Rebuilding the American Dream: Futurist & Best-Selling Author Cynthia L Elliott on Coalition Radio

Join us for an enlightening conversation with Cynthia Elliott, an inspirational speaker, author, and AI philanthropist, as she unpacks her groundbreaking book, "A New American Dream: Conscious AI for a Future Full of Promise." Cynthia's journey from a tech PR trailblazer to a conscious living teacher offers listeners a unique perspective on integrating spirituality with technology to elevate human consciousness. We'll explore her visionary work with SoulTech, an organization determined to bridge educational gaps in underserved communities and challenge the conventional Silicon Valley mindset.

This episode dives deep into the complexities of democratizing AI innovation and regulation, emphasizing the crucial need for diverse voices in shaping a future that benefits everyone. Reflecting on past tech booms, we discuss lessons learned and the importance of thoughtful engagement rather than fear-based approaches. Cynthia and I also explore the impact of corporate financial influence on politics, the decline of the American Dream, and how fearless innovation and involvement in political discourse can rejuvenate America's prosperity and infrastructure.

Tackling the transformative power of education, we highlight initiatives aimed at revolutionizing training systems to meet current economic demands. Cynthia's insights on the evolving roles of influencers in the digital world reveal how they can drive societal growth beyond superficial endorsements. This episode is a call to action for listeners to embrace cha

Spiritual guru, two-time #1 best-selling author, and higher consciousness advocate Shaman Isis (aka Cynthia L. Elliott) is on a mission to turn the tide of the mental and spiritual health crisis with mindfulness practices, incredible events, powerful content, and motivational storytelling that inspire your heroes journey! Learn more about her books, courses, speaking engagements, book signings, and appearances at ShamanIsis.com.

Ready for a life transformation? Ready to bring your dreams to life? Then you will want Glowup With Shaman Isis: The Collection of inspiring books and courses filled with life lessons and practices that raise your vibration and consciousness. 

Ready for a life transformation? Ready to bring your dreams to life? Then you will want Glowup With Shaman Isis: The Collection of inspiring books and courses filled with life lessons and practices that raise your vibration and consciousness. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Human Consciousness in the Age of AI
• 9:38 Democratizing AI Innovation and Regulation
• 16:54 Reimagining Public Engagement in Politics
• 24:08 Revitalizing American Prosperity and Infrastructure
• 28:53 Revolutionizing Education for Economic Growth
• 39:09 Navigating Gatekeepers in the Influencer Economy
• 54:19 Empowering Change Through Consciousness
• 1:05:21 Empowering Consciousness and Fearlessness
• 1:11:25 Promoting Empowerment and Community Growth

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:56

Good evening. Welcome back to the Washington Outsider Report on the Coalition Radio. For those newly joining the program, my name is Irina Tsukerman and I am the editor of the Washington Outsider. Today with us, we have a very exciting guest, cynthia Elliott. She's an inspirational speaker. She's a best-selling author, a futur, a conscious living teacher, a PR pioneer, a conceptual artist and an AI philanthropist, and we'll talk about all of these things, but especially we'll be talking about her new book a new American dream, uh, conscious AI for a future full of promise, and what that actually means and how, how that is tied up to the transformation of the United States. Thank you, cynthia, for joining us today. Before we get into your new book, let's talk a little bit about yourself. What drives you? How did you get into this tech PR inspiration sphere? You get into this tech PR inspiration sphere and tell us about your, your organization, soltech, and everything else you've been involved in.

Speaker 2: 2:08

Oh, thank you, I appreciate it. So good to see you again. I'm excited to be here. Hi, I'm Cynthia L Elliott. I'm a conscious living author and inspirational speaker and futurist and, you know, as you get older, you to add titles, so I do have a lot going on. But you know, I think that's what happens when you get more dynamic as you age, and so I love it.

Speaker 2: 2:29

I spent 20 years working in the marketing and PR world and forged some incredible new focuses within my industry, such as influencer marketing and brand communications. Some definitely qualify as a legitimate PR pioneer. Before I had a real life transformation, you know, I had been unhappy for a really long time. I didn't know how to drive that ship. I didn't know what happiness was, and it was in learning how to raise my human consciousness that I've dramatically changed my life and shifted away from my history of being a PR pioneer and moved more towards being a teacher and author and AI entrepreneur. So a few years ago, I started writing books and I've written three. Now, two of them have hit number one, which I feel very blessed to be able to share, and the purpose of all of them is to help raise human consciousness and to drive us towards solutions over soundbites.

Speaker 2: 3:24

I've always been intrigued by technology. It's been a huge part of my career because it's a huge part of, you know, marketing and public relations and communications and it was in evolving as a person and finding ways that I could raise human consciousness and help raise up underserved communities that have stumbled across the need to support the 120 million transitioning workers in upskilling so that they can succeed in the age of AI. You know, I was around 20 years ago during the last tech boom and I saw a lot of people get left behind and I just don't want to see that happen again. It's very likely at the speed that we're moving at, and so that was really the purpose behind the SoulTech AI Foundation, soultechfoundationorg. Our first courses are rolling out to teach literacy and basic skills and conscious mindset to underserved communities, and I feel really excited about that. And, of course, now I've got my most recent book, a New American Dream, which of course involves AI and helping people that I'm excited to be sharing with people.

Speaker 1: 4:24

Well, this is amazing, and it sounds like SOTAC is doing exactly the sort of educational outreach and bridge building that we all say we need more of, but no one actually knows how to do, and I'm so glad to hear that someone is actually doing it. Before we get into a little bit more into all of that, you also have an alter ego, shaman Isis. Would you tell us about that and what, yeah, does that mean to you and why that particular combination?

Speaker 2: 4:56

yeah, you know I am. When I had my real awakening and learned to love myself, I had been called to shamanism when I was really young and I was like I'm sorry that sounds way too much like being a priest or a nun, because I was a snotty little kid. But the truth is shamanism is the oldest spiritual practice and healer. That is a part of history. It's been around since the dawn of man and it's actually the community leader that helps bring people to, helps bridge people to their highest version of themselves, and so it's quite an honorable choice to practice shamanism and to help bridge people to their higher self. And when I asked my spirit guides what I should call myself, they suggested shaman Isis. And I was like, oh sorry, you want me to use a pen name and spiritual avatar that's not only got the word shaman in it, which is already kind of like people are like what? Because it's a re-education process, but then you want me to add isis to it.

Speaker 2: 5:52

I was like that's so cringe. You know like I'm gonna have so many issues with that. They're like that's the reason 10 000 year old female goddess is getting erased from history because of something a handful of men have done in the last 25 years and it's just not. It's not cool. So part of your process is educating people that Isis is actually the goddess of healing and motherhood and was worshipped all over the planet for thousands of years. And we don't want to see women. We've seen enough women get erased from history. We don't need to see any more, even if she is a is a goddess. So, yeah, that's the story behind that. It's my spiritual avatar when I teach courses and help people learn to raise their human consciousness. Uh, it's in channeling, uh, shamanicis, which is, like you know, if you think of beyonce, she's got sasha fierce, I got shamanicis that that's great.

Speaker 1: 6:38

And actually this brings me to the question I've been meaning to ask, which is how do we bring spirituality into technology? I mean, we're seeing this whole Silicon Valley thing going on and we're seeing all these Silicon Bros, and there is something a little bit off-putting about that whole social scene. It's not just even the money, so much as this power struggle and this sort of you know, grasp for control of information, of data, of, you know, of information space. How do we get, break past through the control of the sphere but these types of people with this type of attitude and this type of agenda and bring in a meaningful angle as spiritual consciousness in the way technology is being adapted? How do we humanize that aspect of our uh, of our current environment?

Speaker 2: 7:39

yeah, that's a great question. You know I get asked a lot about how I connect consciousness to AI and the truth is, is that? Well, human consciousness and being and raising your consciousness is really about an evolved spiritual practice within the human that allows them to choose their perception, to choose their perspective, to operate at the highest possible frequency and vibration. Everything is vibration, everything is frequency, and we've kind of gotten hijacked in recent decades and technology really became like we sort of became a tool for technology instead of us using technology as a tool. And it's in thinking about the age of AI and the dominance of AI and the consciousness that AI will achieve a certain level of consciousness However you want to label that it will and it behooves humanity to raise human consciousness and gift people with the tools for emotional, mental mastery so that we master AI and AI is not the master of us, which is honestly the future that we look toward, if we allow what happened 20 years ago, with a handful of companies sort of running the show and making massive decisions for huge swaths of the world, and I don't want to see that happen again.

Speaker 2: 8:55

And it is in people, humanity, a certain percentage of us being in higher levels of consciousness where we're not easy to manipulate, where we're not easy to fool, where we know truth when we feel it and hear it, that we'll be able to manage this situation in a way that's more equitable and ethical for the average person, instead of benefiting a handful of companies that'll be running the show and you know, it's like the haves and the have-nots is a realistic proposition. I mean, we're already seeing that the collapse of the middle class because of our lack of paying attention. So for me, raising human consciousness and utilizing AI for good go hand in hand, because we need both of those for us to make the most of it. I mean it's a wonderful opportunity. We've entered the fourth industrial revolution. Massive change is going to take place, but once, can we not just stand by and watch it happen? Can we just be strategic about how it's done and be conscious in the evolution of it so we can use it for good? That's really my whole shtick.

Speaker 1: 9:54

So this is the thing that I've always been meaning to ask when you have this massive overhaul in technology, this massive modernization and revolutionizing processes, automating processes, all of that is supposed to sort of democratize the sphere and give more opportunities to more people. But how is it that when we had this sort of social media communications revolution yes, on the one hand it helped bring so many more people together and kind of transform and globalize our interactions, our transactions, but on the other hand, so few people ended up gaining such massive control and, you know, the humanity became dependent on those small groups of people and their decision making and their good judgment to drive the entire private communication sphere. How can we avoid that from happening here? How does that even happen?

Speaker 2: 11:01

that happened? Yeah, I think that's a. That's one of the reasons why I'm so obsessed with the using the fourth industrial revolution to get ahead of it and use it strategically to create change within the massive change that's coming, because I've watched what happens, and what happens is the new toys come along and because humanity it doesn't have higher levels of consciousness. You know, as a rule around the world, we're easy to distract with drama, fear-driven narratives, chaos and new toys. And you know, 20 years ago, when we were in the last tech boom, we had a handful of people bring out some toys that allowed them to get a lot of influence over people and they distracted us by focusing the use of it and making money for themselves and gaining more power.

Speaker 2: 11:46

And I don't think that they set out sometimes they did, but I don't think they necessarily set out that way. That's what happens when you get a taste of power and control and you think you know what's better for humanity than perhaps the people themselves. We've seen that time and again, again, that people, when they get power and control, will become greedy with it and begin to tell themselves stories that justify their behavior. And you know, we ended up all losing our privacy. We did, you know, we were sold out. We were sold on the river. We let it happen.

Speaker 2: 12:16

And I think that's the difference in this industrial revolution is that we've learned a lot. We've seen what happens instead of standing by and playing with the new toys and going geez, isn't this cool? While we're getting ripped off and being told how to behave and what to think, that we actually be conscious of the change as it's happening and slow it down if we need to, which I know is going to be very hard, because when greed gets involved and power and control gets involved, we kind of get taken for a ride. But I think we're powerful enough and we're communicating enough with each other now. So social media for a long time really wasn't a source of greatness. It was a source of some pretty destructive behaviors like eating disorders and superficiality. In recent years, because of the closures that we've really seen, social media begin to be utilized to bring together a more common understanding amongst the average person about the power that we have to build the world that we want, and I think that really harnessing that is so important right now.

Speaker 1: 13:15

Well, we are seeing kind of a very mixed dynamic on the AI scene. On the one hand, you have a few big companies driving a lot of innovation. On the other hand, you have more companies trying to integrate AI processes in the way they do things, which is good. You don't just have a couple of companies using it. You have more people understanding what a tool it can be and at least integrating some of it, but still the bulk of innovation is still driven by a fairly limited number of actors. So how do we democratize this and the distribution of these tools? How do we get more people involved earlier on and not be scared of something that sounds like a mixture of magic and thought? Yeah, I think one. We need to be able to question some of these companies scared of something that sounds like a mixture of magic and thought.

Speaker 2: 14:02

Yeah, I think one. We need to be able to question some of these companies. So I'm a huge fan of I am I'm a huge fan of Google and Apple and companies like that, but they've been allowed to do things because of their political influence that aren't necessarily always that cool. I think we have to be able to question companies and not wait until it's 20 years later to say, oh gosh, maybe you have too much influence over what the average person thinks. But also, you know, in situations like so, I saw that the White House had put together a panel of people to start to begin to deal with AI, and you know what the list was?

Speaker 2: 14:34

Oh gee, the same old people that are on every listing committee. There's no outliers. You know, we keep doing that. We keep putting the same stupid companies and people in charge, and it's fine that we have those super power, because we need them there to answer questions too, and to help guide and to make big decisions that will help the future of humanity.

Speaker 2: 14:52

But we need people that are there, that aren't afraid to ask them questions and call them out, and that aren't part of that system. And that's the problem when your whole table is filled with the same people who are already part of the system, who are gristing and making you know huge decisions for all of us. You need alternatives, you need outliers that are there, that think differently. You know, and I see that time and time again most of the time when I deal with I have dealt with companies and helping turn them around and reposition them on the global map. The reason they got there in the first place is because they have the same stupid thinking repeating itself. You know, I think that would be a good place to start, but I think engaging the public and discourse and conversation about these decisions is super important what should this conversation look like?

Speaker 1: 15:35

because every time we have some sort of a crisis we hear about, you know, especially politicians love to use the phrase well, we want to have a discussion, but then nothing really happens, because they keep discussing the same thing with the same people, or they just use it as a catchphrase to actually avoid a discussion. So what would really a serious public debate mean? You know what an info, what would an informed debate mean? What would be the format for for something like that?

Speaker 2: 16:06

that would really give people an opportunity to both learn and express their concerns and opinions yeah, I think a dynamic, uh round table that is not just the typical players but has um people that are willing to say the tough things, that are willing to ask the tough questions, are willing to call things out, would be important and then, you know, calling some really great, powerful questions that really run the gamut to allow the people to have a real powerful discussion openly in front of people and encourage them to say I don't know when, I don't know, instead of filling the pipeline full of BS, bs, because we get enough of that and, you know, in terms of politicians, we have got to get corporate money out of politics because in the last 15 years, since they did something I forget the name of it, I was talking about that this morning they made some decision that I'm forgetting at this moment.

Speaker 2: 16:55

That took us from, you know, corporations having a little bit of financial influence in politics to having unprecedented, unlimited financial influence, and that has begun the beginning of the end of the middle class in America. It really has. I can actually see it. I can just see it from a timeline perspective. If we didn't have so much influence over our politicians from corporations, they might be having more honest and open conversations about how to actually engineer real change.

Speaker 1: 17:21

Well, the problem with the corporations is, in theory, the various stakeholders in the corporation, the board of directors, the shareholders all these people are supposed to be part of the process. It shouldn't be left to a handful of executives and a couple of officers to monopolize the running of the company. But we're seeing exactly the opposite. We're seeing most shareholders not really exercising their power. Board of Directors rubber-stamping decisions as long as there's not some egregiously wild issue that is very likely to violate all sorts of compliance regulations, that it's very likely to violate all sorts of compliance regulations. So how do we get more engaged? Public Especially? You know people are overwhelmed. They're overwhelmed with information. They're overwhelmed with distrustful, inaccurate sources. They're overwhelmed with day jobs. The best they can do is buy some stock and just hope that it'll make them some money. They don't really get engaged in the active governance.

Speaker 2: 18:27

I think things have gotten so distressed and people have gotten so disgusted that getting people to get involved isn't going to be difficult if we take a different approach.

Speaker 2: 18:34

So one of the problems with the way that the politics is handled is it's treated like politics.

Speaker 2: 18:39

Running this country it's a freaking business.

Speaker 2: 18:43

Running America should be treated like a business and the people should feel like stockholders, because they are.

Speaker 2: 18:47

And if we took a different approach, a more professional approach, a more business-like approach to running our country and made decisions because they were best for the people and not because somebody's buttering up some foreign interest so they can send trillions of dollars, that somehow ends up coming right back around to some of the same people Like it's nuts, I think that would.

Speaker 2: 19:05

That would help and if people felt like they were actually being listened to in that type of forum. So if you talk about like stockholders and those business meetings and like a stockholders meeting, let's change the way that we're doing things and have real debates where real conversation and real questions that aren't pre-prepared in advance are asked, where people are allowed to really engage and do it on a more frequent basis, not just make it a special occasion. It has to be like a hey, here's our business meeting of the week, instead of us sitting around watching a handful of politicians, you know gerrymander with each other like it's insanity so, you know, being educated in the issues is the step one of people being able to feel comfortable enough to even think about engaging.

Speaker 1: 19:58

the problem is, of course, we have this completely crazy process in which, on the one hand, because we're so open, innovation is bursting forth from the seams and we you know startups are growing, people are experimenting, they're failing, but they're also succeeding. On the other hand, there is no streamlining that would allow people to catch up. There is no anyone responsible for educating. Really. Yes, companies, organizations like SOTL are out there, but most people don't know that they exist unless they're already kind of in that sphere. How to reach the public? Who should be doing this? Outreach, educating the public, giving them the skills they need to be able to take charge of their own lives in this sphere?

Speaker 2: 20:47

I don't know. That's actually a really good question. I think one of the problems that we suffer from is that the public doesn't feel like it's heard anymore and it's like how. I think we have to revisit how we're engaging with and hearing the public and make it a more democratic process where we're not able to pre-predict what the person's going to say. So it's part of the problem with politics when they're picking people because they're going to ask the question that they already want to have asked, people stop engaging because they feel like it's all a setup anyway. So if we're going to re-engage with people, I think we start with the people who already care and highlight them in a way that you know. I think that's it's about revisiting the way the system is done and showing the shareholders being represented by people within their community and highlighting those people, not because they're Democrats or Republicans, but because they're actually engaged in the process of discourse.

Speaker 2: 21:44

We don't really do that. It's all about parties and party lines, and that's prevented us, as a people, from coming together and saying OK, let's leave those topics to the side the ones that are always used to gaslight everybody, and let's talk about some serious issues in the way we can actually address them and highlight those people, not the political affiliation they have. So that's always been. The problem with America is that we're just the parties actually cause more issues oftentimes than they than they help. As far as I can see, it creates a division within conversation about any type of change. That is unhealthy. You know, I think it's going to be. The next coming years are going to be really interesting because I think we're going to see an unprecedented level of involvement from the people Who've reached their tolerance and they've had a few years practice with their own microphones and their own podcasts and their own live streams where they're like you know what? We're gonna ask some questions now I think that is good.

Speaker 1: 22:37

Actually, I think the world of podcasting, the fact that people now have voices, um, and have this ability to engage with each other, even if they don't have huge uh you know audiences not everybody is at the top of the industry or well-known influencer, but still the having the ability to know that you know you have something to say and you have a way to saying it can be empowering. Of course, it can also attract a lot of crazy people, such as life, so, um, but you know it's interesting. So know one thing I want to see how this kind of transformation from centralized conversation to this sort of decentralized how can it be managed in a way that doesn't turn into complete chaos, on the one hand, but, on the other hand, also puts pressure on the decision makers to consider diverse perspectives and not just choose the perspectives that they want out of the cacophony of opinions?

Speaker 2: 23:41

yeah, I think they have to consider doing a lottery, where they're highlighting different people that are shareholders the american people that are shareholders and ask them and do some prep in advance. Where they're asking them to come with a couple of of what they believe to be evidence based things that they've sourced, really encouraging them to begin to educate themselves and then be prepared to answer those questions, even if it means resorting to doing some quick research to be able to address them. I think we really have to turn the way that the reciprocal communication happens between our leaders and our people and be willing to turn it on its head because it's not working the way it is. It's just not, you know, I think that's one of the reasons why people are so frustrated. So I think in the book A New American Dream, one of the things I really push is that we have to be fearless and try new things and stop doing things the way that we've done them because they're not working. That's how America's lost its American dream. You know, we've just been out sitting in the American people and sitting on the sidelines for a long time now, just sort of like we were enjoying the fruits until the fruits started drying up and now that the middle class is dying, suddenly people are like oh whoa, we need some change and we're going to get it. We're going to get massive change through AI. It's going to change everything, and my belief and what I premise in the book is that we need to jump on the fourth industrial revolution.

Speaker 2: 25:00

I'm not sure if America will have another opportunity to reignite its future, its prosperity, its economy, its ability to be a player on the world stage. We're weak right now. We've never been this weak player on the world stage. We're weak right now. We've never been this weak. And you know what? Sometimes that's required. It's like the pendulum to cause us to create massive change in the way we're doing things. We cannot continue to be a consumer of things and not a producer of things.

Speaker 2: 25:20

So what I premise in the book is use the fourth industrial revolution, the massive change that it's going to take place, get ahead of it. Use it to engineer change that will actually be more sustainable and healthier for the country and bring jobs, manufacturing production, pride and the American dream back to the country, because I've watched the death of the American dream due to greed and political corruption. I've literally watched it die and it has to stop. Well, america cannot survive if we continue to pretend that we're the hero of the world with money that we're printing because we don't actually have any, because we can't get our shit together long enough to fix any of the serious problems. We have major issues and we have a pretty bleak future if we continue to be dependent on china.

Speaker 2: 26:01

Now, I don't personally have a problem with china, but we are way too dependent on countries who don't necessarily really like us that much um for our future, and that's got to stop. That whole globalizing let's be the heroes of the world is really about ransacking the American people's purse to take care of a handful of people in control. Until we get away from that and start asking where is our money going? And you know, we're no longer just going to be shipping billions and trillions of dollars to other places that we don't actually in fact have. We're literally printing it to send it out, to be what the good people, or to pad the expenses of the military industrial complex and I have a. I'm a huge fan of the military, but there are people around the military that make a lot of money off of chaos going on in the world and all of that stuff just needs to be.

Speaker 2: 26:42

we need to, like, just take a break, pause things and say you know what America needs to fill its cup? It needs to have prosperity in the future before we continue to pull any other people onto our boat because our boat is taking on water and it's going to sink. It's already sinking if we don't do something dramatic. So that really is the premise behind it. I want an American dream that we can be proud of. I want a future that our kids are actually excited about, because our kids right now they can't buy homes and they don't have jobs with benefits or there's no way to be taken care of. The corporation stopped caring for the people when they saw that they could go other places and get their you know, their resource, and that stuff has to stop so here's the thing, one very practical, underlying issue of this economic crisis that's driving a lot of the uncertainty.

Speaker 1: 27:26

A lot of you know a lot of the american economy is highly dependent on specific industries being located in specific places. Those industries leave, for whatever reason. The entire community dies off and we're seeing a lot of the Rust Belt suffering from these issues. Oil runs all, gas runs out, coal runs out, mines close up, wells close up. The company, the corporation leaves, the entire infrastructure goes down, the workers have no place to work and all the side enterprises, the restaurants that feed those workers, the housing, everything goes down as well. Everything goes down as well, and young people either move away to bigger cities where there is a very tough competition for jobs, or they end up, you know, taking to fentanyl out of desperation. So the question is um, how can we bring this digital economy, the opportunities of producing and creating and not being dependent on fixed income from volatile industrial trends to these communities? How can we revitalize these dying communities with opportunities that will keep people involved in something meaningful and not looking to drugs or social media or demagogues or whatever else to fulfill their needs?

Speaker 2: 28:54

Yeah, I think we have to treat the future of America like a war. I mean it has to be that serious. So when we go to war as a country, it's amazing, this is almost magical. When a war happens, suddenly technology, frog leaps, prosperity in terms of getting what we need to make the war happen arrives. It's like we can manifest it when we think it really matters.

Speaker 2: 29:18

And you see that when you go back to the 1950s, all the young men all left, but you know what? The women stepped up and took on jobs that previous to that they were thought not capable of doing. So when we want something, when we invest in it, when we care about it, when we decide we're really going to tackle it, we're capable of miraculous change. The problem is we've just been coasting for decades now, especially since the 1970s, standing by watching people ransack our prosperity, ship our jobs out of the world, ship our manufacturing out of the world, strip us, basically, and then begin to build garbage that they call homes that would never withstand the building. I'm just saying, when you look at the buildings that are built, it tells you so much about how they care about the people, and we've seen a collapse of all of that until we as a people and as a country, and our leaders say you know what? We're at war now. We're at war with our old way of doing things and the only way for us to make dramatic change is to approach this like a business that is at war with change and really tackle it that way. Then we're capable of doing all of those things. Like none of the things that we talk about, like having companies that make things in our communities, supporting small mom and pop shops, like those things, things. They're all very possible if we just decide that that's what we want.

Speaker 2: 30:35

It's a little bit like saying we can no longer import 100 of everything we buy. You know we have to support a certain number. Like we have to make some hard decisions about what we're willing to do and not do. And the frustrating part is that it's like people think it's going to happen by magic. It's not going to happen by magic. It's going to happen by us sitting down and going okay, here's the top 10 list for the next five years. Here's what we're going to do to actually make it happen and we're no longer going to allow this, this and this to occur, because it's actually causing us to stay in an unhealthy way of doing things.

Speaker 2: 31:09

You know, it's like the amount of stuff we import from Asia, the amount, the quality. You know the fact that we continue to accept lower and lower quality from them for the same products is insulting. I mean, I really don't have a problem with Asia, but when I was a kid things actually lasted for decades. Now you're lucky if it lasts two or three uses and because of the increasingly garbage oh look, it's replacing itself every couple of months. Of course we're going to make it like crap. If we refuse to allow products and that's just an example Say we refuse to allow products that cannot meet a minimum standard of use, like a toaster. If a toaster can't toast for a year, it can't come in. Let's actually look at things like that and say, look, if it's not going to last, we won't accept it anymore. That's the kind of dramatic change we need to do so.

Speaker 1: 32:01

So one of the things is about transferability of skills. One of the major issues we are facing is that a lot of young people don't have the skills to match the needs, the economic needs. It's not that we have no growth or no opportunities. It's that people go into schools not knowing what opportunities are out there and therefore they don't study and they don't acquire the skills they need to fit into those new and growing areas. You know, one of the things with the chips, the production act and the attempt to revitalize the chips, the AI chips industry in the US is that turns out we don't have enough skilled people to be doing that independently.

Speaker 2: 32:44

We could, if we would actually do something about that instead of going oops, there's not enough people. Gosh, I guess we'll have to go back to Asia or wherever again. What do we need?

Speaker 1: 32:52

to do, and how can it be done quickly enough to streamline the process now and not in 20 years, when it's already going to be too late and you have even more catching up to do?

Speaker 2: 33:04

Yeah, no, this is actually a great point because it goes back to the work that I'm doing through SoulTech. So I've been around long enough to see this very thing happen and people not have the skills. And you know, the fact is that first of all, let's just say, let's set aside for a second the fact that the entire education system in America is built on producing worker bees and not people who actually think and do things. That whole system needs to be just completely scratched and we have to start paying teachers because they have an important job, not because they're females that we can underpay, because that's another thing we have a history of doing is treating fields that are predominantly female like they're not important, when our teachers and our nurses and people like that, or mothers, are actually really important to the future of the world. But second to that is the work that I'm doing for Soltech. So one of the reasons I started the Soltech AI Foundation was because people don't need to. I know this in person. We do not need to go to school for four years to learn how to do something. As a matter of fact, we don't even need to go for a year. It really requires a really intelligent training program to give people the skills that they need and that can be. They can. People can be trained in a matter of weeks to do all sorts of jobs. They can be trained in a matter of months to do far more complex jobs.

Speaker 2: 34:17

We have to revisit the way the education system, the way the training system, which is one of the reasons I started SoulTech. So I see a need, because I've watched this happen the last time 20 years ago. A whole bunch of people who grew up in survival mode. That's our underserved communities. It's a huge swath of the country. Most of our lower income families and lower middle class income families have a lot of people who live like that and they don't know how to go about evolving. They need support and help in growing their skillset.

Speaker 2: 34:43

So we, our education classes, are AI teacher led. They take, they can take into account instant feedback and the skill. Those courses can be upgraded nearly immediately. They can be evolved nearly immediately. So not only can somebody learn AI literacy and AI core skills and the basic fundamentals of using it for career and life to enhance, but we're training them in mindset to get them out of survival mode into thriving mode. That's just one example Because of the types of courses that we're teaching and the way that it's done, we can not only offer those in every language possible, but we can immediately begin to add courses to it as the skills that are necessary come to surface, whether it's general skills or whether, say, a company or a government says, hey, we need 5,000 people that can do this specific job.

Speaker 2: 35:32

We create a program specifically for that and we 5,000 people that can do this specific job, we create a program specifically for that, and we go after teaching people how to do that and we do it in an efficient, effective online way, in person if need be, and just do it. You know, the problem is we make things so complicated. We allow people with a vested interest in how much money they can squeeze out of a situation to be in control for example, colleges.

Speaker 1: 35:53

What's that regulation requiring licenses for hairdressers? And?

Speaker 2: 35:57

oh yeah, yeah, let's make everything really complicated and difficult. We don't require a politician to actually get licensed to do their job, but we require somebody who's going to like shave somebody or you know what. I mean, it's just kind of absurd, um, but you know, it's like the education system. So when I went to college in California 25, 30 years ago, it was three thousand dollars a semester. I mean, the price of education is about greed and it's about enslaving young people into debt. They cannot begin to pay because of that interest on it. Like that. We have to scrap that whole system because it's killing young generations of people who no longer want to go to college because it doesn't. It's not going to suit them in the long run.

Speaker 2: 36:35

And so what I love about our programs for SoulTech AI Foundation is we can teach anybody basically anything that we want to in a fast, efficient, inexpensive way that anyone can do anywhere, speaking any language, and that's the kind of aggressive like. We came up with the concept this year and we were very fortunate to be able to get the technology to be able to roll it out, and people are like oh well, you know, google offers some AI courses. Yes, google, who already is in command and control of so much of our world, and it's awesome. I'm really. I have a mad respect for Google, but they do have too much influence in huge parts of our lives. We need people who are literally focused on giving people the skills, specifically the skills that will help bring food to their table and house them and help grow their life towards like. The whole intention behind it is glowing people's lives up, not building empires.

Speaker 1: 37:27

And that brings me to the phrase that you mentioned, which I think is very important. So survival thinking versus a thriving mindset. So how do you, how, what does that mean and how is it related to this, this concept of the American dream and renewing the American dream?

Speaker 2: 37:46

Yeah, I think our society is built on putting people in fear mode. Putting people in survival mode, it's the, it's the constantly pressing of their triggers to keep them scared of the future, so that they obey and they don't ask questions. Do I think that we engineered the society, you know, like really, oh, let's make everybody really dumb and afraid? No, but we found that we can make a lot of money by keeping people in fear. Our corporations make a fortune by keeping people afraid. It sells a lot of stuff.

Speaker 2: 38:16

And it's when we realize that keeping people afraid is what's keeping us stuck as a country that we realize that we have to take people out of the mentality, the low conscious. So if you look at the human consciousness scale, it has a vibration and frequency that corresponds to where somebody is on that scale. The bottom of the scale is shame and fear and grief, and it's like the seven deadly sins all rolled into one and that is the lowest vibration and that vibration is survival mode. And that is where the average person finds themselves. Because they listen to media, they pay attention to, you know, they get into these algorithms that reinforce fear and they don't know how to create emotional and mental mastery.

Speaker 2: 38:53

And by teaching people how to get command of their mindset, how to have emotional and mental mastery, we take them out of survival mode, we put them into thriving mode and we teach them how to choose their thoughts and how to create their perception, and how to appreciate where they are at in life and have hope for the future that they're building. That's a completely different mentality that empowers people and, in a future where AI is going to be so dominant, we need as many people as possible to be in higher levels of consciousness so that we can create the world that we're talking about, which may sound idealized to some people, but I have seen miraculous things take place in this world and in this country when we wanted it, and I believe that with the right, with the right conversations, we can actually make extraordinary change very quickly so I kind of want to bring this to this, to tie this whole idea to the concept of influencers, which is very controversial for very obvious reasons.

Speaker 1: 39:46

But bear with me for a moment. You, you, I, I have a question about that. So you know, in my opinion, the concept of influencers is not all bad, you know. Okay, so you have these brand ambassadors from mostly young people for various companies who get to attract attention and they get to sort of bring about people who follow them and they appeal, for whatever reason, to companies.

Speaker 1: 40:14

Nothing wrong with that, of course. What's wrong is that first of all, eventually, that loses the appeal to the influences. It does not teach them any new skills that they can then use to improve their own lives and it doesn't really create anything new except merely creating influence for existing brands and companies. But all of these young people with all of these followings, what can be done with this concept of influencers? To transport it from the mindset of merely being a brand ambassador for somebody else or for some abstract concept that doesn't really translate to becoming content producers and contributors and kind of using what they already have, towards something that actually creates additional bounty and gives them something tangible that they can then use for the rest of their lives and not just for whatever period of time they're appealing on the internet yeah, you know, I I was really ashamed of founding influencer marketing for a long time because I watched it spawn a whole industry of eating disorders and superficiality and it took me a long time to get back to comfort with even discussing it.

Speaker 2: 41:31

I really really was actually really ashamed. I was like, oh my God, that was your ego talking and look what you brought on. You took PR from earned media to paid media. What a disaster. But the world was going to that was going to happen anyway.

Speaker 2: 41:44

I think that I think it's already actually happening. So we live in the attention economy and we're going through a shift in the attention economy where it's attention for the sake of attention, like anything, to get attention. You see that with I tell this to I teach at one of the colleges, I teach public relations and I tell them all the time stop believing a celebrity when something scandalous happens or a story about their relationship breaks, or they get into an argument in public or their boyfriend cheats on them or they're you know, they admit to having had this struggle or that struggle, because if you check, they will always have a new album, a new book or a new um movie or some shtick that they are shuffling and I think people become much more savvy about that. And you're seeing that with the um. I actually see the, the uh, what do they call it? When celebrities get, I'm going totally blank. Uh, you're seeing it canceled. Well, they're finally getting around to canceling these massive celebrities. It's canceling because, you know, attention for attention's sake does ends up coming full circle. If they're, they're swift enough. But but it's that that I actually take that as a good sign that they're there, that people are no longer as naive to that manipulation and we kind of have to go through that process.

Speaker 2: 42:49

It's like a pendulum where people are like oh, I'm tired of people bitching on the Internet, like you know, talking about narcissists, which I think is really helpful for people who are trying to recover from it, but just sharing bitchy stories that scare people are. I think that's going to move out of the way. Content, because it helps move people, because it moves conversations forward, because it creates understanding about situations. We're already seeing that take place. It's like valuable content, because content and people who are influential in that way are the new Hollywood, hollywood's dying for a reason because they didn't evolve their model and they basically gave the power and control over to the content creators, and the content creators are finally starting to understand that the future of content engagement isn't taking place on Netflix or HBO. It's taking place on TikTok and Twitter or X. So I think that's really happening already and as we continue to embrace better values and we raise human consciousness, the more we raise human conscious, the higher the standards people have, because they begin to understand that you become the content you consume.

Speaker 1: 43:58

So, speaking of consuming content, let's talk about gatekeepers, because whenever there is a new movement, there's always somebody trying to jump on board, be the first and not just simply create content.

Speaker 1: 44:11

But you know, know, ensure on the one hand certain standards but on the other hand, ensure that there is a transition of power and that you know it's not democratized in this absolute way that it does end up in the hands of you know, if it's new, the new influencer, uh based, uh economy, then it's the new influencer-based economy, then it's like a particular group of influencers who kind of hog up the spotlight and you know, entire stratosphere kind of is created around them and you have to gravitate to those particular channels and those particular lines of thinking if you want to move up the move up the chain.

Speaker 1: 44:53

So how? And we're seeing that also in the technical sphere, because we saw the letters of, you know, a thousand experts or whoever who wrote the letter against ai, and we're saying that it's a mortal danger to all humanity without really specifying how, why or what needs to be actually done to be smart about it. They just basically said oh, we have to freeze everything until we study it, but you can't really freeze a revolution when it's already in progress. So that to me, was just a kind of a signal of gatekeeping, of trying to ensure that those particular experts are the ones who are controlling whatever the new transition process is. How do we get past the gatekeepers and how do we ensure that there is a balance between this gatekeeping function of keeping out the completely you know the craziness or you know bad quality, and the fact that people don't have to get tied up to particular power factions and cliques, the way it has always been the case?

Speaker 2: 46:04

Yeah, we're going through an interesting time with with content. You know I get a little frustrated with this sometimes because people sometimes people don't understand how much money it takes to make an influencer look like an overnight success. But I'm almost an always inevitably ask myself it is unfair in many ways that you can, you can succeed. It takes it takes it a full-time job as a content creator to succeed without a big budget and there has to be almost a desperateness to your desire to be popular and that you will just throw the ego out and do whatever it takes to get attention. But the truth is the majority of people who become influential on social media have money, access or power. So it's kind of like supporting the same people who always succeed.

Speaker 2: 46:54

People get annoyed with me as a woman, but the truth is, is that when I see a female who becomes an overnight success, my one of the first questions I ask, based on experience, not on envy or jealousy I could care less be successful. I'm like. I'm happy for anybody that achieves success, but I've been around long enough to know that when somebody becomes an overnight success and their videos are appearing everywhere, they're either married to, related to the children of somebody with money and our power, because that's the dynamic that we live within, but, having said that, that used to be way worse than it is now. That dynamic has always existed, sure, and at least we're getting to a place where we're celebrating people who are capable of getting put on the map overnight for having put something hilarious out or really pushing the boundaries.

Speaker 2: 47:39

And that's a nice change to see. I mean there is a democratization going on and that anybody with a mic and a camera can now compete and over time can build a following. But it'll take us a little time to get past that.

Speaker 1: 47:51

You know some of its newness, uh but when it comes to the industries it's a little bit more complicated because at the very least, you already need to know something about it to be influential. So there it's kind of harder to get past the people who are already sort of part part of the scene and have already a major head start and they get to meddle. They get to uh say how and what should be regulated, what should not be regulated. I mean, it's still, whatever you think of either regulation or creation, it still ends up coming from the people who are already in the sphere. It's not coming from the new voices, precisely because of you know, they are already there, they have a base, they have foundation, they have reputation, they have capital, they have resources, um, and they know how to navigate these processes and they have name recognition yeah, yeah, I get very frustrated with a lot of the male podcasters, um, because, uh, they don't.

Speaker 2: 48:53

I don't think they even see that this, this is the case. So a lot of them have been established for a while. They had an n of some kind, um, and they don't see that, statistically, than most people that appear on their show are male, and it's like guys if you're at the top and and there are some women, but it's like guys if you're at the top and there are some women, but it's not nearly as many If you're at the top. Take some responsibility for changing the world for women, because women can't do it. Until we take up 50 percent of the board seats and 50 percent of the CEO roles, we're not going to be in a position of power, of elevating each other. So I do, I get frustrated a little bit with the establishment within the podcast community because they have so much power over being able to help women and yet they don't seem to see that they need to be a part of that change to really help women, and that they should look at their stats because they, you know, they tend to promote the same.

Speaker 1: 49:41

I see the same men on the same, like it's the same men all hopping around to their own podcasts well, you know, the issue is not just with stats, the issue is also with the quality of conversation, because if you keep, you know, any number of the same people, uh, in a bubble of conversation, you don't get to hear anything that challenges your perspective or anything outside. You know the ordinary. You create echo chambers, you know whatever you want to call. Them are echo chambers, where the dynamic is really about outsiders.

Speaker 1: 50:12

And this kind of closed mentality I think is permeating social media, is permeating our technology spaces and, for all the talks about disruption, I kind of see a lot of this innovation going very much in the same direction. It's disruptive for a moment, but then largely it's the same people making the same types of mistakes and working with each other, with each other. So if you're talking about diversity in the communication sphere, in the technology sphere, in the AI sphere, I'm seeing that there should be more bridges building, not only between men and women and people with assorted backgrounds, but also people with different experiences, people with different professional backgrounds, people from different industries, even with ethicists, lawyers, analysts of different backgrounds. Policymakers should be consulting with actual technical personnel and not just with other policymakers and their staff. Right, you know?

Speaker 2: 51:27

Have you ever looked at a board? I laugh sometimes when I look at a board. I laugh sometimes when I look at the board of directors for some of the biggest companies, because I laughed one day. I forget whose it was.

Speaker 2: 51:33

It was like stanford, stanford, stanford, columbia stanford mit, columbia, stanford, and it was, it was it's 80 of their board all went to the same college and I was like it's a close. See, I think the illusion is we think it's because they need to, um, be aware of it. I think they're fully aware of their the closed, it's a closed loop system, uh, uh. But I think that's, that's the sort of forcing people to to make changes there, because it's not going to evolve until we get sick of giving them more power to circle within the same few people well there is.

Speaker 1: 52:10

There is an incentive to keep the same people going, which is how you maintain your own influence. So, yeah, these people are quite frankly afraid of being uh, outpaced. In my opinion, if you are really intelligent and skilled, this will be the sort of um, the worst network will be your strength, not your weakness, because you know you don't. You end up with a more innovative mindset, you catch mistakes faster and earlier, you predict the future better and you shape it also with more, with a more holistic and integrated approach. But you, but people who are afraid of that sort of disruption and innovation in the staff, in the staffers, I think they're insecure about something. I think when you're that insecure about your power, it means that you are afraid you've got nothing to offer, that you can be easily challenged and displaced by new people coming in, instead of creating a collegial network that can support you and improve on what you're doing.

Speaker 2: 53:15

So yeah, the last thing we need are more people who are afraid of change. So I'll just share a quick story with you. I worked in fashion for a really long time and I had been, uh, talked out of my first agency by a big fashion house who wanted me to turn everything around. And I went on board and I really thought that everyone would be so excited to have a new person heading up the marketing and PR team and celebrity dressing and I thought, oh, they're going to be really excited because I've got big plans. I'm going to accomplish things.

Speaker 2: 53:39

But I was met with the nastiest. I mean it reminded me of being in sixth grade and getting beat up every single day by the same group of women. It was near violent and how hateful and nasty they were towards me and I kept having this. This is such a weird conversation to have, but this actually shows what you're talking about. They kept saying to me that I should be blonde haired and blue eyed from one of the rich families of New York City and I knew enough of the socialites in New York City. I was like I'm sorry, you want somebody to sit here and look pretty and it took me a really long time to realize that what they wanted was somebody who looked great, wore nice clothes but wasn't going to change anything.

Speaker 2: 54:19

And it was then that I realized that change was what they were afraid of. So I fired everybody. I did it all myself. I had to. I didn't a choice. It was, it was so. It was so bizarre and I was realizing like it took me a couple months to be like they don't want it. They don't actually want this to succeed. They don't want the brand to succeed because for them, change is that frightening. And it was a good lesson in what happens when the same people keep cycling through the same system. They want to keep it closed looped and they don't want change because change is frightening for them. And I think we need to get good and scared.

Speaker 1: 54:52

You need to shake things up as someone who comes myself does a lot of consulting, the one of the greatest threats I see are other consultants, not in the sense of you know, you know hating individuals, but as an industry. You know there is an incentive in not providing your clients with the best advice and not wanting them to change and to succeed fully because a they don't need you then, or so the thing goes, and my opinion there's always a need for new ideas and you know, new types of expertise, but a they will need you and then all the problems will be fixed and you'll be out of your income, which means you're not growing. If you find yourself that you are unnecessary because one problem has been solved, it means you're not growing professionally and your skills are not transferable and not flexible enough to succeed when new issues inevitably come up.

Speaker 2: 55:45

Yeah, I used to think being a change agent was like a positive thing and then I found I realized, oh, it scares the crap out of people. Who it's like? When somebody says to me they've been with the same therapist for eight, ten years, I'm like have you asked yourself whether or not your therapist wants you to?

Speaker 1: 56:00

win. Why are you with a therapist for eight, ten years? Therapy is there to kind of break through you know your stumbling blocks not to sit there like you're addicted to a drug forever yeah, well, that's just it.

Speaker 2: 56:13

I was like you know, you realize that you're a customer. You're not a patient at that point, you're a customer and they want to keep you around for as long as possible. Uh, so funny yeah, um.

Speaker 1: 56:26

So. So that kind of brings me to, uh, kind of when you, when you were writing your book, when you were reflecting on how to get these people into a mindful mindset, the biggest stumble block, in my opinion, is the people themselves. Do they actually want to become more conscious? And so have you encountered this sort of resistance mindset to consciousness and to getting past these issues? And how do you?

Speaker 2: 56:56

yeah, you, have to start with the people who are already in the flow of change, like I. I I've tried to tell this to people, but they they're like oh, you should be out there spreading the word, and I'm like and that would be a colossal waste of my time, because people need to already be in the flow of change to want to change their consciousness. So if we focus on the people that actually are evolving and we focus on the fact that we only need 3% of them to create a massive change across the planet and that's where we focus, don't? It's like you know, with people going out and knocking on doors to try to to to convert them. I feel like that's just a massive waste of time and energy.

Speaker 2: 57:31

Might teach someone to have, you know, have no ego, but I'm not sure how much it's helping people. But we need people who are already in the flow of change, and what will happen over time is people reach that pinnacle of misery where they're done living the way that they've have lived and they want to actually understand what, what is possible out there. They will then seek out the people who are reflecting the energy that they want in their lives and then they'll be ready to for change themselves and it just builds on itself like that. Um, you can't just announce to everybody hey, I can fix you if you just learn how to raise your consciousness, because they they're not gonna, uh, they're not gonna be ready to hear that people have to have made the decision for themselves already so here is the thing I do think a lot many more people want something to improve their lives.

Speaker 1: 58:16

In some ways, they want to have opportunities, they want to break boundaries, but I'm not sure that they always gravitate towards the constructive solutions, towards that. Hence we are seeing these echo chambers and bubbles of people getting stuck in their professional or political or other, you know, social comfort zones and thinking that they're being empowered with new information when they're actually being manipulated. So how do you get people to tell the difference between being manipulated and guided towards some, uh, self-serving end on someone's part and actually challenging themselves and changing?

Speaker 2: 58:58

yeah, I think that that is. It's a nice idea. The truth is that people have to get to an evolved state where they're in the present until somebody's present. So it's like, let's share the, let's share the practices that will lead to somebody learning how to be present, because that's going to give them the gift of discernment. But if we're, if we're just out preaching, here's how to change your life. It's just it's not going to appeal to the people who really need it the most.

Speaker 2: 59:23

But if we, if we can get them into yoga and introduce them and start to lead them, it's like guiding you. It's like we become lanterns to the future that somebody will want for themselves, versus trying to be the map and saying here's the end point that you need to be at. Most people need just need to follow the light. It'll eventually lead them to a place where they start to understand that they feel better, and then they want more of that, and then they begin to see the truth around them. They become discerning about what they allow. They begin to realize that they become you, become the content you consume.

Speaker 1: 59:55

So start to be more selective about what you're allowing into your ears and your eyes and into your mouth what you're eating, like it really is a full circle interestingly enough, you mentioned conscious ai, and so far we talked a lot about how people could be empowered to use it consciously, but let's talk about the designer end of AI, the fact that people programming these algorithms, currently creating the systems that we can then learn how to use they themselves, are not necessarily the most conscious of thinkers. Hence we're seeing hallucinating AI and all sorts of horror stories and biases and this and that all sorts of absurd outcomes. So is there a way to engage the people who are already in it there and who are responsible for creating the 80% of whatever is being put out, for everyone else to learn how to use?

Speaker 2: 1:00:50

I think it's focusing on the people that people admire within the industry. It's a little bit like using the influencers within AI to influence other people. They have to warm up to new concepts. There's no conversion here. Let's convert you are healed. Let's convert you.

Speaker 2: 1:01:09

But I think if if we can focus on really educating and getting people on board that are influential within the sphere, they'll influence the people that are doing the research. You know, the truth is where you know, and I had to come to this conclusion when I was doing the research for the book. The people who are going to care are going to find a way to care, and the people that want to do research that's dangerous are going to do it anyway. And the only thing we can do is focus on evolving people as quickly as possible to be the strongest, most discerning versions of themselves, so that we can deal and dress with these things when they come up, because we are going to have things happen. We are going to have scary moments that feel dystopian. It's just that. It's just what happens when we get new technology and we get, you know, cowboys who think they can control it.

Speaker 1: 1:01:54

You know, our scientists have proven one thing and that's that they can become so enamored with their invention that they don't see its potential, uh for harm so we need some sort of social resilience, which right now is lacking, because people are polarized, people are frightened, people are not empowered and or and not even basically educated. So, at the end of what does this picture of social resilience look like? When you imagine the new american dream, when you imagine the use of conscious ai and towards this better end, what is it that you see? How do you what? What would it look like to you?

Speaker 2: 1:02:36

I think it's a. I think it requires us to to take a breath and slow down for a moment and get in front of things instead of chasing them. It's like, look, this isn't so important. We don't want to take forever either, because we have that problem with the government and that it's always 10 years behind what's actually happening, but we do need to. As new things and new ways of doing things come up, we need to look at them and say what are the applications for this? What is the best use of this? What is the most democratized way in which to incorporate this into our world and make some conscious decisions about how we're going to go about it and then move forward at an incentivized rate that will actually have impact, because, you know, we can't leave things up to the way we've done things in the past, especially when it comes to the government, because they move at the pace of cement. Like it's just painful and we're not going to be able to do that, like what will happen is we'll have a, it'll be the wild west of all these technologies and inventions, and no restrictions and no oversight. You know that's it's happening in time, like, for example, like the large language models being built on on the, the craft of writers and artists and for thousands of years. You know that that that would have never been allowed to happen if we'd been able to get in front of it and I'm not. I mean, look, I I get it. It's too late now.

Speaker 2: 1:03:57

You know it has already happened and they're already making a trillion dollars off of a bunch of other people's intelligence and skill and talent, but it's, that's just an example. Like we can't be chasing the repercussions of things. We have to have foresight and we have to have honest and open and tough conversations about the potential for the outcome for things and then institute a conscious approach to how the AI will be utilized for the betterment of the average person and not just the betterment of a handful of fairly powerful companies, because that's the world we face, and then not just the betterment of a handful of fairly powerful companies, because that's the world we face that dystopian future where a handful of companies or one big company runs. Everything isn't too different from where we find ourselves right now, when we've got three major companies that own the voting interests of the majority of the companies on the stock exchange. Like it's insanity that we're that close to that kind of thing. Anyway, I'm just, I'm bouncing around because I get so excited about this topic.

Speaker 1: 1:04:50

Sure, anyway, I'm just I'm bouncing around because I get so excited about this topic. Sure, sure, sure. But if you were to take a look at the public now and you were to offer a few recommendations to basically lay people with some level of you know, interest and already trying to get you know, get there somehow, what would you recommend they do right now? You know they can't control, you know the industry leaders. They can't control what the government does. They can control themselves and what they can do.

Speaker 2: 1:05:16

So what should they do? I think they need to become familiar with the tools that are out there. You know there's nothing. It's a lot less fearful when you know how things work and operate and you learn to utilize it to enhance your own career in life, and then you become more empowered by it. It becomes less frightening and then you've now you've built a nice foundation for yourself so you can begin to add to it with the research and technology that's coming Like this is going to be like the last tech boom in terms of you know, if you're paying attention, it's going to be hard not to hear once you get enough confidence to actually listen to it and begin to understand what it is. But there's not. You know there's nothing to fear except the ignorance that reigns when we are living in fear.

Speaker 1: 1:05:55

so become fearless, uh, and it will help enhance your future I think, I think you know overcoming fears and having a more optimistic, more excited and more you know problem solving oriented mindset is certainly the key to not being kind of derailed by other interests and other people. So I'm curious, given that your own fearlessness in kind of moving away from one stage in your life into this one, what do you see happening for yourself next? What is the next project, goal, objective for you beyond the book?

Speaker 2: 1:06:34

yeah, you know, I did the book. Honestly, I had just put out memory mansion six months ago and that was my first number one. I was not planning on doing another book, but apparently the topic resonated. I really just wanted to get the conversation started because I believe we only have two years before we will be high, be too far behind to catch up in the same way Like right now. We really have this window to revitalize the American dream and to make some serious and massive changes. If we don't, we're going to be playing catch up for a really long time and I don't think we're ever going to recover the same throne that we had before.

Speaker 2: 1:07:10

And that actually is really important to me because I love America. For me, I think it's continuing to carry that conversation and the importance of enhancing consciousness to humanity. It's the purpose of all the work that I do, you know, enhancing the classes and offering more courses at Soltech so that we can scale up the classes and the abilities as the demand comes in, so that we're building a new way of educating people or giving them the tools to be able to enhance their future. And I probably will get involved in politics, you know, I'm kind of involved in the sense that I share my opinion through my own podcast and through the work that I do, but I think we need Gen X voices that are speaking truths and talking solutions over soundbites. So that's probably in my future.

Speaker 1: 1:07:54

I really like the idea of solutions from the soundbites because so far the trend has been exactly in the opposite direction. The soundbites has become a substitute for thinking people, even, you know even thinking soundbites, not just talking soundbites, which is bad, you know. So this, you know getting this attention span back to being able to process, to stop and think and ponder, and you know engage with the meaningful material and not just with tweets or, you know, short, short comments. I think that that is is an essential skill that needs to be restored. You know getting attention span back. I think is a laudable goal in itself no, I agree.

Speaker 2: 1:08:38

I agree. I think that that that's where the discernment comes in. The attention span really speaks to. Uh, presence being present allows you to see the truth and to understand what you're actually witnessing or hearing or reading about or learning, and that's where the that's the power seat. You know we need more people to be able to, to learn how to be in command of that, and when we have that, it's such a much more beautiful world to live in. You know, I really want one of the event series that I do is called sound bites to solutions, because I got so frustrated with the sound bites being used to hijack conversations. It was like they, every time the american people were about to learn something that would upset them, they'd be like oh, over there, you know, and throw a little you know a bomb about abortion over, you know. Over there. Oh, look that here's another fear thing, and there's another fear thing that's my favorite one, the ufos right.

Speaker 2: 1:09:33

So yeah, yeah, I really think we need to get to that, to that place. Um, yeah, anyway, it's an exciting time to be alive. It really is. As much as I talk about these things, I actually think that this is probably the most exciting time to be alive in the 50 years I've been on the planet.

Speaker 1: 1:09:52

Oh, I couldn't agree more. I think there's a lot going on. There's great opportunities. The best way I think we can do is help people navigate them and see them as opportunities and not just as obstacles or things to fear, which I think you know, there's a lot of that messaging out there and we and we need to kind of ensure that it doesn't block out those new emerging thought leaders from breaking into the scene and kind of yeah they were.

Speaker 2: 1:10:21

No, we do. We need to support each other and support voices that are speaking about things that are important to hear about. You know, we I don't think people who do succeed take enough responsibility of reaching behind. There's a lot of talk about that. I hear that a lot. I get frustrated as a woman because I get sick of being lectured about asking for help and it's like do you think I, you think I made it to this age without asking for help?

Speaker 1: 1:10:43

oh yeah, that I mean. I I actually think that some of these things that they're supposed to be empowering are actually quite patronizing, but that's.

Speaker 2: 1:10:52

Yeah, and what happens is it ends up being about the same power dynamics that I've seen. It's like what do you have to trade for the support that you're asking for? That's just the truth. As a woman, you get called bitter for speaking the truth. The truth is that the power dynamics, particularly in women's groups, are really about do you have something I need or want? And if that's there, then you're going to get support. But if you genuinely just need support and help without having something to offer up, it is a lot. It's a lot more challenging to get support.

Speaker 2: 1:11:25

So I'm proud to say that every time anyone's ever reached out to me to ask me for help, I've actually responded. You know, I think that's that it sounds silly to be proud of that, but I actually am, because there were times when people reached out to me when I really wasn't. I really couldn't take one more. Like you know, can you do something for me? Can you help me with something? But I don't like to talk about like being that way as a person. I like to actually demonstrate it in my own personal life. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 1:11:50

It's not for other people, it's for to know that I'm doing the right thing well, I I think I think we need to kind of actually see the the concept of helping and building someone up as as a as a value in itself, and I think that's how you break through this, because having people who are empowered, having a society with one less desperate person and one more dynamic, constructive, contributing person, that in itself is a good, you know in itself.

Speaker 1: 1:12:24

Well, thank you so much for this conversation. I really hope our listeners will check out your books, but also your organization, Soltech, and kind of get engaged with helping build up the new American dream, not only with AI, but with consciousness in all other areas as well.

Speaker 2: 1:12:43

Oh, I appreciate that. It was so good to see you again. It was a lovely conversation, and I love having important conversations about things that need to change, with people whose intelligence and presence I admire. So thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1: 1:12:59

Thank you so much and best of success. Thank you.