly and look at
- 00:30:26the outcome and therefore the brain
- 00:30:27knows to do more calm things right so
- 00:30:29there's kind of this loop of reminding
- 00:30:32yourself and reflecting as you got
- 00:30:34through something that the calmness
- 00:30:35helped you get through that and that's
- 00:30:37oh okay um I'm a very big believer in
- 00:30:39you know mind over body and matter and
- 00:30:41controlling through your thoughts and
- 00:30:43you know meditation all those great
- 00:30:44things and breath work and obviously I
- 00:30:47practice quite a lot of longevity health
- 00:30:50type hacks um whether hacks or just
- 00:30:53routines and so forth so I think those
- 00:30:54generally help to carve the the
- 00:30:57autonomic systems you know the nervous
- 00:30:59systems that most of us are in fight or
- 00:31:01flight for almost all our days we're
- 00:31:03just like running from whether it's
- 00:31:05family issues to work issues to finance
- 00:31:08issues to you know whatever those things
- 00:31:09are and the body is just in this
- 00:31:11constant stress bubble and and obviously
- 00:31:13that's not good for the long-term health
- 00:31:15of anybody and so um you know I exercise
- 00:31:19regularly i got up this morning went
- 00:31:20skinning i live in Park City so when
- 00:31:22skinning up at 6:30 in the morning
- 00:31:24skinning up a mountain and you know that
- 00:31:26kind of helps obviously part of it with
- 00:31:28the air and the exercise and um so you
- 00:31:31know diet all the things all the things
- 00:31:33help sleep um and uh and stress
- 00:31:37reduction cold plunging and for you know
- 00:31:39all those things are part of a tool set
- 00:31:41that help me I think physically not feel
- 00:31:44in a fight or flight um and then also
- 00:31:46understanding the person who's
- 00:31:48delivering the information right
- 00:31:49understanding them what is their
- 00:31:51personality what and again in in our
- 00:31:53personalities we're quite different and
- 00:31:55so not taking it you know I would always
- 00:31:57again when younger would take it per
- 00:31:59when someone comes at me with an issue
- 00:32:01I'm a problem solver I'm always like oh
- 00:32:02god have you done something wrong or
- 00:32:04this or that like I've got to and I
- 00:32:05would kind of take that burden of that
- 00:32:07stress on as like my stress u when the
- 00:32:10reality is that it's the it's generally
- 00:32:13the individual who's coming to you has
- 00:32:14some issue in their life that's creating
- 00:32:16that stress that's making it more than
- 00:32:18whatever it is and it's not your job
- 00:32:20necessarily to take their level of
- 00:32:22stress but to help reflect back to them
- 00:32:24and and sort of bring it down for them
- 00:32:26and and guide them to a course of you
- 00:32:28know kind of a solution so um again I'm
- 00:32:31no psychologist or or anything i'm I'm
- 00:32:34just a regular business guy trying to
- 00:32:35get through the day and and trying to
- 00:32:37build an exciting company so no super
- 00:32:39helpful thank you well one thing to kind
- 00:32:42of tag off of that but in a little bit
- 00:32:44of a different direction with scaling
- 00:32:48quickly and then I'm thinking about like
- 00:32:50just the the reactionary side of things
- 00:32:52like some memories that come back to me
- 00:32:54is thinking about team members who
- 00:32:56started to feel the stress of getting
- 00:32:58left behind or that their skills weren't
- 00:33:01able to keep up with the rapid growth of
- 00:33:03the company
- 00:33:05what what can we as leaders do to
- 00:33:09empower our team and make sure that
- 00:33:11people aren't getting left behind and
- 00:33:12they're accelerating at the same rate of
- 00:33:14the company yeah I mean that's a that's
- 00:33:17an awesome topic and
- 00:33:19uh there's two ways to think about it
- 00:33:21one is there's only so much you can do
- 00:33:23for people right and some people are
- 00:33:25going to be the right on the journey and
- 00:33:27some people are not and sometimes you
- 00:33:29inherit people sometimes you try and
- 00:33:31pull people in that that on paper are
- 00:33:34right and then ultimately they you know
- 00:33:36they turn out not to be i think if you
- 00:33:38got a clear culture and that's strong
- 00:33:40you can weed out those people that
- 00:33:42you're bringing in who who aren't going
- 00:33:44to be able to sort of either keep up or
- 00:33:45or so forth um and then you also have to
- 00:33:48be respectful to those that maybe helped
- 00:33:50in the early days of a business and did
- 00:33:52certain things and and and helped be a
- 00:33:53foundational player to get some stuff
- 00:33:55done but frankly the next level it's
- 00:33:58just a different a different skill set
- 00:33:59and and it those those are the really
- 00:34:01hard conversations because you have
- 00:34:03people you love and have you know really
- 00:34:05kind of helped do certain things but you
- 00:34:07can see that the company's either
- 00:34:08pivoting in a different direction or
- 00:34:10needs a certain different type of skill
- 00:34:11set and those sometimes those skills are
- 00:34:14very um hard or they they take time
- 00:34:18right and so you've got this fast
- 00:34:19growing company you need stuff exercised
- 00:34:21at a very quick pace and you've got
- 00:34:23someone who again culturally is a fit
- 00:34:25and you enjoy and like and but then you
- 00:34:28know it's going to take them a year or
- 00:34:30two or three years to sort of to build
- 00:34:32the skills and that resonance and that
- 00:34:34intellect not the intellect per se but
- 00:34:36just that experience of of getting that
- 00:34:38and you've got somebody else who's
- 00:34:40outside the company who may have those
- 00:34:41skills and you want to sort of bring
- 00:34:43them in to help you on that journey and
- 00:34:45then you get that conflict between the
- 00:34:47old team member and the new team member
- 00:34:48and you know how does sort of management
- 00:34:51work so there's I'd love to get you know
- 00:34:53a perfect answer from your your group
- 00:34:55here or or whatever on some approach to
- 00:34:57that i mean we're facing some of those
- 00:34:58things now as as we scale and we always
- 00:35:00will and I think so long as you know I
- 00:35:02always try so long as you're upfront
- 00:35:04you're clear you try and explain you
- 00:35:07create a path for success even if that's
- 00:35:09not you know what they think or
- 00:35:11ultimately is you know a role so they're
- 00:35:13still growing they still have the
- 00:35:15ability to learn and then look most
- 00:35:17people are all going to do something
- 00:35:19different anyway right they're not going
- 00:35:20to be with this company for 25 years
- 00:35:22unnecessary per se so in 2 years or 3
- 00:35:24years they may start their own thing or
- 00:35:27they may join another group and take all
- 00:35:29that experience with them somewhere else
- 00:35:30it's not like this you know and I've
- 00:35:32learned I always thought you know each
- 00:35:33baby I was doing each business I was
- 00:35:35doing was that's the one this is the and
- 00:35:37then here I am six later and it's like
- 00:35:39it's not it's not that it's just it
- 00:35:42those skills just keep accumulating and
- 00:35:43you join a different thing with a
- 00:35:44different idea and and grow so um yeah
- 00:35:48it's it's that's that's a tough one
- 00:35:52yeah I I think it is too and part of
- 00:35:55probably why Cameron I don't know if
- 00:35:56you've heard of his he launched a course
- 00:35:58called Invest in Your Leaders so it's a
- 00:36:00course for you know executives to buy
- 00:36:02for the people middle management or even
- 00:36:05anyone that's running a team um to give
- 00:36:07them the skills and develop them and
- 00:36:09give them the resources so that they can
- 00:36:11keep up um so yeah I think it's a huge
- 00:36:13need and something that Cameron has
- 00:36:15recognized and there's a lot of talk in
- 00:36:17the COO alliance about also um okay I
- 00:36:20would love to kind of talk a little bit
- 00:36:22more about the dynamic between his name
- 00:36:25is David right your CEO yep david Price
- 00:36:27yep beautiful so it sounds like you guys
- 00:36:29do morning check-ins evening check-ins
- 00:36:31uh what what is something that maybe
- 00:36:35you've noticed because it sounds like
- 00:36:37you were a founder of both of the last
- 00:36:39companies that you're okay what is the
- 00:36:42difference in now being working with
- 00:36:45someone as the right hand what's maybe
- 00:36:47come up for you in that process what's
- 00:36:49been easy what's been hard what has that
- 00:36:50been like yes I have been the CEO
- 00:36:52founder CEO i'm a co-founder president
- 00:36:54COO here so it's different it's
- 00:36:56definitely you know not you know I feel
- 00:36:59equally vested in the organization i
- 00:37:00don't think through things about well he
- 00:37:02owns more or this or that it's it's as
- 00:37:05long as I have enough that's you know
- 00:37:06that's the most important thing right
- 00:37:08comparing what you have to somebody else
- 00:37:10is the hardest thing in the startup
- 00:37:11world where you think he's got more
- 00:37:13she's got more it's like it's got to be
- 00:37:15is this enough to keep you motivated and
- 00:37:17get you doing what what needs to be done
- 00:37:19that's that's the most important thing
- 00:37:20so once you get through that sort of
- 00:37:21financial is this enough kind of
- 00:37:23conversation then you're really down to
- 00:37:26just okay execution and he's got skills
- 00:37:29I've got skills you know and fortunately
- 00:37:31for us there's a lot of there's a little
- 00:37:33overlap but there's also a lot of
- 00:37:34differences and so I think he respects
- 00:37:36me on those things where I have the
- 00:37:38skills and vice versa um so I think that
- 00:37:41you know those those are the things that
- 00:37:43go well i think you know there's always
- 00:37:48right the well I know better right I I
- 00:37:50know better and I've been around the
- 00:37:52block and I've done this and I've done
- 00:37:53that and so you know when your partner
- 00:37:55CEO whatever is doing something and you
- 00:37:57do have that I know better it's hard
- 00:37:59it's super hard because you're so
- 00:38:01passionate and you really you you want
- 00:38:03the right decision for the business it's
- 00:38:04not really a personal like of you it's
- 00:38:06just I really think this is um and so
- 00:38:09that I think those are always the
- 00:38:10hardest things when you're when you see
- 00:38:13something going on and and I think in my
- 00:38:15mind
- 00:38:16I've you know there's so many decisions
- 00:38:18that get made when you're growing
- 00:38:19quickly that I just let go of those in a
- 00:38:22way and it's I'm not keeping score it's
- 00:38:24not like it's fine he gets to make those
- 00:38:26decisions and I can give him the
- 00:38:29information and I just don't take it
- 00:38:31personally anymore i mean I used to or
- 00:38:32used to think that where it's like it
- 00:38:34doesn't he doesn't have my lens he
- 00:38:36hasn't had my 25 years of experience of
- 00:38:37what I've done and I haven't had his 25
- 00:38:39experience or whatever 35 in his case of
- 00:38:40what he's done and that's given him his
- 00:38:42lens that's why he's doing this stuff
- 00:38:44and he's either heard you or he hasn't
- 00:38:45or whatever but so long as you've
- 00:38:46communicated you've done your best lay
- 00:38:48it at rest you know he's a big boy and
- 00:38:52you know don't keep scoring don't say I
- 00:38:53told you so whatever it's just like look
- 00:38:55he's he's going to make the best
- 00:38:56decision he can with the context just
- 00:38:57give him the context you can do step
- 00:38:59back and then keep making the decisions
- 00:39:01that you can make and and those you know
- 00:39:03you so long as you're making lots of
- 00:39:05good decisions on your side that you're
- 00:39:06totally responsible for then you've done
- 00:39:09your best right it's it's it's
- 00:39:11um you know I've gone through my last
- 00:39:13company where I really wanted to sell it
- 00:39:16and we missed the bubble right and I
- 00:39:18didn't push hard enough to the CEO was
- 00:39:21then kind of the same dynamic i was
- 00:39:23president COO I had a medical doctor CEO
- 00:39:27um and you know I guess everybody
- 00:39:29thought that this co thing would run and
- 00:39:32and whatever and we kind of had some
- 00:39:33people interested in doing a deal and
- 00:39:36you know numbers were stacking up great
- 00:39:38and it was like no no we don't want to
- 00:39:40sell and know it's going to you know
- 00:39:42it's going to be 3x this or great and
- 00:39:43it's like you know and so you know I
- 00:39:46lost out on a big first you know
- 00:39:47potential personal outcome financial
- 00:39:49outcome of that and you know it is kind
- 00:39:52of it is what it is those things are the
- 00:39:53hardest ones to take where you wanted to
- 00:39:55kind of take a different direction and
- 00:39:57you didn't have the voice or you didn't
- 00:39:58have the you know the votes or the
- 00:40:01whatever to make that happen And so you
- 00:40:03know but that's that fouryear experience
- 00:40:06has now driven me into this experience
- 00:40:07right and so I now take all of that into
- 00:40:09this experience and it's driving me to
- 00:40:12make decisions in different ways and so
- 00:40:14forth so if you isolate it in just where
- 00:40:16you're at it's hard but if you take it
- 00:40:18into that bigger lens of the overall
- 00:40:20life journey of the it's um it will
- 00:40:24guide you ultimately guide you to
- 00:40:26success is painful and trust me it's a
- 00:40:28lot of pain a lot of pain going through
- 00:40:29and a lot of work had to be done um you
- 00:40:32know to come to come out of that kind of
- 00:40:34experience
- 00:40:36for sure what would you say talking
- 00:40:39about life journey and experience if you
- 00:40:41were to go back to your mid20s and sit
- 00:40:44down face to face with Ashley in his in
- 00:40:47his 20s what what would what advice
- 00:40:50would you tell him
- 00:40:53h um you know I think
- 00:40:56uh follow your heart listen to the
- 00:40:59universe don't think you have all the
- 00:41:01answers um
- 00:41:05um have great people around you you know
- 00:41:08trust them don't try and take it all on
- 00:41:11yourself
- 00:41:13um and make sure you're doing something
- 00:41:15that you're excited about and I'm I'm
- 00:41:17work insanely hard you know it's this 7
- 00:41:19day a week you know all that kind of
- 00:41:20crazy stuff but honestly it's it's of
- 00:41:24course it's work defined as work right i
- 00:41:26get compensated for some of it uh maybe
- 00:41:29not as much as I would like to but
- 00:41:31ultimately it's work on behalf of this
- 00:41:33business but what we are doing is
- 00:41:36touching so many lives it's having such
- 00:41:37a positive impact people get so excited
- 00:41:39by when they hear about it and get into
- 00:41:41it and it just you know it's it's it's
- 00:41:44awesome right so it's it's it's more
- 00:41:46than just a passion project it is a
- 00:41:48business but it's also something that um
- 00:41:51is mostly enjoyable and so I know
- 00:41:53there's a lot of debate out there and I
- 00:41:55forget whether it's Bezos or whatever
- 00:41:56going like well not everybody can do
- 00:41:58what they enjoy they just you know work
- 00:41:59is work and you just have to do your 10
- 00:42:02hours and grind and whatever and get
- 00:42:03through and get paid and that's you know
- 00:42:04that's part of it so you know I think
- 00:42:06that's that's okay for a bunch of people
- 00:42:09but if you are an entrepreneur if you
- 00:42:10are trying to build and you're you're
- 00:42:12outside of that world um I think to put
- 00:42:16the commitment in and to make a
- 00:42:17difference you've got to be sort of
- 00:42:20enjoying what you're doing and and have
- 00:42:21a passion and you know my CEO partners
- 00:42:24he he has a personal story i'm not going
- 00:42:26to share it live here anybody can you
- 00:42:27know go to his website davidperez.life
- 00:42:30and and read about his story but he has
- 00:42:32a very traumatic event also in his life
- 00:42:34in the early years that has sort of
- 00:42:35driven him into this life of service and
- 00:42:38um and giving back and that's landed him
- 00:42:40here and again he's probably thought at
- 00:42:42various stages in his life that life
- 00:42:44sucked and you know God what am I doing
- 00:42:46and I'm on the wrong path or whatever
- 00:42:48and you know decades later you know here
- 00:42:50he is in this in this you know awesome
- 00:42:52opportunity to to impact a huge amount
- 00:42:55of people and and to give back in an
- 00:42:56extraordinary way and so um you know
- 00:42:59life is long i guess that's the other
- 00:43:00thing like retiring at 35 and first
- 00:43:03company being a big success and you know
- 00:43:05it's it's I think um going back to you
- 00:43:08know my younger self is life is long
- 00:43:10take those lessons don't rush it um you
- 00:43:13know don't rush life and and I think
- 00:43:14that's also part of what happened to my
- 00:43:16brother when he had the accident he was
- 00:43:17rushing life he was trying to accelerate
- 00:43:20getting through everything quickly and
- 00:43:22that led to you know his accident and
- 00:43:23now he's a completely different person
- 00:43:25and has a different perspective on on
- 00:43:27life and so I think yeah to the younger
- 00:43:29Don't don't rush it it's not a
- 00:43:31competition although it always seems to
- 00:43:33be everything's put up against oh this
- 00:43:3425y olds times as much or doing this or
- 00:43:38whatever's got all these accolades and
- 00:43:40don't compare you know look look how far
- 00:43:42you've come on your journey not looking
- 00:43:44ahead wherever you are looking ahead
- 00:43:46there's always people who are better
- 00:43:47faster quicker richer handsomemer you
- 00:43:49know whatever it is um but they're not
- 00:43:52on your journey right so look back and
- 00:43:54and measure the steps that you've taken
- 00:43:56from whatever it is you've come from um
- 00:43:59and that's you know that's kind of more
- 00:44:00important
- 00:44:03i love everything you just said that was
- 00:44:06probably my favorite part of this whole
- 00:44:07conversation thus far i think those are
- 00:44:09even words I really needed to hear cuz
- 00:44:11yeah I'm just I I feel like I'm
- 00:44:13constantly on to the next thing what
- 00:44:15else can I achieve what else can I do
- 00:44:17and I'm just con constantly reminding
- 00:44:20myself to just slow down and be you know
- 00:44:23the the famous quote of we're human
- 00:44:26beings not human doings but I think it's
- 00:44:29easy for us achievers and especially
- 00:44:30when you're motivated and passionate to
- 00:44:32just the comparison game and social
- 00:44:34media and all the influencers and the
- 00:44:36people that we're just surrounded and
- 00:44:38bombarded by it's so it's so easy to
- 00:44:41compare ourselves to other people's
- 00:44:43journeys so thank you for that amazing
- 00:44:45reminder uh we're gonna wrap up here in
- 00:44:48a couple minutes but just to to kind of
- 00:44:50close out speaking of passion and
- 00:44:53excitement what are you most excited
- 00:44:55about the next three to six months for
- 00:44:58you personally in Lumati your role there
- 00:45:01what are you most excited about um well
- 00:45:04I'm a dad so I've got three kids so I'm
- 00:45:05always excited about you know stuff my
- 00:45:07kids are doing and it's always hard to
- 00:45:09get enough time to spend time with them
- 00:45:10given all the work and kind of
- 00:45:12constraint so I guess I'm excited that
- 00:45:15hopefully sometime this year we will get
- 00:45:18more resources in the company where
- 00:45:19it'll start to be not a you know 7-day
- 00:45:22week all the time and there will be
- 00:45:23enough infrastructure to help manage
- 00:45:25some of the scaling um so that I can
- 00:45:27continue to develop you know beyond just
- 00:45:29this business persona and keep growing
- 00:45:31myself with my family and the life that
- 00:45:34um you know I want to lead for my own
- 00:45:36growth and sort of giving back and
- 00:45:37mentoring and and and spending more time
- 00:45:39doing this kind of stuff which I love
- 00:45:40and I you know I I struggle to reflect i
- 00:45:44struggle to you know give back in this
- 00:45:46kind of sense because I'm just so busy
- 00:45:48just like doing right and getting stuff
- 00:45:49done and growing this stuff which I love
- 00:45:52but you know I think part of it is also
- 00:45:53then reflecting and and sharing and
- 00:45:55helping others do the same journey so I
- 00:45:57you know more of this kind of stuff
- 00:45:59would be awesome um you know on the
- 00:46:01business side you know I think we're
- 00:46:04we're going to get onto the you know on
- 00:46:06the national agenda meaning that we're
- 00:46:08you know we will be a known brand by
- 00:46:10many of these people on on the call that
- 00:46:12may be listening in now 12 months from
- 00:46:14now that that that you know haven't even
- 00:46:16heard of us now and I think we're on
- 00:46:17that hockey stick trajectory i think
- 00:46:19we're on the right path at the right
- 00:46:20time with the right social conscious um
- 00:46:22we got the right kind of tools um that
- 00:46:24are that are being used and and we're
- 00:46:26helping some incredible people i know we
- 00:46:28haven't talked much about our modalities
- 00:46:29and and sort of what we do and we
- 00:46:30certainly don't have to um but some of
- 00:46:32the work we're doing is really helping
- 00:46:34people at a fundamental level in their
- 00:46:36lives to to just get back to life as
- 00:46:38normal and that's the most impactful
- 00:46:40thing that you can be doing to to help
- 00:46:41them become better parents or workers or
- 00:46:44or whatever it is so um I'm just excited
- 00:46:46to be doing more you know kind of more
- 00:46:48of that and and then just yeah more team
- 00:46:51members more process and and so that we
- 00:46:54can kind of not quite be pivoting quite
- 00:46:56as quickly you know that's an exhausting
- 00:46:58process i think we're getting just
- 00:47:00through the ends of that we're going to
- 00:47:01we got sort of three main pieces of the
- 00:47:03business they're all cementing they're
- 00:47:04all generating revenue they're all about
- 00:47:06to be profitable if they're not already
- 00:47:07and that's kind of nice to see so the
- 00:47:09boats are all kind of growing together
- 00:47:11um I'll ask you the same question why
- 00:47:14not i know this was about me but uh what
- 00:47:16are you most excited about over the next
- 00:47:186 months oh
- 00:47:21man h sorry to put you on the spot yeah
- 00:47:25well I wasn't expecting that but thank
- 00:47:26you um you know I'm really really
- 00:47:29excited about doing these interviews
- 00:47:32these have been such a just an expansive
- 00:47:35joyful thing for me to do i love meeting
- 00:47:38people i love learning i'm such a sponge
- 00:47:41so just being able to I mean when I was
- 00:47:43sent over your bio I was just like I was
- 00:47:46so excited to to talk to him so this
- 00:47:48feels really exciting i also just moved
- 00:47:50to Austin Texas so I'm in the process of
- 00:47:53looking for a home and I'm I'm a big
- 00:47:56believer in normalization and just you
- 00:47:58know as soon as you kind of grow and you
- 00:48:00hit that next level for me at least
- 00:48:02environment plays such a big part in
- 00:48:05me elevating my identity even more so
- 00:48:08and kind of creating that the capacity
- 00:48:10for me to expand into and so I'm in the
- 00:48:12process of really elevating my living
- 00:48:15space and getting somewhere that feels a
- 00:48:17little bit stretchy for me but that
- 00:48:19space that I walk into and I'm just like
- 00:48:20yeah I'm I'm excited to create here i'm
- 00:48:23excited to bring events and community
- 00:48:25together that feels like the most
- 00:48:27exciting thing for me right now cool i'm
- 00:48:29going to layer on a story for you given
- 00:48:31about Texas and your maybe some of your
- 00:48:34health background just to kind of like a
- 00:48:36to be careful for because we're working
- 00:48:38with two clients um you know one who
- 00:48:40moved there from the UK for two years
- 00:48:42and then developed some pretty pretty
- 00:48:44difficult health issues and a second one
- 00:48:46who was here moved to Austin and just
- 00:48:48moved back after 3 months also having
- 00:48:50some significant health issues around
- 00:48:52mold and so I know that's in your
- 00:48:54background and so just say wherever
- 00:48:56you're looking to move or whatever make
- 00:48:57sure you're bearing that in mind do some
- 00:48:59environmental testing because it seems
- 00:49:01like I don't know whether it's a new
- 00:49:02thread that we're getting but but Austin
- 00:49:04Texas specifically maybe it's the
- 00:49:06weather it does that it's impacting
- 00:49:08people's 's health down there through
- 00:49:10through mold and fungi maybe it's the
- 00:49:12heat and the buildings and you know
- 00:49:13again I don't have all the answers but
- 00:49:14I'm just seeing that as a thread i know
- 00:49:16you've got a little bit of that in your
- 00:49:17in your background so just um you know
- 00:49:20use that for what it is and and maybe um
- 00:49:22you know make sure whatever that home or
- 00:49:24house or apartment is is as clean and
- 00:49:26and and clear as it is it can be for
- 00:49:28your health yeah thanks for filling me
- 00:49:30in on that i could totally see that
- 00:49:32being that Austin is so humid i just
- 00:49:35moved from Scottville Arizona i've
- 00:49:37traveled for 2 years but I was in
- 00:49:38Scotsville Arizona for 2 years and super
- 00:49:41dry heat there so I like got accustomed
- 00:49:43to that and then here it's like you walk
- 00:49:44outside in the summer and you're
- 00:49:46drenched in like 2 minutes so I could
- 00:49:48see why mold would be a thing here yeah
- 00:49:52well that's a note i want to leave on an
- 00:49:54up note so it's on an up note awesome
- 00:49:57awesome pleasure here and you know
- 00:49:59hopefully you have some viewers some
- 00:50:00questions i'm happy to answer any
- 00:50:01questions my email is
- 00:50:03ashleyumati.com so more than happy to
- 00:50:05take emails from people on either the
- 00:50:07topics we've talked about here or what
- 00:50:08we're doing the work at Lumati if
- 00:50:10there's somebody in your network that
- 00:50:11you think we could help uh who's on the
- 00:50:13journey the health journey that we
- 00:50:14talked about I'm happy to do that and uh
- 00:50:16just privileged to be able to share
- 00:50:17these stories and and get the word out
- 00:50:19on what we're doing and you know my life
- 00:50:21story here and thank you for having me
- 00:50:23yeah thanks for coming on this was
- 00:50:24amazing thanks so much see you all take
- 00:50:27care
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