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Speech Transcript (very little editing so not exact)

Time to shine today. Podcast varsity squad. This is Scott Ferguson and my guy Gabriel here, he’s been I’ve been so blessed that he’s put on his patient pants and waited for this interview a little bit because I had to reschedule with him a couple times, but it’s going to be worth the wait here. Me and Gabriel really believe in effective Connection, which is the name of his fantastic company. But we are also off the like, talking about maybe what people might think are alternative ways of not so much therapy, but of really leveling up your life, which we’re going to dig into a little bit here on the pod. And Gabriel’s goal is basically the whisperer and mushroom nerd who left his fancy tech job in 2017 to travel the world by bicycle. In the process, he found his calling as a coach and facilitator. He helps leaders and teams maximize their impact by aligning with purpose, uncovering meaning and embodying authenticity. And make sure you stay to the end because he’s got some really good retreats lined up and also ways that I can put you in connection with Gabriel to really level up your life. And Gabriel, thank you so much for coming on. Please introduce yourself. The time to shine today podcast varsity squad. But first, what’s a superpower you have that no one knows. Oh, thanks for that question, Scott. And yeah, I definitely feel like this has been worth the wait already. I love your energy and what you’re bringing to the world with this podcast. But, yeah, a superpower that I really love about myself is my curiosity. I feel like the kid in the candy store all the time of just like, what’s that? What could I learn from it? How could I share it? And yeah, the mushroom nerd thing definitely comes from that. Of like, there’s so much curiosity around just going out in the woods and finding a cool new mushroom or a bug or a plant. It’s very much that childlike curiosity and wonder for the world, something I really cherish about myself. You and I are like brothers from different mothers, man, because if someone asks me what my superpower is, it’s curiosity. And it’s also because if you’re not you’re not humble. I’m sorry. If you’re not curious, you’re not humble, you think you know everything. It’s like I want to pick up a step from anybody and everybody within, of course, but that’s crazy that you’re kind of the mushroom nerd from Philly, you know what I’m saying? Which I think is pretty unique just because we were talking off mic with me spending some time in Philly. Most of the Philly guys love them, bless them. Some of my best friends down here in South Florida from Philly, but they’re a little bit more edgier. I bet you probably had an edgier time in your youth, but you really kind of locked into the flow and rolled through, man. So again. Thank you so much for coming on, brother. And I’d really, like, kind of get to your roots of kind of where you started and what built you up to where you’re leading this fantastic company. Effective connection, man. Yeah. Ask away. I think the origin story is a big part of who we are. Let’s hear it. Yeah. So where do you want to begin? You know, what what got you into getting on that? Like, yeah, I love that question because I think there was definitely kind of a moment for me, and it had been built up over time. There’s, like these inflection points in people’s lives, and those are the stories that you hear, but there’s so much behind those moments and those inflection points that just kind of build up tension and build up tension, and I call it spiritual inflammation now. It’s the sense of almost being allergic to your daily life, where, like, something’s wrong, but you don’t quite know what it is. You’re just kind of like achy and sore, and you need to make a change. And I was biking home from work one day through Golden Gate Park because I was living in San Francisco at the time. I had this great job, great partner, like a big group of friends, and I realized if I didn’t leave all of that behind, I would never do what I was meant to do. And it was this really scary feeling where, like, wow, this is like this really ideal life that on paper looks great, but if I don’t make a radical change, I’m going to die quietly in the shadows or something. It was just a really intense, full body feeling of, like, I need to do something different. And I had this promise to myself since I was really young that I wanted to kind of travel the world, and I hadn’t done it. And I was turning 30 the following year, and I was like, you know what? If it’s not now, it’s never right. I got to make this happen. And so I slowly took my life apart over the next six months. I quit the job, I left the partner. I kind of just sold everything and packed it up and rode out the door on my bike on May 1, 2018. That was, like, the last day of my old life. Wow, that’s pretty strong. I mean, that’s bold, too. You in San Francisco for work because that’s a way across. Okay, gotcha and was there any cultures or anything like that while you’re in San Francisco? It’s a bad rap right now, especially, right? But it’s a beautiful city, and the cultures there are so know, and you can get accepted pretty much by somebody, at least in San Francisco. But was there one culture in San Fran that really stood out, that really kind of not going to say sucked in, but got you really curious. There were two cultures. The first was the cycling culture, kind of the people riding bicycles in the city. There still is this event that’s, like, every Friday in a different part of the bay, in the North Bay, the South Bay, and the East Bay. It’s called Bike Party. San Francisco Bike Party. East Bay Bike Party. San Jose Bike Party. And it’s just this totally open community ride where everybody comes together like kids on scrapper bikes and old people with big cruisers or folks with big trailers with disco balls hanging off of them or music bikes and everybody. Just rides together as a community and kind of parties and hangs out and dances and parks and you get to see parts of the city you never would and meet people you never would and play Frisbee with a stranger. And that type of organic community gathering I had never experienced before anywhere that I had lived. And so the cycling community really inspired me in San Francisco because you got like the critical mass and the punk folks and the messenger bike kids and then you got like the roadie rider. And the guys in Lycra from Marin who are riding 200 miles on the weekends and you can kind of roll with any of them in the right context. And it was just such a welcoming community and it got me so in touch with the Bay because every weekend I wanted to go ride somewhere and adventure and explore and check something new out. So that culture really was a big part of my life when I lived there. And then the other culture that really influenced me was the Burning Man community, which has its roots in San Francisco. The first Burning Man was on Baker Beach in like, 1985. Yeah, right. They’ve been there forever. And the Burners changed my life. They were the people that I was like as soon as I met them. I’m like, you’re my people. It’s this responsibly irresponsible, like, let’s have a ton of fun, but take care of each other. Let’s find ways to express ourselves, but also really taking civic and community engagement seriously and these principles of Leave No Trace and radical self expression. The ten principles of Burning Man. Like, if you want to understand the culture of that community, look into those ten principles. They’re really different than what I think you see on the Internet, which is just a bunch of glam people in lingerie in the desert posing for photos. It’s not that at all, especially at the city level and at the community level. These are people who are involved in creating public art. They’re involved in driving community organization around causes they care about. They’re people that are throwing the best parties. And they were really welcoming to me because the crew that I Burn with has been doing it for 1819 years. You’d think they’re all kind of skeptical, salty, old veterans and they’re just like, welcome, you know what I mean? We want to share this. They’re like me. They want to find what they love and give it away. They really want other people to get inspired and find their way forward with something that’s really powerful. And so that community had a big influence on me as well. Now, I love that you say that because I got invited in 1992 and 1993 and I had to turn it down. And I’m not saying I regret turning it down, but I regret turning it down. It’s something that I was afraid because I was in the military and things happen in Burning Man that I didn’t want to test positive for, you know what I’m saying? Basically that means drug squad, but I did turn down, but I’ve heard great things and I’m 51 years old now and my squad that I’m blessed to be around and vibe with are we’re a little bit older and we have some kind of success under us. But I guarantee like 80%, 90% of the people have been to Burning Man, you know what I’m saying? So it’s not just a bunch of burnouts and bakeheads and stuff like that, man. You got multimillionaires billionaires housewide like everything, man. And that’s a trip. Now that I know you go, maybe I might have to join you a time, brother. So let’s get into the coaching side of things a little bit here. Gabriel if you’re starting to work with a group or let’s break it down. Let’s say you’re starting to work with a one on. One with somebody. Is there any secret sauce, if you don’t mind, Sharon, that maybe helps them find an initial blind spot that they’re working with? Yeah, I think one of the most powerful initial steps that I take with people in coaching and there are many, right. Depends on the person and where they are. But often just something as simple as really getting clear on your core values can have a transformational effect on somebody’s life because values are not aspirational. They’re already driving your behavior and your choices, whether you’ve named them or not. And so if you don’t know and can’t name right now, if I called you two in the morning, in the middle of the night and woke you up, said, what are your core values? If you can’t answer that question from the bottom of your heart, like, on the spot, you don’t have a sense of what’s driving your choices in your life. You might be making choices based on somebody else’s values or, like, a set of cultural expectations that don’t really align with what’s true for you at a deeper level inside of you. Did you say values are not transformational? They’re not aspirational? God, a lot of time, people think of values as, like, my value is like, I want to make a million dollars, or I want to be happily married, right. They think of the outcome of living those values. But a value, right? A value is something like, for me, a value would be curiosity or presence. Right? A value would be compassion. A value would be really holding my truths as incomplete and staying open ended to learning something new. Right. So those are, like, upstream of some of the outcomes that I have in my life, where I’m always learning from others, I’m always seeking opportunity. Right. They’re those driving principles that influence our behavior, and if we don’t name them, we don’t really know ourselves. And if we don’t really know ourselves, we can’t level up and achieve that deeper potential because we’re just acting. We’re kind of flying blind in a way. Right. It’s like having that North Star from those values. Even just doing two sessions around values work to give people a totally different game plan and maybe realize, wow, I don’t know if I want that promotion as much, or, oh, I do need to double down on my commitment to that community that I’m supporting with my volunteer work because it really helps represent who I am. I love that you broke it down, that it’s aspirational. And I’m sorry for missing that, because mine if you were to ask me the three, I bet it would be kind of to smile, serve, and mentor. Those are kind of like my three. One is basically I have a New Year’s resolution every year I’ve made since 2011, when I was kind of coming back from the brink of the financial crisis. And one is to make someone smile every day, right? And two is unless I’ve hurt you, disrespected you, owe you, or judged you, I give zero. You know what? About what you think about me, period? Because I’m my own person. And the smiling leads into fantastic service. And the more you help people get them, the whole Ziggler thing, the more things you can help people get, the more you’ll get. And then mentoring. Believe that the more you mentor, the more immortal you become. Right. Because you’re passing on stuff kind of free in a sense. I love that. I love the aspirational word that you dropped out there. Well, Scott, I would offer you a reframe on that, actually, because those values, I would say they’re not aspirational. They’re things that you’re already doing now that are driving. I’m doing them with intention on a daily. Yeah, that’s what I mean. They’re already alive for you in the present moment. It’s not something off in the future that you want. And the values I heard in what you shared were a value for joy in your smile and a value for service, in your value to support others and a value for legacy. You wanted to leave that mark in mentorship. Oh, I like that. Hear that squad I got coached. I love this man. Trying to distill it down, right? No, I love it. That opened my eyes, brother. Yeah. I love it. So when someone’s coming to, you know, maybe you’re in a discovery period or whatnot? Gabriel, is there any good question that you wish they would ask you but never do? Yeah, I’ve never had anybody ask me, like, what’s going to stop you from serving me as fully as right. Helping me interrogate my blind spots or my biases in supporting someone? Because there’s some people who just aren’t a good fit. You know what I mean? There’s somebody out there who’s a good fit for you, but it might not be me. But I think that would be a really interesting thing to be asked by a potential client or an organization I want to work with is kind of be like, what’s going to get in the way of you bringing your best to this relationship? I love that. I love it because I’m not the right coach for 95% of the people that kind of come through. I’m a lot different. I’m like get off your ass kind of coach where I’m blessed to have interviewed over 400 coaches and referred out almost a million dollars to coaches that are in my squad to build in that community and whatnot, now you’re on it, you know what I’m saying? So I can match that up. That’s beautiful. So what do you think then, makes a great coach? I said this once in a ceremony. I married two of my friends in this line from JD. McClatchy. He says, love is the quality of attention we pay to things. Love is the quality of attention we pay to things. And I think the mark of an incredible coach is that quality of attention. Right. How much can you really be in that present moment experience with somebody and in touch with what’s arising to bring forth what’s needed in service of their highest potential? To me, that’s a form of love. That’s a form of devotion. That’s awesome. And it goes deep into what we were talking about with the values as well as the coach that’s bringing to the table on a daily and coaching intentionally. Because I love coaches and I align with a lot of them, but some of them, they don’t show up and I’ve been one of them before in twelve years, dude, there’s been a couple sessions where I didn’t show up and I love that. Love is the quality of attention we pay to things and people. Love it, man. I love it. So, Gabriel, have you seen the movie Back to the future? Yes, a while ago. So my pop culture trivia is going to be wobly, but no, you’re fine, man. Let’s get in that DeLorean with Marty McFly, man. Let’s go back to the double deuce. The 22 year old Gabriel, what kind of knowledge nuggets we call him here at timeshine today. What kind of knowledge nuggets might you drop on him to maybe help him not so much change anything because your journey has been pretty awesome, right? But maybe help him blast through level up or shorten learning curve just a little bit? Yeah. I would definitely tell 22 year old me that the experience that he’s having isn’t as normal as he thinks it is. I like everybody else kind of grew up thinking like, oh, yeah, this is just how everybody else sees the world and it wasn’t true. I think I was seeing the world differently than other people were and I think many of us are, but we’re convincing ourselves that everybody else sees the same thing and I don’t think that’s true. And the sooner you realize you see the world differently or you have a unique gift to offer, the sooner you can really empower yourself to claim it and put it out into the world and really help change others with it. That gift can be found by working with somebody like you, somebody who could see that gift and maybe claim it and hold it for you before you feel strong enough to hold it for yourself. Because that’s ultimately the role of a coach, too, right, is to see the best in others that they don’t feel like they can see in themselves. And some of our best mentors and teachers and the people who have brought us up, everybody has one of these people in their world. Sure. They’re the people who are able to see that potential in us before we could see it for ourselves. Yeah. Sometimes you need the sounding board. That’s where I work with clients that I feel when I first started or as I started growing my business with it that I didn’t feel like I deserved it, deserve this person. I might have two or three commas in his bank account, he’s status this, status that. But I was the perfect sounding board for him to help him claim that person that you’re saying that those gifts and then really put that person out to the world because that’s what I try to do on the daily is be the person that I want to present to the world. And there are certain things that I’ve got to do through my morning, through my wake up, through my readings and whatnot. And if I miss it. I used to be super hard on myself. If I missed anything of it, if I didn’t read the book of Proverbs, a chapter in Proverbs every day and pick up the wisdom if I didn’t do the meditation. But I love that you have options, that you’ve kind of alluded to, that not everybody is the same, and everybody needs a different kind of approach to things. That’s fantastic, man. So, how do you want your dash remembered? That little line in between your incarnation date and your expiration date, your life date and death date on your tombs? Now, hopefully, it’s a bajillion years down the road, but how does Gabriel want that dasher number? I definitely don’t want to live for a bajillion years. So let’s clear that up. Way too many. How do I want to be remembered? Yes. The legacy value. Here it is again, right? Yeah. I want the people I know or knew in my life to feel like they won the lottery when they met me. I want people to feel like I was an enormously positive influence on their life and I left them something more valuable than I got in the process. Left the world better. Like you’re planting trees you’re never going to sit in the shade of. I know it’s a corny aspiration, right? I’m sure a million people say that on the show. But it just feels true to me that I want people to feel lucky to have known me because the people who left me behind, I feel lucky that I knew that the shoulders of giants that I’m standing on right. Know, some of them are just not just they’re they I picked up values from different people. And I’m so blessed out of my curiosity that I’m able know live intentionally because I used to do a lot of things for the attention Gabriel, where right now it’s more I do it for the intention. So that’s one thing I really put out is doing for the intention, not the attention. And the way that I do that is really aligning myself a lot of times with people like you. We have to be best friends, but I can pick up the step from you. And I’m another person that you’ve influenced along the way, that kind of lottery winning mentality. And lucky that I know you. That’s awesome, man. That’s a humble way to say something that’s a really level up situation. So what do you think people then misunderstand the most about Gabriel? You know, I’ve asked this question to other people, but I’ve never thought about the answer to myself. Sure, I’ve noticed some people kind of think I’m judgmental sometimes. Okay. You know what I mean? Or like that I’m arrogant or something like that. And I imagine I come across that way to people because I want the best for everyone in the world, right. And I judge myself like this, too. Like you said, I didn’t read my chapter of Proverbs yesterday. You kind of beat yourself up when you don’t hit your standards. And I look around me and I see people who are like, just drag. And I’m like, how are you so upset or angry? There’s so much to be happy about, right? It’s like this harvey Danger quote. I’m a 90s rock kid, right? If you’re bored, then you’re boring. You ever hear that in Flag? Like, there’s a Harvey Danger. It’s kind of like that. I’m like, how could you be bored? There’s so much wonder in the world. Blackpool sitter. That’s it. That’s the song. But that attitude, right? If you’re bored, then you’re boring. It does have an attitude of judgment to it. Right. And so I think I could be misunderstood as judge mental, when really what I’m trying to do is wake people up to the best of. What’s happening. But to the wrong ears or somebody who’s really sitting in that anger or that resentment or that doubt or that pain, that’s going to sound like judgment to them, I feel you with that because you want to help them so badly that sometimes they’re going to be like, dude, you’re like, push you’re, man, you’re arrogant. And stuff like that. That’s an art that I have not perfected yet because I want to serve, serve, serve. But just backing off on people that aren’t ready for what I have in that moment, but knowing that I still love them, still can send them vibes, send them leveling up communication through different ways, whether it could be a book I might mail them. It’s like I had to use that art form to help people in different ways because I want to basically help the world as well. And I know that it can never happen, the whole world, but I can touch as many people as I can. I love that. Gabriel so if anything, does anything keep you up at night? No, I sleep pretty good. I do have to manage the amount of worry I pour into some of these systemic issues like climate change and things like that. Recently, a little bit of AI has kind of made me wonder what the look like. But I wanted to build my career on that, my original career. I wanted to go into movement politics and work in environmental NGOs and stuff like that. It just burned me out. I got empathy fatigued so quickly because I couldn’t fix the problem. And that sense of hopelessness really started to slow me down. And I realized I can’t put my energy here. I need to focus on things that I can actually make an impact with in order to bring the best that I have to the world. So it’s not like I’m ostrich head in the sand, not trying to think about it, but ultimately I think of some of these strong negative emotions like worry or concern. It’s kind of like putting your hand on a hot stove, right? Like you want to feel the burn. You want to know that something’s happening, but you don’t want to sit there and just sear your skin through to the bone. And so I try to limit the amount that I’m kind of ruminating or spiraling in those really challenging things that I can’t address directly myself because it SAPS my energy in the long run, right? And so I try to find ways to be effective, like helping people realize their potential or helping people wake up to the beauty of the world around them. That’s going to mean people care about the world around them. That means people care about each other and themselves. And I think that at that because the systems are just made up of people. So if we can help change people, we can change those systems too. Love it. It sounded deep, what you were kind of talking about, but it’s self explanatory where I just don’t feel like the world is going in the direction a lot of times that it should be because of our red and blue and things that are going on out there. But there’s more people like you, gabriel, than the trajectory and the. The lineage that we’d be leaving behind would help out so much. So I hope sending those good vibes, brother. Thank you. And can I tell you a quick story about that red and blue, black and white? That binary thinking I think is one of the things that’s most dangerous in our world today. Sure. And I got my license plate here in Colorado says nuance now. Nuance. Okay. How’s it spelled on it? N-U-A-N-C-E. Wow, okay. Like the word nuance. Yeah. And just like as my quiet war against black and white thinking, because I think if we all lean into that nuance, we realize there isn’t a such thing as black and white or red and blue. Everything’s on the right. It’s about that understanding that there’s a little bit more detail if we slow down and use that superpower of curiosity to investigate it a little bit further. So what are three things that Gabriel can’t live without? I can’t live without bicycles, sunlight, and community. Love it, man. It all lines up with your values since you’re putting out there, brother, what kind of bike do you got right now? My new obsession is my transition. It’s a full suspension mountain bike, which I feel like you’re not a Colorado until you have a yeti and full suspension. Dual suspension? Yeah. The bougie white guy mountain bike thing. Yeah, it’s totally my vibe right now. It’s just so much fun and it creates so much access that I wouldn’t have otherwise had. Like you can just get out there on this thing, man. Yeah. I’m not so much the off the trails, but I have like a nice little specialized road mountain bike and I just kind of tool around here in the beaches and stuff like that. It’s one of my favorite tools to really help me level up as well, man. So what is Gabriel’s definition of a life well lived? Have you ever read the five regrets of the dying? I have not. Yeah, really interesting. And for the listeners, check that out. Just google that list. Some palliative care expert interviewed people who were dying and said what were their regrets? And for me, if I have a life well lived, I would have none of those regrets. Love it. Which is like I lived for myself. I spent time with people I cared about. I pursued my ambitions and dreams and values and not what somebody else told me to. I didn’t work too hard. I really spent time enjoy and play. Yeah, and you’re doing it all. A lot of it, I’m not going to say subconsciously, but maybe automatically in the service of others. A lot of it. I mean, you’re serving yourself. A lot of people think selfish is a bad word. Really? But you’ve really got to take care of yourself, your temple for you to be able to take care of other, that’s that’s beautiful. I’m going to definitely donnie put that book in the show notes, please. All right. Awesome, man. Perfect. So, squad, we’re going to take my good friend Gabriel here through our leveling up lightning round just as soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors and affiliates. Time to shine today, podcast. Varsity squad. We are back. And, Gabriel, we’re going to have to hook up sometime. Next time I’m in Colorado or whatnot? We’d love to sit down and kind of go through some of these questions in more detail, maybe 2030 minutes on each. But today, you got 5 seconds with no explanations, and they can all be answered that way, brother. Here we go. You ready? You got micro dosing intact? Because you’ll be clear on this, my dude. Awesome. All right, Gabriel. So what’s your favorite color? Purple. Beautiful. What’s the best leveling up advice you’ve ever received? Do it your way. So, Frankie Sinatra. Love it. Share one of your personal habits that contributes to success. Sorry, I didn’t hear you. Could you ask it again? Yeah, no problem. Share one of your personal habits that contributes to your success. Meditation. Beautiful. So you see me walking down the street. Fergie looks like he’s in his doldrums a little bit. What’s one book that you read that really kind of leveled you up? You might hand to me jill Bolty Taylor. Stroke of insight. I’ve heard of it. Haven’t read it. Donnie, show notes, please. Thank you. What’s your most commonly used emoji when you text? The little, like, hands up vibe sign. Yeah. I love it. Nicknames growing up? Didn’t have any. No nicknames. Love it. Chess, checkers or Monopoly? Chess. Love it. Headline for your life. Every moment is its own reward. I love that. Go to ice cream flavor candy cap. Really? It’s a mushroom. It’s a dessert mushroom. I know I’m not allowed to explain, but I got to provide some context. No, that’s fine, man. Nice. There’s a sandwich called the Doritza Mushroom Whisperer. Build that sandwich for me. It’s got porcini on it. Lots of Japanese mayonnaise cupi. Mayo is the bomb. Probably a fried pickle and some garden tomatoes. Just, like, really nice, juicy heirloom it. Love it. And favorite charity and or organization like to give your time or money to. I support Planned Parenthood Maps, which is the Multidisciplinary association for Psychedelic studies, and I really liked the project that you donated to it’s. Like the one that does the out of the darkness walk. What’s the name? The Suicide. The Suicide. Life prevention hotline. Yeah. Love it. And thank you for donating that as well. Last question, and you can elaborate a little bit on this one, but what’s the best decade of music? Sixty s. Seventy s. Eighty s or ninety s? I would actually say the 2000s. Okay. There were just some incredible music made in that time on indie folk, and the music radiohead was making in the late 90s, early 2000. Okay. Just had a big influence on me because I was at that formative age when I heard it. What is your jam for music? What’s the genre? You seem like you probably are cultured in a lot of different ones, but what’s your kind of go to that you kind of grew up with? What I grew up with was, like, indie rock, like radiohead and stuff. But what I love now is more electronica and jazz. Got you, man. Beautiful. I’m a product of the there’s so much that happened in that decade. Actually, the podcast had just dropped yesterday with Chris clues. He’s the 80s pop culture guy. What he does is he teach leadership lessons from the 80s, which so much stuff happened in that decade. It’s kind of like it’s our version of an industrial age that happened back in the gilded age, I should say, after the civil war, all that stuff that happened. But it was like so much stuff came out. So many songs nowadays have the hook from songs in the still listen to the talking heads all the time. Oh, my man beautiful. I’ve seen David Byrne twice. He’s incredible. I love it. I love it. So how can we find you, Gabriel? You can find me on the internet@effectiveconnection.com. That’s my website. I also really like instagram. I like visual storytelling, and I’m on instagram at fungabe, which is F-U-N-N-G-A-B-E. Okay. Yeah. And Facebook. Same gabe dorita. Beautiful. Now all that will be in the show notes squad. And do you go by Gabe more than Gabriel? I introduce myself as Gabriel, so nobody calls me Dave or Gain, like, all these other weird things. I don’t gotten some weird stuff. But yeah, my friends call me Gabe. Gabe. I really appreciate that. So tell us about this retreat that we’ve got going on in Guatemala this November. Yeah. So I partner with Fungi Academy. They’re an organization, a global organization that teaches people how to cultivate mushrooms and build deeper relationships with fungi. And me and the team there have been working together for years. A really close relationship with the founders developed. Do they grow them there in Guatemala? It’s not really a cultivation facility. It’s more of an education center. Okay, very good. Yeah, they have a little mushroom lab there, but mostly they’re just teaching people how to grow medicinal and edible mushrooms. Okay. And we developed this program called the Human mycelium retreat. We were inspired by the role that fungi play in nature as these great connectors of the forest. People call mushrooms the wood wide web because they’re sharing information and they’re sharing nutrients with trees and connecting different parts of their ecosystem. We wanted to empower leaders in community to be their human mycelium in their ecosystem of community and relationships. So how could you get the skills to really show up and bring not only your gifts, but help leverage and facilitate the sharing of the gifts of others in the space that you operate. So we built this really powerful program. The foundation of it is also the root of my. Coaching, which is around authentic relating, which teaches people these foundational practices about just being a better human. So conflict, mediation, owning your experience, getting good at sharing what’s arising for you, really building these foundations of welcoming what’s happening and stripping away assumption from how you interact with the world. These are the roots of these leadership practices that we teach in this residential retreat. And so we live together for ten days on this beautiful property they own in Guatemala, right next to a river in the highlands, next to Lake Atilan, which is like this incredible center of power that used to be part of the epicenter of one of the Mayan civilization. Like their empire had one of their kind of foundations there. What city is that again in Guatemala? It’s lake atilan in Guatemala. It’s not a city, but it’s just in the Mayan highlands. Okay. Yeah, it’s in the Mayan highlands in Guatemala. It’s a beautiful spot, like in a cloud forest. We live there for ten days and we do these intentional relating practices, these leadership skills. We talk about mushroom cultivation, medicine making. We go foraging with a local Mayan elder who takes us up and teaches us about the forest there. It’s a really cool program. Really? Yeah. We can like, swimming in the lake. We got a sauna. We want people to have fun. We want people to build authentic connections with each other. So that way when they go out in the world, they have this web, this relationship that can support them. Because we’re calling in global community of leaders for this. Right, so you’ll meet people from all over the world in this. Okay. Wood Wide Web. Man, I’ve never heard that. Yeah, I think Paul steamons. Okay, very good. And within this time, are they going to because I know that you do one on one coaching. You also do team coaching and stuff, but is there going to be coaching kind of parts of it for building team functions and stronger relationships during this, or is that something that you offer more in a different platform? Yeah, there will be some coaching components to the retreat. Those authentic relating practices are ways for people to kind of coach each other. That’s the beautiful thing about these exercises. They sort of bring that process out really organically through some facilitated dialogue and things like that. But I also support people one on one, particularly people who are in a period of transition and seeking greater purpose. Kind of coming back to that values question. Like, if you heard that and said, what are my values? I’d love to talk to you because that’s my coaching practice, is really around purpose alignment coaching. And I kind of help people navigate a similar transition that I did for myself when I quit that job. It was like, I know I’m missing something, I want to find out what it is. I’m not sure where to start. I need to really work on building that foundation of my identity and my values and my purpose to kind of build a life that’s aligned with that vision for what I’m meant to do in the world. So those are the people I really love to work with one on one when I’m coaching. That’s beautiful, man. That’s awesome. So, yeah, squad, I’m going to put all of the contact information and Gabe, can you send me the actual do you have a link that’s going on for the Guatemala event, or is it something you can send? Okay, make sure your team sends that to mine, if you don’t mind. I’m going to put that in the show notes because this show will drop within right now. It’s July 20. It’ll drop in the next two to three weeks. That’s great. We’re fast tracking my boy Gabe since he’s been pretty patient for the past few months, man, I appreciate that. You bet, man, anything. So Gabe, do me one last solid and leave us with one last knowledge nugget we can take with us internalize and take action on gratitude changes everything thing. It’s this secret sauce, man. Like, if I wake up and I have a little gratitude ritual, the rest of my day feels different. And if you can find something to appreciate, something to be grateful for in any challenge that you’re facing, that is the medicine right there, you know what I mean? That gives you that little bit of nectar to kind of turn that to make that lemonade. Yeah. We are so lined, man. It’s funny because my clients that I work with have to eat a gratitude sandwich daily, which means the first line in their journal has to have their intentions, like, what are their intentions for the day? And they got to be powerful and strong. And then the second line, paragraph, whatnot is what you’re kind of concerned about, what you’re worried about? And then they’ve got to list 14 things because that’s kind of my lucky number thing. 14 things underneath it that they’re grateful for. And they’re going to have to dig. I mean, sometimes I can lift off 14 things like that because I’ve trained myself. They’ve list 14 things. And the 15th thing is a one sentence love letter to yourself, right? Meaning like, hey, you know what, Scott? You get to meet Gabriel today. You get to rock the mic, have fun, level up lives. I love, you know, I say that I actually write know out to myself. So that top layer of intentions and then gratitude and that love letter sandwiches out the concerns, man. And they get to push on through their day, man. So it’s because you’re leaving that mind on the form of gratitude, but you’re not letting out and letting go because challenges are real, right? For sure. So in squad we just had basically I had a master class here with my good friend he. He grew up in Philly, had actually a fun life and whatnot, but he really know, going out to San Francisco, really getting in touch with himself, and then he just believed and he told us that over time, spiritual inflammation kind of comes about. You’re not really sure what it’s wrong, but it can also kind of leave you knowing that you’re not doing what you’re meant to do, and that’s what Gabriel will help you do is kind of get on that track to doing what you were born to do, what you really meant to do. Gabriel reminded us to have a lot of fun and take care of each other. He believes in purpose alignment, coaching, building that foundation inch by inch. It’s a cinch right by the yard. It’s hard. So Gabriel’s going to really help you build that purpose alignment foundation for you to start leveling up your life. He wants you to get clear on your core values. He dropped something that just educated me today, that values are not aspirational. And with him saying that and what he even did in a 32nd coaching with myself and enlightened me to is I just know that he’s planting trees that he’s never going to sit in the shade of. Gabriel may not ever coach me again, but he dropped that seed on me that’s going to make me think today and really level up. He wants you to ask yourself it actually ask your coach if you’re going to hire one and hopefully it’s Gabe that ask what would go on that would stop that coach from serving you in the best possible way. So, you know, you get all the obstacles out of the way so you can really vibe and get forward into leveling up your life. And a great coach. He said, love is the quality of the attention we pay to things. And that freaking quote just absolutely blew me away, man. Every moment is its own reward. He kind of dropped that as well. And then every experience that you have is not as normal as you think it is. Everybody has a unique view. Share that view with people that you’re closest with or someone that might need to hear that view. He does things again for the intention, not the wants. I’m going to jump into that book, Gabriel the Five Regrets of Dying. And just basically what really hit me, though, and I’m going to say it again, is that every moment is its own reward. And that really helps us keep myself present because so many people have a foot in the future, a foot in the past, and they piss all over the present and just knowing that is something. Thank you. I’m going to incorporate into my own coaching. You level up your health, you level up your wealth. You’ve earned your varsity squad letter here at Time to Shine today. I absolutely love your gods and I can’t wait to collaborate with you, brother. Thanks, Scott. I really appreciate the time today and the chance to share all this. It’s been an honor to be here. Appreciate you, brother. Talk soon. Thank you.

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