February 28, 2025 • 19 mins
Join Dr. Pete & Walker Ferguson as they explore the importance of meditation through the use of groundbreaking, innovative technology.
https://ascendmeditations.app
https://www.instagram.com/ascendapp.ai/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Hello and welcome back to On Air with Dr Pete.
I'm your host, Dr Pete Economo,and I am thrilled to be back
with you here today.
I'm really excited abouttoday's guest.
We run in a lot of the sameworlds, although he's in a
different conference and we'lltalk about that in a second but
in the college landscape ofsports.
Really excited for this guest,Walker Ferguson.
Welcome to the show today.
(00:38):
He's a student athlete at WakeForest, a budding entrepreneur,
and he's a passionate advocatefor mental wellness.
As if playing football wakeforest wasn't impressive enough,
he's the co-founder of ascendmeditations.
It's the first of its kind.
It's ai powered wellness appthat delivers personalized
meditation sessions designed forcreating mindfulness and
enhancing mental resilience.
(00:59):
So tune in, because we're goingto define that for you.
We're going to hear how hisjourney from football field led
to becoming the president of awellness app.
This is something I really canget behind, because if you've
listened to the show before, youknow or any of my shows, or any
of my papers or books, you knowthat wellness is there and it's
so important on collegecampuses.
So welcome to the show, Walker.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I appreciate you having me on Dr Pete.
Yeah, it's awesome.
I just have to say when I was acollege athlete sports are
demanding and consuming, but Ican't imagine also running a
company and building an app andall that stuff during it.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, it's been a lot , but it's been a fun ride,
wouldn't change a thing.
Yeah, well, we say that, but Ithink maybe we'll kind of break
that down a little bit.
So you're down at Wake Forestand you are, tell us about your
kind of athletic journey and howyou came to this.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, so growing up I'm from Richmond, virginia.
I lived in the same house.
My whole life Played literallyeverything with a ball growing
up baseball, football,basketball, cross, you name it
and my sister was actually likethe big swimmer I can't swim to
save my life so she kind of tookthat realm and I stayed on the
land.
But when I got to high school Ireally focused on football and
lacrosse.
I always actually thought I wasgoing to play lacrosse in
(02:10):
college and then, you know, Ididn't get to play.
My junior year, didn't playclub.
In that summer Roster spots gotcut from 12 to 4.
And luckily my junior tape wasgood enough for football.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Um and wake forest had offered me, so I uh ended up
going to wake for football andmajoring in economics there and
modern communications and herewe are now.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I'm a second semester senior.
Now can you really not swim, Ican.
I mean I'm not, I'm not good,you know.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
I mean like it's a uh , I can get like a couple laps
in me before I start, okay, butlike like you can, you could,
you could swim, but just notlike your sister with like two
hours back and forth.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, she swam at Colgate, so she's like an actual
swimmer.
I was not competitive enough.
I can float, though I'm notgoing to drown.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Well, I think sometimes in terms of life after
sport, or just finances, youmade a better decision.
As a former swimmer, I can saythat I'm allowed to say that I
know where we belong on thetotem pole and that's okay
that's awesome yeah, but as longas you can actually uh get the
swimming in, so yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
So athletics is in your family uh, yes, sir, my dad
actually played football atlake as well um how cool is that
85 to 90, so like we got alittle legacy going now, which
is cool that is really cool.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
So, um, how does that work out?
I mean, is he same position?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Not even close.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
My dad's 6'7".
Speaker 2 (03:27):
I'm 6'2".
He played offensive line.
He's a big boy and I play widereceiver in safety, so a little
bit different.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Okay.
Look the same though I lovethat.
It's probably better you don'tplay the same position, but I'm
sure he still had some advicefor you on what to do and what
not to do 100%.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
A lot with the mindset and emotional
intelligence, for sure.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, that's what parents are for, that's for sure
.
So I've heard that you talkabout the life lessons that
sports taught you.
What would you say is thebiggest lesson from sports at
this point in your life?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, I think it all comes down to two words
discipline and consistency.
First off, discipline doing thehard things that nobody wants
to do and doing those thingswhen you don't want to do them.
I mean, that's, that's whatsports teaches you, right?
Yeah, I've had so many times inmy life, especially with
football, because it's a game ofinches and you know, football
(04:23):
is another game too, whereyou're always constantly
developing your body.
Whether that's high school,whether that's college, the kids
ahead of you are always.
You know, they're built bigger,they're stronger, they lift
more weights, they're faster,and you're constantly catching
up to be able to get onto thefield.
And to be able to do that, youhave to have those two keywords.
And the consistency is thebiggest thing in my life,
because every single day,showing up and being the same
person Every day wake up at 6 am, go to the gym, read a book
I've started this new thingcalled the 30-30-30.
(04:44):
Wake up, do 30 minutes ofmeditation, 30 minutes of
reading and 30 minutes ofrunning, and staying consistent
with your schedule, and thatleads to results, right?
So I would say, throughout myentire sports journey,
especially through Wake Forest,the biggest victories, life
lessons, all came from beingconsistent, having discipline,
and that eventually led togrowing, ascend and starting
this company, especiallyregarding time management and
(05:07):
how to make sacrifices.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, what motivates you for that?
I mean, you know that soundsgood and you know, in the world
of football there's lots ofgreat logos everywhere, like
every locker room and teammeeting room, and you know.
So consistency and disciplineis a nice logo.
What motivates you to do thatand to show up for that every
day?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
I'd say it's my purpose, like knowing why I'm
here.
I think once a man figures outhis why, you kind of get out of
your bed every morning bydefault, and that's kind of what
keeps me going right.
There's so many people in mylife that have sacrificed for me
to get to where I am and, basedon the respect I have for them,
I'm not going to not seizeevery single opportunity I
(05:47):
possibly can and work as hard asI possibly can, honoring,
glorifying the Lord with mytalents to not.
You know what I mean.
So that's kind of what gets mein the morning, keeps me going
towards the goal.
And you know, stephen Conwaywrote a really good book, the
Seven Habits of Highly EffectivePeople.
And the second one is beginwith the end in mind, right, and
I always like to begin with theend in mind and know where I'm
going, have that vision, andthat's what you know.
(06:08):
I get out of bed regardlessevery morning because of that.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I love that You're a generation so good at all these
things too, like the 30, 30, 30.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Like there's all these things that I just made
that one up.
I've never seen that one,actually, but I was just like
you know well.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I don't know what am I?
One of my staff members isdoing something right now.
I think it's like a 75.
So it's like 75 days, but it'slike two times 45 workouts, so
maybe it's a 90.
I don't know, it's somehowadded up and I'm you towards
motivation, then that's uh,that's what's important.
100%.
Yeah, so I love that.
(06:45):
You said that you know it'ssports.
It's really a series of lossesand victories.
Football is a sport of inches.
Um.
Have you experiencedsignificant wins and losses in
your life?
100%.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Um, I think the biggest wins, especially in
college, um, you know, thebiggest wins were freshman year.
You know our my freshman yearwe played NC State at home to go
to the ACC Championship andwhen we won that game we were
11-3.
That year we ended up losingthe Pitt and ACC Championship,
but beating NC State andwatching that was the only time
my entire four years there thatWake students like actually
(07:15):
rushed the field and the entirefield was rushed for football.
There was nothing like it.
Kids were, everyone was sohappy that night and we were on
top of the world.
And that 21 season is arguablythe best season Wake Forest
football has ever had.
I'm so fortunate to be a partof that.
My freshman year, Sophomore year, comes around.
Things are going really good.
We're 6-0 to start out.
We have a double overtime lossagainst Clemson and everything
(07:38):
else kind of starts dipping, butwe still had a really good
winning season, went to a bowlgame, won and got another ring.
And then my junior and senioryear we were four and eight.
We just completely flipped theswitch.
Our quarterback, sam Harmon,went to Notre Dame, lost a lot
of guys to the NFL and thingsweren't going right.
But so understanding whereyou're at when you're winning
and how that feels, and thenunderstanding where you are when
(08:00):
you're not winning and stillbeing able to work with your
team towards a common goal isthe most important thing.
So I definitely learned a lotof.
You know life lessons and a lotof learned a lot through those
four years of football on.
You know how to have resilienceand keep moving forward in the
face of adversity.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yeah, that's it's it's key.
I mean that's what makes anathlete is understanding how to
get back up and what are it'skey.
I mean that's what makes anathlete is understanding how to
get back up.
What are you studying?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
at Wake Economics and now.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I'm minoring in communications.
You're going to be a smart,successful, financial man.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
It's funny Actually if I could go back in time, I
would have majored in philosophy.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, I know you would.
I wouldn't have let you.
I would have encouraged you notto.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, probably would have done that, though in modern
entrepreneurship.
Yeah, maybe the other wayaround.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
I'm a professor, so you know the professor jobs and
especially in some of these artssort of philosophy situations.
But I hear you, I don't want toburst your bubble right away,
but I think you made the rightdecision.
I actually joke and say I wishI went into business or studied
business differently Okay, yeah,cool.
And say I wish I went intobusiness or studied business
(09:02):
differently okay, yeah, cool.
So sometimes some of my menteesnow I encourage them to like
look at different journals orjust ways that they can, you
know, become successful acrossdiscipline.
Yeah, you know.
But some of these more, uh,light science, kind of
philosophical uh areas, theythere are not many jobs out
there, so unless you create yourown, company.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Learn how people think, amen jobs out there.
So, unless you create your owncompany and learn how people
think, amen, amen.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Well, it's your entrepreneurship and your
economics, and so that will helpyou, uh, with all that.
So, uh, I love that.
So you know firsthand you knowphysical and mental demands as a
former college athlete.
Um, it can certainly beoverwhelming, and that's that's
my world.
You know, kind of helpingpeople manage stress, uh,
started off in athletes, butalso in the business world.
Now, um, I only wish I had someof the tools.
You know, kind of helpingpeople manage stress started off
in athletes, but also in thebusiness world.
Now, I only wish I had some ofthe tools, you know, that
(09:44):
colleges now have.
I mean, I have a team at myuniversity of nine providers,
you know, and this is somethingthat I'm really passionate about
, because you need to have kindof diversity and of all things
you know in this.
So what's your experience incollege been and how did you
come up with this app?
Speaker 2 (10:00):
in this.
So what's your experience incollege been and how did you
come up with this app?
Yeah, so to preface back alittle bit, when I came in in
the summer of 2021, I had aroommate named Hampton Tanner,
who is my best friend brother.
We had a lot of synergy rightaway.
Moms are both realtors, dadsboth came from broke farming
families in the middle ofnowhere His Georgia, mine,
virginia so right away it waswas just one of those
relationships.
I'm sure you've had those inyour life and sure we just
(10:22):
started bouncing ideas off eachother.
We're like do we want to do arestaurant?
Do we want a brewery?
Like we just would stay up allnight even before like a 5 am
lift, like just to talk.
So nothing.
Obviously we're young freshmen,nothing ever kind of stuck.
Sophomore year comes around andwe're both in a pretty low spot
.
You know we we're still nottraveling, still on scout team,
farthest thing from playing.
Got out of a four-yearrelationship, things on the home
(10:43):
front weren't great and he wasgoing through a lot of stuff in
his life as well, and that'swhen I first learned how to
breathe.
I'm a Christian guy, so Imeditated a lot on scripture and
on the word to start Hampton'sa lot into stoicism.
I've read the book Meditationsmarks.
Really it's legs, body scans,all that good stuff and we were
teaching each other right.
But, lucky for us, we actuallyhad a free subscription to Calm
(11:04):
through our athletic department,through Wake Forest and that's
through the ACC.
So every ACC school actuallygives a free subscription to
athletes for Calm and I lovedhow it gave base meditations,
base sleep stories, but nothingfelt like individual for what I
was going through.
Right, obviously, nobody beatsa Matthew McConaughey or an Adam
Sklar voice, but the contentwasn't there right.
So, long story short Hampton'slike dude, I got to get out of
(11:27):
here.
He transfers to Georgetown.
So at this point he's atGeorgetown.
He's going through a wholeself-discovery period.
I'm figuring things out at Wakeand he calls me in February of
2024.
He said Walker, I know whatwe're going to do.
I'm like all right, what's up?
He's like we're going to createan AI-powered meditation app
that offers people personalizedmeditations, personalized sleep
stories, and then later, when wedeveloped meditation plans
(11:49):
where essentially an athlete canput in a specific goal and how
they're going to achieve thatgoal basically actual steps and
it'll actually break up like aplan where you'll be able to see
yourself succeeding right overtime.
Um, which is huge, and a lot ofathletes have actually been
using that because, as we know,as athletes, everything starts
in the mind.
So at that point the idea waskind of conceived.
We just wrote it out on avision board and we're like, how
(12:09):
do we get to this point?
Right, and I can go into that.
But a lot of things really fellinto place.
Like I said, life's all aboutrelationships and synergy.
Um, I'm so thankful foreveryone that's coming to our
path and to get where we are.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Yeah, so go into that then.
So the mission of the app isreally about, like, quality of
life, addressing mental healthchallenges, and then AI
empowerment.
Many listeners including myselfas the host of the show might
not understand how that evenworks.
So help the old folk out here,yeah 100%.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
So the mission is to essentially help individuals
live a happier, healthier life.
We were targeting with athletesto start, right.
So I got away from reaching outto our niche.
Right, we got us into a startuplab and they're like dude, you
got to hone in on these peoplefirst, right, help your target
market, because that's who youare.
That's why you created the app.
And what did I do?
I did the exact opposite.
I started reaching out topeople who have been meditating
(12:59):
for 30, 40 plus years, whoalready have a practice which
isn't our ideal client.
So, arguing that back right nowwe're actually talking to a
couple of universities to getinto their athletic department,
like Calm did.
Right, so now it will be like asend for athletes.
But essentially, the missionwas to have an app that I wish I
would have had, so athletes canreduce stress and also gain a
mindful edge to see themselvesperforming through visualization
(13:21):
practices, because, as we know,everything starts in the mind.
Essentially, how the app works.
To answer your question is, asof right now, this is going to
look a little bit different inthe next six weeks when the 2.0
comes out, but with the MVPthere's a big blue button.
So when you see that big bluebutton.
It says create meditation.
You hit create meditation andthen you can type in, like
(13:41):
literally anything you're goingthrough, like I could say about
to go on Dr Pete's podcast alittle bit nervous Could you
give me a meditation to help mecalm down and perform my best?
After that you select a voiceand a background and then a
length for your meditation andafter that, within five to ten
seconds, you'll actually spitthat out on the spot your own
personalized meditation for whatyou're going through.
And then the other part too islike what if you don't have
(14:04):
anything going on right?
Like what if you don't have aquery that you want?
You just want a suggestion.
You take a quiz at thebeginning with some base
information your meditationexperience and then what are
your goals for the app?
Right is improve focus, reducestress, cultivate a sense of
gratitude, whatever that may beand then it'll actually spit out
suggestions too on asuggestions bar.
So you have no meditationcontent going into that.
(14:25):
Further, sleep stories we likedhow calm had sleep stories and
they were amazing and we'restill working on how to refine
those and make those better.
But essentially it's the sameprocess.
There's a big blue button thatsays create sleep story.
You give it a genre, you giveit a theme, you give it a
setting and then you give it anyother info so you can make
yourself the character of thestory.
So I made one last night.
Me and hampton were in like thewoods, like just being like
(14:47):
guys and having a good time andlike we actually created it,
actually spit out our names inthe sleep story same process,
length, meditate or a voicebackground and spits that sleep
story out for you on the spot.
And then the last function is,like I said, the meditation
plans, essentially the screenyou put in a specific goal.
The more specific you make it,the better your plan is going to
be.
Right now we have short plans,which are 12 days, and long
(15:10):
plans, which are 20 days, andonce you put in that goal, it
takes 5 to 10 minutes.
We'll actually break up aspecific plan, broken up into
different meditations for you tosee yourself achieving this
goal and getting closer to that.
Meditations for you to seeyourself achieving this goal and
getting closer to that.
And essentially, the way itworks is, as we know.
(15:30):
I'm sure you're very familiarwith ChatGPT and a lot of other
AIs when you ask it a question,when you ask anything into that,
it will spit.
It will pull some informationonline, essentially, and it will
spit that out for whateverquestion you may ask.
Our developers meshed a form ofAI that they created with
Microsoft Azure for voices andthen, with the lines, they went
(15:51):
in and like, figured out thespecific spacing to make sure
that meditation content wasright and it would actually be
delivered the right way, as wellas the sleep stories, and then
connected that with the voices.
So essentially it's like a chatGPT where you can put in any
prompt and it will spit that outfor you on the spot for you to
be able to create a meditation.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
With that big blue button.
That sounds really, really,really cool.
What have you noticed aboutimprovements in your own
well-being?
Are you in Hampton?
Are you guys talking?
Speaker 2 (16:14):
about it.
What do you guys noticepersonally that's affected your
all's well-being no-transcriptand see the actual steps that it
(16:48):
would take to get us to achieveour goal is crucial, especially
as athletes, but it'sdefinitely improved my overall
well-being for sure, definitely.
I would say I live a happy,healthy life with huge
cultivation of gratitude, and alot of that is to a certain
because it's my passion.
That's what gets me out of bedevery morning and wanting to
keep growing it and get itbetter.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Entrepreneurship at its best.
So, what's the?
What's the end goal, the endand that vision board, what,
what was the?
What was up there for the endgoal of ascend?
Speaker 2 (17:15):
We never want to be a $1 billion company.
We want to be a company thathelped a billion people with
happier.
We want to be a company thathelped a billion people live
happier, healthier lives.
I like that.
I stand goal.
Yeah, it's all there ever wasserving others.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
I love that.
Yeah, you guys are really doingan incredible thing, you know,
for athletes and professionals,and I, like you're going to
start with the athletes and thenkind of see where it goes, and
I could say that's sort of howmy career worked.
I started with athletes and now, you know, working with
business executives, executivesand all different types of
people, which is nice because itis about servant leadership and
I love that.
So I'm really glad that you'veshared this app with our
(17:48):
listeners.
So where can everyone find youin the app?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yeah, so I'm on Instagram.
If you just search up WalkerFerguson, everything Ascend
related is all under Ascendappai, linkedin, facebook, as
well as Instagram.
And then if you just search upAscend Meditations in the app
store, you can download the app,create an account, let us know
what you think, and that isgoing to look different.
I definitely want to prefacewithin the next six weeks to
(18:12):
make the user experience andflow a lot better, as well as
adding homepage and informationpage.
And yeah, and then if you guyswant to look at the website to
search up Ascend Meditationsonline, you can learn more about
us.
And then I, if you guys want tolook at the website to search
up a set of meditations online,you can learn more about us.
And yeah, if you want tocontact me, it's walking
Ferguson a set of meditations,dot.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Well, thanks, we'll have all that in the show notes
too, and you know it's really aninspiration, hopefully, uh, all
the other student athletes outthere, and you know you can do
whatever, you can ascend, aslong as you put your mind to it
and get your mind right.
So, walker, I appreciate you.
Man, thanks for being here.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I appreciate you, dr Pete, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
So thank you all for listening.
Our goal, as always, is toshare inspirational stories.
If you have a show topic andyou'd like for us to explore,
please head on over toofficialdrpetecom, send us your
thoughts and, as always, pleaselike, follow and share at
Official Dr Pete.
Thank you again for being hereand until I see you next week.
Until then, spread a littlekindness and stay well, thank
(19:26):
you.
Hello and welcome back to On Air with Dr Pete.
I'm your host, Dr Pete Economo,and I am thrilled to be back
with you here today.
I'm really excited abouttoday's guest.
We run in a lot of the sameworlds, although he's in a
different conference and we'lltalk about that in a second but
in the college landscape ofsports.
Really excited for this guest,Walker Ferguson.
Welcome to the show today.
(00:38):
He's a student athlete at WakeForest, a budding entrepreneur,
and he's a passionate advocatefor mental wellness.
As if playing football wakeforest wasn't impressive enough,
he's the co-founder of ascendmeditations.
It's the first of its kind.
It's ai powered wellness appthat delivers personalized
meditation sessions designed forcreating mindfulness and
enhancing mental resilience.
(00:59):
So tune in, because we're goingto define that for you.
We're going to hear how hisjourney from football field led
to becoming the president of awellness app.
This is something I really canget behind, because if you've
listened to the show before, youknow or any of my shows, or any
of my papers or books, you knowthat wellness is there and it's
so important on collegecampuses.
So welcome to the show, Walker.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I appreciate you having me on Dr Pete.
Yeah, it's awesome.
I just have to say when I was acollege athlete sports are
demanding and consuming, but Ican't imagine also running a
company and building an app andall that stuff during it.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, it's been a lot , but it's been a fun ride,
wouldn't change a thing.
Yeah, well, we say that, but Ithink maybe we'll kind of break
that down a little bit.
So you're down at Wake Forestand you are, tell us about your
kind of athletic journey and howyou came to this.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, so growing up I'm from Richmond, virginia.
I lived in the same house.
My whole life Played literallyeverything with a ball growing
up baseball, football,basketball, cross, you name it
and my sister was actually likethe big swimmer I can't swim to
save my life so she kind of tookthat realm and I stayed on the
land.
But when I got to high school Ireally focused on football and
lacrosse.
I always actually thought I wasgoing to play lacrosse in
(02:10):
college and then, you know, Ididn't get to play.
My junior year, didn't playclub.
In that summer Roster spots gotcut from 12 to 4.
And luckily my junior tape wasgood enough for football.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Um and wake forest had offered me, so I uh ended up
going to wake for football andmajoring in economics there and
modern communications and herewe are now.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I'm a second semester senior.
Now can you really not swim, Ican.
I mean I'm not, I'm not good,you know.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
I mean like it's a uh , I can get like a couple laps
in me before I start, okay, butlike like you can, you could,
you could swim, but just notlike your sister with like two
hours back and forth.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, she swam at Colgate, so she's like an actual
swimmer.
I was not competitive enough.
I can float, though I'm notgoing to drown.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Well, I think sometimes in terms of life after
sport, or just finances, youmade a better decision.
As a former swimmer, I can saythat I'm allowed to say that I
know where we belong on thetotem pole and that's okay
that's awesome yeah, but as longas you can actually uh get the
swimming in, so yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
So athletics is in your family uh, yes, sir, my dad
actually played football atlake as well um how cool is that
85 to 90, so like we got alittle legacy going now, which
is cool that is really cool.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
So, um, how does that work out?
I mean, is he same position?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Not even close.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
My dad's 6'7".
Speaker 2 (03:27):
I'm 6'2".
He played offensive line.
He's a big boy and I play widereceiver in safety, so a little
bit different.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Okay.
Look the same though I lovethat.
It's probably better you don'tplay the same position, but I'm
sure he still had some advicefor you on what to do and what
not to do 100%.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
A lot with the mindset and emotional
intelligence, for sure.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, that's what parents are for, that's for sure
.
So I've heard that you talkabout the life lessons that
sports taught you.
What would you say is thebiggest lesson from sports at
this point in your life?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, I think it all comes down to two words
discipline and consistency.
First off, discipline doing thehard things that nobody wants
to do and doing those thingswhen you don't want to do them.
I mean, that's, that's whatsports teaches you, right?
Yeah, I've had so many times inmy life, especially with
football, because it's a game ofinches and you know, football
(04:23):
is another game too, whereyou're always constantly
developing your body.
Whether that's high school,whether that's college, the kids
ahead of you are always.
You know, they're built bigger,they're stronger, they lift
more weights, they're faster,and you're constantly catching
up to be able to get onto thefield.
And to be able to do that, youhave to have those two keywords.
And the consistency is thebiggest thing in my life,
because every single day,showing up and being the same
person Every day wake up at 6 am, go to the gym, read a book
I've started this new thingcalled the 30-30-30.
(04:44):
Wake up, do 30 minutes ofmeditation, 30 minutes of
reading and 30 minutes ofrunning, and staying consistent
with your schedule, and thatleads to results, right?
So I would say, throughout myentire sports journey,
especially through Wake Forest,the biggest victories, life
lessons, all came from beingconsistent, having discipline,
and that eventually led togrowing, ascend and starting
this company, especiallyregarding time management and
(05:07):
how to make sacrifices.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, what motivates you for that?
I mean, you know that soundsgood and you know, in the world
of football there's lots ofgreat logos everywhere, like
every locker room and teammeeting room, and you know.
So consistency and disciplineis a nice logo.
What motivates you to do thatand to show up for that every
day?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
I'd say it's my purpose, like knowing why I'm
here.
I think once a man figures outhis why, you kind of get out of
your bed every morning bydefault, and that's kind of what
keeps me going right.
There's so many people in mylife that have sacrificed for me
to get to where I am and, basedon the respect I have for them,
I'm not going to not seizeevery single opportunity I
(05:47):
possibly can and work as hard asI possibly can, honoring,
glorifying the Lord with mytalents to not.
You know what I mean.
So that's kind of what gets mein the morning, keeps me going
towards the goal.
And you know, stephen Conwaywrote a really good book, the
Seven Habits of Highly EffectivePeople.
And the second one is beginwith the end in mind, right, and
I always like to begin with theend in mind and know where I'm
going, have that vision, andthat's what you know.
(06:08):
I get out of bed regardlessevery morning because of that.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I love that You're a generation so good at all these
things too, like the 30, 30, 30.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Like there's all these things that I just made
that one up.
I've never seen that one,actually, but I was just like
you know well.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I don't know what am I?
One of my staff members isdoing something right now.
I think it's like a 75.
So it's like 75 days, but it'slike two times 45 workouts, so
maybe it's a 90.
I don't know, it's somehowadded up and I'm you towards
motivation, then that's uh,that's what's important.
100%.
Yeah, so I love that.
(06:45):
You said that you know it'ssports.
It's really a series of lossesand victories.
Football is a sport of inches.
Um.
Have you experiencedsignificant wins and losses in
your life?
100%.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Um, I think the biggest wins, especially in
college, um, you know, thebiggest wins were freshman year.
You know our my freshman yearwe played NC State at home to go
to the ACC Championship andwhen we won that game we were
11-3.
That year we ended up losingthe Pitt and ACC Championship,
but beating NC State andwatching that was the only time
my entire four years there thatWake students like actually
(07:15):
rushed the field and the entirefield was rushed for football.
There was nothing like it.
Kids were, everyone was sohappy that night and we were on
top of the world.
And that 21 season is arguablythe best season Wake Forest
football has ever had.
I'm so fortunate to be a partof that.
My freshman year, Sophomore year, comes around.
Things are going really good.
We're 6-0 to start out.
We have a double overtime lossagainst Clemson and everything
(07:38):
else kind of starts dipping, butwe still had a really good
winning season, went to a bowlgame, won and got another ring.
And then my junior and senioryear we were four and eight.
We just completely flipped theswitch.
Our quarterback, sam Harmon,went to Notre Dame, lost a lot
of guys to the NFL and thingsweren't going right.
But so understanding whereyou're at when you're winning
and how that feels, and thenunderstanding where you are when
(08:00):
you're not winning and stillbeing able to work with your
team towards a common goal isthe most important thing.
So I definitely learned a lotof.
You know life lessons and a lotof learned a lot through those
four years of football on.
You know how to have resilienceand keep moving forward in the
face of adversity.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yeah, that's it's it's key.
I mean that's what makes anathlete is understanding how to
get back up and what are it'skey.
I mean that's what makes anathlete is understanding how to
get back up.
What are you studying?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
at Wake Economics and now.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I'm minoring in communications.
You're going to be a smart,successful, financial man.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
It's funny Actually if I could go back in time, I
would have majored in philosophy.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, I know you would.
I wouldn't have let you.
I would have encouraged you notto.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, probably would have done that, though in modern
entrepreneurship.
Yeah, maybe the other wayaround.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
I'm a professor, so you know the professor jobs and
especially in some of these artssort of philosophy situations.
But I hear you, I don't want toburst your bubble right away,
but I think you made the rightdecision.
I actually joke and say I wishI went into business or studied
business differently Okay, yeah,cool.
And say I wish I went intobusiness or studied business
(09:02):
differently okay, yeah, cool.
So sometimes some of my menteesnow I encourage them to like
look at different journals orjust ways that they can, you
know, become successful acrossdiscipline.
Yeah, you know.
But some of these more, uh,light science, kind of
philosophical uh areas, theythere are not many jobs out
there, so unless you create yourown, company.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Learn how people think, amen jobs out there.
So, unless you create your owncompany and learn how people
think, amen, amen.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Well, it's your entrepreneurship and your
economics, and so that will helpyou, uh, with all that.
So, uh, I love that.
So you know firsthand you knowphysical and mental demands as a
former college athlete.
Um, it can certainly beoverwhelming, and that's that's
my world.
You know, kind of helpingpeople manage stress, uh,
started off in athletes, butalso in the business world.
Now, um, I only wish I had someof the tools.
You know, kind of helpingpeople manage stress started off
in athletes, but also in thebusiness world.
Now, I only wish I had some ofthe tools, you know, that
(09:44):
colleges now have.
I mean, I have a team at myuniversity of nine providers,
you know, and this is somethingthat I'm really passionate about
, because you need to have kindof diversity and of all things
you know in this.
So what's your experience incollege been and how did you
come up with this app?
Speaker 2 (10:00):
in this.
So what's your experience incollege been and how did you
come up with this app?
Yeah, so to preface back alittle bit, when I came in in
the summer of 2021, I had aroommate named Hampton Tanner,
who is my best friend brother.
We had a lot of synergy rightaway.
Moms are both realtors, dadsboth came from broke farming
families in the middle ofnowhere His Georgia, mine,
virginia so right away it waswas just one of those
relationships.
I'm sure you've had those inyour life and sure we just
(10:22):
started bouncing ideas off eachother.
We're like do we want to do arestaurant?
Do we want a brewery?
Like we just would stay up allnight even before like a 5 am
lift, like just to talk.
So nothing.
Obviously we're young freshmen,nothing ever kind of stuck.
Sophomore year comes around andwe're both in a pretty low spot
.
You know we we're still nottraveling, still on scout team,
farthest thing from playing.
Got out of a four-yearrelationship, things on the home
(10:43):
front weren't great and he wasgoing through a lot of stuff in
his life as well, and that'swhen I first learned how to
breathe.
I'm a Christian guy, so Imeditated a lot on scripture and
on the word to start Hampton'sa lot into stoicism.
I've read the book Meditationsmarks.
Really it's legs, body scans,all that good stuff and we were
teaching each other right.
But, lucky for us, we actuallyhad a free subscription to Calm
(11:04):
through our athletic department,through Wake Forest and that's
through the ACC.
So every ACC school actuallygives a free subscription to
athletes for Calm and I lovedhow it gave base meditations,
base sleep stories, but nothingfelt like individual for what I
was going through.
Right, obviously, nobody beatsa Matthew McConaughey or an Adam
Sklar voice, but the contentwasn't there right.
So, long story short Hampton'slike dude, I got to get out of
(11:27):
here.
He transfers to Georgetown.
So at this point he's atGeorgetown.
He's going through a wholeself-discovery period.
I'm figuring things out at Wakeand he calls me in February of
2024.
He said Walker, I know whatwe're going to do.
I'm like all right, what's up?
He's like we're going to createan AI-powered meditation app
that offers people personalizedmeditations, personalized sleep
stories, and then later, when wedeveloped meditation plans
(11:49):
where essentially an athlete canput in a specific goal and how
they're going to achieve thatgoal basically actual steps and
it'll actually break up like aplan where you'll be able to see
yourself succeeding right overtime.
Um, which is huge, and a lot ofathletes have actually been
using that because, as we know,as athletes, everything starts
in the mind.
So at that point the idea waskind of conceived.
We just wrote it out on avision board and we're like, how
(12:09):
do we get to this point?
Right, and I can go into that.
But a lot of things really fellinto place.
Like I said, life's all aboutrelationships and synergy.
Um, I'm so thankful foreveryone that's coming to our
path and to get where we are.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Yeah, so go into that then.
So the mission of the app isreally about, like, quality of
life, addressing mental healthchallenges, and then AI
empowerment.
Many listeners including myselfas the host of the show might
not understand how that evenworks.
So help the old folk out here,yeah 100%.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
So the mission is to essentially help individuals
live a happier, healthier life.
We were targeting with athletesto start, right.
So I got away from reaching outto our niche.
Right, we got us into a startuplab and they're like dude, you
got to hone in on these peoplefirst, right, help your target
market, because that's who youare.
That's why you created the app.
And what did I do?
I did the exact opposite.
I started reaching out topeople who have been meditating
(12:59):
for 30, 40 plus years, whoalready have a practice which
isn't our ideal client.
So, arguing that back right nowwe're actually talking to a
couple of universities to getinto their athletic department,
like Calm did.
Right, so now it will be like asend for athletes.
But essentially, the missionwas to have an app that I wish I
would have had, so athletes canreduce stress and also gain a
mindful edge to see themselvesperforming through visualization
(13:21):
practices, because, as we know,everything starts in the mind.
Essentially, how the app works.
To answer your question is, asof right now, this is going to
look a little bit different inthe next six weeks when the 2.0
comes out, but with the MVPthere's a big blue button.
So when you see that big bluebutton.
It says create meditation.
You hit create meditation andthen you can type in, like
(13:41):
literally anything you're goingthrough, like I could say about
to go on Dr Pete's podcast alittle bit nervous Could you
give me a meditation to help mecalm down and perform my best?
After that you select a voiceand a background and then a
length for your meditation andafter that, within five to ten
seconds, you'll actually spitthat out on the spot your own
personalized meditation for whatyou're going through.
And then the other part too islike what if you don't have
(14:04):
anything going on right?
Like what if you don't have aquery that you want?
You just want a suggestion.
You take a quiz at thebeginning with some base
information your meditationexperience and then what are
your goals for the app?
Right is improve focus, reducestress, cultivate a sense of
gratitude, whatever that may beand then it'll actually spit out
suggestions too on asuggestions bar.
So you have no meditationcontent going into that.
(14:25):
Further, sleep stories we likedhow calm had sleep stories and
they were amazing and we'restill working on how to refine
those and make those better.
But essentially it's the sameprocess.
There's a big blue button thatsays create sleep story.
You give it a genre, you giveit a theme, you give it a
setting and then you give it anyother info so you can make
yourself the character of thestory.
So I made one last night.
Me and hampton were in like thewoods, like just being like
(14:47):
guys and having a good time andlike we actually created it,
actually spit out our names inthe sleep story same process,
length, meditate or a voicebackground and spits that sleep
story out for you on the spot.
And then the last function is,like I said, the meditation
plans, essentially the screenyou put in a specific goal.
The more specific you make it,the better your plan is going to
be.
Right now we have short plans,which are 12 days, and long
(15:10):
plans, which are 20 days, andonce you put in that goal, it
takes 5 to 10 minutes.
We'll actually break up aspecific plan, broken up into
different meditations for you tosee yourself achieving this
goal and getting closer to that.
Meditations for you to seeyourself achieving this goal and
getting closer to that.
And essentially, the way itworks is, as we know.
(15:30):
I'm sure you're very familiarwith ChatGPT and a lot of other
AIs when you ask it a question,when you ask anything into that,
it will spit.
It will pull some informationonline, essentially, and it will
spit that out for whateverquestion you may ask.
Our developers meshed a form ofAI that they created with
Microsoft Azure for voices andthen, with the lines, they went
(15:51):
in and like, figured out thespecific spacing to make sure
that meditation content wasright and it would actually be
delivered the right way, as wellas the sleep stories, and then
connected that with the voices.
So essentially it's like a chatGPT where you can put in any
prompt and it will spit that outfor you on the spot for you to
be able to create a meditation.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
With that big blue button.
That sounds really, really,really cool.
What have you noticed aboutimprovements in your own
well-being?
Are you in Hampton?
Are you guys talking?
Speaker 2 (16:14):
about it.
What do you guys noticepersonally that's affected your
all's well-being no-transcriptand see the actual steps that it
(16:48):
would take to get us to achieveour goal is crucial, especially
as athletes, but it'sdefinitely improved my overall
well-being for sure, definitely.
I would say I live a happy,healthy life with huge
cultivation of gratitude, and alot of that is to a certain
because it's my passion.
That's what gets me out of bedevery morning and wanting to
keep growing it and get itbetter.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Entrepreneurship at its best.
So, what's the?
What's the end goal, the endand that vision board, what,
what was the?
What was up there for the endgoal of ascend?
Speaker 2 (17:15):
We never want to be a $1 billion company.
We want to be a company thathelped a billion people with
happier.
We want to be a company thathelped a billion people live
happier, healthier lives.
I like that.
I stand goal.
Yeah, it's all there ever wasserving others.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
I love that.
Yeah, you guys are really doingan incredible thing, you know,
for athletes and professionals,and I, like you're going to
start with the athletes and thenkind of see where it goes, and
I could say that's sort of howmy career worked.
I started with athletes and now, you know, working with
business executives, executivesand all different types of
people, which is nice because itis about servant leadership and
I love that.
So I'm really glad that you'veshared this app with our
(17:48):
listeners.
So where can everyone find youin the app?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yeah, so I'm on Instagram.
If you just search up WalkerFerguson, everything Ascend
related is all under Ascendappai, linkedin, facebook, as
well as Instagram.
And then if you just search upAscend Meditations in the app
store, you can download the app,create an account, let us know
what you think, and that isgoing to look different.
I definitely want to prefacewithin the next six weeks to
(18:12):
make the user experience andflow a lot better, as well as
adding homepage and informationpage.
And yeah, and then if you guyswant to look at the website to
search up Ascend Meditationsonline, you can learn more about
us.
And then I, if you guys want tolook at the website to search
up a set of meditations online,you can learn more about us.
And yeah, if you want tocontact me, it's walking
Ferguson a set of meditations,dot.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Well, thanks, we'll have all that in the show notes
too, and you know it's really aninspiration, hopefully, uh, all
the other student athletes outthere, and you know you can do
whatever, you can ascend, aslong as you put your mind to it
and get your mind right.
So, walker, I appreciate you.
Man, thanks for being here.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I appreciate you, dr Pete, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
So thank you all for listening.
Our goal, as always, is toshare inspirational stories.
If you have a show topic andyou'd like for us to explore,
please head on over toofficialdrpetecom, send us your
thoughts and, as always, pleaselike, follow and share at
Official Dr Pete.
Thank you again for being hereand until I see you next week.
Until then, spread a littlekindness and stay well, thank
(19:26):
you.
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