Ayahuasca, Conscious Leadership, and Creating Meaningful Movements

Podcast Highlights

• How Gerard’s first ever plant medicine experience shifted his perspective on what matters most
• The three divine lessons Gerard learned through ayahuasca and why they dramatically impacted his relationship with women
• What Gerard sees as the future of conscious leadership as more and more millenials wake up to the fundmantal truth of reality

Show Links

1. Gerard Adams Personal Website
2. Leaders Create Leaders 2-Day Experience
3. 1heart Journeys
4. The Third Wave's Guide to Ayahuasca
5. The Third Wave's Guide to 5-MeO-DMT

Podcast Transcript

0:00:29 Paul Austin: Hey listeners, and welcome back to The Third Wave podcast. I'm your host, Paul Austin, coming at you with a special episode this week, interviewed a close friend of mine, Gerard Adams who is widely known as the millennial mentor. Gerard is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, conscious leadership coach, and philanthropist. Gerard has built two eight-figure businesses, by the time he was 30 years old. He is the winner of Magic Johnson's 32 Under 32 Award, and was listed by Business Insider as one of the top 100 most influential people in Silicon Valley. He has overcome early adversity to become a self-made millionaire by the age of 24, and has built, backed, or invested in 12 businesses across multiple industries. They have all delivered over seven figures, including the sale of Elite Daily for $50 million. While he continues his role as an investor and influencer, Gerard's mission in life is to mentor and inspire entrepreneurs to develop what it takes to become not only successful, but conscious leaders in all aspects of their life. Gerard and I met earlier this year at a 1Heart Journeys Ayahuasca retreat in Costa Rica, and instantly connected on a number of different levels.

0:01:40 PA: So when we re-launched the podcast this year, I had to get him on the show, to not only talk about the work that he's done in business, but more importantly and more relevant to The Third Wave podcast, the role that psychedelics have played in transforming his own work, his leadership style, and the way that he shows up in the world. So the things that we spoke about in today's podcast include Gerard's first ever psychedelic experience, which was with 5-MeO-DMT, why it's critical to step into the discomfort as an entrepreneur, the importance of self-love, the relationship between conscious leadership and psychedelics. We go into depth on Gerard's transformative Ayahuasca retreat at the beginning of 2019, we also talked a little bit about what Gerard is resisting most right now.

0:02:29 PA: Now, this is the first episode where we're also doing video. So from this point forward, not for all episodes, but for some of them, we will have video available as well. You can find the video on YouTube if you want to see the conversation with video. We also have clips that we'll put on social media. I can't wait for you to get into this podcast. It's one of my favorites, particularly because Gerard and I are quite close. We really get a chance to drop in and connect. So anyway, without further ado, I bring you Gerard Adams. Gerard Adams, yo welcome homie.

0:03:03 Gerard Adams: Yo man, this is so exciting.

0:03:05 PA: How are you feeling right now, like what's going on with you?

0:03:08 GA: Wow to be honest dude, it's the beginning of Q4, it's the end of the year. So I've been just like on fire, just like energy extremely high, working on so many aspects of my life, in complete flow and just really focused on business, and also self-mastery. So I haven't really been doing many interviews just because I've been really wanting to be present to my team, and to my business, and to myself going into the end of this year. So I was a little nervous coming into this, but I was like, I 100% need to be here with you and accept this invitation. So thanks bro for having me.

0:03:47 PA: And how many times have we had these conversations anyway, this is just... This is just another conversation for us.

0:03:51 GA: True.

0:03:52 PA: You know? It's like a chance to drop in, record it publicly, but more than anything, it's just us connecting at a soul level, dropping in and hearing about your story of transformation, which is fucking incredible. And what you've gone through and the work that you've done, and just what you bring to the world and how that's elevated since, the work that you've been doing with plant medicine. I feel like that's just such... It's such a valuable story for people to hear. So, I just... I wanna honor you, and thank you for taking the time to sit down and just open up that soul, open up that heart, so we can peel in and see, Who is Gerard Adams? What role has plant medicine, Ayahuasca, psychedelics, what role has that played in your life? And how are you shifting as a human, to just like fully be you and show up in the world? So what I'd love to start with is just tell us a little bit about that shift for you. When did that shift happen? Bring us back to that moment, kinda that, that before and after moment, where you were like Gerard in this way, and then all of a sudden it was like that shift, where you just saw, you knew.

0:04:54 GA: I must say that, I'm now shifting from... To just me having excitement about this conversation. I'm glad you said it's like a conversation. I think sometimes I get caught up remembering how sacred this is, this work and working with plant medicine. Sometimes it's hard to even share these moments. Right? 'Cause if... Are people really gonna listen, right? And feel and hear. I am, I'm pretty excited to open it up, because I never knew, like now, you're doing such a phenomenal job at educating this community, and just humanity in general. And I didn't know about Third Wave two... I guess two years ago now, going into two years ago, when I had my first experience with plant medicine. I didn't know about it. I didn't even really know about plant medicine, in general. I grew up a pretty... I was just like a misfit, but I grew up in a Catholic home, and I was named after a saint. And because that saint is such a huge tradition in my church and with my family, it's St. Gerard. And for me, I attached my beliefs to that, because it was this saint that went and created miracles for mothers who wanted to give birth, and children who were sick. And to me, I was just like, "Wow that's freaking badass." Right?

0:06:10 GA: So and ultimately, I've truly always felt that St. Gerard was with me. And every year, in October, literally another... Like coming up right now, every year since the day I was born, I serve with my dad and my family. My dad is at that church as a guard of honor. And he has this beautiful, dope purple jacket that... It's like a maroon, royalty-type jacket with a gold cross, and every year, it's really cool 'cause my dad goes, and he... They carry the saint out of the church, and we do this huge procession. We walk. Grandmothers walk barefoot, people, women who wanna get pregnant. And there's children who are sick, children who have never spoken, or that are ill, families that are going there for their children, and they pray, and it's a beautiful, beautiful experience. And I've had that my entire life. So I grew up with that faith. But at some point in my life, no matter what, always believing in having guardian angels since my grandmother passed away at a young age. I was a teenage boy when she passed away of cancer. I've always felt my grandma, Viera, was looking after me. St. Gerard was always with me. I carry a medal of St. Gerard, I pray. Every morning, I would pray.

0:07:20 GA: But there is this... For me, since I was a little, I don't know, young boy and you go through what they say... They call it CCD. I don't know if it's called CCD for everybody, but it's like, basically, I never... I didn't enjoy it. I didn't even pay attention to it. I didn't even wanna learn about the Bible, I didn't even wanna learn about religion. I just thought it was cool. My name is after St. Gerard, right? And I would go to the church, and it's beautiful. And my family... You look up to your parents, right? And my parents kind of instilled in me that faith. So I always had it, but it was always external. Okay? So my faith was always there. Right? My faith was always pretty internal, but the thought of God, the thought of... My spirituality was completely tied to religion. I didn't understand that they're separate, but they're connected, intertwined. That's just to give you a little context, right, of how I grew up.

0:08:06 GA: The big thing for me was just that, beyond religion or spirituality, I was a... Like all of us, I grew up going through conditioning, going through being bullied. I have a scar on my face. I'm getting jumped as a young kid, and then being told just negative things all the time, and then getting older and feeling, "I gotta fit in" and then growing old and being like, "I'm not smart enough. I gotta prove myself." And all these different chapters of my life, in many different ways, from death, drugs, doubt from people, education system, social media, and so on and so forth, it conditioned me. Right? And I created my identity to be based off of these external things. And although that faith was there and I would pray, it wasn't internalized. Right? So it was somewhat hope, but not an internalized.

0:08:57 GA: The moment for me, and I hope that someone listening to this at some point, if you're going through this now, whatever age, but what I hope is that this work in this interview, and your work in the world, and our work, and the work of everyone who's listening to this as conscious leaders, is that we continue to educate the youth, and educate people sooner to realize the opportunity they have to connect with themselves, and to love themselves, and to uncondition what they've gone through in their life, so that they can truly own who they are right now, and know what is actually real. And what's with the truth is, and what's within them. If I would have known what I know now, back when I was a teenager, wooh. What could I have... The impact that I could have made on my community, and just for myself and for my family. Right?

0:09:43 GA: So for me, what happened, was it came crashing down when I was an entrepreneur for 18 years, and we can talk more about that, if you'd like, or not. Just to get to your question, is... Was the moment that like, after I sold my company, I'm in Newark, I'm building an incubator, I'm serving this inner city. I'm feeling like I had to be Superman. Right? I'm teaching middle school children. I'm teaching high school children. I'm running an incubator, 12-week accelerator, in the corner of one of the worst hoods in Newark. And I was after fulfillment. And it brought fulfillment, but I still was broken inside. I had gone through a breakup after a four-and-a-half-year relationship, crazy in love. And I also was in this state of give, give, give, give, give, go, go, go, go, give, give, go, go, go. Right? And it's like, eventually... And then I didn't understand, and I was starting to burn out, and I felt like the leader that had to always be Superman. I couldn't show weakness. It was really... Now there's talk more about vulnerability.

0:10:40 GA: And the moment was, I had an event, my first ever entrepreneur event, 300 entrepreneurs, it was called Take Ownership. I partnered with Eric Thomas, ET The Hip Hop Preacher. It was legendary. Okay? Legendary, how we pulled this thing off. It was sick. And at that event, one of my speakers, Daniel DiPiazza, kind of pulled me aside, and he had known what I was going through. One of my speakers, Daniel DiPiazza, he was there. He kinda knew... We had grown a little bit of a friendship, and he knew that although this event had happened, and we got the 300 entrepreneurs in, and everything was going, he saw that I was pretty burned-out. Right? I was pretty overwhelmed, although I was very grateful, and high-energy. And he just happened to pull me aside after the event. It was a winter day, snowing. It was in the middle of December. And I had to go to the VIP after the event, people who had paid for the VIP.

0:11:32 GA: So I go, I'm hanging out at the VIP. And he pulls me aside and he's like, "Hey, listen, I'm going to Brooklyn to see a shaman, I'm gonna be working with is a plant medicine." And I think... And he made an invitation, basically. And I was just like, "What's a shaman? And what the hell is DMT?" Right? And it just sounded a little bit like, "I don't know what this is." Now, I looked over at my confidant, whose name is Digital Jeff, who's built my show, Leaders Create Leaders, with me and he's been travelling with me, shooting all our interviews. So he's like my right hand. So I look over at Jeff, and I'm like, "What the fuck is a shaman? Should I do this?" And he's like, "Well, you remember what you just preached at your event?" Which is this whole principle that I live by, that I learned from a navy seal that came and visited me one day when I was pretty broke.

0:12:08 GA: And he helped me get through learning how to be vulnerable, and the power of that as a leader. And he told me to answer these three questions. And if the answer is yes, and I ask you guys, write this down 'cause this is like... I live by one of this... This is one of my top principles, and it's, "Ask yourself, is this the most uncomfortable thing that you can do? The most uncertain thing that you can do? And the hardest thing that you can do?" And if the answer to those three questions is "Yes" and it doesn't impede on somebody else's happiness, then you have to do it. Because on the other side of that fear is gonna be your growth. And we hear a lot about that now. So I literally just asked myself this, and I was like, "Well, I'm definitely uncomfortable. I'm definitely uncertain." And this is kind of hard for me to do. I just put on this event. I'm supposed to be here. And Jeff was like, "You gotta go." So I was like, "Well, you're coming with me."

[laughter]

0:13:04 GA: So I ended up bringing him and my business partner Brian Donovan, and we go, we get to a Brooklyn apartment, I don't know if it's okay to say where it is and everything, but...

0:13:15 PA: Speak your truth. I mean yeah, this is all good.

0:13:16 GA: Alright, alright. So we're in Brooklyn, and the door opens, and literally this guy reminds me of a monk. Right? And I'm already going in kinda trying to assume and put at this perception of like, "What the hell is a shaman? It sounds like... " And just this really delicate soul opens the door, and invites us in, and it just kinda felt just super tranquil in there, like plants, and some lights, and it smelt amazing, and I'm like, "Alright, this is a vibe." And we get in there, and then they started educating me on DMT, and on plant medicine, and how this is gonna bring up for me, if I decide to go forward with it, all of my deepest fears. And then I'm gonna have to face them, but on the other side, that it could really have, and just enlighten me, it could, it can give me a higher level of consciousness.

0:14:06 PA: Like liberating, right? It's a sense of freedom. Pure liberation from that experience.

0:14:10 GA: Right. And he was fantastic at explaining it. And so I was like, "Alright, let's do it, let's go, I'm ready to kinda fight through this." And my first experience, literally was 5-MeO-DMT, not knowing what it was, inhale, hold, and in that moment I just remember saying to myself just questions. Right? Like, "What if?" And all these things, and "How long I might have to hold this? Am I gonna to be able to hold my breath?" And then, boom, this just crazy... At first almost like darkness. Right? At first it was like... But it was just crazy, almost like a portal opens up for me, and I get super, super scared. And I get hit completely, like fears of, "People are trying to take from me, someone's trying to take my freaking... Attack my freaking... Attack me, take my brain." I started thinking negative things. I'm even thinking to the sense of like, "Oh my God. Is this like a drug? Am I gonna be addicted?" Like all these fears that are just rising up. And I get up and I go to, literally I start, apparently I get up, I don't even remember this, and I go to punch the shaman. Okay?

0:15:18 GA: The shaman dips like Floyd Mayweather, puts his hand on my chest, and all I remember is him being like, "Gerard you are safe, and you are loved. You are safe, and you are loved." And then I remember the principle of him saying to me beforehand was like, "Let go and trust." So in that moment when I saw his eyes and I heard his voice, I laid back down, I decided to let go and trust. And at that point it was just like the gates of heaven open, and I just like shoot through this like white, all I remember is just this white, and this feeling of just like, almost like I decided to let go of the fear of dying and go through just, "Okay, if this is what is for me, then I accept." And I just let go, and in that moment it was just complete freedom.

0:16:10 GA: But the most important thing was, it was the first time in my life I truly felt self-love. It was the first moment where I felt self-love. And I was like, I couldn't believe, and I also got an understanding of humans. Like I actually felt this feeling, I was like, "Oh my God. So much, I'm out there trying to do all these things, and we're all out here trying to do all these things. Life is so simple. We're here just supposed to love." It's just like, just love ourselves, love each other. All these other things are these fears that rise up, and it's like, these stories, these things that we put out. And I just started understanding. It was almost just like, it was almost as if I died, and I was able to get a look at the landscape of what's going on with humanity.

0:17:05 GA: And I just, by the time I came back, I just was like completely liberated right, and just felt called. I felt called to serve. I remember coming back in, and feeling, and breathing in like, and I was doing that over, and over, and pulling it in and I just felt like it was this fuel, and that I had been given a gift of being able to see truth, of why we are here, why I am here, and what I can do to help humanity. And why we are disconnecting, and why we need to, what we need to... So I just felt this like feeling of like, "Oh my God, I need to be this servant leader, I need to be this warrior. Put me back in coach, put me back in."

0:17:52 GA: So I felt like Neo one minute, from the Matrix. Right? And I felt like I went through this complete training like freaking, you name it. I felt like I was just getting trained, of like what happening, and what's happening with culture, what's happening with society, what's happening with humanity, what our superpowers really are. You know what I mean? Like all these things and I just felt fueled with super power and I was just like, "Oh my God, I'm a fucking super human, everyone is a fucking superhuman, I need to go and show people how to be a superhero." So that was the moment for me and as soon as I came in back to life I was like, "I'm ready, I am ready to shift myself in how I decide to serve as an entrepreneur going forward and that was like the first breakthrough before meeting you last year at our first Ayahuasca.

0:18:38 PA: Which we should get into.

0:18:38 GA: Okay cool.

0:18:39 PA: And which I wanna get into, but I wanna just stay here for a little bit longer.

0:18:41 GA: Dope.

0:18:42 PA: Because I think there are a couple of things that stick out to me about your story. One is just the commonality between us in terms of like, grew up in a Christian church you know. It was always like you knew these things, it was like intellectual, right? You went to Sunday school or CCD you know, you followed the rules, you got this part, but we never really felt it, right? It wasn't like the experience of love. We were just taught that we were supposed to love. And I feel like the psychedelic experiences they just open us up to the truth that we are God, right? And that God is love, and that once we understand that then we can come back out into the world and give our gifts.

0:19:03 PA: And it's not like you weren't hustling before that, right? You had started this amazing incubator in Newark, right? Helping to train entrepreneurs. So it's not like you weren't in service before that, but what I'm hearing from you it's like when that internal shift happened, when you felt that sense of self-love, how did that shift the way that you approach business? Once you came out of that, what were some of those practical things that just changed for the way that you treated people in your life? For the way that you ran your business? For the way that you hire people? Like how did that feel for you?

0:19:03 GA: In regards to like just what it did for me as how I came back as you know as a leader, as an entrepreneur. I remember the first day back, literally, this happened and like, "Okay. Here's Monday." That happened a week and my event was over a weekend, boom, Monday office, and my team knew, 'cause I had to tell my team I left that day that I'm going through this experience. And I felt like I can just, I have nothing to hide at that point. So, I told my team, and when I came in, I didn't even have to necessarily say or do anything. My whole fucking team felt it. I came in and it was almost like I completely detoxed every freaking brick, I had been carrying on my shoulders. I took the cape off and just realized that like, "I don't even need a costume anymore, bro. I'm the fucking superhero." You know what I mean?

0:20:46 GA: And I just showed up with this more, I almost wanna say less of this masculine I need to go, go, go, I need to force, kind of, things to happen into more of, "Okay. This is all unfolding exactly the way it's supposed to... " And just this feeling of love, and loving my team, or accepting them, or getting a little more closer to them, talking to them a little bit about what they're going through, personally, internally. How they see the world, what their vision was for what we were bringing to the world. How it matches together, and just being hella more present, way more present. My eye contact, my presence in the sense of, "I'm a content creator, and an artist, as well as a builder, and entrepreneur." So, you can only imagine. If people came to visit me, or people were working with me, you couldn't get me. It was hard to get me for a minute, five minutes. I was like, "Go, go, move, meeting, call, this, this, that, more like shooting content every... " It was a non stop thing. Now, I, finally, was like, "Okay." I didn't feel the pressure anymore.

0:21:48 GA: It was more so just like I... Yeah. I still wanna document, but I was just more present. I was a little bit more loose. I was a little bit more, kind of, going a little bit less with my head, and I was more in my soul. I was more in my intuition. You know what I mean? And it just like, it... For me, it just played a huge role in me like just tapping into my heart more, tapping into my intuition more. So, the way I made decisions was a little bit less about external things, and I was just like less about ego. It was just more about just serving, and you learn this as an entrepreneur, but, now, even more, this whole idea of adapting, adjusting, follow the process, trust the process. We hear all those things right? But now, it was like, "Oh, yeah. I'm gonna do this with my entire life, not just my business." And it just allowed me to... It allowed me to understand that more, understand how to adapt more, how to adjust more, and, also, how to not be attached, not attached to these ideas, not attached to these companies, not attached, they're not our... They don't need to be our identity. You know what I mean? And that was a big thing for me, as well.

0:22:57 PA: Because then, when we're attached to things like that, this is... We've been going through Anthony de Mello, The Way to Love. I found it through Aubrey Marcus, his podcast, he recommended it, and this is when we have, then, these attachments to external things, then our state of being, our process of self-love is dependent on whether X, Y, and Z is successful, right? So, when we're killing it in business, then we see that as a reflection of ourselves. So then we're having a great day, but when business, as sometimes, doesn't go so well, we're attached to that, then, we have a shitty day.

0:23:29 GA: Yeah.

0:23:30 PA: And so, lot of this is just like, it's that internal, sort of place of centered, and groundedness. How do we just come back here and knowing that the truth of who we are, it's not impacted by the external things. The external things are fun, but that's the game, right? The truth is inside.

0:23:45 GA: Yeah. For sure. And it just taught me to, this thought of... And I'm still studying the conscious leadership, and I never thought about that. I grew up learning about leadership my entire life, but it was very masculine, it was very push and like, "Leaders eat last. Everything comes before you." You put your team, you put your business, you put your health, you put everything. You lead, and you have a mission, you go and attack that mission, you do it, anything, at all cost, whatever it takes, and I was that guy. I would pull all-nighters, I would put all that time, I neglected self-love, again, right? So, conscious leadership when I flipped, and I realized like, "Yo. I gotta tap into nurturing myself." Putting Gerard first, because if you improve the leader, you improve the business. And then, this mantra started coming to me like, "Leaders create leaders," right? So, for me, I became way more conscious of everyone on my team. How do I inspire them to be better leaders and help understand? Again, what are their goals? Who are they? What do they wanna bring into the world? How do they see themselves fitting in? And allowing them to go through the process of adapting, and growing, and learning, and adding value, and giving them the freedom to... Their... Just their freedom, in general.

0:25:00 PA: To become who they are, right? And to be able to give their gifts fully, and feel like "Yes. I'm aligned, and, yes, I'm contributing to something fucking amazing, and I have this total gangster, Gerard Adams, who's there watching out for me," right? 'Cause it's like you said, when you have these experiences, it doesn't matter what you say to other people. All that matters is how you show up with it. And then, how you show up is what attracts and brings people into that. You don't need to say anything, right? It's just like the energy that you hold.

0:25:26 GA: Yeah.

0:25:26 PA: And how you treat people?

0:25:27 GA: Yeah, 100%. For me, it became more of a conscious leader. And so, thinking about tapping into that leader within myself, and, "How do I lead Gerard better? How do I... " I started putting my... For the first time ever, my health in order. So, all of a sudden, I'm showing up with better energy. I'm healthier, I'm happier, just happier. It's crazy how the simplest shifts create the biggest impact, and I've realized that. I've come back down to the fundamentals, the fundamentals of how I build my business, the fundamentals of like my health and wellness, just down to the fundamentals now, simple. You know what the difference... But what I also learn now it's like, the difference between a Fortune 500 CEO and a Fortune 100 CEO is that the Fortune 100 CEO is willing to say, "No more," is willing to actually realize the power of saying no, and being more of just doing what's actually aligned, and not always going everywhere. And I think a lot of times for me, when I heard that I was like... I remember, I used to always, I was spending my energy saying yes to almost everything. I was trying to capture every little opportunity. And now, I'm just really centering myself. I'm very... I got clear. What do I want to bring? What do we wanna bring to the world with our team? And let's just stick... Let's do one thing at a time, let's do it great, and let's learn from that and grow, and play the long game in this, stop trying to do so much in a way.

0:26:57 PA: Because then that becomes dispersed, right? And I think, again, it's like the simple things are the best things, and the best things are the simple things. Like "Let's just distill it down to first principles, to fundamentals, and let's stick to really what matters." That's been one of my most valuable lessons from psychedelics as well. It's like, what you're talking on is that receptivity, that more feminine side of settling in and nurturing and not just being up here, being like, "We gotta go, we gotta go, we gotta go," but really settling into the body because the wisdom is in the body. And that's why we as men, when we're leaders, we're burning ourselves out just... The brain thinks it can do everything, the body knows it can only do so much.

0:27:31 GA: And it's like this brain down here in your gut, you realize a power in that, right? The power in our gut and our intuition is more powerful than up here. And it's all just connected man, and in our heart it's just... It's crazy, I started building a connection with my heart. You think about your heart showing up for you every day, a 100,000 beats a day, you start being grateful for that, appreciating that and learning the discipline that it has, and you start adding that discipline in all areas of your life. It's like, "It's cool now, how are you shifting yourself working with something like that?" And now all of a sudden, the integration, like boom.

0:28:07 GA: Now all of a sudden you're... The way you've integrated into your life, now I'm meditating, I'm doing breathwork consistently, I'm doing consistent things to be in nature and to write and to do so many things in my daily routine and my daily practices that have allowed me to just perform at a much higher level, be much, much happier, make room for the relationships that are actually gonna fuel me and add to to my life, add more love to my life, and I'm attracting more abundance.

0:28:39 GA: It's like... It's cool. It's shifted me completely, the Gerard before having that experience and the ire was like, "Now, it's just continuing to rise up even more." The Gerard before if you would have met me, he was a very egoic, go-go hustle. And the problem is, when you're like that is it fucking works. That's the problem, it works. Do you understand?

0:29:02 PA: Until it doesn't.

0:29:03 GA: Until it doesn't. And it's like, it works, and you will make millions of dollars, and you will get those accolades, and you will get the cars and the house, and you'll get the... Maybe you'll get the jet even. I know billionaires that are freaking unhappy and don't love themselves, and it's just like, "You can go, go, go, hustle, hustle, hustle," and get all of the external power, and you may think that you're doing it right. And eventually, until it doesn't, you're like, "Holy shit, I'm not aligned. I'm not successful internally." And, a lot of times it takes people... And fortunately, some of the darkest and... Well not, unfortunately, fortunately sometimes it's the thing that happens to you that's unexpected, that's traumatizing that caused you to go through this, but it doesn't have to be.

0:29:50 GA: Or, what I've seen is the flip, you become uber successful and you're freaking, you're unbelievably successful, right? And, I think that this is gonna happen to Jeff Bezos, right? His company's Amazon. You're not stepping up, and actually doing something to support the environment. Your packages are going out every single day, and you're working just on and going out of space. What about Earth? What are you doing here to make the world a better place? You're the most wealthiest man, you've got the biggest company, and you did it in your late years.

0:30:21 GA: How are you becoming a more conscious leader? How are you creating a conscious culture? I want them to wake up but, it doesn't have to happen... I just feel like for some people... I guess they get to a success, and then it gets to a certain point where they keep going after the power and more power, more power, more money, more power, more greed...

0:30:39 PA: 'Cause that's the only game they know how to play, right? It's like once you're on that treadmill, how do you get off of it?

0:30:42 GA: Right, yeah, yeah.

0:30:43 PA: Right? Because your whole identity is caught up in that, your whole identity is built around it.

0:30:47 GA: Yeah, look at Steve Jobs, what he left us. If we haven't had someone that's like not in... A philosopher of our time that... Someone who left us on his deathbed, left us that unbelievable light and message about... And he studied, he studied Buddhism, he studied this and he still is on that. But he... He left something obviously unbelievable behind. And... And he...

0:31:15 PA: One... Well, and then... I think this is a really good transition point in terms of old Gerard versus new Gerard. I love that phrase, that's something that Ben will often be like... He'll be like, "That was old Paul. This is new Paul." When you think about that from a business perspective, how does the new Gerard show up publicly? And what are you doing specifically to start to integrate some of these more conscious leadership elements in terms of like, you have this mastermind that's coming up, you obviously... You have a lot of content that you develop already. How is that showing up in the work that you're starting to do publicly? So you're not only showing up that way to your team, but it's also like your audience is starting to get it as well.

0:31:51 GA: Yeah. I just let go of the perfectionism for one, right? We're all so caught up in... Not all, but I could speak for myself and, I just had this huge feeling that I needed to prove myself. I thought I wasn't good enough, and it stemmed from when I was young, and it caused me to go after trying to do so much and then I finally let go and I started showing up to the world just more authentic. We know... We hear about this authenticity, but truly, it takes a lot of courage ultimately to take off the layers and just... I started just documenting being... Not having to have the perfect pictures, to have the perfect speech, have the perfect video. I just started being like, "Alright, I'm gonna just speak from the heart." That was a huge, huge aspect for me who was just starting to document more, share. Even doing this interview, I might have been over-thinking it in the past, sharing my truth because we fear... FOPO, Fear of Other Peoples' Opinions, you know?

0:32:50 GA: And we go through that. So for me, I just started showing up way more authentic, I let go of the perfectionism. And then basically just my mission in general was like, "Okay, how can I now, not only go out and share stories of other conscious leaders and people that are going out there and doing work to just help others to align themselves, align their heart, align what they generally wanna bring to the world that's gonna help raise the vibration of our world, and make and solve problems that are needed in society, in humanity and support them, share their story, help them build a platform for them to be able to do so?"

0:33:30 GA: But then it was also for me, it was like, "How do I go and serve them to not only help them share their story and teach them what I've learned as a content creator for 18 years for them to be a platform so that they can attract more of an audience that can be educated and learn more about their missions, and ingrain them, and get them involved and invite them and start being the leader, not just internally for the company but externally to lead by example and do what you're doing? Share the process, documenting the process and building a platform 'cause that to me changed the game. Not only did it change the game for my business, but my relationships have gone through the roof.

0:34:07 GA: Now, I'm rubbing shoulders and my network's insane now, just unbelievable world class entrepreneurs, they're creating such impact in the world, and it's just really amazing 'cause your relationships are everything, my friendships. It's not even just like business anymore, you're like my dear friend. And I have such amazing friends now that we're all just genuinely don't have envy, we genuinely really wanna see each other win, and really wanna empower one another, really wanna support one another. And to me, that's been a game changer at a young age to have that kind of support, has allowed me and took me to all new levels of belief and just being a better leader, and being a better student of life, and being able to show up more powerfully how I'm showing up whether on stage or on a video or working with my team, or just in my dating, with my family, all these things. So there's that. And so I'm helping them really build their platform and then I'm also helping them understand how to integrate this into their culture. How are they actually integrating this and how they're building their team and how they're leading their team?

0:35:14 GA: And for me, the goal is just being a bridge between consciousness and spirituality in business. So there's a lot of conscious leaders out there that wanna share their story, that wanna be able to go and create their movement and build their community, but then they also don't know business on the flip side. So there's business leaders that are building badass companies like Jeff Bezos, that needs someone to help wake them the fuck up so that they can help bring consciousness and build a culture of consciousness and help bring that into their teams and see the freaking... These big companies, it could be startups as well, but it can be small shifts not only in the leader as the CEO, but you start bringing those principles, these practices, these frameworks into your company, and your company is gonna freaking 10X if not more. It's gonna completely change the game, right? So they need to understand how to be able to do that, and that's what I love doing. And then on the flip side, you got conscious leaders that have gone through an awakening that are freaking unbelievable human beings, but they don't know how to fucking build a business.

0:36:18 GA: And I come in and I can relate to them and we share our different practices, we connect about what our beliefs are spiritually, and with the world, and I understand them and then I'm like, "Okay, but now let's get down to brass tacks, let's get down to, okay, you have this mission, you wanna build this huge community, you have this huge big idea in this business, but how are we making money? How are we generating revenue?" 'Cause that's energy and you need that to grow. How are you building your team? How are you setting up the systems on the back ends from an operational standpoint? How are you actually running marketing campaigns and funnels that indoctrinate your customers? And how are you creating a good customer experience? And what's that onboarding process look like? What are your SOPs? What are your KPIS? What's your organizational chart look like? Are you raising capital? Are you boot-strapping this? What's your budget? What's your financial projections? How are you running your quarterly meetings? And so on, and so on, and so on, that's the shit that I fucking love. So I realize I don't have to pick one or the other, I can be the bridge between business and conscious leadership.

0:37:21 PA: It's kind of like what Keith is doing in some ways, our mutual friend, Keith Ferrazzi, this co-elevation sort of thing. And he's more doing it with the people who already have figured the business shit out, and now wanna integrate more consciousness. But I feel like it's also... What you're talking about, it's just like with people who have these openings, they have these awakenings, they're "more conscious," the creativity comes easy, but the integration of that creativity into infrastructure and development and building, that's what you're hitting it, it's like you need both.

0:37:51 GA: And we need to support them, because we need conscious leaders more than ever before. We have a major issues going on around the world. There are more problems than we can solve as entrepreneurs. So we need to. The venture capitalists, I call them out, these thought leaders that are out there, these business coaches, we need to go out there and support these entrepreneurs that are looking to go out and solve real world problems that are really important right now for our planet, for our education system, for health and what's going on in the pharmaceutical industry. There are so many issues going on, mental health, the planning, our environment, you got education in our youth, there's just so much and it's just like we need to help educate them and teach these entrepreneurs how to build a real sustainable, predictable, profitable business so that they can go out there and leverage that, leverage those resources to actually grow these communities and create real world impact.

0:38:48 PA: Well, and that's how we met, I don't wanna bring us back into that because we met what, 10 months ago now?

0:38:48 GA: Yeah.

0:38:48 PA: About 10 months ago at a New Year's retreat in Costa Rica with a group called One Heart. Basically entrepreneurs, executives, creators, you name it.

0:38:48 GA: I love One Heart Tribe.

0:38:48 PA: Coming in and doing plant medicine in a transformational week. I just wanna hear a little bit about that from your perspective, because that's how I know Gerard, that's when we first met. I've been in your life since then, and I'd just love to hear from you, you obviously, you went through the 5-MeO-DMT experience, what, maybe a year before that, a year and a half before that. What drew you specifically to Ayahuasca and to this retreat? And what relationships have come out of that that have inspired you?

0:38:48 GA: Yes. The 5-MeO-DMT was like, it was obviously this calling, this invitation and it was the universe saying like, "Gee, we need you to step up and we need to get you there quickly." Like you have a... And I feel that way. I was like, I had a platform, I just had an exit and I was, I already had the heart, I was already doing social impact work. But how long would that have last before I would have self-destructed internally, so I'm so grateful for that calling, I'm so forever grateful to Daniel for introducing it to me and it was like this fast track, "Whoo! Okay, I got it, get it, like let's fucking go!" But then it was like, okay, now I need to... I started integrating and then I just... So now I started being able to do the research and I learned about Ayahuasca, and really, I could be honest with you, after 5-MeO, I was like, "Okay, I got it, that's it. I don't need anything more, I understand. And I have an understanding of really how much of a phenomenon we are as human beings and how none of this really fucking matters but it all fucking does."

0:40:49 PA: It's that paradox.

0:40:50 GA: Yeah.

0:40:50 PA: Right? It's that weird, weird paradox.

0:40:52 GA: Oh yeah, and how we are meant to do God's work and that we are God, we are love in that, oh my God, all that belief, for me growing up it's like, "Oh my God, it's real, God is real," and holy shit, it was right in me this whole entire time. It was within me, and so now I had that awakening, so Aya was like, "Alright, I wanna go, I wanna definitely learn more but I felt like I already... I wasn't 100% sure if I was ever gonna do plant medicine again. I was intrigued, I did my research, but I was like, not 100% gonna go. And then, the founder of One Heart Tribe, Barry Stamos, he had known me, we had known each other prior to plant medicine, and I always respected him.

0:41:32 PA: Oh you knew Barry before?

0:41:33 GA: Yeah. So Barry was a tech entrepreneur, successful. We had talked about collaborating and investing together. And I did a Mastermind event, spoke at a Mastermind called Dream Mastermind in Miami where Barry lives and he took a meeting. He asked for a meeting, I had a meeting with him. And in that meeting, he invited me to One Heart, in Costa Rica, at Kinkara. And I was like, "To be honest with you, Barry, it's New Year's you're asking me to go, and I've been traveling and going hard this year and I just kinda wanna be with my family. I don't think it's right." And he just gave me this look in his eyes, bro, and I just saw his soul, man, just asking me, like, "You have to, I'm calling upon you bro. You've already had that awakening. But this is... You have to... You have to, please." And One Heart was kind enough to invite me and host me and I was like, "Alright, if you really feel that, then I feel you brother, I'm down, I'll do it."

0:42:28 GA: And it was the best decision I ever made. And when I was there, bro, it was this freaking unbelievable, tense, sacred garden, I'm eating out of this... I mean, the food was just unbelievable. And then, I still... Again, because you're still going through integration since 5-MeO. So I still have this side of me of like judging sometimes, whether it's myself or others. So I remember seeing this shaman, now remember, the first experience, I'm like, "Oh this guy, so delicate, looked like a monk." The shaman this time around is like this guy who's from Ireland, he had a little bit of a beer belly, kind of, but kinda just didn't look like a shaman. Obviously, looked like the kindest human being. But just, he looked like an Irish guy, you know what I mean? And I was just like, "Okay, really, is this guy really gonna be as good as Richard?" And I started thinking like that, like, "Oh man, I don't know."

0:43:18 PA: Skepticism.

0:43:19 GA: Skepticism.

0:43:21 PA: Doubt, resistance, coming up, all those things. Tom, the bartender.

0:43:26 GA: Tom, the bartender. Yeah. And what a voice this guy has, it's just beautiful, man, and he, just... I can't even explain it, he's one of the most special human beings in my life. And we went through these three ceremonies. The first that... It was just totally different, way scarier for me because, DMT, it's like, "Boom."

0:43:48 PA: It's like a fucking rocket ship.

0:43:49 GA: Rocket ship portal, you're just freaking... You're in out of space. And Aya is this slow feeling of going on a walk with your great-great-great-great-grandmother that ultimately is nurturing and is taking you through the process of letting you see your decisions, and for me, see what the decisions I made in my life and in a nurturing way. The first ceremony was, for me, taking me through a lot of these decisions that I've made in my life and saying, "Hey, how could you have done this a little... How could you have come at this with a little more empathy? How could you have handled this a little bit with more love?" And it was really beautiful, but then it took a turn. And then it took a turn to like dark. And while there's this feeling of other people... Some you... When you hear the first person purge...

0:44:42 GA: Because you're always scared. If you've never done an Ayahuasca, you're scared. You hear about these rumors and you hear about the throwing up, and you hear about coming out of every end, and you're just like, "I don't know if I wanna do this." What's interesting is when you're there, everyone is so scared, when you finally take the cup and you're finally in this circle, and it's this dim night, and you lay back, and you don't know what to expect. When the first person purges, it's this feeling of relief that it wasn't you and this feeling of like, "I honor that person for having the courage." And then you realize throughout the ceremony that it's not about being sick, that it's this courage of letting go of what's no longer serving you, that's been in your soul, that you've been carrying in you like this, whatever that may be; for me, it was judgment. And I fought purging, I fought letting it go.

0:45:33 GA: I carried that judgement, that I talked to you about with Paul. All eight hours, finally it ended. Everyone leaves and I'm like, "I just don't feel good guys, I'm still in it." Everyone's kinda celebrating their breakthroughs and I'm like, "I don't know about this." So I go out by the freaking bonfire, and I just remember looking at a friend of ours, Ben, and I'm like, "I don't really feel good man, I'm still in it." And I saw dark evil, like I was seeing just like... It was just evil, man, evil... I just was really bad on myself. I was... Now, with the intention, again, everything is with intention when you go into these ceremonies. So my intention for this ceremony was to honor the divine feminine because I am letting go of an old relationship that's been hurting me for a really long time and I wanna invite a new relationship in my life. I wanna be a king for a queen, I wanna... Not just for my own queen, but I wanna acknowledge, and see, and honor all the queens and goddesses in our world. And so, really, that was my intention. So, the end of the first day was me going through facing everything that I have done to a woman in my entire life. Every girl I've had sex with, every girl I've actually freaking said nasty shit to, or that I'd done wrong, that I've judged or that I've just fucking...

0:46:44 GA: Just fucked up, just did dumb shit. The drunk Gerard, when I was a young man in my '20s, I was just fucking obnoxious and would yell and say nasty fucking shit and just curse and be just mean, and angry, and I had to deal with all of that that I never dealt with. So I finally couldn't take it no more, and I was so down and out. So then, finally, I got up, I was like, "I gotta go to the bathroom." And halfway walking over to trying to get to where the bathroom was, all of a sudden I felt like I was gonna absolutely faint, I've never felt so weak in my life. And then one, two, and I teeter and right before I go down, Ben catches me, he's like, "I'm here for you buddy," and I was like, "Oh my God, thank you so much." And I was like, "I think I'm gonna, I think I'm gonna... " And then right then and there, I fall into a pit in the garden and just purge. It all comes out, I vomit and it was the best fucking feeling in my life, I finally forgave myself and let go and of the judgment and everything I had done and I just, it was like this... A feeling of that finally I can let go and forgive myself of that. That was day one.

0:47:53 PA: That was day one?

0:47:54 GA: That was day one. And then day two comes and I'm like after day one and I did that purge, I'm, again, I... So weak, I felt relieved, but I was like, "Okay, that's it. I got what I came for. Oh, jeez, I'm done." I go to Tom, I say, "Tom, I'm done. I'm sorry, but I know there's two more ceremonies. I can't do it, I don't think I'll make it. I think I'll actually... I don't think my body is in a good healthy condition to do it." And he was like, "No pressure. If you don't want to, that's fine. Come to the ceremony tomorrow night and if you don't wanna take a cup, just participate, but don't, you don't have to take a cup. There's no pressure here." And I was like, "Oh, it's so nice. Okay, cool, I could do that." So I came.

0:48:36 PA: He tricked you?

0:48:37 GA: Yeah.

0:48:37 PA: Yeah.

0:48:38 GA: So I come second night, I get in the room... And now, first night, the G that's the freaking Jaguar got right up. I was probably one of the first.

0:48:46 PA: I think you were the first.

0:48:47 GA: I was...

0:48:48 PA: It was one of those things I remember you getting up and you're kinda supposed to go in line, one... Like we started on the right side and one person gets up here, one person gets up here, and I just remember looking over and going, "Oh, Gerard's getting up and going to get a cup over, okay, great, perfect, I'm just gonna follow him then, he knows what's up."

0:49:03 GA: Nice, nice.

0:49:03 PA: You were just like going right for it. You were excited, I'm sure.

0:49:07 GA: Yeah, I was, I was ready to just go for it. But day two, night two, no, I waited, man, I sat there and just like you can't do it, man, you can't do it, you can't, no way, man, it's not... You're got what you... You can't, just telling myself that story, like, nope. And then one person after the other, and then it just, it hit me like three quarters of everybody going up. I was like, "Look... " I literally was like, "Everyone here is so brave." And I was like, "If everyone else can be this brave, you gotta be a brave man." So, I forced myself, I got up, I went, I took a deep breath, I took the cup, I went back down and here we go again. And slowly the song starts, and Tom's voice starts singing and slowly the practice begins and slowly you fade, slowly you fade, and then all of a sudden man, it begins and the first person purges, I didn't purge this, again, the first time. But now my second ceremony, again, honoring the divine feminine. So what happens in this ceremony, really interesting. Two things happened, and one, it's just pretty intense. So, a gentleman that I'm, that's a friend of my friend, that we all hung out in the Hamptons over the summer, he had was with his girlfriend and I had met them both, and pretty girl, dope couple, both good looking, fun as hell, kinda have fun, party, go out. You would never think anything's wrong.

0:50:42 GA: Met them, had a great time in the Hamptons, never thought anything of it. Well, on my second ceremony, this girl that I only met once channeled through me. And you'll notice that when you're with Ayahuasca, you really are open, you become this vessel and it almost feels like your body is just this like, is just this flesh, is this blob, but you're really one with your soul, realizing beyond the flesh who are you internally, like as a soul, as a spirit. Like we know when we die, your spirit go to heaven? No, you really, that really is true, and you really are a spirit and living a human life, and you're that. And so the second ceremony I'm the spirit and your body is prone to spirits. So the spirit visited me and it was her and I couldn't believe it, and she was in so much pain, so much pain. And I was feeling her pain, and I was just like, "Oh my God," and I was communicating with her, not talking necessarily, but just almost like feeling her pain, acknowledging and having this telepathy kind of conversation in a sense, until I got to the point of and it was seemed like hours, until I finally had this understanding of like I had to forgive her, I had to do what Jesus would do in the sense of since she committed suicide, because I don't know if I mentioned that.

0:52:06 PA: You did not mention that.

0:52:07 GA: Oh, I apologize.

0:52:08 PA: No.

0:52:08 GA: So this girl had committed suicide and it was a complete heartbreak, and a shock to everyone and I didn't... I felt terrible, but I never knew her, like that close to her than meeting her that once, but in this ceremony this girl shows up and I had known that she had committed suicide, so I'm feeling her pain and then I'm having empathy with her, and then I realize like committing suicide is something that's like, whatever your belief is, but it could be believed that it's... You're not supposed to do it, it's a sin. And I felt that she... You may... Sometimes you may commit suicide and thinking that's gonna heal you and it's not. You're just killing the flesh. And I felt that pain, that didn't... I felt like as if she wasn't fully healed, and I went through this process of forgiving her through like Jesus in a way, and forgiving her and I felt through that forgiveness her spirit be freed and it was a beautiful experience for me and it was really shocking for me. And in the second part of the ceremony, there was a girl that was in the ceremony with the name Nicole.

0:53:13 GA: And I just felt her energy in the room being really attacked, and it almost was like she was like this feminine in the room that was being attacked and I felt this energy and I just felt like the whole time I was just trying to channel to her to like, "It's gonna be okay," and be there as a protector without... It's sacred space where you're not allowed to talk, and you're not allowed to touch anybody, so I was going through that. Lo and behold, after the ceremony now, that was my second ceremony, the girl, Nicole, comes to me and says, "You're not gonna believe this but I was going through the darkest time, the gentleman next to me was kind of rolling, and going through a tough time and he kept by accident touching me and it was channeling to me feeling like I was under attack by this masculine energy." It was just suffocating her, and she was going through all this, whatever she had to go through.

0:54:00 GA: It was for her. And she's like, "And you channeled and you showed up with this sword fighting off these evil spirits for me." So I was like, "Whoa, that's unbelievable, that's crazy." I was like, "Oh my God." So here comes the third ceremony, and the third ceremony is a day ceremony, and I'm now like, "I don't know if I wanna do a day ceremony, same thing, but I'm already in it this far." So I go through it, and in this ceremony was when I had my ultimate breakthrough. Two things happened again. The first thing that happened was, and again, this is a long eight hours but the two core things that happened was, one, I gave birth, and I got to feel what it was like for a woman to give birth. So all of a sudden, it's like Kundalini, your back, you start backing up, where your soul, as your stomach's lifting, and I don't know where my legs were just like... And this may sound kind of crazy to some people, but you're... It's... I can't explain it, but my legs opened up, I'm laying on my back and I literally just felt this pain and courage of a woman and what she goes through. Nowhere near what a woman probably actually goes through, but it was almost like, "Oh my God."

0:55:01 GA: As a man, I was like, "Holy shit. Women literally carry a freaking soul, a body for nine months." We know this, as a young man you know this because your mom... I have two sisters. But we never really can understand it. We see it, we support these women, but I'm sure if there's a father listening and you were in that room and she gives birth, maybe you have a more clear of understanding. I've never had that happen to me, yet. But, so to go through that, I was like, "Oh my God." So by the end of that part of the ceremony, I was like... I honored women, I was like, "Holy shit, these are really... They really are divine goddesses. They are God. They give birth, they bring life to our humanity, to the world." Men don't... We have to play a role in that, but they actually carry these souls, it's unbelievable. So I had that experience, and then I had my core breakthrough. Right after that happened and that release happened, out of nowhere, I start hugging myself, and I start saying to myself, "I love you, Gerard. I love you, Gerard. I love You, Gerard."

0:56:09 GA: At that point have this connection to Jesus, and I really connected to Jesus, and this was the second time and I thought about everything I had gone through over the past three days, and of forgiveness, of compassion, of will, love, and it got me closer to God, closer to Jesus, closer to myself. And then Jesus took me through one last lesson, which was like my feet were burning outside in the garden, 'cause there were all rocks and it was mid-day, and there was a point where I was like "I either to get back into the Shala to protect my feet," and then there was a moment of Jesus and me and I was just like, "What's the lesson in this?" And he's like, "Keep going." And I kept going, I was like, "My feet are going to rip open." And he was like, "Keep going." And I kept going and I was like, "Okay." In that moment, I just remember he said, "Keep going."

0:57:02 GA: And I just finally was present with the plants and appreciated that moment, and instantly when I just was present to the plants and the love that I had for them, and the love that I had for me in that moment and for Jesus, I just stopped burning and I just was able to then walk through the garden and it led me to a pond where I was able to wash my feet and wash my face, which was the most beautiful thing ever. And that was the end of my three ceremonies. So, after that...

0:57:38 PA: I don't know how intense going into that divine feminine energy was for you, but just the way that you're describing it to me, it's almost like you had this opportunity to be with women at their most vulnerable moments, right? Like sexual assault, kind of the aggressive male energy, as you were describing it in the second one, the seeking male energy that can be very toxic at times. And you felt that, and you were with that. Birth? There's nothing more vulnerable than birth, in terms of when a woman is in that position and giving birth to that and then death.

0:58:14 GA: And the young woman who passed away of suicide, yeah.

0:58:17 PA: So that to me is just... To be able to experience that energy... We were talking about this before. Yeah you're starting to integrate these feminine aspects and you're more receptive, but to go through that, that's what I've also found from my own experiences both with psychedelics and otherwise, how do we hold that energy for women as warriors, as male leaders, as people who can protect. Because it is, a lot of women are in vulnerable positions, and so what does it take to be mature, loving, embodied, male who... Yeah, we can fucking go get it. We can earn the money that we need to earn, we can do the more traditional masculine things, but we also have that soft touch, that empathy, that compassion. And when you speak then to the last part of it, the Jesus part, that is the integration, right? The mystic is both the generator, the protector, the person who's pursuing this greater purpose but he's also the lover, and the compassion and the empathy, and it sounds like you just had this fantastic week where you embodied all those things.

0:59:12 GA: Yeah it was, for sure. It was a game changer for me, I mean it was the best investment I've ever made in my life and it just was so freaking, I appreciate it so much to go through that. No expectations... Can you imagine my grandma alone? My grandma, Viera... I've healed myself. If you notice I don't even cry. I just know now she's with me. It healed me. I'm so happy now. I grieved, I let it out, I grieved it. I didn't suppress it, I let it out and I dealt with it, and I felt it and I really was able to connect with it and connect with her. And then embody that love, the love you have for that person and for me, my grandma like that love, give the love that I have for my grandma to the world. What would that do to the people around me, to the spaces? How would that have a ripple effect, right? And now just like... Again, from the very first ceremony dealing with that evil when I had the purge and let go what I did and then how I was for women, and being, what I used to call the prince, I was a prince running around, having sex, thinking I was this and like the cool kid and just treating women like...

1:00:39 PA: It's ego games, right?

1:00:39 GA: Ego.

1:00:41 PA: The ego games.

1:00:41 GA: Yeah, and I let go and finally started to realize like, "You want a queen? You gotta do what kings do." And for me, it was like, "Alright, you gotta start respecting, really respecting, honoring them." And it was interesting, 'cause it just slowly started unfolding, man. It just started in my business, it started unfolding in... Some of my biggest success has been women leaders on my team and my clients, my client that run Bossbabe, Natalie, and Danielle, I mean they're building the largest community of ambitious women right now online. And now I'm working with them, I'm supporting women in businesses. Now dating wise, I can be around women and not look at them like sex figures like... And they could be attractive as all hell and I could just be like be friends with them now and look at their eyes and genuinely wanna get to know what their mission is and support them and be okay with being attracted to them as well. You know what I mean?

1:01:33 PA: It's fun to have sexy friends.

1:01:33 GA: Yeah, like...

1:01:33 PA: It's fun to have sexy friends.

1:01:36 GA: Acknowledge it and not feel shameful either. And like that's cool, man. I started reading more of the "Way of the Superior Man". And then again also me internally, how do I embody that, that feminine side and those characteristics, that nurturing side and bring that into how I am treating my family, treating my friends, treating my business and still having that side of me as well.

1:02:02 PA: So I wanna get now to the present, right? 'Cause we've been talking about all this stuff that's been going on for you, the 5-MeO, the Ayahuasca, the conscious leadership. And now, it's late September, we're sitting in your studio, at your place in Runyon Canyon, which is fucking amazing.

1:02:17 GA: Thank you brother.

1:02:18 PA: Beautiful. You've done such an excellent job with this space. And I just wanna know right now what are you most excited about? What are you giving to the world? What are you in service up to the world that you're just amped about? And you get up every morning, you're just like "Yes, we're doing this, I love this shit." What's going on for you in that way?

1:02:35 GA: Fuck yeah dude, thank you so much again. I appreciate everyone who's watching this this long 'cause I know this is a little bit long and I just wanna let you know, I really appreciate your time and attention. Nowadays it's basically worth everything, right? More than anything in the world. So I appreciate it, thank you so much.

1:02:48 GA: I finally let go of not necessarily needing to build this sexy next start-up or anything. For me, man, I really love being building a consultancy and advisory network. So right now, I just launched the Trusted Advisors Network. What I realized was that all of my success throughout my life has been by being able to surround myself with great mentors. And then I started really studying over time the coaching industry in business, and then I realized there's a level up above being the authority, there's a level up above being like a coach, there's what I call the trusted advisor. And for me, I realized that I have the expertise and a team that really bridges the gap, again with spirituality and business, but we really dive into the business teaching like a framework what we call M5 and it's all about mastery, your business model the model, messaging, marketing and the movement, which is the systems. And I use that and teach all my clients that in every aspect of their business.

1:03:53 PA: What are you resisting most right now? So where's your biggest resistance? Where is your biggest fear right now?

1:04:00 GA: It's crazy, 'cause again the work is never done. And for me, it's... And I think it's a good thing but it's commitment and it's not commitment from a business standpoint. I feel like for the first time since my exit, I am so fucking aligned with what we're doing with our company. The team is more aligned than ever, I could not be here without my team. All of us are mastering ourselves, right? Family, so fucking happy. My family is so close. My health, mental, physical, spiritual, fucking mastering it.

1:04:30 PA: You're clean, you're sexy, you're beautiful.

1:04:32 GA: Thank you brother.

1:04:32 PA: You've got all the energy.

1:04:33 GA: Thank you. High energy, I feel great. It's commitment to love, man. And it's like I've done a lot of the work, it's just not done yet, and it's just... I don't know if it's just like the standards, I really have high standards, but now that I'm so like woke us fuck, I now see though the bullshit. And I'm also just waiting for the right person, so dating has been a little tough. And for me, it's been that, it's committing and it's taking the time to give that energy and be present and honor them, but I've been a lot of honoring them and in helping them because they're not ready. So no matter what it's like a part of me is like, "Yes, I'm crawling forward for that love, but at the same time, I'm not," I'm continuing to work on myself continuing to honor the women that come into my life regardless, and when the right one does come into my life so that I'm ready.

1:05:28 GA: And that's just how I look at it, but there is that part of me that still fears that commitment 'cause I'm like, "Well, I have come so far," that I'm like, "If I'm gonna commit again, that's fucking it, like I'm fucking committing and I'm gonna be her fucking rock." You know what I'm saying? And we're gonna support each other, empower one another, build, grow, laugh.

1:05:47 PA: Reliant.

1:05:48 GA: Fuck, yeah. You know what I'm saying? And so that's the only thing for me. Sometimes it's like, "You can't plan that, so is that gonna be when I'm 40, 45?" I wanna build a family, it's like, "Oh fuck, I don't know." So that to me is like the only thing that gets to me somewhat.

1:06:02 PA: I'm in the same exact boat. And it's like we've talked about this before and it is in some ways, it's just a matter of patience. As men, it's important to have high standards, right? But it's just as important to do the work ourselves and create that space of stability so that when the queen comes, she comes, and she's welcome. And there's that level of commitment and there's that shared vision and there's that holding each other up and it's like you're doing enough amazing shit in the world anyway, that's where your energy is going right now, right? And that's beautiful because what you're building is incredible.

1:06:10 PA: And that's the last question that I wanna touch on, it's like we've had this long conversation about leadership, about your early days in Newark New Jersey, about the burn out, about getting into 5-MeO-DMT and Ayahuasca, about what you're most excited about right now. What I'd like to know is just like what's coming for you in the next month to year to five years, what big shift do you see occurring with... Psychedelics becoming medicalized and legalized with more conscious leadership developing? From a vision perspective, because you are a visionary, how do you see this rolling out both for yourself and just generally from a cultural perspective?

1:07:15 GA: Yeah. I think... And I've said this. And I think most of us have read it or heard it before. But there is this... There really genuinely is a shift that is happening. And the shift that is happening is not like, "Oh, it just started happening." No, this has been something that's been worked on from our ancestors for thousands of years. This has all been a shift that has been occurring that they have... We have been prepared for this for a very long time and now we're feeling it. It is rising up. This is a time of harvest. All of the seeds that we planted and have been watered and are being harvested right now. We're feeling that on Earth. We're feeling how the shift is happening. Things are going through renewal. Things are going... Really... And it's scary. But we see it, we read about it with our planet, with the statistics in mental health, with the social media and what's happening there and technology. And ultimately we can't help but pay attention. So therefore we're paying attention that there's this shift that is genuinely happening.

1:08:15 GA: And I think that for me as a visionary and someone who is an entrepreneur, who's a problem solver, I think that we are going to finally become disconnected to being so fucking connected with technology and that's gonna continue to evolve. But we're finally gonna start to actually have this understanding of oneness. You're really seeing it even from... You're just seeing communities come together. Even a Christian, and different faiths and different religions. You remember... There's no wrong, like I meant to, I told you I wanted to mention that. It's all love. I support anyone who believes in love, period. If you're Catholic, Christian, if you don't... If you're not even a believer in any religion and you're just spiritual. Whatever that is. The universe source, love. I think the shift that is happening as a visionary, beyond me giving you a vision of tech and what's happening in the ecosystem of entrepreneurship or in any other industry rather, it's about love.

1:09:09 GA: And I think the shift that is happening is we're finally just realizing... And I said... Wrote an article called the new online is offline. And technology will continue to evolve and that won't change but I think the shift that's happening is like we are going to start to... Again to crave real connection, right? Real connection. And I pray that that connection that we all are seeing happening, and we're all starting to become more aware of is what will allow us to come together and like the super heroes that I mentioned in the beginning of this interview, fucking step up like the avengers that we are and save our motherfucking species. Not just planet. 'Cause the planet will probably stay around and last. It's already proven that it'll stay around for billions and trillions of years. It's our asses that will be off the fucking planet. So lets step up and do that. And my hope is that as a visionary is that over the next eight and a half years is what we have left to a potential extinction to start we all start to really become... And really have that understanding of those principles of the compassion and the empathy and the love and the connectedness.

1:10:12 GA: And really stop trying to escape. We use these phones to escape. Stop trying to escape. It's okay to be alone. It's okay to be one with yourself. It's okay to truly get to know who you are, not fear it. Accept it. And maybe plant medicine is not for you. It's not for everyone. It has to be called to you. This are very powerful modalities and I genuinely believe in them. And I believe if someone's called it will create immense transformation for you in your life. But just by starting to understand... Take this certain practices and make simple shifts. Don't think it's difficult. It's just different. You can meditate. It may be hard but start. Go take a class. Go listen to... Use a guided meditation using Spotify. The little things. Start journaling a little bit more. Start going out in nature a little bit more. Maybe start with a little micro dose of psilocybin maybe. But start having the conversations even, right? Start really getting out of wanting to escape reality.

1:11:11 GA: These phones are a powerful tool but they are not for us to escape who we truly are. So I think it's time for us to step up and really leverage these tools and come and step up to the plate and do it by first building up the leader within yourself. Actually building yourself up. It's time you stop neglecting you in fear of what everyone else thinks and start doing things for external reasons like we all have and start to create that curiosity of like, what if I just accepting myself? What if I did love myself a little bit more? What would that do? How would that change your life? And the truth of the matter is that we all are here with the purpose of contributing and helping push humanity forward. We're all super heroes in our own right. We all have a purpose. We all know. We all have a soul, right? So it's ultimately realizing that all you have to do is start to love yourself, really truly love yourself. And by just doing that you can then heal the world. That's all it is.

1:12:25 PA: Heal yourself, you heal the world. Another Young Pablo quote.

1:12:28 GA: Really? I didn't know that, yo. I'll put that on my doc yo. Young Pablo that's my new quote bro.

[laughter]

1:12:31 GA: Get the fuck out of here. Still fucking crazy.

1:12:34 PA: Gerard Adams.

[laughter]

1:12:37 PA: I love you brother.

1:12:38 GA: Love you too.

1:12:38 PA: Thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

1:12:39 GA: No doubt, dog.

1:12:40 PA: Thank you so much for your vulnerability.

1:12:42 GA: Absolutely.

1:12:43 PA: For your willingness to show up, for your courage in doing this work, for everything that you've contributed to the world, for what you continue to do. You're a role model for me. You're an inspiration to millions of people and you just have a beautiful soul.

1:12:54 GA: Thank you brother.

1:12:55 PA: I just appreciate everything you've done. I appreciate our friendship and our relationship. I can't wait for this podcast to get out there because it's powerful and what you shared was beautiful. So before we wrap up just... Where can people find out more information about you? What we should we go to?

1:13:00 GA: My Instagram Gerard Adams. If you wanna check out I have a show called Leaders Create Leaders on YouTube. And if you're interested in working together go to thetrustedadvisors2020.com, thetrustedadvisors2020.com or just trustedadvisors2020.com.

1:13:00 PA: Thanks G.

1:13:00 GA: Whatever.