#41: Transform From The Inside Out with Mark Metry

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[00:01:20] You're listening to Young And Profiting Podcast, a place where you can listen, learn and profit.

[00:01:26] I'm your host, Hala Taha. And today we're speaking with Mark Metry. Mark is a first-generation immigrant from Egypt who showed a great entrepreneurial spirit from an early age. He found success early on making more money than his parents and over six figures in high school from his Minecraft hobby, despite being socially anxious as well as mentally and physically unhealthy as a team.

[00:01:49] Today, Mark is extremely successful running the super impressive iTunes top 100 podcast Humans 2.0, traveling around the world for speaking engagements and running view, dream [00:02:00] or digital marketing growth agency focused on virtual reality and mixed reality. In this episode, we'll cover how mark transformed his life from awkward teen to podcast, celebrity, his tips to take podcasts to the next level and why he treats his life like a video game.

[00:02:17] Hey, Mark. Welcome to Young And Profiting Podcast.

[00:02:20] Mark Metry: I'm super excited to be here. I've been watching your stuff for a while and I'd like to see people grow and get better guests on. And I've seen you up here in the game, so it's pretty cool to be here.

[00:02:30] Hala Taha: Likewise, honestly, Mark, I am so impressed with you. You are the most accomplished podcast or I've ever had on this.

[00:02:37] You are the only podcaster or I look up to, honestly, you're the only podcast or that I screenshot what you do on LinkedIn and tell my team, like, why are you doing that? What are we doing? Let's do this. Or, and I really look up to everything that you're doing and so happy to have you on and can't wait to pick your very smart brain.

[00:02:57] Mark Metry: Thank you. I should probably introduce you to smarter [00:03:00] podcasters.

[00:03:01] Hala Taha: Stop it. All right. So let's talk about you, let's start out with how you grew up from my understanding. You were very socially anxious kid, very different than what you are today. So tell us about how you grew up, who you were and then what kind of a person you are now?

[00:03:20] Mark Metry: Yeah, definitely. So I was born in 1997, son of immigrant parents from Egypt that came here just a couple of years before I was born. We really just like live the immigrant hustling lifestyle of my dad would always be at work and we would just work our way up to different apartment buildings.

[00:03:37] We move like 12 different times. And so I remember being that environment, just having a happy childhood, just like very simplistic with like my mom and my sister. And, I remember being like really crafty, because we would always move around. I didn't necessarily settle with one group of people because I had that thought in my mind of this is just going to be gone.

[00:03:57] But for me, when I looked back at my life and I [00:04:00] look back at my story at like the circumstances that really shaped who I am probably be a few things we grew up in Boston, but we ended up moving out of the city to pretty much like a rural place. We moved to a town, 5,000 people that are very small town.

[00:04:15] And, I remember every single person that town almost like 99% was white. Everyone was Caucasian. Zero diversity was maybe like me and like another family that didn't look like everybody else. And there were a few things to that. Racism and bullying, definitely being one. And then also, my physical environment, people just literally being different, like visually different.

[00:04:37] And my brain would tell me these people are different, you don't belong here. And on top of that, Wide variety of health issues from ADHD to different, like our immune disorders, like asthma things with the digestive system, things with my skin and sleep, just a wide variety of things.

[00:04:54] Like I remember going to a doctor's office like every month and they'd be like, Hey Mark, you have this thing. And here's this pill that you have [00:05:00] to take for the rest of your life. And I just thought that was black and white can turn having all these health conditions, just, I had no energy. And so from basically third grade, To all the way until high school basically just ended up putting myself in like this bubble of just go to school, don't talk to anybody, put your head down, do what you gotta do.

[00:05:21] And in turn, I was not a good student. I didn't have any friends. And I really just lived pretty sad life. And the way that I coped with that was by going online, playing video games, technology. And so I remember. When I was 12 years old, I worked at a pizza store, taking orders from customers, washing the floors, doing the dishes, saved up enough money for that summer, bought the little netbook, like a mini laptop, bought a phone.

[00:05:47] And then once I did that, I was just online all the time. Always learning, not always learning. I definitely did a ton of other ridiculous stuff, led to some things like I ended up starting a YouTube way back, like in 2008 on [00:06:00] YouTube had like 35,000 subscribers had no idea what the potential of it was.

[00:06:04] I remember I tell people in real life and they'd be like, wait, you make videos on the. It was just a completely foreign thing.

[00:06:12] Hala Taha: To play Minecraft on YouTube. Is that what you did?

[00:06:15] Mark Metry: Yeah, so I was really into video games. I love getting better at them and it was like the pre self-development, where I could like, just enter this world and just visually see how to get better, not unrelated to that.

[00:06:26] And so definitely recorded myself playing games. And then eventually that led to me. Playing Minecraft. Basically what ended up happened was I ended up starting this multiplayer server, just so like me and some of my friends could play on it. And what ended up happening is I just started it for fun.

[00:06:45] Didn't start it, meaning to be a business. Next thing you know, like seven, eight months later becomes the world's number one, Minecraft server. Millions of pupil on our website, hundreds of thousands joining in, I started making six figures from age 15 [00:07:00] previously from like living in the projects and living on food stamps to all of a sudden having this.

[00:07:05] And it completely shifted my view. Not in a good sense though. And what I mean by that is like a lot of people here, this part of my journey, they're like, oh, damn bro, you must figured it out. No, I literally just randomly stumbled into this. And in turn, what happened was, my unconscious narrative at that time.

[00:07:20] Because I didn't think of it. Myself was like the American dream of you go to school, you get good grades, you graduate, you go to college, you get a degree, you work at some corporation, you work your way up to a six figure salary. And then you like, get married, buy a house, get a dog, have kids, and then all your problems go away.

[00:07:37] And so that was the narrative that I was working on. And then all of a sudden, when I made that money and I now had access to all these things, I quickly realized. Wait life hasn't changed. Like I still think of myself as a loser. Like literally nothing has changed. If anything, it actually made me more confused because now I'm growing up and I'm making way more money than my parents and anybody else, mostly for the most part growing [00:08:00] up around me just completely shifted.

[00:08:02] Didn't know what to do that. I don't really think I had depression my entire life, but that was a slow onset because it really just came from mental confusion. This was like 15, 16, 17, 18.

[00:08:13] Hala Taha: So what was the turning point? That got you to a place where you were able to start a business and have the confidence to build a YouTube channel.

[00:08:21] What was that turning point as a young teenager? Because that takes a lot of guts to go out and do that because especially if you're getting picked on and things like that.

[00:08:30] Mark Metry: Definitely. So the funny part about it is. I sucked at so many different things, right? Like I sucked at school. I didn't get good grades.

[00:08:38] I sucked when it came to my social life, I never played sports. So like I sucked physically. I really, in my mind, I sucked that everything except for video games. And so that was like my outlet in which I didn't even consider it a part of a world, but just like this other thing that I could get into and go into, and the craziest part about it is I remember being online and being on

[00:09:00] YouTube and then.

[00:09:02] On top of that I have completely lost track of all the websites and like apps and games that I made, like growing up in that time. But it was so crazy because the internet wasn't really that relevant in our society, even though I am a young guy and it was slowly just starting to become that.

[00:09:18] And so I was like slowly. This thing become real. And I'm like, damn, like I gotta get on this, but it was not like a clear picture. It was just something that I really just stumbled into a sort of an outlet.

[00:09:29] Hala Taha: Yeah. So how did your parents react to when you were 15 years old, making more money than they were?

[00:09:35] Mark Metry: Yeah, so honestly, when I think of my parents and I think of their relationship with technology, like just imagine going to a new country, not knowing the language and not even having like a. And so I can't even imagine that let alone to have them say oh yeah, I'm basically pressing buttons and I'm making money.

[00:09:50] That's basically the equivalent of it. And I remember my parents at first, they were like mad sketched out because they're like, w you selling drugs or something like what's going on. But I remember they talked [00:10:00] about it with some of their friends and they're like, what this kid is doing is pretty crazy.

[00:10:03] I've never heard this and just let him do his own thing. As long as he's continuing through school. Totally punted throughout my entire life to really focus on this, but it was pretty interesting, but they're proud of me.

[00:10:16] Hala Taha: Incredible. Do you still do Minecraft at all in any capacity? Wow. Why did you stop?

[00:10:20] Mark Metry: So the Minecraft server literally shut down last year in 2018. When I graduated high school, went off to college. That's like a whole crazy time where I really just trying to find myself and I was trying to figure out all these ideas. Beliefs and who am I? What should I do in the world? And got to that point where I was just literally so confused.

[00:10:41] I couldn't keep up with any kind of responsibilities or duties or roles, like in 2015. And the Minecraft server was literally something that I just took for granted. And so that like slowly went away and I hadn't ended up giving it to somebody who was second in command. I was like, yo dude, I'm out, it's yours.

[00:10:57] It's own it. But then eventually they stepped down. So [00:11:00] yeah.

[00:11:00] Hala Taha: So what makes you so entrepreneurial. I know that right now you have an AR and VR company. What do you think makes you have that spirit?

[00:11:08] Mark Metry: Yeah. So for her, this company called Bulletproof Coffee, putting butter in your coffee. So I interviewed that guy, Dave Asprey, and he basically told me he was at like a mastermind once and they asked them the same question.

[00:11:19] Why are you guys entrepreneurial? Almost all of them got bullied in school. And so I think that's definitely part of it. And honestly, I was just talking to somebody about this before and just for reference we're at like a LinkedIn networking event and what I did and what I figured out is I did this whole entrepreneurship to get into.

[00:11:37] My own sort of self discovery program. And it was just the thing that I did the same way that somebody whose dad was really into baseball, told his son to get into baseball. And that's his thing. That's how he dealt with life. I dealt with life with entrepreneurship and honestly, I never even knew what that word was until I was 19 years old.

[00:11:57] And I was being interviewed by the Huffington Post and the guy who was [00:12:00] interviewing me, he was like, yeah. You're an entrepreneur and I'm like, What does that even mean? So it was mad, awkward, but I don't even consider myself an entrepreneur, but that's just like a catch all phrase from somebody who's trying to get out there in the world to do their own thing.

[00:12:11] So I definitely think it was from that. And I definitely think it was through seeing my parents struggle and grind and for the first part of my life, living in uncertainty and being used to like, what kind of action can I do rather than just sit down and not do anything.

[00:12:25] Hala Taha: So you have a podcast, obviously Humans 2.0, super popular podcast. You have great guests. What made you start this podcast?

[00:12:36] Mark Metry: Yeah. So when I look at the timeline of my life, I look at it end of 2015, beginning of 2016 and was like my version of rock bottom, where I was suicidal. I was over 200 pounds. Eventually ended up slowly sorting that out.

[00:12:50] And by the end of 2016, that's when I had started my business. That's when I had like really got on this track to figure myself out. Understand what real successes outside of a paycheck. [00:13:00] And for me starting that business was a conquest in the sense of, I didn't really know what I was doing, but it was a way I could put myself in a system that was bigger than me, in a system where I could wake up every morning. And I'm going to wake up at 6:00 AM to do these kinds of habits and routines, because, at 9:00 AM, I have these clients and I have these people I gotta take care of. And so the podcast came from like a similar thought and I began at toy with the idea of it in like the middle of 2017.

[00:13:29] And it was really when I had just been on this journey and I was in a really rough patch. And the journey is rough, especially for people starting out, but it's very fulfilling. And so I was just at a time where I just didn't really know how. Make money off my business. I was having all different kinds of problems with just real life, like my psychology, different kinds of relationships and whatnot.

[00:13:49] And so I remember one of the greatest ways you can learn anything is to have a direct one-on-one conversation with somebody who really [00:14:00] has been doing it. Like they don't just write about it. They don't just read about it on the internet. They actually do it and they're out there they're practitioners.

[00:14:06] And so I was like, what could I create to get those people in my life all the time? And so the podcast was the most straightforward answer to that. And throw back when I started my YouTube channel and some other utuber reached out to me, like in 2010, he was like, yo, bro, you want to start a podcast?

[00:14:22] So we started a podcast for an episode and then we'd never needed to put it up. But the podcast really just came from me trying to develop my own life, trying to just grow my own life and knowing that networking direct experiences is really the best way.

[00:14:36] Hala Taha: Yeah, we're very similar in that way. Like for me, I started a podcast because I wanted to interview people that I could directly learn from.

[00:14:44] And basically I get to learn a new topic every week. So it's definitely such a fulfilling and educational thing to do so good for your health. I think.

[00:14:53] Mark Metry: Definitely another thing is imagine trying to do that without having a podcast. Unless you're some kind of really successful CEO or [00:15:00] something. When I started the podcast, I was 20 at that time, imagine getting an email from a 20 year old being like yo New York times bestselling author.

[00:15:08] Can I pick your brain.

[00:15:09] Hala Taha: Nobody says, yes, nobody wants to have a cup of coffee with you. But if you have something to offer them and an audience, then they might, come on your show. So one of the most fulfilling things about doing this. So let's talk about your amazing growth minds. I've heard in the past that you enjoy pain.

[00:15:26] And this is in relation to growth. My very good friend, Jordan Paris. I listened to that podcast. And you said you enjoy pain, so I'd like you to share that with my listeners.

[00:15:34] Mark Metry: So I'm not like a sadist or anything like that. So first off, I'm definitely human in the sense of I have insecurities, I have fears. I sometimes try to run away from pain and I don't like it and things of that nature, but also growing up the way that I did and being locked almost, and like my own mind for like almost a decade.

[00:15:53] I slowly begin to realize the importance of just enduring something, feeling that pain so that. [00:16:00] Your mind almost is depending on your perspective, of course, because there's a lot of people who do go through the pain, but they never ended up coming out that ended up shifting their perspective and using that pain as a way to build their mind.

[00:16:12] And I know today, like there's no way I could possibly be doing what I'm doing, like speaking and podcast and all this stuff without going through. Got ton of social anxiety. And without going through, literally every single day, my brain telling me you're a loser, stop talking. You shouldn't talk to these people versus now being on a stage and talking to people.

[00:16:32] And my brain still operates in that same way, but because I've seen this happen so often, I'm now able to be like, I literally don't care. What anybody thinks about me or what my brain is telling me, people thinks about me cause there's a big difference. And so it's just a massive grower and obviously I'm still human.

[00:16:49] Sometimes I try and run away from it. But I know like in the long-term it's good. And I read this quote and it's like a bad day for the ego is a great day for the. And it's basically like [00:17:00] when you go through hard times, it's going to suck, but you've just got to realize this is just part of reality that this is just part of existence.

[00:17:06] There's ups and downs, and those downs are going to bring you up. If you're able to shift your perspective and really use it to grow rather than be like, oh, this thing sucks or that thing, or like what? I hear a lot of people my age in this complain and blame culture, but. Yeah.

[00:17:22] Hala Taha: Cool. And then I know a way that I think you deal with the pain is by saying that you treat it as if you're in a video game.

[00:17:29] So tell us about that concept.

[00:17:31] Mark Metry: Yeah, sure. So I'm very glad I don't have like reality dissociation or anything like that. But for me it was just like, since video games was really a main outlet for me growing up, it's so relatable to real life in the sense of like you go through a level and you're going and you might make it, but then the boss of that level comes and he just destroys you.

[00:17:51] And then you're like, all right, try again. And then you do that. Try again. And so that's like a massive analogy or model that I just, really live [00:18:00] my life. And like on top of that, when I use that analogy specifically with like younger people, they like begin to get their life in the sense of you're playing a video game and if it's like an RPG or something, you make a character and then you try to grow him or her throughout the level.

[00:18:14] And you try to like, get a better jacket. You try to get a better sword. You try to do that. But then it's wait, all this growth is being directed towards a video game. But if you step back and you actually realize that real life is way better than a video game, Until full immersive VR comes out real life is way better than a video game.

[00:18:32] Like you can't eat an apple in a video game. And so I found that analogy to be really powerful for people that are not yet there on the growth mindset that are just stuck in video games. And then also relating to just keep on going and going.

[00:18:45] Hala Taha: I love that you're encouraging people to be self-aware to step outside of themselves and to view themselves as if they were in a video game.

[00:18:52] And I think that's really good advice because sometimes you're unable to see the situation for what it is when you're actually in it.

[00:18:58] Mark Metry: Yeah. For sure. People play video [00:19:00] games. So it's you have that perspective.

[00:19:01] Hala Taha: Yeah. So let's talk about the podcast. We've interviewed a lot of the same guests.

[00:19:04] So Gretchen Rubin, Naveen Jain, Steven Kotler, David Meltzer. Is there anybody who stands out who was your favorite interview?

[00:19:11] Mark Metry: Yeah. So the first time I got a chance to interview Naveen Jain was in August of last year and maybe it was July or August. And that was also a time where my podcast was beginning to really grow and in August to hit like the top 100.

[00:19:26] But when I interviewed Naveen. I just got a completely different vibe and we did it virtually, but I literally could not stop smiling throughout the rest of the day. And he's so great. He's such a visionary. And on top of that, he also told me about his health care company. Viome with the whole gut microbiome thing.

[00:19:43] People should definitely check that out. I did that completely changed my life completely changed my health and he was just somebody I always kept in contact with that always just pushed me to think better to do better. And I remember after that interview on that day, it was August 5th, [00:20:00] 2018. I was literally like, dude, I'm like, I'm literally going to try to like, change the world.

[00:20:03] Like I'm going to go for like my moonshot of trying to do that. And he really helped me make a moonshot. And then when. To visit him in Seattle. I just got to actually meet him. And I have no words to really talk about it. And the last thing I'll say is that the way that he talks and the information that he gives you, that is up in the air, but then he also gives you practical things.

[00:20:24] I think it's super powerful. And I've honestly had people that have listened to that episode for the first one we did was 45 minutes. The second one, it was like an hour and a little bit. They were like, do that. Literally completely changed my outlook. That completely changed my mindset, knowing like what the future is going and how that relates to human consciousness completely changed my life.

[00:20:44] Shout out to Naveen Jain.

[00:20:45] Hala Taha: Naveen Jain is awesome. He's magnetic. Like he's got such energy. He's such a genuine, humble guy. Like for being a billionaire, you couldn't be more humble. It was such a pleasure to interview him. So let's talk about how you are able to make friends [00:21:00] in big places and how you were able to.

[00:21:02] Make a billionaire who probably doesn't have a lot of time, take the time out to basically be your mentor, because I see him as your mentor, the way that you guys okay.

[00:21:09] Mark Metry: Yeah. We chat all the time. And the crazy part is he had me on his podcast, he'd be on his show and I was just like, what's going on?

[00:21:15] And honestly, here's what I would say. I used to view my podcast in a very black and white way, meaning I'm going to interview this guy or gal, and we're going to post the interview and we're going to market on LinkedIn, or we're going to get it out there. People going to listen to people, going to be like, oh my God.

[00:21:31] So awesome. So impactful. That's great. That's awesome. But honestly, It wasn't until I had on somebody very up there, very out there in the media, come on my podcast. And I try not to schedule my podcasts like late at night, but basically he was like emailing me. And he was like, it's going to be late again, like an hour.

[00:21:51] And he kept on pushing it. And so we ended up doing it that night. And on the podcast, we talked a lot about growing a hustle, also like mental health things, along that nature, get [00:22:00] it up, crying in the middle of that podcast. Just talking about a lot of things happen in his life recently. And literally two months later, he sends me a text and he's yo, can we hop on the phone real quick?

[00:22:11] And so I chatted and he was like, Dude when we recorded that podcast, I was in such a dark spot and and it was a pretty long podcast. It's like an hour, 10 minutes. He was like, that was literally the greatest form of therapy for me to let go and talk about and just digest things and really just process things.

[00:22:30] And he was like, dude, I literally owe you everything. And then on top of that, he also invited me to. This event that he ran, which literally had like other speakers that were like crazy amount of totally influential people. And when that happened, that just like completely, reshifted the way that I thought about the podcast, the way that I think about relationships and the way that I think about people in general.

[00:22:51] And honestly, Naveen Jain is not the only mentor that I have. That is a billionaire. I have other mentors of mine that are billionaires that obviously it's not like [00:23:00] I can pay the money like a time I can give them money and, help them, or even when it comes to business. Cause they're way better at that.

[00:23:05] But there's so many intangible things. If you look at a person holistically that they can benefit from you. And like this other example, not Naveen Jain, he's also a billionaire he's like in the middle of helping me, like totally grow my business, do all this crazy stuff all for free and all this stuff.

[00:23:23] And he was like, I literally. See the younger version of myself in you. And I almost miss that side. And that's why I want to be connection with you. So it's if you're only looking at it from like the networking or the marketing or whatever perspective you have, but you don't view people as holistic humans.

[00:23:41] I don't know. Ever since I began to really try to like move and live with this philosophy that I'm telling you now. The podcasts are even viewed as a show anymore. I just view it as like really an excuse to get me in front of people, but not really necessarily like in a superficial way either. And so that is massive viewing people holistically.

[00:23:59] Hala Taha: Totally. [00:24:00] So is the podcast something that you envision yourself doing forever?

[00:24:03] Mark Metry: I definitely think I'm going to do it forever, but here's the thing. I don't consider myself a podcast, even though it's in my LinkedIn bio, like top whatever podcast. I don't really consider myself as a podcast because like literally what podcasts are.

[00:24:15] You and I are just having a conversation right now. And the other part of that is we're not just having a conversation that me, you and four other people can see right now, but we're also taking this and we're scaling this. So depending on how many gallons, your podcast guests, you could be scaling that with 30,000 people.

[00:24:33] Hala Taha: Yeah.

[00:24:33] Mark Metry: And so that's something that's never been possible for in human history. And I think podcasting is honestly. Plays a big role in this massive evolution of human consciousness that we're seeing. Because just the way that media in general has been represented has changed so rapidly. The right people used to know people for being on TV for 10 minutes segments, 15 minute segments, but then now.

[00:24:55] You can have, for example, the Joe Rogan podcast, like a two hour [00:25:00] podcast where you can sit down with somebody it's not regulated, it's not filtered. People can say whatever they want, they could talk about long complex ideas and you can articulate feelings and beliefs and stories with that. And you look at that and you look at, Joe Rogan's podcast has more viewers than all of mainstream media combined.

[00:25:19] That's massive. So I want to be a part of that, but I don't just want to be known for like this person that just talks to people.

[00:25:25] Hala Taha: So my research assistant chief, he found out that you have a podcast acceleration program. Do you still have that? Tell me about that.

[00:25:34] Mark Metry: Sure. So this all sort of started, like when my podcast hit the top 100 list, people just began to reach out.

[00:25:40] Yo, bro, how do I do this? How do I not just start a podcast, but with people that already have podcasts, like how do I take it to the next level? And so that something slowly became something that I just ended up helping people with. It's totally changed now. I'm like helping fortune 500 executives start their own podcast for their company and [00:26:00] so many different things.

[00:26:00] And then also helping like small time business owners that don't have a massive team. Grow to be like the top 20 in their list and then all of a sudden creating a massive business on that. And yeah, I think, I just agree with podcasting, is I've seen it in my own life of not just being a massive accelerator for like growth mindset, learning, all the things we talked about, but also like business, like getting awareness and things like that.

[00:26:22] And if you do it right, you can really. Use podcasting, LinkedIn, your business to be literally like a death star of attention of getting people to look at your stuff, to do what you want from a business product service standpoint.

[00:26:36] Hala Taha: Yeah. So your podcast was ranked number 98, right? Out of all podcasts in the world about right.

[00:26:44] How do you get to the top charts? What's your secret sauce?

[00:26:47] Mark Metry: It's all about rating Saba reviews and it's about the frequency of them. Yeah. So it's not really about if your show has a thousand ratings or 2000 ratings, it's about what is the speed in which people review your podcast. And that brings you up on [00:27:00] top of that.

[00:27:00] It's also about your episodes. My podcast hit that on the list because I had like a line of big hitters of people on my podcast. On top of that, I ended up having somebody on my podcast that doesn't really do podcasts. That's like a Pulitzer Prize, winning journalist, Eric Davis, him and I did a podcast episode.

[00:27:20] I ended up being in the top podcast episodes. So that episode got over a hundred thousand downloads, something crazy like that when that happened, that propelled the entire show up.

[00:27:29] Hala Taha: Wow. That's so interesting. I had no idea that the rate of reviews is what gets you ranked. That makes a lot of sense because my podcasts always spikes whenever I do like a contest or reviews, but you would think downloads would matter.

[00:27:41] Downloads you don't matter at all.

[00:27:42] Mark Metry: Honestly, I have no idea. This is just what I've gone from data. I don't talk to him cook or anything. Not that he would probably know either. Cause he's doing way bigger things, but this is just data that I've gotten. But honestly, a point that I say is, I don't even think it's about having a big podcast.

[00:27:55] I know people who have a thousand listeners on their show [00:28:00] or 2000 listeners, which is nothing in the grand scheme of things. I have a super dedicated community who make like a six figure living off of their community and what they do and adding value and get like really high paying sponsorships on top of that.

[00:28:14] Not because the numbers, but just because of the audience, the person has connection. It's not the best thing. And honestly, it's everyone has a top 100 podcasts these days.

[00:28:22] Hala Taha: Yeah. So would you encourage somebody who's thinking about starting a podcast to start one? Or do you think that it's too saturated?

[00:28:29] Mark Metry: Yeah I literally posted this on my LinkedIn Instagram today and I said, this is literally the title of the post. Why you should start a podcast, even if you have no idea what you're doing. And basically what I said is that. When I first started when I was about to start and I began to talk to other podcasters that I knew before I started the podcast and they would tell me like, yeah, you can, but it's super crowded, super saturated.

[00:28:52] This is back in 2017. So you've got to do it in this way. You've got to do that. You gotta do that. Basically. I realized this is it's all crap. And what I [00:29:00] say is. View the podcast as a tool, not necessarily, a means to an end, but really something that you can use just for your own personal growth in a learning aspect.

[00:29:10] I think everybody in the world should start a podcast for that sole reason. Even if they like can't talk on a microphone or they're not a people person, or they're not like a radio host mentality. So I think everybody should start a podcast from that perspective. If they view it as a lifelong learning tool, but now for somebody who's yo, I'm trying to like be the next Joe Rogan would be the next job we're gonna have to like, do like a crazy marketing spirit with my business.

[00:29:34] So we're going to launch a podcast for three months and see what happens. That's not going to work. The end game of podcasting is how long you do it for.

[00:29:42] Hala Taha: The effort that you put into it. If you put out a quality show, like you'll get listeners, there's billions of people in the world, there's going to be people who want to listen to your specific show.

[00:29:52] I'm always encouraging people to start podcasts because even though there's so many out there, I still think that there's enough room for everyone.

[00:29:59] Mark Metry: Definitely. And [00:30:00] what I would say on top of that is there's 8 billion people in the world, and that number is poised to grow exponentially over the next decade.

[00:30:07] And honestly, All 8 billion people have a different perspective on life based on their own unique experiences, based on their past, their present, their mindset, their psychology, their trauma whatever. And what I began to discover is when I first started my podcast, I thought that exact same thing, like why would anybody listen to me when I was listening to Tim Ferriss and Gary V and Joe Rogan, and they were giving me so much helpful information.

[00:30:31] So it's what could I possibly give? But what I began to slowly realize is not, everybody's going to vibe with Tim Ferriss, Gary V and Joe Rogan. Everybody's individual 8 billion perspective is going to find a different perspective to go with and not all perspectives out there in the world have been out.

[00:30:48] I'm like, I'm so excited to see what happens. In terms of podcasting over like the next decade, when the bottom 2 billion people on bank in the world from like Africa and [00:31:00] India and those places gain access to accessible technology and they start forming podcasts and we get to get a, take a look at what is actually going on there on their side of the world.
[00:31:09] How are they living? And yeah, I totally agree.

[00:31:12] Hala Taha: Podcasting is so cool. Like it's such a new space. We have no idea where it's going. It's really fun story. Back to what you were saying about, not everybody's going to relate to Tim Ferriss and Joe Rogan, one of our listeners, Daniel, he came to this event.

[00:31:25] So for everybody listening where here at LinkedIn global and New Jersey, and I was able to give out some free tickets to my listeners. So one of my listeners from Chicago, Daniel. Flew all the way out from Chicago to this event to Daniel showed up to Daniel and he came up to me and he was like, Hala.

[00:31:44] You're the only podcast I listened to. I used to listen to Tim Ferriss and Joe Rogan, but I don't even like their shit anymore. Like, all I want to do is listen to your stuff. And I was like, wow, that's incredible. So let's talk about your new company. Tell us about the [00:32:00] AR and VR company.

[00:32:01] Mark Metry: Yeah, so honestly it's a long story and it took so many different forms, but really how it started was, again, this goes back to like my own personal sort of transformation, a big part of what I realized is why I was depressed, why I was suicidal while I was anxious as. I didn't have a compelling future to look forward to.

[00:32:20] I bought into the propaganda of the stock market. The economy is going to crash. We're going to have a great depression. There's like cops shooting people in the street. There's like mass shooters everywhere. Everyone's in debt, like student loan debt. And there's a lot of problems of course. And, but I just fell into that doom and gloom and fell into that dystopia people saying oh, do technology and social media and all this stuff.

[00:32:40] And that in turn formed like a really terrible future view. And I even remember Naveen Jain telling me this of if people don't have hope for tomorrow, they start doing things. They normally wouldn't do. That's how you start having like suicide bombers and all this kinds of stuff. And so for me, a big part of it was just like looking into the future.

[00:32:58] And since I had seen like the [00:33:00] evolution of the internet, I was like, okay, technology is definitely. Play a massive part of this. And honestly, like I remember I was at this college party, this was at a time where I was learning between these two different paths. I wasn't totally Mark Metry version 2.0.

[00:33:14] And I was still like in the screwing around phase. And I remember being at this party and I just remember being like, What I had learned, I had just started meditating at that time too. I couldn't be in the room. It was sorta like the veil was lifted of like the common BS that I was seeing on an everyday basis.

[00:33:31] And I just began to see people as these mechanical puppets that were doing the same thing, whether it was drinking or smoking or whatever that was, I had this moment with myself and I was just like, holy crap. I sense, like this moment of silence, where I was like, I could either stay here and do the same thing.

[00:33:45] I've always done. Or I could literally get out of here and do something different. And so literally I ran out of that party, ran back to my apartment building, and this was like some kind of epiphany for me. I remember crying. I remember going into my dorm room, closing the door and just like pulling out my [00:34:00] notebook and just like literally staying up all night and doing research on different exponential technologies and finding which industry I could put myself in that wasn't super developed enough that.

[00:34:11] Too late, even though I just debunked that. But then also like early enough to be like, I can get in here and be a leader. And so for me, that was just discovering virtual reality and augmented reality. And in the sense of this, the big theory is that. So every single thing that we do today that we interact with the digital world, It's going to be replaced by mixed reality.

[00:34:31] And it's like this, instead of you holding your phone and, looking at notes or somebody else looking at the time or somebody even trying to do a podcast interview, the future is it's not going to be us looking down at these different colored led lights, that show with different colors that admit somebody's picture on social media, the future of.

[00:34:51] Our realities are going to be mixed. It's going to be merged in the sense of in the future. We could do a podcast interview with both of us at [00:35:00] home wearing like VR headsets. And I could see you right then and there. And you begin to play out the implications of that. It's going to completely change the world and there are already people using it today.

[00:35:10] I know Boston where I'm from, like a lot of hospitals there are using them for autistic kids. A lot of people are saying that VR is a more. Painkiller then morphine, because you put yourself in this virtual world, depending on the game, you disassociate yourself from your physical body. And for people that are in a lot of chronic pain, it can be really useful.

[00:35:28] And it literally just has I could go on and on about uses, but I was basically like, I need to get started in this industry right away, the business SoCon like so many different things. I had no idea what it was doing, but eventually it got to that point where we were like, what could we do today?

[00:35:44] That is sustainable. That is going to help our industry grow without trying to invest a ton of money in R and D to try to create a virtual reality headset or something like that, which the biggest tech companies in the world are already doing with their billions of dollars. [00:36:00] And so we were like, what could we do to help this industry?

[00:36:03] And I've been marketing for the past decades. How can we help companies specifically in AR and VR talk about something that doesn't really exist in the real world? That's not really reality. So that's what we do in our future plans are actually like develop legitimate VR and AR apps for the specific use case of expanding consciousness.

[00:36:23] And. Mental health and example of that is have you ever heard of this phenomenon called the astronaut overview effect? Okay. So this is cool because I actually interviewed the guy who coined this term. And basically the first time when astronauts went up to space and after that, they looked down at the earth and they saw where they came and they didn't see any borders.

[00:36:45] They didn't see any people hating each other. And they just saw like this collective Homeland and all of a sudden when the human mind looks at something it's home, when it's not really supposed to look at like the earth, like the brain is never supposed to leave the [00:37:00] orbit, like this is something totally artificial and technology.

[00:37:02] What happens is it completely reshapes your perspective of what's possible similar to somebody having a traumatic experience in one way. And so the idea of it is like, What if we can make an application that could put people in these kinds of environments and have life experiences without even having.

[00:37:20] And so that's the future plan super far away because just the industry is not there yet. And I could talk on and on about it, but it's an area that is going to be massive in our world is, basically like social media email, all this stuff, this is going to be the real estate of us living in a future mixed reality world where there's not going to be difference between digital or real life.

[00:37:43] And it's just going to be like, What do I want to do? Who do I want to talk to no longer bound by the limits of geography, time, money, that's going to be life. And there's a massive implications to that on positive and negative sides. And it's just going to be a crazy time and I'm happy to be a part of it.

[00:37:58] Hala Taha: Mark, in my [00:38:00] opinion you are, not just a podcast or you are a futurist, you are a total futurist, like your brain works in a different way.

[00:38:07] So let's close this out with the title of your podcast is called Humans 2.0, staying on this similar theme of the future. Tell us about how you think humanity is going to evolve over time.

[00:38:19] Mark Metry: This is what I think is going to happen. Maslow's hierarchy of needs. I don't know the exact order of it, but it's you've got to have.

[00:38:24] Some kind of shelter, you've got to have food, you've got to be completing your basic necessities. And then you've got to have some kind of sense of security. And then that's when you can start to think about like self-esteem and your role in the world. And so what I think is going to start to happen is already what we've seen.

[00:38:39] Like the Western part of the world is if you are born in America or some other developed. You're basically starting off with those two, three things already done. You don't even have to think about those, right? You don't have to hunt. You can just buy something off Uber eats. And what I think the future is I think, as we begin to get [00:39:00] everybody in that state, we are going to see like massive exponential change.

[00:39:05] And, if you look at, for example, Like the educational system and the way that it teaches people, it is still running off of this model of getting basic people's needs met with teaching you how to get a job and how to function in society. So you can make money to get these things. When these things become defaulted.

[00:39:24] By society. I think we are going to see really like people who are being helped in a way than none other before. And if we can complete these two layers, then we can start to actually focus on the important stuff of like self-actualization. And how do you think about yourself in the world and your potential, and when that happens and we begin to come out with better tools to help people's mental health.

[00:39:49] We're going to get in a state of exponential technology where it's not just literally yesterday I was reading, they just invented this device that enables people that have Alzheimer's to get their brainwaves back, which is literally [00:40:00] crazy. Cause there's over a million people that have that in America.

[00:40:03] And that's like the saddest thing I could possibly imagine. And so I think what's going to happen is as super talented people are now becoming freed of basic necessities and also of like mental. Health issues through technology and just through communication and through media and through us, growing and talking to each other and moving the stigma.

[00:40:21] I think it's going to get us to a point where we're going to have like groundbreaking inventions, every month, and then it's going to be every week and then it's going to be every day and then it's going to be every hour. And then it's going to get to that point where humanity is going to be on.

[00:40:32] Basically our one-way train that I don't think anybody can predict of us really focusing in on the important things. We're going to have to completely think about, and I think it's going to completely change our existence. I think we're not really going to be like humans anymore. I think we're going to completely have to update as a species.

[00:40:52] Everybody today walks around with a mini robot and it's Hey Siri, text my mom this, or Hey Siri do this. And it's just.

[00:41:00] We could never do that before and to play out what's going to happen like the next 20 years. I have no idea, but if we take a look at what the biggest tech companies in the world are doing, and also like different kinds of cultural societal trends, I think you can take a picture.

[00:41:14] Honestly, I don't know, but I think it'll definitely have to do with focusing on the important things, focusing on mental health, because I think that is like the root of everything, of all the problems that we see in the world. Because if everything that's done is usually done by a decision from somebody, and it's like, The person who's made that decision has a brain and mental health is something that really hasn't been talked about that often compared to like physical health and like the grand stage of humanity of just like a hundred years ago, human life was not respected to the degree it was now.

[00:41:44] And you start to talk about different statistics, like a hundred thousand people a year commit suicide. You just got to think imagine how many of those 800,000 people. Had some kind of crazy idea has some kind of crazy talent that could have changed the lives of millions of people. And it's just [00:42:00] like thinking that way.

[00:42:01] Hala Taha: So mental health is something I know that you're super passionate about. You're writing a book about it right now. Is that correct?

[00:42:07] Mark Metry: I'm not writing a book specifically about it. I'm writing a book it's about not the podcast, but all the people who I've interviewed on the podcast. I don't see them anymore now, but like a long time ago, when I was a kid, I saw them like those adventure novel books where you would go to a chapter book and you'd be like, yo, if you want to kill Johnny and go to page 56, and if you want to not kill them, go to 59 or something.

[00:42:26] I want to do one of those. But with mindset and how I could create like a guide of really the best people on this planet for their individual expertise and their individual topics. And basically give somebody a guide book and be like, yo, everyone's different. And not everyone's advice is going to apply to you, but if you take this, it'll provide you the best possible path that is uniquely to you alongside like top class information from the world.

[00:42:54] So that's what I'm working on.

[00:42:55] Hala Taha: That sounds awesome. When is that going to come out?

[00:42:57] Mark Metry: Honestly I told myself I would start to look for a [00:43:00] publisher and start to like really write it when I was 250 episodes in, but I'm now at that spot where I don't really want to, because I just want to keep interviewing people and keep growing the expertise and knowledge because there's so many other people that.

[00:43:11] I want to reach out to you. So it's not like a project that I have. It's going to come out again this year. This is like a very long-term project that I'm like it.

[00:43:18] Hala Taha: Super cool idea though. I love that idea. Okay. So before we go, I want my listeners to understand how young you are. How old are you?

[00:43:27] Mark Metry: 22.

[00:43:29] Hala Taha: Everybody out there. There's no excuse. Listen to how open-minded he is, how he's got such a great growth mindset. There's really no excuse to be anything less.

[00:43:40] Mark Metry: Yeah, definitely. And honestly, like I was telling somebody else this outside and I was like, dude, literally a ten-year-old DM me on Instagram.

[00:43:49] And sent me a video of him, like taking a picture with Tony Robbins and David Goggins. And he's an author of his own book. So it's just you can go as young as you want. So you can go as old as you want to, at the end of the day, like your mind is going to try [00:44:00] to justify whatever, excuse, whether that's age or health or whatever, to try to keep you in the same position.

[00:44:05] And if you're aware of that, Then you already have the upper advantage.

[00:44:09] Hala Taha: So I love this conversation really happy to have you on the show, tell everybody where they can go to find out more about you and everything that you do.

[00:44:16] Mark Metry: You can go to my website, markmetry.com. You can get links to the podcast, check out Humans 2.0 anywhere.

[00:44:24] Listen to podcasts. Definitely connect with me on social media. I'm super active. We'll definitely respond to you.
Definitely sent me a message saying that you came from theYoung And Profiting Podcast from Hala and yeah. LinkedIn, Instagram, DMS I'll work.

[00:44:36] Hala Taha: It was such a pleasure to have you on.

[00:44:38] Mark Metry: You're awesome.

[00:44:38] You're great host.

[00:44:39] Hala Taha: Thanks. Thanks for listening to Young And Profiting Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to write us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Follow YAP on Instagram @youngandprofiting and check us out at youngandprofiting.com.

[00:44:53] And now you can chat live. Every single day on YAP Society on Slack, check out our show notes or youngandprofiting.com for the [00:45:00] registration link, you can find me on Instagram @yapwithhala or LinkedIn, just search for my name , Hala Taha. Big, thanks to the YAP team for another successful episode this week, I'd like to give a special shout out to Tim for all the hard work he's been putting into our upcoming five weeks semi-private podcast course.

[00:45:16] Where we'll cover everything you need to know to successfully launch and run a podcast. Program message me @halaatyoungandprofiting.com. If you're interested to learn more, we can't wait to get this rolling. And this is Hala, signing off