Finding Community with Adrian Jones

george grombacher 0:02
Adrian Jones is the founder of profound awesomeness. He is the host of the profound awesomeness podcast. He is a heart attack survivor and he is back on life blood. Welcome back, Adrian. George.

Adrian Jones 0:14
It’s so great to be back. Thank you so much for having me here. I’m super excited about our conversation this morning. Yeah,

george grombacher 0:20
excited to dig back into everything. Refresh my memory. Tell us a little bit your personal last more about your work? Why you do what you do?

Adrian Jones 0:27
Yeah. Well, as you just kicked off our conversation, I am a heart attack survivor. I was. I live here in Northern California. And I was commuting in and out of the city working in corporate America doing the thing. The thing being just working in a corporate job and financial services for years and years, technically decades. And in October of 2016, I suffered a Widowmaker heart attack. And George to be perfectly honest life as I knew it changed forever. And as I like to say Adrienne to Dotto was created and what became abundantly clear to me in fact, I when I got out of the hospital, and I laid in in my bed, on leave from work, I would stare at the ceiling and wonder why I survived? And why me? Why did I survive a really serious Widowmaker heart attack? And the answer that the universe gave me was really compelling and super powerful. And it was use your story to help and inspire people. And at the time, I had no idea how to manifest that like, okay, whatever that means. I love it. I will answer this calling, I will figure it out. And so I got off leave and was able to go back to work. And I went back to work in corporate America. But I knew I had a new calling in life. And it was different than climbing the corporate ladder. And so I started to blog under a pseudonym about all things heart attack related. I’m an adoptee now in Reunion. So I blogged about adoptee advocacy and what it’s like to be an adoptee. I got more comfortable with that I started to pin things under my own name. I started to write articles that were published, I did public talks for the American Heart Association. To your point, I launched a podcast called profound awesomeness and 2021. But I knew it wasn’t enough for me. And so I was still in corporate America doing all the things that go with it. And I wasn’t answering this calling adequately enough for me. And so ultimately, what I decided to do earlier this year, was to drop out of corporate America and start a new business to help and inspire people. And so I am now without a W two, I’m a full blown entrepreneur. And we have soft launched this business with the hopes that we can provide hope and inspiration for folks. Well, congratulations.

george grombacher 2:51
How does it How does it feel?

Adrian Jones 2:56
Feels amazing. You know, it’s it’s, it’s very antithetical for me and my hardwiring, and how I was raised. And just the norms in which I grew up, that I would have a job and marched forward with a job and always have a plan about earning money, and what that’s going to look like to provide for the family. And, and oh, by the way, I’m old enough to have two kids in college. So to walk away from all of that, on paper, it’s almost lunacy, like you have two kids in college and all these financial obligations, and you’re just going to go for it. And yeah, quite frankly, that’s exactly what I’m doing. I am, I like to say, I’m doing a trust fall with the universe. But in my core, in my heart, I know what I’m doing is the right thing for me and for the people that we can impact with our new business. And I feel truly centered in what I’m doing. I’ve never slept better. I’ve never felt more at ease. I have no known symptoms of great anxiety about where’s the next paycheck coming from? And all these things. I just feel in my core that I’ve answered this calling that I had back in, in 2016. And laying in bed trying to figure out what I’m supposed to do with the second act in my life. So feels amazing. I guess it’s the bottom line.

george grombacher 4:16
Good. Good, good. Good. So it’s probably been almost six months since we spoke and trying and trying to figure out how you’re going to actually manifest the ability to help and inspire people. So how is it how is it taking shape?

Adrian Jones 4:33
Yeah, well, late spring when I ventured into the great unknown here, I actually partnered up with someone I went to undergrad with who has a Master’s of applied positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, which is a very preeminent program, led by Professor Martin Seligman, and we got together and we figured out what can we do? We’ve got At this podcast, I had this podcast called profound awesomeness. Maybe we could combine forces and tell stories, inspirational stories that people could watch on video or listen to in the podcast format that would, would help them get through whatever they’re going through out. And we took a swing at that, but it didn’t quite feel right. And so we midsummer, probably right about the time we talk, George, we were just starting to pivot in a new direction. And so what we’ve landed on is creating a community based business for Gen Xers specifically targeted targeting the Gen X community, where they can grow together, create their what’s next, and ultimately get more out of life. And so that’s what we’ve built. And we’re really, really hard building this business are up to really fundamental and important things. One is around community. And the other is around play. And play I want to be very clear about it’s not, yeah, we’re gonna is a group go down to Vegas and go to a clubbing and get bottle service and stay up until sunrise and all that kind of stuff. That’s not what we really mean, by play, the three elements of play, we’re super excited about bringing into our solution for people. One is about fun. One is about creativity, and the other and the third is about exploration. And we want to bring that into this personal growth, personal transformation type environment. And so with community in play as the key tenants for what we’re building, we’re going to offer curated trips and experiences, where we work with travel partners to send our members around the country around the world to do interesting things together. But there’ll be more intentional travel. So you would go with one of our coaches who would go if our trip is to go fly fishing in Jackson Hole, for example, we would send one of our coaches who could help bring a level of intentionality to the conversations after you’re done fly fishing, and sitting around the campfire, we could lead a really interesting conversation, it’s pertinent to that cohort, that travel cohort of people. And then, so that’s trips and experiences. And then the other bucket is around navigating change. And so we’re going to offer a place where people can convene as cohorts, and work with coaches in cohorts to navigate a interesting change in their lives. And when you get into your 50s, you sort of become the sandwich generation, right, and a lot really happens. If you have children, you probably may becoming an empty nester or become one, potentially lose a spouse to death or divorce, your parents might be sick, aging or dying, you might have suddenly lost your job unexpectedly at 55, after 30 years in the same firm or same industry, and on and on and on. And we want to create cohorts where you can join and be a part of other like minded people going through something similar, you know, my case, is a heart attack survivor, I was looking all around for a community of heart attack survivors that I could connect with like to go through like this, the mental recovery process as much as the physical recovery process, like couldn’t find it. So we want to offer that, as is this navigating change bucket. And then the third bucket is around reimagining work. And, quite um, we’re super excited to say we have actually launched this business line. And we have people coming on board who are going to join this program, which will be a 13 week program where you work again, we’re community basically you’re working small cluster of people or cohort of people that will be led by a very, very experienced, talented career advisor and coach to help you assess, look at and move around and define your limiting beliefs and create a better path forward for you in your work or your calling, however you see it. And we think that going through that process with people, you get the benefit of accountability group, an Idea Factory, you tap into their networks as you go through this together and you just have people you can relate to like finding work at this age group can be a lonely process. And we want to take the lonely out of that process. So we think creating something where you can go through this as a cohort or community would be really important. So yeah, so that’s the, that’s the premise of our business. And as we kick into the new year, we will have a lot more happening. And we’ll get louder. We’re scrappy, we’re small. We’re just starting out. But we’ll be in all the places of social media and other things, getting our message out and hopefully being in a place where we can really help people create a really compelling and exciting what’s next in their lives for Gen Xers.

george grombacher 9:39
Well, I love it. I think it sounds great. I am sure it wasn’t easy to refine a world of ideas down to the community and play but specifically play navigating change and reimagining work.

Adrian Jones 9:55
Yeah, it it took longer than than we would have thought or I would have liked, but at the same time, I’ve got bills to pay. So it was like, Alright, let’s go people. But ultimately, as they say Rome was not built in a day. Yeah. And to wade into the space that is, that’s big and vast, and the personal transformational personal growth, category or space, it’s big. And it’s, there’s a lot going on. And we had to really look at it. And when we looked at it, there are a few models that are out there. And what we didn’t see is this whole element of community. So when I say a few models, there’s the there’s the self service model, like, Oh, I’m gonna read some books, I will listen to certain podcasts, or watch YouTube videos, Ted Talks, what have you, maybe go to yoga, or do some meditation, and go on a self guided transformation journey. That’s, that’s fine and good. Another model is you work one to one. So maybe you hire a therapist or a coach, or both, to help you navigate through some challenges in your life. Another model is a more Institute based cognitive based experience where you go to a week long retreat, and there’s some very well known players in the space that do great work. We do very intensive work for five days, you know, you you get there you hand over your, your, your cell phone, and all those things, and you’re just locked in to really doing as I like to, say, pull your guts out and put them on an operating table and examine them and then stitch yourself all back up together, like like Humpty Dumpty. But we didn’t see is this, like, how about going through all this together? And we, we believe that the answer for our growth is within each of us. And we is our is our business or providing coaches slash guides to help people on that journey, but you’re doing it with like minded people who get it who can relate to where you’re at and meet you where you’re at. And we think that’s a missing element in a service model that we want to make available to people.

george grombacher 11:53
I think that that makes a lot of sense. I think it makes a lot of sense. It’s funny that things usually take longer than that. It’s closer than you think. But it takes a little longer than then then we want. It’s interesting. I know, just from my experience with with my wife, we went through, we went through fertility stuff, having our kids and she found all these wonderful communities on online that she was able to connect. And I have been able to find my community here locally and then nationally in different places. Do you find that? Is it going to be men and women? Are you going to break it out? How have you thought about that? Yeah,

Adrian Jones 12:39
that’s a phenomenal and really important question. I’m so glad you asked it. As we were designing this, we were looking at is this men only because my co founder and I are men and men, I think are underserved in many ways in the space. Or do we go multi gender, co dual gender, however you want to look at it, and we opted for the ladder. And so it’s not just men only, it’s, it’s all gender. And we feel like, that’s just the best way we could we could have impact. And then as we design things as we go, you know, we, I can very much foresee us having groups like, you know, the fertility groups for women, or whatever for men and newly divorced men, like, would you create a cohort for them, and maybe they take a trip someplace, and they go on a trip to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, this great artists community down there and try their hand at pottery and sort of build these really important supportive bonds with one another. So yeah, I can the groups themselves that are created will really be defined as we continue to build out where the needs are. And I’ll also say that this is, is this a national program, we are launching it here in the San Francisco Bay area. But as it varies, a lot of internet based services and our platform will be internet based. So this will be available for for anyone in the US. And then we have big ideas about other countries. But first things first. Let’s get this stood up here the states and do a great job and really help people and and get this thing sorted out. And then we can look beyond our borders. Yeah,

george grombacher 14:26
no, I’m, I’m excited for you. I am somebody who loves ideas. And I love community more than ideas. And it’s been an interesting thing. I’m listening to this book Bowling Alone, that’s now come out a long time ago. And it just talks about how we used to be more community oriented and now we’re less so and that’s not good. So making community you know, the term is probably accessible. He talked about how men are underserved. Well, yes, that’s true. But men I think, just for whatever Reason are not as active reaching out and looking for this kind of thing, then then then women are, they’re probably more proactive about caring for themselves and meeting their needs proactively. So, definitely a need. Yeah.

Adrian Jones 15:14
And to your point, are as we get older in life, what happens is, there’s a term called our weak networks start to diminish and whittled down, as we maybe leave our workforce or leave the communities in which we raised our kids where we seem to know everybody and all our neighbors, and all these sorts of things like that. You’ve got your core network, but your weaker network starts to diminish. And that becomes a problem. And what’s a real problem in the US is loneliness. And the data is not a good news story. As we get older, loneliness becomes an epidemic in a way. And hopefully, what we’re building here can help with that. It’s not the panacea and the fix all but hopefully can play one role in helping bring people together and create a greater sense of community as we get older in life. But it is it is something I think, here in the US, we really need to look at and examine. And there’s a great Netflix series action book on it called the Blue Zones, which was really enlightening. But I have not read the book full disclosure, I did thoroughly enjoy the Netflix Docu series, I think it’s four episodes. And community just plays such a key role in these blue zones where there’s a higher degree of centenarians than other parts of the world. So they examine what leads to that longevity. And they and community just it just it’s everywhere. It’s just screaming at you in the examples they show in that in that Netflix series. Yeah.

george grombacher 16:39
So I also really like and they get smart how you broke it out to there’s really practical things. Like I think that’s maybe maybe an appropriate term of that navigating, transition and change. Because when that happens, then we’re looking for sort of event driven thing. And reimagining work. There’s so many of us that don’t like our work or really hate it. But then the idea of fun, like somebody asked me a couple of years ago, like what do you do for fun? Like, oh, I don’t know if that there’s that many things I actually do just for joy, or for fun. I enjoy everything that I do. But what do I really do for fun? So I think that I think it makes a lot of sense.

Adrian Jones 17:18
Yeah, we want to have fun, I want to have fun, I want to have fun. Working, I want to have fun in life. And the personal trainer, when you look at the category conventions in the personal growth and transformation space, I don’t think it’s littered with fun, I think it’s deeply intensive, can be daunting, could be emotional. I don’t think a lot of people characterize it as fun. And so we want to bring fun to it and and really differentiate ourselves from what’s available in the marketplace for people that that that might be more appropriate and interesting for them to have that experience then something deeply intense, intensive and emotional. Maybe it’s working one on one with a therapist or a coach or something along those lines.

george grombacher 17:57
I love it. Well, Adrian, thank you so much for coming back on congratulations on on the evolution and the iteration. Where can people learn more?

Adrian Jones 18:07
Yeah, well, it’s more that’s it that’s the name of our business is more MLRA and our website is we are more.io We are more.io and we believe that we are more we as people or individuals or more we together collectively are more. So please come check us out reach out. I personally would love to hear from you if you’re interested and what we can do to help. And George thank you so much for letting me come on the show and and sharing what we’re up to.

george grombacher 18:37
Yeah 100% Well if you enjoyed as much as I did, so Adrienne your appreciation and share today share with a friend who also appreciates good ideas go to WWE are more.io and check out everything that we’ve been talking about today and see what makes sense for you to get involved with. Thanks again, Adrian.

Adrian Jones 18:54
Thanks, George.

george grombacher 18:56
Till next time, remember, do your part by doing your best

george grombacher 16:00
So if I want my iPhone, and my Tesla and my Bitcoin to work, we need to get the metal out of the ground.

Pierre Leveille 16:07
Absolutely. Without it, we cannot do it.

george grombacher 16:13
Why? Why is there a Why has production been going down.

Pierre Leveille 16:21
Because the large mines that are producing most of the copper in the world, the grades are going down slowly they’re going there, they’re arriving near the end of life. So and of life of mines in general means less production. And in the past, at least 15 years, the exploration expenditure for copper were pretty low, because the price of copper was low. And when the price is low, companies are tending to not invest more so much in exploration, which is what we see today. It’s it’s, it’s not the way to look at it. Because nobody 15 years ago was able to predict that there would be a so massive shortage, or it’s so massive demand coming. But in the past five years, or let’s say since the since 10 years, we have seen that more and more coming. And then the by the time you react start exploring and there’s more money than then ever that is putting in put it in expression at the moment for copper at least. And what we see is that the it takes time, it could take up to 2025 years between the time you find a deposit that it gets in production. So but but the year the time is counted. So it’s it’s very important to so you will see company reopening old mines, what it will push also, which is not bad, it will force to two, it will force to find a it will force to find ways of recalibrating customer, you know the metals, that will be more and more important.

george grombacher 18:07
So finding, okay, so for lack of a better term recycling metals that are just sitting around somewhere extremely important. Yeah. And then going and going back to historic minds that maybe for lack of technology, or just lack of will or reasons, but maybe now because there’s such a demand, there’s an appetite to go back to those.

Pierre Leveille 18:33
Yes, but there will be a lot of failures into that for many reasons. But the ones that will be in that will resume mining it’s just going to be a short term temporary solution. No it’s it’s not going to be you need to find deposit that will that will operate 50 years you know at least it’s 25 to 50 years at least and an old mind that you do in production in general it’s less than 10 years.

george grombacher 19:03
Got it. Oh there we go. Up here. People are ready for your difference making tip What do you have for them

Pierre Leveille 19:14
You mean an investment or

george grombacher 19:17
whatever you’re into, you’ve got so much life experience with raising a family and doing business all over the world and having your kids go to school in Africa so a tip on copper or whatever you’re into.

Pierre Leveille 19:34
But there’s two things I like to see and I was telling my children many times and I always said you know don’t focus on what will bring you specifically money don’t think of Getting Rich. Think of doing what you what you like, what you feel your your your your your, you know you have been born to do so use your most you skills, do what you like, do what you wet well, and good things will happen to you. And I can see them grow in their life. And I can tell you that this is what happens. And sometimes you have setback like I had recently. But if we do things properly, if we do things that we like, and we liked that project, we were very passionate about that project, not only me, all my team, and if we do things properly, if we do things correctly, good things will happen. And we will probably get the project back had to go forward or we will find another big project that will be the launch of a new era. So that’s my most important tip in life. Do what you like, do it with your best scale and do it well and good things will happen.

george grombacher 20:49
Pierre Leveille 21:03
Thank you. I was happy to be with you to today.

george grombacher 21:06
Damn, tell us the websites and where where people can connect and find you.

Pierre Leveille 21:13
The it’s Deep South resources.com. So pretty simple.

george grombacher 21:18
Perfect. Well, if you enjoyed this as much as I did show up here your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciate good ideas, go to deep south resources, calm and learn all about what they’re working on and track their progress.

Pierre Leveille 21:32
Thanks. Thanks, have a nice day.

george grombacher 21:36
And until next time, keep fighting the good fight. We’re all in this together.