Digital Amplifier to AgeTech Hero: Bridging Lives through Diversity

Episode Transcript
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Tonya J. Long (00:07):
Welcome home, friends.
I'm Tonya Long, and this isRESET, where purpose meets
possibility.
Each week, we shareconversations with thought
leaders, innovators and thedreamers and doers who are
reshaping the future of work,technology, longevity and
purpose.
Whether you're navigating AI'simpact, reimagining your career

(00:32):
or searching for deeper meaning,you're in the right place.
So settle in, open your mindand let's explore what happens
when purpose meets possibility.
Hello everyone and welcome toRESET with Tonya here at KPCR-LP

(00:53):
92.9 FM.
I with every guest I say thisis my favorite person, but this
one just might be my favoriteperson.
Andreas Mueller is a digitalamplifier and has been since the
digital age began because weare that old and is moving and

(01:15):
transitioning from his digitalexpertise in the world to a
purpose-driven focus on Age Tech, and that transition has been
going on for not very long maybesix or eight months or less but
it is a beautiful thing to seeAndreas move from a digital
amplifier to an Age Tech hero.

(01:35):
Big shout out to our friends atAARP who have been working with
Andreas and my best friend'ssister-in-law, Karin If you
listen to this at some point.
We're thrilled to haveconnected you guys to work
together to bring technology topeople that helps them as they
transition through the differentstages of life.

(01:56):
It's really exciting.
We're all going to live muchlonger.
One of the tenets of the RESETpodcast is around longevity, but
with broader longevity in theworld we're looking at a
different set of needs that needto be accommodated as people
physically age and mentally andemotionally age.
Loneliness is a big deal and sowe'll get for the aging

(02:19):
population and for allpopulations these days actually.
So we'll get more into that aswe go through the conversation,
but I am so happy to have mydear, dear friend, andreas, with
us today.
Andreas Mueller, welcome toRESET with Tonya.

Andreas Mueller (02:35):
Thank you.
Thank you, Tonya.
It's great to be here.
It truly is.

Yeah, you're going to hear a lot of love on
this show today because we justhave such deep respect for each
other.

Andreas, when did we actually meet?
I was trying to remember that.

I think it was has it just been in the last
year.

I think it's been in the last year.

That's the amazing thing about community
and the way you and I drivecommunity, because people feel
like they've known each otherforever and they know all their
family history and they knowwhat's happening in their
personal lives that areimportant and relevant and you
feel like you've known eachother for a long time.
And I have that with several ofyou where I recognize there

(03:19):
it's intense to live here in theBay Area, but we also develop
really intense friendships andI'm grateful for that.
So I've rattled.
Why don't you tell us what areyou working on right now that
excites you?

Wow, the Age Tech thing maybe.
Yeah yeah, the way that cameabout was I was involved with a
founders event in Portugal andMiguel, my good buddy from the
Algarve, he asked me to be amentor and just to be generally

(03:54):
involved in the event.
This was back pre, probably insummer, halfway through the year
last year, and by October 22ndwe were going to welcome up to
400 startups, and so I looked atthe.
So we're going to have 400startups and whittle them down
to the finalists and have a demoday in Southern Portugal and in

(04:16):
the Algarve the beautiful,beautiful Algarve, which is a
lot like our coast here and Iremember looking at the landing
page and I looked at the sectorsthat they were focused on and
these were sectors that justmake sense for Portugal, but
then also for the Algarve, forsouthern Portugal, and the three

(04:39):
sectors were travel, tech okay,of course interesting agri-tech
.
That makes sense too.
Really important there.
I'm fishing also, butagriculture, great.
And then Age Tech and this,yeah, this is about.
This is probably almost a yearago.
I remember thinking Age Techand I thought, okay, whatever,
yeah, I guess I can figure thatone out.

(04:59):
It just didn't sound thatexciting.
But then I just I opened up toit more and more and didn't
sound that exciting, but then Ijust I opened up to it more and
more and that's something I'velearned myself just to open
yourself up to ideas.
And, as I don't cheesy as thatsounds, it really does.
It does work.
And ever since then I've justbeen very interested in Age Tech
.
I remember mentioning it topeople and everybody's reaction

(05:23):
was, yeah, that's actuallyreally good.
And it's funny because a lot ofpeople have to be very careful
how you pronounce it, becausepeople are not familiar with it.
They think H as the letter, soH what's?
H, what's the H sound?
No age, you're like senior okay, okay and then I remember
mentioning it to you and youjust your eyes just opened up
why?
And he's oh that's it, that'sit, andres, that's your path.

(05:43):
To you, and you just your eyesjust opened up wide and you said
oh, that's it, that's it,andreas, that's your path.
And then, like when I had yourstamp of approval, I knew this
was I can't go wrong.
And I worked on this with myCOO, with Brandy, who's
traveling in China right now.
Thank you, Brandy, and it's yeah, it's just been such a great, a
great journey.
And yeah, it's just been such agreat, a great journey.

(06:03):
And yeah, thank you, Melissa,also for supporting me in this,
and it just yeah.
There's so many things I couldstart talking about, but let me,
I'll let you ask a question, noyou're good.

You're good.
I recognize this is a pivotthat's in process as you figure
this out and figure out where tomake the most meaningful impact
.
You've been a digital agencyguy at a pretty high level for a
long time and that's been your22 years 22 years, my goodness,
and so that's been a big focus.

Oh wait, actually 23.

Yeah, so that's a very definitive path.
And then pivoting this way tosomething so new that you have
to speak it clearly so thatpeople don't misunderstand that
it's that new it's not ahousehold term yet I experienced
that you met some of my radiocolleagues here before the show

(06:57):
and when I told them what you'repivoting into, they had the
same reaction.
They weren't clear what it was,and I gave them some examples.
So you're personally pivoting,but you're also pivoting
everyone in the circles that arearound you for them to
understand it.
So what has that turned?
That's a good point, yeah, yeah, because you have a lot of
circles.
I'm only in a few of them, butI see the other ones through

(07:20):
your thought leadership onLinkedIn.
So I know that you have a lotof different communities that
you are influential in.
So what has that pivot beenlike for you?
Rebranding yourself, because Idon't think you're leaving
digital at all.
I just think you're focusing inon where you can have impact
with that in a more specificvertical.

(07:42):
So what has that transitionbeen like?
Helping educate the peoplearound you and helping bring
them along by developingfollowership for that.

So you say a pivot and a rebrand, and
initially I was thinking no, notat all, but then, the more I
think about it, no, you'reabsolutely right, I think so.
What I've been lacking for along time is that I've always
been good at digital marketing,digital advertising.

(08:14):
It's been my passion.

The strategic side.

The strategic side Is what I see in you, yeah
yeah, definitely, but withinthat, I mean, that field is so
huge, it's just such ahorizontal field, it just covers
everything and then at the sametime, it's covering b2b to a
certain extent.
B2c, sure, it's fun, but mostlyb2b because it's more complex.
Okay, so, business to businessversus a business to consumers,

(08:41):
and for me it's always been,there's always been this
question.
I'm in a group of like-mindedagencies and within that group
we're always told to niche downand figure out, like, what is
your focus?
Because once you have thatfocus, you can always open up.
But if you have that focus, youhave a story to tell and it's

(09:04):
so much easier to tell, wow.
So even going back about 20years, 22 years, when we first
so this was a cultural thing.
I just had a podcast thismorning about what I love about
Portugal.
So there's a lot of culturalthings that are coming together.
For me today, I connected witha German guy.

(09:26):
We started up Blue Fusion andfor us it was enough just to say
hey, we do SEO.

Because it was so long time that's been a big
market.

Yes, yeah, at the time, and I remember the big
, the big door opening for mewas I was doing a presentation
in I think was in Santa Cruzactually and I was presenting on
a panel and I was next to TonyGasparets who was the VP of
marketing for West Marine, theboating supplier franchise out

(09:59):
here for boating.
Yeah, I see that a lot of thecoastal towns store, yes, yes,
but they're like I'm trying toremember, let's say, $800
million revenue, something likethat, maybe even more than that.
And the doors were open to mebecause I remember I was talking
about SEO search engineoptimization and so this VP of

(10:21):
this huge company approached meafterwards and said hey, it was
great being on the panel withyou.
Could you do SEO for us?
So it was so new.
You didn't even need a specificniche or anything.
You just said I do this andit's almost like AI nine months
ago.
If you say I do AI, ai Whisperor I prompt engineers like wow

(10:44):
Sherpa, an AI Sherpa, exactlyexactly yeah.
And so, getting back to thepivot, recently I have looked at
what do we actually do?
So we do digital marketing, wedo paid advertising, but that's
like saying I don't know, it'sjust not going deep.

(11:07):
And so the thing I was lackingis the excitement of a specific
vertical niche.
And so what happened on the wayto that decision was also
opening up, and actually noteven opening up, but going back
to our roots of working withstartups.

(11:32):
So in the very beginning, weworked with startups, then we
expanded and then we worked withhuge companies, and then
suddenly we're working withmulti-billion dollar enterprises
, which is great but also can bea major pain.
And so by going back to myroots, embracing that original
excitement of working with Yelpthat had just come to market, or
Skype, or LinkedIn, we helpedLinkedIn with their SEO.

Oh wow, it was insane.

I did not realize that was part of your
history.
Yeah, and so the other pivot,like as you termed it, which is
accurate was opening back up tostartups and working with and,
as Tonya, working with startupscan be very difficult.
It's fun on the surface,there's so much energy, there's
exuberance and energy.

(12:19):
There's so much promise, somuch opportunity.

There's also a lot of hand-holding.
A lot of coaching is requiredbecause of the lack of
experience and breadth yes, inhistory.

I think that's fair to say yeah and then also
there's a lack of funding,especially if they're pre-series
a, pre-series b, so you justhave to be flexible and figure
out what works.
And so, in a sense, getting wayback to your original question,
there has been like a doublepivot.
So going from the enterprisere-embracing the startup and

(12:52):
that's where we met just in thatfertile field of startup events
, startup founders, funders andthen also kind of looking at
this niche and really diggingdown into Age Tech.

I love it.
I think that you areparticularly well equipped I'll
say it, it's not the right word,but I'll say socially equipped
to deal with a lot of diversityin your life.
I didn't know until I stalkedyou on LinkedIn for this show
that you speak seven languages.

(13:26):
I counted Maybe some, not asfluently as others.

To a certain degree exactly, but to a certain
degree you speak sevendifferent languages.

So I want to know the story on that history, why
you speak seven languages.
Of course I know that you havea European affinity focus that
you execute on, but you haveother things in your life just
to make note of, like yourwife's a chef, so you're
surrounded by food as art andyou have a daughter who's trans,

(13:54):
so I know that who's a chef?
Who is a chef?

as well.

That's right, and I've had her food when we were
at the Ferry Building that day.
Yeah, so you're surrounded byart.
You're surrounded by diversity.
I know your personal causesthat we trade texts on are very
much about humanity and equityand diversity.
So you're a champion for love.
Actually, at the end of the day, you're a champion for love.

(14:19):
So, identifying all thosepersonal pivots for you because
those were all like reinventions, pivots, they were parts of
your life that made you a fuller, richer person.
How you work with others whoare launching new things or

(14:43):
doing new things Because I dothink there's a correlation in
your ability to fully see peopleand then to help them on their
way to building something new.
So how has your diversity, as abroad word, helped you to help
others?

So let me go back to my, because there's so
much to latch onto here and forme to get excited about, because
I think the cultural stuff andthe language is just so
important.

Why seven languages?
It's going on.

So should I just dive into that.

Yeah, sure, yeah.

I think that's a very interesting set point for
who you are, because to methat's a very interesting set
point for who you are, Becauseto me that's so important.
So I grew up in Germany in avery unusual family because we
were bicultural, my mom beingAmerican, my dad German.
So at home when I grew up andthis was in the very early in
the early 60s, going way 1960syep, for the younger kids

(15:44):
listening here, and so my firstlanguage.
Although I was in Germany, myfirst language was and I
remember hearing that on tapesthat my dad had recorded was
English and I guess it makessense the mother is American, so
you speak English.
But that's a decision that myparents made because there were

(16:07):
a lot of kind of critical forcesout there saying oh no, if you
like, if he learns English,he'll be super confused once he
goes to kindergarten, and for methat wasn't an issue at all,
because kids are so malleablethey're like little sponges,
they just suck it all up, and sofor me to be speaking English

(16:30):
at home and then to go to thekindergarten, where nobody spoke
English.
There was zero English andsuddenly it's just German.
you just realize, oh, it'sdifferent rules, Okay, different
environments, Okay, that's cool.
And so when I go back I can useboth languages, but here I just
use German.
So that was always so.
The bicultural in the twolanguages, those were all very

(16:52):
important for me.
Then I remember so speaking ofmore languages, I remember
traveling and we would go wewere very being in Germany or
super close to France or Italy,so we'd go to France and I could
hear my parents speak Frenchand realize oh okay, so that's
the secret ticket here you speakthe language and you know

(17:14):
things, magic happens.
And in seventh, so in fifthgrade, I got my first language
in school in Germany, which wasEnglish, which was okay, this is
easy.
Although I had to be careful,because sometimes I would notice
the teachers making mistakesand I would want to correct them

(17:36):
, but I was still just easy.

But see you learned early the value of human
interaction and appropriatenessright.
You knew not to be the snottykid that said that's not right.
That verb conjugation is notright.
You knew early to grace.
To be fair, I was a little turdas a kid.

(17:58):
Were you a snotty kid?
No, but still.

I mean that learning is still there.
Yeah, yeah, so you understand,but still I mean that learning
is still there, yeah, yeah soyou understand.
Mm-hmm.
And you just appreciate that.
One of my funny anecdotes is Iremember being out with my
friends out in the backyard orwhatever, and then, speaking
German, we interact in German,obviously, because that's what

(18:21):
you speak in Germany.
Right.
And then my mother would call mefrom the window second and she
said, hey, come on home, we'regonna have dinner ready.
And I'd answer, and I think Iprobably answered in German and
my friends are completelyperplexed, like what is going on
here.
She said something, you askedher in German, and then I, and
then, and as I'm taking this in,I'm realizing okay, so we are

(18:43):
different, like we as a family,and yeah, and so then I was
saying the next door that gotopened for me in terms of
languages and cultures wasobviously fifth grade English.
Okay, some challenges, but okay, that's easy.
And then I learned French inseventh grade and I realized

(19:03):
this is really weird and hard.

Because French was my language in school.
Okay, remember.

Steve Martin.
He said oh, those French, theyhave a different word for
everything.

And that was.
Mandarin is still the hardest,but we didn't learn that for a
long time.

Yeah, but for me there's just this additional
realization that, hey, you'vebeen in a protected world
because you're this, you've gotthe English and the German
covered and you're like veryspecial for just even for my
greater family, because we hadprofessors in our family and
they spoke some English but theyjust didn't have the aptitude

(19:39):
and the comfort.
And so learning French Irealized this is hard, I have to
actually sit down and memorizethings and in a sense that also
forced things, forced some doorsopen for me, some doors of
maybe lack of comfort we canjust see, yeah, without comfort,

(20:00):
yeah, yeah, but you realize,that, yeah.
But you realize that you getinto this track of English and
German, american and Germanculture and you think that's it.
And then this other culturecomes to you and you think, oh,
this should be easy.
And you realize, no, it's verydifferent the way they count

(20:21):
Like even the French concept ofsoixantez is 60-16, which is 60
plus 16, so 76.
What are you thinking?
What is going on?
Just these bizarre concepts,yeah.

Yeah, and I'm tracing this all back to Noah's
Ark.
They just stuck with onelanguage, right, but no, or the
Tower of Babel either in mytradition, the tradition that I
grew up educated in.
I'm thinking about all thesepoints in our history where we
broke into these differentlanguages, and I think that

(20:56):
speaks to for you, yourecognizing early on that we do
have differences.
We are not all built the same,and isn't that a marvelous thing
?
I think that's.
I would characterize you asliving your best life, embracing
all the differences.

I can't deny that.

Yeah, that is entirely who you are.

Right.

Yeah, so how did actually?
you said france let give me onesecond because I need to do a
quick station id and talk aboutthis weekend.
It was it's a horrible segue,but it's the only one I can pull
is wine, and france, and franceis so known for wine, but so is
northern california.
So if you enjoy wine, uh, thisweekend the las gatos chamber of

(21:42):
Commerce is hosting the annualit's they've been doing this for
15 years, I think the Los GatosWine Walk.
So Saturday, come see us.
The station will bebroadcasting live from the
courtyard outside with a coupleof bands.
It's going to kick up.
So if you want to drink 30different kinds of wine, you'll

(22:02):
need a ticket from Eventbrite.
But if you want to drink 30different kinds of wine, you'll
need a ticket from Eventbrite.
But if you just want to comeand enjoy a day when Los Gatos
is certain to be filled withinteresting people and
interesting things to do, thenstop by the station at 59 North
Santa Cruz and you might beinterviewed live.
You definitely enjoy somereally interesting talent and
bands, and that is this Saturday, the 26th of April.

(22:24):
So back to you, andreas.

I might have to check that out.

Yeah, I'll be here.
I'll be here at 10 am onSaturday morning doing studio
tours and I encourage you tocome by.

So we could have a really easy segue here.
You're saying French and Frenchwines.

That's the only thing I could grab.

I used to work in the wine industry.

Oh, interesting See, you've got all kinds of
valuable skills.
These little secrets, Is thewine industry.
Why did you develop your?
You were already on a path toknow multiple languages.
Did the wine industry enhancethat for you?

Yes, okay, yeah .
So interesting history.
So let me continue with thelanguages, because then
everything will make sense.
So then I take French in school,starting in seventh grade.
I realize it's tough, pushmyself, I'm okay, I'm not that
great a student in French,because it's frustrating, right.

(23:19):
You just feel like, hey, thisshould be easy, but it's not.
Then we moved this was at theend of ninth grade.
We moved to the us in 10thgrade and then, obviously it
makes sense.
I remember taking, I took allthese crazy things of physics
and chemistry, geometry, uh,english literature and what else

(23:44):
.
Oh, french, obviously.
And German as another foreignlanguage and obviously German
literature, and so I ended upbeing in I think it was French
three, probably like the thirdyear, but I did really well
because I had the foundationalready and I realized this is

(24:04):
cool because I'm ahead of thecurve and now I can drive, so
I'm not behind trying to catchup, but I'm actually ahead on
the racetrack and I'm leadingthe pack and it just felt
exciting and I was involved in atrip to Montreal that we did.
Then I went to college and Imajored in German.

(24:25):
Originally it was like ascientific focus physics,
calculus, and German and French,and then it ended up just being
German and French, yeah andyeah.
So that whole language stuffkind of.

Something that I hear in the story that you just
shared is that you enjoyed beingout ahead of the pack.
So we wouldn't have called thatthought leadership in the
seventh grade, but you enjoyedbeing on the far edge of saying
this is neat, hey guys, comealong.
You enjoyed that notoriety, Iwould call it, and I think

(25:00):
that's probably similar to yourrecent connection to Age Tech,
because it is something noteveryone knows about yet not
everyone's doing.
So how has that thought processwhere you enjoy being an early
adopter, how do you think thattranslated into your connection
into Age Tech?

So I just made another connection.

as we're talking this, people tend to do that
when they're behind the mic withme.
They're like I never thoughtabout it before, and that's the
beauty of us being here together, so anyway.
So you made another connection.

Tell us about it.
No, I was just thinking justthis being ahead of the pack,
but then you look behind you andyou want to educate, which has
always been really important tome.
And now.
I'm seizing this idea a lotbetter.
So in college I focused onFrench, had a French, major,

(25:55):
French-German, and I was able toteach French and I got paid for
it.
In college I was like ateaching assistant, but truly

(26:23):
love is taking concepts andsimplifying them for other
people understand that's a skillfiguring out the subjunctive
French, for example, and reallysimplifying it, just giving a
few rules, just so it's not asscary anymore, and I loved being

(26:44):
a TA at UC Davis, I thinkyou're a natural teacher.
It was so much fun yeah, I wasactually disappointed that, if
you get, my trajectory is to geta PhD and then teach, teach
languages, and it was a littledisappointing to see that the
focus is publishing and teaching, teaching French, that nobody

(27:08):
cares about.
It's just the publishing verybizarre medieval concepts that
nobody's ever talked aboutbefore.
That's what gets you ahead, butbeing a motivating professor or
teacher not so much.
So I think this all tiestogether.

It started with languages because that's what
was available to you as a childand you were, I think, fortunate
that you were in a family thatwas multi-cultural I think was
the word you used and definitelymulti-language.
And then you adopted thoselanguages as you went through
school and that worked into alife way of being, that you

(27:54):
sought diversity, so you wereinterested in languages.
Then you married a woman atsome point along the way,
suzanne.

We met in graduate school.

Because I know y'all have been married like
forever.

Since 92.

Since 92.
Wow, that's fantastic.
And then had two beautifuldaughters, yep.
So you've leaned artistically.
The languages are artistic,marrying a chef and then having
a daughter who's a chef you'vedefinitely got art in your
family as a priority, beingartistic, expressing yourself,

(28:30):
which is, to me, so differentfrom the way we often show up in
tech.
So you serve tech.
You have all this, if you will,artistic trending in your
personal life.
It's clearly important to you,but the tech audience that you
serve and interface with in yourprofessional life can often be

(28:54):
very driven and transactionaland myopic.
I love my tech life that I'vehad since the 90s.
It can be very not artistic ifwe're not careful, and I think
you bring the artistic side toit.
Tell me how that life you'vebuilt, your personal life, has
helped you pivot as you'vebecome an SEO king, helping

(29:17):
LinkedIn with SEO that's a story.
And then, moving now into AgeTech, how is your love for
diversity and I'll just say artas a generality?
How has that helped you pivotinto dealing with so many
different waves of technology?

That's.
I love that question because itforces me to go back as well
and kind of look at some of thepivots.
I guess the biggest pivot in mylife was when I decided to
leave graduate school after mymaster's.

That was still the biggest pivot of your life.

No, I'm just calling attention at the time.

Thank you, because to me, to me, the At the
time, that makes a lot of sense.

The logical progression was to get a PhD,
because that's something I'dseen in my family.
It's what you do, but just tokind of leave that behind
because it didn't seem right.
And then what we ended up doing?
We moved to Mill Valley becausethat's where Suzanne lived and
we found a job in San Francisco.

(30:23):
My first job was in the wineindustry and then people.
So then people asked me becausethen I got into wine selling
and the marketing and then itall just took off and the oh
here's.
You need to put a pin intechnology and the early
internet and cover that in a bit.
But what happened?
From my perspective, it madesense.

(30:46):
I get so many questions aboutoh wait, you were working on a
PhD, you're working on a degreein.
French literature, the theaterof the 20th century.
So why are you doing marketing?
That doesn't make any sense Tome.
That actually does make a lotof sense because it's that.
It's what you just described.
It's that movement from thearts, the culture into, let's

(31:10):
say, digital marketing.
But the way I perceivemarketing is it's really
listening, and speaking andlearning a language is listening
as well, because you'relistening to.
So how did she say that?
Let me try to repeat that.
What does she mean here?
And if you can take thatability and apply it to

(31:35):
marketing specifically, thatjust means hey, you're a
competitor, you're doing it thisway.
Let me not just assume that weall have to do it the way we
think the features should be.
But let me look at what you'redoing.
Maybe I can learn from you.
Same with prospects or clientsListening to your clients and

(31:57):
understanding this is theirlanguage.
I need to focus in on that andsee maybe we can adjust things a
little bit.
So instead of push, push, let'sdevelop.

Your value is in your strategic ability and your
ability to hear in a time whenit's hard for people to listen.
Everyone in the world,according to Tonya, we don't
have enough listeners.
We have people really scrapingto be heard, and when people

(32:29):
learn to listen is when theylearn to learn.

I'm just going to interject this.
That's one thing I reallyappreciate about your podcasts
you actually listen.
This that's one thing I reallyappreciate about your podcasts
you actually listen, like.
You, like you delve into notthe questions you're asking and
here's what's next, but youlisten to what your guests are
saying and you dive into them.
Thank you, yeah, yeah it's anopportunity.

It's a selfish opportunity for me to learn and
to everyone I have on I love.
I've even some people that Ihave just met there.
There's an actor in LA that Iinterviewed early in the podcast
and I, matt Drago, just did hisfirst movie and I love Matt
Drago.
Didn't really know him until Igot connected to him to do this

(33:13):
but every single person I'm with, I develop another place in my
heart, a little chamber in myheart that they have a place in,
because people are soremarkable.

Isn't that great though.

Yeah, but we I will.
I'm biased on that front, but Ithink we all need to learn to
listen more, and I realize, youand I, we live in a bubble here
in the Bay Area and people aremoving so fast and they just
want the Bay Area and people aremoving so fast.
A beautiful bubble and they justwant the sound bite and it's a
beautiful bubble.
But I am really conscientiousabout modeling for people, true

(33:47):
listening and the desire to waitit out to understand what
people are about and what thestories are they want to share.
I think it's important for ourpersonal success.
For us, the more we know aboutpeople, the more we carry around
about others, the better we areat community, and the better we
are at community, the better weare at spreading what it is

(34:11):
that we want to do in this worldand having greater reach.

And wasn't there a study recently on
longevity and looking at all ofthe factors in terms of like
access to health care andmedication and money?
But if you divide them all upand you look at community as a
factor, that's the highestranking factor.
If you have friends in thecommunity, that has the biggest

(34:39):
impact on the length of yourlife, which is crazy, and there
was a study 10 years ago in thecorporate world about people who
have friends at work arehappier at work.

They stay longer 10 years in those companies.
There have been several studieson this front about it's
healthy to have relationships atwhere you work because then
you're more committed to thatworkplace, because it's part of
who you are Outside of yourpersonal life and family.
The family that you create atwork has long been understood to

(35:12):
be an important thing and Ithink that the studies we're
seeing now on aging andlongevity they're just a
continuation of that great humanneed where people need people.

Yep, yep, absolutely.

Quickly quick station ID take 30 seconds.
But we are listening to KPCR-LP92.9 in Los Gatos and I finally
see the sun clipping throughthe clouds.
It was a very overcast morning,but Los Gatos is always
beautiful with any weather.
Also from KMRT-LP 101.9 FM outof Santa Cruz, and I'm, without

(35:48):
saying too much, Andreas, hailsfrom the Santa Cruz area, so he
came over the mountain to bewith us this morning.
So, Andreas, we were talkingabout listening and depth, and
you bring such depth to what youdo you truly do Anyone who
knows you knows that about youthat you take the time to listen

(36:10):
.
But then the insights that youbring forward change the game,
and that's why you've been sogood at everything you've done,
because, as you do these littlemicro-pivots in life, you bring
insights to the game.
I think Listening is hard.
It is Because we're all smartand we've all got these innate.

(36:32):
I've got a me.
It doesn't change much.
You do it in second grade andyou do it when you're 52.
To share there's a great desireto share.

Yeah.

Yeah, so you wrote recently on LinkedIn.
I think this is a transitionfor us about the value of
non-flashy events.

Do you remember that post a few weeks ago?

about non-flashy events and meaningful
connections a few weeks agoabout non-flashy events and
meaningful connections.
I think you are uniquelyequipped and a role model for
how you build community.
How do you think communitysupports people in their pivots?
You were just talking aboutaging and the studies that show
that community and people arepart of successful aging.

(37:17):
So, for you, how do you see thecommunities that you are
involved with contributing toeach other's success, as
everyone in those communities ispivoting into new enterprises,
new skills, new people that havejust moved here?
There's a thousand pivots inany group that you and I are in,

(37:37):
thousand pivots in any groupthat you and I are in.
So how has your life experienceshown you that community helps?

us in these pivots.
The community is absolutelyvital for these pivots.

Sounds like a speech because we talk community
all the time.
But we do, but we love it, butwe do, but we love it, we do
yeah.

So you're saying support supports your
pivot.
I was thinking of Tonya and Iwas thinking that, Tonya, you
supported my pivot into Age Tech.
You actually didn't justsupport it, you drove it like as
a very positive force.

(38:18):
So let me just be specific.

I mean, we all have ideas.
We bounce them off of eachother.
We need to hear that our ideashave merit, right?
Yes, yeah, when they do, and weneed to hear that they stink
when they don't have merit.
Yes, that's equally important.
I trust you so much.

And I remember when we're talking Age Tech and
you had this very positivereaction.
And then he also said oh, Iknow somebody at the RP and I
just come back from CES.

I had been to the pavilion, you had seen their
huge booth.

They're massive .

Pavilion.
I called it a booth, but itsounds enormous To me.

A booth is it was.
How big was this?
I don't even know, it was justmassive.
And I was so impressed becauseI met up with startups.
I talked to them.
They're actually interested inwhat we were doing, how we could
help them.
And then you said I knowsomebody at the AARP and the
AARP is nothing to sneeze atyeah, I know, shout out to.

(39:14):
Karin it's a1.8 billionassociation, the largest
association in the US, largerthan the NRA, and they have 30,
is it 38 million members, almost40 million?
Wow, it's huge.
And so again, this is the humanpart, this is community.

(39:35):
This is something that wouldnot have happened on Zoom it
would not have happened on Zoom?
It would not have happenedwithin LinkedIn.
It would not have happenedwithin some kind of a digital
tool as much as I love digital,it was you hearing my pivot
supporting me and saying oh wait, I think I can make this
introduction.

(39:55):
You made the introduction.
We're still working with her.
There's a lot of things goingon that I can't talk about, but
it's really exciting.
And she introduced me to AndyMiller and to me the amazing
thing is in when I lived inGermany, I was, my name was Andy
because it was just a lotcooler than Andreas, which is

(40:15):
very standard in German, andMiller is the Anglo-Saxon
equivalent of Mueller.
And so I thought this is me,this is wow.

This is serendipity.

There's something going on, and so he's
the guy who actually helpedcreate the whole Age Tech
movement pivot within the ERP.

Oh, okay, and he's on the board, he's always
there at CES.

He heads the summit that I'll be going to in
DC in May, and so I met him andeverything just took off.
It was Tonya verifying yeah,you're on the right track, this
is it, you go.
And then suddenly there's Karin, and then there's Andy Miller,
and it all makes sense.

(41:00):
It all came together.

And so a lot of people look at our communities
that aren't in them as social,and there is a big social
element.
I think we miss those of us whohave traditionally been in a
corporate office environment andwe don't do that as much
anymore.
So I think there is a heavysocial component, these
communities that we're involvedwith, but they are also the

(41:25):
people we used to sit down atthe break table I've got my
little bunny ears, my littlequote marks in the air the break
tables and talk about our ideascasually.
These communities now serve asthose break tables.
I've never said that before,but it feels right.
Maybe it feels old, but to getinput, to get validation that

(41:45):
we're on the right track, thatgives us confidence and it gives
us more reason to pursue newthings, because you need support
when you're pursuing new things.
It's scary to go out on thesepaths and I think the
validation's important.

Absolutely.

Yeah, yeah.

Which makes me think of Shack 15.
Yeah, which is.

Everything makes you think of Shack 15.
You're like their biggestambassador Everybody but it's a
wonderful and so just Please doyour thing going yes.

Getting into what you were just saying about
community and kind of the socialaspect of it, it's always
difficult for me to explain whatShack 15 is because it's so
much.
It's more than a work Somepeople perceive it as a
co-working environment, whichShack 15 vehemently denies,

(42:39):
because there's a long historyto this as well.
Has to do with COVID, et cetera,et cetera, but they feel like,
no, we're so much more.
We're not just.
Coworking is a component of it.
Interestingly enough, they callthemselves a social club.
They're in the Ferry Buildingin a beautiful location in
downtown San Francisco.
It's my second office.

(43:00):
I hang out there every Tuesdayin downtown San Francisco.
It's my second office.
I hang out there every Tuesday,but to me it's really a home of
entrepreneurs.
It's like an entrepreneur'sclub.
It's a community it is.
It's in a weird way, it's atrue community because it's
everything.
They have food there, so thisis something that never bugged

(43:22):
me me.
But they say you can't bring inyour own food because they want
to avoid having just stuff thatit's a higher level idea,
aesthetic, but I love that youcan order food to your table.
They have fantastic coffee andsnacks and lunches that they're
cooked.
There's a kitchen right thereand it's this.

(43:42):
It's it's social, plus the view, the venue, plus food, which is
so important, for I was justdoing this podcast this morning
about portugal and we just talkabout food because it brings us
together, but it's also the workside.
It's also the kind of marketingyourself and and finding amazing

(44:07):
startups and entrepreneurs likeourselves and investors, and
that's why I like shack 15 somuch.
Yeah, it all comes together,but it's this, it's this
definition.
What is it's like?
Wow this, but it's thisdefinition of what is it, it's
like, wow, it's really hardBecause in a sense it's
everything.
But that kind of cheapens it ina way, but not at all.

Now Check 15 is not your only community.
It's one that you adore, right?
I think about your work inPavilion.
You're a leader in Pavilion andbecause you have these
different groups, and let's notfail to mention Ignite.
I want to close out today withIgnite because we've got a big
event coming up.
Love those guys, of course.
Hi Jess, hey you too, bill.

(44:52):
Yeah, bill, of course, becausewe've got to, but you've been in
these communities and you aresenior in these communities.
You stand tall, you're a tallpole on the tent in these
organizations, so you are seniorin these communities.
You stand tall, you're a tallpole in the tent in these
organizations, so you are partof a lot of different
reinventions that are occurring.
You no doubt you speak with 50people every time you are at an

(45:15):
event at night, so you'rehelping people with their
transitions because everybody ismoving forward into something
else.
What are the patterns after allthese years of this networking?
But it's more than networking,it's community building and
support.
What have you noticed that youthink are the key factors or the
common shared experiences thatare making people successful in

(45:41):
making transitions?

So I think, yeah, it's the support system
that you have around you and ina weird simplistic way, it's if
I make introductions forsomebody.
I just met somebody at Shack 15, a German kid that I really
wanted to help, and so I madeintroductions and I try to be

(46:05):
very deliberate, also veryprofessional.
I don't just to me it's reallyhard when somebody starts a
group DM with you and somebodyelse and you and somebody else
and the introducing party andthen just says, hey, here you

(46:25):
guys meet up and I mentionedyour name, have at it.
That to me is so difficultbecause it's lacking, it's
completely lacking communication.
There's no segue there's nointroduction, there's no what's
in it for me, like what and whatdoes this guy need?
But if I can make anintroduction I can say, hey, I

(46:47):
think you could help this guyand he might be able to do
something.
Would you mind if I made anintroduction and then then I
might get another question fromyou.
Then I can answer that, butjust to have just a thought out
process for these introductions.
So it's more of a professionalsegue yeah, introductions should

(47:09):
be curated yes and you have aresponsibility when you're
making introductions.

I've been hot dropped so many times and to
just people, and I'm like pleasedon't do that.
It's so irritating, it's and itis, and I think people just
don't know until they experiencewhat it's like to be curated in
your introduction to someone,to be delivered to another party
, because both sides areimportant to the person making

(47:36):
the introduction and for them todo it well, to set people up
for the best possible bridge sothat they understand each
other's value.
It's a skill, it's a gift andreally it elevates us who do it
that way, who curate thoseconnections, because those
connections are going to stick,because they've been set up

(47:58):
appropriately.
So you mentioned a kid, so I'mgoing to do another.
It seems like these have comeon top of each other, it feels
like but showing people a way tosomething new.
And then you mentioned a kid.
I'm sure they were 20.
Right, but KPCR 92.9 is doing aradio camp this summer, starting

(48:19):
in June, for junior high, earlyhigh school age kids.
So information is on ourwebsite that's kpcrorg.
But I think that's somethingthat you and I, in particular,
with the audiences that we'rewith, would be able to introduce
to people locally who havethose teenage kids who are

(48:40):
looking for something meaningfulto do this summer.
Speaking comfortably publiclyis an important skill, but
wrapping it around a radiodelivery is fun and a great
community for us to be creatingwith that age kids so that they
have something to create,something specific and unique.
So I just wanted to let ourlisteners know that we are

(49:03):
delivering that camp this summer, starting in June, and look for
specific details, dates, timeof day on our website.
I think community starts earlyand we have to give our kids
opportunities to createcommunity with things that they
enjoy doing.

Let me just sneak in a little comment,
Speaking of kids.
I think one of the things thatwe did really was to decide to
homeschool our kids.

I didn't know that you homeschooled.

And the reason behind it wasn't to narrow down
their education down a certainpath, but really to open it up
and the opportunities that wehad because we were
homeschooling was difficult butwe were able to.
So they enjoy music and playingmusic.
They learned to play the violinand it became the fiddle.

Yes.

And my older daughter plays the cello, and
that afforded us the luxury ofbeing able to send them to
fiddle camps and music campsbecause those often overlap with
school and it's very difficultand they're like a week.
They could be like five, sixdays, but they're so amazing in

(50:17):
terms of just.
It's a venue, often in the woods, and it's just mind, just mind
expanding for our kids and it'sso different because assembling
around music and musicalinstruments and you're jamming
together and there's community,there's food and and yeah, I
just wanted to yeah, but youstarted it early with slide that

(50:39):
in there, one of my.

Airstream family members down in Carmel Valley.
If he's not Airstreaming on theweekends, he's at a bluegrass
festival because he is anamazing fiddle player.
And that's his community, right,there's food, there's music and
there's people who enjoy both.
And my friend, carl, shout outto you Carl, he is an amazing
musician, but I think it's thecommunity that keeps him focused

(51:04):
on his music because it giveshim a tribe to gather with.
So finding these tribes, thesecommunities that we have, is so
important.
Moving into this better lifethat, as we live longer, and
bringing it back to Age Tech aswe live longer, we need more
things that give us joy.

(51:25):
Yep, and it's not just work.

And it's not just work, definitely not.

I think you spend a lifetime developing and
curating the list of things thatyou enjoy, and things shift as
we physically shift things.
There may be a day when it'shard for me to pull a 6,000
pound airstream, but I'm notworried about that because along
the way I will be finding,through the communities I'm in,
things that I enjoy that arepivots.

There you go yeah.

So the pivots that you have made in your life.
What do you think has made youso successful?
You homeschooled your kids.
You got a house full of artists.
You work in tech.
What do you think at your roothas made you successful at that?

I think there's something that I just recently
learned, and this was you're ateenager with a hot head.
I mean it wasn't that bad, but Ibut I wasn't the most patient
human being.

You are very patient now.

Yeah, and I try to be very calm because it
helps people around me too.
If I'm managing people or justinteracting with people, just
bring it down a notch, likeit'll be okay.
Here's the worst that canhappen.
Now let's move forward and to methat's been like a huge
learning experience, I'd sayrecently, in the last 10 years,

(52:48):
maybe something like that, butjust the patience, and I think
it's brought me so much patience.
It also fits in with listening,right, because if you're
patient, you can sit there andjust open your ears and
understand what that person isactually asking you.
So yeah, because people look atus and they think, oh man,

(53:10):
they've got it all figured out.

No, not at all, far from it.

Not at all.
We're always like you said,it's the journey it's nice to
say pivot, because it soundslike we know what we're doing.

But you pivot because you're scared out of
your wits and we're trying tofill a gap.
Gaps happen in life, but theyhappen for us, not to us.

I guess the thing I've also learned is that
if I'm having a really badmoment, a moment of just
horrible fear about the future,about what could happen, like
with a business or a clientwho's left, or something like
that.
I look back and I'm sure we'reentrepreneurs, but it's really
true.

(53:50):
So we look back and we realize,oh, you know what this kind of
happened a year ago.
Is this issue still like aburning hot concern?
No, it's gone, it's resolved.
I dealt with it, it's okay.
And so just to have that.

(54:10):
I guess what I call patiencehere too, is just to look at
that and to realize it will beokay.
Just try to take it down anotch and lower the flame a bit.

But you have more than patience.
You have purpose in everythingyou do.
Twenty years ago, today, Ithink you have clarity of
purpose and that purpose can ebband flow.
They switch, transition to newthings.
But that sense of purpose thatyou carry is also the nature of
who you are.

(54:39):
So what advice would you giveto our listeners who are in,
maybe, that gap period wherethey're looking to reinvent
themselves and they may be,actively or not, looking for
their next layer of purpose?
What is your advice to them?

I would say find a community, but align with
an ally or a mentor that youfeel comfortable with, who
actually listens, who's patient,who can give you some ideas,
who can support you, because Ithink that is so important just

(55:19):
that human part, because they'reall the tools in the world and
there's AI and chat GPT and sure, whatever, but just having this
person.
So I really admire my brother,who's gay, he used to work, he's
very active in the LGBTQcommunity and he used to work

(55:39):
with IBM and within IBM there'sa lot of openness to supporting
the LGBTQ family, and he wasvery involved in mentoring and
reverse mentoring, and so thereverse mentoring.
we don't deal with that a lot,but it's a kid.

(56:00):
Who's this 25 year old hirewho's being mentored by this
super intelligent, leadershipdriven vp?
And there's so much value thatcan be passed both ways.
Obviously the vp can say hey,don't worry about it but both

(56:20):
ways we got you covered.
Yeah, and I'm just where I wasin thes.

Oh my god, like we've come so far but then the
kid also saying hey, here's whatI'm seeing, both parties really
getting something out of it andrecognizing that the 50 year
olds, just as a group, have torecognize that there's so much
value for us to learn from.
Oh my god, the younger peoplearound us and I think we're
coming to that.
Perseverance, energy positivityso we're gonna have to do this

(56:45):
again.
We will have to have moreconversations.
In the meantime, where canpeople find you If people have
heard something today thatresonated with them and they
want to follow you on LinkedIn?
Not stalking follow you, butfollow you on LinkedIn?
What's the best way for them?

The best place is really LinkedIn.

Just direct DM me on LinkedIn and they can find
you at On LinkedIn AndreasMueller.

Oh man, it's like search, wow, okay.
So Andreas Mueller,m-u-e-l-l-e-r, m-u-e-l-l-e-r
yeah, perfect.
And also look up Blue Fusion ismy company.
B-l-o-o-f-u-s-i-o-n.
Perfect.
I'll put that in the show notesfor when we publish this.
Much better than email.
Yeah, I get so many emails, Ijust don't yeah.

It's been wonderful.
So, thank you, thank you ustoday.
Not just Age Tech, but adifferent way of looking at
life's transitions and beingpatient with yourself as you
continue to evolve and find newthings that are going to excite
you and give meaning into theworld.
It's been wonderful to have youhere.

Tonya, thank you so much.
This has been incredible.
What a great journey.

Wonderful, thank you.
So everyone, we've beenlistening to RESET with Tonya on
KPCR LP 92.9 FM, here inincreasingly sunny Los Gatos.
We will see you next week,thank you.
Thanks for joining us on RESET.

(58:18):
Remember, transformation is ajourney, not a destination.
So until next time, keepexploring what's possible.
I'm Tonya Long and this is home.
This is RESET.

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Tonya J. Long

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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;}Digital Amplifier to AgeTech Hero: Bridging Lives through Diversity