Ep.5-Luke Segreto: The Journey From Intern to Documentary Producer

This is the You Winning Life Podcast, your number one source for mastering a positive existence. Each episode, we'll be interviewing exceptional people, giving you empowering insights, and guiding you to extraordinary outcomes. Learn from specialists in the worlds of integrative and natural wellness, spirituality, psychology, and entrepreneurship so you too can be winning life. Now here's your host, licensed marriage and family therapist, certified neuro-emotional technique practitioner, trainer and certified entrepreneur coach, Jason Wasser.

Hey everybody, I'm really excited today to have an awesome guest joining us. Um, on the screen with us is Luke Segreto. He is the founder of Indigo Rising Films located outside of Philadelphia, in Philadelphia, right?

Yep.

Cool.

So, uh, welcome to the, welcome to the You Winning Life podcast. And, um, since we're really just getting started, tell us a little bit about who you are, what you're doing, where you come from, a little bit of that background story.

Sure. Oh, thank you so much for having me. And, um, yeah, so I'm originally from, uh, Toms River, New Jersey, and that's where I grew up. And that's, and I went to college in Connecticut at Quinnipiac University. And then in 2000, the beginning of 2014, I moved to Los Angeles with my now wife and was there for about 4 and a half years. And then just in September, we moved back to the East Coast and we're in Philadelphia right now. And yeah, it's been, it's been great. I'm trying to think of where to, where to start from there.

First of all, congratulations. I know it was what, 2 weeks ago? Was the—

Yeah, just a couple of weeks ago. Got married.

Congrats. So we can talk all about all the new things that you're learning and want to share all the, the newlyweds out there. But one of the main things that we wanted to bring you on about was the fact that you're an artist, you're a filmmaker, you're a documentary creator. How did that start? Where did that come from? How far back was this your passion?

Actually, when I was in, uh, in 8th grade, so I was probably, I guess, 13 years old, um, I actually found my dad's old, uh, well, now old, his camcorder that he had in, uh, in the closet. And I was like, can I borrow this? And he's like, yeah, go ahead. And I went outside and I started making real stupid videos, just me and my friends, you know, throwing things or riding bikes, just silly stuff. But, um, from there, um, I had to actually use a VHS— I mean a VCR and like put in a VHS and like press play and record to get, uh, to actually edit that way. And, uh, it only came out so good. But then, uh, from there, once I found out that, uh, I could import it into my computer and I could edit on there, I was hooked immediately. And I was like, this could be a job. I can do this for a job. Because at that time it was still, it wasn't that accessible, I think, for just your average person who wanted to just get into it. You kind of had to jump through a lot of hoops and buy expansion cards and stuff for my computer to be able to even get it on my computer. But from there, that's, I wanted to be a video editor. And that was kind of my dream from when I was in 8th grade. And it kind of just, I've been hooked ever since.

So going from a video editor to a content creator.

Yeah.

Talk to me about that process.

Sure. So that, that's something that kind of transformed over the time. I mean, back in that day before, that was before YouTube started. So there wasn't really ever, um, I was never thinking about like, how is this video? It was just, I made what we, me and my friends made, whatever was fun and whatever, whatever I was excited about. And I would try, I would try anything because I was only showing it to my friends. And I think there was a— back at that point, I was always in front of the camera. It was kind of normal. You just hand my friend the camera, be like, here, hold it. And then you start talking to the camera. And it was kind of a normal thing. And then I guess over— as time went on, video editing was my passion. And that was kind of what let me take all these little random things and pull it together and tell a story. And that was something that always excited me, that you could take a bunch of random different things, even stuff different people filmed, and put it into one thing and kind of make it into this cohesive piece of work. And that was something that always excited me. And then I guess only recently I started to kind of come back around to the whole, just kind of doing every part of it. And as I feel like the more I was able to, I worked as doing video editing, I've worked as, I worked at Technicolor Postworks in New York City, and that was as a digital media technician. Doing video transcodes and conversions, and that kind of gave me the— seeing a lot of different mistakes, I guess you would say, you know, having footage come in that was not shot correctly and having to deal with it. And then doing that enough times kind of helped me to realize, okay, these are the things, the mistakes that I don't want to make when I'm filming, and stuff to be aware of for how you're— how I'm filming and filming styles and It just kind of helped open my eyes to a lot of other— how much more is going on than I was aware of before I kind of had that job, you know.

So how much influence were you getting from other people, from other editors, from other people that were either your age or older as you were going through this process? Because there's a steep learning curve, you know. What happens, I realized as you were talking, um, since I'm a little bit older than you, is that you went from an analog world to a fully digital world from the time you started, uh, being playful with this as a little kid. Yeah, right, a VHS and, right, and having to stop and start it and then convert it, expansion file, right? A lot of people, especially, right, the young emerging adults, right, those 20-year-olds that are doing YouTube videos and they're trying to get seen, or people who are just now fully, you know, they're doing this for fun or for, um, in college or getting into the career, they have no clue. Yeah, coming from that analog world fully digital world. What was that process, that learning curve, like for you? Helped you out along the way?

For me, I think, I think I was lucky enough to— I feel like having that kind of crossover time when I, I think I was a little— I wasn't so scared to, to fail, and I wasn't afraid to— if I make a video and it's terrible, who cares? You know, there was never that, that fear that I found that I actually like a few years ago that I found that I became a bit of a perfectionist. And that's kind of what— that was kind of my challenge for a while after getting out of college, that you see all this great stuff online, you go, oh, well, this isn't as good as that, that I'm not even gonna bother putting this up. And I think that you gotta put some stuff out there to continue to get better. And then being okay with failing and realizing that you can never fail unless you quit, you know, that like you got to just keep going. And keep going along. And I mean, if you look at the stuff that I even made several years ago, it's like, oh, I can't believe I thought that was good a few years ago. But at the same time, it helped me improve and I learned from my mistakes. And the only way to get better, especially with art and creative works, is to keep doing it, as far as I found in my experience. Because if you think that, oh, I already know that, I don't need to try that again, it's probably not true. You probably need to keep doing it to improve.

So this amazing philosophy of like, don't be scared to fail, just put stuff out there. How does that apply to other aspects of your life?

Definitely, definitely, that's something that I've worked with and I'm getting better at because I feel like I've always, I've been a perfectionist in every, that obviously isn't just for video work. That's for everything that I do. And you always want, I mean, it's fine to want to improve and to be better and to continue to strive towards that. And I've always found that for me, always seeing people doing better work than me has always inspired me. Wow, look how much better I can be as opposed to, Oh, I suck. This isn't good enough. And obviously NET has been— I hope we're getting into that yet, but that's been a huge help for me kind of getting over those hurdles. Cause it can be, you can get really down on yourself if you don't have, if all the feedback you're getting is negative, if you don't kind of have that drive and that ambition to keep going. I mean, even for me when I was younger, when you're— I make silly videos, you make a silly music video with you and your friends and then people goes, It's okay, you know, and we know people don't have that same excitement that you have. If you're not— if you don't kind of just brush that off, it can— you can go, oh, maybe I shouldn't be doing this. And that's never a fun road to go down if you're really doubting yourself.

Right, and it's really interesting that while you're talking about this, the first thing that came to my mind is that they don't see all the edits that goes into the final peace, right? And a lot of times if we want to look at it from a psychological perspective, right, you're sitting there and you're taking hours and hours and hundreds of hours, sometimes thousands of hours of things, of outtakes and things we have to do over and over again, or just didn't look right. And you have the ability in present day to edit something to make it crisp and clean. Yeah, right. And here we are going through life Yeah. And in real time, we might not have the ability.

Exactly.

Because we're always trying to put out the final product in real time.

Yes.

To like, you know, to get approval, to make sure that we're liked, whatever it may be. But people, I don't know if people can, you know, who are listening out there really can see, like, if they watched some of your documentaries, which we're going to talk about your most recent one in a few minutes, but they don't see all the work, the hours of, right, of cutting.

And I forget, I forget who said it, someone that it took, it took me took me 17 years to be an overnight success. That people only see that final like piece, or, and I think we also give a lot of, sometimes even somewhat like, like I forget that when you get to that final piece that you forget all the other stuff that led you to there. You know, you put so much emphasis on this one moment that if it was all because of that, like no, it was all because of the hours and months and years of hard work that got, got me to that point. And, and a lot of tons of mistakes and the other failed things. And I think that, uh, if I may add just one more thing about what I was saying before, that I think the biggest shift that happened for me over the past couple years was not trying to be like other people. Like, take influence from people and use tactics that— maybe tactics isn't the right word, but use, um, techniques, I should say, of people that are doing things that you want to be doing., but don't just copy them and be like, oh, I need to have it exactly like them. 'Cause I think I got lost in that trap for several years when I was younger, when I was in my early 20s to just, oh, I want it to be just like him. Like I want like this guy that I would, different people that I would follow like, oh, it's not as good as that. Or, oh, they had a really interesting piece. 'Cause I think that when you get stuck following someone, trying to do exactly how someone's doing, you kinda lose you. And I think that, that over the past couple of years, the biggest breakthrough for me has been that I have a unique voice and that what I'm doing is unique to me. And that if I'm not letting that come through, then I'm kind of doing everyone else a disservice and myself a disservice because only I have my unique perspective. And just like everybody else, only you have your unique perspective, you know? And that's right.

So as you're tying all that together, I have this linear thing in my mind as you're talking.

Yeah.

Storyteller, right? You have an idea that you want to tell a story about, and there's an outcome of what that story is that you want to share, right? And then you create a script or experiences, or you would shoot or gather data around that planned outcome, right? Because you want to— there's a hypothesis, I guess, right? Does that make sense? As a storyteller, as a documentary producer, and creator. How would you personally compare that to what we do psychologically in our own life? Because one of the things that I know about you, and especially the viewers and listeners are going to probably pick up about you very quickly, is your positive mindset and thinking.

Thank you.

What you've done along the way to help you get there.

Yeah.

How would you connote that? Because I really see that creating, doing what you're doing is no different than what I'm doing as a therapist, is that I'm helping people change the Everybody's a storyteller, right? We all have, um, stories, but right, but we— you're coming with a planned outcome of what you want it to look like at the end. I think that people get stuck in their script and therefore their planned outcome.

That's, you know, yeah, I, I think, I think I know it's— I have something to say for— yeah, where are you going with that? So just, that's been another big piece for me is that the where I'm trying to go with it, to be okay that it's going to shift and it's going to change and it's going to morph into something usually that's better, always that's better if you let it. Because obviously, yes, you have to have outcomes and you have to have an intention as to where you're going. But for me, especially with this documentary, what I initially planned, it morphed into something different that it wanted to be and, you know, and kind of let it take a mind of its own, like kind of let it grow into what it wants to be. But still, you still have to have the drive and still have to be moving towards a particular outcome. But at the same time, so I think this is how this carries over into life, is the same kind of thing that I need this thing, right? I need this thing and that's, that's going to move me forward in my career. But what if this other thing comes up that's a better decision? But if you're so like narrow-minded on this, it has to be this way, you're kind of missing what these new opportunities that can be popping up for you. And the way stuff unfolded with the documentary, it's just, there were too many coincidences, coincidences to say that it was a coincidence. The way stuff kind of unfolded, just being open to if something better is going to open up for how this is going to unfold, I need to be okay with that. And just even you were saying how the edits happen and the edits happen. The whole idea that I had for the whole intro of the movie, I threw away. Once I had one of my friends who composed about half of the music for them, for the, uh, for the movie, he gave me this idea that he had and it was just like something clicked. It was like, yes, this is the new, this is the new beginning. And I just threw out what I had and a whole way better intro happened. And that was because if I was like, how can I fit this into this, this idea that I had before, it kind of, I was blocked. I would have been blocking this way better idea that was trying to manifest itself.

So this idea of relative influence of surrounding yourself by people that are going to give you these amazing resources, help you see bigger, than what you might presently see, there's been something in your life that you kind of grew up with that has helped you with that. So give us, give us a little bit of information on what that is and where that came from and who introduced you to it and what, what, how that's been a positive resource in your life.

Sure. So, um, when I was 10 years old, um, I was, I'd be at home, I'd be doing my homework and I would just get really frustrated. And I would just like get into this rage and start crying. And I just, I couldn't do my work. And luckily for me, my dad had just gone to a seminar in California and he learned about something called Neuro-Emotional Technique or NET. And he came back and he was like, let me, let me try this, this, I learned this new thing. Let's see if it works. And I was like, okay. And then, so we tried it and we did NET. And then all of a sudden the next day I was going, I got home from school and I would do my homework and I just, wasn't frustrated anymore. And I was just doing my work and I was like, hey dad, whatever you did really helped. And he was like, oh, you sure you're not just saying that? I was like, no, it's something's different. And as a 10-year-old, I mean, I had no, no frame of reference at all as to what had happened. It was just like, I had this problem and it went away and I didn't really know what that meant. But then as I kind of grew up with it and as I started to realize that, when I would have these blocks and these emotional problems, I started to realize that my thoughts and my emotions are affecting my life. That was all I knew. I didn't know any of the sciences, obviously, as a 10-year-old or a 13-year-old. I just knew this is helping me and what I'm thinking is absolutely affecting my life. And that was all I knew as a child.

So, so you're there, you're 10 years old, you're really frustrated, really annoyed, hating school, like 99% of us did, right? I was very similar to you in the regards that like I barely graduated high school. I had a 1.8.

Oh, wow.

When I graduated high school, and I wasn't— I was a bad kid, whatever it is. I just didn't connect to whatever I connect to. And there was life stuff and family trauma and drama. So I very much relate to that. And I know that as a practitioner of NET, and that's how I met you and your dad, how game-changing it is, because I was also a client of it before I became a practitioner of it.

Got it.

And it was actually my first— I was going through panic attacks. At a certain point in my life after going through a certain part of traumatic experience. And the only thing that worked was NET. I tried acupuncture, I tried massage, I even started doing anti-anxiety medication, which didn't solve the problem. And within 2 to 3 sessions of going to a colleague of ours, everything went away. And a month later, which is like mind-blowing, and then a month later I took my first training.

Gotcha.

So, so you're 10 years old and your dad comes home from this conference. And what was it like in your mind experiencing— because if you don't know what NET looks like, it looks like something that came out of a Harry Potter movie. Yeah, the best way I can describe it, right? So from your experience going back in your recollection, being 10 years old, what was happening in the moment when dad was doing this, this thing?

It's, it's funny because I don't— I almost It's funny as a 10-year-old versus me. I'm almost going to be 30. At this age, because I know that, um, Dr. Deb Walker, so one of the co-founders of NET, talks about how— um, I'll answer your question in a second, but she was saying that how kids are so much better at NET because they don't really question it. It's just like there's this— it's— you don't really— as a 10-year-old, you're like How, what did I do earlier today or last week that contributed to this? It's just like, oh, this is, this really sucks right now. I wish it would go away. And then it goes away. And then I just, I never thought about it again until I reflected on it years later. And that was kind of, I think the biggest, that's something my dad has always said that it's funny too, because there's just the way kids are kind of just, kids don't have that kind of self-reflection process yet. And I didn't have that kind of self-reflection process yet. It was just like, I guess also my dad was a chiropractor growing up and I always had this alternative everything, you know, everything that I did was kind of like a little bit different than my friends. Like we had healthy food and all these other things that my friends would come over like, what's all this healthy weird stuff? Now, now it's normal to eat organic food. But back then my friends were like, what is this stuff? Like, why don't you have any Twinkies or Oreos?

Kale was cool.

Yeah. But I mean, I think that's the biggest for me. Like just, I, there was no reflection process. And I think that that's, I think where a lot of the trouble comes in that people are very, we're all very, I don't want to speak for everyone, but, but especially for, I guess when you, as you get older and you start to form beliefs and have a belief systems around how things work, that it's a lot healing can become a much more difficult thing because you're already, you already have these preconceptions going in as opposed to me. I just, put my arm up and was like, oh, okay, I'll think about this. I'll deal with this. And I literally didn't think about it again. So I guess hopefully that answers the question.

Yeah, definitely. Well, it's a great tie-in because the documentary that you created and co-created with a bunch of our colleagues and Dr. Deb Walker, who's the co-founder, and her husband, Dr. Scott, who founded and created NET, that's what the documentary is about. So how did that come about? I mean, obviously you grew up, like you just said, in the culture of, of, of NeuroEmotional Technique practitioners. But when did it come to you that this is something that you wanted to do?

And so I guess this kind of ties into what I was saying earlier a little bit, that, um, this has kind of been something I've been thinking about, or this was, this was my dream project as probably when I was like at the end of high school, in college, around that time, that it was always like, I'd love to make a movie about N.E.T. and just Tying back in a little more again, just that to trust that if there's something you're passionate about and it doesn't seem like it's gonna work, like it doesn't seem like— because for me, I tried going into— I tried a bunch of different jobs, like working in the film industry and doing— working on TV shows and working on— working on commercials and working in post-production and all these different things, and none of it ever clicked for me. It all helped me learn a ton. I mean, Without that, that all that— I was very against it at the time, you know, it's like, oh, I don't want to do this, I want to be doing something else. But it also, it structured me and helped me to have the skills I needed to once this opportunity came along, like, I was ready, you know. And I was kind of where I was, I was at a point in my life where I needed, I needed a bigger challenge, you know. It was— I had— I wasn't being challenged at the job I was at, you know, and it wasn't I needed— I wanted to do something bigger. And this is something I had been thinking about for a long time. And I've always been very interested in alternative stuff, just kind of like I said, because of my upbringing. And I've read a ton of books about science and spirituality, because that's always been where I feel like it converges is that we're both science and spirituality have always been going after the same thing. And which is just figuring out how to be healthier, happier, and how to just have some concept of what's going on in this world, you know, who we are, what we are, and how do we just live life optimally. And I think that that's what they're trying to achieve. But obviously along the way, it's, it's turned into this split, which I think NET kind of helps to bridge that gap a little bit. Because as when you experience NET, you realize that the physical and the spiritual and the mental and all of that comes together in this one moment. It just kind of, it just shifts your perspective a little bit as to what I mean, like I said, I grew up with it, so I always have to take myself, take a step back and realize that I grew up with this and the people I'm talking to have not grown up with this. So like, I kind of, I took that for granted for a little while that, oh yeah, of course your thoughts affect your life. That's common knowledge. But it, I found out that it wasn't.

Well, what were some of the things before you even got there? What were some of the things that you were reading that put all this into place?

Sure. So, um, Some big people were Bruce Lipton with his, his stuff just about the cells and just, uh, how cells kind of— how cells act. He studied cells. For people that don't know, he did research on, um, uh, different cells and that, um, cells from the human body and that he would put them in, um, he would take stem cells and he would put them in, in a culture of bone cultures and then in a culture with, with blood cells and tissue cells and wherever the cell was, it would just kind of join into that it would take the role of that. And he found out that cells acted just like people and that they all went about carrying it. They have all the systems that we have, like an endocrine system, a nervous system, a reproductive system, all the same systems. And he found that what was going on at that level is the same thing that was going on at this level. And that our mind is actually like the God of our cells. And that is the higher consciousness, if you want to call it the greater, the greater consciousness of the cells. And that obviously that us as human beings also have a greater mind, like the consciousness of the earth, and that who knows how far up and down it goes. But that just kind of— that, that was a big moment for me to just kind of— it also takes, takes your ego down a notch, you know, to think, to think that you know everything. Because I think that a lot of— when you start reading a lot of this stuff, you think, oh, I know everything now, which is, uh, it's good to get a put in check a little bit, which he calls that a cosmic, cosmic joke, that it's funny that every time you think we have it all figured out, there's a new piece of information that comes out and goes, we don't have any clue. And, um, that was a big piece. And also Rupert Sheldrake, um, a lot of his stuff on morphic resonance, resonance, and, um, his, uh, well, he came out with a new book I haven't read yet, but the last one, The Science Set Free or The Science Delusion, to kind of just realize that there's a lot of things that we're taking for granted that we're not realizing are going into all these experiments, that we need to kind of come back to a place of complete and total inquiry, that we don't— there's a lot more that we don't understand. And I think that those types of readings, again, whether or not that everything in it is completely true, that, that, that doesn't really matter to me. It's more that it gave me that curiosity back, that there's always something to be learned from everyone you come in contact with and everything that's going on. Something can be taken away from that.

So now having that background, having grown up in India, you're now going into making this documentary, which is now out. Why was it so important to you personally to get this out into the world?

I think personally, for me, just, it's been such an enormous game changer. And something that I wasn't even aware of until I read that Rupert Sheldrake book was that the materialist understanding of the world, be it that there's nothing invisible, if you can't see it or measure it, it's not real. That I wasn't even aware that that was a pretty strong belief system. And that when you're coming from that place, let me back, let me just make sure I'm saying this correctly, that I think for me, just knowing that it works— I've had a hard time my entire life trying to communicate this properly— is that I know that it works because, I mean, I know that it works, and other people know that it doesn't, you know. So when I'm having that conversation, for me it was always like they've, they've already made up their mind. So with this movie, I was trying to do my best to not say that I know anything and just kind of present the information as an inquiry. Again, that these are the experts telling their experiences with it, not me. You know, I'm just kind of reporting it. Like, I know that it works for me and that's great, but I wanted to let the experts kind of tell the story themselves. And I think that because it's going against the current paradigm and against the current dogmas of how we understand ourselves and how healing happens, that I was very— I wanted to be careful with how I was presenting the information because obviously people are going to write it off regardless. And that's okay, that's fine. And what I wanted to do was— what was important to me was that we tell the truth to the best of our ability. And that is the best that I can do, and the best that we can all do is to be honest and share this, share how it's transformed my life and many, many tens of thousands of people who have had NET change their lives. And we've been kind of sitting on this for a while because we were waiting for the scientific re— like the big study that they just did is the piece that people want to be able to even consider it. Because that's been the thing is that if it's so real, then where's the science, right? So now we did the science and it's like, okay, now we can finally start to open this dialogue that If this is working, it opens that for me, it opens the door of so many other alternative things that have been working for thousands of years, but there isn't the scientific validation for them. So I think that this opens, hopefully it should pour a lot more money of people wanting to do more research for this kind of stuff, because this was all privately funded by the ONE Foundation. So this is a $600,000 study that was funded by patients and practitioners. There was, It took a very long time to get to this place because everyone has been writing it off as it doesn't work. So it's exciting to finally be at this time that it all kind of culminated at the same point that I was able to— been dreaming about this for a long time and it all worked out nicely. So yeah, I think it's really amazing because it all came together.

Yeah, to see what's happening out there. I know recently one of the beautiful things that have come out from this, right, with the documentary and the work that our practitioners, our fellow practitioners are doing, is that it showed up recently on a TV show.

Yes. Oh yeah, that's right.

It showed up on Grey's Anatomy. And it's funny, I was talking to someone recently trying to explain to them NET, and I'm talking to them about the ONE Foundation, of which your dad is the current president, right? And the work of the documentary and the scientific research behind it. And I'm like, oh, and by the way, it was recently on Grey's Anatomy. They got more excited about it being a pop culture thing Yeah, like research. I don't care about the research. It was on Grey's Anatomy. I'll definitely do it. There's still a little bit of a curve when it comes like the people who write. So on one side, it's like the people are going to watch this documentary, they're going to see the science, they're going to research, they're going to see some of the brain studies and the MRI, the functional MRIs in there. But we— but there's still people out there who are going to be skeptical. Yeah, it's funny that some of the people who are skeptical don't care about the science. They have a predisposition preconceived notion about like what exactly what you said about what healing is and how healing can come about.

Yes.

And if it means using a neurological muscle test and Chinese medicine meridians to find old emotional stress patterns, you're still going to have a predisposed block.

Yeah, definitely. And for me, what's the way it's transformed my life. I've been making a joke that the amount of N.E.T. it took for me to do the N.E.T. documentary, It was pretty funny because I— it brought up a lot of my blocks, but there's something so interesting because I've also been meditating quite a bit lately and I've been able to— I used to not be able to sit still for more than like 5 or 10 minutes. And I've been recently been able to have 2-hour meditations, which is something I thought was never even possible for me, but getting past those blocks, because I found that sometimes you have to sit still and meditate for an hour, maybe, maybe longer to get to What is happening? What is bothering me right now? And in minutes, NET is just like, this is it. This is, this is your issue. And it lets you connect dots in ways that it's like, oh my God, I would have never even considered that that thing from when I was 8 is, is bothering. And that's why I'm, oh my God. And then when you connect those dots and you feel through it, you feel those emotions and you let it go and you get that just reset. It's just like, now all of a sudden your whole perspective of life has widened. It's like that thing that happened when I was younger that I thought was defining the way I interact in these types of situations. It's like, huh, it wasn't actually so bad. And I realized that that actually kind of helped me for that other thing that I was doing. And it's like, wow, this thing that I thought was a terrible thing, what was actually an amazing piece of my life that helped me grow and expand. And I think that since being able to pinpoint those things in a matter of minutes, is just that, like I said, it's tough. I want to be able to shout it at the rooftops that this is the greatest thing that's ever happened. But again, there is a learning curve. And I guess I just, I've become okay with that, that it's okay that it's going to expand at the rate that it is. And I think that for right now, this documentary has been great for people that have a friend. It's like someone like me, it's like I've been doing NDT my whole life and it's like, Well, how does it work? It's like, well, you can watch now. I don't have to explain it anymore. It's like, I'll let all the experts explain it. And, uh, yeah, exactly. And it's been a good, uh, a good piece to kind of— for the people that are curious, if someone's like, I don't believe in this at all, let me watch, they're not going to be converted. You know, if you're already deciding it doesn't work, because a big part of healing for me has been wanting to be healed. And if you don't want to be healed, you're not going to be. If you're not willing to be co-op, like being a co-op with the healing process, you have to want to do it. And if you, if it's not, healing has always been a passion in my life and just being my best self and letting go of these blocks, it's a passion and it's, it's my top priority in life. And if there's one piece of advice that I can give for people that are younger than me coming up, that whatever your passion is, it will find a way. You know, if there's something that you really want to do, like for me, this is what I wanted. To do. And I know that I'm going to do many more things beyond this. And I don't even know if filmmaking is my final step that I've been enjoying speaking. I really enjoy speaking a lot lately and that'll lead to where it leads. But I think to just always realize and just trust that if you're following your passion and you're excited about the work that you're doing, that that's going to lead you to a better place. And I found that NET has been an enormous piece for me. In just getting rid of those blocks that, oh, I don't deserve this. I don't deserve this much money. I don't— all those kinds of things that sabotage the stuff you're trying to do. And I wasn't even really aware of that, even growing up with NET. It wasn't until probably like 5 or 6 years ago when it started to really click for me, it was like, oh my goodness, all these, all of these blocks that I have and that I wasn't even conscious of. And I think that's been a big, Big, big piece for me.

Well, and if you didn't leave working for somebody else full-time, this happened, this would have been me, it would have been a side project. But yeah, do you think it really happened had you not created Indigo Rising?

Um, probably. I mean, where I was at my job at the time, again, this was coupled with meditation and NET. It was NET, and I was at it actually at a, uh, I went at a meditation group with, with, with a friend, and it was just In that moment, just whatever the energy was there that just kind of let this stuff go. I just let it go. And it just, it just, this whole, I had this whole wave of energy through my whole body. And there's just a massive amount of space was created. And then all that popped up in my head, it was just like, I need to quit my job today. And that was it. I quit my job that day. The next, that night I wrote my boss and I said, thank you so much. It's been amazing working here. And, I need to leave. And I had been doing some editing for the ONE Foundation. That was kind of what led into that. But it was just, as I quit, it just kind of all culminated into this thing that they— it was the time for a documentary. The study was published and it just kind of all worked. And for me, I think that I wasn't ready until then, until I finally made the decision that no, I'm— now it's time. And, you know, and just really making that decision that As long as I had a safety net, it wasn't going to happen. That just like letting it go and create opening that space. And again, I still used NET to clear out more blockages because I made that decision. And then it's funny, like a bunch of new things. Exactly. So should I really be doing this? Is this really the right? So just being able to let all that go. And, uh, it's just been such an invaluable tool in my life and it's been really great.

You're hitting on something so cool because the average person, I can't remember what the research says, but the average person now, right in our timeframe is going to go through multiple jobs or multiple careers, as opposed to people back in the day went from college, went to their job, they did that till they retired.

Yep.

So this, this pursuit of purpose, this pursuit of passion is really alive, especially for our age bracket, right? That the newer, younger millennials, which are, which are getting a bad rap. But the fact is that a lot of them are really pursuing purpose and passion more so than just getting a job for that necessary, for that stability and having a paycheck. And it sounds to me like you were in that pursuit as far back as, as you can remember.

And I think that also something that I was realizing recently is that like the, the, the better life that our grandparents dreamed about is right. This is what this is. This is that better life. And we have to understand that things that happened to my grandparents. So my great-grandparents that came over on a boat, on a boat, they got on a boat, left everything they had, and just went to a new country. And like, that was— so you have to under— I think for a lot of people listening to understand that they did the best they could teaching their children, which is my grandparents teaching their children, which are my parents. And a lot of those belief systems, which is like, there's not going to be enough, there may not be food, there may not be money, those beliefs are still in us. And then if we don't—

certain people that are outside of you—

exactly, exactly. And that different types of people shouldn't be— all that kind of stuff that is emotional baggage and we're holding it. It's not your fault. Somebody threw a bunch of bags and said, hold this. And you go, do I need to be holding this still? And like, no, you don't. And I think that that's what NET has done is that, wow, all of these beliefs from generation after generation is being passed down. And I think that that's kind of the split that like you should have a job and just work it forever. But we're in a place now where we're not. I mean, for the most, for most people, in America, at least that we're safe. We're not in a war zone, you know, like we have food and we're able to, we have access to a lot of things. And I think that because of those belief systems that are still there, that people are in a job or whatever they're doing, and they're still in that like, oh my God, I need to survive place. And you're in that mental state that no matter what you're doing, you're, even if you have the best job in the world, you're still like, oh God, where's my purpose? What's going on? And, you know, and that for me has been a big, I guess, wake-up call, you know, just realizing that all of my problems are in my head. If I'm sitting here in my, in this chair in my apartment and there's nobody's hurting me, I have all the food I need, that any problem I'm going through right now is imaginary. That if I did that, I'm replaying stories in my head and I need to let go of that because that's not, it's no longer serving me. It's no longer serving me helping the world, because if I'm doing that, I'm staying small and I'm really scared about everything what I'm doing, then I'm not giving my gifts and I'm not able to impact the world in the way that I know that I should be able to.

Right, you're done playing small. It's so interesting what you're saying is that Gary Vaynerchuk talks a lot about what you just said, so you heard a lot of that there. For my grandparents, my dad's dad also came over from, he survived Nazi Germany, and escaped from one of the trains on the way to a death camp.

Wow.

And then, you know, came here and started a furniture business two generations ago. What he started, and now my brother and sister have taken it over, so it's third-generation business. But first-world problems for our grandparents, right? Yeah, it was really first— what it was really like, it wasn't first-world problems, it was second, third world, because they were really culture, language, whatever other, you know, discriminations that they had to deal with as immigrants. We're still dealing with that in society on a lot of levels today, but our first world problems, you, right? Like you were saying, that level of gratitude that I think what I'm understanding from you and what you're really trying to give over is that between meditation and self-awareness and reading and getting okay with getting information out of your comfort zone is the keys to radical success and winning life.

Yes. Definitely. And, uh, that's— I went through a different period of— I mean, I think that it's natural to, um, go through a lot of different emotions because, I mean, if you have a lot of pent-up anger from things that happen when you're a kid, that you're gonna have to feel that stuff to, to transcend it and to, and to move forward in life. Because it's, it's still— if, if you haven't dealt with it, it's gonna come up at some point. And it— and a lot of times it's gonna come out in If you don't deal with it in a— in N.E.T. kind of allows for a controlled environment to deal with your baggage, as opposed to it coming out when you're out with a group of friends and you freak out for no apparent reason. You have no idea why it's happening. It's better to deal with it proactively than have to wait until you get pushed to a point where you just get into this, you start crying or screaming or something happens where you lash out at your partner or your parents or somebody that didn't necessarily do anything in that moment to deserve that. So I think that has helped me kind of reflect that when, if I'm lashing out, it's not that person, it's me. And I have to do some internal, some reflecting and searching to figure out why I'm acting in that way. Because if, like you were saying that we're not, we're not living in Nazi Germany, you know, like we're not living in that place. We're living in a, we have a pretty good life being in America and have a lot of opportunities And yeah, I think that there's just a lot, a lot right now. Sadhguru actually said that our biggest problem in, in, in the 80% of people that are living with, that have shelter and food and everything like that, our biggest problem is that we have an incredibly vivid imagination and an incredibly good memory, that we replay these things that aren't happening and that that's our biggest problem. And if we can just transcend that, that we can be such a bigger help to the world that I think for me, for a long time, it's like, how do I fix the world? How do I fix all these problems? But if I haven't helped myself, I always use the example of on an airplane, they say to put on your face mask before you help anybody else. It's the same exact concept that if you don't help yourself, how are you possibly going to help anybody else? And I think that that's been a big wake-up call over the past couple of years that I need to really work on myself. And the more I've worked on myself, that, everything out there just all of a sudden starts to kind of fix itself, and I have better relationships, and everything starts to get better automatically because I'm putting out better energy and I'm allowing for greater things to come into my life.

Which is apparent because 2 weeks ago, of all the princesses in all of the world, decided to walk down the aisle and spend their life with you, right?

Yes, yes.

The cosmic sheer number of— wait, 80 billion? How many billion people are on this earth? And you met each other at the right time in the right place and to be a match for each other, right? Emotionally, spiritually. Yeah, miracles that we're taking for granted every day. So I really want to thank you for sharing all these incredible insights. I want to congratulate you not only just on the success of your recent wedding, but the success of becoming a person who is really winning life. And thank you for this, and your passion. And if people want to reach out to you, if they want to find you, if they want to follow you, how can they do that?

So my website, Indigorisingfilms.com. That has like projects and stuff on there. I also have the Instagram, Indigorizing Films. I'm gonna start becoming a little more active on these things again. Also on my website, you can get to my YouTube channel. That's where probably the most active there doing variety of different things. And L as in Luke, F as in Francis Segreto, that's my other, my main Instagram handle. I'm not sure which one I'm gonna be the most active on in the days, but that's kind of where my website, You can reach out, there's a submission form if you want to reach out. Happy to talk to anybody.

And then there's a website also for the documentary, if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah, so stresseddoc.com. And yeah, you can, I guess, so that'll be coming up soon. There's going to be some exciting news coming out about that soon. And yeah, there's, anyone that's interested, I obviously, please watch the movie. It's been great and there'll be some new news coming out soon.

Very cool. Well, thanks for joining us.

Thank you so much for having me. This is a lot of fun.

Looking forward to being in touch again soon.

Great.

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