Sean Russell | Inside Sean Russell’s Vision for Vegans Explore Worldwide | PPAP41 - Plant Powered Athlete Podcast

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hello everyone and welcome back to the Plant Powered Athlete podcast. I'm your host Robert

(00:05):
Cheek and I have a fantastic guest today. I'm really excited about this one. I've got Sean
Russell in the house today and Sean is an incredible entrepreneur, a founder, a CEO,
a producer, a brand manager, an event organizer, a community organizer, a consultant, a speaker,

(00:25):
a leader, an advocate for human and animal rights, a mentor, a friend, and one of the nicest people
that I know. Sean Russell, welcome to the show. Great to have you here. Oh my goodness. You can't
see it but I'm blushing. I'm blushing. And I did even mention Vegans Explore,
yeah, which we're going to jump right into because that's part of what you do as an entrepreneur,

(00:48):
founder, and event organizer. So Sean, I know a lot of times we start by going back and telling
your origin story. I don't want to start there today because I want to start with what are you
working on right now and what excites you the most right now? Oh man, what excites, first of all,
thank you so much for the opportunity. Speaking with you means a lot to me. The thing that I'm

(01:14):
working on right now is Vegans Explore. It is the epicenter of my entire universe. It's a culmination
of over 28 years of work in this field. And what Vegans Explore is, it's a global community
initiative. So the last seven years I've been working with SoFloVegans. That's how I met Robert
initially. And my goal was always to build a model for a community that's duplicatable in locations

(01:43):
around the world. And the reason why South Florida was so important to me was because of the dynamic
of the community and how hard it is to grow and launch something in that atmosphere. And I know
if I could make headway in South Florida, I can do it anywhere. So Vegans Explore is the evolution

(02:05):
of the work that we've done in South Florida, which I'll go into in a little bit, I'm sure,
at some point in this conversation. And right now we are already, we launched Vegans Explore in
Central Florida. You might think South Florida, but for other reasons, we launched in Central Florida,
which showed that our model for South Florida was duplicatable. And now we're in the process of

(02:29):
fully launching in South Florida with the event Vegan Foodie Fest coming up. So that's what I'm
working on right now. And there are a lot of pieces and components to that. Yeah, you wear a lot of
hats, Sean. I mean, I think I mentioned 15 things in your brief bio that you're juggling as a
producer, event organizer, a community organizer. And I know you've got a rich history in community

(02:54):
building. That's really, I think, the foundation of who you are as an advocate and activist. You
bring community together. You and I were on a speaking panel in Atlanta, Georgia, some months
ago. And I remember being struck by that, that bringing community together, whether that was in
Los Angeles or South Florida or wherever you happened to be, that that was a key central

(03:19):
component to your mission-based work. So let's talk about this. I think I remember you saying
you wanted Vegans Explore to be in 200 cities worldwide and expand all over and bring people
together and give them resources, support and all that. Can you talk about why that matters to you

(03:42):
to reach a global audience and to be in so many different places besides just Florida, where you're
based at the moment? And then, of course, I want to hear about this Vegan Foodie Festival.
Yeah. So the whole idea of going global came from my experience the last seven years with
SoFloVegans and the evolution of that. The roadblock that we hit running a local community

(04:10):
was that, especially in the restaurant industry, in the food and service industry, there's a lot
of businesses shutting down. So what would end up happening is we would spend three years,
countless hours supporting businesses, helping them grow. And we would start to get spread thin.
Some of those businesses would shut down and then we would find ourselves starting from scratch

(04:34):
and not being able to build upon the work that we've done previously. Then around, I would say,
we launched 2017. Around the end of 2018, we started to look at, okay, what's a different model
that we can build for this? And we started to speak to different business. The great thing
about the vegan community is that everyone does different things. So we could leverage people

(04:57):
who are super successful in launching and scaling and doing a whole bunch of different things.
And the common thing that kept coming back to us was because it's focused on South Florida,
it's not a scalable operation. So we started to think about what could we do, take the same concept,
came up with the idea of Vegans Explore, where we're exploring different places around the world

(05:22):
and then we can take this model and help build grassroots communities in each of those local
and each of those locations. So take that plus my experience over the last years,
building other communities in different industries and different verticals. I've worked extensively
in the music industry, in the education industry, which I'm still actively a part of, which is

(05:43):
another part of my heart, as well as wrestling, professional wrestling, anime and manga. So I've
had the opportunity to build large scale organizations in all of these different industries,
look at what are the similarities, the same roadblocks that I hit and the common thread
amongst all of those different things that I just mentioned was what businesses are looking for,

(06:08):
what sponsors are looking for, what people who are going to fund these operations are looking for,
something that is noteworthy, something that is a needle mover, something that's going to make a
sizable change and that you have the skill and expertise to execute it. So those two things
were the formula that I'm working on with Vegans Explore and what I didn't have when I first

(06:32):
thought of the idea was the proof that I can execute on what I'm saying. Now I have the benefit
of having worked with a lot of organizations, having built those relationships, having the
network to now revisit those conversations, those seeds that I've planted along the years
and also the fact that in 2022 I made the investment to do a world tour and go to a

(06:58):
lot of these communities, go to London, go to Zurich, go to Germany, go to places in the United
States, Hawaii, Las Vegas, all in the span of one year to really feel those communities and what I
came up with is that we're not as different as we would like to think we are. What's happening in
New York City isn't that far off from what's happening in North Carolina. It's the same sort

(07:22):
of circumstances, just opportunities may be a little bit different. So that's where we are right
now. That's why I've decided to make it bigger and then also because we've had that experience in all
those different areas that I mentioned, we know how to bootstrap in such a way that having that

(07:44):
ambition of being in 200 places is actually going to help us and not hurt us in our expansion.
So Sean, where do you decide where to go? So I've written down a few things, some questions for you
based on just what you said a moment ago. So do you tap into robust vegan markets or do you go
to some places where it's a little bit of a vegan food desert where there's something missing there

(08:09):
and you go in and kind of fill that void? Do you harness, it sounded like maybe you harness
relationships with some of those companies you built in existing communities but also
even before you mentioned the world tour, I wrote this down. I just heard from Happy Cow the other
day that Vietnam is the fastest growing area in the world for vegan restaurant density,

(08:33):
new vegan restaurants opening up I think was the exact metric, the fastest growing place for vegan
restaurant expansion in the whole world. So maybe talk a little bit about some of the cities,
I know you mentioned New York, North Carolina not being that different. Where would you go
next? Like if you're going to take Vegans Explore into a community using your resources,

(08:56):
your knowledge, your experience, what kind of places do you look at? Like what factors
do you consider when you're like, okay, we're going to Memphis, you know, like what's that determining
factor? So I'll lay out where we are right now and then let you know kind of how our decision making
process works for where we're going next. So right now we're in the entire South Florida which

(09:18):
comprises of Miami-Dade County, Broward and Palm Beach County. We're in Central Florida which is
essentially Orlando, Tampa, St. Pete, Daytona Beach and the surrounding areas. We're in Atlanta,
we're in Atlanta, Georgia, we are Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Hawaii and Japan. And those are the

(09:41):
areas and the way that we enter those markets are by having community managers that are stationed in
those locations. And then from those community managers we can build campaigns around them,
have boots on the ground, have them actually let us know what's happening in those cities
and then we build our platform around that. So we're in the process of launching

(10:04):
fully. We launched back in August and we're doing little small baby steps as we're moving forward
and then our goal is by January to really start pushing out in those markets, let people know that
we exist and that we're here to support. And then that's when we start activating the blueprint
that we created through SoFloVegans to start building up those communities and essentially

(10:28):
serve as an umbrella for organizations and other nonprofits because we are a nonprofit,
other nonprofits that are looking to do stuff in their city. So we want to come in, essentially be
the organization we wish to exist, we wished that exist when we were doing SoFloVegans starting out.
Now to answer your question in terms of how we decide where we're going to go, perfect example

(10:51):
with Atlanta, we had in our mind that we wanted to be in Atlanta because we go there so often
and then what ended up happening is someone who listens to one of the podcasts that you were
actually on, the Vegans Who Live podcast, one of the listeners reached out directly and was like,
hey I love what you guys are doing and they literally without knowing the position even existed

(11:11):
laid out all of the criteria to being a community manager for Vegans Explore.
So shout out to Cindy who is our community manager in Atlanta and is helping us get things launched
out there. So a lot of times it happens just like that, we put the intention out there and hey we
want to be in these markets and those people end up finding us, if not then we start going to

(11:33):
some of our contacts in that city for example like we wanted to do the city where you live,
I don't know if it's out there like that, but let's say we wanted to do the city where you live,
we would reach out to you and say hey this is what we're up to, do you know anybody because we know
you're a very busy person, do you know anybody that might be a good fit for this and we have
people like that in all the cities that we want to be in. So our next on our list and then I'll take

(11:58):
a pause is Austin and New York and London, those are our three next markets that we want to step into.
All right Sean, I got some questions for you here. One, I just thought of a bunch of cities
where I know people who would be perfect community managers, I mean people who are,
people who bring me to go speak in their city, who set it up in a public space, a library or

(12:24):
whatever, a venue, people who put on vegan festivals. You know I was in maybe 25 cities
this year, 2024, I had an incredible tour with the book launch and everything, I know I saw you
at least once, I know I saw you last year, the previous year, probably previous year before that,
but I mean just off the top of my head I'm thinking I know someone in Albuquerque, I know

(12:45):
people in Denver, I know people in Portland, I know people in Phoenix, in Sedona and I mean
probably all kinds of cities, Louisville, Kentucky. So my question is and I went to your website,
all sorts of people on there, all names of all sorts of people, how does one become a community
manager? Are these like social media influencers who were tapped in or these like event organizers

(13:09):
like those that put on the local vegan festivals or the vegan block parties or the vegan, you know
I got a vegan holiday market coming up this weekend, I'm going to be at Denver, I live in Fort
Collins, I did one in Boulder last weekend and these are, Sean, these vegan holiday markets
were as productive for me as some of the vegfests that I fly across the country to attend. I mean
it was unbelievable and I just had to drive down the street and I know those organizers now,

(13:32):
they put on about five events in Colorado, whether it's a vegan Halloween bash or these multiple
vegan holiday markets, the Colorado VegFest, etc. But I know, you know, people in all these different
cities and I'm sure listeners are thinking, in fact I'm thinking of one of our previous guests,
he's an event organizer in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Rich, if you're listening you'd be great.

(13:56):
So Sean, how does someone become a community manager, apply to be that, go through that process,
walk us through that because man, I bet I can add a whole lot of cities for you just from the people
that I can connect you with. No, that's, this is exactly what I want to hear. So the way it works
is we are a club-based organization. So we have a, we call it the Vegans Explore Club and it comes

(14:19):
with a lot of perks, we create a lot of original content, there's opportunities obviously with the
events that we're doing, we're launching a passport program where it's a card that you'd be able to
use at restaurants around the world. There's a lot of cool things that we're doing to add value,
it's $25 for the year, that helps us as a non-profit cover our overhead and our marketing
and allow us to grow and support these communities. We pledge 10% of whatever we make to non-pro,

(14:43):
specifically to non-pro, other non-profits to order to help them with their marketing,
even with funding. So the first step is to become a club member, to enter our ecosystem
and support what we're doing. From there, we have a program called the Vegans Explorer Program,
and that's where we pair our club members up with opportunities to go check out new restaurants,
to be our reporters at events, pop-ups, and a lot of other cool things. So they're essentially

(15:09):
going around covering what's happening in their city to help the small businesses, to help the
non-profits, and then they get a really cool experience out of it. So this is a volunteer
position that we currently have with SoFloVegans and with Vegans Explorer, and that pretty much
builds the team and gives those community managers support so they're not doing everything themselves.

(15:29):
Our goal isn't to make this a hard lift for the community managers. We want, we're ideally looking
for people who, to your point, are already doing something that have a pulse, their finger on the
pulse of what's happening in the cities. Now, the way that it works with the community managers is
we're not necessarily promoting it outside of the community because we really want people who

(15:50):
understand our mission and who are willing to put in the work to help grow what we're doing.
Because really, when you support Vegans Explorer, you're supporting the small businesses,
you're supporting the vegan communities, and more importantly, you're supporting those organizations
that are making a difference in the lives of these animals. So to answer your question,

(16:10):
now short and abridged, it's we look at our club members, our existing club members, and we also
get referrals from our partners, our affiliates, people that we respect like you, and we weigh it
that way, especially if it's in a market that we're looking at. There's a few other on my list,

(16:31):
but I have probably, obviously, we want to get to 200 by next year, but you said a few that have been
like Portland definitely is high on my list. And the other piece of that is the strategic as well,
because a big part of how we're getting our funding to be able to do all the things that we're going
to do is through creating big campaigns. And these big campaigns leverage the fact that we're in all

(16:56):
these different locations, so that way we can have those funds go right back into those communities.
Well, I appreciate you sharing that, Sean. I'm going to have a few follow-up questions just for
my own clarity, but I wanted to mention I just wrote down Bangkok, Sydney, Adelaide, and Melbourne.
I know people there too. And I was in Bangkok just a year ago. And in fact, I got my book translated

(17:16):
into Thai from someone that I met there. I met through a friend, someone who's a book publisher,
and we signed a contract and everything. It's all official with my plant-based athlete book.
It's being translated into Thai right now. And he is a net to it. He's a very well-connected
guy. I mean, he's got almost 200,000 followers on Twitter. He's on TV in Thailand all the time.

(17:39):
He's a really social justice activist, so he challenges a lot of things within the government
and all of that. So he ruffles some feathers, but in very positive ways that advance human rights
and animal rights. And that's why he was so excited to translate my book, just like he's done for
Peter Singer and Animal Liberation and things like that. So just back up for a moment here.

(18:02):
So you get the community managers come from within the community, within the Vegans Explore,
under that umbrella. So the first step is to become a club member. And was that a $25 fee
or was that the passport? Yeah, $25 for the year.
Okay. So I'm just for my own notes and for everyone listening here, okay, $25 for the year,

(18:26):
that's the club membership. And then you're part of that Vegans Explore community,
from there, you will get the resources, you look at the opportunities, and then you can apply
to be a community manager within your geographical region.
Correct. And once you sign up, there'll be different opportunities. We have events,
our big thing is events. And I'm not just talking like festivals and things of that nature, those

(18:49):
we will have and we will work with, but we're talking about pop-ups, we're talking about
potlucks, we're talking about meeting up at restaurants. We just want to create opportunities
for people to come together and build that community, because that's how we started with
SoFloVegans. We started, we committed that every single month we were going to have a get together.
It was like at a local nonprofit art museum. And we had first meeting, two people, you know,

(19:14):
and it was like, hey, let's commit to it. Eventually we had a nice cadence, about 50 people
would show up every single month and new businesses launched, nonprofits, festivals launched from our
event. So that's what we want to bring to these locations. And having a community manager on the
ground will allow us to facilitate that and also stay on the top. Because the other thing that I

(19:35):
feel is missing from these communities is news, you know, news about what's happening. Like this
week, there's four vegan businesses that are shutting down in South Florida alone.
Wow.
So it's, and I'm seeing, and because we're connected to other cities, I'm seeing it happen in
other cities in real time. So I feel a big piece of that equation is community, people realizing

(19:58):
that these things are happening. Like we have these relationships, this is a whole other side
with the partnerships, with the businesses. If you know this business is having trouble ahead of time
before it's too late, we can then say, hey, as a community, let's have a give back Wednesday and
everybody, instead of making dinner, go to such and such restaurant and give them a little bit of

(20:23):
a boost. We can do some filming behind it, do some promo, like those are things we can do once we
start having community. And let's imagine that happening in cities around the world. This isn't
new. This isn't a theory. This is what we did with SoFloVegans over the past seven years.
We weren't able to continue it because it wasn't sustainable. And the reason it wasn't sustainable

(20:44):
is because the model needed to be shifted. That's why we're a nonprofit. That's why we're tapping
into the resources. That's why we're going bigger so we can tap into other funding so that way we
can do this without having to always ask people to pay for those services.
What I love about this, Sean, is that you don't have to have an aspiration to be a community

(21:04):
manager to support events going on in your community or other communities by just paying
that $25 fee and becoming a club member. You're helping support all these festivals. I can't tell
you, Sean, how much I benefited from this festival that I exhibited at in Boulder last weekend.
It was, I mean, I'm not joking at all. It was so good. I did more sales, sold out of my bundles,

(21:29):
completely sold out with an hour left in the show, sold out of my books. And I needed that
for my own financial boost, just for my own sustainability. And if that event didn't exist,
if there wasn't a community putting that event on and the community did not come out and support
and come help me sell out of books, not just me, there was a bakery that completely sold out of

(21:52):
products. Another company sold out. There were nonprofits there benefiting. That's the beauty of
like that's the beauty of community support and involvement where, like let's say
me as an example, I may not have the time or interest because I'm stretching a few
different directions to be a community manager, but I could put up $25 a year to help my friends

(22:17):
over in Atlanta continue to thrive in what they do. Or those in Japan who are part of your
Vegan's Explore community doing what they do there in a very progressive vegan leaning
part of the world. Or so I've heard. I've many friends been to Tokyo. I haven't just the airport.
But yeah, so that's what I love about this. And so, you know, a lot of times in podcasts,

(22:44):
people wait till the very end to, you know, how can we support you or what's your website and all
that? I want to get right to that right now. We tune in the early part of this conversation
because I've seen firsthand the benefit of having events. In fact, we didn't even talk about this

(23:04):
off air. So I hope it's okay to say like the Vegan Foodie Festival. I assume you talked to John,
you know I'm coming. Yes. I'm coming. I'm coming. Yes. I'm coming in January, January 25th. I'm
going to be there. I'm going to be there. And that wouldn't have happened if you guys weren't
doing that thing and you and John having conversations with me in person and then
over the phone just the other day confirmed it. I already got my flight booked. I got a great deal.

(23:28):
I'm ready to go. So tell us again, what website can people go to? Where can they make that $25
pledge or contribution investing into the community so they can keep this going?
Yeah. So it's vegansexplore.com. That is the website. Our community is based off the Circle

(23:48):
platform. If anyone is listening understands that reason, I'm saying that is it's a robust
community that allows us to create a lot of value for you. So that's what you're going to be
registering and that gives you access to that. If you are a business, we have another program,
which is very similar. You get a lot of resources to help you grow your business,

(24:09):
to help you market. You get access to potential grants. There's a lot of cool things that happen
with that and that's $100 for the year and very similar concept as the club membership,
but it gives you access to resources to help your business grow, which also includes marketing.
So we'll do some promo stuff for you, include you in the passport program. When we're at events,

(24:32):
we have tote bags that we allow all of our partners from those areas to provide us with inserts that
we can put into those bags. So there's a lot of cool things and as we continue to grow, we provide
more and more value to our partners that are supporting us. And does that business, and I'm
thinking of so many of the brands that I know and love and support and work with, do those businesses

(24:55):
need to be local within a geographical area where Vegans Explorer operates like in Central Florida
or South Florida or Atlanta or New York or LA or can they be anywhere? Could I be- So once they get
access, they get access to all the opportunities. So one of the things about being a, we call it a
community partner, is that we have big campaigns where we're launching projects and pitching it to

(25:20):
Netflix. And then we have things just like we have a farmer's market that if you want to just get a
booth at this particular type of event or if you want to for like the larger CPG, consumer packaged
goods, sponsors, we have a project that you helped us with, winning events two years ago, we're doing
community bags, gratitude bags, where we'll have different products and things that we'll use for

(25:45):
donation purposes as well. So there's a lot of opportunities that are available for the businesses
that decide to support our mission by becoming a community partner. So I mean, let's dig even
deeper just because I've interviewed so many entrepreneurs on this podcast, including Brett,
who's got this jerky company. I love them. Yeah. And he just launched a product yesterday, the

(26:09):
cheesy bits, literally yesterday. But I'm just looking off in the distance over my computer,
all these companies based in Denver and Boulder too, that I'm looking at. These Lentiful, for
example, maybe I shouldn't throw out all the names, but yeah, the Grown Ass Mac and Cheese,
and I'm looking at Madly Hadley, Coconut Bacon, and you know, Dandies and Little Bucks, Granola,

(26:32):
all these things I'm seeing, Fruzballs. So if these companies, and not just that I'm connected
to, but many of us are, but if I wanted to connect them with you, could they get things like, would
you be able to get their products into the hands of influencers, where they get some extra social
media exposure, video content, like Brett sent some to me for video content. I'm not a video guy.

(26:55):
This is as much video as I get. But I do the flexing photo with this product and I hope that
that helps. So what can, I've had so many company founders on this show that you could even just go
back and listen to the podcast, like, oh yeah, they would be a great fit. I want their vegan mac
and cheese, or their vegan jerky, or their, you know, whatever it is. Man, we could help them roll

(27:19):
out product launch, or get them into the hands of celebrities, or the next red carpet thing. We could
insert their product into the swag bag. Like, can you do that kind of stuff?
So yes, I'm going to, thank you so much. Like this, this is, I'm just going to copy this whole podcast
and put this as our, about us on Vegans Explore. So yes, to answer your question. So the whole idea

(27:41):
behind what we're doing is we're essentially the directory for everything that's vegan.
That's going to be reflected in our app. We're just not there yet. Hopefully by the time, well,
no, we're not there yet. If we want to make sure it's good. So the whole idea is we're building
this directory of influencers, the directory of businesses, directory of nonprofits, of events,

(28:04):
and not just building that directory, but building relationships with every single entity that's seen,
that you can see on those directories. Whether they become partners or not, we are, we are dedicated
to letting the world know you exist. So how is that a benefit? Now we have this product sponsorship.
That's what it's called. We have a product sponsorship for these different brands.

(28:26):
They give us X amount of product. We have like a minimal amount that we request in order for
it just to be an in-kind sponsorship. And then that product will go into our gratitude boxes,
our bags, or whatever the situation is when we're giving it out in lieu of memberships
and part of the membership packages and what have you. But we'll also have a list of influencers

(28:50):
that we would be able to reach out to and create product bundles for them to create content as part
of what we're doing with these brands. And that might be another option, but that's an opportunity
that's available to these businesses. And then the other thing with that is, yeah, then there's also

(29:10):
demoing that we can do for the products because our goal is to be at, we were at 21 events last year,
and this year, 2024, our goal is to reach a hundred plus events worldwide for Vegans Explore
in 2025. And we're well, we're in the process of building our global tour, which is how we do all
these events. And yeah, we're definitely going to surpass that number. So all those events are

(29:37):
opportunities for those companies to be distributed and showcased in fun, innovative ways because we
have other options as well where we can actually do activations at our booth for these events.
So I'm trying not to unleash the whole dam of what we're doing, but it's very intricate

(29:58):
in the way that we have it set up because we're taking the best of SoFloVegans plus what we've
learned since then, and we're turning it into something that is really going to make an impact
on this planet. Well, you've also partnered with some, I don't know if partner is the right word,
but you've also incorporated work from these big time social media influencers as well. John Thomas,

(30:21):
I know you guys work closely. He's got a big following and he's involved in so many events.
I see him all over the place. And I assume that's another positive step forward is that you've got
these social media partners that can amplify. That's why I see your stuff oftentimes on social media
is largely because of someone like John Thomas where he's out there collaborating on posts or
spreading the word and things like that. But Sean, you got me thinking just for myself even.

(30:46):
So is this something I could, well, I guess I'd have to be a partner, right? I'd have to be a
partner first, $25 or $100, but then I could send some donated signed books that you could get in
the hands of like, I don't get to Miami very often. That's a- So for someone like you,
you don't have to jump through a lot of hoops and hurdles to work with us. So we have a whole other

(31:08):
thing that I don't talk about a lot called an advisor. And that's where something I would see
more would fitting for you because one of the things, even with our community managers, one
thing I didn't talk about is I run a marketing agency called the SARS Media. And over the years,
we've kind of, we used to like work with fashion and beauty and sports and this whole bunch of
things. But as I started to get really deep into the lifestyle, the vegan lifestyle, it's like,

(31:31):
okay, I really want to work with brands that align with who I am and what I represent. So the majority
of the clients that we have right now are directly tied to the vegan movement. And one of the things
that we offer is talent management. So a lot of the community managers that we have on board
are also talent that I represent through with SARS Media. So that's a model that we're starting to

(31:52):
explore where we can support individuals like yourself or other influencers that are out there,
use the full weight of what we're creating with Vegans Explore, and then also help them manage,
because that's a big part that a lot of people don't have, manage their marketing infrastructure.
How do you set them up for scale? How do you make it so they don't even have to worry about reaching

(32:16):
out to get speaking gigs or to get product and sponsorships? Not to say that you don't,
because obviously I know how it works. They're not always going through me, even if I represent you,
they're going to go directly to the source. Let's imagine being able to say, hey, speak to my brand
manager. And we already know exactly what you're looking for. We can negotiate up or we'll get

(32:38):
down. And all you got to worry about is when do I need to be there? And so that's one of the things
that we also open up depending on who the person is. So if somebody is in that space and they want
to represent us as a community manager or come on as an advisor or even a board member, there are
opportunities to have those conversations one-on-one. Yeah, I appreciate that, Sean. I appreciate you

(33:00):
kind of putting me in that elite classification from my 29 year history as a vegan and author a
bunch of books and such. And you know what? I really could have used that to be honest during
my last book launch. I know you and I talked where my latest book, Impactful Vegans, you probably
see lots of copies behind me if I lean over there, because I didn't sell as many as I'd hoped. They're

(33:23):
just piled up back there. We talked about that in Atlanta where that was a struggle for me. I overcame
it a little bit after the initial real big let down. I mean, that was tough. I mean, it sent me
to depression and all this stuff. I spent years working on the most important and meaningful book
I'd ever written. And in all honesty, it just flopped when it came out. It recovered and it's

(33:47):
done well since. Somewhere between 5,000 and 7,000 copies sold in the last six months. More than
90% of all books published in America this year. But it's still underperformed based on
my hopes, expectations, aspirations, intentions, and investment into it, which left me in extreme
debt, which is why even that event in Boulder was so meaningful last week to go do $500 in sales per

(34:14):
hour of the festival. I mean, it was so good. And that's why I'm so excited in 48 hours to be in
Denver to do it again, because I got to dig myself out. So man, I'm getting excited because
I could have used something like this for launching my book because I don't mean to go on a tangent
or take too much airtime here. But back in the day, Sean, man, when I was one of the only vegan

(34:40):
speakers and authors in the world, man, I had all expenses paid trips to speak in Australia,
China, the UK. And that's where I met Nima Delgado. It wasn't in LA. It was in London. It was in
the team. We were speaking on stage together. And I went to Australia twice and spoke. And that was
the most successful tour I've ever done in history. I was in three weeks in Australia, Sydney, Melbourne,

(35:03):
and Adelaide. Not only did I have back to back to back vegan festivals. So that right after I arrived,
Adelaide, exactly a week later, Sydney, exactly a week later, Melbourne, they just planned it
perfectly for someone like me traveling from far away, or people flying within Australia at each
location. But I also set up my own events in the middle of the week. And I'd have 60, 70 people

(35:26):
come to a restaurant and sell $1,000 worth of t-shirts and books in an evening. It was unbelievable.
But then, and it's not a bad thing. And then, all of a sudden, all these other vegans appeared. It
was a beautiful thing. And therefore, my stock value went a bit down. I wasn't the guy speaking
all over the world anymore because they could reach out to Tory or Corinne or John Lewis or

(35:51):
so many other people. And that's fantastic. And I love seeing it. But I'm someone who's not great
with social media. I just am not. Or I don't have a brand manager. And man, I'm looking back thinking,
you probably could have saved me some headache and heartache. But you know what? And everything

(36:12):
happens when it's supposed to happen. Because even back then, I probably wouldn't have been in the
best position to support you. You know what I mean? Because it's like, the version of me right now is
the version that's ready for this. Because it's a team. It takes a team. It takes the ability for me
to know what my skill sets are. My strength is in the strategy. My strength is in being able to get

(36:36):
10 pieces on the board and figure out how all these pieces can play together, put together a plan,
and being able to track it, being able to monitor it, being able to find opportunities,
create something out of nothing. And then I have an amazing team. Shout out to Yuki, Alex, everybody
that's on the team that is working behind the scenes, using their skills, their gifts to make

(36:58):
sure that we're executing, that we're doing the outreach, that we're doing the follow up. So
that's definitely what excites me and what gets me going.
I think you make a really good point. And I hope that everyone caught that and really takes that
message to heart that you said that version of me wasn't ready for that. It was like, I mean,

(37:20):
I can relate to that all the time. That version of me wasn't ready for that moment, but now I am.
Like when I was self-publishing books, literally sleeping in my car in all these different cities,
literally in all these different states, sleeping in my car, selling books out of my trunk,
speaking at little colleges and universities and driving around the country and finding a place,

(37:41):
the parking lot to sleep in. I wasn't ready to be a New York Times bestselling author until 10 years
later when I was. And I'm on the Rich Roll podcast and I'm making my splash and I'm able to
embrace that moment. And even though like this book launch didn't go as well as I had hoped,
it landed me a gig with Plant Powered Athlete, which is the podcast I'm doing now, which I had

(38:03):
amazing guests like you and these wonderful conversations that are not, by the way, Sean,
not just like, so tell me what you ate today and how long have you been vegan and why? I mean,
those are important things, but this kind of conversation that can help individuals,
organizations, businesses, a struggling vegan community in many ways, if we're being totally

(38:24):
honest, especially in the restaurant world with inflation and economics, it's not just a vegan
thing. Obviously, it's an economics thing, which we're just more hypersensitive because we are
vegans. It's not just that there's those four vegan restaurants closing in South Florida, there's
140 Wendy's closed, all these other big popular chains shutting down all over the place. It's

(38:47):
an economic thing. It's a national, it's a global issue. But this gets me excited during this
conversation because I'm learning a lot about how I can help support the companies that I work with,
which is a direct response to my mission, which is very much like you just said, I even wrote it

(39:08):
down that you talk about using your strength. That's what I wrote about in the Impactful Vegan,
that's what I call our strong V, using our skills, talents, resources, other strengths, network,
generosity, and volunteering to most effectively reduce animal suffering and amplify veganism.
And that's what you're doing. And that's what I think makes us aligned and why you guys invited

(39:28):
me to be, I don't know if John used the term keynote speaker, it makes me sound pretty fancy
at the Vegan Foodie Festival, which is on your shirt right now. So let's switch gears and talk
about that in Miami, because I think this is going to air in January right before this event.
So those who are listening right now, who have the opportunity to travel to Miami,

(39:51):
to come see me, come see you, come see John Thomas, everyone else who's involved,
talk about this event specifically, and why people should come out to it, and why I decided to travel
thousands of miles to take part in it. So yeah, the Vegan Foodie Fest is a collaboration between

(40:11):
Vegans Explore, John Thomas, the Bodybuilding Vegan, and the Florida Marketplace. Now the Florida
Marketplace is an event production company that puts on over 500 events a year. And they do it
all throughout the state of Florida. They've been following the vegan foodie festival for a long

(40:34):
time. They've been following the work that we've been doing, SoFloVegans have been doing over the
years, and they reached out to us to see if we wanted to put something together. I ended up moving
up to central Florida to launch Vegans Explore, so I wasn't really in the South Florida market at
the time, so things kind of fell through. Then after working with John Thomas, and we were creating
a lot of great video content, they reached out to him to see if he would like to do something.

(40:59):
And because we were working together, he brought my name back into the picture.
So now it became a situation where now we're looking at how can we leverage all three of our
strengths to launch an event in South Florida. What makes this event unique is that it's actually
taking place at an entertainment complex called Vivo in the Dolphin Mall, which is a huge mall

(41:21):
in Miami. And the venue, I've had a chance to walk through it several times. It's an indoor,
outdoor venue. There's covering, there's a full stage monitor. There's a lot of great things that
we're going to be able to do at this location. And myself, I've done over 300 events since launching
SoFloVegans. So to be able to have a venue like this is a huge deal. So we're excited to be able

(41:46):
to really tap into the culture that is South Florida, the food, the cuisine, and having amazing
speakers such as yourselves to be on panels and to connect and to meet with all the people that
respect what you're doing. We have other names that we're working on finalizing. So it's going
to be a lot of powerful voices in this event. So there's going to be food. There will obviously be

(42:13):
ways for you to connect to find out what's going on in the movement in that city and other things
as well. So we're planning, there's a lot of cool things that are in the works and we have a VIP
option in addition to the general admission, but the VIP we're actually working. I think I could say
it, but it's not final, but by the time this releases, we'll probably already be promoting it.

(42:37):
We're working on an event to kick off the foodie fest that will be in Broward County. So that way
we can encourage people from Palm Beach to maybe consider, because it's a little bit of a trek from
us Palm Beach to Miami, but if we can get them to Miami, see it, get them excited about the event.
We feel like they'll definitely want to come to the Saturday. So there'll be, it was not, it won't

(42:59):
just be one day. It will be us, Vegans Explore hosting event on the Friday, like a food truck
event. And then on the Saturday we have the big event and we're excited for it. So that, yeah,
that does sound exciting. You got exhibitors, you've got speakers, you got food. So with this
location, does that mean there's going to be, it's in this, I've never been to Dolphin Mall,

(43:22):
I don't know anything about it, but does that mean you have the opportunity to get the mainstream
public involved because of high foot traffic where it's not just like vegans coming out,
which is great, we want vegans coming out, but a lot of the events that I go to,
literally half of the attendees are not vegan, which is such an important part of the vegan
movement growth and advocacy and getting more people involved. So being in this location,

(43:46):
which again, I've never seen, don't know anything about, is this part of the objective is that the
mainstream public has the opportunity to have access to it through proximity? So 100%, we are
located at one of the main entrances of the mall and we will also be being promoted at the mall

(44:07):
ahead of time as well. So we have a whole marketing, once again, we want a marketing agency,
we have a whole campaign set up. We have sponsorship opportunities as well. So if there's anybody out
there that's interested in becoming a sponsor, there may still be, maybe not be time, if this is
a January, but we do have sponsorship opportunities available. So yeah, to your point, that's one of

(44:30):
the things I have noticed at events, like when we do have the ability to take some sort of polling,
we find that usually over 60% of the attendees are usually non-vegan, or I'm sorry,
pre-vegan. And they, that was a good way for me to plug that. They are, yeah, they're not vegan.

(44:54):
I would say they're interested, they're flexible, they're flexitarians, they want to try the food.
And that's why we're focusing on the vegan foodie fest. Because I would say foodie is really at the
heart of our event. People who just want to have good, delicious food. And that's really what we're
looking to bring to this event. Yeah, that's the ticket. Food is something we sit down to enjoy

(45:18):
six times a day if we have the financial means to do so in the Western society. Most of us eat about
six times a day, three meals a day, three snacks a day. Those of us who do have access to adequate
food and resources for that. So that's what I talk about too, is being an impactful vegan.

(45:38):
I mean, you want to make change, it's not just in clothing and apparel, that's leather, fur, whatever,
because no one's going out and buying six leather wallets every single day, every day of their life,
or six belts, or six purses, or six fur coats, every single day, every day of their life. But
that's what they're doing when they sit down and put something on their plate or on the end of their
fork. They're making a decision that has a ripple effect, that has consequences. There are animals

(46:03):
involved to a greater degree or to a smaller degree or to no degree in some cases, based on
what we decide to consume. And so I think food is the ticket. It's been a long time, actually,
I feel like since I've even talked about my own book. But one of the things that I would talk about

(46:24):
is that if you were to survey a lot of people, let's say, listening to this show, I'm going
to call back to months ago when I was a guest on podcasts, like many months ago. But if you were
to survey our typical audience, the plant-based vegan world, so why do you do what you do? Why do
you eat the way you eat? The answer a lot of people would say is, oh, for my health, for the

(46:49):
animals, or for the environment, or some other order. It could be for animals, my health,
environment. But when you look, Sean, at the mainstream public, why they eat what they eat,
those aren't even in the top 10. It's taste, cost, convenience, culture, economics, religion,
heritage, food deserts, social pressure, societal pressure, social norms, constructs,

(47:16):
habits that have been cultivated since we were born, eating the food that we associate with,
that we've been consuming chicken and bacon since we were kids. That's why people eat what they eat.
They like it because it's tasty, it's affordable, and it's on every street corner. And if we can
get plant-based to fit that category, and be tasty, and be affordable, and be everywhere,

(47:37):
which is like what these food festivals and pop-ups and food trucks do, man, that is how we make
real difference, real change. So I applaud you guys for doing that. I'm excited to be involved.
I'm excited to get some sun out in South Florida. I mean, we got sun here in Colorado, but it's also
snow out, so you get sun and snow at the same time. So I'm excited about it. So again, that is

(47:59):
January 25th, Miami, Florida. And you can find out about it on vegancexplore.com.
Vegancexplore, if you look up the Vegan Foodie Fest on social, but Vegancexplore will probably
be the easiest way, and then you'll get all roles will lead to the Vegan Foodie Fest.
Okay. And people can, there might even be a VIP event the day before or the night before.

(48:23):
Yes, yes. There might be, more than likely there will be, because we definitely want to
celebrate all the people that are coming out, such as yourself, and to have you a chance to unwind
and meet people and connect, because it may be a little hectic the day out. So it's always good
to have that connection point. Well, I'm glad I'm flying in early. I got unbelievably,

(48:43):
shout out Southwest Airlines, unbelievably affordable flight, even a nonstop flight coming in
a little bit early before the festival. I'm actually getting in on a Thursday. It was half
the price of a flight on a Friday, because everyone's coming to Miami on a weekend, right?
They all want to get in Friday and get out of there on Sunday night or Monday, but I'm getting

(49:03):
in Thursday was half the price. So I'm going to be there the whole time. I'll be at the VIP event.
I'll even have a booth the whole day at the festival. So I'll be signing books and
talking to people, do my smiling, flexing thumbs up, getting, doing photos, and I'll be speaking,
whether that's my own talk or on a panel, don't know yet. I got to figure that out. But we're

(49:26):
recording here in December. So like well over a month before the event. So we'll get that figured
out. But I am excited, Sean. I am excited. I like the fact that you also, you've used this expression,
this excites me. This is something I'm really excited about. I'm passionate about this. I'm
working on this. It brings your skills and talents and mission all together, as well as some of your

(49:48):
good friends and colleagues like John, the Bodybuilding Vegan and others. So I think now,
now let's rewind. Now let's rewind, Sean. I love the fact that we took this approach. We can learn
about your heart and what you're doing rather than when you had your first bite of kale and decided

(50:08):
to be plant based. But now tell that story because I've heard it. I know it starts with community
for you and health and improving people's lives. And at the same time, that improves the lives of
animals when you adopted a plant based diet. So go ahead and rewind now and talk about your

(50:32):
vegan's explore journey, your plant powered journey. Take us back in time and take us along
for the ride. All right, let's go back. So it started off with a simple offhand comment from my
dad. He visited for the holidays and came up to me and he patted me on my stomach and he said, hey,

(50:56):
getting kind of big there. And I'm the type of person will internalize something, put together
a plan and address how I'm feeling at that time because I was embarrassed. So I ended up going
down the rabbit hole looking up for different resources for my health. I found this website.
I always like to give them a shout out. They're not around anymore beyond diet. And they literally
listed out. I wasn't vegan by this point. They listed out every single thing that you put into

(51:19):
your body and how it impacts you from nuts to meat to cheese to everything. So once I looked at that
document, I couldn't unsee what I saw. It's like now I know everything that I'm eating and the
impact that it's going to have on me. So that plus exercise, it ended up dropping about,
I think like 40, 60, a whole bunch of weight. I think about 60 pounds at that time.

(51:41):
And I was feeling good, but I still had some nagging issues. I still had to take shots every
day for allergies and just a lot of little nagging things here and there. I started looking at
different diets. I was looking at paleo. I don't know if keto was big around that time,
but I noticed there was someone I was working with at the elementary school I was at. Shout

(52:02):
out to Silver Ridge Elementary. She was a vegetarian and she just had the coolest,
I wasn't even really big into aura and energies and stuff like that, like I am now,
but she had this energy about her. She was different from everyone else. So I'm like,
maybe it has something to do with vegetarianism. So after school, she obliged me, she'd be sat down
for like 30 minutes. And in her explanation, she explained veganism. And I'm like, ooh, veganism.

(52:26):
It's more extreme than vegetarianism. And I'm like one or two things away from being a vegan.
And then at that moment, I'm like, I'm going to go vegan. So this is around 2008. So about a full
year in 2008, I was vegan. And it wasn't until I had to travel to Los Angeles. And this is always
funny in hindsight that this is where I fell off. I was in Los Angeles and I wasn't a big fruit

(52:49):
vegetables person. I was very transitional eating like fake meat and stuff like that. And I was
I fell off because I wasn't about to go to Ralph's and buy a bunch of apples and stuff like that to
eat. I wanted to eat junk food. So it wasn't until 2013 that I came back around. I still didn't go

(53:09):
full on eating a bunch of crap and stuff like that. But around 2013, it dawned on me, one of
the reasons that it didn't stick is because I didn't do the thing I always do. And the thing
I always do is anytime I'm interested in something, I build a community around it. And that makes me
even more interested and more vested. And I get to get other people into it, whether it's wrestling,

(53:31):
anime, education, whatever music. That's what I've always done. So I'm like, I'm going to build a
community. And the first community that I was going to build back in 2013, I was going to call it,
wait for it, the vegan cartel. And my thing is like, hey, it's kind of cool. It's edgy. People

(53:52):
will be like, I want to join the vegan cartel. And it's a collection of different businesses that are
online, same mission. That was my thinking. Fast forward, you got slutty vegan. You got all these
places that are using that kind of thing. I couldn't get the IP. So that idea was done.
I was in Meetup and I was part of a group called South Florida Vegans. And if you're a part of

(54:13):
Meetup, you know that somebody steps down, it puts it out to the membership group, to somebody
take over the group. And I'm like, and this had happened to another organization that I ended up
grabbing for Meetup and I had immediately 400 members. So around the same situation, it was
like 600 members. And I'm like, this is perfect. I can just rebrand South Florida Vegans, call it

(54:34):
SoFloVegans. Because if you're from South Florida, you know, people call it SoFlo. And I'm like,
let me call SoFloVegans. And then from there, I built the framework. And it wasn't in 2017,
we were able to officially launch. And ever since 2013, I think my interest in building a community
around it. And I wasn't even like really like, I'm gonna build a community. I'd be lying to you

(54:55):
if I said that. It wasn't until later on that I realized that's what I do. It was this, I want to
do the thing that I do. And that's like figure out how to merge technology and entertainment and
media into this particular topic and then have people come together. So I learned a lot about
building events. I was mentored under some great people during that time. Shout out to Allison and

(55:18):
Michelle from the Seed Food and Wine Festival. They pretty much took me under their wing. And
a lot of like I credit where I am and the things that I'm doing because I was able to work with
them. Shout out to Susan Hargreaves from Animal Hero Kids. She is, I call her my vegan mentor.

(55:38):
She has done so much for this movement over the past 40 years. She was working with Ingrid Newkirk
before PETA was even a thing and getting arrested and sanctioned and hope not that's not her claim
to fame getting arrested. But she's done amazing things and launched an organization called Animal
Hero Kids, which helps bring in the next generation of animal advocates. And check her out, Susan

(56:04):
Hargreaves, animalherokids.com, animalherokids.org, be an animal hero. So anyways, that leads me up to
everything that we talked about in the past, but that was pretty much my story. It wasn't about
the animals. It wasn't about the environment. It wasn't about, it was about my health.
And then it became a challenge for myself, but it wasn't until I got into the community and I start

(56:25):
to have these conversations, have the podcast, meet people like Susan, that I realized, okay, yes,
I can do it for a lot of different reasons. And then I did some personal growth work on myself
and we even did some plant medicines and things of that nature. And it came to the realization that
the reason I'm doing it, and I give this answer every single time, the reason I'm vegan is for

(56:47):
compassion because it's a daily practice for myself by the food that I put in my mouth or food that I
choose not to put in my mouth and how I treat animals and how I treat people. I do my best to
extend that to people, the compassion of meeting them where they are. Am I perfect? No, I'm not

(57:09):
perfect. I have my triggers and if you push all buttons at the same time, yes, I will reset and
be a different person. And I do myself to practice because I know that about myself. And I feel like
self-awareness for me has been a huge tool to know when I'm not operating at my highest self
and knowing in those moments, maybe that's a time for me to retreat. Maybe that's a time for me to

(57:32):
not escalate. So this comes from that awareness. This comes from me for having compassion. I'm
talking about external but also internal. The compassion extends to myself, loving myself,
giving myself the best opportunity to grow into the person that I know I already am.
Yeah, that's a powerful expression, Sean. I took some notes on that too, daily practice of compassion

(57:59):
and that self-awareness is key to growth. And I couldn't agree more. I think so many people who
come to this vegan lifestyle through health and plant-based diet brings them in or through
environmental concerns and that brings them into plant-based way of eating and then they look at
animals differently. And those of us who, like myself, who grew up on a farm raising animals

(58:24):
and decided that I no longer wanted to contribute to animal suffering, I was vegan for the animals
from the very beginning, I think it does come back to compassion. Even health is compassion for
yourself. It's compassion for those you are a role model for, those who look up to you, those who
want to see you live a long healthy life and be a part of their lives for a very long time.

(58:48):
That's your daily practice of compassion, even from a health standpoint, but it also is one of
those things that inspires other people. It's infectious and contagious in that way that it
makes people want to, in many cases, embrace their best selves and be compassionate towards themselves

(59:08):
because I don't know about you, Sean, but I know that sometimes I can see people, friends, family,
colleagues who don't practice compassion for themselves. They're hard on themselves,
mean to themselves. I don't know if you've heard this expression. I heard it in a podcast a long
time ago, maybe a year ago. I don't know. I think the guest was on Ritual or one of these

(59:33):
psychology and personal performance podcasts that I listened to like Diary of a CEO or something
like that, but I think it was Ritual. The guest was saying, you know those times, Sean, when you're
just really disappointing yourself, like, man, I'm so stupid. How could I screw up so badly? Man,
I'm such a screw up. I was saying a lot of that around my book launch and really harmful stuff to

(59:59):
myself. And what he was saying was, imagine this self-talk that's mostly inside our head. We don't
often verbalize it. Some of us do. I had that here in the basement. I'm yelling at myself sometimes,
but it's mostly inside between our ears. But imagine all these things you're going to say
to yourself. Pause for a moment and you call up your best friend and imagine saying that about

(01:00:23):
your best friend. You are such a loser. Man, I hate you. You just screw up all the time. Could
you do it or would you do it? No, you wouldn't. You could not. You could not. You could not unload
like that on your best friend. He even said, leave in an audio message so they don't have to answer.

(01:00:43):
When you call, just record an audio message and then send it to them. You couldn't do it.
You knew that as someone you love. So why do we do that to ourselves? I wish I could remember who
that guest was, but I could find it someday. But that's what I heard when I heard you talk about
that, about compassion for yourself and for others. Because so many of us right now, we're recording

(01:01:09):
the end of 2024. So many people had a rough year, a really rough year or rough couple of years.
We've seen people hurting our friends, our family, our loved ones, because of all kinds of situations,
economics, poor self-esteem, low self-worth. I've been there myself. But you talked about
self-awareness and maybe if you want to even expand on that, because I listened to hundreds of

(01:01:35):
hours of psychology podcasts for a good reason. I mean, for myself, really to grow and become
self-aware of my own shortcomings, my own behavioral problems that slow me down or hold me back.
And the more self-aware I become, I think the more I do grow. And some of those things hurt.

(01:02:00):
Man, some of it hurts to realize like one of the expressions I used about myself this year is,
man, I bet on myself, like with my book launch, I went all in, I went all in, I bet on myself,
and I was wrong. Man, that hurts. Really hurts. Years of work, decades of work culminated into

(01:02:23):
this one moment that I underperformed and I failed publicly. But that's where perspective,
I mean, I'm living in a house in one of the best cities in America. There's a million,
there's a billion people, one billion people, just about 800 million to a billion, one billion people

(01:02:50):
who are going to go to bed tonight not knowing where their next meal is going to come from.
Right? There's perspective matters, you know, and it's easy to get down on ourselves. But
I just want to ask you to maybe expand on some of the self-awareness of compassion, of skills,
of talents, of things that we have, strengths that we do or don't have. And

(01:03:18):
because you're a community guy, you're out there in the trenches with people. How have you seen
that for personal self-growth? You said you weren't ready to be a brand marketer for
authors, influencers years ago, but now you're ready. You stepped into that role.
I mean, you guys put on this vegan foodie fest in Tampa, which we should talk about.

(01:03:39):
Shout out to Jan.
Shut that veg fest down. You guys rolled in with like 10 days notice and built that community
back up. That's another side conversation. But anyway, I'd like to dive more into,
we don't need to talk about sweet potatoes and kale. Let's talk about compassion and
self-awareness right now, because I think you're such a great person to express yourself about

(01:04:03):
this.
Oh, I love talking about this. So I'm going to say this with just to let people know,
it took me years to get to this, like investing in myself, going through courses like Tony
Robin type courses, not Tony Robbins course, but like that type of courses to create some

(01:04:24):
context in people's heads. I can tell you what the course is, but it wouldn't connect with
you. Yeah, personal development type courses to be able to get the tool sets to be able
to do the things that I'm talking about. So I'm under no stretch of the imagination that
it isn't something that's going to take work. With that being said, for me, it's about having

(01:04:44):
that hundred foot view of what I'm experiencing and being at a, in the like, objective perspective
like objective observer of what's happening in that situation, not letting things happen
to me, but understand that it's happening for me. A lot of these things that you hear,
I forget the words, idioms or whatever you that you hear all the time, cliches or whatever,

(01:05:08):
it's a cliche for a reason because enough people have come to this truth that it's said over and
over again, and it's just the easiest way to get it out. So for me, it's about doing my best for
the four agreements, which I always can't always get for them all in a row, but definitely not
doing my best. And I keep saying doing my best and not take things personally to do be impeccable

(01:05:32):
with my word and the put myself on the spot for no reason. And there's two others research it,
do yourself, read the book. That's the reason I'm telling you the full four. But all these little
things, these little nuggets, these little tidbits that are out there, and also knowing yourself,
I know myself enough to know that I take things personally really easily because I care so much

(01:05:54):
about it. What I'm doing isn't a job, it isn't a hobby. This is my life's work. I've dedicated
more than half of my life at this point, almost 30 years of my life to this goal.
And I was in a position where if someone were to say they're not interested or things like that,

(01:06:15):
it's almost like you're saying my baby's ugly. You know what I mean? So I had to learn to get
past that because a big part of community is enrollment and you can't hold grudges and you
can't be upset. So knowing that that's something that I struggle with, it's like, okay, let me
surround myself with people where I can just focus on the concept. I can focus on building the ideas.

(01:06:38):
I can focus on the people who have bought into it and then support them as much as I can because I
know they're on board and now I have that North Star. So it's like that's where I'm speaking to
that about awareness, self-awareness of yourself. Don't look at what you might consider quote unquote
shortcomings because everything is neutral, headline. It's easier said than experienced,

(01:07:02):
but I make up that everything is neutral and then I get to assign the energy that I want to assign
to it and that's my choice and if that energy doesn't serve me then I'm not going to indulge
in that and there's another layer of that where you also get to experience your experience.
So there's a lot of seemingly contradicting philosophies that I follow, but the key thing

(01:07:28):
is choice. So let me explain experiencing my experience. So if something happens between me,
the two of us and I'm upset about it, I could either say you know what I'm not going to be
upset about it and I'm going to move past it or I'm going to be upset about it and I'm going to be
angry and I'm going to hold the grudge or I'm going to be upset about it but I'm going to

(01:07:52):
give myself a clock. I'm going to give myself this whole day to stew and to be upset about the
situation but while I'm doing that I'm also going to figure out why I'm feeling this way
and then in that process if you imagine if you did that to everything that kind of triggers you

(01:08:12):
and get you upset if you follow that process not try to ignore it because what you resist persists
just let it flow through you let it have its natural course and use that time to actually
figure out why you're feeling that way almost diagnose yourself and once again not everyone
might think this way you know I do believe there's archetypes of different types of humans and things

(01:08:35):
of that nature but this is the way I operate I like to inspect things so if I look at it I feel it
nine times out of ten after I do that process and I'm cognizant of doing that process I'm able to
let it go I'm able to address it I'm able to see the gift in it one thing that I always like to say
is you can and this comes from the work I didn't make it up you can look at a problem in several

(01:09:00):
different ways you can look at a problem as a problem something that you can't solve it's
it's there you can look at it as a challenge okay there's a way for me to get past this you can look
at it as an opportunity oh wow this is amazing this thing that's happening it's an opportunity
for me to now step into that that that or you can look at it as a gift the key thing for all those

(01:09:20):
four things is the ability to choose which one it is and that for me diagnosis exactly where I am
sometimes I'm like you know what I I choose to not make things a problem I don't care what it is
but sometimes I'm feeling like it's going to be a challenge today I'm not quite ready to say it's a

(01:09:42):
gift yet you know so so that's that's that's I know I just threw a lot out there but that in an essence
is what gets me through because running a community it's it's a lot of no's it's a lot of people not
seeing it it's a lot of mistakes it's a lot of over promising and under delivering but for me

(01:10:05):
I could beat myself up and be upset and be like well I did this but for me I also know I have
perspective because I've done this for so long that I know what may be a mistake here was actually
set me down a path to meet this person that allowed me to do this amazing thing later on
man that was you you just gave a master class you just gave a master class shaw russle on

(01:10:31):
how to handle the the the stress of life I mean I'm you should look at my notes here man
objective observer things happen for me not happening to me everything is neutral experience
your experience which I also gathered from that is kind of being present I'd never heard this before

(01:10:52):
having a clock a time a timeline to deal with the grudge that is beautiful I've held and I try not
to be someone who holds grudges I know intellectually it only hurts me not them I know all that
but I held on to some for months but man you're talking to like a 24-hour clock let this thing go
you even said you put a clock on it a timeline for this grudge and then let it go and you

(01:11:17):
get to choose your outcome and you said I choose not to make things a problem man master class
oh man that that dish was hot so uh that was great man that was that's what I love about this
conversation like I you could I mean you could tell I think anyone listening can tell my enthusiasm

(01:11:39):
and you know what Sean there was a note I wrote here it's actually from a previous interview that
I did and I think I don't want to give the wrong credit it may have been with my most recent
conversation with Brett Christoffel from all y'all's foods I'm not sure though it's just
written down it says and you and you just reminded me so much of this he said I think it was him you

(01:12:03):
don't have to chase every thought every time right because you're talking about over promising
under delivering the mistakes happen things go awry things aren't perfect and I'm you know
classic perfectionist I beat myself up all the time even as I prepare for these interviews and

(01:12:24):
and and very specifically pick out the certain shirt that I'm wearing for the guests and I knew
you had the black rim glasses and I actually wore these I have another pair of glasses I was wearing
earlier I put these on two minutes before we went on the air because then we would have like a similar
you know vibe I mean I I'm just this over thinker and I got this quote from someone I think it was

(01:12:47):
Brett that you don't have to chase every thought every time man how liberating is that you spoke
to that I'm gonna save this note you spoke to that in your master class that you just served up for
us um checking the time really quick come on phone there it is I want to be I want to honor our our

(01:13:09):
time there's so many things I still want to ask you um let's uh let's start here um who are your
who are your role models John and and what and these can be in any area of life who are your
role models and why I'm gonna be 100 real with you and this is I think a perfect example of

(01:13:34):
why role models can be a double-edged sword my entire life up until recently my role model was
Bill Cosby and the reason I'm saying Bill Cosby because I'm squirting around looking for it I
don't really have like role models in my older in my adult life because I I I don't really look at

(01:13:59):
it that way but growing up I was so enamored with the way his show presented a black household
and it was aspirational you know I grew up in front of the television my mom worked three jobs
in a single-parent household and she was busting her butt and I escaped through television and to

(01:14:21):
be able to see that family and to escape into it and see them being successful it drove it drove
drove me in and to see the work he did with getting you know people who look like me to go to college
to go to college and making that a cool thing you know that wasn't a thing before before the work
that he did and even things like picture page and making me want to you know have my parents buy me

(01:14:47):
something to help me with literacy and phonics and I didn't really need help but wanting it either way
and and then this is career the milestones that he created having the number one television show on
NBC when there wasn't a fam a thing like that that existed so that drove me for the majority of my

(01:15:09):
life and I wanted to do something in that space and I wanted to be that and then what happens is
what is it what is it the the phrase from Batman it was probably pulled from somewhere else like
if you live long enough you know you turn into the villain and I feel like I feel like that happens
a lot you know in in life where the longer you're at it the longer that the reality of the duality

(01:15:38):
of life because we're all walking around with shadows things that we hide from the world
and I'm not ex first of all super clear I'm not excusing any of his behaviors this is why he's
I no longer can idolize them because it's you do get to control that you do get to get help you

(01:15:59):
if you know that's a part of you and it's impacting other people that's something that's
inexcusable and I would be lying to you if that was if he wasn't if before all that stuff came out
he wasn't my number one role model Will Smith another role model of mine just to see and for
him specifically and even more so after I read his book all his ability to conquer different mediums

(01:16:28):
is so aspirational for me for him to be music and crush that first art first rap artist of
Winogrammy go on the television have a show that changed the culture you know with the fresh prince
of Bel Air movies number one box office movie star of all you know at his his period probably
still in the top five and then also get this later part of his life where he's going through the same

(01:16:56):
things that we're going through where he feels like he's not enough where he's dealing with a
toxic relationship where he's going through all these real things that humans go through
and then to mess up on the love the biggest stage almost seemingly throw all that away
because of one moment where he couldn't control his shadow and then be able to rebound from that

(01:17:20):
to where two years later he has a number one movie in the country and his career is rebounding
that to me is a story of redemption and I'm crossing my fingers that that's where it ends
and nothing else comes up because I think 2024 has been a year of disclosure and a lot of people are
you know so yeah that that's I would say those are those are my role models and more closer to home

(01:17:46):
I'll end on this my mom definitely is a role model for me of not giving up of working hard doing what
you got to do in order to make it happen like there's been a lot of things in my life that I'll
talk about in my book you know you know 10 years from now that has turned me into the person that
I am today and a lot of that grit has come from my mom of doing whatever it got to take

(01:18:13):
you know work three jobs go to college just so she can continue to advance and grow and take care of
the two boys and put a work ethic in us where you know we are I didn't want to ask her for anything
because I knew how hard she worked even though she would give it to me even if she didn't have it she
would find a way to give it to me I'm like no I'm gonna get start working at age of 13 and never
stop because I knew that I wanted to make her life a little bit easier one less stress for her

(01:18:38):
and and I think that has really been a part of who I am and why I'm so attached to community is
because there's a lot of people who just don't know what to do they don't they they have the skills
they have the things but they just don't know what to do and if I can make my life's mission to figure
out those solutions and then make it as easy as possible for them to apply it and make their lives

(01:19:01):
better that's what I'm about it's those systems there's got to be somebody that builds the boat
you know and that's and that's that's my role I'm building the boat so everyone can
you know navigate through the flood and I didn't just call myself Noah I did I didn't I didn't mean
to just call myself Noah but that's that's kind of how I feel like I'm creating the boat so everyone

(01:19:22):
can float yeah that's that's that's beautiful and I appreciate that that story about your mother
as well and then clearly from my perspective that shapes your work ethic and that what makes that's
really what kind of makes you a role model for a lot of people I mean I started I started this
conversation nearly an hour and a half ago with a long introduction of 15 bullet points of what you

(01:19:46):
do but I ended with saying one of the nicest people that I know one of my favorite people I always I
always say that anytime your name comes up man I love Sean Russell like man that guy is just whether
you and I were walking around went for a walk together in Miami a couple years ago and talking
business and life and strategy and strengths and weaknesses and shortcomings and man I wish things

(01:20:08):
would have worked out differently and to the time I saw you just recently a few months ago and you're
like hey man I could help you with some of this stuff that's you know just and you even said like
free consult man I'll I'll I'd be happy to talk to you if you want to talk more about it I didn't
take you up on it I've been you know struggling and then I've been busy with this new gig and
all that but I also want to address I don't think I've ever heard and I ask a lot of people about

(01:20:32):
role models and not just in podcasts but throughout my life I don't think I've ever heard anyone have
that kind of explanation like you talked about Cosby and Will Smith you I've heard the expression
never meet your role models right or never meet your heroes right your hero is a lead singer of
a band and then they're a jerk to you when you meet them backstage or whatever that expression

(01:20:53):
everyone knows you know never meet your heroes and never meet your role models but you this whole
this whole double-edged sword of this shadow that follows us that is revealed into some of the people
that we have looked up to you know our whole lives I know I mean I don't want to you know I won't

(01:21:16):
mention it but there's some athletes that we've idolized as well but then it came out that they
you know were involved in some of this other stuff or whatever I'm not going to mention names but
that does change our perspective sometimes of those role models who have but they but they helped us
through a period of our lives and they even shaped who we are and it's not like we can't control
their actions like we looked up to them because of what they how we perceive them or how what they

(01:21:42):
represent or what they stood for but as you said and I added to it you said that we all have shadows
that follow us and you even mentioned with Will Smith and that in that slap moment that he couldn't
control his shadow and I added to that is that we all have masks we hide behind and we decide who we

(01:22:03):
reveal our true selves to and sometimes we get to that breaking point I mean you even said it earlier
that you said you've got triggers and if you you know push the right buttons the right combo I can
reset I think that's almost an almost verbatim of what you said based on recollection and we all
have that you know we all have these these aspects about us and these masks that we hide behind and

(01:22:29):
things we decide to share and some of these are small like I decided to open up about my books
failure because it wasn't just my book it was my wife what you know hearing the same story for 15
years we've been together that my next book is going to make it we're going to be financially
okay everything's going to be all right just let me get to the next bestseller list let me spend

(01:22:49):
the next two years working you know only part-time just so I can you know doing my passion project
because that makes me feel alive and then the book's gonna help pay mortgage and all this and what
happens when that doesn't work yeah just a book fails it's it's it's my persona my identity my
commitment to my partner my life my home my I had all this wrapped up into it and that's why I

(01:23:14):
exploded and not in a negative way but in a very vulnerable way I express that this is not
you know people like Robert this is just a book come on I'm like but it's represent it's a
representation of who I am and it was my best work I'd ever done and when it was not accepted
basically rejected my best work I felt rejected and I also had to come back home and tell my wife

(01:23:36):
for now for the I guess 14th year you know many books under that time that hey this one didn't
work out either but I'm gonna I'm gonna keep trying again until we get tired of hearing that
same story so very interesting perspective on on role models and you know what's funny Sean and
not funny but this is I asked this question at the end of every single interview but I'm gonna ask

(01:24:01):
it now because it's so bizarre timing I don't know if you've heard in my podcast but every single one
from the first one I did with Danny Taylor to the one we're doing right now I've asked this question
at the end but if you've got a few more minutes I'd like to have a few follow-ups after this one
you have as much time as you need but this the way you talked about role models and how this

(01:24:23):
conversation is gone Sean this is the question that I ask everyone at the end if there was a movie
made about your life who would play you and because you mentioned these role model actors who then had
a twist in their career and twist in their public persona and and how people embrace them or reject

(01:24:45):
them I'm curious now if there's a movie made about Sean Russell your life telling your story
the single mother working three jobs and you young kid working at 13 you and your sibling
trying to make it and and all this stuff and where you've been and the community organizer guy and
who you've come to be today who do you trust to tell that story so wow this I've never been asked

(01:25:11):
this question okay so I immediately an answer popped into my head because I know that story
that gets to be told is not going to be told any sooner than 20 years from now
because that's the story that I want to tell what happens in the next 20 years gets to be the
majority of it and with that time frame in mind the only person I would want to play me is my

(01:25:34):
nephew Zaylin because I have I know in my heart he's going to do amazing things he he's built for
television and movies and things of that nature his personality since he was a baby
so I would want him to play me and yeah I would want him to play me and if it's not him

(01:25:57):
I would definitely be playing myself I'll be playing myself maybe there would be technology
that we can use where we can have a cg version of me and who knows there might be somebody
that pops up 20 years from now that could be a good role but no I don't see anybody currently
playing me I definitely see it being somebody in the future and I would love it for be like

(01:26:21):
how Michael Jackson has his nephews playing him in a film I would love to be able to have my
nephew play me. That's a beautiful answer Sean and really I just want to finish up with just a few
whether we call it lightning round version or not just short answers or whatever we want to do just
a few because that's normally my last question but because we were just talking to Hollywood

(01:26:42):
actors some of the most famous actors in the history of the world I thought it was
apropos to bring that topic up but now I want to ask you
really another kind of thought-provoking one that maybe it may not be a lightning round question
but Sean what would you be doing if you weren't doing this?

(01:27:03):
I'm putting the heat on at the very end. If you weren't doing this all the stuff that you do today
education, community building, being a vegan, being a vegetarian, being a vegetarian, being a
vegan, putting on events over 100 events next year 2025 what would you be doing?

(01:27:28):
Honestly I
it's a little bit morbid but in my heart of hearts I feel I might not be here.
Wow. This is this is my life I've been doing this I've been doing this since I was 13 years old
this is all I know this is how I connect with people this is how I communicate we talk about

(01:27:49):
masks it's like it's hard this is the challenge I guess is the other side of and this is why a lot of
people who are focused on things like this don't always make the best
aren't able to connect on certain levels because

(01:28:10):
this is all I this is all I want to do and if I say what this is it's bring people together and
tell stories that's that's that's the if you drill it down to its barest necessities or to its core
element it's tell stories and bring people together. I will be doing that until I go to the next

(01:28:36):
dimension in one way shape or form and that's I think that's why this model follows my interest
because it's like okay and the interesting thing about the vegan aspect of it is no longer my
interest it's my lifestyle you know so this it brings it to that next level but you know it's

(01:28:57):
yeah I will always be doing this as long as I have a brain that's working I'll find a way to
tell stories and bring people together. You know Sean that is a
it's a powerful answer it's one I didn't expect but it's one that I resonate with
because I'll tell you you know aside from this conversation one of the most powerful

(01:29:23):
conversations I've had this year and so I'm saying this is one with me and you right now is
is up there was with the rapper Gray just recently saw him in Alabama we were in Birmingham and
pulled me aside he read the big long big long monologue about my failed book launch
and we were talking about being creative artists and struggling to make it even though we're pretty

(01:29:47):
popular and we both said the same thing that we said and I'll just say that we both said the same
thing that we said and I'll just speak for myself and with regards to like my writing I already told
you all the struggles it brings and my own self-worth and conditional self-worth and
relationship struggles and financial struggles but if I stop Artem he dies and I told Gray,

(01:30:13):
Gray and I gave like 20 hugs to each other because we both we just felt it so much like
he has to make music he can't stop making music I can't stop writing I have to because I don't
know what I would do without it you know very much like you like your interest surprised me
but also resonated with me because I know I even wrote that in a card recently to someone who helped

(01:30:37):
me out financially I said you know a part of me dies if I don't do this thank you for letting me
do this and then I you know I've gone to make some changes recently and you know try to work
on myself you know we'll spend a little less make a little more be a little more responsible
that kind of stuff but that's what makes me love this conversation with you Sean it's different

(01:30:58):
than a lot of other podcasts no offense to all the guests have been on talking about building
muscle and burning fat and the kind of meals and supplements and protein and all that but this has
been I have to say one of my favorite conversations I've had all year thank you on that note I mean I
just I'm just going to leave it with two final questions you've probably already answered one

(01:31:23):
of them but just what's the best I mean if you really narrow it down what's the best part of what
you do okay I mean you had you talk about building community you want to do it forever but is there a
is there an emotion is there I don't want to words in your mouth I'm just generating some ideas is it
is it watching someone who never believed in themselves but you help them believe in themselves

(01:31:46):
and they finally make it is it is it the feeling you get knowing you're making impact in someone
else's life is it honoring your mother's hard work work ethic the guidance still in you what's the best
part of what you do if you could distill it down into the most simple form what is as good as it

(01:32:06):
gets for Sean Russell for me it's being able to connect with leaders who are up to big things
because I feel like it's a it's a loop because me being able to invest my gifts well who I am up

(01:32:35):
to this point into them not just for they can service what I'm up to but for they can step
into what they want it's that perfect alignment of where are you going oh guess what I'm going
there too you want to want to ride and you just chip in for some gas and we'll get there together
and then being able to Tom Sawyer and to being able to you know Voltron and just grab all these

(01:32:59):
amazing people and go on a mission together and build something and improve the quality of people's
lives and then make investments in ourselves and make investment in the people that are around us
and see that multiply and know that that's going to inspire other people to do the same thing and
that's just going to double on to each other that to me is the best thing and sometimes you sometimes

(01:33:26):
I lose sight of it because I get too into the forest when I feel like that's when the universe
sends somebody your way and reminds you who you are and I would say that'd be my second favorite
thing just at those right moments when you need it getting that email saying someone is saying hey

(01:33:47):
I've been listening to your podcast for a few years now and I just decided to say I want thank
you so much or having somebody come up to you at an event and be like thank you I love your videos
you know and it's like all right let me not get too hung up on oh this one didn't get too many
likes or this one didn't get any much views or this somebody's watching and somebody's waiting

(01:34:10):
for what you have to create or somebody's waiting for what I have to create and that
um those two things are what um what drives me you know what I got out of that
and correct me if I'm wrong here and I might be but the way I summarize that is that you like to

(01:34:31):
facilitate the process of helping people step into their light
that's that's what I wrote down yeah and then helping people remind them of who they are
and I have to say I have to say that was one of the most powerful things for me um

(01:34:55):
when I was feeling down one of my friends who knows me fairly well he reached out he just said
these few words to me he said you are Robert F in cheek you know you got this and so I'm feeling
down my wife will tell me that sometimes don't forget you who you are you are Robert F in cheek

(01:35:17):
go get it so that and I love the way you said that help you step people step into their light
and shine brightly and that's that's a beautiful message and the last thing I want to ask you uh
this is it and then tell us where you know one more time where we can find you online and
the the dates of the vegan foodie fest in Miami just for the as we recap the people who fast forward

(01:35:39):
to the end here uh Sean what are you grateful for I'm grateful for this moment right now
I'm grateful for my family my friends everyone that I've come across whether we've had a what

(01:36:06):
we would say a positive or negative um experience it was a lesson and it helped me grow it helped
me understand more about myself so I'm I'm grateful for life and and and honestly that's
and honestly that's that's the answer I'm grateful to have a shot at this every day I wake up I'm

(01:36:32):
grateful because it's like all right another day to to make this happen another day to learn a
lesson another day to choose so I'm grateful for life and I'm grateful for the ability
to do what I'm doing right now
thank you and Sean I'm grateful for you and this this has been uh my favorite conversation

(01:36:54):
so far it's just been uh it's been wonderful chatting with you today about things that
matter most in life and I'm glad that you went there and that you allowed me to go there and
that we could go there together in compassion and self-awareness and dig deep and talk about
vulnerabilities and talk about what matters most which is what you just say grateful for life

(01:37:18):
so I want to thank you Sean uh and everyone listening to the plant powered athlete podcast
thank you so much for tuning in I've been your host Robert Cheek my wonderful wonderful I'm gonna
say it again wonderful guest has been Sean Russell and Sean I'm so excited to see you big hug coming
soon vegan foodie fest in Miami again January 25th at the dolphin mall yeah dolphin mall Miami

(01:37:43):
Florida all right man and one last time where people can learn more about vegans explore
uh give it to us again website social media and and uh I'm gonna get some people involved absolutely
for sure as club members as business members guaranteed end of story I'm moved by today's
conversation and I can't wait to get involved myself so uh hit hit us with it one more time

(01:38:05):
thank you so much for the opportunity so we have a lot of amazing things coming up with vegans
explore one of the things I didn't really talk too much about were our communities so we have
communities within our community so one of those communities is the pre-vegan community and this is
designed for anyone who may be starting their journey or someone who wants to support somebody
that's starting their journey so we have a lot of great stories even one from Robert Cheek and

(01:38:26):
here of how people started their vegan journey and a lot of this is pulled from the content from our
podcast so we have a whole network of podcasts that are releasing including the vegans who lift
which we had Robert on one of our first episodes with broke sellers miss meatless muscle and john
thomas the bodybuilding vegan and one of the communities we have is the bodybuilding vegan

(01:38:47):
community which if you didn't see me if you saw me in September I was actually 30 by the way
if you saw me in September I was actually 30 pounds heavier than I am and and the reason I
was able to drop that weight and drop almost five six percent body fat is because of the program
that we put together the community the bodybuilding vegan community program so definitely check that

(01:39:10):
out and everything you can get at vegans explore.com but we're a vegans explore on all social platforms
most active on instagram reach out connect definitely want to hear from you if you learned
about me through this episode definitely shoot us a message let us know what you thought leave a
review on this podcast as well all of that helps out and hopefully we'll connect can we be in a

(01:39:35):
city near you 200 cities by the end of 2025 it'd be kind of wild if we're not in your city so
reach out to us and we'll you may definitely have it in your city. Sean it's been an absolute
pleasure and thank you this is probably the longest episode I've done too so thank you for
being very generous with your time it was fantastic I know we could we could talk for hours and in

(01:39:57):
fact we probably will in South Florida in January in person so looking forward to it thanks for
including me in the event and thank you so much for being such a warm-hearted fantastic
guest today in the Plant Powered Athlete podcast and I'm grateful for you and everyone thank you
so much for tuning in and please share this podcast with others who could benefit from this

(01:40:21):
incredible wisdom that Sean shared today and have a wonderful rest of your week we'll catch you next
time thank you all right gratitude.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Sean Russell | Inside Sean Russell’s Vision for Vegans Explore Worldwide | PPAP41