September 10, 2024 • 50 mins
In this episode of The Intern Whisperer Podcast, I sit down with Glenn Cook, an entrepreneur, mentor, and mobility innovator who’s been at the forefront of disruptive technologies. I met Glenn when we were both accepted into the Avalon Innovation Competition. He is a brilliant, entertaining character that will keep you amazed at the richness of his life and impact.
Glenn shares his personal journey, from growing up in Gainesville, Florida, to founding and learning from three successful startups, alongside the challenges of navigating the highs and lows of entrepreneurship. He talks about his passion for mobility, highlighting the transformative potential of multi-modal transportation systems and the role of innovation in solving the world's toughest problems.
We also dive into his involvement with cutting-edge technologies like AI, AR, and VR in transportation, and how these advancements could change the way we live and work by 2030. Glenn reflects on the importance of freedom in entrepreneurship, the humility in working with investors, and how embracing failure has fueled his growth.
Lastly, he shares valuable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, urging them to do good, contribute to quality of life, and remain adaptable as they shape the future. Tune in for an inspiring conversation on innovation, mentorship, and the next wave of technological disruption.
We hope you enjoy this week's episode of The Intern Whisperer.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
Welcome to the Intern Whisperer.
Our show is all about the future of workand innovation.
And so, today's guestis somebody I've known for a while,
and I don't remember when we met,but the year, I'm pretty sure, is 2021.
It was still Covid - 2022,one of those years.
His name is Glenn Cook, and he is somebodythat I think everybody should know.
(00:31):
But I forgot my intro.
So my name's Isabella Johnstonand this is The Intern Whisperer podcast.
And it's brought to youby employers for change,
which helps hiring teams reduce employerbias and increase head and heart
smart competency skill developmentfor interns and their employees.
My guest, as I mentioned earlier, isGlenn Cook, who is the CSO of Land Rotor.
(00:51):
He's going to explain what that is.
And I met him when we were in the AvalonInnovation program in 2020.
Yes, I have it in my notes.
He's the former vicepresident of a business,
a new business with a demonstrated.
- it says former vice president.
And you're going to explain thattoo, with, new business development,
with a demonstrated history of working
(01:12):
in the transportationlimo and motorcoach industry.
Is this all accurate, Glenn?
Well there's some slight changessince the last time we talked too.
Oh, well,so let's clear that up right now.
So you're the CEO of SafeRydr.
What are you doing now, Glenn?
Okay, so instead of the CSO for Land Rydr I'm actually a strategic partner.
Okay.So also, I won the Innovator of The Year
(01:32):
award with the, East OrlandoChamber of Commerce just recently.
So in conjunction with that, I’m chief innovation for, the entire area
right now.
So as people come in, they bring their startups to me,
they bring their innovative ideas,and we help them to become a reality.
And by getting them some venture capitaland getting them on their way.
(01:53):
I love this.
Okay,so does it have to be limited to cars?
No, not at all.
We're actually working a lotin the healthcare space as well.
We're working some with Vintech.
I got about 17 different verticalsthat we work on in the,
Lake Nona living lab.
You are a busy, busy man.
I don't know how you have time to doanything.
People say that about me,but I've met my match.
(02:14):
That's you.
That's for sure.
Okay, well, what is SafeRydr?
SafeRydr right now was born out of whatyou and I met.
It was part of EVTransports,became a DBA and SafeRydr.
basically brings all forms of multimodalsystems into a safe, connected atmosphere.
So it can be electric,it can be autonomous, it can be operated
(02:36):
on land, air, water, or space.
But it's a very safe form of mobility.
Okay.
So in the month of November,
I'm going to do thisshameless plug and put you on the spot.
I'm - it's hard to do that, though.
You don't flinch.
So we do our Space Jam,and I would like to
have you be one of the companiesthat comes and gives us problem
(02:59):
statements that you would like us to solvewith a game based solution.
That would be wonderful.
Working in aerospaceis a new passion of mine.
Working with Space Florida,
working with peoplethat are out at Kennedy Space Center.
It's really cool stuff. It is cool stuff.
So I would welcome, just so you know,also any connections that you have.
(03:20):
We have some, Kunaland I with Space Florida, with NASA.
But it's always good to have more.
And we want to have business partnershipswith them and be able to do flying
cars and take people to spaceand all the things that you're doing.
And that's part of whywe're having this conversation.
Absolutely. Yeah. Okay.
So we'll do that off the air.
(03:41):
Now, I usually have peopleintroduce themselves with five words
that describe them.
And so I've got your five words. Okay.
So you're going to tell us why that wordand why does that have significance.
For you,
but why would our listenersfind that interesting,
right?
So the first word is disruptive - yes.
That is, you, in the best possible way.Well,
(04:03):
the main thing is thatwe try to do things outside the box.
I've been told
that I tell people what they need to hear,not what they want to hear.
So when somebody brings us a problemor a pain point with a company,
we try to look at things in a new way
that wouldn't be legacyminded or conformative.
So we kind of disruptthe normal way of thinking.
When you come to a pain pointor a problem with a legacy system.
(04:27):
I like that, legacy system.
Now explain it again.
Simple terms.
Legacy system? What does that mean?
Legacy Systemwould basically be something,
the way it's always been done,where a protocol might be.
But you have to look at problemsin a new light,
not with the same type of problemor system that created the problem.
So you're using innovative methodsto really think very, very carefully.
(04:51):
Like honestly, like I would say,a five year old can think,
‘What do I have around me?’, or MacGyver.
Pick your character.
First-World type mentality
where if you look at a politicianor a policymaker, you have to be able
to explain it to them in a way
that a fifth grader would understand it.
Yes, yes.
And once you can get to that point,then you go back to first, principles.
(05:13):
What created that problem,and then solve for that one thing first.
I love it.
Yeah.
And I love the fact that you'rereferencing fifth graders.
I actually put it down even less.
I said, there you go.
It has to be somethinga five year old can understand,
because we're not sayingthat people are stupid, right?
That's not what we're saying. No,not at all.
We're saying we have to make surethat we can speak to different types of
(05:36):
communication levels, different learningabilities, different language barriers.
And so when we use simple words, it'snot an insult.
It's just making sure that our definitionsof what those words
mean, they're on the same pagein the most basic language, right?
Let me tell you something. When you justtalked about a five year old.
Yeah, 90% of a human being's
(05:57):
brain is developed by age five. Yes.
And that's part of STEM education.
I know you're learning a lot.
So tell us why.
So when you operate in that system
of the science, technology,engineering and mathematical space,
children by the age of fivecan understand those concepts.
So early child care development,
(06:20):
eight weeks through five years old,
is where their the most developmental sound.
And if we can reach children at that age
their learning curve increasestremendously.
I agree with you.
And part of where
my research is, is I sit hereand I go, ‘Okay, I've got grown adults.
It's really hard to get a grown adult
to be able to think like a five year oldbecause they've been conditioned.’
(06:43):
They carry baggage, right?
They've got bad habits, they've got goodhabits, they've got all of this stuff
that's impactedtheir life way more than a five year old.
But if I can bring that five year old out,
everything changes for a grown adult.
Exactly.
And I'll tell you one of the things that
if you even learn to train an animal,a horse, a dog, it's called imprinting.
(07:04):
Yes.
What you've been imprinted for so long, ina certain way, it becomes a natural habit.
Yes.
And over a period of time,whether it's 30, 60 or 90
days,it takes that long to unwind that as well.
Yes it does, yes it does.
To create that new habit.
Yeah.
So I introduced myself with two people
and I use that imprinting theoryalso I say.
(07:26):
So tell me your name.
Tell me what you want me to call you.
Because whatever you say right now,I imprint like a baby duck onto you.
And I'm going to say, okay,that's what I'm going to call you.
If you have a nicknameand you don't want me to use that
in front of other people,you have to tell me these things now.
And so then people do that,
and it makes it a lot easier,because the first words that we say,
(07:49):
there's not always a rewindlike you had said earlier.
First impressions.
Yeah, so think carefully.Absolutely.
We should all be a little moreintrospective and introverted
in the way we communicate.
So we're thinking before our mouth opens.
Interact your brain before you engageyour mouth.
That is true Glenn.
That is very, very true.
(08:10):
Very true. Okay, so innovator.
Well I kind of think you covered itbecause you know,
you put disruptive togetherwith innovation.
But you know I loved all of thesespecific cases that you cited.
What else do you want to add to the worldof - the world, and the word of innovation?
Well, with regards to innovation,especially problem solving,
(08:31):
whenever a new company comesinto our living lab of Lake Nona
or the areathat's right outside the airport,
I ask them, you know, ‘What problem areasare you trying to solve for?’
Because we have to think about itin a new way.
Those companies normallywill be searching for capital.
They'll be searching for new employees.
(08:53):
They'll be looking at different waysto get to a certain
type of industry in a different waythat makes them new, innovative.
So that allows that legacy company,
example (09:05):
an IBM to layer in their new type of software
to their Watson X, to layer into Amazon,that new type of robotic
to layer into that Boeing,that new type of aerospace technology.
And wit - by doing that, they become innovative.
So what do you read where you getall of these facts and statistics.
(09:28):
Do you read or do you
how do you consume all of this knowledgevideos, podcasts, reading.
All the above?
Honestly, yeah.
And quite honestly,because I do kind of live on different
time zones all the way around the worldworking in the Emirates,
working in Israel,working in France, working in Brazil.
I learn a lot from multiculturaland being multicultural
(09:51):
and being able to - to speak to these peoplein other countries.
You learn a lot
just by asking simple questions and peoplereally like talking about themselves.
So then you just got to sit backand listen.
They’ll tell you.That is the gift of being a great communicator, right?
Is listening.
And then just letting people,you know, share.
Absolutely. Yeah.
I like you so much for all of these thingsthat you're sharing here.
(10:15):
You're just a very,
fountain.
of knowledge, but also somebody that keepsit fresh, like fountain of youth.
Fresh knowledge too.
It's old school, but it's also relevant.
Okay, so your third word was mentor.
We get a lot of new, young,
(10:36):
people that like to learn new things.
So as they teach me, I teach them.
That's peer and reverse mentoring.
And honestly,I enjoy that. I really dig it.
And - and I can honestly saythat my granddaughter can teach me more
about an iPhone than I could ever consumewhenever I was going through,
Hey, there's the flip phone.
(10:57):
Or, you know,there is the trio from Sprint
that I got that push a lot of buttons.
You know, the whole iPhone concept.
When she was younger, she was three - four.
She started teaching me when I was in my fifties.
Exactly, that is exactly my point.
You are proving my point all the time.
All the time.
I teach in Sunday school,three and four year olds.
(11:19):
That's how I know how to work with adults,because you have to be able
to let them play.
They don't come in with any type of pre - presumptions or prejudices about people.
And if you come in and you workwith people that are two, three, four,
like that kind of curiosityand amazement of life, it is,
it'll change your world.
(11:40):
I really believe Applesat down with young children
and looked at their dexterity skillsto create the iPhone.
I really believe that.I think you're right too.
I honestly think you're right.
So your fifth word was, nope.
Your fourth word was startup founder.
How many thingshave you launched Glenn?
(12:01):
I think I'm on my sixth corporation.
I've done threewhat I would call successful exits.
And then three were kind of bombs, and, I, you know, you learn by failure.
Wait how - how many is that, then?
That's like nine. It's no, no three positive
three negative, so it’s six.Okay.
Yeah.
And, this is my seventh rightnow is SafeRydr
(12:23):
So we're still in that process right now.
And I'm, I'm workingon - working with VCs right now myself.
How do you like that?
Very humbling, because, honestly,I'm working with the guy this today.
He's going to come see me tomorrow.
We met on a Google meet,
and it was through a corporationthat I met in Utah
with, a, called RevRoad.
(12:46):
And he came to me. Oh yeah I remember, is it Tony?
No, this gentleman is - his name is Bo.
Oh. Oh, Bo.
Yeah. Yeah. He used to work -
So Boand I, started our first conversation
today with my daughter in the room.
Because as we scale this quickly,I'm going to need help.
I can't do it on my own.
Yeah, I know Bo.
He's great. Yeah, and there was Tony too.
So he came out of RevRoadand RevRoad’s out of Utah.
(13:07):
Yeah, I like him. Very nice guy.
Okay.
Your last wordthat you used to describe yourself.
Let me get over here. Mobility.
Now, why did you pick mobility?
Well, one of - some of my own researchover the last four years
since we really first met, coming outof the I-Corp program and Avalon Park.
(13:28):
As what we
found is, as you can focuson the quality of life for the human,
the human behavior,
as you increase their mobility,you increase their quality of life.
Now, this could all be for peoplewith disabilities.
It could be people, just in general.
And if you can think about multimodalsystems, it doesn't have to be the car.
It could be the autonomous vehicle,it could be the electric vehicle.
(13:49):
How do you not consume combustionengine fumes?
How do you create infrastructure - excuse me? It could be scooters right?
It could be scooters.
Scooters, absolutely.It could be a flying Jetpack, Jetsons reference.
So we are also working on new typesof propulsion systems, propulsion systems,
you can create one typeof propulsion system and it could work
land, air, water, and space.
So you could actually takeone type of propulsion, make it electric
(14:13):
zero emissions and be able to utilize it
in zero gravity and - and zero oxygen.
Whoa.It can be done.
We can use fluid dynamics.Fascinating.
There's all types - and types of thingsthat we're experimenting with right now.
So when you're learning all of this,
this is a lot to absorb, at, your,I think your brain is like a giant sponge.
(14:36):
It's like - This actually that technology I learned about it from Columbia
in South America.
So I have to go outside of whatwe're used to seeing here
in the continentalUnited States of North America.
So I actually found this companythat had a patent in Columbia.
They came to me and said, hey,
we want to be able to execute thisand utilize this propulsion system.
(14:57):
And what we found is, ‘Wow,it doesn't necessarily even have to be with mobility.
We could use this system for HVAC,
for hospitals to be able to thrust air
where you need to create a cleaneroxygen area.
Cleaner air.’ Like Hospitals.So,
yeah, thatand you know, also in like war settings
(15:19):
where you have to really,you have no control over those things.
Well, working with the Florida-Israelipartnership, I've really had a chance
to sadly, see war firsthand.
And I have friends that have beenrecalled back into active reserve duty. Oh.
So that's hard. Yeah, it's - it's hard.
And these people that are adults,they have children, they have families.
(15:40):
You know, they're not 19, 20 years old.
These are 40, 50 year old people. Yeah.
But they choose this their choosing,
That's part of their culture. It really is.Yeah. Yeah,
they are choosing it.
So, let's talk about your personal story.
Where did you go to school?
How did you end up hereto where you are now?
Younger years.
I grew up in, Florida.
Younger, my dad got transferred of Gainesville.
(16:02):
Oh. Okay. So University of Florida, grew up there.
Then my father's, my mom remarried.
I was originally a Air Force brat.
My dad didn't come back from Vietnam.
My mom remarried when I was seven,
and so I traveled aroundto different Air Force type bases.
And then she remarried, and,we moved to the Carolinas.
(16:23):
And then after that,he got transferred to Kentucky,
where I went to college, my undergradand my master's degree.
And with my very firsta master's degree thesis.
I created a business planwhich got me into event planning sports.
So I worked with thetheme parks here in Florida quite a bit.
Disney, SeaWorld, Wet and Wild, Universal.
(16:46):
And then I also startedworking with the NBA, Matt Orlando Magic,
which branched off into the Miami Heat,Portland Trail Blazers,
Chicago Bulls and I did those contractsall the way up through 2008.
What do you mean you did those contracts?
We we would produce events that wouldproduce any type of mass ticket sale Okay.
over a thousand.
(17:07):
And it's usually eitherwhen the NBA team wasn't doing so hot,
they couldn't fill the seats, or when thetheme parks would have a down season.
They want to get people back in the park,so we produce an event.
It's usually builtaround some type of sporting event
where the families could comein an off season,
bring the whole familyand enjoy themselves.
That's nice.
And then at 2008, I got bought out bythis little company called ESPN,
(17:31):
which had a division calledVarsity Brands.
Oh my God.
And so I did my very first big exit, 2008.Wow.
And then I sat on the couch fora couple of years and didn’t do a whole lot.
Do you have lifetime tickets?
You know, is that what they gave you?
Well, backthen it was still called Amway Arena.
Rich DeVos, that type of thing. Yeah, but.
Shaq was just departing.
(17:51):
Anthony Hardawaywas just leaving going to there.
Well you said you got bought out by ESPN.
And I'm like, Well it's,
it was a brand what's calledVarsity Brands which was a - a sporting Okay.
brand of appareland cheerleading dance events actually.
But that was done at Disney. Yeah.Oh that’s a big sport.
So if you ever saw the NationalCheerleading Championships or
World Championships,that was a brand that I owned.
(18:12):
Yeah, I have gone there.
I have seen thembecause I have a, a friend
that has a daughterthat's in that competition.
in cheerleading and,
yeah, it's a, it is, it's a real sport.
People get scholarships for that.
Oh, yeah.I was one of them years ago. Yeah.
So it's a big dealto have that. A lot of acrobatics.
Yeah. Yeah.
(18:32):
It's like gymnastics but not.
They also don't call it that either. So.
Exactly. yeah.
So when you, where did you sayyou went to school though.
University of Kentucky.
Okay. For my undergrad, my masters.
Why did you choose that school?
Because I graduated from a high schooland I got scholarships.
Oh, well, I got a VA scholarship.
I got an academic scholarship,and I got a scholarship for athletics.
(18:55):
Were you a cheerleader?I was a cheerleader.
There you go. Okay, I figured.
I was an acrobat,and I was a wrestler, and it just,
I don't want to roll aroundon the mat with boys anymore.
So I took up cheerleadingbecause an acrobat.
Is that how you met your wife?No,
actually,she was producing events at Disney.
That's how I met her.
Yeah,I thought maybe she was a cheerleader.
No, no. Yeah. She's your cheerleader now, though.
(19:17):
She's great. She's -
She's just a professionalgrandmother. Gigi.
That's cute.
All right,so let's talk about some of the things.
How did you get to where you are now?
Why did you choose thisparticular industry?
Space of autonomous driving
vehicles and,you know, being able to make mobility
(19:37):
actually happen for the masses? Why?
Like I said, I did an exit in 2008.
I didn't do anything for a little while.
And I looked down to a PNL statementand I saw a line item.
It said transportation.
I said, oh, I could do that.
And I had a gentleman who was my friendcame to me and said, ‘Look,
I want to do a merger acquisitionwith a bigger company.
I know you've done excellent work.Can you help me?’
(19:57):
And I said, ‘Yeah.’
And so we worked for one full year,and we got him bought out by a corporation
that was called, SuperShuttle, blue vans.
And that was owned by a biggerconglomerate called Veolia.
And once that happened,
they brought me in as the sales directorto run a portion of Orlando.
And as I did that, I was like, ‘Wow,this is kind of fun.’
So I became a board memberfor the Motorcoach Association,
(20:21):
the Limousine Association.
And the next thing you know,I'm lobbying in DC
and the next thing you know,I'm lobbying in the state and I'm working
with bigger corporations for masterplancommunities like The Villages.
So I lookedaround like, ‘Wow, this is kind of fun.’
So then I started helping to plan masterplan communities around transportation
because I could see that quality of lifeas you increased it
(20:44):
or you increased people's mobility,they had a better way of living.
Yeah.
And so, I did developments -Well, it’s because of what it represents,
right? It represents,sorry to talk over you.
It represents freedom.
It represents privilege.
It represents a - it's a, you know, an honorto be able to have that.
It's - it's everything.
When you have transportation,you can do so much more.
(21:07):
Oh, absolutely.
I think about a lot to - myselfa little bit.
But in the 70sI got to watch my older uncles
and aunts get their driver's license.
And then in the 80s, I got mine.
And then so I got a form of autonomy,you know, a little bit of,
you can get out of the housea little bit better and go on a date. Yeah.
And, and as I got a chance to enjoy that,
(21:30):
I got to realize, wow, It's freedom.
It gave you freedom. Absolutely it did.
And so when
I got to help people create their ownfreedom
with elderly communitieswhere they might have a disability or -
Yeah, because, they might not have access.
People are taking things away from youwhen you get older too.
And my parents are no different. Yeah.
You know, dementia and,
people that might have losta limb or hearing or eyesight.
(21:52):
If you can start giving those thingsback to people, it gives their quality
of life, a huge uplift.
So. Okay, now this sounds normal again.
Okay.
So you've gone to Dubai.
Why did you go to Dubai?Yeah. Just recently.
I have a mentor.
my - his name is Mr.
Bob McQueen,
and we work on the Florida-Israeli partnership
(22:13):
with one of these companiesthat came to Lake Nona.
It's called Mobility Insight.
And it is a AI driven, a system
that does situational awareness.
And by doing that,I got into AR, VR and simulation
and how you train people,how you train the DoD
Department of Defense,different levels of our military.
And by doing that, I got to see augmentedreality, virtual reality,
(22:38):
XR you know, how do you combine and mergeall these things?
So instead of placing$1 million piece of equipment
and somebody doesn't know what they'redoing, hands you can simulate something.
Do it thousands of timesover and over with, you know,
like augmented reality or virtual realityand - and have AI drive
these scenarios over and over againto optimize their skills.
(23:01):
And I spoke in Dubaion augmented and virtual reality training.
That's great, I love it.
So when you when you were there,
well, first off,I'm going to ask a silly question.
I think it's silly. Like, how hot is itover there?
Okay, so when I got off the plane was 120and it was 10:00 at night.
Oh my God.
It was 120 and it was the most humid placeI'd ever been.
(23:22):
I thought Florida was bad.
And I've been to Vegas and I'd beento Scottsdale, Arizona, and Phoenix.
No place compares.
to Dubai. That's very dry, though.
Oh the humidity, oh my God.
So it's like Florida humid,but the high temperature.
When you see peoplewalking around in white robes.
You know why? Because it's hot. Yeah.
And trying to reflect the sun andoh my God.
(23:45):
But the coolest part of the whole trip,you know, not to mention I had no idea.
seeing the new culturesand beautiful buildings and architecture
going to the top of the Burj Khalifatower, the tallest building in the world,
and looking out and seeing wherethe city ends and the desert begins.
Okay, how - how high, I have a fear of heights,and I'm already just panicking
(24:06):
when you tell me.
They allow youto go up to 155 stories above
that's another ten stories.
And then above thatthere's an extra tower peak.
Are you in the clouds?
Well, it was a clear day.I didn't see any clouds.
I mean, surely you could be.
But I did some interviews up thereand did the VIP treatment.
Got a chance to look out over the
(24:28):
- the ocean is beautiful.
Did - did you feel the building move?
No, not at all, it'snot like going up in the Eiffel Tower.
Where you feel the you know,
I've never been there either, so I'd sayyou're an extremely well traveled person.
No, it's honestly, it was - it was beautiful.
It was very humbling.
You get to go outside,you feel the wind up there and.
Yeah. Very well protected, though.
(24:50):
Oh, I had this just really queasy feelingin my stomach just listening to it.
I'm not kidding. Fear of heights.
Yeah, I challenge myself
though, I sit here and I go, ‘Okay, I'm
going to go ziplining and just jump offand go, okay, we got to do that.’
And, you know, rock climbing.
I've done these things and I know it'sgood to, you know, challenge those fears.
So that they don't stay there. Absolutely.
(25:12):
So would I go?I don't know, maybe with the right people.
Well I had to do it because I, I don'tknow that I'm ever going to go back there.
It's kinda like a bucket list thing.
So I made sure that after I got donespeaking and met
everybody, Did the tourist thing.
Yeah, actually I did, you know,
and they, they really, they,they did a great job on that city.
(25:33):
Yeah. Yeah.
Well it is someplaceI would like to see it definitely.
Definitely multicultural melting pot.
Do you see a lot of Americans there?
Honestly not a little bit.
But for the most partdefinitely Emirati. Okay.
Saudi Arabian subcultures.
Middle eastern. Got it.
So you told mewhy you chose the transportation industry
(25:55):
and you know, that makes sense.
But you had a call beforewe started our podcast.
So let's talk about Tesla, Daytona500 and ITR.
What does ITR,and what do they all have in common?
Okay.
So it's IATR and actually IATR
is the International Associationof Transportation Regulators.
And so I've been friendswith the president. Okay.
(26:15):
His name is Matt Dossfor about five years.
We did an event in Atlantic Cityand that was with chauffeur
driven at the time.
And we were talking about new concepts.
And this was before Tesla became Tesla.
And we were talking about, you know, what
it would be like to have autonomous vehicles,what it would like to live
in a communitythat was fully electric infrastructure.
(26:38):
And that was the exact same timethat Dieselgate came out with VW.
So we were talking about how we were goingto build all this infrastructure
to be able to charge electric vehicles,
not only electric,electric and autonomous vehicles.
And so by working with the IATR,
I got an opportunityto become a beta tester with Tesla.
(27:00):
So I got a chance to seeall the different hardwares,
all the different softwares,all the different metamorphosis
that Tesla went throughover the course of the last six years.
So seeing all of that, I mean,
that's got to be like being a kidin a candy store, right?
Great engineers.
I mean phenomenal, phenomenal engineers.
Yeah.
(27:20):
Yeah, that's a lot of knowledgeand a lot of privilege.
When did you, have you met Elon Musk?No, never.
But I have met with like, DrewBaglino and,
and some of the Tesla teamthat are just all phenomenal.
He's done a great jobdelegating Elon Musk.
Yeah. No I understood who you meant there.
Just for our listeners though too.
(27:40):
Do you have a Tesla?
I have multipleof any model ever built.
I've had - I've had every iterationof hardware software.
So I can, you know, tell peoplewhat it's like to have an Nvidia chip.
And it's not just the car.
No. When you say Tesla let's - let's break that.
No, that's it's an energy company.
It's a software company.
It's - it's a technology company.
(28:02):
It's - it's so many things.
It's kind of like having a mobile iPhone.
It's the easiest way to explain it.
And you know,
and you can talk to it like Alexaand it just picks up stuff and it does it now.
I can literally get in the vehicle,put on my seatbelt, look at it,
click a button on my stockand say I need to navigate to.
And it does it.
That's how good it is now.
(28:23):
Well you did - it doesn't feel scary.
I tell you.
It took about a year to get used to it,
but after a whileyou really learn to trust the system.
And you can also tellwhen the AI makes a bad choice.
When you need to do an intervention,you - you learn to feel it.
I'm skeptical.
But you know,do we have any of those in Lake Nona?
(28:43):
Bunch of ‘em.Okay.
Next time I'm out I want to go in.
There's actually a fleet and theircalled Beep.
Who operates off a different technology.Oh yeah.
But we've also had years agoI had my own fleet of Teslas and we did
- we did a system that was called QuizMy Ride, and we did it with, Ground Link.
We did it with Black Lane,we did it with Uber and Lyft.
(29:05):
Get transferred and the actual orderswould come through the airport.
The car would pick it up,
would drop the order into the vehicle.
We would execute the driveand the - the vehicle
would ask questions to the passenger,and the passenger
was allowed to respondand the system would record the data.
(29:26):
That's how I met you, because I won theInnovation Award by doing Quiz My Ride.
Yeah.
And waswith Doctor David Metcalf at the time.
Yeah, David's great too.For NASA.
All right.
Well so you know that's just ignoranceon my part because I thought
Tesla was only the car,I did not understand.
It's so much more.
Oh the energy industry.
(29:47):
You know, you can talk about solar,you can talk about battery backups
and microgrid technologyand just so many different things.
It's an energy company as well.
Okay.
So,And then you break off from that, then you got space
and then you got The Boring Company.Then you got Neuralink.
And just so many different iterations.
Do you actually have a Tesla car though?
Oh, muches.Ok.
We've had ten. Gotcha.
(30:09):
Actually gave a Cybertruck to a gentlemanthat's in the UK.
In the EU.
That's gotta to be the heaviest carin the world.
It looks like a tank. It's stainless steel.
Yeah, it just looks ridiculously heavy.
All right. Favorite Hot Wheel car?
Tesla Cybertruck.
Okay, that's what you said last time.
(30:31):
It’s still your favorite car?
Yeah. Okay.
So why is that your favorite car?
You don’t got to operate it.
I mean, Is there a Hot Wheel car?
Yeah, I got one of my backpack. Literally.
Okay. All right, well,I want to see that one, too.
My grandson loves it.
That sounds funny.
What color is it? Silver.
Stainless steel.
Just check - because they come incolors now, Wraps.
(30:53):
Is that what they're doing?The base is
stainless steel.
Okay, okay.
So what collaborations are you doing with
our fellow, Avalonians?
We'll call themfrom when we were in that program.
Well, whenever
we were workingwith Stephanie at the time,
(31:15):
I had got a relationship over in Singapore.
We'd had a meeting,and now I'm actually doing
cyber securitywith an Israeli company in Singapore.
Wow. They connected you to that?
I connected the Israeli companyto Singapore.
Okay, okay.
And some of it's under NDA,but basically it's cyber security.
Well, I was,From the Israeli IDF. That's what it is.
(31:38):
I was talking about the peoplethat were in the program with us.
What collaborations do you have-You.
Me. I know you have one with me.
I know,but do you want to talk about anything
with anyone else?
Well, I mean, to meit's very important that we're
Is it Stiff Kids? But-
Honestly, it's very importantthat we're working with interns.
We're working with next generation people,and these are people that come to us
(32:01):
with fresh ideas that we want to implementand the things that we do.
Yeah, You know, they make our widgets better, whatever that widget might be.
They bring to the tablea lot of great new, you know, ideas. They do.
Yeah, yeah.
You haven't become a customer for me yetthough.
I'm just going to point that one out yet.
so. The thing is, is that we're going to get all this stuff where as you come
into this incubatorover at the Verizon 5G,
(32:23):
you're going to get a chanceto see these things.
They just implemented the Lake NonaChamber of Commerce in that 5G center now.
Oh, wow that’s-
So you're going to see businessesfrom all over the world now,
and everybody's going to havean opportunity to share their knowledge. Oh perfect.
You know,they're going to need new workforce.
They're going to need new innovativeideas.
Yeah, I had other exciting things,I'll tell you.
But that will be off the air because I'mlooking for press releases to come out.
(32:46):
Okay.
So do you want to mention anythingwith our - our other friend
that's in education in STEM.
So we had an opportunity of the lastprobably five months
to start working with a type of STEMeducation.
It's called Young Innovators.
Marnie Forestieriis the president founder, CEO.
(33:06):
And she has actually been workingwith the Harvard Education School.
She is going to be bringing STEM education
facilities and franchise them.
And she's going to be doing it in a wayby creating a back
end systemwith one of the founders of Netflix.
Guy's name is Bharath.
And so they're creatingthe software system
(33:27):
that will allow young entrepreneurs,mostly women, of course,
to create their own franchise STEMeducation center anywhere in the world.
I mean, anywhere.
Why just women.
Well because mostly,because when a young child,
I asked her this question,
let's just say you have a 3 or 4 year oldthat might have to have
(33:48):
their diaper changedor they've had an accident.
Most parents don't feel very comfortablehaving a young man engage.
They want it to be more maternal. Yes.
And the reason - that's a particular reasonwhy and which made sense to me.
But also women, I find
are not isolatedto just being the housewife
(34:11):
or just isolated to being the personthat cleans up the hotel room.
These are very bright, entrepreneurialwomen that can run their own show.
And so teaching at that level with peoplethat are the most impressionable
eight weeks to five years old, to me,that's where I want
a strong entrepreneurial woman.
(34:31):
Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of, centersthat are out there.
I've worked in, daycareafter I was doing my - my teaching gig,
I worked in aftercare with, KinderCare.
You know,and I know that a lot of these companies,
they've done a spectacular job of,you know, being able to provide preschool
(34:51):
curriculum to parents that,you know, they're average working people.
But when you have somethinglike what you're describing,
the STEM that that crosses overinto things that are more like Montessori,
very highly experiential,really accelerating the ability
to learn and absorb.
Because children by the age of five,as you mentioned, they're sponges
(35:12):
and they are just sitting there going,‘Oh, I want to learn everything.’
They learn languages,they learn everything during that time.
And I've been to some of her schoolsjust to,
you know, shadow and see how it operates.
I mean, they have sensory rooms,they have robotics rooms, they have
places in therewhere the children actually get to operate
the mechanics behind something,ask questions.
(35:34):
And really, these educators at that leveltake the time to literally
get down on the leveland look into that child's eyes.
They don't hover over them.
No, no, your -
They literally, they get down. Get down on your knees so that you're in the same thing.
Absolutely.they’re not threatened that way either.
So they learn better. their more receptive.
And that's one of the thingsthat I've had to humble myself and learn,
(35:56):
because I'm a grandfather and I wantmy grandchildren to not be fearful of me.
I want them to be engagingbecause I take a great joy
in hanging out with them and goingfishing and swimming and stuff. Your engagement,
I don't know if it's even.
I don't think it creates fearunless there's a parent that is,
you know, exhibiting that.
But I think when you get downon their level, it makes you more playful.
(36:18):
And that's what I think they're respondingto, is the fact that, ‘Oh,
let's go and roll around.
Let's, you know, in this casewe will wrestle.’ , and we'll rustle
and you let the two year oldor the three year old win, you know,
like, not hardly, but, you know, it's funand it's a game and they like it.
Absolutely. Yeah. So that's - that's really nice.
What is the best partof being an entrepreneur, in your opinion?
(36:41):
The freedom to being able to come and go,make your own decisions.
And I can also say that, you know, it'snot all pixie dust and roses.
I mean, there's a lot of failurethat comes with.
Our hardest thing you ever do. Yeah.
And but because of that,to humble yourself and realize, wow,
I can learn through failureand have it be okay.
You know, there'snothing wrong with trying and failing.
(37:03):
I look at itlike it's okay to try and fail.
It's not okay to not try.
And if you can
take the time to realizeand learn from your failures,
it only makes you grow strongerto also be a great mentor to somebody else
or to my grandkids or to my children,you know, how do I exude that
in my church relationship?
(37:23):
How do I disciple people better?
And have them realize that it's okay?
Don't be fearful of failure.
Yeah, I agree with you on that.
And you said something alsothat was really, significant.
Is that the word try?
I do not use the word try.
Rarely will - let me correct myself.
Rarely will I use the word try.
Try to me means thatit gives me the option to say no.
(37:48):
And I sit here and I go,there's three words I - when I mentor
anybody with me and I remind myself,I go, there's, I think I can,
I believe I can, and I know I can.
And which one does an Olympian say.
I know I can.
Yeah, there's no doubt, there's no trying.
They're not going to say,
oh I'm going to try, or, yes,I'm really trying to do better.
Either you're doing betteror you're not doing better.
(38:09):
Which is it?
Yoda would say that too. Yeah.
Yeah. Do or do not. There is no try.
Yeah.
So the most challenging partof being an entrepreneur.
The most challenging part, is realizingwhen you actually have to pivot
and realizeyou can't be married to an idea,
and you have to eithertake the advice of somebody else
and to humble yourself that, hey,I didn't get that one right.
(38:32):
That's the challenging part.
I thinkso because nobody wants to feel like,
oh, why didn't I say there's that failurethinking that falls in there?
But again, you know, like if let's go backto the ages of, you know, 2 to 5, right?
When kids are really learning so fastmore than because they have
verbal skills is really what I'm thinking, anyway,
(38:53):
when you're sitting here and you fail,they don't think anything about it.
They go, okay,they just get up and they keep trying.
Now, if they see an adult around them
and you know, they fall down or whatever,oh, they start crying, right?
Because they get sympathy.
They already know how to use thatto their advantage.
That's another thing
that I admire about Marny and her systemwith the young innovators is
(39:16):
they're very empathetic.They teach empathy.
You know,they make children identify with empathy.
So that's, that's a very strong trait.
Well, we're doing pretty good here.
We're going to blowthrough these next questions
because I know you have a phone callcoming up here.
So we're going to take a break.
Acknowledge our sponsor Capfive Studios will be right back.
The Intern Whisperer is brought to youby Cat 5 Studios, who help you
(39:38):
create games and videos
for your training and marketing needsthat are out of this world.
Visit Cat 5 Studiosfor more information to learn
how Cat 5 Studioscan help your business.
Thank you, Cat 5 Studios.
We're in the second half of our showGlenn over here.
My favorite friend Glenn Cook is my guest.
And we're going to talk about the futurein 2030.
He's already been talking aboutit in the first half this show.
(40:00):
If you don't get that,we've already crossed over this line here.
But what do you think2030 is going to be look like?
And basicallythat's just five years from now.
We don't count this year.We don't count to 2030.
Well,2030 has already happened in my mind.
We're actually working on vision 2055.
I mean, that's where we're planningand - and where we are.
(40:21):
And the planning stage is- is we're looking at
what the spaceeconomy is going to be like.
What's it going to be likewhen you live in space?
You're born in space and you visit Earth?
Oh that's crazy.
So we're working on programslike Orbital Reef with Blue Origin.
We're working on programs like,think about what the space station's like
that'sactually going to be disassembled by 2030.
(40:42):
There won’t be another spacestation. Really?
There's going to be other types of thingsdeveloped,
whether it's the colonyon, you know, the Moon or,
you know, an Orbital Reefwhere you've built that space station.
For modern everydaypeople, space travel is becoming.
If you haven't watched Starship,just got caught
by the Mega Zilla arms by the chopsticks.
(41:03):
First time ever, first try, launch five.
So already these things are happening
and they're being acceleratedby Artificial Intelligence.
So then AGI Artificial GentleIntelligence is going to become a thing.
Robotics quality of life,humanoid robotics are all you see. Did you already see,
(41:23):
yeah they've been having them all kinds - all kinds of things are all.
And it's happening.
Yeah. It's not about if, it's happening.
Yeah.
And so people worry about ‘Okay,well it's going to do my job.’
Don't touch the robots.Please be kind to them.
Yeah I saw that on a video. And honestly,
they learned through a systemthat's called end to end neuranet.
And so as the repetition goes,they learn through
(41:46):
just like a human, repetition
of how things are done.
And so they learn skills.
But the difference between
a human and a humanoid robotis that they’ll get it right the first next
try whereas the human will go, ‘Okay,I messed that up’ and ‘Oh, that's hot.’
‘Oh, I'm gonna touch it again.I’m gonna touch it again.’
Yeah, it takes a little longer.For a little longer.
(42:07):
Some people learn on the first one,
some it might take,I don't know, five, ten times. Yeah.
Yeah I get it. Okay.
So what,
positive as - what positive impactdo you think robots
or augmentedreality can have on the future of work?
That's going to give you your time back.
And that's the motive - to a human.
We have an amount of time on this earth.
(42:30):
And if you can get the qualityof life of time back.
You can't ever. Yeah. You can't,You cannot replace it.
So if you can get the quality of lifeof time, which is something I learned from
my grandmother,
that's one of the things when
you know that your life is going to end,the most important thing to you is time.
That's true. Yeah.
(42:51):
You know, the average lifelifespan of a 75 year
old is 27,325 days.
When you think about that, you think aboutdays I sit here, I'm working on a book.
That's the title of my book too,by the way.
And it's, it's 27,375 days of impact.
Every day we make a choice whether we canprovide impact in the world.
(43:15):
Impact can be something as smallas feeding somebody that's homeless.
You buy them per day.
It can be - what did you say over here?
You had said something, neuralnet and robots and-
Yeah.Oh, okay.
It can be - be a part of these things that are,they're not going back in the box.
So being a part of what is being created,
(43:37):
honestly, in the late 50swhen the, you know, the scientists,
the researchers were all in the labs,primarily a bunch of white guys,
you know, figuring outwhat is our future going to look like?
That's like 68 years ago,I think 60 something close.
You got to think about Walt Disney.
I mean, right down the road from us.Right.
Started talking about Epcot back in the60s, the George Jetsons back in the 60s.
(44:01):
But if you literally come outto Lake Nona,
you will see a living life lab Epcot.
It's - it's we do it.Yeah.
I've been there, I've seen it.I know it's amazing.
And - and to see the great mindsthat come from all over the world
to come, to bring their technology,to try it out and to watch it work.
(44:23):
And you go, wow, we can do that.
Let's do that. That's really cool.
All right. My next question.
This gentleman,his name is Geoffrey Hinton.
He was interviewed on 60 minutes about AI.
He is called the godfather of AI.Godfather.
And he's - he is very, very concernedabout what he invented.
He was a part of the teamthat invented this.
(44:45):
He said one of the waysin which these systems might escape
control is by writing their own computercode to modify themselves.
And that's somethingwe need to seriously worry about.
This is in October 8th, 2023.
So what ethical dilemmas that you foreseecould come up
out of are in AR and AI because you've beenyou know, a really good advocate.
(45:06):
Yeah. Well look at it like this.
And this is one of the things
that I can say that AI for good,which was started, you know,
back years ago by a group of individuals,you can create something to do
a nefarious act. Yeah.
You can have too much of anything.
Yep. And have it be harmful.
Yep. So they're in that mental state.
(45:26):
If you were trying to do somethingnefarious, it will be bad.
It'll be harmful.
However, if you create somethinglike social engineering or good,
you can actually socially engineera new mind frame of life
in an area that only people want to livein that utopia of good.
It's possible,but if you tweak it a little bit
(45:48):
and be that one degree offof going towards negativity,
the glass is half empty, not half full.
Then it will absolutely be that again.
So if you train that computerto do nefarious acts or to be,
a system
that is harmful cybersecurity wise,then it will be that.
So what systems dowe need to put in place to ensure
(46:11):
that the people that are creating thisare on the side of good, not going evil?
So I think this is what I thinkwhen I thought about that said.
So we need to make sure that we'reeducating people in ethics.
We need to make surethat there is a certification around it,
and that the only people that are actuallycreating AI and being involved in it
(46:34):
have to prove their certificationand have to prove that they're
doing good decisions.
It has to be something that, we knowwe're choosing people that are going
to be good stewards of all of this abilityto be almost like, God.
Well, integrity.
I mean, it's, you can start withjust simple integrity, moral values, Yeah.
(46:56):
you know, and I believe that
the basics and then, of course, I'ma Christian guy.
So I go back to the moral structureof the Bible.
There is an instructional manual in life,and that's just my own personal.
Well, the Bible is it.
And it's an instruction manual.
Yeah.
And throughout the centuries,
we have been given an instruction manualand how you adhere to that.
(47:20):
And, I'm of that cultureand I firmly believe it.
Yeah.
And other religionshave something that would be similar.
So you know, it's like I knowI'm a believer too, like yourself.
But I also know not everybody is,
but they have their own belief systemand there's good and there's evil.
And it's long as they're on that sideof good, we're kind of all playing
(47:42):
in the sandbox together, safely.
Well, there'sdifferent, different continents out there.
We were literally subdividedby continents. Yep.
And if you've ever been on a planetrip to Dubai, you know how far that is.
And if you try to go to Chinaor if you try to go to Japan and Asia,
Russia, those plane flights are longand you realize how far away,
(48:03):
and then you landand then you talk to people and you look,
there is a difference in cultureand the way they act has been imprinted.
And through thousands of years,a way a culture reacts to something.
This is honestly gonna be one of the best showsYou have to
behold yourself to that.
I'm telling youthis is honestly one of the best shows.
Okay? It's high on my list.
Way better than the other one we did.
Okay, so, I'm getting - getting downto my last two questions
(48:26):
because I know we have to go.
Best mentoring advicethat you want to share with our listeners
about the future of work.
Or future period.
Yeah.
As far as being a mentor to people,what we try to do is do good, real simple.
You know,if you feel in your heart of hearts
that you're doing goodand you're trying to contribute
to the betterment of life,the quality of life for those around you
(48:50):
generationally, you know,and that is something
you want to press forwardand to impress, put impressions upon people.
Please do that because you're goingto have a conscience about it.
And you’re conscienceis that sixth sense, so to speak.
Yeah. And I call it the Holy Spirit.
Yeah. Me too. Yeah.
How can our listenersconnect with you now?
(49:10):
I give them your LinkedIn profile, but,
I know,we use the SafeRydr.com website.
And we also have landrotor.com.
Is that enough?The easiest thing to do is a go to saferydr.com.
At the very bottomit says connect with me.
There's a little area inthere that says fill in your name,
your email address, a general comment, a phone number.
(49:31):
And I return all messages, I really do.
And, you know,I have assistants that work with me and
and we have a wonderful lab systemwith our incubators
that - Guidewell, Verizon5G, Leads Accelerator.
And we - we welcome new ideas all the time.
Well,I want to thank you for being a guest.
(49:51):
This was phenomenal.
Yeah.
And, just so our listenersknow, you can always go back
and you can find Glennon any of these channels.
And I encourage you to look for him.
Thank you
to our sponsor, Cat 5 Studios,and thank you to our video production and editing team,
Rachel Mattias, Erika Ulman and Gavin Staley.
(50:13):
Music is by Sophie Lloyd.
The Intern Whisperer is brought to you by Employers 4 Change,
helping hiring teams to recruit, and upscaletheir intern talent and employees.
Learn more about www.E4C.tech and
and become a member to reduce employer biasand improve company culture
(50:33):
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Subscribe to The Intern Whisperer today and show your support by sharing our show.
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You can find The Intern Whisperer podcast on Employers 4 ChangeYoutube channel, or streaming from your favorite podcast channel.
Welcome to the Intern Whisperer.
Our show is all about the future of workand innovation.
And so, today's guestis somebody I've known for a while,
and I don't remember when we met,but the year, I'm pretty sure, is 2021.
It was still Covid - 2022,one of those years.
His name is Glenn Cook, and he is somebodythat I think everybody should know.
(00:31):
But I forgot my intro.
So my name's Isabella Johnstonand this is The Intern Whisperer podcast.
And it's brought to youby employers for change,
which helps hiring teams reduce employerbias and increase head and heart
smart competency skill developmentfor interns and their employees.
My guest, as I mentioned earlier, isGlenn Cook, who is the CSO of Land Rotor.
(00:51):
He's going to explain what that is.
And I met him when we were in the AvalonInnovation program in 2020.
Yes, I have it in my notes.
He's the former vicepresident of a business,
a new business with a demonstrated.
- it says former vice president.
And you're going to explain thattoo, with, new business development,
with a demonstrated history of working
(01:12):
in the transportationlimo and motorcoach industry.
Is this all accurate, Glenn?
Well there's some slight changessince the last time we talked too.
Oh, well,so let's clear that up right now.
So you're the CEO of SafeRydr.
What are you doing now, Glenn?
Okay, so instead of the CSO for Land Rydr I'm actually a strategic partner.
Okay.So also, I won the Innovator of The Year
(01:32):
award with the, East OrlandoChamber of Commerce just recently.
So in conjunction with that, I’m chief innovation for, the entire area
right now.
So as people come in, they bring their startups to me,
they bring their innovative ideas,and we help them to become a reality.
And by getting them some venture capitaland getting them on their way.
(01:53):
I love this.
Okay,so does it have to be limited to cars?
No, not at all.
We're actually working a lotin the healthcare space as well.
We're working some with Vintech.
I got about 17 different verticalsthat we work on in the,
Lake Nona living lab.
You are a busy, busy man.
I don't know how you have time to doanything.
People say that about me,but I've met my match.
(02:14):
That's you.
That's for sure.
Okay, well, what is SafeRydr?
SafeRydr right now was born out of whatyou and I met.
It was part of EVTransports,became a DBA and SafeRydr.
basically brings all forms of multimodalsystems into a safe, connected atmosphere.
So it can be electric,it can be autonomous, it can be operated
(02:36):
on land, air, water, or space.
But it's a very safe form of mobility.
Okay.
So in the month of November,
I'm going to do thisshameless plug and put you on the spot.
I'm - it's hard to do that, though.
You don't flinch.
So we do our Space Jam,and I would like to
have you be one of the companiesthat comes and gives us problem
(02:59):
statements that you would like us to solvewith a game based solution.
That would be wonderful.
Working in aerospaceis a new passion of mine.
Working with Space Florida,
working with peoplethat are out at Kennedy Space Center.
It's really cool stuff. It is cool stuff.
So I would welcome, just so you know,also any connections that you have.
(03:20):
We have some, Kunaland I with Space Florida, with NASA.
But it's always good to have more.
And we want to have business partnershipswith them and be able to do flying
cars and take people to spaceand all the things that you're doing.
And that's part of whywe're having this conversation.
Absolutely. Yeah. Okay.
So we'll do that off the air.
(03:41):
Now, I usually have peopleintroduce themselves with five words
that describe them.
And so I've got your five words. Okay.
So you're going to tell us why that wordand why does that have significance.
For you,
but why would our listenersfind that interesting,
right?
So the first word is disruptive - yes.
That is, you, in the best possible way.Well,
(04:03):
the main thing is thatwe try to do things outside the box.
I've been told
that I tell people what they need to hear,not what they want to hear.
So when somebody brings us a problemor a pain point with a company,
we try to look at things in a new way
that wouldn't be legacyminded or conformative.
So we kind of disruptthe normal way of thinking.
When you come to a pain pointor a problem with a legacy system.
(04:27):
I like that, legacy system.
Now explain it again.
Simple terms.
Legacy system? What does that mean?
Legacy Systemwould basically be something,
the way it's always been done,where a protocol might be.
But you have to look at problemsin a new light,
not with the same type of problemor system that created the problem.
So you're using innovative methodsto really think very, very carefully.
(04:51):
Like honestly, like I would say,a five year old can think,
‘What do I have around me?’, or MacGyver.
Pick your character.
First-World type mentality
where if you look at a politicianor a policymaker, you have to be able
to explain it to them in a way
that a fifth grader would understand it.
Yes, yes.
And once you can get to that point,then you go back to first, principles.
(05:13):
What created that problem,and then solve for that one thing first.
I love it.
Yeah.
And I love the fact that you'rereferencing fifth graders.
I actually put it down even less.
I said, there you go.
It has to be somethinga five year old can understand,
because we're not sayingthat people are stupid, right?
That's not what we're saying. No,not at all.
We're saying we have to make surethat we can speak to different types of
(05:36):
communication levels, different learningabilities, different language barriers.
And so when we use simple words, it'snot an insult.
It's just making sure that our definitionsof what those words
mean, they're on the same pagein the most basic language, right?
Let me tell you something. When you justtalked about a five year old.
Yeah, 90% of a human being's
(05:57):
brain is developed by age five. Yes.
And that's part of STEM education.
I know you're learning a lot.
So tell us why.
So when you operate in that system
of the science, technology,engineering and mathematical space,
children by the age of fivecan understand those concepts.
So early child care development,
(06:20):
eight weeks through five years old,
is where their the most developmental sound.
And if we can reach children at that age
their learning curve increasestremendously.
I agree with you.
And part of where
my research is, is I sit hereand I go, ‘Okay, I've got grown adults.
It's really hard to get a grown adult
to be able to think like a five year oldbecause they've been conditioned.’
(06:43):
They carry baggage, right?
They've got bad habits, they've got goodhabits, they've got all of this stuff
that's impactedtheir life way more than a five year old.
But if I can bring that five year old out,
everything changes for a grown adult.
Exactly.
And I'll tell you one of the things that
if you even learn to train an animal,a horse, a dog, it's called imprinting.
(07:04):
Yes.
What you've been imprinted for so long, ina certain way, it becomes a natural habit.
Yes.
And over a period of time,whether it's 30, 60 or 90
days,it takes that long to unwind that as well.
Yes it does, yes it does.
To create that new habit.
Yeah.
So I introduced myself with two people
and I use that imprinting theoryalso I say.
(07:26):
So tell me your name.
Tell me what you want me to call you.
Because whatever you say right now,I imprint like a baby duck onto you.
And I'm going to say, okay,that's what I'm going to call you.
If you have a nicknameand you don't want me to use that
in front of other people,you have to tell me these things now.
And so then people do that,
and it makes it a lot easier,because the first words that we say,
(07:49):
there's not always a rewindlike you had said earlier.
First impressions.
Yeah, so think carefully.Absolutely.
We should all be a little moreintrospective and introverted
in the way we communicate.
So we're thinking before our mouth opens.
Interact your brain before you engageyour mouth.
That is true Glenn.
That is very, very true.
(08:10):
Very true. Okay, so innovator.
Well I kind of think you covered itbecause you know,
you put disruptive togetherwith innovation.
But you know I loved all of thesespecific cases that you cited.
What else do you want to add to the worldof - the world, and the word of innovation?
Well, with regards to innovation,especially problem solving,
(08:31):
whenever a new company comesinto our living lab of Lake Nona
or the areathat's right outside the airport,
I ask them, you know, ‘What problem areasare you trying to solve for?’
Because we have to think about itin a new way.
Those companies normallywill be searching for capital.
They'll be searching for new employees.
(08:53):
They'll be looking at different waysto get to a certain
type of industry in a different waythat makes them new, innovative.
So that allows that legacy company,
example (09:05):
an IBM to layer in their new type of software
to their Watson X, to layer into Amazon,that new type of robotic
to layer into that Boeing,that new type of aerospace technology.
And wit - by doing that, they become innovative.
So what do you read where you getall of these facts and statistics.
(09:28):
Do you read or do you
how do you consume all of this knowledgevideos, podcasts, reading.
All the above?
Honestly, yeah.
And quite honestly,because I do kind of live on different
time zones all the way around the worldworking in the Emirates,
working in Israel,working in France, working in Brazil.
I learn a lot from multiculturaland being multicultural
(09:51):
and being able to - to speak to these peoplein other countries.
You learn a lot
just by asking simple questions and peoplereally like talking about themselves.
So then you just got to sit backand listen.
They’ll tell you.That is the gift of being a great communicator, right?
Is listening.
And then just letting people,you know, share.
Absolutely. Yeah.
I like you so much for all of these thingsthat you're sharing here.
(10:15):
You're just a very,
fountain.
of knowledge, but also somebody that keepsit fresh, like fountain of youth.
Fresh knowledge too.
It's old school, but it's also relevant.
Okay, so your third word was mentor.
We get a lot of new, young,
(10:36):
people that like to learn new things.
So as they teach me, I teach them.
That's peer and reverse mentoring.
And honestly,I enjoy that. I really dig it.
And - and I can honestly saythat my granddaughter can teach me more
about an iPhone than I could ever consumewhenever I was going through,
Hey, there's the flip phone.
(10:57):
Or, you know,there is the trio from Sprint
that I got that push a lot of buttons.
You know, the whole iPhone concept.
When she was younger, she was three - four.
She started teaching me when I was in my fifties.
Exactly, that is exactly my point.
You are proving my point all the time.
All the time.
I teach in Sunday school,three and four year olds.
(11:19):
That's how I know how to work with adults,because you have to be able
to let them play.
They don't come in with any type of pre - presumptions or prejudices about people.
And if you come in and you workwith people that are two, three, four,
like that kind of curiosityand amazement of life, it is,
it'll change your world.
(11:40):
I really believe Applesat down with young children
and looked at their dexterity skillsto create the iPhone.
I really believe that.I think you're right too.
I honestly think you're right.
So your fifth word was, nope.
Your fourth word was startup founder.
How many thingshave you launched Glenn?
(12:01):
I think I'm on my sixth corporation.
I've done threewhat I would call successful exits.
And then three were kind of bombs, and, I, you know, you learn by failure.
Wait how - how many is that, then?
That's like nine. It's no, no three positive
three negative, so it’s six.Okay.
Yeah.
And, this is my seventh rightnow is SafeRydr
(12:23):
So we're still in that process right now.
And I'm, I'm workingon - working with VCs right now myself.
How do you like that?
Very humbling, because, honestly,I'm working with the guy this today.
He's going to come see me tomorrow.
We met on a Google meet,
and it was through a corporationthat I met in Utah
with, a, called RevRoad.
(12:46):
And he came to me. Oh yeah I remember, is it Tony?
No, this gentleman is - his name is Bo.
Oh. Oh, Bo.
Yeah. Yeah. He used to work -
So Boand I, started our first conversation
today with my daughter in the room.
Because as we scale this quickly,I'm going to need help.
I can't do it on my own.
Yeah, I know Bo.
He's great. Yeah, and there was Tony too.
So he came out of RevRoadand RevRoad’s out of Utah.
(13:07):
Yeah, I like him. Very nice guy.
Okay.
Your last wordthat you used to describe yourself.
Let me get over here. Mobility.
Now, why did you pick mobility?
Well, one of - some of my own researchover the last four years
since we really first met, coming outof the I-Corp program and Avalon Park.
(13:28):
As what we
found is, as you can focuson the quality of life for the human,
the human behavior,
as you increase their mobility,you increase their quality of life.
Now, this could all be for peoplewith disabilities.
It could be people, just in general.
And if you can think about multimodalsystems, it doesn't have to be the car.
It could be the autonomous vehicle,it could be the electric vehicle.
(13:49):
How do you not consume combustionengine fumes?
How do you create infrastructure - excuse me? It could be scooters right?
It could be scooters.
Scooters, absolutely.It could be a flying Jetpack, Jetsons reference.
So we are also working on new typesof propulsion systems, propulsion systems,
you can create one typeof propulsion system and it could work
land, air, water, and space.
So you could actually takeone type of propulsion, make it electric
(14:13):
zero emissions and be able to utilize it
in zero gravity and - and zero oxygen.
Whoa.It can be done.
We can use fluid dynamics.Fascinating.
There's all types - and types of thingsthat we're experimenting with right now.
So when you're learning all of this,
this is a lot to absorb, at, your,I think your brain is like a giant sponge.
(14:36):
It's like - This actually that technology I learned about it from Columbia
in South America.
So I have to go outside of whatwe're used to seeing here
in the continentalUnited States of North America.
So I actually found this companythat had a patent in Columbia.
They came to me and said, hey,
we want to be able to execute thisand utilize this propulsion system.
(14:57):
And what we found is, ‘Wow,it doesn't necessarily even have to be with mobility.
We could use this system for HVAC,
for hospitals to be able to thrust air
where you need to create a cleaneroxygen area.
Cleaner air.’ Like Hospitals.So,
yeah, thatand you know, also in like war settings
(15:19):
where you have to really,you have no control over those things.
Well, working with the Florida-Israelipartnership, I've really had a chance
to sadly, see war firsthand.
And I have friends that have beenrecalled back into active reserve duty. Oh.
So that's hard. Yeah, it's - it's hard.
And these people that are adults,they have children, they have families.
(15:40):
You know, they're not 19, 20 years old.
These are 40, 50 year old people. Yeah.
But they choose this their choosing,
That's part of their culture. It really is.Yeah. Yeah,
they are choosing it.
So, let's talk about your personal story.
Where did you go to school?
How did you end up hereto where you are now?
Younger years.
I grew up in, Florida.
Younger, my dad got transferred of Gainesville.
(16:02):
Oh. Okay. So University of Florida, grew up there.
Then my father's, my mom remarried.
I was originally a Air Force brat.
My dad didn't come back from Vietnam.
My mom remarried when I was seven,
and so I traveled aroundto different Air Force type bases.
And then she remarried, and,we moved to the Carolinas.
(16:23):
And then after that,he got transferred to Kentucky,
where I went to college, my undergradand my master's degree.
And with my very firsta master's degree thesis.
I created a business planwhich got me into event planning sports.
So I worked with thetheme parks here in Florida quite a bit.
Disney, SeaWorld, Wet and Wild, Universal.
(16:46):
And then I also startedworking with the NBA, Matt Orlando Magic,
which branched off into the Miami Heat,Portland Trail Blazers,
Chicago Bulls and I did those contractsall the way up through 2008.
What do you mean you did those contracts?
We we would produce events that wouldproduce any type of mass ticket sale Okay.
over a thousand.
(17:07):
And it's usually eitherwhen the NBA team wasn't doing so hot,
they couldn't fill the seats, or when thetheme parks would have a down season.
They want to get people back in the park,so we produce an event.
It's usually builtaround some type of sporting event
where the families could comein an off season,
bring the whole familyand enjoy themselves.
That's nice.
And then at 2008, I got bought out bythis little company called ESPN,
(17:31):
which had a division calledVarsity Brands.
Oh my God.
And so I did my very first big exit, 2008.Wow.
And then I sat on the couch fora couple of years and didn’t do a whole lot.
Do you have lifetime tickets?
You know, is that what they gave you?
Well, backthen it was still called Amway Arena.
Rich DeVos, that type of thing. Yeah, but.
Shaq was just departing.
(17:51):
Anthony Hardawaywas just leaving going to there.
Well you said you got bought out by ESPN.
And I'm like, Well it's,
it was a brand what's calledVarsity Brands which was a - a sporting Okay.
brand of appareland cheerleading dance events actually.
But that was done at Disney. Yeah.Oh that’s a big sport.
So if you ever saw the NationalCheerleading Championships or
World Championships,that was a brand that I owned.
(18:12):
Yeah, I have gone there.
I have seen thembecause I have a, a friend
that has a daughterthat's in that competition.
in cheerleading and,
yeah, it's a, it is, it's a real sport.
People get scholarships for that.
Oh, yeah.I was one of them years ago. Yeah.
So it's a big dealto have that. A lot of acrobatics.
Yeah. Yeah.
(18:32):
It's like gymnastics but not.
They also don't call it that either. So.
Exactly. yeah.
So when you, where did you sayyou went to school though.
University of Kentucky.
Okay. For my undergrad, my masters.
Why did you choose that school?
Because I graduated from a high schooland I got scholarships.
Oh, well, I got a VA scholarship.
I got an academic scholarship,and I got a scholarship for athletics.
(18:55):
Were you a cheerleader?I was a cheerleader.
There you go. Okay, I figured.
I was an acrobat,and I was a wrestler, and it just,
I don't want to roll aroundon the mat with boys anymore.
So I took up cheerleadingbecause an acrobat.
Is that how you met your wife?No,
actually,she was producing events at Disney.
That's how I met her.
Yeah,I thought maybe she was a cheerleader.
No, no. Yeah. She's your cheerleader now, though.
(19:17):
She's great. She's -
She's just a professionalgrandmother. Gigi.
That's cute.
All right,so let's talk about some of the things.
How did you get to where you are now?
Why did you choose thisparticular industry?
Space of autonomous driving
vehicles and,you know, being able to make mobility
(19:37):
actually happen for the masses? Why?
Like I said, I did an exit in 2008.
I didn't do anything for a little while.
And I looked down to a PNL statementand I saw a line item.
It said transportation.
I said, oh, I could do that.
And I had a gentleman who was my friendcame to me and said, ‘Look,
I want to do a merger acquisitionwith a bigger company.
I know you've done excellent work.Can you help me?’
(19:57):
And I said, ‘Yeah.’
And so we worked for one full year,and we got him bought out by a corporation
that was called, SuperShuttle, blue vans.
And that was owned by a biggerconglomerate called Veolia.
And once that happened,
they brought me in as the sales directorto run a portion of Orlando.
And as I did that, I was like, ‘Wow,this is kind of fun.’
So I became a board memberfor the Motorcoach Association,
(20:21):
the Limousine Association.
And the next thing you know,I'm lobbying in DC
and the next thing you know,I'm lobbying in the state and I'm working
with bigger corporations for masterplancommunities like The Villages.
So I lookedaround like, ‘Wow, this is kind of fun.’
So then I started helping to plan masterplan communities around transportation
because I could see that quality of lifeas you increased it
(20:44):
or you increased people's mobility,they had a better way of living.
Yeah.
And so, I did developments -Well, it’s because of what it represents,
right? It represents,sorry to talk over you.
It represents freedom.
It represents privilege.
It represents a - it's a, you know, an honorto be able to have that.
It's - it's everything.
When you have transportation,you can do so much more.
(21:07):
Oh, absolutely.
I think about a lot to - myselfa little bit.
But in the 70sI got to watch my older uncles
and aunts get their driver's license.
And then in the 80s, I got mine.
And then so I got a form of autonomy,you know, a little bit of,
you can get out of the housea little bit better and go on a date. Yeah.
And, and as I got a chance to enjoy that,
(21:30):
I got to realize, wow, It's freedom.
It gave you freedom. Absolutely it did.
And so when
I got to help people create their ownfreedom
with elderly communitieswhere they might have a disability or -
Yeah, because, they might not have access.
People are taking things away from youwhen you get older too.
And my parents are no different. Yeah.
You know, dementia and,
people that might have losta limb or hearing or eyesight.
(21:52):
If you can start giving those thingsback to people, it gives their quality
of life, a huge uplift.
So. Okay, now this sounds normal again.
Okay.
So you've gone to Dubai.
Why did you go to Dubai?Yeah. Just recently.
I have a mentor.
my - his name is Mr.
Bob McQueen,
and we work on the Florida-Israeli partnership
(22:13):
with one of these companiesthat came to Lake Nona.
It's called Mobility Insight.
And it is a AI driven, a system
that does situational awareness.
And by doing that,I got into AR, VR and simulation
and how you train people,how you train the DoD
Department of Defense,different levels of our military.
And by doing that, I got to see augmentedreality, virtual reality,
(22:38):
XR you know, how do you combine and mergeall these things?
So instead of placing$1 million piece of equipment
and somebody doesn't know what they'redoing, hands you can simulate something.
Do it thousands of timesover and over with, you know,
like augmented reality or virtual realityand - and have AI drive
these scenarios over and over againto optimize their skills.
(23:01):
And I spoke in Dubaion augmented and virtual reality training.
That's great, I love it.
So when you when you were there,
well, first off,I'm going to ask a silly question.
I think it's silly. Like, how hot is itover there?
Okay, so when I got off the plane was 120and it was 10:00 at night.
Oh my God.
It was 120 and it was the most humid placeI'd ever been.
(23:22):
I thought Florida was bad.
And I've been to Vegas and I'd beento Scottsdale, Arizona, and Phoenix.
No place compares.
to Dubai. That's very dry, though.
Oh the humidity, oh my God.
So it's like Florida humid,but the high temperature.
When you see peoplewalking around in white robes.
You know why? Because it's hot. Yeah.
And trying to reflect the sun andoh my God.
(23:45):
But the coolest part of the whole trip,you know, not to mention I had no idea.
seeing the new culturesand beautiful buildings and architecture
going to the top of the Burj Khalifatower, the tallest building in the world,
and looking out and seeing wherethe city ends and the desert begins.
Okay, how - how high, I have a fear of heights,and I'm already just panicking
(24:06):
when you tell me.
They allow youto go up to 155 stories above
that's another ten stories.
And then above thatthere's an extra tower peak.
Are you in the clouds?
Well, it was a clear day.I didn't see any clouds.
I mean, surely you could be.
But I did some interviews up thereand did the VIP treatment.
Got a chance to look out over the
(24:28):
- the ocean is beautiful.
Did - did you feel the building move?
No, not at all, it'snot like going up in the Eiffel Tower.
Where you feel the you know,
I've never been there either, so I'd sayyou're an extremely well traveled person.
No, it's honestly, it was - it was beautiful.
It was very humbling.
You get to go outside,you feel the wind up there and.
Yeah. Very well protected, though.
(24:50):
Oh, I had this just really queasy feelingin my stomach just listening to it.
I'm not kidding. Fear of heights.
Yeah, I challenge myself
though, I sit here and I go, ‘Okay, I'm
going to go ziplining and just jump offand go, okay, we got to do that.’
And, you know, rock climbing.
I've done these things and I know it'sgood to, you know, challenge those fears.
So that they don't stay there. Absolutely.
(25:12):
So would I go?I don't know, maybe with the right people.
Well I had to do it because I, I don'tknow that I'm ever going to go back there.
It's kinda like a bucket list thing.
So I made sure that after I got donespeaking and met
everybody, Did the tourist thing.
Yeah, actually I did, you know,
and they, they really, they,they did a great job on that city.
(25:33):
Yeah. Yeah.
Well it is someplaceI would like to see it definitely.
Definitely multicultural melting pot.
Do you see a lot of Americans there?
Honestly not a little bit.
But for the most partdefinitely Emirati. Okay.
Saudi Arabian subcultures.
Middle eastern. Got it.
So you told mewhy you chose the transportation industry
(25:55):
and you know, that makes sense.
But you had a call beforewe started our podcast.
So let's talk about Tesla, Daytona500 and ITR.
What does ITR,and what do they all have in common?
Okay.
So it's IATR and actually IATR
is the International Associationof Transportation Regulators.
And so I've been friendswith the president. Okay.
(26:15):
His name is Matt Dossfor about five years.
We did an event in Atlantic Cityand that was with chauffeur
driven at the time.
And we were talking about new concepts.
And this was before Tesla became Tesla.
And we were talking about, you know, what
it would be like to have autonomous vehicles,what it would like to live
in a communitythat was fully electric infrastructure.
(26:38):
And that was the exact same timethat Dieselgate came out with VW.
So we were talking about how we were goingto build all this infrastructure
to be able to charge electric vehicles,
not only electric,electric and autonomous vehicles.
And so by working with the IATR,
I got an opportunityto become a beta tester with Tesla.
(27:00):
So I got a chance to seeall the different hardwares,
all the different softwares,all the different metamorphosis
that Tesla went throughover the course of the last six years.
So seeing all of that, I mean,
that's got to be like being a kidin a candy store, right?
Great engineers.
I mean phenomenal, phenomenal engineers.
Yeah.
(27:20):
Yeah, that's a lot of knowledgeand a lot of privilege.
When did you, have you met Elon Musk?No, never.
But I have met with like, DrewBaglino and,
and some of the Tesla teamthat are just all phenomenal.
He's done a great jobdelegating Elon Musk.
Yeah. No I understood who you meant there.
Just for our listeners though too.
(27:40):
Do you have a Tesla?
I have multipleof any model ever built.
I've had - I've had every iterationof hardware software.
So I can, you know, tell peoplewhat it's like to have an Nvidia chip.
And it's not just the car.
No. When you say Tesla let's - let's break that.
No, that's it's an energy company.
It's a software company.
It's - it's a technology company.
(28:02):
It's - it's so many things.
It's kind of like having a mobile iPhone.
It's the easiest way to explain it.
And you know,
and you can talk to it like Alexaand it just picks up stuff and it does it now.
I can literally get in the vehicle,put on my seatbelt, look at it,
click a button on my stockand say I need to navigate to.
And it does it.
That's how good it is now.
(28:23):
Well you did - it doesn't feel scary.
I tell you.
It took about a year to get used to it,
but after a whileyou really learn to trust the system.
And you can also tellwhen the AI makes a bad choice.
When you need to do an intervention,you - you learn to feel it.
I'm skeptical.
But you know,do we have any of those in Lake Nona?
(28:43):
Bunch of ‘em.Okay.
Next time I'm out I want to go in.
There's actually a fleet and theircalled Beep.
Who operates off a different technology.Oh yeah.
But we've also had years agoI had my own fleet of Teslas and we did
- we did a system that was called QuizMy Ride, and we did it with, Ground Link.
We did it with Black Lane,we did it with Uber and Lyft.
(29:05):
Get transferred and the actual orderswould come through the airport.
The car would pick it up,
would drop the order into the vehicle.
We would execute the driveand the - the vehicle
would ask questions to the passenger,and the passenger
was allowed to respondand the system would record the data.
(29:26):
That's how I met you, because I won theInnovation Award by doing Quiz My Ride.
Yeah.
And waswith Doctor David Metcalf at the time.
Yeah, David's great too.For NASA.
All right.
Well so you know that's just ignoranceon my part because I thought
Tesla was only the car,I did not understand.
It's so much more.
Oh the energy industry.
(29:47):
You know, you can talk about solar,you can talk about battery backups
and microgrid technologyand just so many different things.
It's an energy company as well.
Okay.
So,And then you break off from that, then you got space
and then you got The Boring Company.Then you got Neuralink.
And just so many different iterations.
Do you actually have a Tesla car though?
Oh, muches.Ok.
We've had ten. Gotcha.
(30:09):
Actually gave a Cybertruck to a gentlemanthat's in the UK.
In the EU.
That's gotta to be the heaviest carin the world.
It looks like a tank. It's stainless steel.
Yeah, it just looks ridiculously heavy.
All right. Favorite Hot Wheel car?
Tesla Cybertruck.
Okay, that's what you said last time.
(30:31):
It’s still your favorite car?
Yeah. Okay.
So why is that your favorite car?
You don’t got to operate it.
I mean, Is there a Hot Wheel car?
Yeah, I got one of my backpack. Literally.
Okay. All right, well,I want to see that one, too.
My grandson loves it.
That sounds funny.
What color is it? Silver.
Stainless steel.
Just check - because they come incolors now, Wraps.
(30:53):
Is that what they're doing?The base is
stainless steel.
Okay, okay.
So what collaborations are you doing with
our fellow, Avalonians?
We'll call themfrom when we were in that program.
Well, whenever
we were workingwith Stephanie at the time,
(31:15):
I had got a relationship over in Singapore.
We'd had a meeting,and now I'm actually doing
cyber securitywith an Israeli company in Singapore.
Wow. They connected you to that?
I connected the Israeli companyto Singapore.
Okay, okay.
And some of it's under NDA,but basically it's cyber security.
Well, I was,From the Israeli IDF. That's what it is.
(31:38):
I was talking about the peoplethat were in the program with us.
What collaborations do you have-You.
Me. I know you have one with me.
I know,but do you want to talk about anything
with anyone else?
Well, I mean, to meit's very important that we're
Is it Stiff Kids? But-
Honestly, it's very importantthat we're working with interns.
We're working with next generation people,and these are people that come to us
(32:01):
with fresh ideas that we want to implementand the things that we do.
Yeah, You know, they make our widgets better, whatever that widget might be.
They bring to the tablea lot of great new, you know, ideas. They do.
Yeah, yeah.
You haven't become a customer for me yetthough.
I'm just going to point that one out yet.
so. The thing is, is that we're going to get all this stuff where as you come
into this incubatorover at the Verizon 5G,
(32:23):
you're going to get a chanceto see these things.
They just implemented the Lake NonaChamber of Commerce in that 5G center now.
Oh, wow that’s-
So you're going to see businessesfrom all over the world now,
and everybody's going to havean opportunity to share their knowledge. Oh perfect.
You know,they're going to need new workforce.
They're going to need new innovativeideas.
Yeah, I had other exciting things,I'll tell you.
But that will be off the air because I'mlooking for press releases to come out.
(32:46):
Okay.
So do you want to mention anythingwith our - our other friend
that's in education in STEM.
So we had an opportunity of the lastprobably five months
to start working with a type of STEMeducation.
It's called Young Innovators.
Marnie Forestieriis the president founder, CEO.
(33:06):
And she has actually been workingwith the Harvard Education School.
She is going to be bringing STEM education
facilities and franchise them.
And she's going to be doing it in a wayby creating a back
end systemwith one of the founders of Netflix.
Guy's name is Bharath.
And so they're creatingthe software system
(33:27):
that will allow young entrepreneurs,mostly women, of course,
to create their own franchise STEMeducation center anywhere in the world.
I mean, anywhere.
Why just women.
Well because mostly,because when a young child,
I asked her this question,
let's just say you have a 3 or 4 year oldthat might have to have
(33:48):
their diaper changedor they've had an accident.
Most parents don't feel very comfortablehaving a young man engage.
They want it to be more maternal. Yes.
And the reason - that's a particular reasonwhy and which made sense to me.
But also women, I find
are not isolatedto just being the housewife
(34:11):
or just isolated to being the personthat cleans up the hotel room.
These are very bright, entrepreneurialwomen that can run their own show.
And so teaching at that level with peoplethat are the most impressionable
eight weeks to five years old, to me,that's where I want
a strong entrepreneurial woman.
(34:31):
Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of, centersthat are out there.
I've worked in, daycareafter I was doing my - my teaching gig,
I worked in aftercare with, KinderCare.
You know,and I know that a lot of these companies,
they've done a spectacular job of,you know, being able to provide preschool
(34:51):
curriculum to parents that,you know, they're average working people.
But when you have somethinglike what you're describing,
the STEM that that crosses overinto things that are more like Montessori,
very highly experiential,really accelerating the ability
to learn and absorb.
Because children by the age of five,as you mentioned, they're sponges
(35:12):
and they are just sitting there going,‘Oh, I want to learn everything.’
They learn languages,they learn everything during that time.
And I've been to some of her schoolsjust to,
you know, shadow and see how it operates.
I mean, they have sensory rooms,they have robotics rooms, they have
places in therewhere the children actually get to operate
the mechanics behind something,ask questions.
(35:34):
And really, these educators at that leveltake the time to literally
get down on the leveland look into that child's eyes.
They don't hover over them.
No, no, your -
They literally, they get down. Get down on your knees so that you're in the same thing.
Absolutely.they’re not threatened that way either.
So they learn better. their more receptive.
And that's one of the thingsthat I've had to humble myself and learn,
(35:56):
because I'm a grandfather and I wantmy grandchildren to not be fearful of me.
I want them to be engagingbecause I take a great joy
in hanging out with them and goingfishing and swimming and stuff. Your engagement,
I don't know if it's even.
I don't think it creates fearunless there's a parent that is,
you know, exhibiting that.
But I think when you get downon their level, it makes you more playful.
(36:18):
And that's what I think they're respondingto, is the fact that, ‘Oh,
let's go and roll around.
Let's, you know, in this casewe will wrestle.’ , and we'll rustle
and you let the two year oldor the three year old win, you know,
like, not hardly, but, you know, it's funand it's a game and they like it.
Absolutely. Yeah. So that's - that's really nice.
What is the best partof being an entrepreneur, in your opinion?
(36:41):
The freedom to being able to come and go,make your own decisions.
And I can also say that, you know, it'snot all pixie dust and roses.
I mean, there's a lot of failurethat comes with.
Our hardest thing you ever do. Yeah.
And but because of that,to humble yourself and realize, wow,
I can learn through failureand have it be okay.
You know, there'snothing wrong with trying and failing.
(37:03):
I look at itlike it's okay to try and fail.
It's not okay to not try.
And if you can
take the time to realizeand learn from your failures,
it only makes you grow strongerto also be a great mentor to somebody else
or to my grandkids or to my children,you know, how do I exude that
in my church relationship?
(37:23):
How do I disciple people better?
And have them realize that it's okay?
Don't be fearful of failure.
Yeah, I agree with you on that.
And you said something alsothat was really, significant.
Is that the word try?
I do not use the word try.
Rarely will - let me correct myself.
Rarely will I use the word try.
Try to me means thatit gives me the option to say no.
(37:48):
And I sit here and I go,there's three words I - when I mentor
anybody with me and I remind myself,I go, there's, I think I can,
I believe I can, and I know I can.
And which one does an Olympian say.
I know I can.
Yeah, there's no doubt, there's no trying.
They're not going to say,
oh I'm going to try, or, yes,I'm really trying to do better.
Either you're doing betteror you're not doing better.
(38:09):
Which is it?
Yoda would say that too. Yeah.
Yeah. Do or do not. There is no try.
Yeah.
So the most challenging partof being an entrepreneur.
The most challenging part, is realizingwhen you actually have to pivot
and realizeyou can't be married to an idea,
and you have to eithertake the advice of somebody else
and to humble yourself that, hey,I didn't get that one right.
(38:32):
That's the challenging part.
I thinkso because nobody wants to feel like,
oh, why didn't I say there's that failurethinking that falls in there?
But again, you know, like if let's go backto the ages of, you know, 2 to 5, right?
When kids are really learning so fastmore than because they have
verbal skills is really what I'm thinking, anyway,
(38:53):
when you're sitting here and you fail,they don't think anything about it.
They go, okay,they just get up and they keep trying.
Now, if they see an adult around them
and you know, they fall down or whatever,oh, they start crying, right?
Because they get sympathy.
They already know how to use thatto their advantage.
That's another thing
that I admire about Marny and her systemwith the young innovators is
(39:16):
they're very empathetic.They teach empathy.
You know,they make children identify with empathy.
So that's, that's a very strong trait.
Well, we're doing pretty good here.
We're going to blowthrough these next questions
because I know you have a phone callcoming up here.
So we're going to take a break.
Acknowledge our sponsor Capfive Studios will be right back.
The Intern Whisperer is brought to youby Cat 5 Studios, who help you
(39:38):
create games and videos
for your training and marketing needsthat are out of this world.
Visit Cat 5 Studiosfor more information to learn
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Thank you, Cat 5 Studios.
We're in the second half of our showGlenn over here.
My favorite friend Glenn Cook is my guest.
And we're going to talk about the futurein 2030.
He's already been talking aboutit in the first half this show.
(40:00):
If you don't get that,we've already crossed over this line here.
But what do you think2030 is going to be look like?
And basicallythat's just five years from now.
We don't count this year.We don't count to 2030.
Well,2030 has already happened in my mind.
We're actually working on vision 2055.
I mean, that's where we're planningand - and where we are.
(40:21):
And the planning stage is- is we're looking at
what the spaceeconomy is going to be like.
What's it going to be likewhen you live in space?
You're born in space and you visit Earth?
Oh that's crazy.
So we're working on programslike Orbital Reef with Blue Origin.
We're working on programs like,think about what the space station's like
that'sactually going to be disassembled by 2030.
(40:42):
There won’t be another spacestation. Really?
There's going to be other types of thingsdeveloped,
whether it's the colonyon, you know, the Moon or,
you know, an Orbital Reefwhere you've built that space station.
For modern everydaypeople, space travel is becoming.
If you haven't watched Starship,just got caught
by the Mega Zilla arms by the chopsticks.
(41:03):
First time ever, first try, launch five.
So already these things are happening
and they're being acceleratedby Artificial Intelligence.
So then AGI Artificial GentleIntelligence is going to become a thing.
Robotics quality of life,humanoid robotics are all you see. Did you already see,
(41:23):
yeah they've been having them all kinds - all kinds of things are all.
And it's happening.
Yeah. It's not about if, it's happening.
Yeah.
And so people worry about ‘Okay,well it's going to do my job.’
Don't touch the robots.Please be kind to them.
Yeah I saw that on a video. And honestly,
they learned through a systemthat's called end to end neuranet.
And so as the repetition goes,they learn through
(41:46):
just like a human, repetition
of how things are done.
And so they learn skills.
But the difference between
a human and a humanoid robotis that they’ll get it right the first next
try whereas the human will go, ‘Okay,I messed that up’ and ‘Oh, that's hot.’
‘Oh, I'm gonna touch it again.I’m gonna touch it again.’
Yeah, it takes a little longer.For a little longer.
(42:07):
Some people learn on the first one,
some it might take,I don't know, five, ten times. Yeah.
Yeah I get it. Okay.
So what,
positive as - what positive impactdo you think robots
or augmentedreality can have on the future of work?
That's going to give you your time back.
And that's the motive - to a human.
We have an amount of time on this earth.
(42:30):
And if you can get the qualityof life of time back.
You can't ever. Yeah. You can't,You cannot replace it.
So if you can get the quality of lifeof time, which is something I learned from
my grandmother,
that's one of the things when
you know that your life is going to end,the most important thing to you is time.
That's true. Yeah.
(42:51):
You know, the average lifelifespan of a 75 year
old is 27,325 days.
When you think about that, you think aboutdays I sit here, I'm working on a book.
That's the title of my book too,by the way.
And it's, it's 27,375 days of impact.
Every day we make a choice whether we canprovide impact in the world.
(43:15):
Impact can be something as smallas feeding somebody that's homeless.
You buy them per day.
It can be - what did you say over here?
You had said something, neuralnet and robots and-
Yeah.Oh, okay.
It can be - be a part of these things that are,they're not going back in the box.
So being a part of what is being created,
(43:37):
honestly, in the late 50swhen the, you know, the scientists,
the researchers were all in the labs,primarily a bunch of white guys,
you know, figuring outwhat is our future going to look like?
That's like 68 years ago,I think 60 something close.
You got to think about Walt Disney.
I mean, right down the road from us.Right.
Started talking about Epcot back in the60s, the George Jetsons back in the 60s.
(44:01):
But if you literally come outto Lake Nona,
you will see a living life lab Epcot.
It's - it's we do it.Yeah.
I've been there, I've seen it.I know it's amazing.
And - and to see the great mindsthat come from all over the world
to come, to bring their technology,to try it out and to watch it work.
(44:23):
And you go, wow, we can do that.
Let's do that. That's really cool.
All right. My next question.
This gentleman,his name is Geoffrey Hinton.
He was interviewed on 60 minutes about AI.
He is called the godfather of AI.Godfather.
And he's - he is very, very concernedabout what he invented.
He was a part of the teamthat invented this.
(44:45):
He said one of the waysin which these systems might escape
control is by writing their own computercode to modify themselves.
And that's somethingwe need to seriously worry about.
This is in October 8th, 2023.
So what ethical dilemmas that you foreseecould come up
out of are in AR and AI because you've beenyou know, a really good advocate.
(45:06):
Yeah. Well look at it like this.
And this is one of the things
that I can say that AI for good,which was started, you know,
back years ago by a group of individuals,you can create something to do
a nefarious act. Yeah.
You can have too much of anything.
Yep. And have it be harmful.
Yep. So they're in that mental state.
(45:26):
If you were trying to do somethingnefarious, it will be bad.
It'll be harmful.
However, if you create somethinglike social engineering or good,
you can actually socially engineera new mind frame of life
in an area that only people want to livein that utopia of good.
It's possible,but if you tweak it a little bit
(45:48):
and be that one degree offof going towards negativity,
the glass is half empty, not half full.
Then it will absolutely be that again.
So if you train that computerto do nefarious acts or to be,
a system
that is harmful cybersecurity wise,then it will be that.
So what systems dowe need to put in place to ensure
(46:11):
that the people that are creating thisare on the side of good, not going evil?
So I think this is what I thinkwhen I thought about that said.
So we need to make sure that we'reeducating people in ethics.
We need to make surethat there is a certification around it,
and that the only people that are actuallycreating AI and being involved in it
(46:34):
have to prove their certificationand have to prove that they're
doing good decisions.
It has to be something that, we knowwe're choosing people that are going
to be good stewards of all of this abilityto be almost like, God.
Well, integrity.
I mean, it's, you can start withjust simple integrity, moral values, Yeah.
(46:56):
you know, and I believe that
the basics and then, of course, I'ma Christian guy.
So I go back to the moral structureof the Bible.
There is an instructional manual in life,and that's just my own personal.
Well, the Bible is it.
And it's an instruction manual.
Yeah.
And throughout the centuries,
we have been given an instruction manualand how you adhere to that.
(47:20):
And, I'm of that cultureand I firmly believe it.
Yeah.
And other religionshave something that would be similar.
So you know, it's like I knowI'm a believer too, like yourself.
But I also know not everybody is,
but they have their own belief systemand there's good and there's evil.
And it's long as they're on that sideof good, we're kind of all playing
(47:42):
in the sandbox together, safely.
Well, there'sdifferent, different continents out there.
We were literally subdividedby continents. Yep.
And if you've ever been on a planetrip to Dubai, you know how far that is.
And if you try to go to Chinaor if you try to go to Japan and Asia,
Russia, those plane flights are longand you realize how far away,
(48:03):
and then you landand then you talk to people and you look,
there is a difference in cultureand the way they act has been imprinted.
And through thousands of years,a way a culture reacts to something.
This is honestly gonna be one of the best showsYou have to
behold yourself to that.
I'm telling youthis is honestly one of the best shows.
Okay? It's high on my list.
Way better than the other one we did.
Okay, so, I'm getting - getting downto my last two questions
(48:26):
because I know we have to go.
Best mentoring advicethat you want to share with our listeners
about the future of work.
Or future period.
Yeah.
As far as being a mentor to people,what we try to do is do good, real simple.
You know,if you feel in your heart of hearts
that you're doing goodand you're trying to contribute
to the betterment of life,the quality of life for those around you
(48:50):
generationally, you know,and that is something
you want to press forwardand to impress, put impressions upon people.
Please do that because you're goingto have a conscience about it.
And you’re conscienceis that sixth sense, so to speak.
Yeah. And I call it the Holy Spirit.
Yeah. Me too. Yeah.
How can our listenersconnect with you now?
(49:10):
I give them your LinkedIn profile, but,
I know,we use the SafeRydr.com website.
And we also have landrotor.com.
Is that enough?The easiest thing to do is a go to saferydr.com.
At the very bottomit says connect with me.
There's a little area inthere that says fill in your name,
your email address, a general comment, a phone number.
(49:31):
And I return all messages, I really do.
And, you know,I have assistants that work with me and
and we have a wonderful lab systemwith our incubators
that - Guidewell, Verizon5G, Leads Accelerator.
And we - we welcome new ideas all the time.
Well,I want to thank you for being a guest.
(49:51):
This was phenomenal.
Yeah.
And, just so our listenersknow, you can always go back
and you can find Glennon any of these channels.
And I encourage you to look for him.
Thank you
to our sponsor, Cat 5 Studios,and thank you to our video production and editing team,
Rachel Mattias, Erika Ulman and Gavin Staley.
(50:13):
Music is by Sophie Lloyd.
The Intern Whisperer is brought to you by Employers 4 Change,
helping hiring teams to recruit, and upscaletheir intern talent and employees.
Learn more about www.E4C.tech and
and become a member to reduce employer biasand improve company culture
(50:33):
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Subscribe to The Intern Whisperer today and show your support by sharing our show.
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