Love More, Fear Less: How a Pair of Pink Socks Sparked a Global Movement

What if one spontaneous act of kindness at a hotel pool could spark a global movement? That's exactly what happened to Nicholas Adkins, founder of Pink Socks Life Inc. and author of Pink Socks: How a Pair of Socks Became a Symbol of Love and Connection.

Nick went from suit-and-tie healthcare CEO to Portland hippie after one week at Burning Man, and that pivot led him to a simple but powerful truth: real human connection is the antidote to the fear-drenched, algorithm-driven world we're all swimming in. Over 300,000 pairs of pink socks later, he's still proving it every day.

Find Nick at pinksocks.life and on Instagram at @pinksocks.life. The book is on Amazon, with all proceeds benefiting the Pink Socks Life nonprofit.

Want to be a guest on Drink O'Clock? Send us a message on PodMatch here: podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/drinkoclock

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:36):
We are finally live.
This has been one of those days,man.
You know, just my PC needed torestart because it decided it
needed to do an update that I'vebeen avoiding for a while.
And then uh software issues.
We had to switch software, andyou know, thank you, D script,
for for ruining a good thing.
But anyway, positivity.

(00:57):
That's the whole point of thispodcast.
Uh, Drink a Clock podcast.
I'm your host, Rob Valencius,and I have the pleasure, the
absolute pleasure of having withme Nicholas Atkins.
Now, Nick, can I call you Nick?

SPEAKER_02 (01:08):
Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 (01:10):
All right.
Nick, you're the founder of PinkSocks Life Inc.
Uh, you also recently wrote abook, right?
Pink Socks, How a Pair of SocksBecame a Symbol of Love and
Connection.
And he's got it right on thescreen for you people watching
on YouTube.
Welcome to the show, brother.
Look at that.

SPEAKER_02 (01:29):
It's love more, fear less.
Rob, hey, brother, it's good tosee you.
Thank you for having me on yourshow and letting me share the
pink socks story with youraudience.
So it's uh, and hey, I'mlistening.
I'm kind of grateful we had thatthe hiccups in the beginning
because it gave us it gave us areal reason to go get a drink.
So cheers.
True.

unknown (01:47):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:48):
Cheers.
Salute.
So the way we like to start thepod, and I think it's important,
right?
Well, one, we're gonna have toeventually talk about that sick
beard you got.
Uh, you know, but for starters,let's let's talk background
here.
All right.
Talk to me a little bit aboutgrowing up.

(02:08):
Um, you know, what was it likefor you?
You could tell us kind of, youknow, where if you want, um, and
uh lead me up to the point whereyou know, we get to the pink
sock story, but don't go into ityet because I think you know, I
want to spend a little time onthat.

SPEAKER_02 (02:21):
All right.
Well, hey, listen, your beard.
All you gotta do to get to thispoint is be lazy.
All this is is lazy.
If you will stop cutting thatthing, it will grow.

SPEAKER_00 (02:35):
I you know what though?
I need to train it.
Mine does this, so I look like ahobo.
I need to like, I need to train.
I have beard oils in the comband stuff.
I gotta, I just gotta, I I gottacommit.
I'm I'm I guess I got uh beardcommitment phobe in me.
I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 (02:52):
Oh, I cut mine about twice a year.
So I'll take about that much offevery six months.
And I I have this recurringnightmare of through the years
where I'll wake up and I've inthe nightmare, I've cut my beard
off.
I've shaved.
And then the first thing I dowhen I wake up is I grab my face
and like, oh God, it's stillhere.

(03:13):
Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 (03:14):
Like, all right, all right, it was just a dream.

SPEAKER_02 (03:16):
Like, you know, I've gone all Sid Barrett, you know,
like shaved or shaved myeyebrows.
I'm like, oh god, what have Idone?

SPEAKER_00 (03:23):
That's funny, that's great.

SPEAKER_02 (03:25):
Um yeah, so I live in Portland, Oregon, and I grew
up in Tennessee.
I was born and raised inMemphis, uh, just behind
Graceland.
My mom was a friend of Elvis'sstepmother, Dee Presley.
And so it was kind of wild, youknow, being 1970 and riding my

(03:50):
little twin with the banana seatbike and the chopper forks up
and down the driveway inGraceland.
So um that is so cool.

SPEAKER_00 (03:59):
Yeah, my mom is a huge, huge Elvis fan.
She actually has an Elvis room,um, where and she's a um my
mom's a yard sailor and a thriftshopper.
Oh, nice.
And she's got some of thecraziest shit that she's got
from she's got an Elvis lamp,Elvis dolls, uh, you name it.
She got she got it.
And uh her birthday is the daythat um Elvis died, August 16th.

SPEAKER_05 (04:24):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (04:24):
So um we uh it's we we mourn that, but also
celebrate at the same time everyyear.
So I want to take her toGraceland.

SPEAKER_02 (04:33):
You should listen to something.
When I was a kid when and whenhe died, um the land across from
Graceland used to be just a bigfield.
Now it's souvenir shops and allkinds of you know stuff.
But it used to be just an emptyfield across the street.
It had a little stream ditch,you know, running across the

(04:54):
middle of it, and we used totake our bikes and play like we
were evil can evil and buildplywood ramps and jump over this
ditch.
And I was doing that one day,and and uh all of a sudden the
the traffic going in bothdirections in front of Graceland
on Elvis Presley Boulevard,right in front of his house,
stopped.
People were just stopping in themiddle of the street, getting

(05:16):
out of their cars and walking upto the gate.
And I was like, hmm, that's odd.
So I pedal my, I think it was aHuffy.
I pedal my Huffy as fast as thatthing would go.
And I keep sliding into the intothe garage, all star-skin hutch,
you know, come running in theback door.
And there's my mom standing inthe living room in front of the
big giant console television,crying with her mascara running

(05:40):
down her eyes.
And she looks at me and shegoes, Oh baby, Elvis is dead.
Oh no.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (05:49):
So it's it's a day I I know my mom, I know my mom is
it's it's on the list.
I want to, I want to take herout there one of these days.

SPEAKER_02 (05:58):
Yeah.
Um Memphis, great town, goodbarbecue, lots of good people,
good southern hospitality.
Um, and then I spent most of myadult life in Nashville, where I
was a healthcare executive, asuit and tie guy.
So I didn't look like this atall.
Uh, you know, it was customsuits, cuff links.

(06:18):
I was that guy.
Did not have this.

SPEAKER_00 (06:21):
And um I work in the Medicare world now.
That's that's where I'm in.

SPEAKER_02 (06:25):
So yeah, yeah.
So I was the COO of a of anational healthcare company
based in Nashville, operating in37 states, and and we did uh uh
a lot of a lot of a lot ofbilling.
So we were a practice managementsoftware company in medical
billing.
So very different world.

(06:46):
And so in 2010, I went to thisthing called Burning Man for my
first time.
Burning Man's a shit, okay.
It's a week-long event in thedesert of Nevada, and about
70,000 people from all aroundthe world descend on the desert,

(07:07):
and they sign off on this socialcontract, if you will, these 10
principles that we're gonnaabide by so this thing doesn't
fold in on itself by the end ofthe week and go all Lord of the
Flies on us.
And uh so 2010 was my first timeto go.
And um at that time in Nashvillewhen I was the suit and tie guy,

(07:30):
we were trying to decide what todo with the company, whether we
wanted to sell it, whether wewanted to merge with another
company, whether we wanted totake on some more debt, build
out some things.
Well, some things to decide.
And I said, Well, listen, Idon't really know what my vote
is on this thing.
I'm gonna go to this thing inthe desert, and I'll come back

(07:51):
and I'll have an answer.
So off to Burning Man, I wentand came back, and now I'm in
the boardroom.
I came back, you know, it's inblue jeans and a t-shirt and
Tevas and I hadn't shaved.
And they said, Well, how wasthat Burning Man thing?
I said, It was great.
And they said, Well, what's yourvote?
I said, Sell it, I'm out.

(08:11):
They're like, What are you gonnado?
I said, I'm gonna move toPortland, Oregon and become a
hippie.
And that's what I did.

SPEAKER_00 (08:19):
So I hey man, that's a hell of a story.
Uh I was in Nashville two yearsago.
My company, um, we do these likebig events.
So we have um, we're a brokerageand we have you know insurance
agents all across the country.
And uh, we rented out uh theTitans Stadium, which um

(08:43):
honestly was one of the we didthree different stadium tours,
and that was the coolest one.

SPEAKER_02 (08:49):
You know, they're building they're building an
even bigger one now.

SPEAKER_00 (08:52):
Yeah, they were working on it when we were
there, like you could see it,and um, I think they said it was
gonna be done either this yearor next year.

SPEAKER_05 (09:00):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (09:01):
Um, but it looked really nice at the time, and it
was still had a long way to go.
Um, but we we really enjoyed it,and everyone was so cool.
Like that was the only placethat they allowed us to, we were
on the field.
Yeah.
Uh they were given the tour,they're like, go ahead, run
around in the end zone, and youknow, we're like catching passes
in the end zone.
And um it was it was a uniqueexperience there.

(09:22):
But um you were from I'm fromPhilly, so you know, Southerners
are just it's a different,they're just nicer in compared
to us.

SPEAKER_02 (09:33):
I've got lots of friends still live in in
Nashville and in the South.
My kids and the grandkids whoare in Nashville, so I
frequently go back.
And um, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (09:45):
It's an up and coming place at this point, man.

SPEAKER_02 (09:47):
Uh you know, a lot of people it's already there's
no coming to it, it's alreadyup.

SPEAKER_00 (09:52):
Yeah, that's true.
That's true.

SPEAKER_02 (09:54):
Real estate prices now are are worse than
California.
They just intense, man.

SPEAKER_03 (10:02):
Just yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (10:05):
I was shocked when we were down uh what's the main
street called?
Broadway.
We yeah, so we were on Broadway,and it was it was a Wednesday
night, and I'm like, uh, youknow, we'll go down and check it
out.
It it you could have fooled me.
I thought it was a Saturdaynight.

SPEAKER_02 (10:21):
It was insane.
Yeah, Tootsie.

SPEAKER_00 (10:25):
It was summertime.

SPEAKER_02 (10:26):
It was summertime, but it it was running in the
Grand Old Opry and Tootsie's andRoberts and all the stuff all
the way down to the hard rock onsecond.
I mean, it's nonstop.
Seven nights a week, man.

SPEAKER_00 (10:39):
It's it's it was wild down there.

SPEAKER_02 (10:42):
I always don't go to Broadway, though.
You only that's when people fromout of town come to see you and
like, oh, I'm gonna go out andNashville it up.
Then we go there, but uh peoplewho live there don't really go
downtown too much.

SPEAKER_00 (10:57):
I guess it's yeah, it's it's it's like here, right,
Philly.
We're not gonna take you to tosee the Liberty Bell, you know,
or or go to Pat's and Geno's forcheesesteaks because that's the
where the tourists go.
You know, we we we have ourevery Philadelphian has their
their cheesesteak spot.
And uh, you know, there'stypically a top three, so we're
gonna we're gonna take youthere.

(11:20):
Well, that's you know, they theywill they will definitely beat
the shit out of you if you don'tsay it correctly down there.
They they mean business.
I don't I don't know what it is,man.
Uh especially if I'm I'm surethey deal with a lot of like 2
a.m.
drunk guys that are like, oh,without with kind of sorta, and
they're like here, you know.
Uh but listen, so all right, soBurning Man.

(11:44):
Um you know, I've seen I've seenum social media stuff.
Like, what was that like?

SPEAKER_02 (11:51):
It was just like that.
It was like everything you'veseen and everything you haven't.
It's people I've been six timesnow through the years, and I
don't really feel compelled togo back.
I think of Burning Man, BurningMan at this point.
Um but when people ask me whatit is, I say what 70,000 people

(12:15):
having 70,000 uniqueexperiences.
Whatever it needs to be for youis what it's gonna be.
And it's very true.
And you know, wonderful music,uh art, it's unbelievable,
massive-scale art installationsthat people bring and build out
there.
Uh sense of community.
Um, and it's in the desert, inthe middle of nowhere, you know,

(12:40):
the high desert.
So you have to survive thisthing, number one.
You have to uh, you know, itgets 115 degrees you know, in
the daytime.
There's no vegetation out there,it's no dry lake bed.
Um, and the temperature can godown in you know in the low 40s
at night.
So it's a pretty big temperatureswing.

(13:02):
So and the party's going 24-7 awhole week.
And you you just you come homefrom the first one and you start
thinking about all the thingsyou saw on all the DJs you
danced to and all this, and thenyou see online the bigger
picture of what was out there,and you realize, oh shit, I only

(13:25):
saw about 10% of it.

SPEAKER_00 (13:28):
Damn, it's that big.

SPEAKER_02 (13:30):
It's vast.
It's vast.
Like, yeah, I forgot to sketchall and like, oh, you know, nine
stages.
I'm like, try, you know, 1500stages.
Just you can't do it all.
It's fun.
So uh, and so what I talkedabout, there's these 10
principles in the book chapterone.

(13:51):
I get into a little bit of theBurning Man piece, and I I list
the 10 principles, but I'm notgonna list all of them right
now, but some of them are likeradical self-expression,
radical, you know,self-reliance, community, leave
no trace, which is you know,pick up your trash.
Um gifting.
It's a principle of gifting.

(14:11):
And it's really that ethos ofgifting that Pink Sox life is
based on.
And so when when when you and I,and most of us, we think about
you know, gifting, someone givesyou a gift, right?
So I say, hey Rob, I I made thisbracelet for you.
Here I'd like to give you this.
And I give this, and you feelcompelled to give me something

(14:32):
back, right?
Like it there has to be somequid pro quo.
There has to be thisreciprocity, it's like a
knee-jerk reaction that we haveto, oh, you gave me something, I
gotta give you something back.
Well, true gifting is uh youjust saying yes to the other
person's gift, accepting theother person's gift is your gift

(14:55):
to them.
And as I said, ethos of gifting.
We're in our 11th year now.
We just had our 11th birthday onApril 12th.
Over 300,000 pairs of these havebeen gifted all around the world
in the past 11 years.

(15:16):
Um there's design elements onhere, the mustache, hit a bar
mustache, and this puzzle piece.
The puzzle piece represents thepower of connection.
And I hope you can read thefront label here.
It says, the world is full ofgood.
When you believe it, you see it.
Keep doing that.
And that's kind of the Pink Soxtribes mantra is that, you know,

(15:39):
yeah, the world is full of good.
Come on.
You know, what we focus on,right?
You know, we the lens that welook through here, what we focus
on and what we put our energy onis what we see.
It doesn't negate that the worldis also full of some shit, some
awful things.
Because it is.
But if we put our attention andour energy into focusing on the

(16:00):
good things in the world, ohman, that's so much all around
us.
Well, that's where our energygoes, and that's what we really
see and how we show up forourselves and for each other.
And the logo love more in thebook, love more.
Love more, what?

(16:23):
Love more, fear, less.
That's the rest of it.
Love more, fear less.
And I tell you, Rob, you know,you and I'm talking as we were
pre-funking here before you hitthe the go live button.
Um, you know, we're getting firehosed, fire hosed with fear.
Just nonstop.

(16:45):
The algorithms are just workingovertime on each of us to keep
us in a state of perma crisis.
It's chaos.
It's just on and on and on, it'sfear-based.
And so, you know, the invitationis to put this down, get off our
phones for a minute or longer.

(17:06):
Take out our earbuds and say tothe guy next to us on the bus or
the train in line at the postoffice, the grocery store, say,
Hey, how's it going?

SPEAKER_03 (17:18):
Yeah, my name's Rob.
What's your name?
Hey, I'm Nick.
Hey, Nick's good to see you.

SPEAKER_02 (17:24):
Just that moment of connection is what we're all
craving.
And that's a fact.
You know, this need, thiscraving to connect with other
humans, it's in all of us.
It's hardwired in our brainstemback here.
It's in our DNA that we want toconnect with each other.
And when we give ourselves theself-permission and the space to

(17:48):
do that, that's where the magichappens.
And that's really what Pink Soxlife is is all about.
It's a celebration of trueauthentic connections.
It's this is a connection.
This is connectivity.

(18:09):
You and I are using a platformright now for connectivity so
that we can have a connection.

SPEAKER_00 (18:16):
Correct.

SPEAKER_02 (18:17):
Yeah.
And so, like I said before,before you hit record, you know,
we were kind of riffing andbetting each other, making sure
that we weren't AI, that we'rereal people.
Uh and, you know, so thesemoments of connection,
especially in the world thatwe're in now of AI, become so,
so important.

(18:38):
And so we can't miss each one ofthose opportunities to connect
with someone.
And the back of the label on thepink socks has the instructions.
I don't know if you can readthat, but it basically says,
hey, every time you wear these,you're gonna make somebody
smile.
Somebody's gonna see these andgo, hey, those are cool, those
fucky, or hey, I like yoursocks.
That's the universe tapping youon the shoulder saying, stop

(19:00):
what you're doing, get off yourphone, stay on the bus and at
the stop, and connect.
Don't miss each one of thoseopportunities to connect with
someone.
Because you're gonna have themthroughout the day, whether they
see your pink socks or they seeyour sticker, or maybe you're
wearing whatever hoodies or at-shirt or whatever.
Um and you know, Rob, hey,listen, if pink socks isn't your

(19:20):
thing, that's okay.
Encourage people to find what isyour thing and go all in on
that.
Maybe it's a hat, maybe it's todye your hair purple, maybe it's
a button, it's a fun tie, youknow, whatever your thing is,
then get somebody to say, hey,that's cool.
Boom, do it.
And don't miss each opportunitywhen someone connects with you
because that's they're reachingout to connect.

(19:42):
Don't just ignore them or don'tjust say thank you and keep
walking.
Remind yourself, okay, this isthis is it.
This is what I'm here for.
I'm here to get this connectionand say, hey.
You know, it's a reminder thatwe're all in this thing
together, right?
That we see ourselves in eachother.
There's a lot of that in thebook, you know.

(20:04):
And uh the book has thebackstory, goes a little more
into the detail of the BurningMan thing, and tells it, you
know, how we what's happened tous, you know, as a Pink Sox
tribe around the world over thelast 11 years and where we're
going, what we're doing, and whowe're helping.
Uh we're a 501c3 nonprofit.
And all the proceeds from thesales of the book go to the

(20:25):
nonprofit to help support itsmission.
And um, you know, I routinely,you know, I give away pink socks
every day because I carry alittle backpack with me full of
pink socks.
And if I don't have that, Ialways have these in my kilt,
these stickers.
And, you know, someone will say,Hey, I like your hat, or oh, I

(20:49):
like your beard, or oh, I likeyour socks, or oh, I like your
kilt, whatever it is.
You know, I stop and I say, Hey,I'm Nick, what's your name?
And I say, I'm Bob.
Hey, Bob, it's good to see you,man.
I think I got something for you.
If I don't have the pink socks,give them this.
I say, listen, all we have to dois show up in every now with
love and kindness.
You're already doing that, justkeep doing it.
Deal and I go, deal.

(21:10):
Boom.
Give them this.
Do you want a hug?
Of course I want a hug.
Yeah, it's a hug.
I mean, I just came back fromHome Depot and gave away three
of these and got three hugs,right?
It works.
It works every day.
And the more you allow it towork and just let it, um, it's
magic.
So gotta move out of this.

SPEAKER_00 (21:30):
I was gonna ask you, I was gonna ask you for your
elevator pitch for pink socks,and you just you just hit me
with all of it.
So I'm like, ah, I don't evenneed to, we don't even need to
go into the elevator pitch.

SPEAKER_02 (21:41):
I mean, that's it, man.
Just all about love andkindness.
And just keep doing it.

SPEAKER_00 (21:45):
I look, I think it's important in in you know the
world that we live in today.
There's just it it it's tough tocome by, and it's you know, it's
not necessarily uh like thinkabout our generations, right?
I mean, I I so I'll be 40 too.
You got Me by a little bit, butyou know, we grew up at a time I
grew up in a time where therewasn't cell phones and then

(22:06):
there was cell phones, but Ialso grew up in a time where
there was no social media towhen it was just starting to
come around.
But in high school, there reallywasn't social media, so I don't
like I I know I talk about thison every podcast because I feel
like it just hits in everysingle different uh area.
I have a fear for our kids.
I don't have kids, but I hit thegeneration of kids that are

(22:28):
growing up, and it is all fear,it is all hatred, right?
Because the algorithm's like,watch this guy punch this guy in
the face, or you know, why watchthe all these people get into
this this fist fight or watchyou know the this dog die.
Like just just crazy stuff thatyou really shouldn't like.
Why why do we why do we needthat?
But um, you know, I I reallyagree with the principle of of

(22:49):
what you're doing.
I it's I think it's importantfor us as humans.

SPEAKER_03 (22:56):
It's the phone.
It's you know um.
I've seen probably more thanhalf a dozen shows now at the
sphere in Vegas.

SPEAKER_02 (23:14):
And it's amazing every time you go in there that
people go the whole concertfilming it instead of being in
the moment, in the now, in theexperience of it.
You know, there's professionalphotographers and videographers
that are gonna put stuff online.
You can watch this later.
It's not your job to be thephotographer, to video document

(23:39):
the event.
You paid a lot of money for thatticket.
Come have the experience.
Get lost in the music, get lostin the show, get lost in the
communal experience, the vibe ofthis.

SPEAKER_03 (23:54):
People don't know that anymore.

SPEAKER_00 (23:57):
You see a lot of that now.
A lot of people that are just,you know, they're at the show
and they're just filming thewhole time, but they're not like
they're not being present.

SPEAKER_02 (24:06):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (24:07):
You know.

SPEAKER_02 (24:07):
Yeah.
I mean, I'm talking, you know,it's it's a thing.
So uh I'm grateful that I wasable to experience uh my teenage
years and my younger yearswithout phones.

SPEAKER_00 (24:24):
I agree, man.
It's like anymore, you can'teven like you know, pick your
nose or you know, pull a wedgieout in a store without someone
taking a video and you show upon Twitter and it's like, watch
this guy pick his ass.
You're like, come on, man.
I thought no one was looking.
I had a wedgie.
Yeah.
This is CVS.
It's not like I'm, you know,anywhere, you know, you do you
do the one look, you know, likecome on.

SPEAKER_02 (24:48):
We'd be I believe we'd all be a lot better if if
these phones went away.

SPEAKER_00 (24:55):
But I unfortunately I I don't see that probably
happening.
In fact, I see probably we'regonna get to a point as a
society where we're gonna bemore I think they were talking,
and this is just a a report.
And look, I don't know.
We were talking conspiracytheories before this, and I I
was hoping we would get into itat some point because I love

(25:16):
talking conspiracy theories.
Um we're getting to a point.
I don't well, I don't know ifthis is a conspiracy, but I saw
some stuff that says we aregonna get to a point as a
society where we'll be morerobot than human, right?
We're gonna it's the have andhave nots will be the augmented
and the non-augmented, right?

(25:38):
Like, I mean, just look atsomething like Neuralink, which
is helping people, right?
But they're gonna at some pointrealize that Neuralink could
also maybe just make you tapinto the internet with your
brain and be super smart.

SPEAKER_02 (25:50):
Yeah.
Yeah, we have no idea.
We have we have no idea what'sabout to happen.
I mean, the the AI that we'reexperiencing now that we're
engaging and interacting with.

SPEAKER_03 (26:02):
Once that hits quantum AI, we won't even know,
Rob.

SPEAKER_00 (26:12):
I look, all I'm saying, uh it's it's a blessing
and a curse, I think, right?
I mean it's it'll it'll it'llmake us more productive in some
avenues, but in in others it'sgonna The best thing we can do
is unplug, go to the park, takethe dog for a walk, enjoy the

(26:33):
sunshine or the rain, look atthe flowers, talk to people
along the way.

SPEAKER_02 (26:38):
Take your shoes and socks off, put your toes in the
sand or in the grass and ground.

SPEAKER_03 (26:44):
Remember what's real.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (26:47):
Yeah, there's there's something, you know,
we're talking about love, right?
There's just I'm a dog guy.

SPEAKER_03 (26:52):
Yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_00 (26:53):
There's just there's just something, you know.
I have two dogs, Captain andMorgan.
And uh might have a problem.
I don't know.
Uh, but there's something aboutwhen a dog looks at you.
Oh, there you go.
There you go.

SPEAKER_02 (27:08):
Hey, what are you doing?
I was I'm hanging out with Jackand Jack.

SPEAKER_00 (27:13):
There's just something about when a dog looks
at you.
I was experiencing this beforethe podcast, I was I was petting
my boy dog who I love him todeath.
He compare my girl dog's smartas shit.
He's not the brightest.
He's very smart when it comes togetting treats.
He he knows how to play thesystem.

SPEAKER_05 (27:28):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (27:29):
Um, and and me and the wifey talk about it all the
time.
But we're I'm just petting him.
I'm looking at him, and he'slooking at me, and I I just I
know he loves me.
And, you know, I'm I'm tellinghim I love you too.
You know, we're I'm I'm just I Iactually saw a story recently
that said, you know, dogsactually do react uh cognitively
when you tell them you lovethem.

(27:49):
They they know they they canfeel that.
And uh I'm just telling them Ilove them, and I I'm like, I
don't know if you you fuckingget it or not, but I feel like
there's this we there's a weirdbond with with your dogs that I
they just know, you know, theythey can feel it.

unknown (28:03):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (28:04):
Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_00 (28:04):
It's like an electricity.
I know.

SPEAKER_02 (28:06):
I know.
And so then I have a I have alittle Norwich terrier now, and
she's about oh, 16 months old.
And I got her, you know, whenshe was a puppy, and before her,
I had another Norwich from thesame breeder up in Idaho.
And and and my my dog's name nowis Nugget, and the one before

(28:30):
her was Katie.
And Katie lived for 15 years andthree months.
She died in my lap.
And along the way of of ourrelationship, one night I was
Katie was in my lap, and I washaving a little conversation
with her, and and I was like,you know, Katie, I yeah, I love

(28:53):
you so much, and you know, uh Ijust hope that I'm letting you
live your best life and that I'mtaking care of you and
protecting you and keeping yousafe.

SPEAKER_03 (29:04):
And all of a sudden she said to me, Oh, no, Nick,
you know, you you've got thiswrong.
It never was about you takingcare of me.
It's about me taking care ofyou.

SPEAKER_02 (29:24):
It was like, and that changed my relationship
with her.
Like, I was like, oh wow, youknow, she really and even nugget
now, I understand therelationship.
You know, these little furbabies of ours, they're they're
not pets.
And yes, we love them and takecare of them and keep them safe,

(29:47):
but what they're really doing isthey're our guardians of the
galaxy.

SPEAKER_03 (29:52):
Yeah.
I feel that you're you knowCaptain and Morgan, is that
right?

SPEAKER_00 (29:59):
Captain and Morgan, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (30:00):
So Captain and Morgan are your little guardians
of the galaxy.
They're they're around yourorbit to keep you safe, to keep
you loved.
And you just show that back tothe, you know, you just mirror
it with each other, but youknow, they came into your life
to to keep you safe and loved.

SPEAKER_00 (30:17):
Yeah, I have two, so so they're they're Brussels
Griffins.
I don't know if you've ever seenthat, but they um do you watch
TV at all?

SPEAKER_02 (30:27):
No, I don't have a TV.

SPEAKER_00 (30:29):
There was a um a commercial back in the day that
Samsung did.
It was a Super Bowl commercial,I think.
Uh, but it was uh dog getsadopted and he looked like
Chewbacca.
Oh, great.
That's what my dogs look like.
They look like either aChewbacca or an Ewok.
It it depends.
Okay, so they get super furry.

SPEAKER_02 (30:50):
So Nugget looks like an Ewok.
Hang on.
Let me let me let me just sayhere, I'll show you.
That's in fact, yeah.
I often say she looks likepeople are, oh, she looks like
an Ewok.

SPEAKER_00 (31:04):
Yeah, we call I we call them our bearded babies
because they have beards.
They're uh they're beard dogs.

SPEAKER_02 (31:13):
Well, here I'll just here's a great old picture of of
Katie.

SPEAKER_03 (31:17):
Yeah, but look.
Oh shit, yeah, definitely.
Right?
Those guys are so cute.

SPEAKER_02 (31:26):
Wow.
And she doesn't shake shed,right?
So she's hyperallogenic and doesnot shed.
It just grows like hair.
It's crazy.
She's like a little teddy bear.
When I first got, I had achocolate lab before I had
Katie, and his name was Jack.
And I also got him when he was apuppy, eight weeks old, and he

(31:46):
made it to a little over 13.
And and so when I switched to asmall dog to Katie, um, I told
my kids, I said, I called himup, I said, I said, listen, you
know those old guys that theyget a little dog and they carry
the little dog everywhere theygo?
Dad's that guy now.

SPEAKER_00 (32:09):
We have uh here, if you can see this, these are this
is a bit of an old picture, butuh so Morgan, Morgan's the
smaller one, Captain's the guywith the the kind of the black
and are they related after?
Yeah, so Morgan is uh his oldersister.
So she's uh it was in a litter ayear before him.

(32:30):
And uh I we got Morgan, so wemet Morgan when she was like six
weeks old.
So I'm I um I found thisbreeder, the wifey found these
this breed on Instagram, and uh,you know, then we're we fell in
love with them.
I'm like, you know, I'm I'm abig Star Wars guy.
Uh that's that's like that'slike my thing.
So I'm like, all right, well,let's get one.

(32:51):
You know, we've talked aboutgetting a dog.
So uh I found this breeder,she's about an hour away from
us.
And and the cool thing aboutPhilly, I don't know how
Nashville is, but the cool thingabout Philly is you can go an
hour, I could go 20 or 30minutes away and I hit Standard
City, Philadelphia, right?
People everywhere.
I go an hour in the oppositedirection and it's Amish.

SPEAKER_02 (33:10):
So you have this like Pink Sox friends in in
Philly and around Philly overPittsburgh in between.

SPEAKER_00 (33:18):
Exactly.
Pittsburgh's close to it's it'sthe same, it's the same thing,
right?
So I I found um I found thisbreeder and she was kind of up
in the middle of nowhere.
Uh, she had a farm, and uh, Ithink I chose her because she
talked about um getting she getsher puppies familiar with other
dogs and other just thing,living things, horses and and

(33:39):
donkeys and stuff.
And I'm like, well, that's thetype of dog I would want.
I want something that that'sused to other things, right?
So uh we went up the first timeand we met Morgan.
She was six weeks old, and uh, Iwanted the smallest one of the
litter.
She was the smallest, but damn,I'll tell you, she's uh she she
was she was a fierce littlegirl.
Uh and but she's fucking she'sso smart and uh she's super

(34:03):
intelligent and just um she'lllet us know if she's not happy
and she knows how to piss meoff.
And uh Captain was a year later,same thing.
We met him at six weeks.
Um, and I said, I want thebiggest, chubbiest guy, the
litter.
And this this guy comes out,just eats, eats away.
I'm like, that's that's the oneright there.

(34:23):
We want him.
And um, you know what, dude?
They're the nicest dogs outsideof to each other, because
sometimes they'll beat the shitout of each other, but it's
they're just playing.
But um, they're the nicest dogson the planet, they would never
hurt a fly.
Yeah, uh, Morgan's nipped at mea little bit when she was a
baby.
We nipped that in the butt, youknow, pretty quickly because it

(34:44):
she's she's one of those I I shethinks she's an alpha, you know,
like she's outside just rubbingher paws, making sure everyone
smells or scent, you know, typeshit.
And uh, you know, but nicestdogs on the planet.
I'm I'm really happy that we wewent with the the breeder we did
because they would never hurt afly.
Like we take them anywhere.

(35:05):
They love every dog, they loveevery person, and they just you
know, you do like I take I takeher for a walk every day at the
park down here, and and shewants to say hi to all the dogs,
you know.

SPEAKER_02 (35:19):
So many people are trying to train their dogs to to
heal and to walk beside them,but like, nugget, that dog
doesn't want to say hi to you.
It's trying to learn to walkwithout saying hi, you know.

SPEAKER_00 (35:30):
Oh yeah.
And that was just see, that'sthe nice thing too, is when you
get them young, like when youget them a puppy, and uh I look,
I'm I'm all about adopt adoptingtoo, you know.
There's nothing wrong withadoption.
Yeah, I I I like to have alittle baby that, you know, I I
can bestow upon them what I wantthem to do, how I want them to
do it.
And um, you know, I just it'sthe same thing.

(35:53):
It's it's your mantra, right?
Spread the love.
And if you pour love into thedogs, you know, that's what
you're gonna get back, andthat's how they're gonna react
to the world.
You know, it's not gonna beapprehensive and scary.
Now, some breeds you can'treally help it with, you know,
sometimes it's in it's it's intheir DNA, but you could do your

(36:14):
best to do whatever you can tomake sure that they just love
everybody.
And it's one thing I'm proud ofwith our dogs.
You know, Morgan, she justturned 10, and Captain just
turned nine.

SPEAKER_02 (36:24):
They don't really they don't look like attack
dogs.

SPEAKER_00 (36:27):
So no, no, not at all.
But you know what?
Sometimes there's the littledogs, they have that Napoleon
complex, right?
Where they, you know, they needto make sure people know my dogs
don't give a shit.
They're just all over the ohyeah, Chihuahua, the the evil
dog, whatever you want to callthe devil dog, people like to
call him.
Um, we like all dogs here.
Uh the big, small, medium,whatever.

(36:47):
We're we're big fans of just alldogs.
Um, but yeah, so um talk to meabout your um hotel coffee
moment in San Fran.
You know, I know that that wasuh a big moment for you.

SPEAKER_03 (37:07):
Have you read the book?
I have not read the book.
Okay.
You got that off the website.

SPEAKER_02 (37:14):
I got it off the website.
Way to go.

SPEAKER_00 (37:18):
Now, if it's in your book, you don't have to go into
vast amounts of detail.
We want people to buy your book.

SPEAKER_02 (37:22):
Yeah, I'm I'm I've we do want you to buy the book,
absolutely.
Uh you know, it's a collectionof heart speak, a reminder to
get out of your head and moveback into your heart space,
which already knows the answersand knows the way.
Um but yeah, so when um you knowI moved out here and was doing a
great job of being a hippie fora few years, and then uh I got

(37:46):
involved as a as a co-founderand a tech startup here.
And we created the world's firstopen API for asynchronous video
file management in a HIPAAstack, which is a healthcare
privacy thing.
Yep.
And um, you know, as moststartups, all startups have to

(38:07):
do, you have to go raise money.
And the best place to raisemoney is down outside of San
Francisco.
Uh so one of my co-founders andCTO Andrew Richards and I were
in San Francisco, and we weresitting out at the pool that

(38:28):
morning having coffee.
It was a beautiful morning.
The Phoenix Hotel, which is aclassical motel that's down in
the hate, it's in the I'm havinga brain cramp.

SPEAKER_03 (38:48):
Anyway, uh it's the booze.

SPEAKER_02 (38:53):
It's the booze.
It always creeps.
It's not the best neighborhoodin any way, but it's the and
they recently sold this place,so it's it's not even a thing
anymore, which is a shame.
Uh, but it's a phoenix, and sowe're sitting at the Phoenix,
and um there's this couple, youknow, sitting next to us out by

(39:15):
the pool, older couple.

SPEAKER_03 (39:17):
And you know, I had on so so tell me back up.

SPEAKER_02 (39:23):
You know, so when I moved out here, like a month,
yeah, maybe a month after Imoved here, I met a burner that
owns a kilt company here inPortland called Stumptown Kilts.
And he said, his name is Johnny.
He said, Hey Nick, have you everworn a kilt?
I said, No, he goes, You want totry one?
I said, Yeah, he goes, comeover, you know, blah, blah,
blah.
You know, hooked you up.

(39:43):
That was June of 2012.
That was the last time I worepants.
So I only wear kilts and I onlywear their brand.
That is awesome.
Day one of uh wearing a kilt,Rob, I discovered you have to
wear fun socks.
You know, you can't be that geekin the Bermuda shorts with the
knee hide dress, black socks.

(40:04):
You can't be that guy.
So I went and bought all thefun, funky socks I could find.
T-Rexes, pugs, tacos, corgies,sasquatch, unicorns, rainbows,
you name it.
That's the way to do it.
Yeah, yeah.
So I had all these fun socksthat were you know, kill.
And that day at uh the Phoenix,I was actually wearing some

(40:26):
robot monkey socks.
Uh monkey head with a kind of arobot hat on.
And those socks were actuallyyellow, they were pink, they
were kind of yellow with a redband at the top, their knee
highest.
Anyway, so this the soldercouple next to us, uh, they're

(40:47):
from Israel.
And they're retired.
And uh the guy's name wasShlomo.
And Shlomo loved these robotmonkey socks.
And I was like, I mean, hissmile was infectious, and it's
just so and it was their firsttime to San Francisco, you know,

(41:07):
they were doing the touristthing and all that.
And and I said, hey, Shlomo,don't you guys don't go away
because I've I got something.
And so, because I knew back inthe room that I had brought
another pair of those socks,brand new one, still with a tag
on it.
And I'm saying, I'm just gonnagift him some some of these
socks, you know, because he'sdigging on them so hard.
I've so go back and I said,Shlomo, these are for you.

(41:30):
And you would have thought thatI gave Shlomo the keys to the
city, you know.
Like, on behalf of the city ofSan Francisco, I'd like to
present these wonderful robotmonkey socks to you.
And uh I hope the picture isstill up on the website of of us
together with Shlomo and at thePhoenix.

(41:51):
Um it's in the book.
It's not on the website.
Uh so when we got back from thattrip, you know, and I kind of
sat with the experience and Iasked myself, I said, well, gee,
Nick, you know.
That was amazing how happysomeone got over being gifted a

(42:16):
pair of socks.
This is a lot like Burning Man,you know, give somebody a gift
with no expectation other thanjust to give them a gift.
And they gave me so much joyback by just accepting the gift.
I was like, what if you know,you know you do this at Burning
Man all week, gifting, gifting,gifting, you know, this whole

(42:37):
decommodification, nothing'sbought, traded, or you know,
sold.
It's all a gifting economy.
Well, could you what if youcould you gift at scale, you
know?
Could you really see what thatdid?
And so uh we were trying tothink, you know, oh man,

(42:59):
nobody's ever heard of us.
We're raising money, we've got areally cool thing, but we've got
to get on the radar screen ofall the you know the hospitals
and you know, people who aregonna use the tech, other
startups, et cetera.
And so I got online at Googledand I found this association of
healthcare IT professionals.
And they were having theirannual conference, you know,

(43:20):
their Super Bowl event of theyear.
And it was in Chicago, 2015.
And I saw said to Andrew, Isaid, listen, I'm gonna go get,
I'm gonna go get a hundred pairsof pink socks.
And he goes, 'He goes,' the oneswith the mustaches on them?
I go, yeah, those.
He goes, Well, why those?
I go, because out of all thefunky socks I have, I get the

(43:43):
most.
Hey, I like your socks when Iwear those.
I said, So, Andrew, you're gonnaput 50 pairs of these pink socks
in your little backpack, and I'mgonna put 50 pairs in my little
backpack, and we're gonna gorolling into the McCormick
Center in Chicago, and we'rejust gonna show up.
And I said, you know, there'sfour.
42,000 people there in suits andties.
I don't own a suit and tieanymore.

(44:04):
I'm not going out and buyingpants for this thing.
I'm rolling up in a kilt.
You don't wear a suit either.
Just wear some blue jeans and abrew pub t-shirt, or maybe roll
your blue jeans up a little sothey can see your pink socks.
And we're just gonna go inthere.
And every time somebody says,hey, what's what's the story?
You know, with these pink socks.
We're gonna say, Hey, I'm Nick.
This is Andrew.
What's your name?
We're gonna connect and go, hey,wait a minute, we got something

(44:25):
for you.
And we'd reach in our bag andwe'd say, These are for you.
And they're like, What?
And Rob, remember 2015.
So this was back when Twitterwas fun, right?
Yeah, you know, you had a bunchof grown-ups, like we were like
teenagers playing on Twitter,you know, give away pink socks
and people wearing their pinksocks.
And we started using thishashtag at that event, hashtag

(44:46):
pink socks.
Always one word, always plural.
The hashtag took over at theevent, it went viral.
I don't want to get too muchinto this story, but that's like
chapter one of the book.
Is uh we gave a guy who's likethe guy on social media um in

(45:08):
the healthcare space.
We ran into him as we're walkinginto the convention center, a
guy named Dr.
Eric Topol out of San Diego.

SPEAKER_03 (45:16):
Um and I said, Dr.
Topel.
And he's like, Nick.

SPEAKER_02 (45:24):
We followed each other on Twitter.
You know, I had a handful offollowers and he had a
gazillion.
This guy was like, you know, Godon Twitter and the healthcare
space.
And he says, Hey, I listen, Ireally like what you guys are
doing up there in Portland withthis video thing.
And I was like, I go, Do youmind if I quote you on that for

(45:44):
Twitter?
He goes, I wish you would.
And this is a guy who you know,he only does his own content.
He doesn't retweet stuff, youknow.
It's like I'm like, and I gavehim a pair of pink socks, we got
a picture.
I showed it to him and I said,Are you okay if I tweet this?
And he goes, Yeah, tweet it.
So he walks in with his handler,and they go in, you know, into
the conference.

(46:05):
I hit tweet.
We walk, you know, 10 feet in,open the doors, and other
things.
I looked down at my phone and Isaid to Andrew, Holy fuck, Dr.
Topel just retweeted my tweet.
Wow.
Instantly, people were coming upto Andrew and and me saying,
Hey, we're we're from Intel.
We'd like for you to come meetour CMO.

(46:26):
We're from Dell.
Would you like to come meet ourCTO?
We're from Microsoft, would youlike to come to our pavilion and
you know like that?
All because Dr.
Topel had retweeted this tweet,and people wanted to know what
is the story with you guys thatDr.
Topel would retweet you, or whatis the story with these pink
socks?

(46:47):
So we went from nobody knowingwho we were to taking over the
event, and we made a lot ofgreat connections, and some of
those people are stillconnections today.
We we we call those people theOG Pink Sox tribe, the original
gangster.
Um because the original, youknow, Rob, the original Pink Sox
back in the day, 2015 when wefirst started.

(47:10):
Only had the mustache.
And then in 2017, I got invitedto go do a TED talk in San
Francisco.
And I added the puzzle piece torepresent the power of
connection, pink socksconnecting people all around the
world.
Because by that time it hadbecome a thing.
In fact, when the TED peoplecalled me and said, hey, we'd
like for you to come do a talkin San Francisco in October

(47:32):
2017, I was like, Well, what doyou want me to come talk about?
Telemedicine?
Senior doctor with video,because that's kind of the main
use case or application of ourtechnology.
And they were like, No, we wantyou to come tell the story of
the pink socks movement.
And I actually laughed at her.
I was like, What?

(47:53):
There's no movement, it's just abunch of happy smiley people
gifting each other pink socks,playing on Twitter, having fun,
you know, making newconnections, and you know, and
she goes, No, it's a movement,and we want you to come tell the
story because we believe it's astory we're sharing.
And I was like, I'm in.
And yeah, and it really, it'sreally never looked back after

(48:21):
that.
And again, it's built on thisethos of gifting that somebody's
once upon a time you met someoneand they gifted you these pink
socks.
And it's just a token, areminder that, yeah, I was in
Vegas or I was in Nashville, oryou know, I was in the airport
in Denver, and I stood by thisguy, he had these pink socks,

(48:42):
and I commented, and next thingyou know, he reached in his bag
and he gave me some.
And wow.
And then I looked it up and Iwas like, oh my goodness,
they're everywhere.
And oh, look at all this they'redoing.
And you know, we're helpingother nonprofits, and now we're
helping schools.
Um there's two chapters in thebook.
I really, you know, I don't wantto spoil that story, but there's

(49:04):
two chapters how we got involvedwith schools.
A first grade teacher in ElPaso, Texas, Celine Blancas, is
the one who's who really startedall that.
Just a little bit about that onthe website.
Um but yeah, you know, we'rehelping teachers pre-K all the
way through high school teachkids what they call the social

(49:25):
emotional learning curriculum,teaching kids about kindness,
empathy, connection, compassion,cooperation, anti-bullying, you
know, all the things that growgood humans for the world.
And so now we're, you know, Ithink 34 schools in nine
different states.
Uh we have a pink size schooloutside of Philly in Royceford,

(49:47):
Upper Royceford, UPE, the schooldistrict.
Uh, an elementary school there.

SPEAKER_00 (49:54):
And Royersford?

SPEAKER_02 (49:56):
Royceford outside of Philly.

SPEAKER_00 (49:59):
Yeah, I I grew up in that area.

SPEAKER_02 (50:01):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (50:02):
Yeah, I grew up King of Prussia, Bluebell, yeah.
Yeah, Collegeville, that wholearea.
That's my mom lives in uh inNorristown.
So we're it's right down fromRoyersford.
Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (50:13):
Yeah, I've actually been to that school a couple of
times.
Beautiful country out there,farmland, rolling hills.
And there's a fourth gradeteacher there, Brian Akins.
He's the one that invited us tothat school and got Pink Sox and
involved at his school.
Um super cool dude teachingfourth graders Zen meditation.

SPEAKER_00 (50:34):
That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 (50:35):
Right?
How to ground themselves and howto, you know, stay regulated.

SPEAKER_00 (50:40):
See, that's the type of shit that they need to teach.
Right.
Not the they're doing it atRoyceford, bro.
Like, not not fucking.
I I cannot tell you, I'll be 40in my adult life where I used
trigonometry to solve uh a realworld problem, you know, or or
algebra.
I mean, algebra maybe not likethese are the things they need

(51:03):
to be, they need to be teachingyou with your money.
Be kind, regulation, and begrounded.

SPEAKER_02 (51:09):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (51:10):
I I I couldn't agree more.

SPEAKER_02 (51:12):
Uh in fact, he he just published a book that is
for other uh school teacherscalled Chill Skills.
That's um basically sharing hiscurriculum with other schools
around the country.
Brian Akins, A-I-K-E-N-S, Brian,B-R-I-E, and and Royceford,

(51:35):
Upper Royceford Elementary, UPE.

SPEAKER_00 (51:38):
So shout out to the shout out to you, Brian.
That's that's that's reallywhere what we need to do because
I gotta tell you, man, some ofthese kids they grew up with an
iPad, and it it's that's they'renot learning much from a from a
connection standpoint.
Throw this thing up.

SPEAKER_03 (51:56):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (51:58):
Um so yeah, man.
So the world is full of good.
It's all around us, right?
It's it's around you.
It's in Philly, it's out ofRoyceford, it's everywhere.
So don't don't be fooled by thealgorithms and media and the
news and all the fire hose ofnegative stuff.
It's so much good all around.
People doing great.

SPEAKER_00 (52:15):
Especially with kids.
Kids are like innately pure andgood.
And and you know, like they seeum they see the the good in
things when when they shouldn't.
And you know, when we get older,obviously it's it it kind of it
can flip on you, especially ifyou have um some traumatic
experiences, I guess.

(52:35):
But um, you know, I I think it'simportant for people to go
through those stages of offailure and and things like
that, because at the end of theday, when you come out of that,
you know, that person isdifferent than the person that
that stepped into that that shitstorm.
But typically you walk away abetter person, you know, and and
then um, you know, I I believestrongly in in karma and uh, you

(52:59):
know, I think what what you getand what you put out, you know,
um, it's gonna come back, youknow, at some point.
And I I don't know, uh, youknow, I know we had talked it to
kind of I don't know what youryour thoughts are about death,
but I've interviewed someinteresting people uh that has
changed kind of how I viewthings.

(53:22):
And I've read some books aboutthe afterlife that have changed
kind of my the traditional viewof of what I used to think.
And I do think that um, youknow, you're here for a reason,
and you know, you're gonna mostpeople come back, you know, and
and uh, you know, we all haveobjectives in life, and uh

(53:42):
sometimes they're cut early andsometimes they're not.
And you, you know, um, you know,but it it's it uh who knows?
By the time you know, it's youcan't fucking tell anybody, so
yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (53:55):
You know, I'm like saying I'm 61.
I'll be 61 in July.
And what day?
July the 7th.

SPEAKER_00 (54:05):
On the 17th.
Yeah, man.
Summer birthdays, baby.

SPEAKER_02 (54:08):
Yeah.
Cheers to that.
Yeah.
Cheers.

SPEAKER_00 (54:14):
It's a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_02 (54:16):
And um, you know, I think what I've learned along
the way so far is I really don'tknow shit.

SPEAKER_00 (54:26):
I couldn't agree more.

SPEAKER_02 (54:27):
I don't know.
In fact, I like to prefacebefore I start talking about
something I like to preface withlisten, I really don't know, but
here's what I think.
I don't know.
I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 (54:45):
Because by the time you do for half the shit, it's
either too late or you know,whatever.
You know, and you don't thinkabout that shit in your 20s
either.
You know, it's it's when whenyou're in your late 30s, that's
I I probably think about deathmore just because it deal with
old people, right?
I deal with seniors all thetime.

SPEAKER_02 (55:02):
But my daughter, she I've got two kids, and my
daughter's my youngest.
And I guess I don't know ifshe's 17 or 18.
We were on a camping tripoutside of town here of Mount
Hood, just looking at themountain and in the middle of
nowhere, and just she and I withthese zero gravity chairs and
the stars out, just themountains glowing in the

(55:24):
moonlight.
You can see the Milky Wayrotating around us.

SPEAKER_03 (55:29):
And you know, we're just lying there looking up and
she asked me, she said, shegoes, What do you believe?

SPEAKER_02 (55:41):
And I said, and I said to myself, I've been
waiting for a long time for herto ask me this question.
Because now she's not really akid anymore, you know.
And uh I said, well, Clementine,I said look at all of these
lights, these stars, theseplanets, man, just I said, I

(56:07):
believe that what we're lookingat each one of those points of
light.

SPEAKER_03 (56:13):
Those are planets and stars that light's coming
from so far to reach us.
I believe most of what we'relooking at out there is the
past.

SPEAKER_02 (56:31):
We're looking at things that have already died,
but to us they seem very vibrantand bright and alive.
But some of this has reached us,those things are already gone.
And I believe our life's a lotlike that.
I believe that what we'reexperiencing is our now to life

(56:52):
is something that's really it'salready happened because if
you're out there in spacelooking at our little light, our
little pinprick of light in thenight sky.
They're also looking atsomething that died a long time
ago.
So I believe that what we'reexperiencing is now something

(57:12):
we're just catching up with ineach moment, but it's really
already happened.

SPEAKER_03 (57:17):
And so now all we have to do is make an
intentional choice of how weshow up with that in each now.

SPEAKER_02 (57:28):
And it is a choice, and it is intention, and it is a
meditation, it is a practice toshow up with love and kindness
and to let go of fear.
You know, Rob, love and fearthey coexist in every now.
They're always there.

(57:49):
We have to choose what we wantto focus on, what we put our
energy into.
And the more we focus and putour energy into love, the less
loud fear is in our heads andour lives.
And the understanding that we'reall in this thing together.

(58:10):
That um, and like I said, youknow, we're over 300,000 pairs
of pink socks, and that's thatdoesn't include a gazillion
number of stickers, hats,t-shirts, there's been ties
along the way, jewelry, hoodies.
I mean, there's no tellingthere's really no true
accounting of how many peoplehave some pink socks gear.

(58:31):
Uh it's the reality is when weengage with each other, when we
have a true authentic connectionin real life, like said at the
post office or in line at thegrocery store or wherever on the
bus, when we when we getourselves away from our teams,

(58:57):
our sides, and we connect justone-on-one, what we find to be
true is that we are all so muchmore alike, so much more
similar, so much more the samethan we are different.

SPEAKER_03 (59:16):
And that's that's a universal thing around the
world.

SPEAKER_02 (59:19):
And when we get, hey, we all want love, we all
want peace, we all want to gowatch our kids play soccer or
football, we want to go have apint with our mates, right?
These are the things we allwant.
And so that message of showingup with love and kindness and

(59:39):
loving more and fearing less andnot missing true authentic
connections, um that's not a newmessage.
It's a message that's beenhanded down through time, and
it's a message that transcends Iyou know political ideologies
and political geo-borders.

(01:00:00):
It applies to all of us.
And when we accept that,acknowledge it, be grateful for
it, and start giving ourselvesthe self-permission and space to
practice that with ourselves andthen with each other.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:21):
Magic.
And but it's an intention.
And when we start doing it, andyou know, because you're already
doing it, it's not work.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:32):
It's just a flow.
It's easy, it's easy to openthat door for somebody.
It's easy to pick that piece oftrash up that wasn't yours,
throw it away.
Where, you know, just it's easyto say good morning to somebody
when you're walking by.
That's why I love going toMexico.
You know, we it rains so muchhere in the winter, and it's
good to go south and see thesunshine for a while.

(01:00:54):
And what I love about Mexico isyou're walking down the street
every morning, and everybody yougo by, it's you know, Buenos
Dillas, Buenos Tillas.
They feel compelled to say itback, you know.
And you know, we've lost thatalong the way here to walk by
people and you know, in downtownPhiladelphia and just say, hey,
good morning, good afternoon,hey, hello, you know, because
everybody's got their earbuds inand everybody's looking down on

(01:01:18):
this.
And I mean, even you know, I wastaking a nugget for a walk
yesterday at the park, and Ikind of kept track of how many
people that I'd walk by uh and Iwould say good afternoon, hello,
to and they just couldn't hearme because they had, you know,
they were into a podcast ormusic or whatever.
Um so yeah, we got to get offthese phones every once in a

(01:01:40):
while.
Just just give ourselves abreak.
That's a gift to give yourselfthat break.
You know, just the more you youknow, the more you give yourself
that break.
I've noticed a year or two ago,I really got serious about
limiting, you know, andespecially social media.

SPEAKER_03 (01:02:02):
You know, I'd get on there and I would say, okay.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02:05):
And I could literally feel the algorithms
turning in my brain.
Like, okay, I'm beingmanipulated right now.
And that was as soon as I wouldrealize it, I would say, okay,
that's it, done.
No more for the day.
Because that's what's happening.
I mean, then you know, the techcompany's even telling us now,

(01:02:26):
yes, that's what we're doing.

SPEAKER_00 (01:02:29):
It's like when you speak out loud and then you have
a marketing ad on your phone twoseconds later for that.
I mean, that's the shit that futhat's the shit that fucks with
me.
It's like you're you're having aconversation and then I have
YouTube TV.
Two seconds later, it's acommercial on YouTube TV.
And I'm like, come on, man, comeon.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02:49):
We're we're on Instagram, pinksocks.life is the
website and the Instagramaccount, pinksocks.life.
So if you want to see a bunch ofhappy, smiley people on
Instagram and Pink Sox, go thereand follow us.
But uh, you know, I'll saysomething like, Oh, you probably
need to change the air filter onthe thing that you see, you
know.
Next thing I you know, get onInstagram.

(01:03:10):
I'm I'm getting all of these adsabout from HVAC companies.
Just because of a sudden I needto get a new filter.

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:17):
I mean, now I'm or if you Google anything, you're
screwed.

SPEAKER_02 (01:03:23):
Yeah, dude, you're definitely cooked.

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:25):
So that's awesome, man.
Well, look, it it's uh I didn'tlook anytime I don't get to 95%
of the questions I have, it's agreat interview because uh if
I'm going through my whole list,it's not normally a good Phoenix
is in is in the Tenderloin inSan Francisco.

SPEAKER_02 (01:03:43):
I was kept thinking it's getting I kept wanting to
say the Castro, but it's not theCastro, it's the it's the
Tenderloin, which is right nextto Castro District.

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:52):
Got it, got it.

SPEAKER_02 (01:03:53):
That's it.
They recently sold that hotel,but it was it was a classic,
man.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:58):
It's it's tough when they get rid of the classic.
Yeah.
Um but yeah, listen, it was apleasure having you on.
Do me a huge favor.
Plug yourself away.
I know you mentioned a couplethings, but make sure everybody
knows where they could find.

SPEAKER_02 (01:04:12):
So listen, come to learn more about Pink Sox Life
and what we're doing.
Come to the website,pinksocks.life.
Pinksocks.life.
That's also the Instagramaccount.
Follow us there, join us, getsome good vibes from seeing
happy, smiley people around theworld.
Pink socks Life, the website isalso where you can get socks.

(01:04:33):
We provide them at our cost bythe dozens.
So if you order pink socks viaus, you'll be getting them one
dozen, two dozen, three dozen ata time, et cetera.
Because it's not just aboutwearing pink socks, we want you
to gift pink socks.
Because as I've said,instructions on the back label,
every time you wear these, youknow, somebody's gonna connect.
You're gonna want to have someof these to gift to someone.

(01:04:57):
And this is important.
This rarely works, like almostnever, to go up to someone and
say, I'd like to give you these.
No.
The person that you're gonnagift your pink socks to, they
will come to you.
It's the person that commentsand says, Hey, I like your pink

(01:05:18):
socks.
Boom.
Hey, I'm Rob, what's your name?
And they'll say, Hey, I'm it'sgood to see you.
I've got something for you.
But that's where you gift them.
And it's magical.
And uh the website is also youcan donate and help us.
I said we're 51c3 nonprofit.
All donations are taxdeductible.

(01:05:38):
It's also where you can find thebook.
And there's a link on thewebsite or on the homepage,
can't miss it.
Talks about the book, shows youhow to get the book, and all the
proceeds go back to thenonprofit to help us support our
mission about spreading the loveof kindness around the world.
So we're grateful for you, Rob,because you're helping us right
now.
We're grateful for youraudience.

unknown (01:05:59):
So

SPEAKER_00 (01:06:00):
Oh yeah, man.
Any way we can spread the word?
Now I'm an audiobook guy.

SPEAKER_02 (01:06:06):
Yeah, you know, Rob, I tell you.
So uh the book is on Amazon inhardback and paperback, and it's
all it was also on the Kindleversion, the not the audio
version, but the Kindle version,the electric version.
And um Yeah, we had to take thatdown, the electric version.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:26):
Because Jeff Bezos did this weird thing recently
where um there was no there wasno royalties on on on the ebook,
the Kindle version.

SPEAKER_02 (01:06:42):
It went from, you know, having a royalty to about
40 cents because everybody thatsigned up for like Kindle Prime
or whatever got unlimited eversions.
So I'm like, wait, you're you'rejust giving away our book now.
And so we're I'm supposed torecord an audio version um and

(01:07:06):
that whole Kindle ebook debacleis kind of I've kind of stepped
back and go it's unclear whetherI want to do that because again,
if he's just giving it away toprime subscribers, it's not
helping us as a nonprofit.
And the other thing that's niceabout the book, Rob, is um there

(01:07:28):
are QR codes throughout thebook.
And everywhere you see a QRcode, you can go further down
the story, further down therabbit hole of that chapter.
Like maybe it's it's it'shearing that, you know.
I mean, be sharing a story ofHeart Speak about a person, and
if you want to see the story intheir words, you go down that QR

(01:07:50):
code.
Or like we've got you know, fiveastronauts now that have pink
socks.
So if you want to, if you see apicture of one of the
astronauts, you want to go seethe original post on their
Instagram account, QR code, andit takes you to their page.
Stuff like that.
It's fun.
So having the having a physicalbook is is a nice interactive
piece.
And also, you know, as pinksocks has grown through these

(01:08:12):
years on this ethos of gifting,people gifting each other pink
socks.
We're also encouraging people togift the book, right?
So get a book or two and readit.
If it speaks to your heart, keepone with you.
And the next time you have areally cool, authentic
connection with someone andyou've gifted them their pink
socks or give them a sticker andgot the hug.
Say, hey, listen, I got thisbook for you.

(01:08:36):
And if it speaks to your heart,they'll get a copy for you to
keep.
Give this one away.
Just pass it on to the nextperson, like I just gifted you
this one.
And that's how it's going.
It seems to be working, so I'mgrateful.

SPEAKER_00 (01:08:52):
That's awesome, man.
Well, look, um pleasure havingyou on.
Uh, my podcast is drink a clockpod.
Anywhere you listen to podcasts,drink clock podcast, anywhere
that exists, it should be there,hopefully.
And um, you know, this episodewill be up soon, man.
So thank you.
I know we had a lot of techissues, and uh, but it was it
was a pleasure having you on,and I really appreciate you

(01:09:13):
hanging out today.
I know you're a busy guy.

SPEAKER_02 (01:09:15):
Yeah, listen, the the next time we have a pink
socks meetup in Philly, I'mgonna make sure I reach back to
you so you can show up and uhmeet some really cool people on
their pink socks in Philly, andwe just it's no business talk.
It's we always pick an old Gdive bar, and we go drinking,
and it's a bunch of happy,smiley people who like to give
hugs.
And uh you'll meet some newfriends for sure.

(01:09:38):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:09:39):
Absolutely freaking Lulu.
You count me in.

SPEAKER_02 (01:09:41):
Yeah, brother.

SPEAKER_00 (01:09:42):
Thanks, man.
You have a great night.
Thank you.