Transcript of INNOVATION IS THE BRIDGE TO THE FUTURE || KHIREE SMITH || EPISODE 057

The vision has evolved over time. When we started Oura House a little over two years ago, the original vision was to create a space for creatives and artists to come together and create. We wanted to combine hospitality with utility, like a Soho house, but for artists. One of my personal beliefs is that message is tied to purpose. I think we all have a vested interest in making sure that our personal message or whatever message we're trying to get out there last as long as possible after we're gone. So when we talk about amplifying human voices, we're talking about scale. We want to help people, human people, get their message out there for it to last as long as possible.

You went to Georgetown law school, one of the most prestigious and very good law schools in the United States. How was that journey?

Halfway through college, when it was time to graduate, and I got that external stimulus of, Dude, you got to do something next. I finally got my act together, and then I made sure to get straight A's from then on. And I ended up getting an internship at the White House in my senior year. Wow. So I interned for the Barack administration. My goodness. Yeah, in the executive office of the President. I noticed that everyone at the White House had a law degree, even though most of them or none of them were practicing law. They were in government. Barack was a lawyer, Michelle was a lawyer. Then the people in my actual office that I worked with, they were also lawyers. I saw law school as an opportunity to keep my options open. I'm also an attorney, and I started my legal career in Silicon Valley. So my background is with working with tech startups and massive tech companies and in the venture capital space. And a lot of my philosophies about business building come from some of the greats of that space. So for example, when it comes to design and taste and the importance of that and vision, I draw a lot of that from Steve Jobs.

He's famous for injecting design into the DNA of Apple and having that be a major market differentiator for the product.

We've seen so many things that that like innovation go down and under like Blockbuster or like Nokia or my space. I'm old enough to remember my space. Innovation is very important to continue moving forward. With your experience, Silicon Valley and all that, what are ways that you're implementing innovation to continue to stay ahead of the trends? Insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. We're still in the golden state, the city of angels. I'm sure you've all noticed the amazing Scenery and the amazing studio that we've been in. We saved the best for last. We have an amazing guest, impeccable and amazing resume as well. He is actually the CEO and the founder of Aura House, which is the studios that you've been seeing in these past few interviews at the same time. He's also in the General Council of Aero Technologies. We're going to dive into that. An important thing, he's also an attorney. He's a graduate from Georgetown, law school. Without further ado, our amazing guest, the man, the myth, the very legend himself, Kyrie Walker.

I'm going to have to pay you good for that introduction, man. I appreciate it. I'm humbled, man. Thank you for the invitation to be here. I'm excited for the conversation.

No, I actually want to dive in just straight in these studios. I want to tell you my experience. I don't know if you've seen a bit of my podcast, but I've traveled most of the country. I've done interviews. I'm based in Salt Lake City. We have our own down there. But I've done in Utah, Idaho. I've done in San Francisco. I've done Miami. I did almost every big Metro except New York, but we've never seen studios like these.

That's what we like to hear. That's what we love to hear. That's what we love to hear.

I want to know the vision behind all of this.

Okay. Yeah, absolutely. So the vision has evolved over time. When we started Aura House a little over two years ago, the original vision was to create a space for creatives and artists to come together and create. We wanted to combine hospitality with utility, like a Soho house, but for artists, and with actual spaces for them to create. As the vision evolved over time, it became more about production. And now we have what I call a production as a product type model. So it's more about the utility, but we still have the DNA of creating the space that people we enjoy being in. So you asked about our vision. Our vision now has evolved to we want to elevate, amplify, and preserve human voices. When I say elevate, what I'm talking about is the quality. We want the way you look and the way you sound to be top-notch. And we want to do that so that there's alignment with your message so that where you want it to land, it lands, and the way you want it to land, it lands. So that's what we mean by elevate. We want to elevate the product itself yourself.

Then when I talk about amplification, we're talking about scale. One of my personal beliefs is that message is tied to purpose. I think we all have a vested interest in making sure that our personal message or whatever message we're trying to get out there lasts as long as possible after we're gone. When we talk about amplifying human voices, we're talking about scale. We want to help people, human people, get their message out there for it to last as long as possible. You went to Georgetown law school, one of the most prestigious and very good law schools in the United States. How was that journey? Halfway through college, when it was time to graduate, and I got that external stimulus of, Dude, you got to do something next. I finally got my act together, and then I made sure to get straight A's from then on. I ended up getting an internship at the White House in my senior year. Wow. I interned for the Barack administration. My goodness. Yeah, in the executive office of the President. I noticed that everyone at the White House had a law degree, even though most of them, or none of them, were practicing law.

They in government. And Barack was a lawyer, Michelle was a lawyer. And then the people in my actual office that I worked with, they were also lawyers. So I saw law school as an opportunity to keep my options open. I'm also an attorney, and I started my legal career in Silicon Valley. So my background is with working with tech startups and massive tech companies and in the venture capital space. And a lot of my philosophies about business building come from some of the greats of that space. So for example, when it When it comes to design and taste and the importance of that and vision, I draw a lot of that from Steve Jobs. He's famous for injecting design into the DNA of Apple and having that be a major market differentiator for the product. We've seen so many things that lack innovation go down and under, like Blockbuster or like Nokia or MySpace. I'm old enough to remember MySpace. Innovation is very important to continue moving forward. With your experience, Silicon Valley and all that, what ways that you're implementing innovation to continue to stay ahead of the trends. Insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow.

We're still in the golden state, the city of angels. I'm sure you've all noticed the amazing scenery and the amazing studio that we've been in. We saved the best for last. We have an amazing guest, impeccable and amazing resume as well. He is actually the CEO and the founder of Aura House, which is thestudios that you've been seeing in these past few interviews at the same time. He's also in the General Council of Aero Technologies. We're going to dive into that. And an important thing, he's also an attorney. He's a graduate from Georgetown Law School. So without further ado, our amazing guest, the man, the myth, the very legend himself, Kyrie Walker. I'm going to have to pay you good for that introduction, man. I appreciate it. I'm humbled, man. Thankthank you for the invitation to be here. I'm excited for the conversation. No, I actually want to dive in just straight in these studios. I want to tell you my experience. I don't know if you've seen a bit of my podcast, but I've traveled most of the country. I've done interviews. I'm based in Salt Lake City. We have our own down there.

But I've done in Utah, Idaho. I've done in San Francisco. I've done Miami. I did almost every big Metro except New York, but we've never seen studios like these. That's what we like to hear. That's what we love to hear. That's what we love to hear. I want to know the vision behind all of this. Okay. Yeah, absolutely. The vision has evolved over time. When we started Oura House a little over two years ago, the original vision was to create a space for creatives and artists to come together and create. We wanted to combine hospitality with utility, like a Soho house, but for artists, and with actual spaces for them to create. As the vision evolved over time, it became more about production. Now we have what I call a production as a product type model. It's more about the utility, but we still have the DNA of creating the space that people enjoy being in. You asked about our vision. Our vision now has evolved to we want to elevate, amplify, and preserve human voices. When I say elevate, what I'm talking about is the quality. We want the way you look and the way you sound to be top-notch.

And we want to do that so that there's alignment with your message so that where you want it to land, it lands, and the way you want it to land, it lands. So that's what we mean by elevate. We want to elevate the product itself. And then when I talk about amplification, we're talking about scale. One of my personal beliefs is that message is tied to purpose. And I think we all have a vested interest in making sure that our message or whatever message we're trying to get out there last as long as possible after we're gone. When we talk about amplifying human voices, we're talking about scale. We want to help people, human people, get their message out there and for it to last as long as possible. Then the The last piece of the vision is to preserve human voices. One of the theses that we have is that as AI becomes more and more sophisticated, extemporaneous expression from humans will become more and more valuable, but also more rare because it'll be less efficient. As an artist myself, I feel personally threatened by how good AI is at creative pursuits, at creative things.

I'm a person who my first talent, the first thing that made me feel special was the fact that I was a good writer of songs, of rap. I had a decent voice. My father was an artist, my grandfather was an artist. Good-looking guy. You forgot to add that part right there. I appreciate that, man. Thank you. I wanted somebody to notice. I was waiting for somebody to notice. Keep the compliments coming, Keejee. Keep the compliments, man. Keep the compliments coming. When AI started to get good, a lot A lot of us artists who were considered talented, and I know that sounds arrogant, but a lot of us took the position like, Oh, this is cool, but it'll never do what real artists do. There's a certain level of creativity of human expression that we just didn't believe AI would capture. But very quickly, we saw that with enough prep time, AI can create on a level that's indistinguishable from humans. So the thesis is that the value will be the type of expression in creation that does not have that prep time. So when we actually see humans expressing themselves and spreading their message. And that's probably the biggest component of the vision for Aura House.

We want to elevate, we want to amplify, and we want to preserve human voices.

Awesome, man. And I just loved as well. I think you guys have the perfect location. I think one of the locations that we did in the previous interviews were the one right next to Crippula to Com Arena and all the beautiful skyscrapers around downtown Los Angeles. Was that always the vision as well? Did you always paint that in your head and say, Listen, this is the location I wanted, or was it just something that just came about because of the vision that you had for yourself?

No, absolutely. Part of it is a convergence of all of the different components of me, the things that are important to me. I talked about how I was an artist, and that was probably my first passion. I'm also an attorney, and I started my legal career in Silicon Valley. So my background is with working with tech startups and massive tech companies in the venture capital space. And a lot of my philosophies about business building come from some of the greats of that space. So for example, when it comes to design and taste and the importance of that in vision, I draw a lot of that from Steve Jobs. He's famous for injecting design into the DNA of Apple and having that be a major market differentiator for the product because it speaks to the soul and emotion of the consumer. And that's how we want people to feel about Aura House. One of the things we like is that when people step into one of our studios, they're blown away. There's an immediate impact. There's an immediate aura that the space has. And some of that has to do with the view. Some of it has to do with the interior design.

Some of it has to do with just taste and creativity in general that our team is able to execute and replicate. But absolutely, that's a part of the original vision. And I can't take complete credit for it. One of the superpowers that my partner in this business is my wife, and we work extremely well together on every level. And one of those levels is the creativity and design. We come up with ideas together and we iterate on those ideas together. Sometimes I'm the origin of an idea, and then she makes it better. Sometimes she's the origin of an idea, and then I make it better.

I love that. One of the things I think you and I spoke about it before we started the podcast is, even though I was interviewing a lot of the guests out here, the majority of them already have their own podcast. They have a big brand. They're already doing whatever they're doing. But each of them just had this certain feeling the minute they walked in, they started seeing just the setting as well. One of the guys I interviewed yesterday has traveled as far as Romania, interviewing people. It's done like the UK. It's got a big platform. Him and his cousin came in the studio, and all they did was just take pictures like, What is going on over here? We love that. That's when you know that something is going right, when people are in the space, have done it for a while, are professionals and have seen so much, but still end up feeling that That's the level of experience. I think that's what sets apart the top 1% is experience. It's just very unique. Also the vision that you have. When you spoke about the Steve Jobs and implementing as an artist, everything just comes down to how you end up perceiving your form of perfection, right?

Would you agree? Which I want to add again. Actually, I want to talk a bit about you. Obviously, you're You're an attorney, you have a legal background, and you're also in a general board of a company, and doing this as well. How do you end up balancing everything on a day-to-day basis?

There's a couple of answers to that. One, So one thing I'll tell you is something that I've actually never said publicly. People who know me know this about me and have always known this about me for as long as I've known it. But I am high functioning ADHD. And this is something that I've always known about myself, even without the label. And then the label became very clear in the past five or six years. But what that has meant for the experience of my life is that I've always been in a constant engagement and relationship with what feel to me like an extremely large number of variables. The task of my life has been finding a way to balance those variables so that I'm not overwhelmed by them and into the abyss. And what that has afforded me is some challenges, but also some incredibly fulfilling opportunities to balance my life in a way that checks a lot of the boxes that fulfill me. And that to some people who haven't had that same relationship with these variables that I'm talking about, it might seem impossible or hard to understand. But for me, it's just another iteration of balancing those variables.

But that's a broad, a non-answer answer. But the other practical answer is, one of the ways I've been lucky enough to balance those variables is that God has blessed me with an excellent partner. None of this would be possible without my wife being my partner in the business and in everything that we do. I've built businesses before. I've had partners before. Some of those businesses have been semi-successful. Some of have burnt out over time. I've never had a partnership that has been able to work as well as this. That's probably the biggest secret sauce of being able to balance practicing law, being CEO of this business, and still having some semblance of a life.

I love that. I love that. I can see Adrian blushing from about 10 miles away. No, I love that. I couldn't You stress so much on that. I've seen some of the best business leaders, even some of the people I look up to, the Alex Hamosi and Leila Hamosi. I've seen people that are while in tuned or performing their role because it all just works well when everyone knows what they're doing and adding their value as well, and especially in a marriage and in a relationship as well. So kudos to you, man. I love that. I love that example. Thank you, Ryan. I want to touch as well. You went to Georgetown law school, one of the most prestigious and very good law schools in the United States. How was that journey? Because it's a competitive law school. It's hard to get into and all that. Can you just run us through that experience and that journey for you, please?

Absolutely. Georgetown is a great school. I had a blast there. The choice to go to Georgetown was more about being in DC. I love DC. I spent my entire law school career there. And the time was just an excellent time to be in DC. I went to undergrad to a school called Hampton University, which is in Southern Virginia. And a lot of people who finish up at Hampton in undergrad, they migrate to DC for one reason or another. So it ends up just being this amazing place if you are black, professional, ambitious, in your mid 20s, it just ends up being this incredible place.

Is Howard in DC as well?

Howard is also in DC. And Howard is actually the rival school of Hampton, which I went to. So they call themselves the Real H-U, and we We call ourselves the real H-U. Okay. So I wanted to be in DC. But what wasn't clear to me when I was graduating college or right when I was in my senior year was it wasn't clear to me that I wanted to be a lawyer in general. It wasn't exactly clear to me what I wanted to do in general. Prior to college, I had a public speaking and community problem solving career where I traveled the world teaching different communities around the world, community problem solving models and logic models to address and drug abuse and youth delinquency issues in communities around the world. I did some work with the United Nations, and it all sprung from early local political things and community problem solving things that I was doing in my own community. And that journey led me to a place where I found myself at the end of undergrad, and I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do next. I had actually been, and this This goes back to the ADHD point.

I had actually been in this weird dynamic where I was doing all of these amazing things professionally in the world, but I didn't care about school. I had terrible grades leading into my junior year of college. I just couldn't care enough to focus. The only things I really focused on were things that stimulated me and that excited me, and that was traveling the world, teaching community problem solving. I saw that as the The stuff that mattered and school as the stuff that didn't. That changed. And halfway through college, when it was time to graduate, and I got that external stimulus of, Dude, you got to do something next. I finally got my act together, and then I made sure to get straight A's from then on. And I ended up getting an internship at the White House in my senior year. Wow. So I interned for the Barack administration. My goodness. Yeah, in the executive office of the President. And And I noticed that everyone at the White House had a law degree, even though most of them or none of them were practicing law. They were in government. And Barack was a lawyer, Michelle was a lawyer.

And then the people in my actual office that I worked with, they were also lawyers. So I saw law school as an opportunity to keep my options open while still doing something that was respected and would also continue to pour into me. Because the other thing that I recognized was that I was still unstructured structured intellectually. I knew that I could use some additional discipline when it came to writing. I knew that there was some additional rigor in terms of the way that I thought about problem solving that I could use. I was still just using my intellectual horsepower and my creativity to push me through, and I wanted to be more structured. So I saw law school as a dojo or an opportunity to get an intellectual black belt and take my brain and shape it into a way that I could point it at something and start to predict the ultimate path that I I would be on. I didn't know whether I wanted to go to a big law firm or whether I wanted to be in public interest. So I tried a lot of different things. And initially, I thought I wanted to be in the public defender's office, so I tried that.

And then I realized, I think I want to push the Black economic vanguard forward. And to do that, there's a certain access and a certain power that will be useful. So I decided to pivot and go into big law, and that's how I eventually ended up in Valley representing big tech companies and VC funds. I represent a lot of the Black lead and Black owned VC funds and Black tech startups. I did that for six years. I said I was going to do five, but I did six. And then I wanted to come in house, so that's what I did.

Oh, that's so powerful, man.

Long story long. Give the people what they want.

No. So originally, obviously, I'm from South Africa. My dad That actually is also an attorney. He's done it for 26 years. He has his own law firm down there. But he does mind health and safety, environmental law, labor law, all these different stuff because he's worked in the minds before then. In fact, his story was different, where he worked in the minds, and the way to get out of that was just get into law school. And so he used to study and do night classes as well.

That's incredible.

Yeah, he's a role model for me, someone that looked up to it a lot.

That's incredible. So mind health and safety, labor law and environmental law. Oh, man, that's a perfect convergence. Yeah.

What a story. And so that's why I want to ask about American law, because our perspective of law, I watch Suits. I see Harvey Spekt, and I see Mike Ross.

Suits is one of the things that got me through law school. Suits and scandal.

Yes. My My dad's a big... My parents love Scandal, my sister as well. I was more in the suits thing because it was just something drama and all that stuff. I know that it's more of a graduate program in the United States, right? Because in South Africa, you can do a B-come where it's like you do an undergrad and then two years is added to make it five years, or you can do a straight LLB, which is like a four-year degree. Then you do two years where you serve articles in a way where you get the experience of working at a law firm, and then you can only graduate and start practicing law? What's the procedure in the United States?

Yeah, so American and I think UK law is like this as well. It's one of the more strict pathways to becoming a lawyer. Yes, it's a graduate program, so you have You have to finish undergrad first. You have to finish four years of undergrad. And then traditionally, there are three years of law school. And usually in your second or third year, you start to do experiential programs where you go and you can actually practice under the mentorship of a law firm or another attorney, whether it be... So usually, if you're going to go the law firm route, you'll be a summer associate at some big law firm that you want to work at. Fearst and specter lit. Exactly. Fearst and specter lit, if you're on suits. And so you've seen the summer associates. And then they decide whether they want to hire you at the end. And then you join that firm. And then when you graduate, you become a baby lawyer in your first year, and then you either stay there or you go on and do other things. But yes, it's a graduate program. It's not technically a doctoral program, but that's probably the thing to compare it to, because what you get is called a JD, a juror's doctor.

I noticed that, yeah. So you become a juror's doctor. And then to practice So practice law in most states, you also have to become licensed, which you have to take the bar to do. So you take the bar exam, and then you become a barred attorney, and then you become... So that little ESQ at the end of someone's name, that means they're licensed to practice law. They're a barred attorney. It stands for Esquire. But if they just have JD at the end, it just means they've graduated law school and they've gotten their law degree.

That makes sense because I always see that in between people JD. Is it JD Vance? Is it similar? Is that his name?

I think that's his name. Yeah, because the JD, it would come after the name. So it would be Vance, whatever his last name is, JD. And the JD stands for juror's doctor. Okay.

And I noticed that as well. And so with the bar exam, I think every state got different bars, right? Do you have the bar for California.

Yeah.

I heard it's one of the hardest one to get into.

Yeah, the California bar exam is one of the hardest tests in the world. Not just hardest bar exam, but it's one of the hardest tests in the world. But every state has a bar exam. Some states have reciprocity, meaning if you get barred in this state, you can do some paperwork, and they'll honor your license in another state. Some states participate in what's called the UBE, the Uniform Bar Exam, where you can take this one bar exam and get multiple licenses. But California is known and has been known for a very long time to have the most difficult bar exam. When I first graduated law school, I'm from Connecticut originally. So when I first graduated, I got barred in Connecticut. And then I came and took the California bar as well.

And you have to do it again when you move a state, right?

When you go to a new state, yeah. You can't practice in that state without getting licensed in that state. And that's just a creature of federalism. All the states are sovereign under the Constitution.

And a bar, is it a written thing, or is it like an in-person, or is it both?

It's a written test. It's been a while. So I've been practicing for going on 10 years. So some of these details are a little bit fuzzy, but it's like six hours. There's There's a multiple choice component, there's a written essay component, and then there's another component where they give you a lawyering style hypothetical, and you have to basically... It's written also, but it's almost like an activity where you're a specific lawyer, and there's a specific type of writing that you have to create. That's the third component of the bar exam. Okay.

No, I love that. I had to ask that because we always hear this, and I don't have any experience of seeing it firsthand, but I always hear about the bar, hear about all the different stuff we hear about a graduate program. So I'm like, Gosh, dang, it's almost like 10 years before somebody starts practicing.

It's probably four years of undergrad, three years of law school, and then you graduate law school, you get your degree, then you take the bar exam, and then you start practicing.

That obviously explains why they get paid so much when they start practicing because all the years you've put in as well.

Yeah, Absolutely. Being a lawyer, depending on the type of lawyer you are, is one of the ways to get the highest straight out of school salary that you can get. The other ways are like investment banker.

Or engineering, software engineering Software engineers are comparable, but the difference with software engineering is that a lot of it is merit-based, based on the value of that software engineer going into whatever big tech company that they're joining.

Whereas Whereas with law, it's more position-based. So if you go into big law and you join one of the big law firms, the salaries are lockstep. So if you're a first-year lawyer at one of the big firms, you'll be making the same amount as every other first You're a lawyer. But that starting amount is a higher salary than 99% of every other job you'll get. But those jobs are also very rare. You have to go to a top law school, do really well at your law school, then you can get one of those jobs. But there are tons There's a lot of other jobs that lawyers can do. There's a balance. Sometimes the salary is not that crazy, but the experience is much better. There's a much better work-life balance, or there's more... Some of those jobs have more prestige. It just depends I love that.

Which even perfectly segues right now to your role in the General Council of Aero Technologies. Can you just talk us about what role you play in that right now?

Yeah, absolutely. I am the General General Counsel is my title. I'm also the head of People Ops, but that's a separate department. But the General Council of any company, really, there are really two types of general counsels. There is what you could call the protector type general counsel, and then there's what you could call the problem solver type general counsel. So on the protector side, you're more a general advisor at the top level of the company. So you advise the board, You're concerned with setting policy, you're concerned with general compliance, et cetera. Your main job is to keep the company from risk, keep the company from liability, keep the company from legal trouble in general. That's the protector model of being a general counsel. Another type is what I would call the problem solver type general counsel. Some people call it the Whac-a-Mole general counsel, where you're more labor-oriented, and your role is primarily about solving problems as they come, because in a growing company, there are countless unpredictable problems that pop up every single day. Some of them are legal in nature, some of them are business related in nature, and then some of them are things that just people have never seen before, so they go to the lawyer.

And that version of general counsel is more about prioritizing the labor of solving those problems. That's why they call it the Whac-a-mole type general counsel because things pop up and you got to solve it, or you got to be the one who uses your lawyer brain to think through the solution with the business teams. So there's the protector and the problem solver. I'm both. Sometimes a GC is both. Sometimes they're one or the other, because especially with early stage companies or emerging companies, you never know. Oftentimes, Most of the leadership team have multiple skill sets, and they wear multiple hats. So sometimes you may not need a problem solver type general counsel, or sometimes you might want to rely more on outside counsel for some of the compliance stuff or the general advising of the board. It really comes down to what works for the teams. But because of my background, because I come from big law, so I have specific experience related to corporate governance and general corporate and financings, et cetera. It just so happens that it makes sense for me to be holding down both roles.

Man, I love this so much. This is such an educational and just an amazing interview. The reason why I like it so much, there's certain entrepreneurs like the Cody Sanchez that I follow. The reason why I like certain entrepreneurs like that, like yourself, is the fact that you also understand the importance of still educating yourself, having an educational background, and still being in business and leadership as well. Absolutely. I think both can be so complementary because sometimes if you have one of each, it can work against you as well, depending on how the market is and how things work. But the fact that I've always stressed them because I studied economics as well, and I did internships as well in New York Financial district. But entering the entrepreneurial space, I feel like both can add because you use your legal background, your understanding, your problem solving, and seeing things from a different lens compared to that, and then having that that hustle of being a business and an entrepreneur and leader. I think you're the modern day Ironman.

Every entrepreneur is the modern day Ironman. They may not have the personality of Tony Stark, but that ingenuity, that resourcefulness, every entrepreneur has to be that. Quincy Jones has a quote where he says, Every artist, the music you make cannot be more or less than what you are. That's powerful. Yeah. And that applies to business business or anything you create, really. And it's like every successful entrepreneur, they corral all of the experiences that they've had, even from seemingly unrelated aspects of their life, and they apply them to the business. Because we talked about Steve Jobs. You see that with Steve Jobs. He talked about the inspiration for the design of the first Apple computer coming to him as he was under a tree on a psychedelic trip. That's seemingly an unrelated experience. But the way his entrepreneurial brain worked is that it grabbed anything that might be a relevant solution and applied it to the task at hand. You know what I mean? And that's what Tony Stark does.

And I want to add on that. And I know we've been jumping on a few things, but now that you brought that up, I have a question that I want to address. We've seen so many things that lack innovation go down and under, like Blockbuster or like Nokia or or MySpace. I'm old enough to remember MySpace. All these different stuff were not as innovative enough. I remember when you're showing Apple phone, like 2007, 2008, and you start speaking about the touch screen, and people often see a vision beforehand, which segues to my question to you right now. Obviously, yes, all the guests and myself have had a breathtaking experience. However, innovation is very important to continue moving forward. With your experience, Silicon Valley and all that, what are ways that you're implementing innovation to continue to stay ahead of the trends as well?

I don't want to give away a trade secret, right? Because...

Coke didn't do that.

It's been like 50 years. Yeah, they're smart. That's why it's still a good bet to bet on Coke. I will say that we have a very real pathway to integrate some of the The latest technology necessities, I'll call them, the latest technology necessities into our business model. I talked about how we think of AuraHouse in general, I call it production as a product. Most people think of a production or a studio as a service-oriented business, and we are service-oriented in that we serve our clients, and we listen to our clients, and we implement that. But the way we think about this as a scalable business is really as a product. And what I'll say is we have some thoughts and plans about how to apply technology to make that product more scalable than we've ever seen with any type of a production company. I'll say that. I won't say what the idea is because someone very quickly might be able to implement it, given how technology works now. Ai and all that. Yeah. Now, ideas are king. So there was a time where in Silicon Valley where the philosophy was that ideas are cool, but they're not as important.

What's important is, can you build a team? Can you actually build the technology? And can you implement and execute? That's changed now because anybody can build the technology, and maybe anybody can't build a team, but the idea actually, I think, has a lot more value now. So I'm going to keep the idea to myself.

Yeah, we'll run a reel in the next five years as well, and people will pick up to They'll add two and two together.

Yeah, they'll be like, Oh, that's all right. That's what he meant. I'm glad he didn't say it because I would have stolen it.

So obviously, you're working in high-stake environments like private aviation with Aero technology. What have you learned about leadership, especially under pressure? Because with your legal background, you know problem solving is important. But working under pressure, what have you learned from that?

What have I learned about leadership under pressure? Self reflection, self honesty, and particularly when under pressure, don't spill out onto others. Start with accountability. We have this saying in my department that pressure doesn't excuse your behavior. It reveals who you are. Powerful. So when you're under pressure, a lot of leaders are tempted to treat their teams a certain way or have a much shorter fuse or just become more difficult to work with in general. And they'll excuse that behavior within themselves because they say, This is a time of pressure. I need to be this way. But what we say is that pressure is just going to reveal what's already inside you. So work on what's inside you so that when the pressure comes, what comes out is even more useful for the people around you and even more useful for your team. And what happens is there's a compounding effect because your team witnesses you become even better under pressure, and then they want to rise to that occasion, and they trust you more. And when they They can trust you more, they can perform better, and the bonds become tighter and closer, and everyone moves toward the vision with more vigor.

I love that so much. That's a mic drop right there. Can I just quickly do that? Is that okay? No, and just to add on that, I know Damian Liddell once said, Pressure is a privilege. I actually heard it previously from a coach. I don't know if you follow European football, soccer. His name was Jose Mourinho. He lost about, I think four games in a row, but he had won the Champions League with Chelsea. He had an impeccable record and super young. And they asked him, Are you under pressure? And he just took the mic and he said, Pressure? What is pressure? Pressure is a woman in South America or in Africa who's trying to figure out to pay their bills or trying to take care of the kids or doesn't have a house to stay in right now. Listen, I have all these different stuff, and pressure is a privilege. Right now, I have the privilege to be able to return to work tomorrow. I'm obviously paraphrasing, but he turned that question completely around saying, Listen, every day is an opportunity as well. I want you to give me advice from your experience. I've seen how everything runs almost perfectly and smoothly.

In one interview, I stressed on, I struggle with wanting to do everything by myself all the time. I want, I want, I want. Not that I don't trust, but I prefer because I know that I can do it. I want to do the emails, I want to do the quiz, I want to do this stuff, I want to book this stuff. People are like, What are we doing? It's fine, I can do this. But what advice would you give for somebody right now in that small business quadrant, trying to delegate, but not really delegating?

Sops, standard operating procedures. Build systems that are standard, that you can rely on, that you can trust, and that are iterable, and that can be communicated to other people. And bring on partners that you can trust, hire people that are talented, hire people that you believe in. When you combine those two things, what you'll have is a way to perpetuate the vision and keep it intact to a certain degree. You can't keep your way of doing things 100% intact as you expand and as you bring on new people. But if you build standard operating procedures, if you focus on operations, if you drill those systems, if you train yourself and train your teams well, you can make sure that the core, that the most important parts, translate as you grow and as you scale. And if you hire good people, then in those moments where the standard operating procedure doesn't apply and you're not there to say, Well, this is how I would do it, you can trust that their judgment will be good. And many times better than yours, especially if you're hiring people for specific purposes and who have expertise in that area, they should be better than you.

They should know better than you. Otherwise, they're probably not the person for that job. No, I love it. That's what I would say.

No, that's perfect. It's hard sometimes because people can't buy in the same vision that you have. You know what I'm saying? And you're passionate. You and Adrian may have, or a house the way it is and other businesses as well. But trying to get people to see what you see, what you've done, what Steve Jobs has done, what Tesla, Elon, people buying into that. What would you say is the way people can buy into something?

Yeah, I hear you. So I used to think of leadership as the act of motivating people to get on board with your vision. And now I think of it more as the act of discovering the vision that aligns with the people who believe in that vision, but maybe can't see it. So we all have this idea of where we should end up or where something should end up. We have this idea of where the world should be, how the world should look. That's the vision. That's the ultimate destination. There are people out there who, if they could see it, they would agree. That is where we should end up. So I think of leadership as being the person who sees it, and now your job is to find the other people who once you show it to them, they agree, not motivating them once they see it to agree, to just show it to them. And if you can effectively, as a leader, show people the vision, the people who agree with that vision, they'll get on board and they'll align.

Powerful. Because most of the time, that's what I would do. Some people would do. It's like, listen, this is good, right? It's like, Yeah, it's good. But it's like, yeah, they just don't get it.

They don't get it. They don't get it. And that's the hard part is knowing whether this is a person who sees it and just doesn't get it, or if I'm not doing a good job of making sure they see it. Because as a leader, that's your main job is to demonstrate the vision. So if you're not doing that as a first step, then you don't know whether it's you or whether it's them.

Okay. And then another advice for someone out there, not just me, but people that are small business owners, you've seen a lot, especially some of the black startups in the Silicon Valley as well. What is the biggest mistake some of them did that led to their downfall that people can avoid today?

I think one of the mistakes that I see very often is people grow too fast. People want to scale too quickly. People want to raise money right away, and they think of the act of raising money as the accomplishment. I've raised $10 million of someone else's money, and now I have to actually deliver on that. And they get these valuations that don't match the actual value of the company. And then there's a market reset, and then they have to do a down round. And now they look like poison to other investors because they have a track record of losing people money on paper. And a lot of that has to do with wanting to appear to be a successful entrepreneur and getting into... And getting into, and this is not just for black entrepreneurs. This is entrepreneurs in general wanting to be seen as someone doing something and wanting the accolades and wanting the public applause, as opposed to wanting to build something that is of value for the world. You know what I mean? And I think that's what happens. And the universe is always going to balance things out. So when something is out of proportion in one direction, there will be a correction.

And I think that's what comes back in, knocks people off their pivot.

That's powerful, man. Let's start getting the questions, right?

Oh, yeah.

How is being part of aerospace leadership shape the way you think about building startups and navigating and scaling challenges?

Being a part of leadership at Aero has taught me so much. First of all, my mentor at the company is the CEO, and this is a guy who... He's also an attorney. He was the GC when I joined the company, and now he's the CEO, and he's also a pilot. So he's an attorney, he's a pilot, and he's the CEO of the company. And he's also a guy who leads through humility and curiosity. He's extremely intelligent and cerebral, but that becomes clear to you through the work. As you're working with him, you recognize that he has his on all of the little details, but he comes across with so much humility that he just feels like someone working together with you. I've learned a lot about leadership from that experience. I think that's one of the core components of building a company in general. It's not about the hierarchy. It's more about the relationship between the people who are really there to do the work or who believe in the ultimate vision.

I couldn't agree more. Thank you for sharing that. And with mentorship, I think it's just so important. It's such an underrated It's a connected thing because usually you get people that help you overcome a certain obstacle that they faced, and they can help you prevent it as well. And how important is, apart from that, have you had any other mentors that have helped you along the way as well? In life?

Yes. Oh, man, I give credit to so many people.

Is there one specific that sticks out to you as well that you might want to share?

Yeah, I'll go through the list. Let's go. My mom gave me the ability to believe in the impossible. My grandfather gave me discipline, and my father gave me talent. There's a guy named Andrew Woods. He's my first mentor. When someone asks about a mentor, he's usually the person I say. From the time I was 11 years old, he put me in leadership positions to lead organizations within my community, to have meetings with the mayor and travel the nation. He was one of the first people to give me surface. My other mentor is me. I've always had a voice inside me that gives me spontaneous epiphanies, that holds me accountable, that makes me feel guilty when I do things wrong, that commands me to apologize when I feel like I've done something wrong to someone, that hands me solutions to problems that I didn't even know were problems yet. And I'm forever grateful for that voice. And then, of course, God gave me everything. So he's the ultimate mentor. But I think that, yeah, I'm mentored by so many people, and I'm appreciative.

And you have amazing businesses. You're very experienced, very learned and intelligent. You've been around in terms of in the legal space and investing, raising up, starting a business, wonderful business partner and wife. What is your why? What keeps you going?

That's a good question. Earlier, I alluded to the fact that I tie message to purpose. A few years back, I I had... I retired from the practice of law, and I went on a little bit of a spiritual journey because I needed to discover my purpose. I was burnt out from practicing. I think what I found is that creation of a message that represents you and perpetuating that into the world is the ultimate purpose, that and building a family and perpetuating your actual DNA. I think that continues to be my why. All of the spheres that we've talked about and things that have been a part of who I am for my entire life, from art to business to practicing law, it translates into all of those different sectors. It's about figuring out what my honest message is and continuing to push it out as far and as wide and as deeply as I possibly can because I won't be here forever. And there will be a time when all of the people who know me or who have ever known me, they're also not here So what will be left is the message that I hope will be useful to the people that still exist at that time.

Wow. Man, I came for an interview on a motivational speech. It was amazing.

My bad, man. It's the coffee.

Oh, I really, really enjoyed this interview. I don't know even how you could possibly even answer the last one because it's been amazing. I think it's going to be very educational, very enlightening, I hope many people can relate as much as possible by seeing how you've navigated your way in finding purpose and pleasure in that as well. Because the most important thing is not just going to work and doing what you do, but just finding a passion. And passion is shown by work and design as well. And this has been a great experience for me. Really appreciate you and Adrian for that. Thank you so much for that. Yes.

Thank you for having me, man. Thank you for having me.

And then the last question, though. I don't know how you're going to top it up because you've gave great answers, so no pressure. Okay. The code to winning is... I've always loved the term winning because it means different things to different people. But every single person has just answered it differently. I've really appreciated that because that's one of the things I'll look at every time towards and keep me going, what winning is. For Kyrie Walker-Smith, what is your definition of winning?

How do I define winning? I think winning is finding the balance between accomplishment and acceptance. Those are the two sides of the equation. I think on one hand, if all you care about is accomplishment, everything you accomplish, you'll just want more, and you'll never find happiness You'll never find success, you'll never find contentment. And that can't be said to be winning. On the other hand, if all you have is acceptance and you just accept any and everything, you will feel like you have no will in the world. You will feel like there's no reason for your existence because you're just subject to the whims of the win and the variables. So there has to be a balance between both. There has to be these things you want to accomplish to a certain extent and a healthy ability to accept accept things as they are. And if you can find that balance, then you've won.

Powerful. If you could let our viewers know a way they could get a hold of you if they want to try and rent a studio or work with production or any other stuff that you do, let our viewers know. We'll put in the description section as well below.

Absolutely. You can follow me on Instagram at kairi_esq. That's K-H-I-R-E-E_esq. You can check Aura House out at our website, aurahouseclub. Com. Or if you want to reach out to us directly, you can send us an email, info@aurahouseclub. Com.

Some stuff. The co-to-winning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow, Kyrie Walker-Smith.

Thank you very That's K-H-I-R-E-E-E-E-E-E.