March 1, 2024 • 23 mins
Join us as we delve into the remarkable story of Chuck Rinker, a visionary leader deeply committed to revolutionizing businesses through cutting-edge technologies. Beyond his notable achievements in the tech industry, Chuck's journey is marked by resilience, having battled late-stage colon cancer alongside his wife, emerging as survivors with an unyielding determination to make a difference. As both a tech pioneer and an experienced aviation pilot, Chuck's diverse background shapes his approach to problem-solving and innovation.
With a wealth of experience, including directing major franchises for EA Sports, Chuck brings a unique perspective to the table. Collaborating with Fortune 100 brands like Disney and Microsoft, he has honed his skills in human engagement and strategic planning, delivering impactful solutions that resonate globally. His philosophy revolves around forging meaningful connections, leveraging technology, and fostering collaboration to drive tangible results.
Discover how Chuck's insatiable curiosity and adventurous spirit keep him at the forefront of industry innovation, constantly pushing boundaries and anticipating the evolving needs of businesses in the digital age. Join us as we explore his mantra of "doing it bigger and better" in all aspects of life, inspiring others to embrace innovation and resilience on their journey to success.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
This is Leave Your Mark.
(00:01):
I'm Vince Cortese and today'sguest is Chuck Rinker.
He is the founder of PRSONAS,one of the earliest digital
humans and AI avatar companies.
where he currently serves as its CEO.
As an innovative tech leader,Chuck is deeply committed to
transforming businesses throughcutting edge technologies.
Beyond his accomplishments in the techindustry, Chuck is a late stage colon
(00:24):
cancer survivor, which has instilled inhim an unwavering determination to make a
meaningful impact on everything he does.
Chuck, thank you forbeing my guest here today.
Absolutely.
I do appreciate you having me, Vince.
(01:06):
we just had a brief conversation andyou have quite a, uh, a story and, and,
uh, from your humble beginnings in, uh,Arlington, Virginia, and your mom and dad,
uh, owners of a cattle farm, and you haveFive siblings, so there's six of you in
the house and this window of your life.
(01:28):
So I'm one of four myself,so the action's got to be big
with six of you kids in there.
So what was a fond memory you had ofyour childhood growing up in Arlington?
I grew up, the cattle farm wasin Berryville, born in Arlington.
It was a little over themountain, west of DC.
Uh, I guess one of the fondest things ismy, my dad had an incredible work ethic.
(01:49):
He was a cattle farmer.
He was also a barber.
He worked at shortening mail.
So he was like, you know, pulling threejobs to make ends meet with everybody.
We always, you know, raised,ate what we raised, raised our
beef, raised our vegetable.
But what was always funis we had the traditional.
Big kitchen where, you know, eightof us, mom, dad, and the six kids
would sit around and eat dinner.
And we'd be out in the field workingthe hayfields or what have you.
(02:12):
And up on the porch, mom had the bigold bell, you know, the traditional
bell you see in the TV shows.
And when we heard that bell ringingand the farm was a little over a
half mile, half mile long, my brotherand I would just take off running.
And then we'd all jump around andsit around dinner and have the big
old Sunday dinners around the table.
So that was us.
That was, uh, Like a little episode ofLittle House on the Prairie in my head
(02:33):
now growing up in the technology space I'min now, that was an intriguing time in my
life where we learned a lot about ethicsWell, you, you have quite a journey.
Like I want to touch on, you know, some ofthe stuff you're doing in the tech world,
but getting back here to your high school.
So at Clark County High School, theEagles, you were involved in quite a bit.
(02:56):
Coming from the farm.
So you acclimated yourself into thestudent life, uh, wholeheartedly.
You're in a band, you're a sports,uh, football and basketball, basically
in your era, the all American kid.
And, uh, also, you know, a bitof a brainiac performing in the
state fairs and getting goodmarks on your, your report cards.
(03:19):
So share with me what that was likeand, uh, how that began to develop
you getting more involved in tech.
Yeah, it's interesting you saythat because it was always me.
I always want to, as a kid, I was,you know, taking apart whatever I
could to figure out how it worked.
That was probably the first kid onthe block to have the old Mattel
football game when you were akid and the little LEDs playing.
(03:41):
But we were a real small communityand it was a farming community
and a very close community.
I think we had 99 peoplein my class was all we had.
And my mom was substitute teacher.
She was bus driver.
So a lot of the kids atschool called my mom, mom.
So it was your, it was your just goodold, um, you know, what you kind of
see the old country town where, wherethere was a lot of, uh, camaraderie
(04:01):
and just a feeling of family.
So we always perform well.
I was a quintessential goody two shoes.
You know, I was always the teacher's pet,always tried to do the right thing and,
and, you know, live up to the, uh, uh,standards that my, my parents put out.
So, um, you know, I, I, I, I gotinto the tech world, um, with a
little bit of tear jerking in my eye.
(04:23):
My dad always said, uh, He usedto be a barber as well, and he
cut the hair of some of the hightech C suite and VPs of the D.
C., what we called theBeltway Bandits back then.
And I remember him coming to me oneday and saw that I had an aptitude
for computers, and I was going to alocal college because we didn't offer
those programs at our high school.
And saw that I had an aptitude for that.
(04:45):
So I remember him taking me to one ofhis, uh, customers as a hair, getting a
haircut and said, uh, you know, uh, Mr.
Admiral Scoggins was the gentleman's name.
He was one of the principalsof Navy Federal Credit Union.
He said, you know, my son'stoo smart to be a farmer.
on that note, you went to a number ofdifferent colleges, but you said you went
(05:05):
off there, so prior to graduating, you hadalready gotten some tech training outside
of the public school, so it seemed likethat, searching or that curiosity was
being fed, so you mentioned that you wentto a handful of schools after graduating
high school, so how did that go down?
It was just me wanting to learneverything I could about everything.
(05:27):
I started out like I said at Shenandoaheven while I was in high school and to
get some of that early computer training.
Ended up going down to Universityof Miami, was in the Air Force
there for a little while.
Wanted to try that out, see what thatwas like, ended up leaving the Air
Force and going civilian with military,but that was, um, University of Miami,
double E electrical engineering, uh,ended up transferring up to Virginia
(05:48):
Tech, had more friends and familycloser to home, that kind of thing, uh,
went through computer science there.
after I finished up there, I went to,uh, George Washington University for some
postgraduate multimedia, tech work, and,uh, ended up going to a place called the
Living Arts College to learn 3D animationand all down here, probably, uh, you know,
10 years after I'd already graduated.
(06:09):
So it was just that, that appetiteto always want to experience
Mm hmm.
so that, that's, as you've probablyalready learned in the, the short 15,
20 minutes, you and I've known eachother that, uh, the only thing I want
to do is what I didn't do yesterday.
I mean, the, skill set thatyou just explained and the, the
education that you went through.
So, what was your first job, thencoming through all that education and,
(06:31):
and how does the beginning of yourentrepreneurial journey come together?
Yeah, the first job I had,unfortunately, I'm not one of those
guys that can claim to have the lifeexperience of Flipping burgers and
saying, do you want fries with that?
I, my first job was thanks to my dadin that statement I mentioned earlier
about saying, Hey, my kid's too smart.
Um, he got me a job as a,uh, working punch cards.
(06:53):
You can show my age here with the computerprogrammers at Navy Federal Credit Union.
So my first job at the ripe old ageof 16 was working at a data center
for one of the largest, uh, uh,banks in the U S for, for, for the,
for the, you know, military Navy.
so I worked in the oldpaper ticker cards, era.
So that was, um, how I got startedand basically never looked back.
(07:16):
Always had that propensity fortech, always, um, followed up music.
My mom was a music teacher and a churchorganist, so she taught me music.
My dad taught me work ethics and,and, and the value of manual labor
and my, uh, ability for them to pushme through the tech realms and get
me into the technology is kind ofwhy I like to say that, I get to use
both side of my brains for my career.
(07:39):
Now.
Do you proceed to have, uh, work withother companies or when does your
entrepreneurial, uh, journey beginlike officially out on your own?
Because your, your list of the stuffthat you've been involved with, I mean
Madden Sports and, and some of theseothers we'll mention a little bit
later, but you're, you're, you madea smooth shift from the punch cards
(08:03):
into how you decided to, and what,what were some of the influences that
you had as far as deciding to do that?
Well, the Navy Federal Credit Unionwas what was right outside of DC
and DC, as we all know, is, um, youknow, big into military funding,
military operations, what we calledthe Beltway Bandits, uh, back then,
which were all government contractors.
So, I quickly made a stint, um,for a passion in aviation and
(08:27):
got into an aerospace company.
did battle management software, militaryoperations, military simulation stuff,
got into aerospace engineering, thatgot me into satellite reconnaissance.
So some of those companies around D.
C.
I probably worked for 2 or 3 of themover about an 18 to 20 year period,
and then decided I needed a breakfrom the big city because I wanted to
raise kids, got married to a lovelywoman who is also a cancer survivor.
(08:50):
Two time cancer survivor, by the way,and we'll get into that later as well.
and we decided that D.
C.
wasn't where we wanted to raiseour kids, so we came down to, uh,
Research Triangle Park and ended updoing, uh, game development, which was
basically military simulation work,but for fun instead of, uh, for real.
Yeah, exactly.
Um, and that's how I got into games and,worked for a small game company in Raleigh
(09:14):
and immediately showed an aptitude forthat for, for the reasons I mentioned
earlier about left and right brainy.
And, uh, quickly got scooped up by EASports and, uh, got put in charge of
the NCAA football franchise and the,uh, Madden franchise, and to this day I
can stake claim to my roots as a MiamiHurricane and a Virginia Tech Hokie and
(09:34):
say that the first two 3D mascots in NCAAhistory were Sebastian from Miami and the
Hokie Bird from Virginia Tech Hokie, sothat's how I got into the gaming, world.
And then, um, uh, After severalyears in that world, when my, my,
my oldest daughter was born, um,we decided to come back home to
North Carolina for personal reasons.
(09:55):
And, and that's when I decided,I had too much of the, the
fun stuff going on in my head.
So I decided to, uh, uh, partnerup with a friend of mine and,
um, start new media at that time.
Perseverance New Media back in 1999.
And I've been running it for 25 years.
Now, you have any specificmentors or role models that play a
crucial role in guiding you this?
(10:16):
I mean, obviously your parents werefantastic, extremely well versed, but
coming out of those arenas, you As youput it, there's some brainiacs hanging
out, and I'm sure one or two of themhad some sort of influence on you, and,
uh, and or, uh, experiences with them.
So, how did that, uh, kindof curb you going into the
(10:38):
more serious side of things?
It's interesting you say that because,um, um, there, there are a lot of
individuals, you know, obviouslymy dad is, is one of my biggest
influences from the, um, he used toalways tell me, you can do anything
you want, but not everything you want.
Um, so you do have to be a littlemore selective, but basically
opened up the reins and said,you know, if you want to do it.
Chuck, you're as smart as anybody else, sogo for it, and he built that work ethic.
(11:02):
I can remember many nights I'd, youknow, show up the next morning when
I was a young programmer, and I'dbe in the same outfit I left, and my
boss would go, you never went home?
I'd go, no, because Ihad a problem to solve.
So he kind of instilled that on me.
my mom, as I mentioned, she instilled thissense of, love and belief other people.
She always was the shoulderthat everybody cried on.
Like I said, everybody, I'd say probably,uh, a significant portion of the
(11:24):
community called my mom, mom as well.
as far as the, how you dothings, um, quite honestly, um.
Anybody that knows me knows that I,I preach and fall just this short of
worshiping the man we all know as WaltDisney, but for a different reason.
I always look at Walt Disney.
People don't realize how much of Walt's,award winning and advancements were based
(11:44):
on being an incredibly big risk taker, butalso on the technology side, he created
technology for the sake of creativity.
And I think that's kind of where I'vegotten into computer graphics and computer
AI and human AI and game developmentall is using the technology to visualize
and create those realities that youcouldn't do without the technology.
Connect with us on LinkedIn, beour friend on Facebook, follow
(12:06):
us on Twitter and Instagram.
You are listening to Vince Cortese.
We just want you to leave your mark.
Now, as an entrepreneur, what is yourfavorite part of being an entrepreneur
and why does that resonate with you?
For me, it's the ability to see a future,to see a vision, and to have some control.
(12:28):
Whether I'm ultimately successful,um, and depending on your
definition of successful, I'malready successful in my mind.
Um, whether I'm scaled to thelevel of success that you see other
people is yet to be determined.
But, um, but to me, it's theability to look at a vision.
To see a future that I believe in andto be able to have some control and
(12:49):
some ability to go for that vision.
Um, so, so I'm, I'm working on that front.
Um, that to me is the favorite partof being an entrepreneur is to have
some control over that destiny.
Now, in your career, as diverse asit's been from tech to aviation, what
brings you the most joy and creativeinspiration to what you currently do?
(13:12):
That's pretty, pretty funny.
You say that cause, uh,everybody says that everybody
says I've had a diverse career.
Actually, I haven't.
I've, I've been in diverse industries,diverse verticals, diverse, uh,
uh, uh, spaces, military blackops, cattle farming, blah, blah.
But at the end of the day, when youlook at all of my professional career,
it's all about human engagement.
(13:34):
How do we communicate as humans?
What makes it attractivefor you to sit in front of?
How do I engage you enough that you'regoing to sit in front of that Madden
football game and you're going toplay it for hours and hours on end?
How do I create a militarysimulation that the people using
the simulation are engaged in thatsimulation and believe that they're
operating that military simulation?
How do you go through the flightsimulator and believe that
(13:55):
you're behind that airplane?
How do I create a human and engagementpiece so when you walk into a
hospital in X directions, you believeyou're talking to a sentient being?
So the whole, all these differentdiverse Companies people claim I've
had different jobs in, at the endof the day, have been around human
communication and human engagement.
Now, I mean, having had a full careernow, and we come up to the time in
(14:19):
which you find out you have cancer.
So I have to ask know, where were you,and how did that news resonate with you
emotionally when you first heard it?
Great question.
And I'm going to, I'm going to try tokeep from another tear jerker here,
but it was, it was a left, right punch.
My wife, several months earlierhad been diagnosed with breast
(14:41):
cancer and I had just turned 51.
I hadn't had my colonoscopy yet, so mywife was going through her radiation
treatments after a lumpectomy.
And said, you know, Chuck, I got cancer.
You need to make sure thisdoesn't happen to you.
So literally on the last day of herradiation, I was scheduled to go
(15:01):
in the next day for my colonoscopy.
So we finished her radiation, thatleft punch, and we're celebrating
her finishing up radiation andgoing through her mental stresses
of going through that breast cancer.
Only to get broadsided with my 3C Duke'scolon cancer less than 24 hours later.
(15:23):
Wow.
we were, we were kind of blindsided,of course, at the time I did what
everybody should not do, but did, jumpon the internet, look at the ACA, and
look at my 28 percent life expectancyrates, and just basically was, you
know, going, Oh shit, what do I do,what do I do, going through all the
pains of, uh, of how do I get treatment?
You know, just being absolutelyoverwhelmed is really
(15:46):
all you can say about it.
Scared, of course, overwhelmedwas, was first and foremost.
which leads us to where we camewith our Human Engagement, and why
we're doing a lot of healthcareand patient centric stuff now.
but we went through that, and uh, threeyears after being clean there, Um, we
were in MD Anderson actually, gettingmy three year or four year bill of
health clean slate, and my wife gotdiagnosed with her second breast cancer.
(16:09):
So, you know, we've been on afolly of left, right, left punches.
Um, so we're still she's clean.
Her, her left one, we did fulldouble mastectomy for her.
So we're, we're fully out of the cancerworld supposedly, but, um, we're both
survivors and five years later, Ithink we're just now regrouping from,
what does that do to you mentally?
You know, you're a cancer survivoryourself and everybody can say you're
(16:32):
clean, you're happy, you're healthy,but at the end of the day, especially
when you're metastasized cancer, it'sjust, it's, it's just something that
sits in that back of your head andMm hmm.
So true.
now, you're sharing with me herstory as you're going through it.
How much did then you guysweigh in on each other?
(16:52):
I mean, because at that point,you know, she's wanting you to get
checked so that you can remain strong.
Probably more in her mind,you know, Chuck's doing good.
He can take care of me.
But then to have that rug kindof pulled out from under her and
it's like, she's already sick.
How's she going to give me support?
So like, kind of, how didyou guys work through that?
(17:13):
Cause you said it was extremely emotional.
And I mean, when you're trying tofind a solid sense of direction or a
restful place for your mind to findpeace and all that, how'd you do that?
yeah, well, she's a stronglady as well and she, um, she
has a big family of her own.
She has, you know, there's five of hersiblings and there's six on my side
(17:34):
and we have a very supportive family.
Uh, I have a sister whoworked at a cancer center.
I have another sister who's a40 year veteran of the GI space
herself, Carolyn, my wife had, um,you know, a full family support.
So, You're going to laugh, butI'm going to use the word lucky.
We're actually lucky in one sense.
Yes, we had three bouts of cancerin five years, but we were lucky in
this sense that she had hers early.
(17:56):
She was recovering and gaining strengthwith the support of her family.
Then I got my cancer and she supportedme and my family helped support me.
And then it was two or three, Ithink it was three years, maybe four.
I think it was three or four years.
When I was going through a clean slate,she had been clean for four to five
years is when she got her second cancer.
So, I was back in at least a,good mental place and her family
(18:19):
was still there supporting her.
So, as much as it sounds horrible to sayit that way, we were lucky on the timing.
It was horrible on the timing,but they were staggered.
So, we did, we did get a littlebit of breathing room, but it also
gave you a different perspectivebecause when she got cancer and I
was trying to be supportive for her.
When I got it, she kind ofknew what I was going through.
(18:42):
So I think she had an apathy and anempathy, to help me, with my, challenges.
And then when she got it again, wehad both already been through it.
And ironically, we sharethe same oncologist.
How many couples can say thatWow.
No, we have this?
crazy.
So, so as, as, as weird as itsounds, the going through that
(19:03):
together, but at different times.
Gave us a perspective I don'tthink some couples would have.
Yeah, no, the attitude of gratitude isthe best healer, no doubt about that.
Now, that leads me to my final question,uh, how would you like to leave your mark?
How do you want to be remembered?
we do a lot of workwith the deaf community.
(19:24):
We've been doing a lot of work withbreaking down communication barriers.
We did a work with a group up in Spokanethat we literally trained our avatars
to speak an unspoken language for,for a tribal community around there.
So the one thing I've learned when you'reengaging people, you can't engage if
you can't speak a common communicationlanguage, whether it's spoken or not.
(19:45):
So my mark, I would love, love,love to be thought of the person who
spent the last part of their career.
Breaking Down the Barriersof Human Communication.
we all know that the world'sgetting smaller and smaller.
It's easier to communicatein any language and all.
And there's still a lot of, Idon't want to use the word hatred.
That's a pretty strong word.
It does get to that some point.
But, understanding other humansoften boils down to being able to
(20:10):
come up with a common language.
And so if our human AI and our signlanguage capabilities and multilingual
capabilities can be used to break downcommunication barriers and to make
everybody a little more able to engagewith people outside of their quote
unquote circle, their comfort circle.
(20:30):
Uh, I'd like to be that guythat's remembered of, uh, as
the guy who breaks down thecommunication barriers a little bit.
I think you're doing one heck of a job,because the Lives that you've touched,
both for recreational and now on a moreserious life or death issue, this is just
some tremendous work that you're doing.
And to have all of that in yourbackground, moving forward with
(20:54):
this PRSONAS, AI, and having been acancer patient yourself, along with
a caregiver yourself, those will beinvaluable to you, and to those patients.
intangible ingredients in yourproduct because that will make it
feel more human like and relatable.
And, and I think myself, having beena cancer patient, you do, you go out
(21:16):
on that island and think nobody knowsor feels like what I'm going through,
but that, energy is not in a language,but to another cancer patient, you just
kind of know each other in a differentsort of way without saying anything.
But I, I believe you're going to touch onthat with your skill set and your right
and left brain going to work on this.
(21:37):
This is something to look forward to.
So, um, before I let you go, I want you toshare with me where we can find your work
and find more about you on the internet.
Sure.
I love to engage on LinkedIn and I say itpolitely, but I tend to, people hear me on
podcasts and I get a lot of sales pitches.
I really don't want more sales pitches.
I want people who understandwhat we're trying to do and
(21:59):
literally want to collaborate,uh, not have me sell anything.
I mean, just, just collaborate on whattheir thoughts are, how, what use cases
they think this type of technology beapplicable for, what kind of ventures.
That they might be engaging on thatwould be synergistic or part of an
ecosystem we could develop together.
Those types of things is, is, issomething I believe in LinkedIn.
(22:20):
I love LinkedIn for the background.
As far as just general informationon what, what specific solutions are
we deploying with this technology?
iHealthAssist.
com is probably the first placeto go for the healthcare patient.
Uh, Purpose Belief, which is a letterI, HealthAssist, A S S I S T dot com.
If you want to know more about thebackground technology for other developers
(22:42):
or people who think they can usethis technology for their embeddement
of their product or their solution,then they'll want to go to PRSONAS.
com, P R S O N A S dot com.
Outstanding.
Wow.
Thank you for your time.
I appreciate you coming andsharing your stories today.
Absolutely, Vince, and congratson your clean slate as well.
(23:02):
Yeah, this is good.
rooting for you.
Yeah, I got you in my prayers as well.
Well, we will be in touchand thank you again.
I'll be around.
Take care.
This is Leave Your Mark.
(00:01):
I'm Vince Cortese and today'sguest is Chuck Rinker.
He is the founder of PRSONAS,one of the earliest digital
humans and AI avatar companies.
where he currently serves as its CEO.
As an innovative tech leader,Chuck is deeply committed to
transforming businesses throughcutting edge technologies.
Beyond his accomplishments in the techindustry, Chuck is a late stage colon
(00:24):
cancer survivor, which has instilled inhim an unwavering determination to make a
meaningful impact on everything he does.
Chuck, thank you forbeing my guest here today.
Absolutely.
I do appreciate you having me, Vince.
(01:06):
we just had a brief conversation andyou have quite a, uh, a story and, and,
uh, from your humble beginnings in, uh,Arlington, Virginia, and your mom and dad,
uh, owners of a cattle farm, and you haveFive siblings, so there's six of you in
the house and this window of your life.
(01:28):
So I'm one of four myself,so the action's got to be big
with six of you kids in there.
So what was a fond memory you had ofyour childhood growing up in Arlington?
I grew up, the cattle farm wasin Berryville, born in Arlington.
It was a little over themountain, west of DC.
Uh, I guess one of the fondest things ismy, my dad had an incredible work ethic.
(01:49):
He was a cattle farmer.
He was also a barber.
He worked at shortening mail.
So he was like, you know, pulling threejobs to make ends meet with everybody.
We always, you know, raised,ate what we raised, raised our
beef, raised our vegetable.
But what was always funis we had the traditional.
Big kitchen where, you know, eightof us, mom, dad, and the six kids
would sit around and eat dinner.
And we'd be out in the field workingthe hayfields or what have you.
(02:12):
And up on the porch, mom had the bigold bell, you know, the traditional
bell you see in the TV shows.
And when we heard that bell ringingand the farm was a little over a
half mile, half mile long, my brotherand I would just take off running.
And then we'd all jump around andsit around dinner and have the big
old Sunday dinners around the table.
So that was us.
That was, uh, Like a little episode ofLittle House on the Prairie in my head
(02:33):
now growing up in the technology space I'min now, that was an intriguing time in my
life where we learned a lot about ethicsWell, you, you have quite a journey.
Like I want to touch on, you know, some ofthe stuff you're doing in the tech world,
but getting back here to your high school.
So at Clark County High School, theEagles, you were involved in quite a bit.
(02:56):
Coming from the farm.
So you acclimated yourself into thestudent life, uh, wholeheartedly.
You're in a band, you're a sports,uh, football and basketball, basically
in your era, the all American kid.
And, uh, also, you know, a bitof a brainiac performing in the
state fairs and getting goodmarks on your, your report cards.
(03:19):
So share with me what that was likeand, uh, how that began to develop
you getting more involved in tech.
Yeah, it's interesting you saythat because it was always me.
I always want to, as a kid, I was,you know, taking apart whatever I
could to figure out how it worked.
That was probably the first kid onthe block to have the old Mattel
football game when you were akid and the little LEDs playing.
(03:41):
But we were a real small communityand it was a farming community
and a very close community.
I think we had 99 peoplein my class was all we had.
And my mom was substitute teacher.
She was bus driver.
So a lot of the kids atschool called my mom, mom.
So it was your, it was your just goodold, um, you know, what you kind of
see the old country town where, wherethere was a lot of, uh, camaraderie
(04:01):
and just a feeling of family.
So we always perform well.
I was a quintessential goody two shoes.
You know, I was always the teacher's pet,always tried to do the right thing and,
and, you know, live up to the, uh, uh,standards that my, my parents put out.
So, um, you know, I, I, I, I gotinto the tech world, um, with a
little bit of tear jerking in my eye.
(04:23):
My dad always said, uh, He usedto be a barber as well, and he
cut the hair of some of the hightech C suite and VPs of the D.
C., what we called theBeltway Bandits back then.
And I remember him coming to me oneday and saw that I had an aptitude
for computers, and I was going to alocal college because we didn't offer
those programs at our high school.
And saw that I had an aptitude for that.
(04:45):
So I remember him taking me to one ofhis, uh, customers as a hair, getting a
haircut and said, uh, you know, uh, Mr.
Admiral Scoggins was the gentleman's name.
He was one of the principalsof Navy Federal Credit Union.
He said, you know, my son'stoo smart to be a farmer.
on that note, you went to a number ofdifferent colleges, but you said you went
(05:05):
off there, so prior to graduating, you hadalready gotten some tech training outside
of the public school, so it seemed likethat, searching or that curiosity was
being fed, so you mentioned that you wentto a handful of schools after graduating
high school, so how did that go down?
It was just me wanting to learneverything I could about everything.
(05:27):
I started out like I said at Shenandoaheven while I was in high school and to
get some of that early computer training.
Ended up going down to Universityof Miami, was in the Air Force
there for a little while.
Wanted to try that out, see what thatwas like, ended up leaving the Air
Force and going civilian with military,but that was, um, University of Miami,
double E electrical engineering, uh,ended up transferring up to Virginia
(05:48):
Tech, had more friends and familycloser to home, that kind of thing, uh,
went through computer science there.
after I finished up there, I went to,uh, George Washington University for some
postgraduate multimedia, tech work, and,uh, ended up going to a place called the
Living Arts College to learn 3D animationand all down here, probably, uh, you know,
10 years after I'd already graduated.
(06:09):
So it was just that, that appetiteto always want to experience
Mm hmm.
so that, that's, as you've probablyalready learned in the, the short 15,
20 minutes, you and I've known eachother that, uh, the only thing I want
to do is what I didn't do yesterday.
I mean, the, skill set thatyou just explained and the, the
education that you went through.
So, what was your first job, thencoming through all that education and,
(06:31):
and how does the beginning of yourentrepreneurial journey come together?
Yeah, the first job I had,unfortunately, I'm not one of those
guys that can claim to have the lifeexperience of Flipping burgers and
saying, do you want fries with that?
I, my first job was thanks to my dadin that statement I mentioned earlier
about saying, Hey, my kid's too smart.
Um, he got me a job as a,uh, working punch cards.
(06:53):
You can show my age here with the computerprogrammers at Navy Federal Credit Union.
So my first job at the ripe old ageof 16 was working at a data center
for one of the largest, uh, uh,banks in the U S for, for, for the,
for the, you know, military Navy.
so I worked in the oldpaper ticker cards, era.
So that was, um, how I got startedand basically never looked back.
(07:16):
Always had that propensity fortech, always, um, followed up music.
My mom was a music teacher and a churchorganist, so she taught me music.
My dad taught me work ethics and,and, and the value of manual labor
and my, uh, ability for them to pushme through the tech realms and get
me into the technology is kind ofwhy I like to say that, I get to use
both side of my brains for my career.
(07:39):
Now.
Do you proceed to have, uh, work withother companies or when does your
entrepreneurial, uh, journey beginlike officially out on your own?
Because your, your list of the stuffthat you've been involved with, I mean
Madden Sports and, and some of theseothers we'll mention a little bit
later, but you're, you're, you madea smooth shift from the punch cards
(08:03):
into how you decided to, and what,what were some of the influences that
you had as far as deciding to do that?
Well, the Navy Federal Credit Unionwas what was right outside of DC
and DC, as we all know, is, um, youknow, big into military funding,
military operations, what we calledthe Beltway Bandits, uh, back then,
which were all government contractors.
So, I quickly made a stint, um,for a passion in aviation and
(08:27):
got into an aerospace company.
did battle management software, militaryoperations, military simulation stuff,
got into aerospace engineering, thatgot me into satellite reconnaissance.
So some of those companies around D.
C.
I probably worked for 2 or 3 of themover about an 18 to 20 year period,
and then decided I needed a breakfrom the big city because I wanted to
raise kids, got married to a lovelywoman who is also a cancer survivor.
(08:50):
Two time cancer survivor, by the way,and we'll get into that later as well.
and we decided that D.
C.
wasn't where we wanted to raiseour kids, so we came down to, uh,
Research Triangle Park and ended updoing, uh, game development, which was
basically military simulation work,but for fun instead of, uh, for real.
Yeah, exactly.
Um, and that's how I got into games and,worked for a small game company in Raleigh
(09:14):
and immediately showed an aptitude forthat for, for the reasons I mentioned
earlier about left and right brainy.
And, uh, quickly got scooped up by EASports and, uh, got put in charge of
the NCAA football franchise and the,uh, Madden franchise, and to this day I
can stake claim to my roots as a MiamiHurricane and a Virginia Tech Hokie and
(09:34):
say that the first two 3D mascots in NCAAhistory were Sebastian from Miami and the
Hokie Bird from Virginia Tech Hokie, sothat's how I got into the gaming, world.
And then, um, uh, After severalyears in that world, when my, my,
my oldest daughter was born, um,we decided to come back home to
North Carolina for personal reasons.
(09:55):
And, and that's when I decided,I had too much of the, the
fun stuff going on in my head.
So I decided to, uh, uh, partnerup with a friend of mine and,
um, start new media at that time.
Perseverance New Media back in 1999.
And I've been running it for 25 years.
Now, you have any specificmentors or role models that play a
crucial role in guiding you this?
(10:16):
I mean, obviously your parents werefantastic, extremely well versed, but
coming out of those arenas, you As youput it, there's some brainiacs hanging
out, and I'm sure one or two of themhad some sort of influence on you, and,
uh, and or, uh, experiences with them.
So, how did that, uh, kindof curb you going into the
(10:38):
more serious side of things?
It's interesting you say that because,um, um, there, there are a lot of
individuals, you know, obviouslymy dad is, is one of my biggest
influences from the, um, he used toalways tell me, you can do anything
you want, but not everything you want.
Um, so you do have to be a littlemore selective, but basically
opened up the reins and said,you know, if you want to do it.
Chuck, you're as smart as anybody else, sogo for it, and he built that work ethic.
(11:02):
I can remember many nights I'd, youknow, show up the next morning when
I was a young programmer, and I'dbe in the same outfit I left, and my
boss would go, you never went home?
I'd go, no, because Ihad a problem to solve.
So he kind of instilled that on me.
my mom, as I mentioned, she instilled thissense of, love and belief other people.
She always was the shoulderthat everybody cried on.
Like I said, everybody, I'd say probably,uh, a significant portion of the
(11:24):
community called my mom, mom as well.
as far as the, how you dothings, um, quite honestly, um.
Anybody that knows me knows that I,I preach and fall just this short of
worshiping the man we all know as WaltDisney, but for a different reason.
I always look at Walt Disney.
People don't realize how much of Walt's,award winning and advancements were based
(11:44):
on being an incredibly big risk taker, butalso on the technology side, he created
technology for the sake of creativity.
And I think that's kind of where I'vegotten into computer graphics and computer
AI and human AI and game developmentall is using the technology to visualize
and create those realities that youcouldn't do without the technology.
Connect with us on LinkedIn, beour friend on Facebook, follow
(12:06):
us on Twitter and Instagram.
You are listening to Vince Cortese.
We just want you to leave your mark.
Now, as an entrepreneur, what is yourfavorite part of being an entrepreneur
and why does that resonate with you?
For me, it's the ability to see a future,to see a vision, and to have some control.
(12:28):
Whether I'm ultimately successful,um, and depending on your
definition of successful, I'malready successful in my mind.
Um, whether I'm scaled to thelevel of success that you see other
people is yet to be determined.
But, um, but to me, it's theability to look at a vision.
To see a future that I believe in andto be able to have some control and
(12:49):
some ability to go for that vision.
Um, so, so I'm, I'm working on that front.
Um, that to me is the favorite partof being an entrepreneur is to have
some control over that destiny.
Now, in your career, as diverse asit's been from tech to aviation, what
brings you the most joy and creativeinspiration to what you currently do?
(13:12):
That's pretty, pretty funny.
You say that cause, uh,everybody says that everybody
says I've had a diverse career.
Actually, I haven't.
I've, I've been in diverse industries,diverse verticals, diverse, uh,
uh, uh, spaces, military blackops, cattle farming, blah, blah.
But at the end of the day, when youlook at all of my professional career,
it's all about human engagement.
(13:34):
How do we communicate as humans?
What makes it attractivefor you to sit in front of?
How do I engage you enough that you'regoing to sit in front of that Madden
football game and you're going toplay it for hours and hours on end?
How do I create a militarysimulation that the people using
the simulation are engaged in thatsimulation and believe that they're
operating that military simulation?
How do you go through the flightsimulator and believe that
(13:55):
you're behind that airplane?
How do I create a human and engagementpiece so when you walk into a
hospital in X directions, you believeyou're talking to a sentient being?
So the whole, all these differentdiverse Companies people claim I've
had different jobs in, at the endof the day, have been around human
communication and human engagement.
Now, I mean, having had a full careernow, and we come up to the time in
(14:19):
which you find out you have cancer.
So I have to ask know, where were you,and how did that news resonate with you
emotionally when you first heard it?
Great question.
And I'm going to, I'm going to try tokeep from another tear jerker here,
but it was, it was a left, right punch.
My wife, several months earlierhad been diagnosed with breast
(14:41):
cancer and I had just turned 51.
I hadn't had my colonoscopy yet, so mywife was going through her radiation
treatments after a lumpectomy.
And said, you know, Chuck, I got cancer.
You need to make sure thisdoesn't happen to you.
So literally on the last day of herradiation, I was scheduled to go
(15:01):
in the next day for my colonoscopy.
So we finished her radiation, thatleft punch, and we're celebrating
her finishing up radiation andgoing through her mental stresses
of going through that breast cancer.
Only to get broadsided with my 3C Duke'scolon cancer less than 24 hours later.
(15:23):
Wow.
we were, we were kind of blindsided,of course, at the time I did what
everybody should not do, but did, jumpon the internet, look at the ACA, and
look at my 28 percent life expectancyrates, and just basically was, you
know, going, Oh shit, what do I do,what do I do, going through all the
pains of, uh, of how do I get treatment?
You know, just being absolutelyoverwhelmed is really
(15:46):
all you can say about it.
Scared, of course, overwhelmedwas, was first and foremost.
which leads us to where we camewith our Human Engagement, and why
we're doing a lot of healthcareand patient centric stuff now.
but we went through that, and uh, threeyears after being clean there, Um, we
were in MD Anderson actually, gettingmy three year or four year bill of
health clean slate, and my wife gotdiagnosed with her second breast cancer.
(16:09):
So, you know, we've been on afolly of left, right, left punches.
Um, so we're still she's clean.
Her, her left one, we did fulldouble mastectomy for her.
So we're, we're fully out of the cancerworld supposedly, but, um, we're both
survivors and five years later, Ithink we're just now regrouping from,
what does that do to you mentally?
You know, you're a cancer survivoryourself and everybody can say you're
(16:32):
clean, you're happy, you're healthy,but at the end of the day, especially
when you're metastasized cancer, it'sjust, it's, it's just something that
sits in that back of your head andMm hmm.
So true.
now, you're sharing with me herstory as you're going through it.
How much did then you guysweigh in on each other?
(16:52):
I mean, because at that point,you know, she's wanting you to get
checked so that you can remain strong.
Probably more in her mind,you know, Chuck's doing good.
He can take care of me.
But then to have that rug kindof pulled out from under her and
it's like, she's already sick.
How's she going to give me support?
So like, kind of, how didyou guys work through that?
(17:13):
Cause you said it was extremely emotional.
And I mean, when you're trying tofind a solid sense of direction or a
restful place for your mind to findpeace and all that, how'd you do that?
yeah, well, she's a stronglady as well and she, um, she
has a big family of her own.
She has, you know, there's five of hersiblings and there's six on my side
(17:34):
and we have a very supportive family.
Uh, I have a sister whoworked at a cancer center.
I have another sister who's a40 year veteran of the GI space
herself, Carolyn, my wife had, um,you know, a full family support.
So, You're going to laugh, butI'm going to use the word lucky.
We're actually lucky in one sense.
Yes, we had three bouts of cancerin five years, but we were lucky in
this sense that she had hers early.
(17:56):
She was recovering and gaining strengthwith the support of her family.
Then I got my cancer and she supportedme and my family helped support me.
And then it was two or three, Ithink it was three years, maybe four.
I think it was three or four years.
When I was going through a clean slate,she had been clean for four to five
years is when she got her second cancer.
So, I was back in at least a,good mental place and her family
(18:19):
was still there supporting her.
So, as much as it sounds horrible to sayit that way, we were lucky on the timing.
It was horrible on the timing,but they were staggered.
So, we did, we did get a littlebit of breathing room, but it also
gave you a different perspectivebecause when she got cancer and I
was trying to be supportive for her.
When I got it, she kind ofknew what I was going through.
(18:42):
So I think she had an apathy and anempathy, to help me, with my, challenges.
And then when she got it again, wehad both already been through it.
And ironically, we sharethe same oncologist.
How many couples can say thatWow.
No, we have this?
crazy.
So, so as, as, as weird as itsounds, the going through that
(19:03):
together, but at different times.
Gave us a perspective I don'tthink some couples would have.
Yeah, no, the attitude of gratitude isthe best healer, no doubt about that.
Now, that leads me to my final question,uh, how would you like to leave your mark?
How do you want to be remembered?
we do a lot of workwith the deaf community.
(19:24):
We've been doing a lot of work withbreaking down communication barriers.
We did a work with a group up in Spokanethat we literally trained our avatars
to speak an unspoken language for,for a tribal community around there.
So the one thing I've learned when you'reengaging people, you can't engage if
you can't speak a common communicationlanguage, whether it's spoken or not.
(19:45):
So my mark, I would love, love,love to be thought of the person who
spent the last part of their career.
Breaking Down the Barriersof Human Communication.
we all know that the world'sgetting smaller and smaller.
It's easier to communicatein any language and all.
And there's still a lot of, Idon't want to use the word hatred.
That's a pretty strong word.
It does get to that some point.
But, understanding other humansoften boils down to being able to
(20:10):
come up with a common language.
And so if our human AI and our signlanguage capabilities and multilingual
capabilities can be used to break downcommunication barriers and to make
everybody a little more able to engagewith people outside of their quote
unquote circle, their comfort circle.
(20:30):
Uh, I'd like to be that guythat's remembered of, uh, as
the guy who breaks down thecommunication barriers a little bit.
I think you're doing one heck of a job,because the Lives that you've touched,
both for recreational and now on a moreserious life or death issue, this is just
some tremendous work that you're doing.
And to have all of that in yourbackground, moving forward with
(20:54):
this PRSONAS, AI, and having been acancer patient yourself, along with
a caregiver yourself, those will beinvaluable to you, and to those patients.
intangible ingredients in yourproduct because that will make it
feel more human like and relatable.
And, and I think myself, having beena cancer patient, you do, you go out
(21:16):
on that island and think nobody knowsor feels like what I'm going through,
but that, energy is not in a language,but to another cancer patient, you just
kind of know each other in a differentsort of way without saying anything.
But I, I believe you're going to touch onthat with your skill set and your right
and left brain going to work on this.
(21:37):
This is something to look forward to.
So, um, before I let you go, I want you toshare with me where we can find your work
and find more about you on the internet.
Sure.
I love to engage on LinkedIn and I say itpolitely, but I tend to, people hear me on
podcasts and I get a lot of sales pitches.
I really don't want more sales pitches.
I want people who understandwhat we're trying to do and
(21:59):
literally want to collaborate,uh, not have me sell anything.
I mean, just, just collaborate on whattheir thoughts are, how, what use cases
they think this type of technology beapplicable for, what kind of ventures.
That they might be engaging on thatwould be synergistic or part of an
ecosystem we could develop together.
Those types of things is, is, issomething I believe in LinkedIn.
(22:20):
I love LinkedIn for the background.
As far as just general informationon what, what specific solutions are
we deploying with this technology?
iHealthAssist.
com is probably the first placeto go for the healthcare patient.
Uh, Purpose Belief, which is a letterI, HealthAssist, A S S I S T dot com.
If you want to know more about thebackground technology for other developers
(22:42):
or people who think they can usethis technology for their embeddement
of their product or their solution,then they'll want to go to PRSONAS.
com, P R S O N A S dot com.
Outstanding.
Wow.
Thank you for your time.
I appreciate you coming andsharing your stories today.
Absolutely, Vince, and congratson your clean slate as well.
(23:02):
Yeah, this is good.
rooting for you.
Yeah, I got you in my prayers as well.
Well, we will be in touchand thank you again.
I'll be around.
Take care.
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