Kyrin down .... I've been shot!
In Episode #454 of 'Meanderings' Juan & I discuss: my recent travels in North America, random meetings at VeeCon 2024, weird macaroons in Montreal, my new one liner story, why the trip was a huge success imho, a closing life stage and moving on to better things, the fauna of the Americas and what is to come in the future.
Huge thanks to Dave Jones & Petar the Slav for the support. We really appreciate you!
Timeline:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:00:47) Travel destinations recap
(00:01:56) Serendipity at Veecon
(00:07:37) Juan's Veecon connections
(00:10:00) Plane & Montreal adventures
(00:13:19) Juan's chaotic times
(00:16:56) Canadian foods
(00:23:23) Expensive US & treats
(00:27:51) Boostagram Lounge
(00:36:04) Nice Canandians ey?
(00:41:01) Petar & Cole
(00:45:46) The next stage for a better Kyrin/Juan
(00:51:40) Toronto & skunks
(00:57:06) Meeting Gary Vee
(00:58:58) V4V: Time/Talent/Treasure
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Oh. Oh, oh, oh. Welcome back, Mere Mortalites, to another edition of the Mere Mortals Meanderings It has been a while. It has very much been a while.
[00:00:17] Kyrin Down:
You've got Juan here over in Australia. Kyrin on the other side back in Brazil now as of 3 hours ago.
[00:00:26] Juan Granados:
Unbelievable. Yes. So look, a Meanderings, it's just a chance for us to connect to have a chat to talk about what's been going on. There has been plenty of things that's been going on on both ends. We're just talking about this before we started off officially around all the many things that have been happening in our lives at the moment. All very varied. But look, Karen, I think we've got to kick it off with you, man. I think you need to tell us a little bit of where the hell you've been the last couple of weeks.
[00:00:53] Kyrin Down:
Maybe any call out any standout things that have been happening? Yeah, sure. So I titled this making the most of chaos, because I think we've had a both a rather chaotic time of the of the last 3 weeks. And so we'll try and put some learnings to that as well, perhaps. So for those who don't know, I basically went from here in Brazil. I flew into Nashville, Alabama. And that's where you probably caught up to me right after I'd been in LA for a week. So since then I spent I spent a week in LA, which you heard about, then I spent another week in LA in downtown LA, before flying into Canada, staying in Toronto in that area for a bit, and then having flight delays, cancellations, change of plans. And so I arrived back in Brazil or a week later than I expected.
So there was certainly certainly a lot of chaos going on over there. I'll I'll talk about the chaos bit and the making the most of it. So in I can see I've learned a couple of things. So one thing I learned from V con is there is a serendipity to being in a place where a lot of things are happening. So you know, I, my my V con experience was very different from yours one, you know, you went there. And this was hype of 2022. So there was just ridiculous sums of money going around for NF T's JPEGs on the on the black on the blockchain. There was a feeling in the air. This was the first V con so the verse first, you know, conference or organized by Gary Vaynerchuk.
And you I remember from that experience, you were like the after parties. That's that's the place where it's at. You're running around a lot, trying to see all these speakers and things like this. Mine was very different. Mine was basically okay, I'm here to hang out with Cole McCormick. So I did get to meet up with Cole, which was really fun. And I particularly, the speakers were all kind of influencer related. There wasn't actually there was only one that was related to NF T's, I'm pretty sure and blockchain stuff. Everyone else it was like flavor like, do you know who flavor flavors 1?
[00:03:20] Juan Granados:
I know only purely because of the,
[00:03:25] Kyrin Down:
like, marketing materials V com put together. Okay. And besides that, maybe I've heard of his name once or twice. Yeah. So I'd heard of him before. I just knew him as a dude who wore a clock around his neck as as bling. And this dude rocks up on the stage after I'd listened to will. I. Am, who was pretty cool. Will. I. Am some, he he's much more entrepreneurial than I thought I would. And I just labeled him as a musician. But man, that dude has his fingers and all sorts of pies and doing all sorts of things. And then Flavor Flav comes on the stage. And the first thing he yells out is like, America. And and then it's like talking about the Olympics. And I just I, it took me all of 5 seconds to go. I'm not staying for this. And I walked out.
And so I was hanging outside and just like, oh, I'll go to this, like, I want to stay in the air condition because it's getting pretty hot. And so I went up to this little, I guess they had it was not a museum, but it was kind of a walk through a showcase where it just had all of this paraphernalia of V friend stuff, you know, had some hats, had some cards there. There was, you know, one random security guard. It was a tiny little area was, I don't know, 5 meters by 5 meters, roughly something like that. And it was just me up there. And then just out of nowhere, these people I'd met 2 days prior. And when I say I met, I shook hands with them and said, Hey, I just appeared out of nowhere. And then I started chatting with them. And there was this one girl there, especially who was like, Oh, she's really cool. This is I'm having really fun meeting her.
We all went out to lunch together, we hung around together for, you know, good 3 or 4 hours after that. And, you know, it's the serendipity in that I wasn't looking for contacts, I wasn't looking to spread the podcast at all. I you know, I was there pretty much just to hang out with Cole. And he was arriving later that day. But there there was this kind of unique connection attraction where I would have been bought out of my mind. And then I met some people and had a really fun blast over time with them afterwards, and potentially might even meet some of them in Japan. Sometime next year, there was there was a bit of talk about.
So that was where I was like, Okay, I can kind of see why the chaos of just having so many things going on all in the same place, all the all sorts of different people. It you you can repulse the ones who who aren't in your your style. For example, on that same day, a little bit earlier, I was chatting with another girl and she was like, Oh, she, you know, what do you do? And I mentioned, like, you know, I used to work in the mining industry, and she's like, oh, that's not very sustainable. So I'm already like, okay, she's a maybe a little bit of a eco hippie, a piece, a piece lover or something like that. And I'm like, Yeah, you know, that's fine. And, and I asked what she does, and she's like, Oh, you know, I did this and that. I've I've got some, hustles. I'm like, oh, cool. Like, big hustle, small hustles. And she's like, yeah, just hustles.
Very vague. Already already spiking up my bullshit meters. And then Yeah. And then and then They're not being direct about what's actually happening, you know? Yeah. She she hit me with a doozy of a question, which was so and this was, you know, the conversation was I'm trying to keep it alive, but I'm already going, all right, this is this is a struggle straight. And she asked me, so how do you make a lot of money really fast, sustainably and ethically? And I just like, oh, what? What kind of question is that? And and it was really out of left field. And I and my first reaction's like, well, it depends on what you mean by ethical.
And she just looks at me as if I've I was gonna say, did you enjoy that? Did you enjoy that answer? No. No. She looked at me as if that ethical part was the least interesting thing. And the the making a lot of money fast was I think what she really wanted to know. What's the primary objective? Yeah. So, you know, you can meet obviously, people who don't vibe with you. But then there are others who there is there is something in that chaos, that mixing pot of having a lot of people together in the same place where I can see now. Oh, yeah. This is why Silicon Valley got extremely rich because you've got a whole bunch of people who are all all sort of doing the same sort of thing. And and there's a kind of attraction impulse.
So I guess my question to you was, out of all the people you met at V con in 2022, have you kept in contact with any of them? Have you? Did you find anyone there who you're like, Alright, this is a really cool person. And I'm glad I came. Not just to meet them. But I'm I'm glad I met them at this thing.
[00:08:17] Juan Granados:
That's a good question. The the folks who we went over at that time in Australia, I guess in part there's been some connection but not not not like a deep connection. Not not one way we're like pursuing the conversation at any one time but if I was to ever see them again, then like you would have a conversation but anyone exclusively over them Not really, not really. There was actually, I think there was only one, one guy that I met over there that we connected prior to as well. It was it was to do with something I can't remember because it was the high pause that I had. And he was part of a community, the guy was catch up and talk. And we tried to connect while we were over there. And we just didn't see each other.
And besides that, honestly, if I look back at it now, there's no one really that I've kept in contact from V con that I would have said, like, I really want to keep in contact contact now. Part of that as well is, you know, I've transitioned to an probably slightly different stage of life in that I'm not pursuing just random conversations or random communications with people around the world all as like exclusively, I guess I would say. But yeah, maybe it was and you kind of called it out. It was really fun and great in the intensity of the moment. But a couple of years on, yeah, there's no real lasting connections beyond that. Yeah, sure.
[00:09:50] Kyrin Down:
I mean, it's Yeah, look, there's there's not always great things that come up that come from I guess the chaos of of lots of things going on at the same time as well. But I think there is something about if you are in a situation which is rather chaotic, leaving yourself open to the idea of of changing quickly so you can take advantage of it. So to highlight this on Saturday, last Saturday, I was meant to be flying back to Brazil. And there was thunderstorms, lightning in the Toronto airport. So I got screwed around a whole bunch of times ended up staying there for, like, 8 hours in the airport, And they lost my bag. So I'm going like, oh, crap. And there was question of whether my bag was still in the actual airport or if it'd been sent on to Newark, New York.
So I'm just going like, God, this is what what an absolute shit show. And I had, they rebooked me for the next day. And I called up again. And I said, Look, I don't think you're gonna get my bag back to me by tomorrow. Can can we like just book this for another time? And the guy's like, Yeah, yeah, sure. We can do this thing. Alright, how about this flight, you know, leaves at 4 am You do jump here jump here. It was as equally bad as my first initial plan to go back to Brazil, which was 4 flights, but with the added benefit of it being super early in the morning, so just wrecking me. And I'm just going like, yeah, no, could you just have like a little more of a check? Is there anything more direct or anything? And then the guy spends another little bit of time and say, oh, yeah. There's this one. It's, oh, yeah. Cool. It's direct flight from Toronto to Sao Paulo and then just another flight 2 hours later to Londrina. I'm going like, yes, please book that.
[00:11:47] Juan Granados:
And why why does that not come up with his default name? What the hell? No idea, man. I have no idea. And I was asking him initially
[00:11:54] Kyrin Down:
for that. Then and so I went, yes, please book that. And that was for about a week later. So it gave me a just an extra week in Canada. And I'm like, alright, well, maybe I should just go to Montreal. Why not? You know, there's
[00:12:09] Juan Granados:
there's a train leaving. I didn't want to deal with airports anymore. Couldn't couldn't couldn't hack it. I was gonna I will I was literally gonna ask you how you are feeling so far with the amount of travel and airports and moving around. I was getting a bit old.
[00:12:22] Kyrin Down:
I was getting a bit over it. So the Yeah, the train was certainly more appealing to me cheaper as well. And and probably about the same time overall took 5 hours to get there. It's only a half hour flight, I think, but you know, you're going to be ticking around in the airport for an hour and a half either side of that. So, you know, that's that's getting towards 3 and a half hours just there. And so, yeah, I took advantage of that went to Montreal Wasn't wasn't actually that amazing. The city it was, it was okay. I probably actually preferred Toronto, to be honest. And this is another one of those times where it was like, it's good just to keep an open mind so you so you so you can take advantage of that. You know, instead of just seeing a tiny little bit of Canada, I I got to see, you know, the 2nd biggest city as well. So second or third biggest can't remember.
So, yeah, just just something about that. How about you? You've you've had a chaotic time. Do you wanna fill people in with just what's been going on with you this last 3 weeks?
[00:13:28] Juan Granados:
Yeah. How would I even describe it? I guess. And I guess I was saying to you a little bit earlier as well, right? It's just even more, I guess, the intensity of a lot of activities and things that have been happening. I guess in the end, what it's resulted in, I probably won't go into a lot of detail on a lot of things. But it's been a it's been a case of lots of like reactive, reactive things that have been happening, as opposed to me being able to truly plan out a lot of things. And so in that end, it's been less of an opportunity, let's just say of sleeping, of eating correctly, of doing the things that you might think I'd be able to plan. I think, currently, the only real thing through the day to day that I've been able to keep in some consistency, and this is usual for me, is training, because training still been able to sort of get to it. But you know, the usualness of you know, I'd say like, I'll be able to get up at 4:15 or 4:30 Nah, that's hard to change back to 3 30, you know, 3 45 to be able to get out a few things have been going on. So yeah, chaotic, I guess chaotic would have to have a, like a baseline of what isn't chaotic. And previously before it was already a pretty busy time or a pretty intense time. But the last couple of weeks have just notched that up in a couple of levels. So yeah, it's been trying to keep trying to keep priorities, the priority. So one of the things you probably have seen and definitely I found myself in this is with a lot of things with the podcast, or even the adjacent things like reading, like reading books, or being able to put together a solo episode and stuff like that there was just no discernible time available to me to be able to do that.
And that's something that we find that fun than life, to be honest. And that's been okay. It's actually been kind of nice to not be I guess pushing towards another like vector of life there and being okay with it being paused for a little bit. Although and it must be said, it also makes me feel a little bit like hungry over. Yeah, I didn't want to talk about this. I do want to finish this book and then do a book review and begin another new book. But yeah, that's just how a life works. Sometimes I feel you, man. My I've, I've trained once in the last 2 weeks, I think
[00:15:56] Kyrin Down:
I've I apart from yesterday, I can't remember having a day where I ate more than 1 vegetable. I was eating. So even like, croissants, quiche Lorraine, random Mexican food in LA. Nuts, I had a whole bunch of nuts, which I just packed my bag full because I knew I was just not going to be able to access normal foods at a Yep, man, my eating, my eating and training has just been all over the shop. Definitely not good all over the
[00:16:31] Juan Granados:
shop. And yeah, well, it was gonna say with with eating and that it kind of sounds similar to your Yeah, mine's just been more, I wouldn't go all the way to the point of like, surviving type food, but it's just been whatever. Whatever is easiest and most available in front of me. That is what it will be in. That's because Yeah, similarly, vegetables, like fruits, that sort of thing. It's just been not forgotten, but it's just like, that's not what comes easily at the moment. Can I'll relate this story to you of the
[00:17:00] Kyrin Down:
it's certainly not the grossest but easily the weirdest desserts I've ever had that weren't that weren't Asian in nature. So I as I like to do when I go to a new country, I like to find out what's this specialty foods that I can eat here. I do like trying different foods. So you know, in Canada, they've renowned for having croissants of there's this thing called beaver tails, which are kind of like a flat doughnut with cinnamon and sugar on them. It's like a Yeah, it's called a beaver tail. Don't don't ask too more. I think there was something called like to to the area, which is kind of like a meat pie. Imagine an Aussie meat pie, but less gravy. It's got more of a mince to it.
But the tarts, all these, you know, just kind of it's it's like French style or French influenced. And, I went to this bakery in in Montreal. And and I'm like, yeah, I was I was a little bit desperate with this one because I got back late So I've been walking around all day. And I'm like, what's just the nearest bakery near me? And I would have preferred to research and go to a to a better one. But it was like, alright, I just gotta go this one. And, you know, I had had good reviews on on, on Google. So I'm like, Alright, sweet, this one's only 4, 4 blocks away, I'll go down to it. And I get there in the kind of like afternoon evening, and they're already starting to, you know, slow down a little bit. So they've only got a couple of things left. And there was like a lemon lemon meringue tart and like, lemons. Lemma's not my favorite. What else they got here? Oh, they got macaroons. Okay. Sweet. I'll I'll get some macaroons. And they also had an ice cream there.
So my sweet, give me the ice cream. And the guy said something. He's like, it's pear and jujitsu. And I'm like, alright. Yeah. Pear. There's a bit of a bit of a random flavor, but okay. And it was one of the ones where it's kind of the the swirls go together. So it's, like, it looks like a McDonald's ice cream, where it's half and half, you know, half chocolate, half vanilla or something like that. Oh, yes. Yep. Yep. Yep. And, I'm trying it out. I'm like, oh, yeah. The pair, you know, it's pair ice cream. It's I don't think I'd ever had it before. It was okay. Pears, probably not my favorite flavor, but it's it's not my worst either. And then the other one was like, brown ice, much a tea or some shit like that. And, dude, it was terrible. Tasted like crap.
I'm eating the same like, oh, goddamn it or whatever. I'll just get through this, you know, at least I've got some macaroons afterwards. And the macaroons, man. So there were 6 of them in there. 22 of them were the same. And then there was, 4 different other flavors. The first one I tried, which was the one which is the same. Yeah, it had black sesame seeds on it. I'm going okay, there's gonna be a bit of a different flavor if it's got sesame seeds and a macaroon. And I would describe the taste of that as lightly burnt hamburger bun. That's what that macaroon tasted like. Not a not not a great start. It's not exactly what I want from a sweet thing.
[00:20:11] Juan Granados:
Not what you know, yeah, not what you'd expect from macaroon for sure.
[00:20:15] Kyrin Down:
Yeah. The other four flavors that I wrote down here, and I think I ate them in this order. The next one was slightly off pineapple, you know, like pineapple, that's probably been in the sun a bit too long. I had cardboard or, or something that tasted very similar to nothing but with a taste of there was this drink that we had in in Japan, strong zero and the lemon ones were pretty good. But there was one which had this kind of maroon, I believe maroon packaging or a reddish type packaging. And what was the cold one? Was it just called natural or or like flavorless or something like that? I think it was I think it was natural. Yeah. And it was it was almost undrinkable.
It was it was it was just like drinking the worst parts of drinking alcohol without any flavoring related to it. It's like you're just tasting alcohol at its essence. It was horrendous. That's basically what this macaroon tasted like. And then the final two flavors to top it off were soap and potato.
[00:21:21] Juan Granados:
It was yuck, man. What the hell? Barrel.
[00:21:24] Kyrin Down:
But it but it was like, you know, the macaroon itself, the texture was really nice. And there was sugar in there. There was a sweetness to it. But just all it just had. I I get the feeling it was a type of bakery where they're they're trying to make themselves unique and stand out. So they give fresh flavors.
[00:21:44] Juan Granados:
And Mhmm. I I yeah. Gotta hate that. Just keep it clean, man. Keep it steady then. Oh, geez. Yeah. So like, that's that's one of the things when it comes to like, when it comes to food, when it comes to food, I have a strong feeling. I mean, there's another things too. But, you know, if you do something well, like you do a chocolate well, or a vanilla well, or a caramel well, and you do it good, that's enough. I don't need to see, you know, triple triple decadent beaver tailed, I can match a tea combination mix up like it's fine man you don't need that you don't need the the extra I feel like that's that's like a short term game you know you bring someone in because they've got all these fancy
[00:22:25] Kyrin Down:
different type of flavors but in the end you're gonna keep coming back to stuff that's gonna be good tasting. That's why you find the dependable stuff. Mint choc chip and every ice creamery and, you know, boysenberry or or or chocolate, obviously. So, yeah, I I agree that that it was the type of place where I went. People would probably come here for a once off and then
[00:22:47] Juan Granados:
probably not again. I can't. Never again. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, mate, you're eating cardboard macaroons. You know, probably not gonna be a delectable treat to come back to. No. No. But
[00:22:59] Kyrin Down:
I I had a good mixture of tastes across Canada. And one thing I'll say about America is they do great donuts. They do fantastic donuts, or at least I found one place which did fantastic donuts. And, the lady, the lady, who was was serving me, she gave me an extra little donut in a couple of my packages. So I was, I was very happy with that place. Expensively, everything in the US expensive, Canada's but very expensive Canada's better, but only by a little bit. Well,
[00:23:32] Juan Granados:
I actually just heard from a someone who used to live in America, so can her about just that that very much thing that the prices, and she was kind of actually saying because her family is over here at the moment. And they live in not too far away from Philadelphia. And the cost that so that they were comparing Australian costs to the cost there, where they were saying, Wow, Australia is really, really expensive, which I guess in conversion and some other ways, it is expensive. But she was relating to the fact that the capital cities in the US are very expensive. But once you get to a little bit more rural or the townships across America, it is much cheaper.
So I wouldn't Yeah, maybe maybe. And this is probably something I haven't seen. Yeah, exactly. Although although like I saw this in Minnesota, so I've also seen it be relatively expensive in Minnesota. Now, I guess Minnesota isn't a full like big city in comparison to New York or LA in that, but I guess it is a reasonably sized place. So I don't know, I guess I've never been to a rural location enough in the US to kind of be able to claim whether it's actually cheaper, but maybe maybe it's a big prices parity. Yeah, unfortunately,
[00:24:47] Kyrin Down:
I probably shouldn't talk too much about the US because look, I got 4 days in the in, Tennessee, well, 3 days in Tennessee, 1 in Alabama, and then 2 weeks in in LA. So it's obvious obviously LA dominant and the US is is too broad a place to be making sweeping generalizations like well, it is going to be expensive. There's there's no doubt about that compared to Brazil. But how expensive is the and just just subverting of expectations as well. I were, you know, I was going there. And I'm like, look, at the very least, it's gonna be ridiculous sized portions.
And there's going to be tons of junk food. So my sweet tooth is just going to be loving it. And I was pretty disappointed. To be honest, I went through Ralph's, I went through a Whole Foods and I went through another supermarket. And I gotta say I was rather disappointed with their chocolate selection. Their bakery was probably equivalent to what you'll find in a in an Australian supermarket. So it's okay, but not not like crazy good. Yeah, I was I was I was a bit disappointed with how how healthy it was in this in a way. I was I was I was wondering like the big ass, you know, greasy, ridiculous. Yeah, heart attack hamburger sort of shit. And I didn't really get any of it. Maybe I needed to go out of my way more to try and do that.
[00:26:29] Juan Granados:
I know. Probably glad your your body's probably glad you didn't do that, man. Yeah. And
[00:26:35] Kyrin Down:
another thing that surprised me was the lack of fast food chains or if they are, they're they're fast food chains have changed. I saw in LA. Yeah, man. I I did not see very many McDonald's very many KFCs or very many. They don't call it Hungry Shacks Burger Kings, or what I assumed would be But I saw things like You see in and outs and stuff like that? Yeah. Chipotle. In and outs were someone was talking about them. I didn't actually see it myself. I saw a place. There was a couple of places where it was like a pancake manner type thing, or they specialize in pancakes. I've forgotten the name of it. So there was there was junk foodie. Waffle House? No. It's not Waffle House. Can't remember what it was.
There was junk foodie type places, but they weren't the ones I was expecting. Whereas in Canada, right, those those McDonald's everywhere. There was so many of them. And even more of these things called Tim Hortons, which is kind of like a coffee shop with a little mini bakery in it. Yeah. So that bit of bit of subversion of expectations as well from what I was what I was expecting in the US.
[00:27:49] Juan Granados:
Okay. Okay. Let's just touch base quickly on the boost room lounge. Yeah, let's just jump in there. And then we'll continue on. Because I don't think we called out the one from Dave during the week. No, no, we haven't done that one. Okay. So we'll just go into this one again, boost room lounge, we like to just shout out and talk about it in the podcast in terms of people who've been supporting us. During obviously, what we do here, we'll talk about a little bit at the end. But yes, you can support us by sending 3 satoshis with some messages attached to it as well. And I guess the main one that we've had so far, really the only one over the last couple of weeks is Dave Jones.
Peters is also new. Or do we talk about or do we talk about not talking about Peter? Cool. Well, I'll talk about Peters first. He did Canadians at default apologetic. Sorry. And that's 7,777 stats that counted. Is that correct? Absolutely. Apologetic by default. Absolutely.
[00:28:40] Kyrin Down:
I I liked it. I like the Canadian Canadian politeness is definitely a thing. I'll touch upon that in the next, next little section after the boost Grandland. But, yeah, I did notice there is a a friendliness. And like you said, it's kind of like an apologetic friendliness that it's kind of, you know, you meet someone in the lift and it's like, you say, hey, but it's more like, oh, hey. We're both in this lift together. And it's weird. I apologize for that. Whereas if you get in a lift in Australia, it's more likely, well, you might say nothing. But you also could just be like, oh, hey, how are you going?
It's there is there is a tinge of apology in a lot of their interactions. I would agree with that.
[00:29:26] Juan Granados:
Good. So yes, Peter. Thank you very much. And yeah, okay, let's let's hear about how I'll actually apologetic that they are in a moment. And then yes, sorry, the the one from Dave. Dave Jones was a big boy. He says my brother Karen, he was cattlemen's feast payback mega boost. I I can now confirm that a Tim Tam Slam is actually a chocolate biscuit with coffee and not a Vietnamese sex position. Stay safe in LA. That was 100,000 sat sent. Oh, wow. Wowza. Woah.
[00:29:56] Kyrin Down:
Thank you, Dave. Did he tell you who's gonna do that send you that? Or was there any other particular reason he sent through that? Yeah. He somewhat mentioned it. So basically, the context for that was I, I bought a at the Bitcoin event where, Adam mentioned on the show, like, oh, there's a sink, the cattleman's feast where it's basically like an all you can eat eat beef type thing. And we're like, alright, sweet. And I I knew it was gonna sell out. So I just or I ordered a ticket for Dave and I 4 hours before the event started. We what I didn't realize was when you went there, you had to have a Bitcoin ticket to get into the place, which would then allow you to enter into this other place that was within it. And they're like, no, you can't come in here because we didn't have the Bitcoin ticket.
So so it was a bit, bit shitty that they didn't have that advertised real upfront on their on their website, because I'm pretty sure they didn't. But in any case, thank you. Thank you very much, Dave, for paying me back for that was he didn't need to lay up. Appreciate it.
[00:31:02] Juan Granados:
Yeah, that's appreciated that Dave and Peter with those tp big boots. Yeah, once again, I look in this probably partly, but to be honest, Karen is the fact that we just have been doing other things haven't been prioritizing the conversations and a few of the other podcasts that we'll be doing. That's that's just reality. But, you know, you're about to talk about a little bit of, I guess, Canada and some of the other things about apologetic, but just on on the side of v for v and stuff like that. Any more insights or any more thoughts that you've had, I guess, over the last couple of weeks in meeting a lot of people who are who's who being to a lot of events for the last couple of weeks or even months, really now.
What are your thoughts on it? Has anything changed? Have you gotten any new insights, any new paths,
[00:31:49] Kyrin Down:
timelines have changed anything like that? Yeah, probably the you actually joked about it before we went live, but didn't didn't capture in the recording. So I said here, which was you were like, Oh, I think we need to step away from the Bitcoin and and we'll we'll only do it the v for v through Solana now and through meme coins on Solana. The only thing that I've slightly changed my tune on is use the using layer 2 lightning Bitcoin as the as the method of transmission. When I was chatting with Peter, he was like, Yeah, you know what, I, you know, I've been in Bitcoin for a little bit.
And I wanted to use it. I don't want to just huddle it. And I've met people like that before. And I always I always sort of had the same opinion, which was like, if you're just holding this stuff forever, it's not going to work. You do need some people to actually use it. So the only thing and basically the context of this is the whole discussion is, it's it's just using lightning has been hard and starting to come up against some technical bottlenecks using it that would would prevent it from scaling to a much bigger proportion of of people. And, you know, some of the apps, podcasting apps are having troubles with this because they were using Albie. Albie was starting to change some things and so it won't be as applicable, etcetera, etcetera.
So I still think the core I feel my instincts were right in that the thing I that blew away my mind was value for value, the concept of that, how it's actually put into practice, whether it uses, I'd really like it for for it to use Bitcoin. I think that still makes the most sense. But, you know, there's there could be a a solid case for why some sort of tokens which are interchangeable, and they are they are, you know, all beneath the surface. And that it won't it won't be Bitcoin, it'll be Ethereum or Solana or something like that. So that's that's the only thing that's slightly changed. And even then, it's it's just taken me down from like a 99% surety that'll that'll be Bitcoin to a 90 2, something like that. So I'm still pretty sure.
[00:34:18] Juan Granados:
Yeah. Okay. No, I'm still hot. I'm still even a bit higher than that percentage. I just I just think my my timelines a bit still maybe even more stretched out. Correct. Yeah, that's probably the biggest thing my timeline is has gotten
[00:34:29] Kyrin Down:
way, way longer.
[00:34:32] Juan Granados:
Way longer, way less than 2 years ago. And even looking at the current Bitcoin buzz for not talk about specifically, you know, costings and stuff like that. But when you when you see it, it's starting to settle into a more of a, I hope, like crab like period where it just stays around that area. And I don't think that that would be a bad thing, if it kind of just stabilized like that for a while. Because I think in the very nature of an asset moving up and down, right kind of stops people from leveraging and using as much as possible. But if it moved, we'll just say if it moved on par was close to kind of like inflation, right, so it just keeps it pays. And then besides that, it's a little bit more stable, I could see more reasonability of spending with it using it in that manner. So
[00:35:19] Kyrin Down:
yeah, let's see what happens once called a price prediction there. Bitcoin at 90 ks Australian this time next year.
[00:35:30] Juan Granados:
Honestly, I would not be surprised. I would it would not be surprising to me if it was up and down with a few squiggles, but in the end, we're at about the same place for a year. Okay. I I think That's almost my my expectation at this point. I think it'll be 400 ks this time next year.
[00:35:46] Kyrin Down:
That's that's my price for the UK. We'll see here we go. We'll see we'll see where we'll see where it is. So you know how good we are at predictions.
[00:35:55] Juan Granados:
Yeah, complete the off. So don't even and and even though we're getting a pretty varied one, so either it's gonna be $0 or, you know, 2,000,000. Yeah. Yeah. That's probably how close we are. Alright. Tell me tell me about the apologetic Canadians because I don't I don't even think I'd really
[00:36:09] Kyrin Down:
heard that before. Okay. Yeah, no, there's there's been a well, perhaps not apologetic. Nice. Nice is the word you were talking about Minnesota Nice a while ago. And well, Canadian Nice is the next level above that that they're very, very, very nice people is is what the general trend or, stereotype is. But but one, I'm gonna see if I can hold this up to the screen now. And for those who are watching on YouTube that they might be able to see it. I've got a little thing on my finger here one. It's, it's a tiny little piece of metal. I'd say it's about 1 half a millimeter in width and 1 and a half millimeters in in length.
What what do you think this thing is that I've got? Just a tiny little piece of metal.
[00:37:07] Juan Granados:
I would have no idea.
[00:37:09] Kyrin Down:
So Peter fucking shot me, man. He shot me. He made me bleed my own bud. So what Canadian nice it is. So we went to a gun range and, he was shot. You know, I've I've other than my Brazil shooting at a target in someone's driveway, a driveway in Miguel's driveway and doing some clay shooting in New Zealand once upon a time. I've I've haven't really shot guns, not not even like BB guns or anything. And so so Peter's like, yeah, yeah, we're we're gonna we're gonna correct that. And so we went we went to the range and, you know, he he knows his way certainly more around guns than I do. And I was kind of hiding behind him. I had my my big earphones, headphones on, earmuffs to to protect your ears, you know, with the with the foam rollers inside as well, the earplugs, goggles on. And I thought goggles were a bit excessive. I'm like, well, what's what's the point of that? And in any case.
And, he's he's just demonstrating and, he had a shotgun. And he and so what they do is, you know, they put the paper targets up on this kind of clamp thing, and then it it goes out into the distance and then you shoot at the paper target. And so he did that. But somehow in his shot, he must have hit the metal bit that holds the paper. And I was standing almost directly beside him, but maybe 30 centimeters to his left just so I could see him shooting. And then suddenly I just feel this, like, pinch on my my top, clavicle almost.
It's kind of like in the meaty part of the of the shoulder and and and, peck where those meet. And I'm like, what the fuck was that? Sure. Yep. And then I I looked down and then and I'm like, wait. There's a little hole in my shirt here. And then I look at my skin. I'm like, I'm fucking bleeding. What the shit? And, yeah, sure enough. I think a ricochet from that had come back basically directly at us and hit me with enough force to actually make me bleed. And I and I was like Wow. I'm like, oh, shit. Okay. Good thing that didn't hit my eye. And, Yeah. We're just afterwards, I was, like, playing around, and I'm like, I think there's still some metal in there. I was trying to dig it out, but I couldn't. So I'm like, I'll just leave it. And then yeah, a week later when the the scab had healed, I took the scab off and saw Yeah, I've got this tiny little piece of metal. So I I'm like, well, I'm gonna keep that. It's a funny little thing. Now would you would you would you say then That Peter did it and you have to be shot. Yes.
[00:40:03] Juan Granados:
Well, would you would the story with the story summarizes
[00:40:07] Kyrin Down:
Yeah. I have been shot. Yes. So so two things I have to say is, one I was shot in North America. So everyone's going to immediately assume okay, he means the United States of America, not Canada. And that he got shot as in with a bullet hit him. So that will be my one liner from now on. Yes, I got shot once in North America. If they ask for more details, I guess I'll have to give them the the true the truth of it. But it's it's kind of like when I say oh, yeah, I you know, I ended up in a jail in Mexico once I busted that story out a couple of times recently. And yet, the initial reaction is always just like, you have to tell me more about that. So it's a good it's a good little party starter for sure. So I will be claiming that. Yes.
[00:40:57] Juan Granados:
Wow, they besides that, and I guess we have to talk about them too. Peter, was he like in person? Any other comments you like? And I guess for just as a bit of an introductory piece there for anyone who doesn't know, I guess, Peter has been instrumental to I guess, continuing what we do in a lot of ways. It's really valid for value model. You know, he's been supporting us for how many years reckon at this point now?
[00:41:24] Kyrin Down:
Yes. 3 years. I think I think I think that's probably probably about accurate. Yeah.
[00:41:29] Juan Granados:
Yeah. And and look, we've had a we had a conversation with him prior to obviously you meeting him in person. Correct. Online. We had a, like, an hour long call with him as well prior to that. How'd you find it just in general catching up with him? Yeah. Well,
[00:41:43] Kyrin Down:
I'll I'll add this to to Cole meeting Cole in person as well. It was like, you know, easily the best part of my trip has has been meeting these people. I guess it's kind of like a king descending down to his vassals. Like, no, I'm just I'm joking. No, it was meant just I I know Pete W values his privacy, so I'm trying to give some stories which won't add extra details, which he hasn't revealed to us through through messages before. Incredibly generous with his time. So he he works full time job. He's got a he's got a family, you know, and he took away, you know, 3, 3 days essentially from from basically from when I landed.
He and I got closer to where he lives in Canada. He took me out to a park for for basically like a full date, you know, like 3 hour drive into Algonquin Park. And and then we did a massive hike around there. He, you know, fed me when I had that emergency, you know, layover stop in Toronto for extra days. He housed me for extra days even though he had so much going on. So it was, yeah, just incredibly generous at the time and just an awesome guy. It's kinda like Dave Jones. It was just like, I can't believe I got to meet him. It was it was just absolutely wonderful and different in the sense of, you know, I know him, I guess, digitally. I know Dave digitally. I know they're different people and the topics of discussion were similar but different as well.
And, yeah, yeah, I joke of of the the nicety and and him shooting me, but the the the the amount of time he he spared for me was just amazing. And, yeah, it was, I once again would say like, it was worth going all that way just just to meet him just like it was going worth going all that way just to meet Dave. Absolutely. The all the airport stuff, you know, just gave me extra time to chill out with him. So incredibly, incredibly humbled to do that. And same with Cole, you know, Cole. He's talked about this on his podcast, so I can reveal this. And part of the hecticness and the chaos that Juan was alluding to was, you know, we've got friends going through traumatic events, both good and bad, I guess. So maybe not traumatic in the sense, but you know, losing loved ones, gaining new loved ones in the near future.
And, Cole's father passed away about a week before I meant to, was going to meet him. And so it was just like, oh, shit. Well, you know, if we don't meet, man, you know, that's totally understandable. You have to you have to look after your family and be there for them with, in that in that kind of grieving process. And it was really cool meeting him. And then he was saying, like, you know, it's it actually really helped hearing about your mum, over this last year and a bit because, you know, my dad was was diagnosed with cancer about a year ago and, you know, he lost him just just so recently. So it was a kind of deep, deep connection on that portion as well, where it's just like, he he's taken it really well.
He's probably probably better than I was taking it to be honest. And it was, yeah, just just like a once in a lifetime kind of event and timing. So, it was was awesome meeting all these people. Yeah. I'm not doing a great job of explaining it all. But they, Yeah, hopefully, hopefully, I managed to convey that in person as well.
[00:45:47] Juan Granados:
Yeah, no, and it's been awesome, man. I mean, part part part of the like you've talked about is you yourself had to come back to Australia to obviously deal with housing of your mother, going back out. And honestly, you know, from from the beginning, when you get back, and you went to go do the hands and retreat, and then everything else is I think it's preceded it as well. I sound like the right journey. And like, if you had to select them, what you could do afterwards, sounds like it's a good mixture of learning of meeting people of, you know, pursuing different things that
[00:46:21] Kyrin Down:
sounds that at least on my side, it sounds like it's been the right journey. In any case. Absolutely. I was I was there's probably a conclusion I've come to over the last couple of months, which is I'm really glad I didn't meet a girl in the last 3 years because just dealing with with the whole COVID thing, dealing with mom's worsening condition, I'm not sure I would have had much extra emotional energy to really give to to be be the best version of myself. I'd say I haven't I haven't been the best version of myself for for a couple of years. And the the just like the emotional toll when you know, it's always like this. I struggle understanding interpreting emotions in the moment. I'm much better at that a little bit after the fact.
And, yeah, I think this last kind of 3 months since mom has passed has just been a good a good journey to to take some time, kind of reconfigure things, have a look at my life. And I'm like, you know what? Life's pretty damn good, man. I'm I'm I'm healthy, still young, still got time to to meet someone. Finances are in pretty good shape. Friendships are in pretty good shape. I think I can now devote the time to really searching for someone and doing it in a way where I'm not kind of being pulled all over the place and having various priorities of what I think I wanna do, what I how I want my life to look and and things like that. So, yeah, it's it's been a good and and, so just going forward, I'm gonna be here for about a month, and then I will be in, in late September, I will be in New Zealand, and that's where we're gonna spread my mom's ashes. And I think that'll just be like a nice top off to that to that kind of portion of my life. And, yeah, get get ready for really getting into my thirties, I guess.
[00:48:21] Juan Granados:
It almost it actually genuinely feels like it's Yeah, it's the next stage for you. It's kind of like the next stage of life begins at that point. I think for a lot of people, it doesn't seem so markedly crisp and clean-cut. But I guess an example with with your sales that it is it's a very much a new beginning of sorts and shifting and making what you want to do for the next sort of period, which I guess that brings kind of a full picture as well to some of the things that'd be happening in my life. And actually seeing it in a few other people is that sometimes transitions or things will happen. And you don't necessarily see that a kind of like a shift has happened in the way that you want once were before when you are now. I was actually for work drinks on Friday, so 2 days ago. And it was to mark kind of people starting to head off into doing different things. If it was starting to roll off from the projects and the work that we're doing, including myself.
And it was actually interesting that reflecting back maybe like 10 years ago, 10 years ago, it'd be about right. You know what, what I've been working and you'd go out for some work drinks and stuff, just the complete difference between what it was then and what it is now and the priorities and what you're looking to do and what the next few days has versus, you know, having lots of drinks and then just being absolutely splayed and, you know, roasted for the day after stuff like that, you know, sometimes it sneaks up in you and you don't realize it. For others, it's much more clean and crisp. And you know what the distinction is, but those those phases of life all exist and whether we wanna acknowledge them or not, I think you have to go through them one way or another. Yeah. Which doesn't mean to say, you know, you can't do those things as well.
[00:50:07] Kyrin Down:
Peter's a big fan of whiskey. And so we had the the Gentleman's Whiskey Club meeting, which I was invited to. And men, he's got a lot of whiskey and he's he's trying to make his way through it with his friends. And I barely helped out. I had, like, 2 sips and and was tricking other things. But, you know, that that's not to say you can't get together and and have even what is a relatively big night, but it's just the way you approach it, the way you'll what you'll find interesting as well. It's like it's it's all the it's much less interesting to be out in a noisy environment and having, you know, gentlemen's whiskey club there versus doing it in the, you know, comfort of your own home where you can joke around with people, say the ridiculous jokes and and things that might get you canceled if you were to say it elsewhere in a work environment, for example.
So, yeah, it was a there's it's it's good to, like, reflect back and it's not necessarily the drinking. That's the that's the thing that's changed. It's I guess, like, how how you want to go about doing it. What sort of environment? What sort of conversations do you want to have with people as well? It's that that that has certainly changed a lot.
[00:51:33] Juan Granados:
Yeah. Absolutely.
[00:51:36] Kyrin Down:
I'm just trying to see if I've got any other notes here that I I quickly wrote down. The only other thing that was kinda cool, Toronto, I was actually in terms of big cities, was wasn't too bad. I got a real Australia type vibe from it felt it kinda felt like Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne all all mixed together. Now, obviously, I'm here in the in the summer. So it would be completely different during winter, where it's just covered with snow. But, yeah, walking around there, I was like, yeah. You know what? I could I could see myself if I had to, you know, Australia gets bombed out and, like, I gotta go somewhere. I would probably spend 4 months of the year maybe in Toronto.
But then it but then again, it's like, what what appealed to me about it was just the, once again, the kind of serendipity just walking. I was there for 1 night in the in the city center proper. And on that night, I randomly came across if you think your run club is big one, this one that I came across, I reckon it was I reckon it was 400 people, man. It was huge. There was so many people here. Yeah. I came across a run club. I came across a salsa night. Came across just people doing cool things. You know, there was there was some people doing like slacklining and stuff. And this is just random walking around the city. I wasn't even even like properly researching places to go. So did I guess that's one of the good things about big cities. If you weren't sticking it out, basically. There is always something going on if you if you were looking for that.
And, you know, especially if you're looking to socialize and meet and meet someone that that was the kind of thing where I was like, oh, okay. Yeah. I could I could see why this could be a a nice place to go. And even in just I went to a calisthenic park yesterday just before I left and came across a girl there doing handstands. And I was like, she's actually cool. You know, she's the type of person I'd wanna meet. So there there is something about the the kinda, the big city like that. And then the last thing was I have added to my collection of cool animals that I've saw. So I saw a fox, a deer, squirrels, and rabbits.
I saw a beaver dam, but no beavers in it, unfortunately.
[00:53:58] Juan Granados:
Oh, I That'd been pretty cool if I saw a couple of beavers. Yeah. And yesterday evening,
[00:54:03] Kyrin Down:
we were talking I was I was still just relaying to Peter. I'm like, oh, yeah. All I'm really missing is a skunk, a raccoon, and a moose. He's like, well, you're not gonna see a moose. There are raccoons around here during the night. We might walk back and see 1. And as we're walking across the grass, he's like, oh, I think that's 1. Oh, no. It's a rabbit. And then we look closer and know it was a skunk. And so it was probably about 20 meters away from us. And I'm like, oh, can I get a bit closer? And he's he's like, I wouldn't. If you because I felt like, oh, skunks can maybe shoot the shoot the spray, what, a meter or 2 or something.
And he's like, Nah, it's it's a bit further than that. And once that stuff gets on you, even you have to use a special chemical to get it off. And even then it'll still probably smell for 3 days, and they probably won't let you on your flight. So I'm no. I don't I don't feel like dicking around. Yeah. I'll say I watch them. Yeah. So I have seen the skunk now as well. So added to my oh, and like a cardinal, a red a red cardinal. That was that was pretty cool as well. So Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's even just wildlife meant squirrels are fun. They're they're really fun to look at for a for a non native. Just the way they move and run around and dogs chasing them and stuff. I wanted to chase them though.
[00:55:22] Juan Granados:
Did you see many of them in LA?
[00:55:24] Kyrin Down:
In LA, there was a couple floating around. I saw more in Alabama with with Dave in Birmingham. There was there was 1 or 2, I saw 1 on the Venice Beach area. That would be they just there's not enough trees honestly in in LA. There wasn't there wasn't that much. Where I was at in in Venice Beach in downtown, there's I saw a rat in LA, big fat chunky one.
[00:55:52] Juan Granados:
But other than that Should have chased that one down. Yeah.
[00:55:54] Kyrin Down:
Man, that thing would beat me up. I think you look like it had looked like it was hardened in the hardened streets of LA. Yeah. And I did see I saw a lot of squirrels on the way up to Hollywood sign. Oh, yeah. I I never actually got case. I never got to other places. I never got to Hollywood. I was gonna do it as there was a guy, Wren, who, was part of the V Friends community, and, he was he was doing a tour, and, I did tour a little bit with him. I got to see a Dodgers game. That was pretty cool as well. And when he was doing his tour, it was always like, oh, join a little bit later. Oh, I've already been to Santa Monica, so I don't need to do that portion.
Oh, they're at the Getty now. Oh, they're at this, and I just kept on pushing it off and and never ended up getting to it, because I was doing other things with other people. So, it was it was, I don't know. Did I miss anything by not seeing Hollywood, man? What do you reckon?
[00:56:52] Juan Granados:
Not really. Look, honestly, in amongst everything that you've been traveling and seeing, probably not going I could have been the final one. The final thing I wanted to check. True. Could could have if you did a couple of handstands over there, probably think you're harmless. I was gonna say the last thing I want to check with you was, what was it like meeting Gary Vee again? Yeah. That was that was pretty,
[00:57:14] Kyrin Down:
once again, the serendipity. You know, Cole and I would just walked out after a thing, and then we walked to this area where no one was really at. And but this lady passed us and she's like, Gary's over there. And then told it just to us and no one else. We're like, okay. Well, we don't see him, but we're we're walking this direction anyway. And yeah. Yeah. Cole was there, and he he was the one, I think it was actually a special moment for him because he got to, you know, chat with him for about a minute. Just tell him his story about his his father. And, it was and then I was just kinda hanging in the background just as I as I tend to do. And then then Cole drags me over and he's like, this is the guy. This is Kyren. He he's the one who invited me. So, it was yeah, it was cool. It was cool meeting him. You know, he he's just a guy. He's, he he hasn't had a tremendous impact on my life in the sense of motivational speaking or inspiring me to really do things. So there's nothing that I really want or need to say to him. But, you know, I I was there, I guess, to, to help participate in in the in the v con. So it was cool to just meet him again. And, yeah, he's he's he's a cool guy. It's, in terms of being, you know, rich and famous, he he seems pretty genuine, as far as I can tell from my brief meetings, twice brief meetings with him.
[00:58:38] Juan Granados:
That's cool. Yeah. And it's it's almost nice, honestly, to have more of that mentality with everyone, not just even if you have people who you particularly like look up to have changed your life in some way or something like that. I think if you could still address them as a normal human, the better, honestly, the better it's gonna gonna be. Sure. Sure, man. Sure.
[00:58:58] Kyrin Down:
Alright. Yeah. I think we'll leave it there for today one. There's a value for value podcast, everyone. We have been slightly lacking in our value because, obviously with all the all the stuff going on, it has been harder to get together. I do anticipate that, at least for myself, I will be free and available for the next 2 week weekends. And then after that, we'll have to see because once again, I think I'm flying on a Saturday. So terrible timing in terms of the podcast. Actually, maybe maybe I can do the Sunday, that Sunday, we'll have to see. But anyway, there's a value for value podcast, everyone, we put all this value up front. And for you, you can consume it at your leisure, anytime, anyplace, anywhere, anyhow.
And we just ask that you send some value back. So sharing this podcast with a friend, they've had any, observations of LA, of cool animals, of being shot. We want we would love to hear those stories as well. So, sending us a a message via any of the social media links, which you can find down in the show notes. And then finally, if you wanna help support us financially, if you go to mere mortals podcast.com/support, you can see a list there, and you'll see, Peter as well on the top of that list in terms of support as well as Dave. So they're they're both just adding to their their superiority there. But I've also got some links of podcasting apps where you can send us to boost a gram directly within the app to help support us and then attach a message to that at the same time, which we read out every week, or when we appear live.
[01:00:37] Juan Granados:
From we appear. But yeah, now look look, I think it's gonna be a little bit of let's just say next couple of weeks. Yeah, like 2 months of
[01:00:47] Kyrin Down:
getting back on our feet of month and a half probably until we're both back in Brisbane. And then we can, probably probably devote a bit more time and effort to the to the podcast again. And perhaps a bit more direction to our conversations as well.
[01:01:04] Juan Granados:
Yeah. There's also like some interviews and stuff like that that I've got or started to line up. Right. But you can't see it right now. But if you could see the state of the room that I'm in, it is just chaotic. It's like there's no way I could even like set up it for a conversation just at the moment. There's a lot of there's a lot of cleanup a lot of other projects happening at the moment. But yep, we can promise you is that the next 2 months we haven't not exactly a clear path of how to look like but we'll still be sticking around and showing up and doing the things that we do. And then over time, that'll start becoming a little bit more directed as well. Sure. Yep, absolutely. Alright, beautiful. Thank you very much for everyone tuning in live as per usual.
Wherever you are in the world. I hope you're well for now. 1 out. Karen out.
[01:01:54] Kyrin Down:
Bye.