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Forbes Books presents the Startup Science Podcast
with Gregory Shepherd, brought to you by
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Startupscience dot Io. Greg is an
entrepreneur who has built and sold twelve businesses.
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He's a recipient of four private equity
awards and is a featured ten X
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speaker and Forbes author. Here's Gregory
Shepherd. I'm back with AI entrepreneur and
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founder and my long lost brother,
Victorio Pelicano. We've been discussing his movie
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Like Light, that led him to
found multiple companies, including a couple of
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AI companies, Adana and Sarah.
The one thing I always tell entrepreneurs is
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the idea is an art, but
the business is actually a science. Just
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like coding, right, there are
certain integers that do certain things, and
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if you get them wrong, it
doesn't make sense when you're writing code,
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just like if you're writing a sentence, right, If you don't put an
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explanation point or something like, there
just doesn't make sense. So I'm trying
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to teach founders through this podcast and
through our educational courses, and specifically this
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conversation with you, is that there
are things that you can't get from the
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idea, and there are things that
you can't get from science, which is
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what I call the handful focus,
drive, enthusiasm, discipline, and optimism.
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So how do you as an individual
fight or walk through the turbulence and
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maintain focused and keep moving forward.
I think you got to admit to yourself
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you're either today you're either going to
quit or you're going to go all the
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way in. Those are the two
things. You don't do it halfway right,
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and you can quit. There's no
shame in that. Like, people
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give up all the time, and
sometimes it's for the best, sometimes it's
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for the worst, but people do. And if you're going to do that,
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do it well whatever it is.
I would just say you just get
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up every single day and if you
feel like it or not, you put
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everything you got into it. Like
today, I woke up with a size
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ten migraine. Like I'm eight et
cetern deep into this day and I've laid
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down on this couch behind me a
couple of times with ice on my head
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for fifteen twenty minutes at a spell. But I'm still getting it done.
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Because you know, when I was
a kid, I would stay home from
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school sick and my dad would call
and say, hey, mow the grass,
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and I would be like, what
are you talking about? Mow the
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grass? I'm sick. He goes. Your leg's broken, you know,
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your hand's broken. No, Like
something works. You can do something.
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If you're going to work out today, you know this, right, If
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you're going to work out today,
something ain't feeling great. Something else is
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feeling fine, you know, And
you just got to every day pick that
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that area of some made't work in
do the other thing because there's an infinite
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amount of things to be done,
always, always, So you can feel
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like not doing something today, but
then do something else and all that productivity
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adds up. It adds up,
and stick it to the routine, adds
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up. Getting yourself out about every
day, going through the motions. It
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sounds silly. Some people are like
that, right. I wake up at
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the same time every day, no
matter where I am in the world,
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no matter what I did the night
before. That's just how I'm programmed.
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And I get up and I do
the same shit and it's boring, and
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I eat the same food, and
I have clothes that are five years old,
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and I don't buy fancy cars and
I don't I'm not flying Instagram models
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around the world. I don't have
gold teeth, but I this is my
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flow state. Man. This is
where I exist. This is where I'm
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happy. That other stuff gives me
anxiety. But I know this game,
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and I know I'm good at it, and I'm just gonna keep doing it.
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Like the football analogy I'll make is
and it's it's a it's a it's
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a Midwest football analogy. As a
SoCal guy might not resonate. But if
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you if you hand the ball to
the full back and you get six yards
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on that play, I am handing
the ball to the full back every fucking
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play until somebody stops me. I'm
not getting bored away winning. There is
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no getting bored of winning. Yeah, that's brilliant. So let me ask
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you, with all of that said, how do you balance I mean,
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you know, you've got five children, you're you're a husband, you're a
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CEO, a multi time CEO.
How do you balance that? And what
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are your some of your I guess
biggest inspirations. You know, what inspires
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you to move forward in the world. The thing I'll start with the end
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of that question, which is I
I the thing that inspires me is frankly,
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my kids and my family, And
I told you I like to leave
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things better than I found them,
and I intend I you know, my
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first thing was digging myself out of
poverty and you know, putting a big
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win under my belt and securing my
family and my kids for a generation.
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And I now that I have the
opportunity I have, I would like to
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leave the world better for them,
to the extent that that from my home
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office to extent I can move the
world in a better direction so they grow
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up in a better world than I
did. Then I am going to die
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doing that. That's what inspires me, is is the opportunity to do that.
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And frankly, to talk to you
and like your passion is for founders,
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my passion is for teens. We
do a lot of work with some
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teen centers for our Pelicando Family Foundation
because that's where my wife and I had
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our issues of homelessness and different things. And we think from a philanthropy perspective,
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they're overlooked because they smell bad,
they have attitudes, they're mean,
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you know, they're they're not cute. They don't make cute posters, you
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know. Like, so we work
a lot with those kids, and I
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hope a lot of them hear my
story as a troubled kid, and they
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think if this guy did it,
like, there's no way I couldn't do
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it. And whether they think that
or not, they're right. And I
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hope a lot more of them hear
it and think, you know, I'm
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not my My parents weren't lawyers,
my parents weren't doctors. I don't have
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this great history, right, and
they're thinking, well, I'm nobody.
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I'm just some kid from a trailer
park or some kid living in the in
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the ghetto or whatever. And I
hope they hear this and be like,
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you know, this guy made it, you know, and look at all
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the shit that happened to him.
I sir, I got a few better
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things going for me. If he
could do it, I could do it,
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because they really can, because all
it takes is somebody to outwork you
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and then and then they make it. Dude, Oh my god, I
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just love talking to you. I
mean, so I read it a fourth
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grade level. I have level five
dyslexia. I went to five high schools
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because I got kicked out of all
the high schools. I tried to join
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the Navy, and they kicked me
out of the Navy because I was too
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dumb and everybody used to call me
the R word, which I know I'm
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not supposed to say, but that's
what I was called. And you know,
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here I am hosting a Forbes podcast, I wrote a book. I
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totally agree with you that there is
a huge component. This is second time
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this has come up. So if
you're listening, please let this resonate with
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you working your ass off. It's
just sometimes just raw horsepower. Right,
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Don't you feel like sometimes it's just
it's just blowing, just raw freaking horsepower
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one thousand percent. That's all it
is. I mean, there's no secret
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to it, right, And every
day is into victory, every minute is
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into victory. Every day doesn't feel
great, and there's gonna be moments where
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your life is any of it worth
it? You know? In the answer,
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I've never met anybody, Greg.
Maybe you have, You've talked to
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more founders and stuff than I have, But I'll say I've never met anybody
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who worked their ass off and was
sorry they did one hundred percent. Yeah,
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man, you are the dopest dope. You are the bee's knees man.
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Let me ask you a question because
I learned this about you, and
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I'm super into it. You have
this influence of Taoism right in your leadership
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and your worldview. And I meditate
like three times a day. I do
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yoga three times a day. You
know, I'm like really into this and
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I'm like dying to hear your perspective
on it because you're just a very unique
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vibration of energy and information. It's
really hard to find that a lot of
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people I interview their like, you
know, big fancy people and stuff,
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right, But you and I were
just like straight out of the streets.
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So I'm resonating with you, and
people probably hear the tone in this podcast
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a lot different than other ones because
I'm talking to my people. So congratulations
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everybody. You get to hear a
totally different, different deal here. But
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I want to hear about your Taoism
and like what you do and how you
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run your day and how you sort
of align yourself, you know, because
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there's so many distractions and surface noise
when you're starting a business. There's just
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it's constant, right, like mosquitos
and flies everywhere in your head? How
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do you bring that into focus and
sort of neutralize the surface noise? And
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it sounds like you use Taoism.
Men, just really want to hear about
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this because I'm just dying to hear
about this. Please, yeah, please
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unload on this one. I appreciate
it, man. I think probably like
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you, I don't know how you
grew up in SoCal, but you know,
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my background isn't exactly somebody who would
be a fan of the practice of
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it. I think I probably,
like you, had to find something because
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the stress when you're trying to do
it the other way, it doesn't work.
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You're trying to push the world,
You're trying to make it happen.
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And I think what I've learned is
you have to let it happen, and
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the world is going to do what
the world's going to do, and the
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only thing you can do is control
your reaction to it and just find that
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place where you're not reacting and you're
not thinking, you're not you're not affected
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by it. Right Like, you
can't control what other people say to you,
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you can't control what they say about
you, but you can control how
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you react to those things, and
so you control those things you can't control.
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I guess I'll even take it back
a step and say, you know,
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I was a religious kid. I
actually my dad made a point to
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never get me baptized because he was
like very anti religion by the time he
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was older. I think a lot
of people of that era kind of like,
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you know, the corruption of the
church and the child abuse scandals and
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stuff, they just lost their faith
altogether. So he said, when I
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was old enough, I could decide
what I believed in. And at some
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point I did get fairly religious,
and I actually got myself baptized when I
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was fifteen years old, like went
through the sacraments, the classes, got
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baptized and everything, and I was
feeling pretty religious. And after I was
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going for a while, I was
talking to the pastor of my church and
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this was the AIDS era, right
when AIDS there was really really bad in
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Africa. I know it hasn't gone
away, by the way, anybody listening.
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I don't mean to downplay any current
struggles with this, but there was
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a time in the nineties when this
was huge issue for everybody who was like
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got that proved of the nineties,
Yeah, And I was talking to him
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and I said, what about these
kids that get AIDS or their parents get
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AIDS and die, Because that was
the thing, right they were raising money
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for these kids whose parents had died
from AIDS. And I said, what
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happened if one of the kids dies
for AIDS? Do they go to Hell?
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The guy said, well, that's
why it's important we get missionaries there
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and we got to talk to them
and bring them the word of the Lord.
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And I said, but you haven't
answered the question, you know what
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I mean? And the kids going
to hell? And he was like,
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well, they can't go to heaven
unless they hear from the Bible. And
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my logical fifteen year old brain,
and you're very logical when you're a teenager,
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by the way, you're like a
plus pek will see all the time,
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like there's no fuzziness. And I
was like, no fucking way,
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is that true? No way?
And then you know what I thought of
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after that, Greguse, I realized
the only way, by that logic,
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the only way to go to Hell
was actually to read the Bible, because
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if they couldn't go to hell either
because they had never read the Bible.
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And then I thought, nah,
this shit can't be right. And then
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I would call myself a militant atheist
for ten or fifteen years, and then
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I got away from that because I
realized I don't know everything right after you
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get through your teenage, and I
would have called myself an agnostic. And
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then when I was running for Renny
a few years, the stress was getting
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to me. I was having all
kinds of issues with my lower back,
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my pelvic floor, just carrying stress
the wrong way all these years. And
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I found meditation, I found yoga, I found and I found the Tao
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is the first text I'd ever read
that answered questions for me, and the
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answer seems to be there is no
answer, And I love that I find
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comfort in that more that I think
a lot of people do. And just
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being able to control the things you
can control and letting the world happen the
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way it's going to happen, and
just trying to zoom yourself out of your
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thoughts and your emotions, letting them
all pass by acknowledging them, not fighting
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them, and letting things just happen
and watch it as if you were a
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bystander. Has really helped me be
a better leader, a better parent,
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a better husband, and I like
to think a better human overall, and
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not just reacting to my emotions,
but trying to acknowledge my emotions while controlling
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a reaction in a way that I
hope is better than the way my alcoholic
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father did. Yeah, let me
ask you a question because this so,
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this is when people ask me,
They go, what is like the number
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one thing that I should do that
you do that you think contribute the most.
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And I always say meditation, And
they say what why? And I
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say, well, because in meditation, the mistake is people think you're supposed
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to have blank thoughts, but really
you're just supposed to catch your thoughts,
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right. And the earlier you catch
your thoughts, the earlier you can sort
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of control them, because we really
don't have control over mind, because our
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thoughts just happen without us, right. And I find that when I meditate
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during the day, I can catch
thoughts that are happening before I act on
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those thoughts or react to those thoughts, and it gives me the power over
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my days to control the direction that
I put energy. Do you find that
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to be the case for you as
well? No? I think for me,
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what I find what I meditate is
finding thinking about my body, because
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my body, to me is an
afterthought to the people I'm serving, my
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kids, my family, my customers, my whoever and my body is an
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afterthought aside from the workouts or whatever. I don't think about my body all
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day, and meditating gives me a
chance to connect these things again and remember
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that I can feel, and that
I all these parts have are important,
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and that to think about them and
to focus my mind and breath into them
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just makes me reconnect everything and helps
me reset mentally. And my my thoughts
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aren't cleared at that point, but
I'm controlling them because I'm saying, let's
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think about how your chest moves when
you breathe. Let's think about breathing into
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this area where you're having soreness.
So I'm guiding my brain and my body
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together, and it creates a unison
for me that I lose touch with if
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I don't. Oh, so cool, you're sinking. Yes, Yes,
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that's a good word. Yes,
Yeah, dude, that is so cool.
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I haven't tried that. I'm definitely
gonna try. That's that sounds really
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cool. Let me in closing here, man, I honestly like I have
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to tell you, I've been doing
this podcast for three years and you are
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by far the coolest fucking one I've
done so far, and the most fun
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and that's I think it's because we
both came from this, Like I mean,
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I lived in tents for three years
and my parents did the same thing.
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They're like, look, my mom
used to say, listen, if
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God sends you to hell for choosing
the wrong religion, and there's four hundred
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religions, then that's probably not a
god. That's a dictator. Neil Degrass
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Tyson told me I meant the oldergrass
Tyson, which was awesome because I love
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physics and I'm super nerdy about it. So I asked him, I'm like,
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do you think there's a God?
What do you think about that?
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Right from a science perspective? And
his answer was so like epic. He
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said, first of all, if
I say I'm an atheist, then technically
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I believe in one less religion than
you do, because you don't believe in
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all the four hundred whatever religions that
are out there. You just believe in
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one, and I don't believe in
that one, So technically one less religion.
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And then he said, if there
is a god, god is not
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all powerful or not all good,
because if you look around what's happening on
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a daily basis, then how could
the God have not the power to fix
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it or not the desire to fix
it. If it's all powerful and all
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good. I just found that to
be like, man, I sat down
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in my chair and I was just
like, holy shit, man, I
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had to go home and smoke a
joint just to like process this. I
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mean, it was like sort of
when you were talking about when you saw
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Ai and I was just sitting there
going, holy shit, man, I
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got to sit down for this a
little while, you know, process this.
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Yeah, yeah, But I also
want to ask you this. So
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this is something that I know people
are going to ask and, believe me,
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especially with you, because you have
an insatiable appetite for achievement, and
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you have this insatiable appetite for just
overcoming the things that seem to be slowing
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you down. Like you don't walk
through peanut butter like a lot of people
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do in their life, right,
you just get it done. And so
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what does your daily routine look like
like when you get up in the morning,
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what is your process through throughout the
day. And so other people can
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hear, like, a what an
overachiever I hate using that word, but
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let's just say an achiever does in
an average day somebody like you a friggin
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beast, right, So what does
your day look like? I appreciate that
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I wake up between four and five
in the morning, and I've worked with
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people in Europe and overseas and Ukraine, and by the way, I don't
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know if you've done a lot on
that, but those people are still suffering
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so bad. And I know it
gets drawn out in the news, but
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I know, you know, hundreds
of people over there at this point.
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We've given a lot of money to
those charities, but it's it's a shame
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anyway. So I wake up about
four or five in the morning, and
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there's usually stuff from my European friends
and people I know out there, so
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I start handling some of those and
I deal with that as I have my
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coffee. I'm answering some emails.
I have a whole cup of coffee.
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My wake up routine takes about an
hour, and then I head out to
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the gym I have built for myself
in the garage. It's nothing fancy.
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It's like bo Flex, you know, adjustable dumb bells, some kettle bells
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and a treadmill, you know,
and a floor on the mat. And
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I've got to really like a beast
man like I wouldn't want to piss you
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off. Thanks man, I've got
a space heater out there for the winner.
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Again, I try to not keep
myself too comfortable. I do my
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workout takes about an hour now.
Half of it is stretching at this point,
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and try to meditate at the end
and stretch and let it all go.
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You know what just happened. And
I and again, I'm working the
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whole time while I'm doing this right
so, on my set and between sets,
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I'm answering emails, I'm text doing
things. I sit down and then
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I go inside and I do put
the phone down for about an hour.
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The kids are getting up getting their
stuff together. If I have time,
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I make them breakfast or drive them
in. And then when I sit down
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for the day, I sit down
to work for the day. And then
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I eat a big meal around lunchtime, and that's maybe the only time I
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eat that day, you know.
Sometimes I'll eat a light dinner, but
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that's about it. And then after
work right that it's kid time, Me
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and my wife and the kids running
them around as best we can, whoever
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has time. And then at the
end of the night, me and my
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wife, will, you know,
spend some time together. Hopefully right now,
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it's hard for her because she has
she's very, very pregnant, our
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fifth ones coming in like four weeks. She's at the terrible part of the
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pregnancy, So a lot of rubbing
her feet and making sure she's comfortable and
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got what she needs. Then once
everybody else is settled, maybe I'll have
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a little bit of a gummy bear
and sit down and relax a little bit.
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And the whole time, you know, I try to exist in this
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work life flow state where I'm always
working, but I don't let it bother
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me because it takes two seconds to
answer an email or a text, you
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00:20:18.039 --> 00:20:22.400
know, as a senior executive,
and it's not a big deal for me
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00:20:22.440 --> 00:20:25.920
because I'm always there. It's like
in the Avengers when they're like, how
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00:20:25.960 --> 00:20:27.000
do you just turn into the Hulk
in the one movie? And he's like,
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the secret is I'm always angry,
And I think that's the secret is
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I'm always working. But you know, it doesn't bother me because I'm just
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there all the time, and so
that keeps everybody running smooth, because I
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never want anybody to wait on me
for a decision. That'll hold him up
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for weeks, So I try to
get all that stuff answered throughout the day.
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Yeah, man, you are so
cool. I'm really really happy I
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00:20:53.799 --> 00:20:59.079
got to talk to you. Just
from a personal perspective. I just think
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you're a cool cat, and I
hope I can keep staying in touch with
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you. And I would like to
talk to you about your AI project also,
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00:21:07.480 --> 00:21:12.200
And also I am you know I've
spent after I exited the last couple
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00:21:14.519 --> 00:21:18.000
you know, I went into politics
trying to help with income equality, opportunity
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00:21:18.039 --> 00:21:22.720
equality and all the same kind of
stuff that you're jazzed about. And also
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00:21:22.759 --> 00:21:29.160
eesg right, making sure that you
know there's a backyard for our children to
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00:21:29.200 --> 00:21:32.960
play in. And I'm into that
stuff too, And I think i'd just
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00:21:33.079 --> 00:21:36.400
like to talk to you and you
know, just for fun. So I
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would love that. I would love
that. Man. I agree with you.
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00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:41.759
They we got to leave this world
better for the kids. You know,
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00:21:41.839 --> 00:21:44.839
the generations before us did that for
us, and we owe it to
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the next one. So you know, it can't just be about sucking hoovering
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00:21:47.960 --> 00:21:52.759
up the money all over. It's
got to be about leaving the world better.
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And I intend to do that.
Like I said, as best I
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can, and it sounds like you're
you've worked on that for longer than I
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have, and I would love the
opportunity to talk to you more about that,
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00:22:00.680 --> 00:22:03.240
the work you've done and what needs
to be done and how to do
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00:22:03.279 --> 00:22:07.480
it right on. Man. Yeah, I mean we're all on this thing
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00:22:07.559 --> 00:22:10.680
together. Like, we're all in
it together here. A lot of people
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00:22:10.720 --> 00:22:14.400
forget that, like because of politics
and all the religion and all these things
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00:22:14.400 --> 00:22:17.200
that are really turbulent. It's like, look, the bottom line, we're
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00:22:17.240 --> 00:22:19.599
all on this thing together. If
we mess it up, it's for everybody,
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including the people that disagree or agree
or whatever. It doesn't matter right.
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So I'm down. Man. Thank
you so much for your time,
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00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:33.039
your energy, and all of your
wisdom. I'm really really stoked I gotta
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00:22:33.079 --> 00:22:34.720
meet you. Thanks so much,
Vic, Thanks Greg. It was an
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00:22:34.720 --> 00:22:37.519
honor. Man. I look forward
to talking soon. And that's it for
337
00:22:37.559 --> 00:22:42.119
another episode of the Startup Science podcast. If you can, please leave us
338
00:22:42.119 --> 00:22:45.799
a five star review on Apple or
Spotify, and if you have a moment,
339
00:22:47.039 --> 00:22:51.039
also write review and tell us what
you think of the podcast. It
340
00:22:51.079 --> 00:22:55.400
helps me understand what I should be
doing to help you founders as a thank
341
00:22:55.400 --> 00:22:57.880
you for leading the changes in our
world. I'm offering free access to the
342
00:22:57.880 --> 00:23:03.480
startup Science platform Visionaries by Gregory Shepherd, one stoptop for founders. It has
343
00:23:03.559 --> 00:23:10.000
everything the Startup Academy, investor match, our grant Finder, Pitchfinder, and
344
00:23:10.119 --> 00:23:15.240
so much more. Go to Gregory
Shepherd dot com. Just click on Visionaries
345
00:23:15.559 --> 00:23:19.559
and use the access code Founders All
Capitals for free access to the platform.
346
00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:23.200
You can check it out for yourself. I'll see you next time. Now
347
00:23:23.200 --> 00:23:29.640
I'm a stay my crap. This
Startup Science podcast with Gregory Shepherd is brought
348
00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:36.240
to you by Startupscience dot io.
Founders can log on to startupscience dot io
349
00:23:36.440 --> 00:23:41.400
and use code Forbes to get free
access. To connect and find out more
350
00:23:41.440 --> 00:23:48.160
about Greg go to Gregoryshepherd dot com. The Startup Science Podcast is a production
351
00:23:48.519 --> 00:23:48.559
of Forbes Books.
1
00:00:01.360 --> 00:00:07.120
Forbes Books presents the Startup Science Podcast
with Gregory Shepherd, brought to you by
2
00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:13.800
Startupscience dot Io. Greg is an
entrepreneur who has built and sold twelve businesses.
3
00:00:14.279 --> 00:00:18.879
He's a recipient of four private equity
awards and is a featured ten X
4
00:00:18.920 --> 00:00:25.879
speaker and Forbes author. Here's Gregory
Shepherd. I'm back with AI entrepreneur and
5
00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:30.640
founder and my long lost brother,
Victorio Pelicano. We've been discussing his movie
6
00:00:30.719 --> 00:00:35.560
Like Light, that led him to
found multiple companies, including a couple of
7
00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:41.359
AI companies, Adana and Sarah.
The one thing I always tell entrepreneurs is
8
00:00:41.399 --> 00:00:46.000
the idea is an art, but
the business is actually a science. Just
9
00:00:46.079 --> 00:00:51.320
like coding, right, there are
certain integers that do certain things, and
10
00:00:51.479 --> 00:00:54.920
if you get them wrong, it
doesn't make sense when you're writing code,
11
00:00:55.399 --> 00:00:58.359
just like if you're writing a sentence, right, If you don't put an
12
00:00:58.399 --> 00:01:03.640
explanation point or something like, there
just doesn't make sense. So I'm trying
13
00:01:03.679 --> 00:01:10.239
to teach founders through this podcast and
through our educational courses, and specifically this
14
00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:14.280
conversation with you, is that there
are things that you can't get from the
15
00:01:14.359 --> 00:01:18.400
idea, and there are things that
you can't get from science, which is
16
00:01:18.439 --> 00:01:22.920
what I call the handful focus,
drive, enthusiasm, discipline, and optimism.
17
00:01:23.480 --> 00:01:29.159
So how do you as an individual
fight or walk through the turbulence and
18
00:01:29.280 --> 00:01:34.000
maintain focused and keep moving forward.
I think you got to admit to yourself
19
00:01:36.200 --> 00:01:41.000
you're either today you're either going to
quit or you're going to go all the
20
00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:45.599
way in. Those are the two
things. You don't do it halfway right,
21
00:01:46.040 --> 00:01:48.319
and you can quit. There's no
shame in that. Like, people
22
00:01:48.359 --> 00:01:51.879
give up all the time, and
sometimes it's for the best, sometimes it's
23
00:01:51.879 --> 00:01:53.680
for the worst, but people do. And if you're going to do that,
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00:01:53.879 --> 00:01:57.599
do it well whatever it is.
I would just say you just get
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00:01:57.719 --> 00:02:01.920
up every single day and if you
feel like it or not, you put
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00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:07.159
everything you got into it. Like
today, I woke up with a size
27
00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:13.319
ten migraine. Like I'm eight et
cetern deep into this day and I've laid
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00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:15.120
down on this couch behind me a
couple of times with ice on my head
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00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:19.360
for fifteen twenty minutes at a spell. But I'm still getting it done.
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00:02:19.479 --> 00:02:21.919
Because you know, when I was
a kid, I would stay home from
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00:02:21.960 --> 00:02:25.159
school sick and my dad would call
and say, hey, mow the grass,
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00:02:25.719 --> 00:02:28.360
and I would be like, what
are you talking about? Mow the
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00:02:28.400 --> 00:02:30.159
grass? I'm sick. He goes. Your leg's broken, you know,
34
00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:34.879
your hand's broken. No, Like
something works. You can do something.
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00:02:34.919 --> 00:02:37.280
If you're going to work out today, you know this, right, If
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00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:39.199
you're going to work out today,
something ain't feeling great. Something else is
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00:02:39.240 --> 00:02:44.360
feeling fine, you know, And
you just got to every day pick that
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00:02:44.360 --> 00:02:47.080
that area of some made't work in
do the other thing because there's an infinite
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00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:51.960
amount of things to be done,
always, always, So you can feel
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00:02:51.960 --> 00:02:57.599
like not doing something today, but
then do something else and all that productivity
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00:02:57.639 --> 00:03:00.159
adds up. It adds up,
and stick it to the routine, adds
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00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:05.000
up. Getting yourself out about every
day, going through the motions. It
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00:03:05.039 --> 00:03:07.919
sounds silly. Some people are like
that, right. I wake up at
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00:03:07.919 --> 00:03:09.360
the same time every day, no
matter where I am in the world,
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no matter what I did the night
before. That's just how I'm programmed.
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00:03:14.479 --> 00:03:16.240
And I get up and I do
the same shit and it's boring, and
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00:03:16.240 --> 00:03:20.879
I eat the same food, and
I have clothes that are five years old,
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00:03:21.280 --> 00:03:24.479
and I don't buy fancy cars and
I don't I'm not flying Instagram models
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00:03:24.520 --> 00:03:28.520
around the world. I don't have
gold teeth, but I this is my
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00:03:28.680 --> 00:03:31.080
flow state. Man. This is
where I exist. This is where I'm
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00:03:31.080 --> 00:03:35.520
happy. That other stuff gives me
anxiety. But I know this game,
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00:03:35.639 --> 00:03:38.759
and I know I'm good at it, and I'm just gonna keep doing it.
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Like the football analogy I'll make is
and it's it's a it's a it's
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00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:46.879
a Midwest football analogy. As a
SoCal guy might not resonate. But if
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00:03:46.919 --> 00:03:50.879
you if you hand the ball to
the full back and you get six yards
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00:03:50.879 --> 00:03:54.639
on that play, I am handing
the ball to the full back every fucking
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00:03:54.840 --> 00:04:00.560
play until somebody stops me. I'm
not getting bored away winning. There is
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no getting bored of winning. Yeah, that's brilliant. So let me ask
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you, with all of that said, how do you balance I mean,
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you know, you've got five children, you're you're a husband, you're a
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CEO, a multi time CEO.
How do you balance that? And what
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are your some of your I guess
biggest inspirations. You know, what inspires
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you to move forward in the world. The thing I'll start with the end
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of that question, which is I
I the thing that inspires me is frankly,
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my kids and my family, And
I told you I like to leave
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things better than I found them,
and I intend I you know, my
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first thing was digging myself out of
poverty and you know, putting a big
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win under my belt and securing my
family and my kids for a generation.
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And I now that I have the
opportunity I have, I would like to
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leave the world better for them,
to the extent that that from my home
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office to extent I can move the
world in a better direction so they grow
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up in a better world than I
did. Then I am going to die
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doing that. That's what inspires me, is is the opportunity to do that.
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And frankly, to talk to you
and like your passion is for founders,
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my passion is for teens. We
do a lot of work with some
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teen centers for our Pelicando Family Foundation
because that's where my wife and I had
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our issues of homelessness and different things. And we think from a philanthropy perspective,
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they're overlooked because they smell bad,
they have attitudes, they're mean,
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you know, they're they're not cute. They don't make cute posters, you
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know. Like, so we work
a lot with those kids, and I
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hope a lot of them hear my
story as a troubled kid, and they
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think if this guy did it,
like, there's no way I couldn't do
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it. And whether they think that
or not, they're right. And I
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hope a lot more of them hear
it and think, you know, I'm
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not my My parents weren't lawyers,
my parents weren't doctors. I don't have
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this great history, right, and
they're thinking, well, I'm nobody.
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I'm just some kid from a trailer
park or some kid living in the in
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the ghetto or whatever. And I
hope they hear this and be like,
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you know, this guy made it, you know, and look at all
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the shit that happened to him.
I sir, I got a few better
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things going for me. If he
could do it, I could do it,
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because they really can, because all
it takes is somebody to outwork you
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and then and then they make it. Dude, Oh my god, I
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just love talking to you. I
mean, so I read it a fourth
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grade level. I have level five
dyslexia. I went to five high schools
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because I got kicked out of all
the high schools. I tried to join
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the Navy, and they kicked me
out of the Navy because I was too
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dumb and everybody used to call me
the R word, which I know I'm
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not supposed to say, but that's
what I was called. And you know,
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here I am hosting a Forbes podcast, I wrote a book. I
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totally agree with you that there is
a huge component. This is second time
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this has come up. So if
you're listening, please let this resonate with
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you working your ass off. It's
just sometimes just raw horsepower. Right,
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Don't you feel like sometimes it's just
it's just blowing, just raw freaking horsepower
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one thousand percent. That's all it
is. I mean, there's no secret
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to it, right, And every
day is into victory, every minute is
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into victory. Every day doesn't feel
great, and there's gonna be moments where
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your life is any of it worth
it? You know? In the answer,
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I've never met anybody, Greg.
Maybe you have, You've talked to
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more founders and stuff than I have, But I'll say I've never met anybody
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who worked their ass off and was
sorry they did one hundred percent. Yeah,
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man, you are the dopest dope. You are the bee's knees man.
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Let me ask you a question because
I learned this about you, and
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I'm super into it. You have
this influence of Taoism right in your leadership
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and your worldview. And I meditate
like three times a day. I do
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yoga three times a day. You
know, I'm like really into this and
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I'm like dying to hear your perspective
on it because you're just a very unique
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vibration of energy and information. It's
really hard to find that a lot of
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people I interview their like, you
know, big fancy people and stuff,
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right, But you and I were
just like straight out of the streets.
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So I'm resonating with you, and
people probably hear the tone in this podcast
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a lot different than other ones because
I'm talking to my people. So congratulations
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everybody. You get to hear a
totally different, different deal here. But
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I want to hear about your Taoism
and like what you do and how you
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run your day and how you sort
of align yourself, you know, because
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there's so many distractions and surface noise
when you're starting a business. There's just
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it's constant, right, like mosquitos
and flies everywhere in your head? How
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do you bring that into focus and
sort of neutralize the surface noise? And
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it sounds like you use Taoism.
Men, just really want to hear about
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this because I'm just dying to hear
about this. Please, yeah, please
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unload on this one. I appreciate
it, man. I think probably like
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you, I don't know how you
grew up in SoCal, but you know,
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my background isn't exactly somebody who would
be a fan of the practice of
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it. I think I probably,
like you, had to find something because
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the stress when you're trying to do
it the other way, it doesn't work.
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You're trying to push the world,
You're trying to make it happen.
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And I think what I've learned is
you have to let it happen, and
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the world is going to do what
the world's going to do, and the
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only thing you can do is control
your reaction to it and just find that
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place where you're not reacting and you're
not thinking, you're not you're not affected
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by it. Right Like, you
can't control what other people say to you,
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you can't control what they say about
you, but you can control how
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you react to those things, and
so you control those things you can't control.
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I guess I'll even take it back
a step and say, you know,
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I was a religious kid. I
actually my dad made a point to
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never get me baptized because he was
like very anti religion by the time he
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was older. I think a lot
of people of that era kind of like,
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you know, the corruption of the
church and the child abuse scandals and
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stuff, they just lost their faith
altogether. So he said, when I
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was old enough, I could decide
what I believed in. And at some
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point I did get fairly religious,
and I actually got myself baptized when I
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was fifteen years old, like went
through the sacraments, the classes, got
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baptized and everything, and I was
feeling pretty religious. And after I was
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going for a while, I was
talking to the pastor of my church and
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this was the AIDS era, right
when AIDS there was really really bad in
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Africa. I know it hasn't gone
away, by the way, anybody listening.
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I don't mean to downplay any current
struggles with this, but there was
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a time in the nineties when this
was huge issue for everybody who was like
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got that proved of the nineties,
Yeah, And I was talking to him
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and I said, what about these
kids that get AIDS or their parents get
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AIDS and die, Because that was
the thing, right they were raising money
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for these kids whose parents had died
from AIDS. And I said, what
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happened if one of the kids dies
for AIDS? Do they go to Hell?
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The guy said, well, that's
why it's important we get missionaries there
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and we got to talk to them
and bring them the word of the Lord.
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And I said, but you haven't
answered the question, you know what
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I mean? And the kids going
to hell? And he was like,
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well, they can't go to heaven
unless they hear from the Bible. And
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my logical fifteen year old brain,
and you're very logical when you're a teenager,
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by the way, you're like a
plus pek will see all the time,
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like there's no fuzziness. And I
was like, no fucking way,
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is that true? No way?
And then you know what I thought of
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after that, Greguse, I realized
the only way, by that logic,
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the only way to go to Hell
was actually to read the Bible, because
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if they couldn't go to hell either
because they had never read the Bible.
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And then I thought, nah,
this shit can't be right. And then
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I would call myself a militant atheist
for ten or fifteen years, and then
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I got away from that because I
realized I don't know everything right after you
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get through your teenage, and I
would have called myself an agnostic. And
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then when I was running for Renny
a few years, the stress was getting
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to me. I was having all
kinds of issues with my lower back,
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my pelvic floor, just carrying stress
the wrong way all these years. And
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I found meditation, I found yoga, I found and I found the Tao
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is the first text I'd ever read
that answered questions for me, and the
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answer seems to be there is no
answer, And I love that I find
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comfort in that more that I think
a lot of people do. And just
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being able to control the things you
can control and letting the world happen the
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way it's going to happen, and
just trying to zoom yourself out of your
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thoughts and your emotions, letting them
all pass by acknowledging them, not fighting
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them, and letting things just happen
and watch it as if you were a
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bystander. Has really helped me be
a better leader, a better parent,
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a better husband, and I like
to think a better human overall, and
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not just reacting to my emotions,
but trying to acknowledge my emotions while controlling
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a reaction in a way that I
hope is better than the way my alcoholic
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father did. Yeah, let me
ask you a question because this so,
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this is when people ask me,
They go, what is like the number
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one thing that I should do that
you do that you think contribute the most.
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And I always say meditation, And
they say what why? And I
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say, well, because in meditation, the mistake is people think you're supposed
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to have blank thoughts, but really
you're just supposed to catch your thoughts,
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right. And the earlier you catch
your thoughts, the earlier you can sort
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of control them, because we really
don't have control over mind, because our
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thoughts just happen without us, right. And I find that when I meditate
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during the day, I can catch
thoughts that are happening before I act on
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those thoughts or react to those thoughts, and it gives me the power over
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my days to control the direction that
I put energy. Do you find that
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to be the case for you as
well? No? I think for me,
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what I find what I meditate is
finding thinking about my body, because
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my body, to me is an
afterthought to the people I'm serving, my
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kids, my family, my customers, my whoever and my body is an
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afterthought aside from the workouts or whatever. I don't think about my body all
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day, and meditating gives me a
chance to connect these things again and remember
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that I can feel, and that
I all these parts have are important,
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and that to think about them and
to focus my mind and breath into them
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just makes me reconnect everything and helps
me reset mentally. And my my thoughts
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aren't cleared at that point, but
I'm controlling them because I'm saying, let's
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think about how your chest moves when
you breathe. Let's think about breathing into
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this area where you're having soreness.
So I'm guiding my brain and my body
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together, and it creates a unison
for me that I lose touch with if
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I don't. Oh, so cool, you're sinking. Yes, Yes,
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that's a good word. Yes,
Yeah, dude, that is so cool.
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I haven't tried that. I'm definitely
gonna try. That's that sounds really
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cool. Let me in closing here, man, I honestly like I have
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to tell you, I've been doing
this podcast for three years and you are
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by far the coolest fucking one I've
done so far, and the most fun
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and that's I think it's because we
both came from this, Like I mean,
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I lived in tents for three years
and my parents did the same thing.
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They're like, look, my mom
used to say, listen, if
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God sends you to hell for choosing
the wrong religion, and there's four hundred
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religions, then that's probably not a
god. That's a dictator. Neil Degrass
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Tyson told me I meant the oldergrass
Tyson, which was awesome because I love
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physics and I'm super nerdy about it. So I asked him, I'm like,
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do you think there's a God?
What do you think about that?
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Right from a science perspective? And
his answer was so like epic. He
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said, first of all, if
I say I'm an atheist, then technically
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I believe in one less religion than
you do, because you don't believe in
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all the four hundred whatever religions that
are out there. You just believe in
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one, and I don't believe in
that one, So technically one less religion.
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And then he said, if there
is a god, god is not
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all powerful or not all good,
because if you look around what's happening on
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a daily basis, then how could
the God have not the power to fix
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it or not the desire to fix
it. If it's all powerful and all
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good. I just found that to
be like, man, I sat down
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in my chair and I was just
like, holy shit, man, I
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had to go home and smoke a
joint just to like process this. I
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mean, it was like sort of
when you were talking about when you saw
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Ai and I was just sitting there
going, holy shit, man, I
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got to sit down for this a
little while, you know, process this.
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Yeah, yeah, But I also
want to ask you this. So
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this is something that I know people
are going to ask and, believe me,
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especially with you, because you have
an insatiable appetite for achievement, and
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you have this insatiable appetite for just
overcoming the things that seem to be slowing
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you down. Like you don't walk
through peanut butter like a lot of people
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do in their life, right,
you just get it done. And so
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what does your daily routine look like
like when you get up in the morning,
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what is your process through throughout the
day. And so other people can
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hear, like, a what an
overachiever I hate using that word, but
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let's just say an achiever does in
an average day somebody like you a friggin
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beast, right, So what does
your day look like? I appreciate that
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I wake up between four and five
in the morning, and I've worked with
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people in Europe and overseas and Ukraine, and by the way, I don't
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know if you've done a lot on
that, but those people are still suffering
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so bad. And I know it
gets drawn out in the news, but
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I know, you know, hundreds
of people over there at this point.
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We've given a lot of money to
those charities, but it's it's a shame
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anyway. So I wake up about
four or five in the morning, and
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there's usually stuff from my European friends
and people I know out there, so
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I start handling some of those and
I deal with that as I have my
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coffee. I'm answering some emails.
I have a whole cup of coffee.
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My wake up routine takes about an
hour, and then I head out to
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the gym I have built for myself
in the garage. It's nothing fancy.
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It's like bo Flex, you know, adjustable dumb bells, some kettle bells
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and a treadmill, you know,
and a floor on the mat. And
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I've got to really like a beast
man like I wouldn't want to piss you
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off. Thanks man, I've got
a space heater out there for the winner.
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Again, I try to not keep
myself too comfortable. I do my
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workout takes about an hour now.
Half of it is stretching at this point,
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and try to meditate at the end
and stretch and let it all go.
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You know what just happened. And
I and again, I'm working the
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whole time while I'm doing this right
so, on my set and between sets,
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I'm answering emails, I'm text doing
things. I sit down and then
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I go inside and I do put
the phone down for about an hour.
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The kids are getting up getting their
stuff together. If I have time,
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I make them breakfast or drive them
in. And then when I sit down
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for the day, I sit down
to work for the day. And then
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I eat a big meal around lunchtime, and that's maybe the only time I
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eat that day, you know.
Sometimes I'll eat a light dinner, but
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that's about it. And then after
work right that it's kid time, Me
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and my wife and the kids running
them around as best we can, whoever
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has time. And then at the
end of the night, me and my
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wife, will, you know,
spend some time together. Hopefully right now,
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it's hard for her because she has
she's very, very pregnant, our
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fifth ones coming in like four weeks. She's at the terrible part of the
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pregnancy, So a lot of rubbing
her feet and making sure she's comfortable and
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got what she needs. Then once
everybody else is settled, maybe I'll have
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a little bit of a gummy bear
and sit down and relax a little bit.
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And the whole time, you know, I try to exist in this
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work life flow state where I'm always
working, but I don't let it bother
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me because it takes two seconds to
answer an email or a text, you
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know, as a senior executive,
and it's not a big deal for me
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because I'm always there. It's like
in the Avengers when they're like, how
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do you just turn into the Hulk
in the one movie? And he's like,
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the secret is I'm always angry,
And I think that's the secret is
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I'm always working. But you know, it doesn't bother me because I'm just
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there all the time, and so
that keeps everybody running smooth, because I
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never want anybody to wait on me
for a decision. That'll hold him up
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for weeks, So I try to
get all that stuff answered throughout the day.
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Yeah, man, you are so
cool. I'm really really happy I
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got to talk to you. Just
from a personal perspective. I just think
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you're a cool cat, and I
hope I can keep staying in touch with
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you. And I would like to
talk to you about your AI project also,
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And also I am you know I've
spent after I exited the last couple
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you know, I went into politics
trying to help with income equality, opportunity
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equality and all the same kind of
stuff that you're jazzed about. And also
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eesg right, making sure that you
know there's a backyard for our children to
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play in. And I'm into that
stuff too, And I think i'd just
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like to talk to you and you
know, just for fun. So I
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would love that. I would love
that. Man. I agree with you.
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They we got to leave this world
better for the kids. You know,
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the generations before us did that for
us, and we owe it to
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the next one. So you know, it can't just be about sucking hoovering
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up the money all over. It's
got to be about leaving the world better.
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And I intend to do that.
Like I said, as best I
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can, and it sounds like you're
you've worked on that for longer than I
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have, and I would love the
opportunity to talk to you more about that,
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the work you've done and what needs
to be done and how to do
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it right on. Man. Yeah, I mean we're all on this thing
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together. Like, we're all in
it together here. A lot of people
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forget that, like because of politics
and all the religion and all these things
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that are really turbulent. It's like, look, the bottom line, we're
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all on this thing together. If
we mess it up, it's for everybody,
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including the people that disagree or agree
or whatever. It doesn't matter right.
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So I'm down. Man. Thank
you so much for your time,
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00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:33.039
your energy, and all of your
wisdom. I'm really really stoked I gotta
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meet you. Thanks so much,
Vic, Thanks Greg. It was an
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00:22:34.720 --> 00:22:37.519
honor. Man. I look forward
to talking soon. And that's it for
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00:22:37.559 --> 00:22:42.119
another episode of the Startup Science podcast. If you can, please leave us
338
00:22:42.119 --> 00:22:45.799
a five star review on Apple or
Spotify, and if you have a moment,
339
00:22:47.039 --> 00:22:51.039
also write review and tell us what
you think of the podcast. It
340
00:22:51.079 --> 00:22:55.400
helps me understand what I should be
doing to help you founders as a thank
341
00:22:55.400 --> 00:22:57.880
you for leading the changes in our
world. I'm offering free access to the
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00:22:57.880 --> 00:23:03.480
startup Science platform Visionaries by Gregory Shepherd, one stoptop for founders. It has
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everything the Startup Academy, investor match, our grant Finder, Pitchfinder, and
344
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so much more. Go to Gregory
Shepherd dot com. Just click on Visionaries
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and use the access code Founders All
Capitals for free access to the platform.
346
00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:23.200
You can check it out for yourself. I'll see you next time. Now
347
00:23:23.200 --> 00:23:29.640
I'm a stay my crap. This
Startup Science podcast with Gregory Shepherd is brought
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to you by Startupscience dot io.
Founders can log on to startupscience dot io
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350
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about Greg go to Gregoryshepherd dot com. The Startup Science Podcast is a production
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of Forbes Books.
