Habits and Hustle - Episode 161: Adrian Grenier – Actor, Environmentalist, Creator of Earth Speed
Episode Date: April 5, 2022Adrian Grenier is an Actor, Environmentalist, and creator of Earth Speed. Most may know him from his time on Entourage, and many may also be wondering what he’s been up to. Well, Adrian has not slow...ed down one bit but has changed focus significantly through a personal-bettering journey he’s been doing for years. In this episode, Adrian takes us through what pulled him away from the type of stardom he had and led him to environmentalism, love, and farming. Like, actual farming. Anxious to hear from someone who broke the cycle of the self-absorbed Hollywood star? Interested to learn how someone can use their creativity to tell a story of world improvement through the investments they make? This one’s for you. Youtube Link to This Episode Earth Speed – https://www.youtube.com/c/EarthSpeedbyAdrianGrenier/ Adrian’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/adriangrenier/ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Did you learn something from tuning in today? Please pay it forward and write us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. 📧If you have feedback for the show, please email habitsandhustlepod@gmail.com 📙Get yourself a copy of Jennifer Cohen’s newest book from Habit Nest, Badass Body Goals Journal. ℹ️Habits & Hustle Website 📚Habit Nest Website 📱Follow Jennifer – Instagram – Facebook – Twitter – Jennifer’s Website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits in Hustle.
Press it. Today on the podcast, we have Adrian Grignet.
Adrian is an actor, producer, director, musician.
He's best known for his portrayal of Vincent Chase in the television series, Onterrage,
which of course I was obsessed with, and I'm sure others can probably agree they were
too.
He started films such as The Devil Worse Prada,
Drive Me Crazy.
He also stars in the Netflix series, Clickbait.
Not only does Adrian do those things,
but he's also a real activist, an environmentalist,
and an investor.
He's backed companies and entrepreneurs
that he believes can change the world for the better.
He has an impact firm called the Contra Ventures, which not only invests, but empowers their founders and investors by creating systems and tools
to amplify their positive benefits.
He also founded Lonely Whale Foundation, which is dedicated to bringing people closer to the world's oceans through education and awareness.
This is a real Renaissance man. He lives on a farm. We'll talk all about that.
I feel like he really did a 180 in his life over the last few years or five years.
Very interesting. I really hope you enjoy the podcast. Please leave me a comment, let me
know what you think and enjoy the podcast.
All right guys, so today we have Adrian Grenier on the podcast and you're waving over there.
And of course for my generation of people, he's always going to be like Vincent Chase
up on tarageage, obviously.
But you've done a lot of stuff.
You're also an activist.
You are a social entrepreneur.
You have like a venture fund.
You've kind of like done a lot of things
since those days from Tarrage and transformed kind of.
It was evolving, that's right.
Always evolving.
And so we're gonna go through all of this.
But thank you so much for being on the podcast. It's great to have you.
Yeah, thank you. You're very welcome.
Uh, could we just start because obviously my generation, like I said, we remember you on on Teraj. But that wasn't actually your first
real big thing, right? Like you've been acting for many, like for many years prior to that, right?
I mean, it's all relative. Um ask, oh, when did you make it?
How do you define that?
Yeah.
Without question,
Entourage was a certain volume,
certain density of celebrity, of success.
But yeah, I'd been in films before that.
A lot of indie films, Sundance style,
and also some pop movies, Teeny Poppers.
So I was writing both sides.
I was, you know, Sundance, Darling,
and then also getting my hands in Hollywood.
How old were you when you got the Vince Roll though?
You were 28?
28.
Yeah.
Wow.
So how did that even come to be? Like how did it go? Because you
were doing like, I remember you actually doing like indie films and you also like are behind the
camera a lot too. Yeah. Were you doing that then too? Yeah. I you know, I fancied myself in
artiste. Right. So I was getting my hands into all sides of the camera, but you know, growing up
in New York with my friends,
in order to stay out of trouble, we used to make films where we'd get into trouble
and then film it.
I don't know how you wanna look at it,
but yeah, we used to make little movies on high eight video
and that would be our Friday night.
It was sometimes a whole weekend and we'd write it.
And then depending on what was
needed, we'd all play the different characters and sometimes we'd hold the camera, sometimes we'd
hold the boom. You know, if, you know, if it called for it, someone would climb the building and
get that high shot, you know, so for us, it was just a matter of accomplishing the goal of making a film and collaborating without necessarily
defined roles. So I had experience from all sides of the camera as well as acting.
Did you go also to performing school? Like you went to like a performing art school, right?
Right. Well, then that's another layer in New York. Public schools are pretty, right? They're not, you know, they leave something to be desired.
Right.
And there are four specialized high schools
that you have to take tests to get into.
And they're public schools, so they're free,
but they are, you know, a little bit better caliber
than the other ones.
So everybody wants to go. So I, of course,
auditioned for the music and art high school, which is called LaGuardia, and then
they have science and Brooklyn Tech and Stivocin and a few other specialized
schools. And I ended up going for theater. And so, what could, by the way, I'm just
curious, what do you guys do in the performing arts school like when as a high school versus dance on tables. Yeah is that really what
you do? Yeah like because I mean you do you guys still do like math and social studies and all
that other stuff. Oh yeah so half the day is theater and then the other half are you know core
curriculum. So English social studies and I don't do the college social studies history. I'm a Canadian, that's what we call it back in Canada.
Yeah, yeah, we did too.
Geography.
I don't know what you call it.
Yeah, literature and English and science, all the things.
All the things.
Yeah, and but we got to also be creative half the day as well.
So in fact, I used to turn in assignments as films in high school.
Really? Are you allowed to do that? I guess we asked.
Well, we asked and we were given permission. So we remember we made a film about the brain
and we did a stop motion animation of the brain.
So we showed what happens with a stimulus
and as it goes up the brain stem
into the prefrontal cortex and the whole thing.
And so that was all in claymation that we did.
And then we wove it into a story that we acted in
where my friend played the med scientist
and he was gonna explain the brain,
but we needed a brain, so then took a knife
and then cut my other friend Damien's head open
and then we had all this fake blood
and we, you know, very typical of an angst-ridden 90s teenager.
So we made a fun film that was bloody and gory,
but educational.
At the same time, did you get a...
Did you get an A?
Yeah, I mean, of course, everybody loved it.
I, you know, as opposed to the boring,
right, you know, just the facts,
book report or science report, yeah.
Wow, so wow, I went to the wrong high school.
I went to a private Jewish school.
Obviously, very different than what you did,
but your sounds way more fun and way more exciting. So then how did you
kind of get your first, even, like your first thing? Like, did you have an agent? Did
you, like, you grew up with your mom, correct? Like your mom raised you a single mom, right?
Yeah, single mom only child. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so she into the acting or she
was, I remember you saying on something I watched you
She was very much a hippie, right like she was very much into
She didn't like the title hippie. She was more self-identified as a flower
John what's the difference?
She saw hippies is all the drugies. Oh, okay. That's the difference. Oh, okay, okay
She was more into you you know, the love, the love aspect, you know, the summer of love. Right. The summer of love, exactly.
And then how did you get into your first role? Did you have like just just walk me through what you
would. Yeah, well, in high school. So before high school, in junior high school, I didn't,
I didn't grow up with my father,
just obviously single mom, only child.
And so, there was an edge that I hadn't been,
there was a right of passage into an edge that I didn't have.
So, I gravitated more towards the touchy-feely
artisan types, more than the rough and tumble sports.
Instead of, I tried the sports, but I was too sensitive. I was very sensitive. I was cancer
and mama's boy. The idea of getting out with the guys and throwing baseballs and getting into fights
of like getting out with the guys and like throwing baseballs and getting into fights, you know,
sort of was abrasive to me in the way that I was raised.
But when I got into theater and everybody wanted to like
hear what you had to say and feel, you know,
show empathy and then we could actually communicate
and share what was inside, you know,
that to me felt most comfortable.
Right. And- So you didn, that to me felt most comfortable.
Right.
And.
So you didn't play sports as a, as a, at all.
No, I mean, you know, some street ball with my friends.
Right.
But they were friends that, you know, that was later in life.
I had to, and in fact, since then, I'd been on a long journey of becoming a little bit more edgy in my masculine body, you know,
right, right, being a little bit more aggressive, you know, using like that
testosterone to go out and move the world and shape the world.
I was very passive growing up and very shy.
And it wasn't until I got on stage
that I started to really come out of my shell.
Right.
And then of course, you know, caught the eye of some producers
and agents and for the longest time,
they were pushing me to come to Hollywood
and I resisted, I resisted for 10, 12 years
until finally, Entourage forced me to come.
Forced you to come.
It's so funny, because people would think of that.
Most people, right, you would think would be like jumping
at that chance, right?
Because you'd think that a lot of people,
like you have to have like a big break like that
to be considered, quote unquote, like a successful actor,
right?
And you kind of seem like you resisted that a lot
because of all that stuff you just said.
Yeah, I don't know.
It's just something in my soul,
it's like my dharma to resist convention.
Yeah, exactly.
There's a lot of, I think pitfalls
to the way our consumer capitalistic lifestyle is sort of beckoning us, you know,
forward. And I think we lose a lot. That doesn't mean I haven't certainly fallen for the shiny
objects in the world and gone for that. In fact, I represented it on a show called Entrance,
you know, faculty who's basically a reflection of our culture
and our consumerist culture.
But deep down inside, I never really felt satisfied with that.
I thought there was more to life.
And so I did resist for a long time.
And then I tried it out and I played the game and I got all the toys
and I was successful.
and I played the game and I got all the toys and I was successful and I realized that it was just
a distraction from what my heart was really craving, what I was really desiring in my soul. Right. Well, that's what I want to talk to you all about that because like I said,
you know, the whole transformation and who you kind of see, because you seem like to be,
I mean, I don't know you, but you seem to be the antithesis
of whatever that role represented.
And it's ironic that you would be the one
who gets that role and plays it out.
So perfect, right?
Isn't it the same time, yeah?
Isn't it?
Life is that way.
Right.
And then you had that role for so many years
and then how are imitates life or life imitates our. So when
that start, like how did that even come to be? Like did they, did you have an agent who
put you up for it? Did you, did you audition for it? Like what was the whole thing? And then
I want to like chronologically go through what's happened with your life.
Yeah, well I was broke, broke his lock. I don't know if I can say that to you. You can say it. True. And I was in Mexico in classic New York City hipster artist style was going to make
an independent documentary about Cuban hip hop.
And I had a thousand dollars and I was intending to just make it work.
And then I got this email and this was back in the day.
This is before cell phones and everything.
So I was going to the internet cafes and dial up the whole thing and waiting for the
messages to load and it was, oh, there's this show called Entourage and I was like, yeah,
you know, I'm in the middle of something.
Yeah, you know, I'm in the middle of something. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But in no uncertain terms, my agent and the universe was saying,
look, if you don't take this opportunity eventually,
Holly was going to turn us back on you.
If you say no enough, there's a million others just like you
that will say yes.
Well, wait, did it, was there other things that you turned
down that I would know?
I mean, I was 28 years old.
I know.
I had done things, but I was.
What did you turn down that I would know?
I mean, I checked.
I mean, the list is long.
I'd have to go back into the records.
Name one.
Name one.
I think, like, soul survivors.
I was just like, I don't know why that comes to mind.
Oh, okay.
I don't know that.
You know, there was a rash of bad horror movies
that were coming out.
Yeah.
And then they were paying a lot of money for these.
And I would just read the script and I'd be like,
it's like, I can't.
I just, I can't.
Yeah.
So, and the reality is, I wasn't trying to be famous.
I wasn't trying to be a successful actor.
I was just trying to communicate something,
share ideas through film.
And I did a lot of bad indie films
that I thought were cool as well.
That turned out to be pretty shitty because first it's hard to make a film and with low budgets
and ambitious visionaries who have no experience in who are egomaniacs.
A lot of times you get you're in some bad mood.
Right, good ideas that turn out badly.
Right, the execution wasn't there.
No, no, it was not there.
And then you sometimes during some really well paid movies that turn out badly, but it doesn't matter because you got a paycheck.
Right. So it's um, so I don't know, anyway, long story short, I ended up recognizing that I needed to
take this job in order to keep making a living. Right. So I had a moment of practical clarity,
and I ended up saying yes to Antarosh.
And then how many seasons was it anyway?
Like, 10 seasons.
No, there's eight seasons in a movie.
So about 10 plus years of Antarosh.
And then how was it on, like, did you,
while you were doing it, did you get along with the guys?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like you guys were all like you got we had such great chemistry as
New Yorkers were actually East Coast.
Right.
That's right.
And that was one thing that really I think made the show work well as our ability to
feed off each other or chemistry was
was really just palpable I I think. We had that New
York City edge, and they're like brothers to me. Long lost brothers at this point. Totally
different place right now in my life. Do you guys keep in touch at all anymore? From time
to time, a text, or I just talked to Jerry about a month ago and we caught up.
Right, and then they still,
like we'll get into that,
like your whole life transformation.
But like, so while you were doing it for so many seasons,
were you already starting to kind of change
how, like just kind of like change into this new
and improved version of you or like
were you yet? I mean I'm still the same guy I'm just putting my focus elsewhere.
But while you were did you want it like it was a point where you wanted to stop doing it but you
couldn't because it was part of the like you're already kind of so far in or... Yeah well you do build
a house of cars you know and you have to keep feeding the beast
in order to keep it going to keep up the illusion that you know, you know a
lot of careers and a lot of people's I mean, it's this not just Hollywood
It's our cultured in general a lot of our lifestyles are built up through scarcity.
Yeah. And like you need to accumulate more and more in order to feel safe. Like you have
that you can you can eat and you can pay rent and all the things that are coming up in
in the in the from year to year. And then also for social status that you're gonna be liked by your friends
or that you have a place in the world
that you're gonna be accepted.
And a lot of these are deep, deep rooted
psychological, emotional conditions
that we're all built with because of the way our society
is made.
So yeah, I started climbing that ladder and I started making more money and then I started investing
and then I was a little mini real estate mogul and then I thought to get into music too and maybe I'd make a bunch of films
and then next thing you know I'm spread so thin, I can't really
truly be intimately involved in all the projects.
So I just basically became a machine and
detached from all the different parts. But in the name of more and more and more and also
ultimately just wanting to be accepted by the world, wanting to be liked, wanting to be successful,
wanting to be a man like a strong successful, powerful man.
Right.
So that's the trap I got into.
So how are you able to kind of get yourself out of the trap, right?
Because you're now like super embedded into that trap.
Yeah.
And by the way, I think it's a natural stage of development to be in that
immature adolescent masculine mentality, you know, where it's all about the show. Right.
It's all about Mimi, me, it's very selfish. And it's all about putting on the King's hat and
sitting in the throne pretending like your king,
but without the deliverables,
without actually being able to deliver on the leadership part.
It was very selfish time in my life.
You know what you said a few, a bunch of times,
you masculine, masculine, the word.
I feel that word's super dominant in your vocabulary.
Yeah, because I feel like,
if you look at my whole life, it's been a journey
into becoming a man.
Right.
Growing up, you know, it's a right of passage, it's like that, that arc.
That arc, yeah.
The hero's journey into adult masculine, mature masculine because I resisted for so long and rejected having grown up with my
mother and not having any truly positive, healthy male role models, just diving in and
getting lost in my friends and what we could do and what we could create in the touchy-feely creative aspect
Which is really just like it's like chaos like anything's possible and then that like that
masculine part of me that was
Testosterone driven was destructive, you know, and we were you know rolling around in the city as kids we were
We were terrors in the streets.
And also that was the hottest show ever.
It was the most, everyone I know watched that show.
Yeah, so I was just predating that.
And then you get to come to the show and now you have success and fame and money that
helped to legitimize who you think you are.
Yeah. Who you should be. Who you should be for sure.
Right. So then you're just like, okay, I'm validated. More of that please. Oh, applause.
Yes. So then you start feeling good about being, you know, in misbehaving about the bad
behavior because you almost get rewarded for it. And every time I go to a bar or a club about being misbehaving about the bad behavior
because you almost get rewarded for it.
And every time I go to a bar or a club or whatever,
you know, it's not 100%, a good percentage,
90% of the people in there would immediately
give me approval and then want me.
And there's like this weird
parasocial relationship that those fans have with me
and particularly onterraged away. It was shot. It felt so personal and real and authentic.
It was almost documentary that the fans felt like they were part of the crew and so they
would want you to be that character. So the more I accommodated, the more approval I got, the more accepted I got.
And it's just a natural part of the human condition to want that kind of approval and acceptance.
Absolutely. And then, I mean, also it's interesting because I think I heard you want to, I think,
was maybe a podcast talking about like how you felt like a product because they
would pay you money to go to clubs, right?
And then they'd put you behind these red ropes and like a zoo animal.
Well, we are products.
I mean, it's true.
I mean, and people are becoming more and more comfortable with that, which is a little
scary.
That's what I think.
I think that's, especially now we have social media, and everything is about
like selling yourself. We all are becoming very, we're all commodities, and like our worth is now
based on our followers, or what we seem to be, where our status seems to be in a very, I think,
in a very fictitious way. It's very disingenuous.
Well, it's a commercial way in which the goal is ultimately making money. think in a very fictitious way. It's very disingenuous.
Well, it's a commercial way in which the goal
is ultimately making money.
Right.
Or also the other commodity, which is attention,
yeah, which is a very real, people,
I think many people would rather the attention
than the money.
I think you are right.
I think you're absolutely right.
Because you get that dopamine hit.
I know.
And that's real.
It's drugs.
People are addicted to those things.
Apps, did you get into drugs and alcohol
when you were doing that whole thing?
Or you kind of were?
I mean, I've always been recreationally predisposed
to escape for sure, but not to the point where you saw me on the news.
Yeah, it didn't kind of take over your life at all.
No, no, no. I think it was more like my relationship to sex and women that was the most
maybe destructive. And also, by the way, in L.A. because you don't live here anymore,
maybe destructive. And also, by the way, in LA,
because you don't live here anymore,
it's like you were like at the press,
like everybody wanted to be that person.
And like people here at 40, 50, they're still doing that.
Like that life is still exactly how it really is
in real life here.
I see it all the time.
Okay, so you've seen 2001 is based Odyssey, right?
Okay, so you know, the scene where he goes in the time. Okay, so you've seen 2001 Space Odyssey. Yeah. Okay, so you know, the scene where he
goes in the time travel and ends up in the future and then he sees himself laying in bed and then he
has this psychedelic experience where he's like looking at himself and he's seen, you know, across
span of time and space. I've done that. Like, I've seen people and I'm like, oh my god, that's me in 20
years. Fuck that. Like, no, so true. I mean, I've seen the guy who's like, you know, gray hair and I'm like, oh my God, that's me in 20 years to fuck that. No, so true.
I've seen the guy who's like, gray hair
and he's like, fly around a private plane.
He's got all the models around him
and I was just like, I don't do something.
That's gonna be me.
100%.
And I was like, thank you, God for sending this vision to me.
You know, to slap this vision to me.
You had a slap some sense of it. Yeah, which kind of like says to me,
I said a lot about you, I think, right?
Is because you had the foresight
and you also have like depth, right?
Because I see people who have just a little bit of money here
and maybe like, maybe no fame, but just money on itself.
And then that's what their life is.
They date girls who are 25 years younger,
like they're barely legal.
And they're doing that, the private planes,
the host, the this, that, and they're such a vapid way of living.
But you don't know what you don't know, right?
And we were trained in that.
Exactly.
We were culturally, I mean, it's confusing, right?
I mean, we're gonna get deep on this, I guess. But since liberal culture has been all about freedom,
freedom of sex, freedom of body,
freedom of drugs and all of the things
that I grew up with, that's what you want.
And it's also tied into making money and commercialism.
You're just like, wait, I get all the escape,
all the fun, all the indulgences.
And I get paid for it.
Who's not gonna do that?
So really, right now, I think what we're seeing culturally
is a wrestling with what we want.
Like what are, what are ideals are?
What are our values as a society?
And we take a lot of things for granted.
We take a lot.
I mean, what's remarkable though
is you kind of seem to like rise above it.
And even though you were immersed in it and got and made a choice
Not to do it. That to me is amazing. I appreciate that you've been very kind. That was the truth for me. It's not about rising above. It's about
De-diving deep in all right, okay going down going into it, all the things, like, you know, fundamentally, what modern culture,
what consumerist capitalist culture offers is an escape from the things that are real,
because a lot of times the things that are real are just like too painful to bear witness to and to face.
So, yeah, I mean, I think right now, vastly,
you know, we're craving as a culture,
something a little bit more real and tangible.
We've been flying too high, we've been escaping too much
on our phones
and on social media and even like business and money
and all of the things are taking us away from ourselves.
And so I think we need to amass deepening into ourselves
and into the earth, back to the earth grounded.
Is that so how did you start this process of kind of getting yourself like when did you move away from Los Angeles like?
So I never lived here technically. I was always New York, you know, but that came with its own ego like I'm New York man
I don't leave New York. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I thought you lived here. I was I was here a lot. Okay. Maybe that's what it was. Okay.
Yeah, but I kept my New York driver's license and my New York address
up until recently, which is crazy because I still got my New York phone number, but
for the first time I changed my driver's license now I have a Texas driver's license, which is strange. Oh my.
my driver's license now have a Texas driver's license, which is strange. Oh my.
So when did that whole thing happen?
Like you, I saw that you like lived, I saw it on your shirt, the earth speed, the earth speed.
You talked about how you lived in a camp, like legitimate, like a small camper for a year.
When did you decide to, what was the, again, I'm like, missing a big,
maybe a big time frame here, but so all that on to our stuff, living the life, doing all that,
what was the next, you know, trauma in your life? It was a, it was a coming back down to earth,
but with a thud, you know, it's like Icarus flying, you can touch the sun,
and you know, I literally thought I was invincible, I could do anything, and I was going to be able
to taste all the fruit and survive. And it wasn't until I had a heartbreak, like a very serious
heartbreak that I was shaken to,
shaken to awareness.
What happened?
Yeah, the girl I was dating decided
that I was a piece of shit and that she had to dump me.
Okay, so like every other heartbreak, okay?
I mean, it was like pretty basic.
I'm guessing what, she was right.
What, how long were you guys dating for?
We were dating for about four years.
Oh, okay.
And I'm already now in my 40s and-
Are you 45 now?
I'm 45 now, yeah.
And then I see this guy, that guy on the airplane,
the old guy, I'm like, I just lost my girlfriend.
How did I do that?
I thought we were gonna now get into a relationship
and have kids.
And I had to take a really serious look at how I had gotten myself there.
And that was first taking absolute 100% responsibility for my life.
Right.
When you were talking now that this happened.
And this has got to be four or five years.
Okay, four or five years.
Okay, so you have four years.
You have four years.
Okay, four years.
Okay.
And you're living in New York at this time. Oh, yes, I was in the same routine. Okay. You know, the
Yeah, I mean, and her
Dump in me was the the pattern disruption that I needed to realize that I had been asleep at the wheel for
however long
and
I
Started to really take a hard look at
who I was, who I thought I was,
and which direction I was headed.
And I had to really first and foremost,
the first layer of change for me was being able
to take absolute 100% responsibility for absolutely everything.
And saying that I can't change other people, you know, the only thing I, the only person I could change is me. So instead of blaming her, she just didn't get me or she's crazy. Yeah, like all
the things. Right. The excuses you used to not look at yourself, I had to do away with it.
And then really start to take the scary look at the man
and the mirror.
And at that point, I was like, okay,
everything that's happened to me up until now is my fault.
And what have I been doing?
What are the bad habits and the patterns and the indulances?
So I had to basically clean the clean house, purge,
and go small and start from scratch.
I mean, it was like, Mary Kondo.
Mary Kondo, that's the one who does the minimalistic.
Minimalistic.
Yeah, Maria Kondo.
Maria Kondo.
Maria Kondo, yeah, Maria Kondo Maria condo we're both close close enough
Yeah, because when there's all this clutter in your soul and your heart you don't know what's what you know you you can
Be easily seduced back into
You know a lifestyle and a pattern that
Isn't serving you because it's familiar. Yeah, Or you, you know, I used to actually plan hits of dopamine.
Like I saw the way I constructed my lifestyle
and I would have hits of dopamine scattered
throughout the day so that I would always get a little
hit of fun or a little excitement
or and my days were planned out that way.
Like what?
Give me what day would be like.
Wow, it's like I had so many opportunities
thrown at my feet.
Yeah.
So it's like, hey, do you wanna go to this party?
Do you wanna go, you know, if you wanna fly for this job
and get paid to do it, do you wanna go to this amazing
retreat event?
Do you wanna go to a, you know, a gifting suite?
You know, whatever it was.
Yeah, whatever it was.
It was just constant.
Oh, wow, like this fun and excitement and newness.
So I had to just, and even, you know,
the mini-mogal making, you know,
buying the house and then like parlaying that into another
and then I was gonna like, own my whole block.
I was like, that was like, what I was striving for.
At least that you were like,
at least very entrepreneurial and smart.
I mean, it was like you're pissing away your money
and something out.
I mean, that's pretty good.
And there's the irony, like, ultimately a nice guy,
you know, I love my mother, you know,
and I gave donations, I did environmental work.
So there's that layer of excuse for all the other stuff because you're like, oh, but I'm
a different charity.
Exactly.
I love my mom.
Right.
And it's authentic, but also it was just a cover for the deeper work in which I love
myself, in which I then can give of myself, sacrifice myself, not
for what I want, but for the world, for others, for my unborn children Monday, for future generations,
you know, not just lip service or a cheque, right? But like literally like every decision I make, my whole entire lifestyle is now built to serve versus just playing that role.
Wow, so the breakup was the catalyst
for all of this major change.
And where is this person now?
Are you back together?
Where is she now?
Do I speak?
Well, I spent two years trying to become the man
that she wouldn't have left.
Right.
And once I was ready, I re-approached her.
And it took me about a year to convince her
that it wasn't just rhetoric, but I actually meant it.
And then I could live it.
And then I could hold that line over time
and not be shaking off my resolve.
And she took you back?
Yeah, we're back together.
Oh, so the person you're with now is that same person?
Yeah.
Oh, I didn't even know that.
Yeah, so we were together for four, broke up for two,
and then got back together.
And now we're almost two years back together.
Really?
Oh my God, it's amazing actually.
I wasn't expecting that.
Outcoming.
He's incredible.
Yeah, and I'm lucky.
Because, you know, I, yeah, you know,
they say the one that got away.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You got her back. You got her back. That's what I'm saying. You know what I got away, you know, they say the one that got away. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You got her back.
That's what I'm saying.
You know, what it got away, but then you got her back.
So then did when you left to, so when did you live on your,
on in this camper for a year?
Is it before or did so just, just before COVID,
and then it parlayed into COVID. Which is great because,
I mean, say what you will about COVID,
it was an incredible opportunity for all of us.
Yeah, it was, I think too.
To come home and be with ourselves
and learn to be alone and learn to face
the uncomfortable reality of our own mortality.
Yeah.
And reinvent ourselves, right?
So much reinvention.
There's been so much reinvention.
I feel with everybody, because people realize
that life is short and they want to live more authentically
or they don't want to work for these corporate giants.
They don't want to do this.
There's been so much like change, I feel.
Yeah.
And so that's also been you.
So before all of that,
then this whole transformation,
I keep on saying that word, I don't mean to.
But I know it is.
Yeah.
It's been just, it's pretty recent then.
Yeah, it's been three years.
Yeah.
I mean, but the work is ongoing.
And it took two years for me
to get to a place where I was like, okay, I'm, I'm okay to step out in the world again. Yeah.
And I feel confident, comfortable in my skin enough, even because when you're, when you,
when you take away all of the identity that gave you confidence, yeah. and made you feel comfortable in the world. And now you're like,
who am I? You're just like walking around like a baby deer. Yeah. Like barely just out of the
womb and you can't stand and you have placenta again, it's a process because I'm still learning
myself, my new direction.
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What made you then live on a farm?
And so you basically went from living in New York and all that stuff and then now you got
your lady back and then you both end up living, a farm, becoming a a permaculture, is that what it's called? A permaculturist?
And now you are a farmer, basically.
Yeah, well, so I mean, if you track my, the allegory of Adrian,
you know, when I was very young, my mom plucked me from all my family, my cousins, and the world that I knew at a very young age,
nature in New Mexico, living in the desert, and brought me to the city, New York City,
where I had to basically set like a sever of that connection to family and nature.
And then I had to learn to survive New York.
And so this is really just a coming home
and coming back to self
where I realized in order to survive New York,
I had to put on all of these facades
and like get tough in certain ways
and get calloused in other ways.
And as a protection, as a survival mechanism.
And I didn't know that. I just thought I was cool.
Yeah.
And it wasn't until I had this rock bottom moment that I could really look at myself and be like,
oh, all of these things that I think I am, all of these patterns and habits aren't serving me,
and I'm basically just plain to some master from, you know, that I don't even know. So I have to,
I have to reorient my relationship to my higher self, like what I'm actually trying to accomplish.
higher self, like what I'm actually trying to accomplish. And that took a long time to reauthor the story and then to start to learn how to put that into motion, what that would look like.
And really ultimately it came back to being in nature grounded and taking absolute responsibility for myself
and being able to take care of my family
and use my life force to support my values
which are nature and humanity and community
and all the things that are important.
So how did you start?
Like what made you think, okay, now I'm getting to this.
Like how did that, what was the mindset or
your thought process of how to get it to start?
Because sometimes the hardest part,
the stop is in the start, right?
So how did you come to that realization?
No, I mean, it was just a long process
and I did a lot of different things to get there.
And I'm still, I mean, for me, it's a spiritual pursuit,
right? It's a spiritual pursuit.
So you have to create ritual, create places you can go,
sacred space so that you can start to do this work. I mean, you know, in the Western culture it's therapy.
Once a week, right? Right. Right. That's basically right. But can we can we build those rituals and that therapy into your whole entire lifestyle?
Can you start surrounding yourself with people that not only want more for themselves, but also want more for you.
So that now you're, there's this feedback loop, this positive feedback loop amongst your
peers. I used to hang out with people that, that they were plain small, right? Or women
that would accept the worst of me just so they could hang out.
So that's right.
Nobody was like, bro, you are not, you know, you are not, you're, you know, it wasn't
till my girlfriend was like, you're a piece of shit.
Right.
Exactly.
It wasn't until somebody called me and it landed that I was able to be like, oh, this woman
actually wants more from me.
And she's wanting to elevate me,
I suppose, yeah, elevate me, elevate us.
And then once we're able to rise up
and be the better version of ourselves,
then we can start to help others to do the same.
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Was she already involved in, like was she ready
like someone who was interested in all of these different
things that you got more involved with,
like what was she doing, what was her background,
was she an actress, was,
I mean, she's an Oracle. She's like an intuitive, right?
I think there was no formal, it wasn't an intellectual thing.
It was a passion. But I think all women, if I may, have this power.
And if we listen to women more, we'd probably be better as men.
Right.
If it's the right, I mean, to your point where you said earlier, a lot of people just accept
what's given to them, right?
Because they just want to be around versus really being confident or believing themselves
to want more, to expect more, to go for more.
I think that's a real big issue with a lot of women.
Yeah, and I think women have grown to accept.
Except less.
Yes, because they just, you know, they can't beg enough,
they can't force enough and they're, you know,
they're just, it's easier.
Right.
I mean, I see that pattern with my
mom and my grandmother and what they went through, even my great-grandmother, you know, they had to
deal with and survive, you know, a lot of very shallow and destructive masculine relationships.
So, they're, you know, and that gets passed down. You're like,
oh, honey, that's just the way it is. Men will be dogs like that kind of mentality. And so,
you just are conditioned to accept the worst. And then men, you know, take that and get away
with it. Yeah, and run with it. You take advantage of that. So until we break that pattern,
and it's like ultimately,
if you think about women as essentially
the creators of life,
like they bring life from nothing into the world.
And so as men,
this is something I had to learn,
because I love my mommy. I love my mommy what a fuck does that mean like in order to really truly love mother the mother archetypes like how can I serve that and I didn't realize that because it to me it was all about
sucking my thumb or nursing yeah it was about comfort and mommy it wasn't about hey I'm gonna actually step up and condition myself and learn the skills
so that I can actually protect my partner and support her and what she needs and only women know
what they need and they will tell you so that they can create the safe place that they can actually
manifest life. Yeah.
What the fuck, that's magic right there.
It is magic actually,
I'll let you say it like that.
That's true, right?
So let's get back to this whole farming situation.
So what does that happen?
Like, is that your way of getting grounded
and kind of like going back to your roots?
I mean, it's one and the same to me.
So what you bought a piece of land.
Family, we are emergent from nature.
We're all connected.
My life force is to protect and to support
the life coming into the world.
Are you having kids, sorry?
I mean, I'm so down.
Yeah, okay.
I'm just in time.
I'm in time.
I'm in time.
I'm in time. I'm in time. I'm in time. I'm in time. I'm so down. Yeah, okay. I'm just in time. In time. In time, I'm old, I'm sorry, sorry.
So creating food that is for our sustenance
and doing it naturally and organically
with out-pesticized and herbicides,
like our culture has been conditioned to do
for profit motives and as an environmentalist,
I'm always like, you know, no pesticides, no GMO, you know, organic,
but it's all just, you know, through slogans or campaigns,
but I have no idea what it takes to actually grow something,
and now that I'm actually on the land and I'm farming,
I can't tell you how many times I'm like,
oh man, if I just had some herbicide
right now. Oh, what I would do for some pest control. Right. And I want to like immediately go for
the easy, right in a solution. So I have so much more empathy and respect for farmers. And those
who are actually doing that work because it's hard. It's so challenging.
Are you legit like on there like doing the farming every day?
I'm learning.
Like all day?
I mean, you know, it's been winter.
So things have been asleep.
Thank goodness, because it's been a nice respite.
But it's springtime now.
And I'm like a little anxious that I'm here in LA
because I need to be out there doing some stuff.
But I'm.
Do you have people helping you there?
I'm taking my time to ramp up into this.
I don't claim to be a professional farmer.
I'm an apprentice.
But again, I want to develop the skills.
I want to have the capacity to be able to grow my own food so that I can.
Right.
You know, and of course, if you look at what happened with COVID and the reality check
that that was is like, oh, you take all this, you know, centralized food distribution
for granted, things are just going to show up at your door, but when
that gets disrupted, what are you going to do?
Yeah.
How are you going to survive?
So yeah, I need to hone those skills and become an expert, at least competent.
Okay, that's true, competent.
Did your girlfriend help you with this?
She also farmed.
She's studying Chinese medicine and herbalism.
So she'll be the medicine queen of the land.
And then, is that, like, I saw something that you wanted to, like,
also have community or, like, have other people on the land with you. Is that accurate? Yeah, so I mean look we have big
Big ideas big ambitions
And it comes down to what do we really want like we want to be with people we love with community. We want to feel seen
Yeah community, we want to feel seen, you know, like acceptance and
acknowledgement with those that reflect your values. And you want
people to help you, right? That way, you don't have to outsource
everything and, you know, write checks and pay for everything. You
can actually, you know, I don't have an ego of saying, I'm going
to beat the master farmer and I'm going to do it all myself by
myself. No, it takes a village, right? So bringing people together
so that we can all support each other
in creating, co-creating this lifestyle,
which is close to nature, heart centered, communal,
supportive, and non-GMO and organic, and...
And all the other stuff.
And all the other stuff in family, right?
And then caretaking.
Caretaking, right?
It's like if you have babies, the only people can afford
to have babies are those that have the money.
Or you're not going to be present for your kids
because you're working 10 jobs, right?
100%.
Do you have any part of what a caboats is?
OK, so it's kind of like that.
Sure, absolutely.
Right, have you ever been on one or lived on one in Israel?
No, but I've read about, I mean,
we, I have a document of all the different
communal living models that exist.
And, and we're just diving into what's possible.
And now with technology being what it is,
where we can actually network, you know,
with other like-minded communities
that aren't necessarily
neighbors, but they're neighbors of spirit, neighbors of the heart. There's
so much potential of what we can do and build not only immediately where we
live, but also with others around the world. Right. So we're looking at the metaverse and NFTs and the blockchain to
start to build what communities of the future look like. Like imagining just
decentralized hubs of cohesion across the world. I mean, I think you look at the way our world is headed.
Borders, you know, we used to have a shared identity of the United States of America
because we lived within certain boundaries, sort of territorial boundaries.
But that's sort of breaking apart with the internet because now you can connect with
everybody else and you barely know your neighbors, right?
So how can we utilize that so we can come together ideologically, spiritually, and all do
what we need to do hyper locally so that we're not reliant on these centralized systems
that really don't have our best interest at heart, but really are looking to be as efficient as possible.
And the most profitable.
Right. That actually makes a lot of sense.
And that's, so that's kind of, and then when you did the thing with Earth Speed, then is it basically just shining a light on this and trying to find people who are like minded or entrepreneurial or people will do tell us what is called speed.
So Earth Speed is my, you know, continuing to be in communication and creativity,
film, and using technology to share what we're doing essentially.
So Earth Speed is a lifestyle in the cadence of nature. So it's a
lifestyle brand. Yeah. Really, it's like, hey, how can, how can we live a healthy, um, earth,
earth connected lifestyle and learn the skills so that we can be sovereign and competent within our own skin, within our own communities,
how do we share the tools and the methods
to actually survive in the coming world,
and highlighting entrepreneurs who are building businesses
that will scale those ideas out in the world.
Is that why you started a venture fund, though, too?
Yes.
And there's like four pillars of the venture.
What's it called on?
It's called the Contra-Eventures.
And I wanted to ask you something actually about
what you were mentioning, the NFTs, not that.
But that's kind of part of what this whole thing is about.
Not relying on actual, everything's going to be done in a more, well, in this
more new digital way.
Yeah.
Yeah, for me, it's about blending technologies, both ancient and new, to create a more connected life.
It's not about escaping into technology
and just leaving this place.
Right, right, right.
Being with your, what do they call that?
Virtual goggles.
Virtual goggles.
Virtual reality, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, we are goggles.
But it's about using that technology
to bring us closer to each other
and bring us down to Earth.
So yes, we want to share an open source, everything.
And that's one great thing about blockchain, right?
And Bitcoin is it's all very transparent
and open source.
Right, it's open source.
So everybody has eyes on it, everybody can utilize it.
There's no gatekeepers, no middlemen,
siphoning off pieces.
Right.
It's direct, you know, action with one another.
We can use those tools to start sharing wisdom,
sharing practical applications, how-to videos.
I mean, I can't tell you how much I've learned from YouTube.
Yeah, well, you know what,
I had a guy on who was an expert in NFTs and all this stuff
and he was telling me that, which I thought was fascinating,
people are like unaware of the community piece
of the Bitcoin blockchain world there is.
Like it's like, everything is very,
and it doesn't really make much sense to me
completely yet, but how it's so much about building these communities and like this honesty and
authenticity amongst the communities. Yes. That is so interesting to me. I didn't understand that.
Yeah, and it's ideologically driven. Yeah. People are, they mean it. They believe it. Yes. And what I see is, yeah, people are making a lot of money
just because it's inflated because it's exciting and new.
It's new.
But really why people are doing it is because what people
are going to be able to create is going to be unheard of.
Never before seen.
I have just a whole, like my friend group are now farmers.
And, you know, psychedelic crypto, you know, pirates.
Yeah, that's so different than what you're probably used to, right? It is so cool, because we get to be as creative as we always wanted to be.
But now we're not just creating for, you know, I used to, right? It is so cool, because we get to be as creative as we always wanted to be.
But now we're not just creating for, you know,
the movie screen or the television screen.
We're creating for something that's gonna actually
be tangible in real life.
It's the greatest story we could tell
is the one of our own life.
So does that mean, are you do have any,
I know that everyone's making their own NFTs. Are you, do you have an NFT or no? I mean, I've dabbled, I've done some, yeah, but, um,
you know, there's just like one-offs, just experiments. Yeah. But really what I'm looking to do is
bridge the gap between home-steadying, living sovereignly on the land,
right? Within community, and then being able to interface
with the world at large.
So, I'm not, you know, I'm just learning exactly what that looks like,
and there's so much innovation, and who knows,
one thing we're looking at is creating our own coin. So within our ecosystem, we can trade using our own currency.
So we're actually raising the value of what we're doing.
With we, by the way, our community.
Oh yeah, our community.
Yeah, okay.
Because you started this fund that, how did that, what made you,
how much of the fund worth, are you actually putting money into like these different
companies?
So we should talk a little bit about DeContra.
Yeah, I don't know what a timeline is, but.
You tell me, you're the gas.
I mean, I have no idea how long we've been going for.
You guys are right.
Almost 45 minutes.
Okay.
Just as long as you're fine.
Well, we'll just touch on DeContra briefly
just because that's important.
It is very important, especially for my audience.
Oh, yeah.
Contrapreneur, right?
Okay.
Yes, they would like to know about Ducontra for sure.
I feel like entrepreneurs are all in a right of passage
with themselves.
So, you know, it's like such a vital creative impulse
just to invent, be inventive.
Right. So, you know, I've started businesses, I've invested, I've started nonprofits, I've
done a lot of different types of business work. And recently, I wanted to formalize my investments and my desire to help the world.
So, sort of an impact fund called Ducontra.
And it basically took all of the deal flow that I had, all the opportunities I had as
a UN environment ambassador.
I meet a lot of people who want me to be a part of their projects that are trying to
change the world for the better.
I meet a lot of people who are building businesses that want me to be on their cap table. So I was able to bring
those together in the fund and define our sort of our worldview through the fund.
So we're investing through four verticals. One is human flourishing, which is the up-leveling of
the individual. So supporting people and entrepreneurs, everyday humans, and their betterment. So,
health, wellness, mental health, anything to actually support individuals to be more competent
and sovereign, as I was saying,
Communitas. Right.
Right. How do we bring people together?
The thing that makes humans different is not that we're survival of the fittest
and that we compete with each other. It's actually that we collaborate so well,
that we can actually work together to achieve abstract ideas that we can communicate
through language, and then go build it.
Yeah.
You'll make it so, manifest it.
So creating tools of community, collaboration, bringing people together.
The future of finance is another vertical in which we're investing in financial tools
of the future, instruments for more equity, more access,
Bitcoin platforms, other kinds of tools that will give more people access to the world's wealth, so that when they are leveled up as individuals, when they decide to work together,
they can use the tools of money to go out and actually build something.
So get them finance, get them flush.
And then finally, consumer, what are we consuming in how?
So better for you consumer goods, better for the planet,
innovations in what we're consuming in how.
So how long have you had this fun for?
So we're building it now.
I've been investing through DeContra for a couple of years.
We had a smaller fund, about 12 million.
And we had a lot of success.
So we decided to raise a bigger fund at 150.
So this was 150 million.
Correct.
Well, so what companies have you already been investing in,
or have you invested in, I should say,
any that I would know of? Yes. So right now we haven't deployed out of the second fund. Yeah. Oh, so for the first 12 million
fund. Yeah. So Blueland is one of our portfolio companies and they do cleaning products for the home, zero plastic, all natural.
They send compressed detergent essentially that you reconstitute in water.
So, they're not shipping around water and so they cut down on carbon emissions.
And it's right to your door.
So, it's direct to consumer.
Awesome company, highly recommend.
Where do you get that?
It's online and they just, they'll send you hand soaps and table cleaners and blue land.
Maybe you'll send me a little bit of samples of that.
I'm sure they would love to.
I have blue lands, okay.
Just eggs.
Oh, I like that.
Just they're incredible.
That's what it yours? Well, I mean, yeah, we're. Well, that's it. I didn't know that. Just they're incredible. That's what it yours?
Well, I mean, yeah, we're.
Well, that's it.
I didn't know that.
Part of the team, yeah.
Nice.
Okay, so what level, I'm spraying this time,
because I actually like that company.
So these have been all pretty early stage?
How early stage are you?
Our next fund will be later stage,
follow on growth.
Yeah, it was fund.
So this is the area, again, I was was not I didn't think that you were like
Even when you're saying earlier like you do all this like real estate investing and like you were doing all this so
You were kind of a ready debt like this your brain is already kind of
Was already this way like you're very entrepreneurial obviously and you're just now directing it in a very specific area.
Yeah, pretty much.
I mean, I see it again, it's a creative impulse.
Like I get to tell the story of,
you know, the greatest way that I can express my creativity
is by telling the story of our lives
through the businesses that I invest in.
So every business is a plot point, a story point, you know, about what's possible,
what we can create.
Because you look out in the world and you take it for granted, you think it's inevitable.
It's not.
It's just the businesses that have succeeded and they define our lifestyle.
They define how we see ourselves.
Bill Gates,
like, okay, who's next? Who's more grounded, more spiritually aligned, you know, entrepreneur,
that we can look up to, that we can idolize? Yeah, that's amazing. So when do these guys,
like, for example, just eggs or blue lands, at what stage do they come to you? Do they already have friends and family?
Were they already making a certain revenue a year?
What was the...
I mean, different businesses, different stages, different ways of getting into the deal.
Yeah, so it's...
I mean, I have to just go through each one, I guess.
Give me a couple other ones I'd like, I would know.
Seeds investor, like it would just have got, you know, seeds.
The probiotics, that, oh.
No, no, no, this is, this is a little bit more behind the scenes.
These are financial tools for financial advisors to help their clients invest more sustainably.
Oh, okay, I didn't know that one.
And these are all doing really, they're doing well.
They're doing very well, yeah.
So what kind of made you think, okay, I want to expand the fund.
You're looking out more things.
Is this an area that you enjoyed, you have a partner in it who's helping you with this?
So, Bob Mnuzzi is my partner in DuContra. Oh, okay. Yeah, she's awesome. She just had a baby,
shout out to her, to the moms, to the moms of the world. And yeah, she's been on maternity leave,
but I'll see her tomorrow and I'll get to meet the baby. Oh, nice. Congratulations.
She's awesome, immigrant from Brazil, powerful as female leader, and she's awesome.
So you guys have a team, other, what are the two of you?
Or just?
Yes, so we do have a team as well.
Boss really, I'd say she's the brains of the operation. What are you?
The brawn. No, I'm more the visionary. I'm more the creative type. Which is why I'm focusing
a lot on Earth speed as our communications arm to be able to share what we're doing and communicate
our own locations, arm to be able to share what we're doing and communicate our investments and highlight our entrepreneurs and our investors and tie it into a larger vision for what's
possible on an individual lifestyle level and then also a global potential.
So are you going to be now kind of staring away from like Hollywood movies or and and being kind of a book?
Am I actually?
Yeah, I actually might I'm joking. As long as it's aligned with my mission. Yeah, you know, because I did see fun only enough
I did see on Netflix clickbait. Oh, yeah, and I saw your face on it
And of course because I knew you're coming on the podcast. I had to watch like some of it. Oh yeah. And I saw your face on it. And of course, because I knew you're coming on the podcast.
I had to watch like some of it. Good film. Yeah. First of all, I was not expecting that because after everything I've been reading about you, I wasn't expecting to see that.
But it was actually you weren't in it very much that much, but it was good. You were like, I think I like you in Devils were, Devils were product. Like I like you in a lot of these things. So you're still doing it then. Yeah, yeah I mean, I'm open to it. I just I'm a busy guy. So it's got to be the right move. So how did that happen?
That they call you at whoever and like, Hey, we've a part apart for you or did you? Yeah, it's not, you know, yeah
So it's still not an agent. Yeah, you know, you're still like you're still kind of an after though, right?
Like I feel like I keep I think I'm forgetting a little bit that that you still have that as a part of you, you're not just one thing. You could be you could be many things. I can.
Yes. So call me if you have a if you have a project. Send me your script. Actually, please don't
yeah. We can't tell you how many people are going. My dentist has a script. Do you think you can
need a takeover? Yeah, I'm sure. Do you like living in Texas then?
Oh, yeah, I love it.
Yeah.
Did you like it more than you thought you would?
Or like, I'm surprised at New York.
I mean, the fact that I have a Texas driver's license
and I'm living and I wake up and I have to deal with
chickens and dirt all day long. Yeah. It's interesting because I never thought and I have to deal with chickens and dirt all day long.
It's interesting because I never thought that I could, I thought I was gonna die in Brooklyn.
Yeah, right.
Yeah, and I still might, you know, who knows.
Right, it could be a long, it could be a phase, really.
Yeah, but I don't think so.
I'm, you know, I just love waking up and being in nature and
just love waking up and being in nature and
Just being able to breathe and get into the rhythm of the earth
Right, what is your daily habit? Like what's the day in the life of you now? Like what do you do? What tape would time do you wake up with the chickens?
I guess but the rooster. I mean, it's it's chickens and seed starts and mending fences and
What time do you wake up though?
637. Okay. Yeah. I mean right now it's been you know kind of cozy in the winter.
There hasn't been a lot of demand just because things are having sleeping. Right. Are you traveling now a little bit more with everything opening?
Yeah and I don't know how that's going to look but I'll just tell you
highly recommend everyone getting their permaculture certification. Because not only is it, it's basically a systems design
principle that you can apply to the earth or gardening or farming, but you can also apply
it to every aspect of your life. And it's just highly recommend. And it's, you know, six
weeks later, you have your certification and it just, it's mind blowing and
really helpful frame for living.
Where does it teach you?
Well, what I was going to mention is the first principle of permaculture is to
observe and interact. Okay. So it doesn't want you to go impose your will, you know,
your ego on the land.
Okay.
So it actually wants you to observe and get a sense
of what the natural rhythms, the natural flows of nature
are, not just in a moment,
but throughout the seasons, over time.
So ideally, and not everybody has this luxury,
but ideally you just take your time
so you get to know the earth,
and it speaks to you and it tells you what it wants.
So that you're not like,
well, I'm gonna put a big building right there
and concrete across there,
and then GMOs and a bunch of corn and you know, monocrop
Because that's that's been our mentality. We want to dominate nature. We want to control it
In permaculture we want to live in harmony with it. So first you have to get to know it. It's like it's like dating
Get to know it. You don't want to like jump in the hey right away. Right
like dating, get to know it. You don't want to like jump in the,
hey, right away.
Right.
And last year, you know,
I'd enter our star and that happens all the time.
But yeah, but I get different.
Yes, I get your point.
Right.
So that being said,
the projects that we have undertaken
thus far are very small.
And as we continue to live and grow,
we'll start to take on more over time.
Okay, what's the second and third principle of permaculture?
You said the first and third.
There's 12 of them.
We can really get into it.
I mean, obtain a yield, embrace slow and small solutions, embrace change creatively, utilize the margins and maximize your edges.
A few principles and use sustainable or regenerative energy.
And so you think everyone should, what happens if they can't do what you think they
just still get this?
100% yeah.
Oh yeah, because it'll just change the way you see the world and the way you're effective.
Even if you're building a business.
Yeah.
I mean, especially businesses of the future.
That's true.
That's true.
We're looking for regenerative businesses.
Businesses that are not just hyper focused on turning the dollar
And you know, and who cares what the you know the environmental cost is absolutely
You know, we want businesses. They're actually going to be good for the planet before humanity at large and
gives you know
Gives a return as as the byproduct Yeah. Like financial return is the waste product. Absolutely, that's true.
What else do I have to ask you?
I mean, is there anything I kind of forgot?
No, but I feel like we've attended it.
I don't know, we're gonna wrap this up right now.
So, Adrian, you've been a delight.
I'm so happy that you came on this podcast.
Thanks for having me.
You're great. And I just learned so much more about you. Adrian, you've been a delight. I'm so happy that you came on this podcast. Thanks for having me.
You're great. I just learned so much more about you.
It's actually very interesting things that I'd never thought of, that you were involved with.
So where do people find more information about your stuff, your earth speed?
Earth speed. Yeah, please do.
Please do check out Earth speed. We're on YouTube and also Instagram. Just building up right
now, doing it permaculture style, slow and steady. Yeah, and so my hopes are that when people go
see Earth Speed, they can learn a little bit for themselves, how they can be more self-sufficient, and be more in connection with the Earth, and live a lifestyle in the cadence
of nature.
So as we grow, we're going to have guests, and we're going to have speakers, and we're
going to have correspondence from nature.
And so check it out.
And then also do Contra as our investment company as well.
So you can check out docontra.ventures or at docontra.ventures on Instagram.
Oh yeah, good Instagram account for that too.
Yes, yes. We do.
Good for you. Well, thank you. And now we're going to go do another part two.
We're going to do cooking with Cohen. So I know he's probably
like, what? What are we doing? But thank you. You know seriously, thanks for being on the podcast.
Cheers. Thanks. Bye. Bye. Our loud host to buy Jennifer Cohen, visionary soon in, you can get to know.
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