Keeping People From Becoming Patients: Inside the Human Flourishing Collaborative

Meet the Founders: Their Journey to Human Flourishing In this episode, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Robert and Gary, two of the founders behind the Human Flourishing Collaborative. They both are seasoned veterans in all things B to B, SAS, tech, and healthcare, and are taking a new approach to transforming how individuals deal and manage with their health and well-being. The Human Flourishing Collaborative is an umbrella holding company of which they're building an ecosystem for positive change in the health care industry with figure as its core product, creating a singular score, metric or lighthouse that people can use to better understand how they are tracking towards a healthier life. We talk about what it takes to build something from the ground up, the partnerships and relationships they're making with others in the space, and how do you actually drive effective behavioral change in an industry that needs it. It's great talk, so let's get into it. Robert. Gary, welcome to the podcast. Good to see you guys again. Speaker 2 See you, Zach. Thanks. Speaker 1 Yeah. Oh my God, Robert, we connected at the beginning of the summer when I was first getting started on this consumer health and Wellness journey, and you introduced me to Gary. I'm super excited to bring what you're working on, what you're trying to bring to fruition in this world. And so for those that are new to you, to your careers, what you're doing, before you get into it, can you just share a little bit more about who you are and why you're building this human flourishing collaborative? Speaker 2 Sure, Gary, you want to go first. Speaker 3 Yeah, sure. Probably speak on behalf of both Robert and I ran out of the gate, but you're looking at a couple of folks who have been doing, you know, God's good work in healthcare, medical care for the past 15 plus years. I know Robert's probably a little bit longer than I and we kind of came into it, into that world thinking that man, we are going to make a difference. Well, several years later, I think we can say we made a difference in some places, but not as much as we wanted. So I think First off, that's why we're here. My background, I'll make it easy is broken up into two parts. First half of my career is actually in executive marketing leadership for large brands, large global, direct to consumer brands. So my, I have half and you know, kind of come up entrenched and inoculated in dealing directly with consumers and not B to B. second-half was B to B in healthcare working for large technology companies, working inside of some of the largest health systems in America. So when you put those two together, it's a very interesting background to want to take this next step forward and really make an impact. And the best way to make that impact is direct to consumer with what we're going to share with you today. So thanks. That's that's about me, Robert. Speaker 2 Yeah, 20 plus years in the health industry sector, I should say the medical care industry sector at the C-Suite primarily Chief administrative, Chief Operating and Chief Executive Officer. 10 years in their consulting nationally with some international work working at the founder early stage level middle market all the way to the largest health systems in the US. My most recent executive role was with Ascension Health, Chief Operating Officer in the Michigan market. Portfolio focused on outpatient, about 1.3 billion in revenue, about 6000 team members coming out of Ascension. Actually Zach started to do some civil searching. I realized that we've, over the last 5-6 decades, have invested billions of dollars in medical care infrastructure, and yet our society is bearing all the wrong fruit. More heart disease, more lung disease, more obesity, more mental health issues. I started writing about that. I was picked up by the Diplomatic Courier. I was published at the World Economic Forum, started getting calls from A tribe of people passionate about this same topic and same journey, and a few years later, here we are and we look forward to the road ahead. Speaker 1 Yeah, thank you both so much and for me here. Robert, when you first reached out to me, I honestly thought it was a spam reach out because I was like, how does someone with these credentials want to be talking to me in the space? It's just your wealth of knowledge and then Gary, yours as well. We got connected. I remember the first meeting with you and the other, the other cofounders, It just felt special that you guys have your not trying to build the next Unicorn. If that comes, that'll be great. But you're trying to make systemic long term change. You've, you've shared it for your kids, your grandkids, your grandkids, grandkids. And so that's something that I really respected because changing the structure of the US healthcare and global healthcare system is no small undertaking. So Gary, maybe I'll direct this one to you tactically. For those that are learning about the human Human Flourishing Collaborative, what is that in practical terms? Is it an orchestrator of systems comes? Is it a product company, a market of markets? How does everything piece together in your day-to-day? Speaker 3 Yeah, great kick off. Understanding HFC and Phigure: A New Health Paradigm It's all the above to start. So the human flourishing collaborative is primary objective is to serve as the kind of holding umbrella or holding anchor to all of the products, the ecosystem, right. We'll talk a little bit about that or ecosphere. We we go back, Robert and I go back into these terms and all of the all the infrastructure, very thin layer of connectivity into that ecosystem, all will be managed at that high level as kind of the holding entity for that. And we are a public benefit corporation. So that puts us in an incredibly unique and different position than any other organization going into the space. We have a responsibility kind of at the highest levels to do good. What happens then is then the that's so that's the maker of markets, that's the ecosystem there, right. But then what do they actually work with? Well, they work with the product and the product is called figure PHIGURE and that's meant to serve as the the primer rationalize through a very sovereign owned entity, again at the direct to consumer level. And a single score or a single number that millions, if not hundreds of millions of people can rally around due to its simplicity, due to its ease. And then the ecosystem is the reciprocating benefactor of that. Robert and I saw in a post today. It's, it's, it's about you and then about everybody like you. So the the human flourishing when you blend the HFC and the Kimmel the first thing flower. But if together with figure you're what we're really creating is a new type of community, not one that's like Facebook or Instagram or even YouTube, just like it's good stuff out there, but it's not curated. It's not about you. It's about everybody else but you. In fact, this is all about you, centralized around you. And then in terms of building the best life you can and being the healthiest that you can across a series of life parameters, and that just doesn't exist today. And it's really hard for most people to do that. So that, so I'll stop there. But it's HFC is meant to be the holding organization. Figure is the product inside of it. And there will likely be other products that will extend out from there and outside of figure or maybe just bring that new products. But building those two together gives us the right to create a new system and a product to ignite it and to start it that millions of people can rally around instantaneously. Yeah. Speaker 1 I've seen, and we've seen in the industry when you give people that beacon or that lighthouse of a singular source of truth, it can help normalize the conversation on what what are we actually tracking to whether it is whoops health score. For sure Aura is going to be coming out with something similar, but it gives that line of sight into how my progressing. I guess Duolingo is another good example of the language score. Yeah. Speaker 3 Exactly, exactly, we said. We see them as a an example of how to do certain things and go to market in certain ways on how to speak and normalize that language for a populist, not for the elite. And obviously your neck of the woods out in the West Coast is, is well known to this, right? A lot of the great, those great, singular, killlessly simple, inordinately hugely disruptive companies, a lot of them came out of the valley. We're trying to mimic that, but we're trying to do it in a way that's taking the best of this crazy industry we know as healthcare and not fix that, but create an alternate source or an an alternate channel that people can gravitate into so that both will in fact be running at the same time. But now you'll have a preventive side and A and a forward-looking and do better side. And then if you in case you need it, you still got the medical side there and they'll always be there. So just a new way to look at it. Why the Current Medical System is Fundamentally Broken And Robert, maybe this one goes to you, but one thing that I've been interested in, so you have the holding corporation that is the Human Flourishing collaborative. You have the actual go to market product which is Figure. And then did you guys rebrand? Because I remember when we were talking it was OK, so Figgle to figure very. Speaker 3 Yeah, Yeah, we did. Speaker 1 So you have the go to market product that you're going with now. When did you realize that there is a ceiling to the hospital centric to the healthcare medical care model and that you would have to do something at the ecosystem scale? And how is everything you're doing working with the existing medical system? Speaker 2 Yeah. The question when is always a mystery, right? We go through our careers in attempt to have eyes wide open. But I think when we step back and look at the impact that we're actually making, and I want to be very proactive about this statement, There are hundreds of millions of amazing people working in our medical care systems that wake up in the morning and say, how can I serve and how can I make a difference? But a bad system, it's a good person every time. And if we expect our medical care systems to result in societal flourishing, that is an unrealistic and actually foolish expectation. Our medical care systems are not incentivized. They are not resourced. They don't have the leadership paradigms, they don't have the backing to actually create preventative paths to wholeness and healing. So to me, the realization was coming out of COVID. I spent 40 days in a studio apartment in Detroit running the incident command for COVID. Coming out of COVID, I realized our medical care systems are woefully unprepared to deal with the tsunami of chronic disease that we're facing. And that we as a society need new social constructs that will help us in the everyday where we eat, sleep, shop, learn, play areas of our life to help us resource and incentivize journeys for the care of health. And that's what we're building. That's what we're creating. Speaker 1 It was a great, a great line in there. A bad system beats a good person every time. And as I've been going through this conference planning process and talking with my faculty sponsor, something else that you mentioned was the people and the experts that are behind the current medical system are truly frontline incredible heroes and they're working towards. And it's scary and sad to see some of the vernacular and where the mistrust is going because it's an incentive and a system structure issue. It is not an individual and expertise based issue. So Gary, you, you talked about this on the podcast that I would just discuss with the healthcare wrap on the healthcare system itself is unfixable. You, you went into some of the chronic health issues, the incentive structure and Robert, to your point, you just discussed how you need to build alongside and outside in order to create meaningful change from a societal level. So this might get into figure, but what is disruption look like for the human flourishing collaborative? Like what is the future vision that you're building towards of the work you guys do tactically? HFC's Human-Centered Approach to Daily Behavioral Change Yeah. Speaker 3 Disruption is such a interesting word, and I don't and I don't want to use that. What I'd like to promote, tactically speaking, is embracing not humans, but humanity's ability to do what is best and right for them and for those around them. Let's take that a layer deeper. What does that really mean? How many people on the planet want to truly be healthier? But in that when you're healthier, you tend to lead better lives and that life is not just for you individually, but for those around you understanding that it's generally it feels better to give than to receive. And we are very much in a receiving type of society right now. I'll just speak on behalf of the US, but I'm sure it, it's resonating everywhere. Thank social media for that. And the notion is that we're trying to somewhat implicitly get people to change their behaviors and to do that in a way that that works best for them, right? So everything that's trying to do that for you today, take even a further step down, getting down to further tactics. There is too much data that's being put in front of the populace. And you'll hear us say that term often. And we're, what we're Speaking of is the 99%, right? 99% of the US don't have the funds, don't have the wherewithal, probably don't have the and it's not intelligence, it's just general knowledge of how these hard industries work and how they operate and what even some of the words even mean. They just don't. And it's only getting worse because these industries, including Wellness, like Wellness is kind of taking the same track that healthcare did. A lot of new technology companies, a lot of B to B. There's a little good B, you know, direct to consumer out there, but most of it, most of it is kept behind in these internal kind of bureaucratic walls. And they're, they're just fragmenting us, people, humanity into bits and parts that benefit them. They get something out of that part, but all it does is tear me into a billion pieces and make my life impossible. So now all of a sudden you got 325 million people in the US who don't know what side is up and how every single thing effects their lives. We are correcting that and bringing it 180° back in the opposite direction to say, forget all of that stuff. We're going to, we're going to make you, we're going to, we're going to help you focus on just the things that are important. And then we're going to just sit there on your shoulder without judgment, without causality, without pressure to guide you to the things that are best for you. And if you want some other advice on that, there's also a community right there, a new type of community that's for good and not for trolling, not for bullying. And that's part about the laws of the land for us. If you to put it like that, if you're gonna come in here for that, you're out. And there's not a social network and social media company in the world that would do that. But we are, because we have to focus on positivity and good and eradicate the overt and almost all instances negative thinking, which draws you down into these very, very bad areas. Our generations or younger generations are dealing with that, which is why our mental health crisis is so high and we're dealing with high rates of suicide. And it's all just, it's all interconnected and everybody knows that. They just don't know where these connection points are. We are going to map these connection points for as many people as want to do it and help them lead and get better lives. And of course, there's layers of tactics underneath that. The ecosystems are part of that, you know, connecting with people who have similar scores and you would have gone through similar things. It's all a big part of it. But that's that's the general premise. It's it's to drive figure as this as this kind of anchor and then around it is this a massive, incredible support support network that doesn't exist anywhere unless you try to piece it together yourself. And that's pretty much impossible. So yeah, we're not trying to fix healthcare anymore. We want a new system that's got a new way of thinking, 100% original, out-of-the-box, just like Uber, just just like Airbnb, just like Netflix. Same. Not the same models, but the same way of. Speaker 1 Thinking it's it's a big, bold vision and I love it because I was talking to say you need that if if you want to bring better health services and better true health care and not just medical care, sick care, you need to rethink the way in which an individual engages with the system and who are the right players in the system. So I'll plant a seed and we'll come back to who are the players because you guys are going beyond and you've talked about different areas, but there were there were a few major problems that I think you just listed, Gary, that I think are really interesting, which is first of all, insane amount of information, but siloed information and lack of accessibility for the for information. Second is knowledge gap, but even more so than that, like an understanding gap where people might have the information, but not necessarily know what to do with it. And so as you guys are consolidating and creating maybe a common tongue or just an easier way for people to engage with their data and engage with their health, what is still springing up with the behavior change like it one that's one of the hardest things we will talk about is getting people to change their behavior. How are you guys seeing that at figure? Phigure's AI: Guiding the 99% to Better Health How is it being approached? Speaker 2 You know, Zach, I've heard the statement, very few people wake up in the morning and say, how can I screw up today? Very few life wants to be lived and most people want to live it well. But we have created layers of complexity, layers of systems that don't help on those journeys. So I, I think about all the tech that's coming out and, and Gary mentioned that we have 325,000 health apps in the App Store today. They're all siloed. They they, they pull us into pieces. We also are not interested in the 1%. We're interested in the 99. So when you talk about journeys to better, it has to meet the needs of a single mom with two kids working 2 jobs in inner city Detroit, and it has to meet the needs of a high school student in a wheelchair on a farm in Topeka, KS. It has to meet the needs of a cancer patient who's going through chemotherapy in Miami, Miami, FL, or a First Tribes Indigenous person living on the Cheyenne Reservation in Wyoming. We have nothing for the care of health. That is an organized system that connects you with trusted community in all of those examples I've just given, but yet we have all the tools necessary to create it. We have AI beyond our comprehension. We have the LLM models, we have the platforms that can deliver it. We have everything that we need to create the model that we're creating. But we're not interested in being a flash in the pan, right? We've talked about this. Our long term vision is beyond our lifetime and I think that helps us see clearly. When I look at my son and daughter and their children and their children's children, it helps me understand the foundation we need to build is one of strength, resilience and sustainability. And governance is so critical. Critical that the tech companies right now, bless their heart, are extractive. You're the fuel for their economic engine. Ours is additive. It won't be extractive. A complete 180. Speaker 1 That's it's, it's a powerful saving behind it. I'm curious personally, and I'm sure anyone listening and getting towards the like, how is that coming to be? And like, how are you bringing that into like supporting the diverse, the diversity of the American population across all the different sub segments you meet? And so maybe we'll get into that. So we, we've talked about figure and the work you're building of this like credit score, health score, unified thing that people are getting to the community that is being built around this of people of individuals to turn to. What is the behavior change or, or how are your users using figure to engage with this new model? Like what is it actually looking like? Speaker 3 Yeah, like, I'll take that one, Robert. So the first thing mentioning around diversity, this will be an incredibly diverse audience, but everybody is affected by their surroundings, the things that they do in similar kind of ways, right? So it's, it's in other words, we're not necessarily, I think looking at diverse audiences for the sake of diversity. We're looking at them and saying you're actually all part of the same core. You're all in the same bucket of trying to be as First off, tech healthy as you can and lead the best life you can. Now in Robert's examples, each one of those 3 examples will be different, but the goal is still. The same and it doesn't matter which one you are, the goal is the same and you and you will be on a path that is slightly different than one of the other two, but the goal is still the same. And that's the simple, that's the beginning of that simplicity and that message that we want to get into people's heads. As far as how figure operates, the notion with figure, again, this kind of single number, not a score, but a, but a concentrated kind of neutron star of what your life looks like and how it ebbs and flows with the with the things that you do every single day. And it's not telling you to take 10, 1000 steps. It's not telling you to do this. It's the way it operates is that it's functionally offering. And this and AI is a big part of this, right? AI is a big part of, of communicating and divesting what's, what makes you best and what doesn't make you best at a singular level, but then also at a community level where our AI will be able to understand those writing your own zip code and what and what they're kind of doing. Because your environment around you has a massive impact on who you are. And everybody should know that figure is going to be guide isn't even a good word, but it's going to almost serve like almost like a mentor, right? A steward of your best potential. And it's and like with everything, you're going to have preferences, you're going to ways to turn things on and off. But let's just say you turn everything on because you want the full, full availability of what figure can do. It's going to help you avoid bad decisions. So let's say you turn on your proximity sensor on your phone. Our objective is to use that as a vehicle to see where you're going to be going into, let's say, to consume food. And if you've got 2 choices and one on the left is, you know, a nice Whole Foods new store, you know, small business store that showed up. And the other on the right is Krispy Kreme. And you start turning right. This is an, is an extreme example. But if you turn that preference on and that proximity on the system's going to know and AI is going to come in and be like, you should go left. But it's not going to say you really should avoid doughnuts because doughnuts have a high concentration of sugar and all this stuff. No, it's just going to say, hey, what are you doing? Well, I'm going in to get a doughnut. This isn't a part of the plan, Zach. If you look to your left, in fact, that's actually a better choice. Now. That's how humans talk. That's how humans interact. Like, what are you doing? And when you hear that? Because our founders are probably four of the most authentic people you're ever gonna meet. The system has to be trusted and has to be authentically connected to the individual. And if you get 100 million people, if you get 10 million people doing that, that's a massive leap beyond anything that's currently in market relating to that. So that that that human connectability comes down to communications not being judgmental, knowing when to jump in and knowing when not to jump in, knowing when somebody's having a good day and not having a good day. And, and this is, this is really going to be benefited to our to our abilities by the speeding up in LLMS, by the AI modeling and kind of the reconciliation of what we're going to see as standardized data. And that's a big problem with healthcare. Healthcare data and insurance data is some of the worst data on the planet period, especially in the US. We're saying give us whatever information you can, but it's going to come through standardized. So out of the gate we're already working with a way better data set for AI to operate in. Because if you don't have good data, it doesn't matter. You can put the best AI models on top of it. It'll do boom poco nothing, right. So we've got a we've got a data data standardization structure that we need to establish. And then our we layer in our trained models and do it in a way that is uniquely different than any other AI out there, which is still telling you, you should get outside, you should get some sun. No, we want want this to be a life altering experience for people. Not just one that's telling you what to do, but it's working side by side so that you 2 can make you. You and the AI can make that decision together. Speaker 2 That's you know. Speaker 3 That's unheard of. Micro-Choices, Community, and the Social Media Reckoning Go ahead. Speaker 2 Robert, I want to build on that life altering comment and, and this is interesting because our lives are altered in 100 micro choices every day. That's where the seeds of disease are planted and that's where the life altering activity happens. And we talk about connecting the disconnected and making visible the invisible. And if you think about health in those journeys, it's sleep, it's eating well, it's mental health, it's social connections. And we're going to help you realize that eating the hamburger at 10:30 PM is going to impact your sleep, which is going to impact your social connection at work tomorrow, which is going to impact your stress level, your metabolic balance. They're all connected. And we have the ability with the tools that we have to show you those connections and to actually do it in community. So who's on a similar journey that can help you move 2 steps ahead and eating well? Who's behind you? 2 steps in their sleep that you can help move forward. And there's resource and incentive in those communities to keep everyone engaged in collective journeys to better. It's groundbreaking, nothing like it. Speaker 1 It's exciting it goes from. So Gary, your point kind of this always on mentor or guide, I'm sure the definition will come into clarity as you guys continue to build on it. But this ambient always helping you nudge slightly into a reminder and a very conversational of, hey, this is what you wanted to work towards. This is how a decision will likely impact that giving the information in a digestible way for the user for them to say, OK, now that I have the information, what kind of choice do I want to make? And Robert, you started to go into this on the community side. As you are building that out, are you seeing you're going to have like gatherings? Is it going to be more of like a mentorship between users perspective like community could take many different shapes and forms. It could be a brand identity where they just say, I'm part of this community and they they reach out serendipitously or independently of what you guys are promoting. How does that community manifest as you look ahead for the next, you know, one to two years? Speaker 2 It will manifest in ways that people experience flourishing. That's how it will manifest. I mean, we're, we're not interested in controlling that journey. We're interested in guiding and facilitating. So we, we realize that that life happens off platform and that the platform is a means to an end. The end is that I find flourishing in relationship, never isolation ever. I can have 100 lab tests in MRI every six months and if I live in isolation, I'm going to die in early death. This is reality. So we're we're moving people into community by resourcing them to help their neighbor. And if you think about off platform, it's Robert Gary's in your zip code and he likes blueberries. Do you know that the farmers market has fresh blueberries? Wouldn't it be great to drop some on his front porch and meet him? Hey, these people are running the trails next Saturday. Why don't you check them out? One's got this figure and the other's got this figure. I bet you can learn some things from them. Or what about this activity down at the rec center? You like pick up basketball? There's somebody there who needs to be encouraged to stick with it. Why don't you go help out? I mean, it's using technology to help us be more human. It's the only platform that will motivate you to get off the platform. Speaker 1 Now it's, it's giving a, a reason to reach out, which I think is something that is often lost, especially as I mean, I myself have found myself going on autopilot and see a lot of society just being on autopilot of going through the day and not getting that break in the break in the system or just break it throughout the throughout the day to say, hey, take this consideration, reach out to a friend, reach out to a stranger. And that's interesting. I'm curious to see how the adoption rate is. As more and more users get on this, there's more and more of this network effect of support and community. Speaker 3 We're, I think we're under the general belief that most people are past ready for that switch there, that social media had made a lot of promises, social networking made a lot of promises. None of them have gone the way that I think any of those founders originally intended. And it's now officially a detriment to society so that I think there are way more people than we probably would imagine. But we, our general belief is that most are ready for something new. They're waiting for it. They don't know what it looks like, but when they see it and they see it in its simplicity and that it's true and it's authentic and it's built on trust and it's built on personal ownership, sovereign individual ownership of my information that I get, that I can wield like a sword in public and in market. It changes everything. And again, we believe that most people are past ready for that. Like they're just sitting there waiting for that thing to show up on their doorstep. Speaker 1 We're going to look back on social media. I was just reading about someone who's writing an opinion article or a post and how the fact we gave 13 year olds Instagram will be left back on with more concerned criticism and yeah, head shaking than smoking or anything else we did. The addictiveness and dopamine hits that we put in the hands of teenagers during development stages. Speaker 2 Zach, this is, I mean, this is a big deal, right? The the wealth and security of our nation is the health of our people and we are cutting our people off at the knees. We have an epidemic of mental health in adolescents. We have more chronic disease in adolescents than we've ever had. And when we think about birth rate, we think about the people who are going to be carrying the baton forward in generations. If we don't change that trajectory now, our society is just going to fade. Speaker 1 Also the question of what is the wealth and abundance that technological advancement to capitalism is here for, if not to have a loving and positive relationship with ourselves and our neighbors. Speaker 2 Beautifully said. Beautiful. Speaker 3 Said. Orchestrating Local Partnerships for a Flourishing Community Let's go into the ecosystem. So human flourishing collaborative is one thing figure is the go to market. But you guys have talked about sports, real estate, retail apparent like it's widespread. How do you balance working with so many different parties? What's your approach for who you work with first? How how have you started thinking about that? Not sure who wants to take it. Speaker 2 Yeah, I'll start that, Gary. You know, we have this saying when the vision chooses you, you just go. So we, we are finding that a tribe is being brought together, being attracted. So there there's a waking up in society today that what has brought us to this point will not bring us forward. And we realize that social constructs need to be changed dramatically. We're also waking up to the fact that everything impacts the care of health and impacts the care of life. So the real estate I live in, how I experience outdoor hospitality, how I interact with sports, retail in my relationship with tech. So we're in conversation with organizations that also resonate with that reality and actually want to be part of creating a new future. We realize that our daily journeys cross multiple industry sectors, right? But yet we think Healthcare is in a doctor's office 15 minutes once every six months or once every year. So these industry sectors are are starting to wake up to the fact that we can help re redesign a new system for the care of health. What better impact can we have on individuals than on their journey to flourishing? So we're we're in conversation with one of the largest outdoor hospitality companies on the planet who say, hey, we're interested in getting you connected with yourself, with each other and the world. Love that line. We're in conversation with one of of the largest reinsurance companies on the planet, one of the largest real estate companies on the planet. So it's gathering individuals into this ecosystem. And then our role is orchestration. So how do we orchestrate that to ensure we're incentivizing journeys to flourishing? So the businesses, the companies, the industry sectors that participate are not extractive. If that's your goal, don't come talk to us. And if you're in the ecosystem and you try that, you're out. So the goal is additive. So as Whole Foods is a grocery store, how do I add value to this ecosystem, right? As a real estate developer, how do I add value? All of that matters. We can get into how we funnel that, how we screen it, how we rank it. But really the concept is we are all committed to the same overriding long term vision, keeping people from becoming patients and human flourishing. Speaker 1 Yeah, no, it's the more and more I've become ingrained in this industry, the more I'm meeting people who share a similar mission of bring more of the human flourishing to the forefront of the conversation. And so I am curious in how you guys figure out who are the right partners to go with because you're, you're working on a lot like let's take a step back in terms of building a product in and of itself is a challenge getting adoption, driving retention from that standpoint, working on the entire ecosystem and then building relations with these partners. How do you think about what's the most important thing? Like where does your energy go? You have 24 hours in every given day. How are you guys thinking that the right and the the right priority and triage of all that you're working on? Speaker 3 Yeah, it so this effort is is the epitome of of a matrixed environment, so many connected parts required in order for it to reach it to maxim and we know that to your point. So in order to overt potential destruction that's at scale, you got to start in a zone or in a community that's already fully aware of each other and understand each other and appreciate each other and trust each other. I don't generally fall back on too many things that have worked that have come out of Meta or Facebook, but the one thing that really did work was how Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook and he launched it at schools, right? Launched A metcologist, eventually found its way out in your neck of the woods, literally in Palo Alto. That was really smart. And the reason was smart is because everybody already knew each other, right? Everybody knew each other in their dorms. Everybody knew each other around campus, whether there's a swim team or the, I mean, everybody knew each other in one way or another. So it just it's blossomed. And then so just repeated that again and again. We're going to do the same and that's going to allow us to connect these parts easier than if we did it in a grander fashion. So let's just pick my my daughter goes to University of Vermont Burlington, Great, great town, right? Very kind of earthy, crunchy, good of the earth. A lot of wholesome people up there. Let's say we start with start there, OK, well, now figure can be a part of their life. And then everybody's suddenly in around their halls and around campus are suddenly asking each other, what's your figure? Right. But then what? Well, we would have already gone into Burlington before launching months in advance based off of a lot of qualitative and empirical research and evidence that we would have done talking to store owners, talking to the municipalities, talking to business owners and telling them we're launching here in your backyard. How would you like to be a supporting structure for this? Not easy. That's Robert is good about reminding not an easy exercise, but those partners are going to have one distinct, as Robert mentioned, distinct criteria is that they're all going to be in support of human flourishing. So you can begin to think about who those are. Those are sustainable, sustainable clothing, right? Sustainable food and energy, figuring out more convenient ways to sneak in sleep time to make sure that you're not, you know, crashing during the day. Just any, any particular type of small to medium sized business which will probably be the brunt. By the way, Robert mentioned some big names that we're working with, but we suspect that our ecosystem will be made-up of mostly small and mid sized businesses all localized around a zip 5 or a proximity of zip zip fives and those will be your, your support structures just like community members will be your support. These businesses are going to be there, and organizations and communities will be there to support you, meant for mental health, to food, to activity, you name it. They're going to do it as part of being a part of our ecosystem, which means you can get discounts on these services. You can have reciprocal reward systems with these services and better most they're local to you, which is exactly what is should be happening in healthcare. Healthcare needs to be local again, not these gigantic super organizations that employ, you know, gazillions of physicians that you don't know what's going on. No, I can go to that person. I can ask them questions because they're right there getting back to what used to be good and what actually worked before obesity rates skyrocketed, before mental health crises came into play, That's actually how the world was. And so we want to desperately get back to that, but that's, but that so that that localization is, is really, really critical. And that's what's going to allow us to piece all these together and then test them rigorously and clear out what doesn't work. And then just start repeating that from section to section, community, community, culture to culture, populace, small populace to small populace to small populace. And you will be invited in and you will claim your figure just like you would claim anything else that your own. And then it's and then with our support and the support of those in your local community, it's now up to you to take agency over your life, start to head in that direction. Speaker 1 As they say, innovation can be taking something that's worked and just applying it in a new model. And so I, I see that vision of saying we're going to go local, we're going to get everyone in a given community to participate. And then we take that momentum and the learnings and go somewhere else and getting all of the small businesses, the localized effort on board ahead of time. Kudos to you guys in doing that. Looking Ahead: Launch Plans and Generational Intentions I'm excited to know when it comes to is is figure. Have you guys launched an SF? Are you present on on Norcal? Like can I find you guys now or where, Where is that on the timeline? Speaker 3 Not yet. We're we're still in alpha and so we're not, we're not even officially launched yet and we're, we're going through our business dealings to get funding and everything else kind of wrapped up in a nice little, you know, nice little package. But our our goal is by early 2026 is that we will be out in our first location if if timing holds, which you know, sometimes it meanders like a hurricane. Speaker 1 No, of course. Well, I know where we're coming up. One of the things I love to ask all the guests coming on and again, Robert, Gary, thank you for coming. Your guys''s vision is I as big as it should be for what you're working on doing, and you have a powerhouse team in place. What is the intention that you have maybe in your lives for the Human Flourishing Collaborative for figure? It can be for anything but an intention that you guys want to bring forward, whether it's now for the next week, for the next year, something that you want to put to manifest in the universe. Speaker 2 You know, my son and I often talk about planting vineyards and orchards and we talked about the 7th and the 10th generation and, and my intention is to hold hold a place where my actions and the investment in my time and energy adds, adds value to the 7th and 10th generation. Speaker 3 For me, it's everything. Robertson No, I was kidding. For me, it's, it's probably even more singular in in that and more elemental. I, I, I think this exercise, you know, and we've already been begun to embark on it is really a right versus wrong type of effort. As as societies have really gotten it. There's, there's way more Gray than there is black and white. And that's A, and I don't, that's a bit of a problem, I think, cuz I think it as new generations come on, then they're learning Gray and they're not learning black and white. And every, every further generation that that happens, it just gets grayer and grayer and grayer and suddenly you don't know what truth even looks like anymore. And that's, that's a scary proposition. And I think we're seeing a lot of people start to talk like that, like what is truth and what is reality and what is right versus wrong. And I so I think this exercise for me is to prove that that is the way that things. Should operate in terms of living the best life you can. There are things that are going to hurt you and there are things that are going to make you amazing and we want to focus on the things that are going to make people amazing. But you need that comparison to avoid the pain that life gives you, right? Life is life is painful. It's literally just pain avoidance in life. So people need help to to do that because it's getting harder to avoid daily regimented pain. Whether you see it online, whether you hear it from your friends, whether it's what you eat, the air that you breathe, the toxins in your in your water. I mean, there's 1000 things that are going to take you down. We want to show people the difference between that what's right versus wrong, and then get them on the right path, educated, consumed with that vitality because flourishing is the ultimate goal. Speaker 1 That's amazing. So investing in the 7th and 10th generations and bringing truth to what it means to live a healthy, full, holistic life. Well, Gary, Robert, thank you both. If people want to stay in touch with you, where's where's the best place for them to follow along? I can link everything but anyone who wants to get in touch, where can I direct them? Speaker 2 Sure. Direct them to our LinkedIn page, the Human Flourishing Collaborative, or our website, A Flourishing dot Life. Speaker 1 I'm so grateful to have gone connect with you guys as the beginning of the summer. You're working on some amazing stuff. I hope to be a participant and a supporter in any way that I can throughout the next few decades. Thank you for coming on. I appreciate the time and I knew it was going to be a good conversation but very stoked to have it. Speaker 2 Thank you, Jack. It's great. Thank you. Speaker 1 Talk to you later.