Michael Giuliano - The most influential guy you’ve never heard of

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What's going on, everyone? Kasey Adams here. Welcome back to the Rise of the Young podcast. And I am very excited about today's episode because we have somebody who you probably haven't heard of before, you haven't seen him on social media. And before we get into the show, I'm gonna be reading off some LinkedIn endorsements that Mr. Michael Giuliano has on his profile. So first off, Michael, thanks so much for coming on the show.

Thank you for having me, Casey.

So first off, this is on his LinkedIn page. Mark Spicer says, simply put, Michael leads elite leaders and influences the real influencers. People choose to follow him as he is the definition of an authentic leader. Over a period of 20 years, he has clearly demonstrated excellence in building and coaching high performing and elite teams including executives, special forces and tactical officers. Without a single website or an ounce of social media. People request Mr. Giuliano by name. Thank you for your mentorship and friendship, Michael. And that is from Mark Spicer, who, who we will get into. And one more to really just set the tone of the episode. J. Clowes says Michael puts more emphasis on people respecting their time and adding value than anyone I've ever met. He consistently surprises me with his in depth of insight and also his generosity in sharing it. He can take you to the next level with just an hour of conversation. Imagine the value he brings when you engage him for more. So that being said, today we are sitting down with the one and only Michael Giuliano with one of the most influential, influential guys you've never heard of. So Michael, thanks so much for coming on.

Thank you for having me, Casey.

So, really to just get into the podcast, I want to say that, number one, I really appreciate your time. We're here in Arizona and it's beautiful what I just read to the people listening, working with special forces and being influential without a website, without any social presence. You're one of the first individuals that I've had on this show that you can't just go on Instagram and find out who they are. And there's a purpose and there's an intent behind that. And your history, which we'll get into today, you'll explain why. But really, to just set the tone of the episode, can you give us some more insight of those endorsements and what you've been working on and you've built within these last couple decades of just building your career, where do you specialize?

I would say that I help people compete at game speed, win and have fun. I would say that's my mantra. And I focus on people and getting the right people in a superior process. And that can go across the board. If it's in sports, you can get a Nick Saban, you can get a Belichick, you could get a Pat Riley, a Phil Jackson, anybody that's won titles, they have a program, a process, a standard, and they hire the right people for that process, and then they hold them to it. And what they're able to do is build legacy. If you go to the New York Yankees, you go to the Red Sox, you go to the Lakers, you go to even the Chicago Bulls, they know what they hire. They know what it looks like and what it does not look like. More specifically, what it does not look like, they have no tolerance for that baloney. They defeat the unhealthy ego. They don't tolerate that at all. And they believe in the true team concept. So these guys have a superior process and they get the right people in there and they can beat anybody, anything. I believe that in business. So that's a sports analogy. But the same applies for business. If I have a small organization and I have a process that's superior to yours, I can give you five all stars or five Harvard grads or five MIT grads. But if they don't understand what winning looks like, if they don't understand what being on time means, if they don't get your way and they don't subscribe to that one way, they can't be in a singular direction. Could have superior process and medium people and kick the living heck out of you 100% of the time. That's game theory, that's statistics, probability, all that stuff. So you have a superior process, you get buy in, you're constantly failing and refining that process and you get rid of the fear and the ego on the team. You're going to have championships, it doesn't matter what you do. So that applies to everybody.

So you talk a lot about. And we've had these long conversations about influencers and being influential and you've been a part of some amazing companies in which we'll get into about just. You've influenced culture and of the masses without having any social presence, without being the person that says, look at me. You've built this career in silence, but you've impacted in. Like my buddy Tristan would say, you've helped sewn into. You've sewn items into the fabric of society that people use on a daily basis regarding what you've done in your career. So can you define to me the difference between an influencer and being influential?

Sure. I'll be 42 in two more days. And I've seen people that are influential. People follow them because they want to, not because of, for example, social media. If you're the best at basketball, Michael Jordan has never taken a selfie and posted it. You don't see Tim Cook at Apple showing you what he had for breakfast. Elon Musk, same thing. Whoever you admire, they're there because they're great at what they do, they're uniquely great, they're the best and they're the first version of them. You look at social media and what's termed as influencers now seems to be the popular term. I could tell you that in my experience, I live in Westlake, Ohio. A lot of people don't know where that is. But there are two people who came from Westlake, Ohio and I think when they were in their teens, they got on vine and they were themselves and one was funny and silly and a little slapstick and was a 4.7 GPA student, went and attended Ohio University in engineering, was a 4.0 student and then switched over to YouTube, figured out how to really do well on that. And at the peak of their authenticity, they were the highest earning and the most viewed people to ever walk earth. That's saying a lot. And that was because they were them. The younger brother, same thing. He had a little bit of a different path. He came out and he got into television right away and you see him on Disney setting records. You then see him competing with his older brother and them trading Blow for blow. And in a friendly rivalry of just doing cool stuff on a new platform, and people are paying them hundreds of thousand dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars for seven seconds on Vine. They're getting them at super bowl halftime. They're looking at Pepsi things, Beats by Dre. And those are two kids from my neighborhood. And I could say that to see those guys now. Influence boxing, influence, all kinds of other stuff. I would call those guys pioneers. They were the first to do it. Now, you see, later on in life, everybody is trying to be the next Jake Paul or the next Logan Paul. Well, there was already one Logan Paul, and he was the best at being Logan Paul. There's one Jake Paul. He was the best at being Jake Paul. And they have the numbers. The scoreboard doesn't lie. I look at you, Casey, and I could say, not because I'm on your show and I'm being complimentary. You were a younger teenager and you went off and you did your own thing. You've now done hundreds of podcasts with all kinds of people you never thought you'd meet, and you keep getting better and better. And you're the first you. You're not trying to be somebody else. You might take little bits and pieces of people you admire, but your authenticity is why I'm here. If you were somebody else, I may not have taken this type of an interview because we don't have things in common, but we do have things in common. And I admire your approach, the authenticity, and you not trying to be the next somebody. You're trying to be the first you. I see influence as being great and authentic at anything you do. If you're a great. If you're the best brain surgeon, everybody's going to follow you around. If you're the best engineer person who was able to put chips to consume less power, helped enable mobility, which helped do laptops and phones and cloud. There's somebody who thought, let's get rid of all this stuff, and I want immediate access to all my information. I want on demand, I want streaming. That person wasn't taking pictures of themselves. They were figuring out algorithms, and they were figuring out roadmaps on chips and working with hardware teams. That person's an influencer. What I don't believe now is everybody that's a teenager that takes a lot of pictures of themselves, and they're trying to be the next somebody else. Carbon copy is never as good as the original, and some of these copies have been out there for five, 10 years. I would have a hard time seeing that someone's gonna be the next Kim Kardashian. She did what she did and she's the first of her kind, good or bad, right or wrong. But now if you get on these social medias, everyone's trying to imitate her. Well, guess what? There's only one of her. Yeah, there's only one. There's only one Michael Jordan. There's only one LeBron James. There's only one Steve Jobs. There's only one Elon Musk. There's only one Travis Schwann. There's only one Mark Spicer. Those guys are the best at what they do. We should celebrate them and admire them. And I think if you want to be an influencer, just be great at you. Be great at being yourself and be great at your craft. The followers happen. The thing that they have in common, which is the irony of all this stuff, they don't want pictures taken of them. They do have bodyguards. They do pay to get, you know, the paparazzi out of their face. And you see the people who call themselves influencers who may not yet be influencers, they take pictures of themselves. If you're great, they pack the stadium. They pack the stadium every week with a hundred thousand people wearing your jersey. You don't need any of it. The media follows you. So I would say when you achieve influencer status, you just need to be great at what you do and you have that influence. Popularity is different than influence.

Speaking of sports, I want to go into your college years because I know you've an engineer by trade, but you're also played multiple sports in college. Can you walk us through your college years and why you originally went to college and what you went there for?

Yeah, so I. I'm a nerd. I'll say it right away. I'm a nerd out of high school. When I was in high school, I played baseball, basketball, football and track. I was okay at them and had the opportunity in all four to play past high school at various levels. My dad wanted me to play football, so I played football. I was a defensive back and I played. Played a little bit. I wasn't the best on the planet. I wasn't the worst, but played a little bit of little bit of football in college at the Division 1 level. And at the exact same time I was studying industrial and systems engineering for my undergraduate. And I have a master's in quantitative analytics and those two aren't the same. The football player is usually not the nerd. And then when you get to a competitive Division 1 school or a top quartile, top 10% school, whatever it is, you usually don't have the nerd and the jock be the same guy. And in this case I happened to be that. And then when I got out of school, my first job was right here. I mean, I'm looking at Camelback Mountain. Most of my dreams were at the top of that mountain on the weekends dreaming about what I can do. My first job out of school, I was a chip engineer for the Intel Corporation. So that was my.

Why did you choose intel out of college?

So getting told what you could not do creates a hunger in there. And so later in life I got told I couldn't marry my wife on a bet. Someone told me I couldn't do it. And I've been married to my high school sweetheart, so did that same thing happened with Intel. It seems to be like a common theme with me. Someone tells me I can't do it and then I go do it. I was in a lobby going to a Yankees game. I had a ball cap on in Cleveland. I had a Yankees ball hat, ball cap on, had five o' clock shadow, cargo shorts, T shirt. And there happened to be a career fair in the lobby and my friends were agitating me and said, go get the pen. Which is we'll call you type stuff. So I did it on a dare. So I went and got in line and my friends were egging me on from behind the interview booth and there was a sign that read PhD candidates and Master's candidates only. And I got up in line and there were a lot of international students wearing great suits, hair combed, looking great, looking a lot like how you young guys dress out here like movie stars. And there was my silly butt wearing cargo shorts and flip flops and Yankees hat. And I ended up getting to the front of the line and person asked me, can you read? And I said, yes, I can. And they said, do you have a PhD? I said, no sir. Do you have a master's? No sir. Do you graduate yet? I said, no, but let me tell you about myself. And I did. And that lasted for a while. And they invited me back for a more formal interview the following or later on in the day. And then I got an interview one week later to this place that was an alfalfa field at the time. And they told me how they were going to put copper on chips and they were going to do dual core and quad core and eight core and all this cool neat stuff. And I ended up getting a job offer. I was very Very, very blessed to get a job offer six months before I graduated college and move out here to the Phoenix area and work on what's now Fab 22. That was pretty much an alfalfa field at the time I was interviewing. And what came out of there was ultimately a lot of things that today would be called mobility. So you had the chips that had the dual core, the quad core, the eight core, you had the server chips. It was the time that the Xbox was getting developed, the MP3 players, some of the more advanced phones. So a lot of that stuff happened to be going on at that time. And a lot of those technologies were the things that the team enabled and, you know, born at the right time. A lot of that stuff was going on when we were there. And our team was very diverse. We had amazing people. But what was kind of neat is those were the rock stars back then and none of us had camera phones, but we barely had cell phones and we got it done. So. And I would say that influenced a whole heck of a lot. So very proud of being part of that team. And it was a special time when we were there and the people, everybody was gifted and, and we celebrated everybody's diversity there, the diversity in perspective, the diversity in where they came from, diversity in age. And we encouraged thoughtful disagreement. And when you brought facts to the table, that's what won out. And if you, if we both had a way to solve a problem and your way ended up being better in some sort of way, we would all fall under to support you and push out forward. And you see intel to this day, I believe is the benchmark for tech. You still see people trying to copy the. Just because you wear blue jeans, it's, it's high tech or whatever intel did that, this, this work life balance that was, that was from these guys 20 years ago. It's not, it's nothing new. So everybody seems to be standing on the shoulders of the Intels, the Microsoft's, the, the Motorola's, the Apples of back then and now. Tech seems to be a caricature of itself, but there were a lot of special people around late 90s, early 2000s that all this stuff's in fruition. Nobody would have thought that you would have a phone that is a miniature television screen, that is a supercomputer that you can do anything you want on it and it's standard. They went out and they made markets and did a lot of things that have never been done and people really didn't think could be possible. So a lot of special people in the tech world, very gifted people. And most of those people are from the engineering discipline. I'd say primarily all of them were. And I would say they were some pretty powerful influencers.

Absolutely. Speaking of engineering, recently I had the opportunity to come out to Ohio University where you went to school. And I wanted to say thank you for that opportunity. And I talk about it all the time and I posted about it on Instagram and gave you a shout out. Because when I was there, not only did I learn so much about an entire different world that I'm myself not involved in, but I got to see you in action and you talking to these engineering students and you judging someone, taking an idea to building it and having an idea to then pitch to this Shark Tank style classroom. And it was phenomenal experience on my end and I'd love for you to.

All in the same day, correct?

All in the same day. And it was in this college environment in the engineering department, seeing people develop rockets and help fish get to the markets within 24 hours and all the stuff that on social media you don't hear about, you don't listen to. And especially coming from someone like yourself who's been not only a pioneer in that world, but speaking on engineering, Ohio University, how are you still contributing to that school? Because I know you have a massive influence there at OU and I'd love for you to talk about some things that you still do to participate in that program.

I believe John Paul dejorie is one of the people that I admire most and he has a saying, success unshared is failure. So I didn't come up with that, but I do use it a lot. I believe that success unshared is the definition of failure. And as soon as I got out of school, as soon as I can come back and just get invited to talk to the guys and gals of the College of Engineering, the business school, the entrepreneurship program, donating time. You may not be able to cut a check immediately, but you can give insight on the job market. They may ask you about the interview process. They may ask you about a cool project you're working on. I did that right out of the gate and quickly became a member of the board of directors for the College of Board of Advisors, Board of directors on the Engineering board for industrial and systems engineering. I've donated intellectual property. I've helped teach teachers how to teach at multiple universities. And I try to get back there three times or four times per calendar year and donate as much time, open up as many connections as possible. So help people get jobs, help them teach the rules of engagement for the different industries and how unfortunately, some of the politics exist. But when you were with me, we put on our first hackathon. So Eric may put on one of the first hackathons at Ohio University. And what they had is on a Saturday morning at I believe, eight o', clock, when most kids may not even have gone to bed yet. There's a whole other side to all the cool kids. There's also the kids that are in the engineering program. And you saw 100 something people from, I don't know, five, six, seven different states come in. They got assigned teams or they opted for their own team and they went from concept or a problem to solve, they went and coded from scratch and then they came up with things that solve useful problems. One of the problems had to do with the supply chain and getting fresher fish to market. There was somebody who talked about fractional capacity in manufacturing. So more local, local on demand based things, things so you can leverage the collective community. There were people that were solving flight, There were drone people in there, There were people that were talking about easier ways to dispense adult beverages. There was all of that. But what you saw was people that started with a piece of paper, listened, came together, tested their, tested their hypothesis, got research data in less than 12 hours, had a functioning computer program and they were pitching for a real competition. So if those are kids, politely, Those are kids 18 to 20 something years old and they have that power, they're at every school. Those guys and gals are going to be the ones that influence the new ways to solve cancer. They're going to be the people that help us talk smarter, have smarter grids. They're the ones that are gonna use the drones and all this automation for good purposes. They're the next influencers. Those are the guys and gals that are gonna get it done. I don't believe it's gonna be the one that was taking a picture himself with the red Solo cup uptown at 1:00am going, so you saw greatness there. But that's one school. If I were to go down the street here and go to Tempe and I go to asu, they have those same kids, kids that have dreams. They're not pounded down or beat down by the world. And they go out and instead of we can't because they have the spirit of we could if. And they put their collective greatness and their collective talent together. They're not skeptical, scared to fail, and they just go out and they kick ass and they do a great job. That's a whole part of the population that I wish will get acknowledged more. Because there's always been engineers, there's always been people studying medicine to be a doctor. There's always people that study to be teachers. You had somebody that was in grade school that taught you something, that made math stick. Somebody taught you how to read, somebody taught you how to do public speaking. You see teachers are solving new ways to get kids more engaged in an online world. So new teaching methods. You see this whole other side, but it's not really the other side. It's the majority. Sales and marketing is one piece of the business. Whole entertainment is fun. But if you don't have good engineers, that plane doesn't work too well. The bridge fails. If you don't have good doctors, life expectancy goes down. If you don't have great teachers, it could be elementary, it could be K12, it could be college. These people all have a huge impact on society. And I think we should celebrate them way more than they're celebrated right now. Somebody that I really admire is Travis Schwann. He's a teacher out here and he's finding new ways. I'm very fascinated by him. I had dinner with him last night. He just amazes me. He's looking at how to get kids engaged in these accelerated programs in mathematics, problem solving, how they can see stuff and not just be memorizers. And I've known him for roughly a decade. And this is a person that you don't see on television. You see, but he's influencing entire school districts here in Arizona. Travis is as gifted as it gets. And I admire the living hell out of him. And he's a guy that is reading the books, doing the research, and then figuring a way to make it stick with grade school and early high school kids. That guy's a pioneer. That's a person that I appreciate. Those are the heroes to me. Those are the influences. The Travis Schwann's are the ones world. The Casey Adams of the world. All you guys, you inspire us. You know, you're half my age. I'll be 42 in a couple days. You're half my age. But you see, you have a dream, you're chasing it, you're accomplishing it. You're gonna be with somebody that I'm not gonna name right now. Coming up soon, who's the greatest in the history of mankind and what they do. And there's a reason that you keep getting around these great people. Is because what you're doing is great and they acknowledge you and it's just gonna keep adding up and adding up and, you know, you got the world by the balls right now, Casey.

I appreciate it. And this next question, I want to ask it through myself and my buddy Tristan, who happens to be listening today. And that is you've been very involved with a lot of early development of tech, whether that's the iPhone or I'm working at Intel. How do you see the future, future of AI?

So artificial intelligence is just that, it's artificial and everything has sensors and monitors and you know, there's big data a few years ago, now there's the buzzwords of Iot, Internet of things. But what we were able to do a long time ago, and it's never changed, is you're able to Observe now maybe 20 years ago, we're writing it down on paper. 10 years ago it's in a database. Today you're getting giant servers filled up by the nanosecond of geotagged photographs and what you eat. And they're aggregating all this data. But the two things that are undefeated, one is my wife, the other is math. So maths, undefeated stats, probability, it's undefeated, it just is. So they're able to get all this stuff and it's information or it's data. It's not yet information, it's data. Now I could turn that into useful information and use my powers for good, or I could use it and maybe have an alternative thing. Maybe it's not saying that if you use it to make money, it's bad, but if you're trying to make meaning and have an impact on the collective, the money's going to drop in your lap. Some of the people are, how can I quickly monetize other people's views and get money and whatever. That's short sighted. Somebody may get that data and understand that it could help kids learn how to read quicker or that, you know, might solve diseases, it might solve whatever. But all this Internet of things, all this artificial intelligence, we have the ability to take measurements, make them meaningful, quantify them statistically put probabilities to them. You could solve energy consumption, you could solve all these really big story problems, which is just the world around us, or you could just make more silly stuff to sell better to people. That's part of the equation. But there's so much talent, we have so much access to this. It's all available, I think. And we're at the point where it's what do we do with all this data and then when we do get it and turn it into information, how do we use that information to better our community, our country, our world? That's where we're at right now. I don't have a perfect answer for it, but that's, that's, that's what, what, that's what's in front of us.

Got it. And before moving on to the next question, I wanted to read another letter LinkedIn recommendation that's on your profile. It's someone says Eric, how do you say his last name? Eric Knaf.

Eric Knoff.

Eric Knoff. He says. I have led global recruiting for three cloud based companies. I have assessed, selected and recruited top leaders globally who have been responsible for leading, defining and executing strategy for the highest performing companies in their sector. I've recruited Michael to do just that for organizations more than once. Each time Michael delivered at a PE backed $8 billion a year company, Michael was flown in on day one to drive strategic alignment across the entire enterprise. At a 31 billion dollar a year leading global cloud based company, Michael led an initiative that connected the strategic goals of the organization to the tactics internally, internationally to ensure fulfillment of the local and global plan. As a leading medical device company, Michael's vision for transformation was deemed the be the best lean initiative seen by a former head of GE Healthcare. Michael not only connects the dots, he also develops programs that team members at all levels can realize to fulfill the strategic vision of the organization. And lastly, Michael is more than a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur and more than a consultant who defines strategy. You won't find Michael behind a desk. Expect to find him where the action happens, where the value is delivered. You will find him on the front lines with his sleep sleeves rolled up. When an organization is in need of connecting strategy to execution, Michael is the first person I call. Wow, that was a lot.

Wow.

So what I just said, that's a lot to take in. But my question to you is when an organization is in need of connecting strategy to execution, how do you go about that plan?

So two primary ways, you go in and you meet at the top because they make the decision. So if you look at any great organization or team, it starts at the top. You don't start in the middle and work your way up and ask for permission. You set clear boundaries and expectations and you do that through listening. So if I were to come into your company, I would understand how do you measure success? So that would be one of the biggest, most common questions is how do you measure success? What does An A look like what's an automatic. Yes. Some of the tools that I might use to do that. You might, if you're a Fortune 500 company, you might pull out your shareholder goals. You want to grow your EBITDA as a percentage of sales. You want to increase the efficiency of your supply chain. You may want to educate your direct labor so you could put all that in combination and, and be a high performing team. You may have some culture issues, so you may have a point where you have some boomers, you have some Gen X, some Gen Y, the millennials, and they're just not all motivated by the same thing. So taking a listening approach to what are the rules of engagement for your team and your organization, understanding what your goals are might be driven by shareholder goals, might be turnaround goals, whatever it is, but listening, not waiting for your turn to talk, but actively listening. And now you know what the goal posts are, you can then see through statistics and probability and other methods or just from doing it, you could understand what's possible, but then what's probable. So instead of having these big peanut butter spread goals, broad brush goals, I may want to just save 10% somewhere. Well, you could take the easy route, the one time route and do what has destroyed. In my opinion, America is just cut heads. People run businesses. So if you're not making the system better for the people, cutting headcount is a one trick pony. Doing share buybacks, one trick pony. If I say I'm going to invest in my process and make a superior process, I'm going to educate and train my people, that's hard. That's going to the gym, that's lifting that, that's getting on a regimen. But that might double your company without firing a single person. That might increase the efficiency or the effectiveness of your supply chain. That may, may it can and will. But listening and then understanding what's possible and what's probable and then tracing it down to the point of activity. So you can have all these carpet dwellers in the ivory tower in Manhattan or sfo, but things might be made in the Midwest, they actually are made in the Midwest. So if you go see some financial guy and they just say, oh, we need to save 5% cut headcount, that's not the answer. I might be able to get 15, 20% through efficiency gains, through a better layout in a factory. I might get understand where the gaps in your supply chain are and understand that China is not the answer to everything. I may say you have some answers right here in your backyard. That you could collaborate with. But it's how do you focus more on the we and less on the me and you? You're able to use the collective to elevate the whole. That's not a specific answer, but those are some of the methods and the approaches. 1 Listening 2 There's a tool called Hoshin Conry, which is direction setting. It supports the lean manufacturing philosophies and the teachings and it's tying operational initiatives directly to financial goals. So if I want to move diluted earnings per share, if I want to move this, I want to move, move ebitda, I want to move material costs, whatever it is, I could tie that down to the point of activity, to the point that Betty on line one, who's next to Susie Q, who's next to me, knows why their, their scrap rate needs to be X per hour. And they can say, well, when I do this, this affects our quality goal. Quality makes us spend more here and we're spending too much. So if they don't understand how they're tied to the, to winning from the top, if the person at the point activity doesn't get how they're tied directly, how are they going to buy in? So you have to listen to the top work with the chiefs and the generals in the middle and then ultimately you have to listen and go ask what sucks? How do I make this better? And then you can put, you know, a opinions and feelings and calibrate them correctly, but your job is to go make the employees come in and have an easier, faster, quicker, more efficient, safer job every day. Some of these executives have turned into robber barons and quick flips and all that stuff. And there was a time not too long ago where companies were loyal to people and they took care of the people at all costs. Today I could see a lot of disenfranchised people, probably in your generation, some in my generation, that they don't believe companies stick with them. I'd like to see it return to we're going to make the system better. We're going to work as a collective. To some of your points earlier, how do we leverage some of these technologies to work more powerful, more influential together to rank our ideas, to spread our messages, to try and have cool, quicker failures and record, you know, record all of that feedback ultimately to make the, the company more effective? I don't think the answer is always throw more at marketing, have more, you know, social media followers and fire people. I don't think that's the answer that makes sense.

All right, so I want to read another quote. It says, Michael brings an unbelievable amount of strategic and technical depth to the electrical electric vehicle space. His ability to discuss complex issues in simple English is invaluable. When needing to cut to the main issues quickly, Michael can pick up the phone and get results immediately. Due to his existing relationships in the technology and vehicle space. I enjoy working with Michael because he is direct, honest, sincere and brings teams closer together. So electric vehicles, how did you get involved in that world?

Well, who's that quote from? Was that Josh Rasmussen? Yes, Shout out to the world famous Josh Rasmussen of Monday Motorbikes. Hope you're enjoying California and I hope, hope Christmas is going well for you or coming up. So I talked with these guys on the telephone and they were making an electric bike. So Dr. Nathan Jaftis and Josh had a small team and they wanted to take it from where it was at and scale it. And at the time, which was like 2015, 2016 time frame, they had something that nobody else had. They had a removable battery. They had a bike that was gaining some popularity in a very, very tech market, being actual San Francisco. And they had a very nice team and got invited to be part of it and to try to help scale that process. What came out of that is we continued to build the team, develop the product and ultimately took it a little bit bigger and somebody did more of an aqua hire of the company. And you're shipping roadworthy electric two wheel vehicles at a price point that is affordable to the masses. It may not be for a person that's in Iowa in the winter, but if it costs 50 bucks to park every day and gas cost $4 a gallon and you know, you're in an expensive living place, that solved a very useful problem. So the product was definitely ahead of its time, the thinking was ahead of its time and now you see a lot of copycats and me toos, but very proud to be part of that team when I joined it and still support them and you know, want to see them do well. Electric and mobility. I believe Henry Ford. I believe I'm not a great quoter, but I believe Henry Ford and if I'm wrong, you know, look it up and figure out who said it. But somebody said the hybrid version of electric and gas will be the answer. And I believe there's a lot of merit in that because there's some scenarios where you have great things that come from, whether it be petroleum or natural gas or any of that stuff, some sort of fuel, fuel and the electric stuff. Is it's an arms race. Right now you have the 1-865-0828650 form factor batteries there, the lithium iron phosphate ones, Li F EPO4s, they're in phones, they're in the cars. But right around the corner you see Heinrich Fisker and the daughter Natasha pull out a car and a solid state battery. You have the molten salt stuff you have in aerospace, maybe with the government, the graphene batteries. So when they figure out how to get the most energy density or the best energy density at the lowest cost and scale, that I don't know that all electric is for everybody or all gas is for everybody, I think there's some hybrid is going to be what goes to the masses. And for some people, an all electric vehicle is going to serve their purpose, a lot of people's purpose. The performance is amazing. You get that instant torque. You see the success of a Tesla and what a wonderful product they've made. I think we're just seeing the initial try when they get batteries right and they can scale it. It's unbelievable what they're able to do with electric.

Got it. My question to you when speaking to young people now, and more so giving them advice. Advice especially let's say, someone listening to this podcast who's maybe still in high school, about to take that next step into their career, maybe it's college, maybe they have this idea they want to pursue. What advice do you give to that young person who's debating going to college or doing something unconventional? What would you say to that young person?

Well, the unconventional thing might be recent because there used to be people that maybe my grandparents, some finished high school, some didn't, some went into the trades. I know when I was in high school that if you were going to be a machinist, the parents would say, I don't want to be a machinist. I want my kids to go to school. I want this, I want that. And today somebody that's a trade might make more than the engineer that they report to. So you see it swing all the way to one side, all the way back. I would say find something that you're good at and be the best possible you. And what that means is don't try to be somebody else, but be you. Wake up, outwork everybody, Stay away from the people your parents tell you not to be around and just surround yourself with greatness. Surround yourself with people that you admire. Surround yourself with people that support your goals. Surround yourself with, with people that when you do great, they're cheering for you, not whispering behind your back. And college is great. Education is always great. But college may not be for everybody. You see some of these tech companies now that don't require a computer programming degree to be a programmer. That's because there are some people that they don't need the traditional four year computer science you can go to get an associate's degree. You see, for example, sports, not that that's what this is, but you see LeBron James came out of high school, Kobe Bryant came out of high school. All these guys came out of high school. You could be great and not have to be 40 years old or 50 years old to be great at something. TAC has always been that way. It's always been a young person's game because they're not scared to challenge the norm. They like the challenge. They, they want to beat current state. So if I'm in school right now, I want to figure what I like doing and become really good at it and have the ecosystem in place that I have great mentors. And a mentor doesn't have to be a famous person. A mentor could be your mom and dad. A mentor could be your aunt, uncle, neighbor, cousin, whatever it might be a friend, somebody who just role models. Excellent. Somebody who's disciplined, somebody who manages their money right. Somebody who's not reckless, somebody who's not underage drinking and partying. If you want to be great, just be focused and be yourself and surround yourself with great people. I think that formula has held true throughout history, and I don't think it's ever going to change discipline and delayed gratification too. You're not going to have everything you want today. There's that veneer and that facade that's readily available to us in the media, but most of it's fake. That's not everybody has a Lamborghini. They might be sitting on one, taking a picture. All the gold isn't real, all those diamonds aren't real, all those boats and yachts. That's the 1%. That's not the 99%.

Got it. So we're recording this podcast and December 2019 and moving into 2020, this new decade. And really just recapping on the last 10 years, what do you believe was the most revolutionary technology that came about within this last decade?

I would say mobility. Mobility in combination with the Internet.

Okay, now, looking forward, what do you think the 20s will bring in terms of the new technological advancement that will change culture the way the iPhone did? And mobility changed everything.

I would say now that we have that in place and we've had it in place. We have all this information and all this data. What are we going to do with what we've been collecting for the past 10 years? What are we going to do and are we going to use it for good? Are we going to use it to just chase the dollar? Are we going to use it for some ulterior motives? So we got the tools in place, we have enough that we could look behind and be retrospective, introspective and kind of project forward what's possible. And now it's our job to go make it probable. So I think it's what do we do with this data to go influence change for the positive.

Got it. Really last question to wrap it up. Throughout your journey of being in multiple different spaces, meaning you're playing sports, you're an engineer, you're at intel, you're sitting on the board of ou, you're building these chips and electric bikes that you have such a array of things that you've been a part of throughout your career. If you were to go back to the first day you're in that line in the flip flops and khakis, asking that you want to get a job at intel, what do you say to the younger Michael who's in that part of his career based on the experience you've been through so far, work even.

Harder and listen even more.

Got it. Well, truthfully, to really wrap it up, I know you're not on social, I know I don't want to direct people to anywhere, but I know you have an amazing presence on LinkedIn and it's something that you've been educated me on and you've been a part of a lot of LinkedIn related things. So before we wrap it up, instead of saying hey, go check him out on LinkedIn, why are you aggressive and on LinkedIn the way you are and not on any other social.

So LinkedIn, I thought when I got on it was a great tool to have your work showcased, have third party, independently validated stuff. It has a social element that if you are an entrepreneur that you can post relevant things but you could tie articles and it's a nice kind of base, home base. The other stuff, the Twitters, the Instagrams, the other stuff, I'm ugly. Nobody wants to see a picture of me posted up next to some fancy car. I'm more of a look at we person, not a look at me. And it's fun, but it's past my time. Nobody wants to see see me you know, throwing a peace sign up with, you know, Hollywood celebrity or some big CEO. They want to see more people like you with the good hair and the young stuff and the, you know, the suit jackets and the. They would. They want to see young Hollywood. They don't want to see somebody like me. So hopefully doing everybody a service by staying off of that. But if you do want to connect. G I U L I A N O First name Michael, when you find the ugly one with the shaved head, that's me. Invite you to connect and wish you a lot of success.

Absolutely. And for everyone that's listened up to this point, I know I've read off a lot of these quotes and they all came from Michael's LinkedIn. So if you want to go connect with him, I'll make sure to put his LinkedIn down in the description. Just so, number one, you can reread some of the facts that I was stating today so that you can really get a sense of Michael's career. And he doesn't do podcasts, but this is your second, third podcast you've ever done. So to have him on here is a privilege. And I really want to make sure that you take the time to go connect with him to dive more in depth into what he's been able to do, because it's honestly a privilege to have him on the show today. So, Michael, I just want to say thank you so much for coming on the show. It truly means a lot to myself as well as the listeners. And I just wanted to say thanks so much again.

Thank you, Casey. And World Domination.

Monarch. Legacy of Monsters An Apple original series.

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