Unlocking the Future of Meditation and Technology

This episode emphasizes the transformative power of mindfulness and gratitude, showcasing how they can shape not only the lives of athletes but also entrepreneurs. Walker Ferguson shares insights from his personal journey and practical techniques for cultivating mindfulness, highlighting its importance in mental health and overall well-being.

• Discussion on the importance of mindfulness and emotional intelligence in sports and business
• Walker's personal journey in college football and the challenges he faced
• The role of gratitude in shifting perspectives and enhancing mental clarity
• Practical tips for daily mindfulness practices, including journaling and meditation
• Debunking misconceptions around meditation and mindfulness
• Exploring the connection between mindfulness, technology, and personalized meditation experiences
• Importance of sleep stories and their impact on mental health
• Emphasizing action and commitment to mindfulness for personal growth and success
• Predictions on the future trends in mindfulness and its adoption by younger generations

Chapters

• 0:01 Mindfulness and Success in Business
• 5:41 Mindfulness and Gratitude in Daily Life
• 12:01 Power of Mindfulness and Meditation
• 20:49 Personalized AI Meditation and Sleep Stories

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Elevate Media Podcast with your host, chris Anderson. In this show, chris and his guests will share their knowledge and experience on how to go from zero to successful entrepreneur. They have built their businesses from scratch and are now ready to give back to those who are just starting. Let's get ready to learn, grow and elevate our businesses. And now your host, chris Anderson.

Speaker 2: 0:25

Welcome back to another recording of the Elevate Media Podcast. I'm Chris Anderson, your host, and today we're going to dive into the topic of mindfulness and how we can get better control of our minds, our thoughts, and really slow things down so we can speed things up in our business. So excited to have a guest on the show talking just about that. He's actually a collegiate athlete which I know a lot of you listening have played sports at the college level, so this can be right up your alley to be able to connect with Walker Ferguson. Welcome to the LVMU podcast today. Man, I appreciate you having me on Excited to be here. Yeah, absolutely. So we've done a little in the green room. Walker, you know, plays football for Wake Forest. What is that like? Let's start there too, because you know mindset mindfulness from an athlete's perspective is important. You know, I almost I almost did a double major with sports psychology in college, as the like this is always really intrigued me.

Speaker 3: 1:23

So, yeah, what is that like playing at that level? Yeah, it's uh, it's definitely take, definitely gets a. You know some adjustments early on. You know, coming in as a freshman and you're like a shark in the deep water. You have no idea what's going on and, um, you're trying to like navigating things, like figuring things out. You know you got to wake up every day at five 30,. You know certain time, tutors, classes. You know it's a lot at first but you know being mindful and developing your emotional intelligence as well as your resiliency really allows you to. You know, get through some of those tough times.

Speaker 3: 1:54

You know for me freshman year was really tough because you know I'm coming in from high school. You know your ego's through the roof, like you're one of the best players in high school and you get to college and you're like the worst player on the team. You know out being like fifth string and it's very, very humbling at first. But Sure, you know college football, at that level especially, teaches you so much just to get to where you want to be and like even in the entrepreneur route. You know it really teaches you discipline and consistency and those are like the two kinds of words I want to be and you know, without football and the being like kind of forced into that, I think that definitely like expedited the route for me. Like it's like very quickly, because I was like I had to do those things.

Speaker 2: 2:34

I didn't really have a choice or else I was cut Right, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 2:49

Well, how long have you been? So you athlete all through high school, I'm guessing you know. Growing up, have you always been into like the mindfulness, did you? You probably didn't know necessarily what it was. Okay, not at all. So uh, yeah, growing up I was like I just played everything with the ball, you know, like baseball, football. I was like literally anything and lacrosse was actually my first love and um, awesome.

Speaker 3: 2:57

You know, kovic kind of took that away from me. I wasn't, I didn't really got any schools. I really wanted to play that um when kov, because ross response went from like 12 to 4, so that shifted my focus towards, uh, football, yeah, um, but like, luckily that worked out. My junior year was good enough, but uh yeah, no, that's uh no, I didn't really know what mindfulness was.

Speaker 3: 3:14

I think, uh, or I know that I either lived like in the future which, as we know, anxiety, or the depression passed right. I never was really in this like present moment. I wasn't really like mindful or like just I didn't really under, like I wasn't really like truly like happy. It wasn't like like you've been falling in love with what I was doing. And you know, when I got to wake, like I said, my freshman year, you know I get to my sophomore year and I'm not playing again. You know, both scouting not traveling, you know it was like the farthest thing from playing.

Speaker 3: 3:40

I was just going through a tough time. I was was doing a lot of things that I necessarily shouldn't have been doing Class wasn't going, great relationships, home life and I was really in that past, that depression or that future anxiety. I didn't know what mindfulness was and I'm a Christian guy. So I started reading scripture, meditating on scripture, and my buddy Hampton, who I actually started the company with, he got really big into mindfulness, learning about Mark Ceruleus and different ways to meditate and what mindfulness is. It's like just being in the present moment, just being grateful for all your many blessings and just like enjoying life to the fullest. So once.

Speaker 3: 4:12

I kind of took a step back my sophomore year, understood you know how grateful I am for like life and like I'm like I was like dang, I'm really like playing football like Wake Forest right now, like ACC football, like top university, like I so much to be grateful for and and once I kind of just took a like didn't take my blessings for granted like a lot and just like appreciate everything, learned how to breathe, learned how to like de-stress and I really focus in on the present moment. Like my life like just took off, like it was just like you know, like flipping a switch, like something like that. After that I was like you know, I gotta meditate every day just yeah, what does that look like for you?

Speaker 2: 4:46

what does your meditation look like? I know, because it's different for everybody no for sure.

Speaker 3: 4:50

So when I wake up every morning I write down two things. I'm grateful for my gratitude journal. So that's. I started that early on because I wanted to develop, you know, a sense of gratitude early on, um, from there I read a new morning mercies, which is like a daily devotional for me to get my day. And then I got a little like daily devotional prayer thing start out the day in the morning and then, uh, after that, you know I'll go hit the gym Cause, like I'm, I love, uh, you know, taking care.

Speaker 3: 5:14

Everything else takes care of itself. You take care of your. You know physical, your spiritual, your mental, emotional, you know all that good stuff. So I like to lift in. And then, after I lift, you know I'll go to class or do whatever, but then I'll actually use the app, um, and I'll like plug in my own meditation and I'll get a meditation through that. That's personalized, specialized for me, um, and then throughout the day, you know, I'm just trying to, I like, I like, try to read books whenever I can, and I close the day with, like, what are our?

Speaker 2: 5:41

actions, you know how they play such a big role and if we're not taking care of ourselves in all those aspects. You know spiritual, emotional, physical, like, and and how we structure our day too, cause, like you said, you end your day in silence, reading, and then in silence, you know, in prayer, where a lot of people you know and I fall into this boat and I'm sure you have at one point or another you know we pick up our little devices and we got the we were.

Speaker 2: 6:08

We're filling our mind with that, like dopamine, hits at the end of the day or, you know, whatever it might be, uh and it, it it affects our sleep, which then, if we wake up more tired, we may not get up early to work out or meditate because we're running late. They weren't reactive the whole time, uh, instead of you know, being able to be, um, you know, choose what we're doing when we wake up, we're kind of along on emergency mode. So I think that's that's a crucial thing. Why do you people, why do you think people, struggle so much to get behind meditation or, you know, mindfulness?

Speaker 3: 6:41

yeah, I think it's more of like a misconception of like what the word means.

Speaker 3: 6:45

I think there's like all these different like forms and ways that people are like, oh, this is what meditation means. It's like Buddhist, you know it's this, this, this, but at the end of the day, like meditation, mindfulness is just being present, it's just being happy, it's being in the present moment and just loving life. Um, so that's kind of like kind of one of my missions in life, just kind of like change, that like misconception of you know, meditation being this like bad thing per se, or let's just I won't use the word bad, but there's misconception around meditation. Realize that, you know that's like the word, but at the end of the day, living your healthy, healthiest, happy life, good to the suitability, so yeah I think.

Speaker 3: 7:21

I think there's a lot of misconception there that needs to be changed For sure.

Speaker 2: 7:24

I think that's true and you know I'm a believer as well, I'm in a faith, you know, christ follower, and you know, growing up, if I were to hear the word meditation, I'd be like, oh, you know, I'm thinking of, like you said, buddhists or like things like that, of like things that went against what I, you know, believed, and so I was like I kind of just wanted to stay away from it. And then when I really, kind of like you, started to dig into it, what does this mean?

Speaker 2: 7:50

like I can I believe in the bible and I might be wrong because I'm not a, I'm not a, uh, a preacher and things, but I think it says meditate on this day and night talking about his word and so um these are the biggest, yeah, and so like being able to like actually understand what the word means, and then, and then, putting that into your life with what you know fit your, you know your beliefs in your system, I think is huge.

Speaker 2: 8:15

And then, once I started to realize that it was like, okay, yeah, like this is doable, I should be, I should be meditating, I should be meditating on scripture, or you know, uh, in my conversation with him, uh, meaning God and stuff, um, but I think what you said one thing you said too, that is is such a critical piece. Um, I think, above, you know, working out, above a lot of the things, is the gratitude piece, for sure. Um, why do you think that is?

Speaker 3: 8:44

I just think gratitude is so essential because you know you really got to take a step back. I mean, there's people, like you know, in third world countries that don't have running water, you know, don't have lights to flip on, you know. They don't know where their Mexican meal is coming from. You know we're so blessed, like here in America, we don't have to worry about those things, you know, right Sitting in a room right now, we have a we're on technology. They talk about it. I don't even know. I'm in Cary, north Carolina, you know. But yeah, being able to like, appreciate what you have, you know, allows more blessings to come into your life. It also allows you to help other people and bless their lives as well. So I'm, I'm breaking the gratitude and humility because that and that kind of shaped my personal values and the way I want to live my life. So, yeah, big congratulations.

Speaker 2: 9:25

Gratitude for sure. Yeah, I love that and I think it's very spot on, because if we're more focused internally, if we're more selfish, focused on us and what we need to do or what we want to accomplish, we forget the gratitude part. I build a business and it's so easy to be like, oh, I want, I see them over there. Like I got to get to that level where I, you know, I want to make that much money or all this stuff and that's, and you forget about you know where you've come. And having those moments of like, retrospective, like yeah, that's great, like those are our goals, awesome. But look where you came from and look what we've gotten through and look through You've been able to help.

Speaker 2: 10:06

And having that mindset of gratitude, I think in business, in life, it just changes your perspective, because even in a hard time right, like if football's not going well for you, if business is not going well like you can look at yourself and still be like, but this is where I'm at, like you know, I'm still walking around on two feet. I'm out here on the football field. You know I, I have a business that's still running. Like I can, you know, do a little, even though it's not where we want to be. It's still, you know, being grateful.

Speaker 3: 10:38

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:40

Where other people are. You know really well said for sure, love that. And you know really well said for sure, love that. And you know I think it's crazy too, like when you go, if you've ever been or you know, have you ever watched like people in third world countries like they're just super joyful, they're super happy, because it's like I feel like they're grateful for what they have and they just like are mindful of the day, right For real. Yeah, it doesn't know. So, like, how does, how does someone get started into mindfulness If you know they're like okay, let me, let me kind of get this a shot. Maybe, you know, maybe Walker's right. Um, where where can I start, as far as you know, getting into mindfulness and understanding it?

Speaker 3: 11:23

Yeah, no, I think that's a really good question. I think it's different for everybody, you know, I think it's a lot different. A lot has to go with your beliefs. You know what you believe. You know. For me, I'm obviously going to try to promote the app and just say, you know, you create a customized meditation, yeah, you, but no, I would say, you know, just take a step back and just I would recommend start journaling Journaling is a great form of meditation at the end of the day and just write down you know how your day went and what you're grateful for, kind of what you wish you could have done better, and how you want to, like, you know, progress, like over the next week, and being able to let your thoughts down and like, really like, tap into your, like, your thoughts and your emotions and how you're feeling.

Speaker 3: 12:01

You know that that will kind of like. I think that will really spot on you. That really helped me out early on. Um, also for me, like you know, I'm always going to promote the Bible. Read the word, starting to get a Luke, an ax, you know, read that, meditate on that scripture and I'll bring you out of that as well. And then also to, like I'll Box, breathing is great, learning how to really like take a moment and like just be present and just not really focus on your breath. Like you know our minds as soon as we start to breathe, we start thinking about like other things you know it's like what's wrong and really try to focus in on your breath and then, as soon as it starts going away, like really bring it back to your breath and then just kind of go like keep going, just keep going for like 15, 20 minutes and then see where it takes you and it's a beautiful thing. So.

Speaker 2: 12:43

Yeah, for those who might not know. What is that box breathing?

Speaker 3: 12:47

Yeah, so for me, I go in for seven seconds and I hold and I take one more breath and then I before, and I repeat, but box breathing is like you breathe in, you hold and then you take one more breath, exhaust your lungs, then let it out to get oxygen through your body.

Speaker 2: 13:05

So seven in for you. Do you hold a specific time?

Speaker 3: 13:09

I hold until I'm kind of like giving out and I give one more breath and then I just slowly let it all out.

Speaker 2: 13:16

And slow out right is important, not a fast one, yeah you don't want to go.

Speaker 3: 13:22

Yeah, yeah, four seconds, you said right. Yeah, I do, that's what I do, but for everyone. So yeah, sure.

Speaker 2: 13:29

Okay, well, good, I like that Cause, yeah, and I think you know what. So I I feel like and I would cause I was in this position when I first was into it like yeah, man, this is some woo stuff, you know, like this is awesome, some interesting, interesting things. How do we, how do we walk through those, those kind of limiting beliefs on thing? How do we expand I guess it would be expanding our mindset of, like, what's actually out there to help us. How can we take those steps if we're in those positions?

Speaker 2: 13:55

Yeah, are you talking about like resources to help you meditate or no, if someone's like man, I just don't know, like this just seems faretched. You know I could. Yeah, I know now, but I was in a position. I'm like I don't know this, can it really help? No for sure.

Speaker 3: 14:09

I mean, you know that's such a good question. I think a lot of people struggle with that, you know, I think that does come down to like just taking like a leap of faith, you know, really getting a true, honest chance. You know, cause you know, as I was having this conversation, you can tell somebody to do something. You know you can tell somebody, you know, you want to make more money, start that business, you want to do this, do that. You know, but like, unless you actually do those things, you actually apply yourself and try, like you're never going to know. So I would just recommend everyone to you know, give it a try. Like, take a, I know it will. Yeah, if they, if they, if they come with that uh, from a direction you know.

Speaker 2: 14:48

Obviously we're both, you know, christians. I mean a lot of these people listening, all individuals listening, are in the same category. So, like you can, you can tie it, you know, to our faith, to our you know, the Bible and things like that, and really make it part of that day. But it's such an important thing because stress, you know, disease, disease, disease being not at ease, and so like that stress, that's one of the biggest causes of, I think, issues in our body is just the stress of holding stuff in, you know, tightening your muscles and and not letting it go again, like you mentioned earlier, saying too much in the future or too much in the past, uh, causes all those issues. So I think this is mindfulness, being in the now and present. You're not gonna be perfect at it, you know you're going to snap back into it, but you can shorten those, those moments of getting you know, on either spectrum. Well, you just brought up a really good point too.

Speaker 3: 15:45

Yeah About. You know a lot of getting you know on either spectrum. Well, you just brought up a really good point too. Yeah About. You know a lot of things, like you said, like your muscles tightening up, like you feel sick, like you're sick in your mind, but you're not actually sick, you know that's, that's really big.

Speaker 3: 15:54

And that's something that you know I've experienced a lot for myself. You know, whether I have like a cold or know I'm able to, I'm naturally like feeling better and that's just like it's all fine because, as we know, everything starts in the mind. So that's another thing. You know, if you're not a christian and you're, you know, not like you're an atheist or somebody else you want to like learn to meditate. You know, take that leap of faith, because if there's something going on in your life, like for me, like the personal struggles I went through, or like you're sick, or something else, because negative energy travels, yeah, positivity in the mind, and you know see what happens. So tell your mind you're happy, you're healthy and get to go from there. That's a big point.

Speaker 2: 16:32

So yeah, yeah for sure. And yeah, it is crazy, like there's so much like we could dive into so much with this of, like, how energy is, you know, not created or destroyed? And so, like, what energy are you focusing on? You know, if you know Bob Proctor at all, he talked about vibrations and different, different being on different levels and things like that which you know. I think I could do a lot of really cool things. So I'm sure there's things outside of what I understand, within, like energy and vibration and things that he created, and I was like, yeah, like this just makes sense that we just we just can't comprehend, and how the body is, I mean, we think about the brain and how much we don't even know about that yet. Still, it's crazy. And yeah, and you know, I just I go back to Bible too, because you think obviously we're not Jesus, of course, but you know the, the woman who needed help. She just touched his robe, she had the belief and she knew it and so she was healed and obviously that's his power.

Speaker 2: 17:42

But that kind of thing is like the mindset, the thought process of growing and focusing on the good. Again, we talked about third world countries and they seem they're super joyous and happy and they're, you know, living in, uh, what they're living in and to them, you know they're just happy to be alive and where we're super wealthy compared to that, and we see it, I'm like, oh my gosh, that'd be terrible because we're so you know that, like our mindset would be hard to be in that situation and be joyous A lot of times. We'd really have to work on it. It's well said, yeah. So where do you, where do you see the future of mindfulness and meditation going? Do you see it continue to grow?

Speaker 3: 18:18

Do you can see it kind of being leveled off or yeah, so I actually, you know, I foresee it continuing to grow for sure. You know, I think you know apps like Headspace, apps like Calm, you know, like this 10 coming out, like having resources to create like meditations, you know, for you, like on the move, like wherever you are. I think that's a big step for the younger generation, you know, for the Gen Z's, for, like people like myself, you know like a lot of younger people have no idea what meditation is. They're like, oh, that's old people. Seriously, though, you know, like having like resources like that and having you know athletes, especially like you know, jj mccartney, back at michigan, one of the national championships plays and he's out, he meditates for every game, and like that public image, it's like wow, like jj mccarthy's president, like he's born, like he's just gotta drive to the nfl, like if he's doing that, like maybe I should try it because it's working for him, and you know that that's I foresee that continuing as more younger people continue to meditate. That's just gonna kind of spiral a little.

Speaker 3: 19:18

Keep going, because you know me too, even like trying out the app and like learning to meditate too, like on the wake force world team. You know we weren't great this year, but we were like so much more, like connected and like happy, we were enjoying it, like I can honestly say that we never had a day that we showed up and didn't go to work, like even when we were four and eight. Every state day we went to work and you know, that's a blessing in itself because it's like you know, it's hard to show up when you're not a little bit. You know, and you know that just brings the team so much closer. But no, I definitely see it growing for the younger generation.

Speaker 2: 19:47

I agree, and I, like you said, if people who are in positions of you know the people watch and look at up to and want to follow after, are starting to talk about it and show like, hey, I'm doing this, um, hey, it's going to get more, more attention and growth and, uh, it'll be interesting too, uh, because so let's dive into this a little bit, cause it has to do with your app a little more is AI. Yeah, we've seen AI boom in everything you know, which is crazy, and to think in you know five to 10 years where we'll be with AI and robotics is scary and crazy and fascinating. But, yeah, how's, how's AI tie into? You know mindfulness now, and meditation. I know you guys lean on it with your app. How does it make it better, maybe? Or how are some things we have to watch out for? No, that's a really good question.

Speaker 3: 20:38

So I love AI. I think you know it's great, I think it can make your productivity hit skyrocket, and you know I think it's about using AI the right way. So go back a little bit. Me and my partner, Hampton, we went through a tough time. Mindfulness meditation brought us out of that. For me it was through the Christianity perspective and learning scripture. For him it was learning about Marcus Aurelius and those other stories. Yes, correct, long story short. We both used apps like Headspace and Calm. They gave meditation, basically stories, but nothing felt individual for the user.

Speaker 3: 21:13

Hampton calls me in January of 2023. And he's like dude, we need to use artificial intelligence the right way and use it to create personalized meditations, sleep stories and what we call like meditation plans, uniquely for individual users for what they're going through, and I was all in on it. So I was like you know what? There's a lot of misconceptions around AI right now, but we can use AI the right way to help people become more mindful and live happier, healthy lives. So essentially, what the app does to help you meditate is you just give it a query so I can literally talk like I'm about to go on the Elevate Media Group podcast a little nervous right now. Please give me a meditation to help me calm down. Five minutes or 10 minutes, whatever the length is, select the voice in the background. It will generate that meditation for me on the spot and allow me to like, like, basically become more present right before the interview, before the podcast.

Speaker 3: 21:59

And it's like with anything and you know there's if you can't think of anything on the moment, there's suggestions, right. So, like the ai, you take a personalization quiz at the start where it just gives you some base of like info like you. You know name, age, and then it's just kind of like what's your meditation experience? What are your goals for the app? Right? Is it like become more mindful? Is it like achieve a goal, de-stress, and then from there we'll give you like suggestions in the apps if you don't have one. Right, so that that's like using AI the right way. So I think there's a lot of ways that of misconceptions around ai and you know it could be going the wrong like so it could be used for the wrong way.

Speaker 3: 22:32

But also, yeah, you know so how you use it and you know, at ascend, we want to use ai the right way. You know it was never about making a million dollars. It's about, you know, making a billion people's lives better, right, and you know meditation is a big piece of that, whether that's through, you know, the meditation plans and seeing yourself achieve a goal, or through, like just a meditation to de-stress, or like a sleep story. You know, the sleep stories are great, but that's that's just so great. And AI is really that's the game changer is the personalization fact. It allows it to, you know, create something custom for you for whatever you're going through. So you know, to answer your question, I, I think it's going to be, I think it's just going to continue to grow. Obviously, I think if it's in the right hands, it will grow the right way and, you know, help a lot of people.

Speaker 2: 23:13

I agree, just like anything you know has has dual purpose depending on the user. So, um, and I think that I like that it's personalized. That's really cool. I've used Headspace, I've used Calm, like I was like, okay, it's the same thing, kind of over and over. Uh, and so that personalization part, like I'm excited to test it out and see how it goes you mentioned on there and this is on some of the others too. But, uh, the sleep stories, yeah, um, I don't even know what those are and how that benefits people, cause some people might just not know that, especially if they don't know meditation at all.

Speaker 3: 23:51

So what are any sleep stories to use for? Yeah, so for me personally, like I, I sometimes have trouble falling asleep before I learned to meditate, um, so this would have been crucial for me. But you know, like even my sisters like one of them has like some of my insomnia, so they help her. But essentially the sleep stories or they use ai right to create your own personalized bedtime story. So it's the same process. You just like create story, you give it like a genre, a theme, a setting, and then you can make yourself like the character of the story.

Speaker 3: 24:11

So I could be like you know chris and walker are at a beach, you know we're gonna go surfing or something right, like give me a bit of it, and then we do. You know the same process. You know you select the length, then you select a background and then a voice, and we'll create that bedtime story for you on the spot. So it's your own personalized, like bedtime story to help you fall asleep. Yes, you want to bang out a quick nap or you want to, you know, fall asleep at night, um, and they're like you know the background music, the track will play for like an hour, just like kind of some white noise wherever you pick, um, just to help you go to sleep. But for that, for that story, it's essentially just, you know, to help you go to sleep and, uh, you know, get better sleep at the end of the day. Same thing, personalized customizable.

Speaker 2: 24:50

That's cool. That's really neat. Yeah, and those things are great, like I've used them uh to. I was doing it for a good I don't remember how long I was doing it in a row. It just it was like just part of the routine. I'd just start it and I think I was getting like five minutes in and I was already out or something quick, like something really quick, and I was already out before and uh. So it was like it really does kind of help, cause it kind of because of how it, how it speaks and how it comes out and the tones and the, the cadence, I just kind of like calms everything, um and and slows things down, and so obviously you don't want to be doing this while you're scrolling Facebook and things like that you start to think other action that makes it makes it work.

Speaker 2: 25:32

Um, but yeah, I mean, those are great tools and things to be able to incorporate into things. Um, do you? I'm curious, and this might not be part of it um, are there any like ways to use it to like a guided journaling, where you type in something and like so that's actually a feature we're working on.

Speaker 3: 25:50

But you know, the meditation plans, like what I'm like kind of hit on earlier. Yeah, um, in a way it's similar. Right now we're trying to refine it. But essentially the meditation plan is you put in a specific goal, right, so I could put in the app. You know, I want to be a starter, starting safety on the way force football team by my senior year. I'm going to do X and X to achieve that goal and then under a subcategory there's different categories for it.

Speaker 3: 26:15

It's like relationships, mental health, achievement. I would put achievement value and I hit create plan. It will create a meditation plan for me, either a 12-phase plan or a 20-phase plan, to see myself achieving this goal and based on the information I'm giving it. And obviously, the more detailed you make it, you know, the more detailed your plan is going to be. But the AI will like use the information to create a plan and allow you to visualize your success.

Speaker 3: 26:39

You know, and that's what we found really big for athletes like myself and like guys on my team, guys at other schools, like you know, as you know, as your wife knows, that play volleyball, everything starts in the mind. You want to see yourself making that play and then translate that into reality. So being able to have that plan and break up in distinct phases, like phase one practice visualization see myself doing that and then it goes to the next one, and the next one and the next one allows you to achieve that goal. So we're working on the journaling feature in a way. There's not a way you know putting specifically like what you wanted or like what you did during the day, but the meditation plan right now is kind of see yourself achieve that goal, whatever that may be in your life, and you know you found that pretty cool so that is, that is neat.

Speaker 2: 27:18

I like that because, yeah, like again, I mentioned like I almost majored in sports psychology as well, or double minor whatever, I don't remember. But um, just the benefit of that, of visualizing like what you want to accomplish over and over. And I saw one of our athletic trainers at the time was doing it with one of the teams and you know we saw the benefit. I mean I went to Indiana Westland here in Indiana and stuff. And you know we've had multiple national championships NAI, national championships with women and men's basketball. Volleyball just won again back-to-back championship with NAIA and stuff.

Speaker 2: 27:59

And life success in a lot of other sports. Our football is crushing it. It's like incorporating these things, like seeing yourself. I think it builds the. You know the confidence in yourself Because right practice makes perfect right. Seeing yourself, I think it builds the. You know the confidence in yourself because right practice makes perfect. Right practice, practice, practice physically actually doing the thing. You get better, right for sure, so we can visualize it over and over and over. We we start to feel like what's that feel like when you're doing that and you start building that confidence like hey, I've done this, even if it's in my mind like I, I know I can do it, like I've seen myself do it over and over, and it's just built that pathway, kind of confidence of you know what you need to do to accomplish it.

Speaker 3: 28:39

Well said, hit it on the nail.

Speaker 2: 28:41

So any other big plans for the Ascend app in the coming years? Uh, in the coming years.

Speaker 3: 28:48

Yeah, no, we're going to continue, continue to just grow organically for the next couple of months. Um, so we're going to do a seed round around May and then really try to get it out to everyone. So that's the plan. Yeah, staying humble, staying grateful and just excited to keep growing.

Speaker 2: 29:03

That is really cool.

Speaker 2: 29:04

Yeah, I'm excited to see where it goes again.

Speaker 2: 29:05

I think this, this mindfulness, this type of thing is needed in so many because we see so much right Of of especially you know we're two men of of men just struggling with, you know, depression, mental health issues, more and more, um, and I think it's because we don't know how to deal with the emotions or how to navigate it, and you know, we live uh, I didn't do this well enough for my family and I'm trying to get here with my to my family, for my family and like so we're always in both camps, uh, and so I think this is for everyone, but men, uh, since we're both males, I think it's.

Speaker 2: 29:43

It's just it's going to be needed more and more, and to have that tool out there for people, um to learn how to control it, and to have that tool out there for people um to learn how to control it and and to be mindful and be present, is going to make a big difference, uh, which is cool. So, um, anything else, anything else that you want to hit on that? We haven't hit on um in this conversation.

Speaker 3: 30:02

Yeah, I mean, I would kind of just tell everyone, you know, my last like kind of piece of advice, just like I'll just be like you know, you never know how close you are. You know it's always dark right before the light, everything. You just put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Um, you know, because, oh yeah, like I said, you never know how close you are.

Speaker 2: 30:20

So, yeah, that's all we got never give up, for sure, and everyone has a purpose to be here, so don't give up on yourself either. So, yes, sir. Well, walker man, it's been great. Uh, where, if you want to, you know, connect with you, find out more about a sin? Where is the best place for them to go to do that?

Speaker 3: 30:36

Yeah, you could, uh, just you can, email me. It's Walker Ferguson at ascend meditationsapp. Um, and then our, all of our socials are just ascend appai on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, all that good stuff, so and obviously on the app store, just search up Ascend Meditations. Give us a download, try us out. So yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2: 30:53

But yeah, everyone, make sure you get connected with Walker. Check out the app. I love it. That's so personalized. I'm definitely going to be downloading it after this to check it out. And yeah, again, if you know anyone who's struggling, maybe, with their mental health, obviously there's professionals out there to help, so get them somewhere they need to go, but they're trying to just improve it on their own. You know, get into mindfulness, be more present, share this episode with them. Maybe it can give them some direction and guidance that they can continue to grow and and take, take hold of their mental health and and their you know outlook and their positivity, so we can help so many more people together by sharing. So we appreciate that. Again, walker, thanks so much for being on the Elevate Media podcast today. Man, appreciate you having me on. Chris. You have a great show, absolutely. Thank you. I appreciate that. And remember, guys, continue to go out there, elevate your life, elevate your brand, and we'll talk to you again soon.

Speaker 1: 31:49

Thank you for listening to the Elevate Media Podcast. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. See you in the next episode.