Nick Gray, The Underdog Wunderkind and Superconnector

At the intersection of architecture is art, creativity, design, engineering, sociology, psychology, and inspiration, not to mention survival, sustainability, and comfort. It’s been said that architecture is the art we live in. We’re all impacted by the communities in which we live, the spaces in which we work, along with the places we visit and experience throughout our lives. 

So what is it that makes for good architectural design? How does a space become iconic? How does an architect go from project, to design, to engineering, to completion?  Well, Lance Cayko knows a lot about the answers to those questions, and more. 

Lance is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of the architecture firm, F9 Productions, with Alex Gore. His career in architecture, engineering, and construction spans over two decades and includes numerous design awards including the international Architizer A+ Award for Architecture + Living Small. Their firm earned the #1 spot as BizWest's Mercury 100 Fastest-Growing Private Firms. 

As an architect, Lance discussed the various benefits as also being the builder and developer on a project, both from a business success aspect but also in dealing with the various practical considerations of project management at scale. We also discussed the types of projects and clients that he finds most fulfilling to work with. 

Lance’s perspective on the intersection of design and entrepreneurship yields examples and lessons for architects as well as any other founder or entrepreneur, regardless of field, and how it has influenced his approach to business and achieving an amazing growth rate of 386%(!). He believes that a strong design strategy plays a powerful role in contributing to the success of a business.

Lance is a great role model for living a life in full, not just a founder and architect, but also how to be antifragile in a field with more than its fair share of challenges via mindful leadership and creativity. I think you will enjoy this episode with such an authentic and innovative individual.

To succeed in a fast-changing world, individuals and companies know they must create a culture of growth, where experimentation and feedback are encouraged, and learning is integrated into the everyday. Yet we often get stuck in a well-worn pattern of habits that don’t move us forward. Why?

How do you get better at something? You do a lot of it. The 10,000 hour rule. Practice makes perfect, right? Maybe not. What if our focus only on performing doesn’t lead to the hoped for improvements, and instead our performance suffers?

Well, there is a strange phenomenon that runs counter to what most of us would think is a key ingredient to improving our performance--that is--if we spend all our time performing, we actually hinder our performance. Worse yet, this applies to us as individuals, to our teams, and in our organizations, and it’s called The Performance Paradox.

Eduardo Briceño knows a lot about this phenomenon and he has written a new book on how to recognize it, and what to do about it. The book is aptly titled The Performance Paradox: Turning the Power of Mindset into Action, and is published by Random House.

We discuss how to
• avoid falling into the chronic performance trap that stagnates growth
• identify when and how to unlock the power of mistakes
• integrate learning into daily habits in ways that stick
• lead teams that constantly improve and outperform their targets
• grow your skill level and output simultaneously and for the long term

Discover how to balance learning and performing to bolster personal and team success with this revolutionary guide from a world renowned expert on growth mindset. 

Eduardo Briceno's life is a testament to the profound impact that a growth mindset can have on personal and professional success. His relentless pursuit of knowledge and his mission to help others unlock their full potential continue to inspire individuals and organizations on their journeys toward excellence.

How do you become an innovator?

What sparks creativity?

What goes into creating something that becomes iconic?

Instead of predicting the future, what if you could create it?

Well, that is pretty much what Hussain Almossawi does. He easily walks between digital and physical worlds as he creates futuristic concepts, experiences and objects.

Hussain is an award-winning industrial designer, CGI/Visual Effects Artist, and best-selling author of The Innovator's Handbook. He has worked across industries and around the world consulting for companies such as Nike, Apple, Adidas, EA Sports, Intel, and Ford Motor Company, among others. He is a frequent keynote speaker on innovation and design, and has taught at the Parsons School of Design, The New School, and other institutions.

Born in Bahrain, Hussain came to the US and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from the University of Illinois, and his Masters in Industrial Design at the University of Alberta with his thesis on "Biomimetics, Innovation, and Design.”

In 2019, Hussain founded Mossawi Studios, a multi-disciplinary design studio specializing in creating memorable, iconic, and bold experiences. He loves blurring the lines between the digital and physical worlds, creating futuristic concepts and experiences, and storytelling. At the time of this conversation, Hussain has just won first place in the DNA Paris Design Awards with his Lamborghini Performance Footwear project – which is beautiful and amazing.

Hussain is an inspiration and works to make the world a more beautiful and functional place, I can’t wait to see what he does next!

Leaders come in a variety of types and approaches. There are the proverbial Chainsaw Al’s - those tough-talking executives who are aggressive in their turning around troubled companies by laying off workers and closing factories. 

There are the Jack Welch types who at first seem like geniuses, but are later found to not have created sustainable change. There is a litany of heroes and scoundrels, crooks and kings of all stripe, throughout various areas of work-life and the world. 

But what if there was a more heart-centered style of leadership? Something that binds the power of compassion, empathy, and authenticity together in making decisions and informing relationships with those we work and collaborate with? 

Well, there is, and Deb Crowe literally wrote the book on it, or should I say the Playbook, as she is the author of the newly published Heart-Centered Leadership Playbook.

Deborah Crowe is an entrepreneurial leader with a wealth of experience coaching individuals at all levels, as well as consulting, training, and teaching, as a college professor. She also hosts the popular podcast imperfect and companion Substack newsletter, How to Master The Art of Heart. 

Deb has navigated the entrepreneurial landscape for more than 30 years, and possesses a keen understanding of market dynamics, customer needs, and innovation. Coupled with her diverse life experiences, she is an out-of-the-box and innovative thinker. Her visionary leadership style fosters a collaborative and inclusive work environment, where employees thrive and contribute their best.

Deb’s Heart-Centered Leadership Playbook is a transformative guide that redefines the traditional approach to leadership by emphasizing the power of compassion, empathy, and authenticity. In this groundbreaking book, author and heart-centered leader Deb Crowe delves into the core principles of heart-centered leadership, providing practical tools and strategies to inspire individuals and organizations to lead with purpose and passion.

The Playbook is a must-read for aspiring leaders, seasoned executives, and anyone seeking to create positive change in their personal and professional lives. 

In this episode we covered what heart-centered leadership is, Heart-Centered Leadership Qualities - what they are along with some examples, and some simple and easy methods to integrate heart-centered leadership into one’s life and work, and much, much more. Be sure to tune in and hear the whole story. Deb is an amazing and heart-centered leader who sincerely walks-the-talk in her work and life, and is the epitome of how one can live a life in full, and in service to others and the world. 

On July 6, 2003, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's historic op-ed, "What I Didn't Find in Africa," appeared in The New York Times. A week later, Robert Novak revealed in his Washington Post column that Ambassador Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA operative. 

It ended her covert career and set off a political scandal that rocked the Bush/Cheney White House. The public disclosure of that secret information spurred a federal investigation and led to the trial and conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, and the Wilsons' civil suit against top officials of the Bush administration. 

Valerie had worked to protect America’s national security and prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, in particular, nuclear weapons. All that ended, with the public disclosure. 

Valerie has amazing resilience and skillsets. Today she is serves on a number of boards and is affiliated with the Santa Fe Institute, the trans-disciplinary scientific think tank created by two Nobel Prize winners to address the most compelling and complex problems in the world today.

Valerie has lectured throughout the country and internationally on cyber security issues, national security, nuclear proliferation, women in intelligence, and the NSA revelations, and authored The New York Times best-selling memoir Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House, which was also released as a major motion picture of the same name starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts. 

Along with Sarah Lovett, she’s written two fictional spy thrillers Blowback and Burned. She also served as the narrator and appeared as an expert in the film Countdown to Zero, a documentary on the threat of nuclear war. Valerie also heads up the TED-like annual conference, Spies, Lies, and Nukes in Santa Fe.

Valerie has lived her life in full in public, and private service and is an inspiration to each and every one of us.

Investment research created by large banks, mid-sized banks, and even smaller boutiques is frequently muddled by conflicts of interest, and its value diminished by over-distribution. Analysts often feel pressure to have positive ratings to support bankers or to generate corporate access. 

And the time horizon of most research is typically very short, causing analysts to miss long-term winners due to near-term considerations. But the biggest issue is that most analysts have no proprietary information or process. Additionally, what are the mental models that can best serve not only making investment decisions, but also the various other choices we make in our lives?

 John Zolidis has a lot to say about all that. As to the investment aspects, via Quo Vadis Capital, where he is President and Founder, he provides a research service that, while designed for the buy-side, is organized to solve for the sell-side’s issues. If you’re not exactly sure what that means, we’ll unpack all that and more in this conversation.

John’s work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, The New York Post, Marketwatch.com, The Street.com and others; he was named in the Wall Street Journal’s “Best on the Street” list, and is a part of value-investing conferences in Vail, Cyprus, Klosters, London, and Dubai.    

Please note, in this episode, we are not providing any investment instruction or recommendations.  Please consult your financial advisor for investment advice that is appropriate for your personal financial situation, risk tolerance and objectives.  

Have you ever had the experience of working with someone and they just didn't “get” you? They do all the things that wind you up, put you off, and drive you nuts. And, have you ever worked with someone, and you just didn't “get” them? You couldn't figure out what made them tick, and you know that you were underwhelming, as a manager and leader for them.

Of course you have. We all have.

So why do those situations keep happening? Particularly when we’ve also experienced the opposite – great working relationships that soar. Our working relationships are fundamental, if not critical, to our success and happiness.

Now imagine if you could keep your best relationships humming along for as long as possible. Imagine if you could contain the dysfunction of the messy ones so they’re less painful and more productive. Imagine if you could reset your solidly-OK-relationships so that when they wobble, they could more quickly get back on track.

Well, in his latest book, How To Work with (Almost) Anyone, internationally bestselling author Michael Bungay Stanier writes about a tested process that sets up working relationships for the best possible success. He understands that every working relationship, whether it’s with our direct reports, our boss, or our coworkers, will become challenging at a certain point. In this episode, we’ll discuss how to communicate about who you are, and what brings out the best and the worst in you. 

Michael has a gift for distilling big, complex ideas into practical, accessible knowledge for everyday people that helps them be a force for good. He is also at the forefront of shaping how organizations around the world make being coach-like an essential leadership competency. His books have sold over a million copies, with The Coaching Habit topping the Wall Street Journal bestseller list and it is also the best-selling coaching book of this century, with over a million copies sold. Seth Godin called it “the best book on coaching” and Brené Brown said it is “a classic.” 

He's also written an impressive shelf’s worth of other notable tomes, including: Get Unstuck & Get Going, Great Work Provocations, Do More Great Work, The Advice Trap, How to Begin, and his most recent book How to Work with (Almost) Anyone, which did a deep dive into in this episode.

Death might seem to render pointless all of our attempts to create a meaningful life. But Professor Dean Rickles argues that only constraints―and death is the ultimate constraint―make our actions meaningful. In order for us to live full lives, Dean believes it is the finiteness and shortness of life that brings meaning. In this episode we explore how this insight is the key to making the most of the time that we do have.

Dr. Dean Rickles is a Professor of History and Philosophy of Modern Physics at The University of Sydney. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Leeds with a thesis on conceptual issues in quantum gravity. He is also the Co-Director of the Sydney Centre for Time, an Advisor for The Lifeboat Foundation, and Co-leads a Templeton Foundation-funded interdisciplinary project on the flow of time. His primary research focus is the history and philosophy of modern physics, particularly quantum gravity and spacetime physics. 

Dean’s authored dozens of peer-reviewed articles along with a number of books. He is also a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and the Foundational Questions Institute. 

The primary focus of our conversation was on his latest book, Life Is Short. I personally really enjoyed it, and midway through I set it aside to send Dean a request to be on the podcast as I knew I needed to connect and discuss it. 

Life is Short explores how death limits our options and forces us to make choices that forge a life and give the world meaning. Therein Dean writes that people often live in a state of indecision, in a misguided attempt to keep their options open.

“By reminding us how extraordinary it is that we have any time to live at all, Life Is Short challenges us to rethink what gives life meaning and how to make the most of it."

Dean has said that he, himself feels that that life is too short, so I asked him about some of the ways he lives his, albeit too short life, in full. While this is a deep, deep conversation that covers many disciplines, our specific discussion on Life is Short I think will be of interest to anyone wanting to live their life in full.

Is loneliness the new smoking? A number of studies and polls have recently come out that indicate Americans of all ages, socioeconomic, and geographic locations are more isolated and alone that in any other time in recent history. Some postulate this has been spurred by people isolating themselves via increased screen time, alienating and divisive social media posts, remote working, and perhaps augmented by living in a post-Covid era. 

Regardless of the causes, Nick Gray is wielding name tags and a harmonica, and rolling up his sleeves to remedy this new plague, which we’ll be discussing in this episode. But first who is Nick Gray? Well, he is a bit of an underdog wunderkind. Let me explain.

At age 14, Nick while in middle school, built websites and was making $70 per hour, which later on helped pay his tuition at Wake Forest University. After graduating, he helped build and grow the family business, which they sold and now Nick manages their family office.

While living in New York and, based on his disdain for museums, but smitten on a date to The Met, he built and launched a multi-million dollar, Inc. 5000 company, called Museum Hack. He also did a TEDx talk about it (which has been watched by more than 75,000 people), and then sold the company, as many of us do. Along the way he also lived in India and produced a Bollywood music video.

He’s been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Newsweek, and New York Magazine. In addition to having been a featured speaker at TEDx, he’s also presented at The DO Lectures and The Skift Conference, among many others.

Needless to say, Nick is not your everyday entrepreneur, or person. His latest foray is that of author, and we’ll do a deep dive into his new book, The 2-Hour Cocktail Party, a step-by-step handbook that teaches you how to build relationships by hosting small gatherings.

Nick is the poster-boy for living your life in full, connecting with others and building community more so than an audience. Tune in to learn how he does it, and how you can, too.