Build Momentum - Thought Leadership for Education, Global Workforce Edition

S02E12 - Disrupter, Innovator & Changemaker | Juan Ciapessoni

February 15, 2022 Sarah Williamson Season 2 Episode 12
Build Momentum - Thought Leadership for Education, Global Workforce Edition
S02E12 - Disrupter, Innovator & Changemaker | Juan Ciapessoni
Show Notes Transcript

In this episode of Build Momentum, we are joined by Juan Ciapessoni, a globally awarded visionary inventor and serial entrepreneur focused on creativity and innovation using applied technology. He's a pioneer in the development of the internet in his native country, Uruguay, where he created one of the country's first ISPs. He co-founded and leads The Electric Factory, a global leader in creative technology and innovation for the world's top brands.

Juan has received more than 100  awards from organizations as diverse as South by Southwest (SXSW), Fast Company, the London International Awards, and Cannes Lions. One example of his many collaborations is The HY Project—a unique way to implement sound in electric and hybrid vehicles that integrates with the environment and stimulates plant growth—which is preserved in the archives of MOMA in New York as the Innovation Winner at the AICP Next Awards.  He's been recognized as one of the most influential people in leadership, creativity, and innovation in Uruguay.

Some Questions I Ask:

  • Please share more background about your first venture and how that led you to pursue even more interesting, innovative opportunities across the whole world. (2:04)
  • Tell me about The Electric Factory. (4:25)
  • Why have you been so successful? (6:15)
  • Almost every student in Uruguay has an electronic device for education. Tell me about this. (11:29)
  • Have you gotten a lot of publicity? (13:46)
  • What's attracting companies to Uruguay? (14:42)
  • How have you been able to really elevate your profile? (18:18)
  • Can you share a story of when you have failed and overcome a challenge? (23:16)
  • What’s your final advice? (26:34)

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

  • Juan’s early business beginnings (2:24)
  • About The Electric Factory (4:28)
  • Juan’s secret to success (6:35)
  • Uruguay’s “one laptop per child” initiative and other technological programs (11:44)
  • Uruguay and PR
  • Attracting companies to Uruguay (14:47)
  • Juan’s secret to elevating your profile (18:33)
  • Juan’s failure story and how he overcame it (23:33)
  • Juan’s final advice (26:49)

Quotes:

“You're always gonna find people who can get the expertise you need into that discipline, but you need to be someone like a sponge. This is my quote:  “The length of our life is finite. Sooner or later, we're going to die. But the width depends on us, and how we want to live our life depends on us.”"

“We need to be more human, more empathic with each other. And I think that's where Uruguay can win because we are passionate. We have passion. We enjoy life.”

“The only way to achieve long goals is by achieving small (goals).”

Connect with Juan Ciapessoni:
The Electric Factory
Juan's LinkedIn
Bachata


Stay in touch with Sarah Williamson:
Free Case Study Guide
SWPR GROUP Website
LinkedIn

Stay in touch with Chad Bolser:
LinkedIn

About "The Secret to Transformational Leadership," which Sarah co-authored with Dr. Quintin Shepherd:
Transformational Leadership Secret website
Purchase the print or ebook

Sarah Williamson:

Hello and welcome to Build Momentum where we help education organizations, blow past their competitors with strategies that make an impact. We think beyond traditional press releases and generic communication tactics, and seek out big, bold ideas create meaningful results for our clients. I'm your host, Sarah Williamson. And I've spent more than 15 years in public relations for the education sector, where our team has learned what works and what doesn't when it comes to PR from launching groundbreaking new industry awards to landing sought after panels at most prestigious shows. We absolutely love this stuff. But the best part is, we have an opportunity to interview some of the smartest people we know who share their knowledge and strategies for success right here on the show. If you enjoy what you hear, we would so appreciate if you please take a moment just drop us a review on whatever platform you listen. And if you want to learn more about us, visit swpr-group.com. Thanks so much for tuning in. Today. Let's dive into the show. And on today's episode, we have Juan Ciapessoni, who is a globally awarded visionary inventor and serial entrepreneur focused on creativity and innovation using Applied Technology. He's a pioneer in the development of the Internet and his native country, Uruguay, and he created one of the country's first ISPs. Since then, his personal drive has been the creation and implementation of cutting edge and disruptive solutions. he co founded and leads the Electric Factory, a global leader in Creative Technology and Innovation for the world's top brands. And his award winning solutions include work on permanent display at MoMA in New York, as well as South by Southwest, Fast Company world changing ideas. And he's received more than 100 additional global awards. He's been recognized as one of the most influential people in leadership, creativity and innovation in Uruguay. Juan, it's so great to have you on the show today.

Juan Ciapessoni:

Thank you. Thank you, sir. pleasure for me. Yes, you clearly have an incredibly successful career history so far, and you're still so young and so impressive. Do you mind sharing more background about your first venture and how that's kind of led you to pursue even more interesting, innovative opportunities across the whole world essentially? Sure. I think I was born in perfect timing. And when it turned 19, it was kind of this unpredictable was starting the internet was starting to end, I was studying architecture I remember. And then I went to my friend, he was starting engineering. And he offered me to start one of the first ISPs here in the region, and in particular, in Uruguay, wireless, you know, services and internet, broadband through wireless and all of that. So I said, Yeah, why not? So basically, I quit my studies in architecture, but I got enough of design and creativity from there, I really love this beautiful, beautiful career. And I jump into these white cameras, I will say like totally unexpected world where most of the people don't even know what the internet was, and what a domain was what a website was very intangible, you know. So for me, that was great, because I was starting a job and in my own company in 1999, into a field that nobody knows what was what was about a people were going to be leaving that it was everything on the cloud, nobody can see it or touch it, you know. So for me since then was like, totally, my comfort zone was to be totally down, kind of knowing where we're heading, but kind of filling the gap that we were in the correct path. So I built that ISP two years later. So I installed a lot of wireless antennas in rooftop here to set up the grid in Uruguay. And then I finally started to feel this kind of need of start to get into instead of into a business of its working on working like a service like, okay, the internet is work, or it doesn't work, you know, it's is no creativity there. So I started to feel the need about jumping into creativity, and subjective matters, you know, like the sign and all of that. So I founded the electric factory then. And that was a digital production shop for web development basically at the beginning. So yeah, it was quite interesting. All the beginnings.Yeah.

Sarah Williamson:

Tell me about the Electric Factory? Tell me about that.

Juan Ciapessoni:

Okay, the electric factory started in 2000 2002. The name comes from where the elected people lives were elected people are, it was more plans to be like a roster of talented people around the world combined together working together to solve problems and to do cool stuff. And those were the years where digital was going from corporate websites where you can sell your products kind of similar to the E commerce sites right now and all of that and turn into more multimedia kind of experiences with a flash to use and listen to music, see animations engage with a website, it was more like leaving a mark through the website for your brand and your customers. So I was totally amazed with that saw our first inspiration, were basically the trailers of movies, you know, movie trailers, where you have one minute and a half to engage the audience and convince them to pay a ticket. For me that was okay, that's a little everything together, you know, boom, watch watch, you know, the facts and all the editing and all of that in order to engage people. And from then I knew that they liked the fact you needed to be a company was meant to be a company, to engage people, about customer experience, of course, about return on investment, but most importantly, return over interaction. And the story doing, you know, the story telling behind. And I love that. And that's how we started right now, the latte factor is one of the it's a great, great company, honestly. And we basically combine technology, strategy and creativity to solve problems, usually through technology in these different industries. We started with marketing and communication, but lately we are into mobility, logistics, even government. So yeah, it's an amazing journey. Yeah, it's incredible. You're like jumping out of the screen with your past. And I love it so much. So great, Juan. So okay, you're clearly a natural born entrepreneur, you're naturally curious, and you're so excited about everything. I think that could be the secret to your success. But tell me, what do you think? Why have you been so successful? I'm really very successful, from the point of view that I never worked in my life, I mean, the first time I had a job, it was my own job, and it's so passionate about it, and I can build my own rules, and I can build my own stuff. And I was in an industry where I can create the next thing, and not being a doctor, you know, some other things, I mean, I can be a creator. So for me, that was the magic about Everything started from the ashes in an industry that doesn't exist or didn't exist, then it was like a white canvas, as I said before, so I think that the curiosity that not getting too deep into a knowledge in particular, to be more like a tourist of the world, to be an observer to see all the time, different angles, and not knowing too much about a certain topic. Because if you know too much about something if like Arare, you know, homosapiens writer is like, you know so much about something that you lose perspective or the other points of views. So I am that kind of guy that it's always above the line, always above the layers. I love that. And when I started to feel a little bit, kind of lost about doing all the time, the same thing, I'm all the time jumping into learning more about other disciplines. Or I remember, there was one moment when I got a huge fan of Carl Sagan and Cosmos and the space exploration not because I was crazy about going to space, but guess I found in space, the possibility to understand a little bit better who we were, who we are, like the blue dot kind of thing, you know, and that changed completely my perspectives the way I see things, the short terms, goals instead of long term goals, that you care about long term goals. And the only way to achieve those goals is through people that can continue what you started. And then one day, maybe if you died, things can be achieved, that you lose that necessity of immediate impact. Everything you're doing. And I think that's crazy. Because nowadays, Sarah, we're living in times where it seems that you are not a good Entrepreneur or you're not good into something if you don't sell your company or you get our funding into the first 2-3-4 years. And that's crazy. Of course there are examples of people can do that. But most of the people you need really to fight for your passion, you know, and wait for like 20 years, 30 years, at the end is your passion. So it should be great working for your passion or pursuing what you really need. So it's a big ride long journey. You just said so many things. I have so many comments. I love that. What's interesting about what you said, is that a lot of people have the opposite advice. They say, go deep and have expertise. And then you'll be valued for that expertise. You have a counter argument, I see you shaking your head. No, yeah, because I mean, you're always gonna find people who can get the expertise you need into that discipline, but you need to be someone like a sponge. You know, you need to be someone like I always said, and this is my quote is like, the length of our life is finished. Sooner or later, we're going to die. But the width depends on us how we want to live our life depends on us. There is people that have been doing 50 years, four years, the same thing that's very narrow life. So I think the way to enjoy life is actually to be wider to have better square feet of life. And I think in order to do that you need to experience new things. You need to be learning new things. So for me to be an exporting to something is great if you are part of something bigger. But if you want to create something bigger, you need to be surrounded by experts. And they need to be this mix of people, you know what I mean? You need to have really awesome explorers, and these people who want to really know about everything and see how things can be combined, and other experts in certain disciplines for sure.

Sarah Williamson:

And people like you and I, who are those streamers? Visionaries, we also need those people who anchor us like I need my person in my company who gets all the details.

Juan Ciapessoni:

Of course, right? But you need to know I mean, you need to have an overview of everything. And now we see everything. So hybrid, so mix concept technology, that if you don't have that 360, or that kind of tourist Lucas, I said, No, that way of leaving the world, like being an observer is going on, you're not going to expand. I mean, your company is gonna keep narrow, narrow.

Sarah Williamson:

Yeah, well, and I think there is an argument. So for example, we do PR in the education space, but we're certainly we're in the education space. But we work with experts, we're doing new things. I love having to focus but also having the flexibility of getting us as broad as we want within that focus. So I think that's my

Juan Ciapessoni:

No, exactly, but you can start with education. But now you need to think about STEAM, you know, you need to think about other inputs of education. So you need to expand, you need to expand the asset, you know, and yearn to expand.

Sarah Williamson:

Oh, we are we are expand, don't worry one. But yes, it's a busy time, especially in education, technology. It's crazy.

Juan Ciapessoni:

Crazy.

Sarah Williamson:

So crazy. Speaking of that, I know the country of Uruguay is really incredible, because you were super prepared for the pandemic, unlike the rest of the world, it sounds like I know, you told me that almost every student had one to one devices. Is this true? Tell me about it?

Juan Ciapessoni:

Yeah, that's because Indonesia was the first country in the world where the pilot of Nicholas Negroponte MIT, One Laptop per Child program was held. So basically, that was done like years ago. So now with the pandemic, we were already ready, you know, and every kid has its own laptop and Wi Fi, public spaces. So everybody could basically study and continue with their studies totally like a normal way. And there are a lot of things going on. We have an amazing team here in Uruguay, Ponce barleys. Setting that and Uruguay right now is really, I mean, I can say I feels like a global citizen. And I really proud of my country, because I think we are kind of unique. And we are in a perfect position right now, especially in the post pandemic world, that it doesn't matter if you're big, medium, or small. But I think now being small is good to pilot to export services to that thing since your work. So yeah, you're away in terms of education is doing great. Again, our connectivity here is great infrastructure is great. So there are a lot of things here that work very, very well to be able to education and while up, the purchasing program was very successful, actually. And that's because Uruguay, as I was saying, has a lot of different assets and elements that make it a unique country to pilot this kind of stuff. So yeah, before that have to say, Sarah, that I think I didn't mention, I had an amazing experience together, we had a venture that's called the Eelectric Academy. And we used to have like, between 202 150 students between six and 12 years old, and to work into robotics and steam programs and all of that. And that was great. It was an amazing experience. And the fun part of it is that we had those kits surrounding us, like we were working, so they were looking what we were doing. And also we were looking to what they were doing. And sometimes we get amazing q&a from them, you know, and a lot of inputs. And I think that we also inspire many of them to continue with a career. So I think that it's great, that kind of collaboration you can get through education also within your company.

Sarah Williamson:

That's an amazing story. I love that. I feel like you're going to need some PR around your success during the pandemic. Have you gotten a lot of publicity?

Juan Ciapessoni:

We got in a lot of publicity. Actually, we also doing great in terms of sustainability and a lot of investment coming to the country for technology. We have many, many unicorns owners and CEOs leaving right now moving to Uruguay, which has got a report like referring to as the Silicon Valley from Latin America, we have an amazing the economies report, I think two days ago where your way was by far, Neil, the best non corrupted country in Latin America and one of the top in the world. So really above Spain above all the other countries in Europe. So that's a great instead of we are 3 million people, you know, and it's so fertile right now here, you know, so to do stuff, you know, and really excited, really excited.

Sarah Williamson:

Tell me about that. Tell me some details. So what's attracting companies to the country?

Juan Ciapessoni:

Resources, we have amazing resources, we have a lot of economic and political stability. It doesn't matter which government is some leading country or which administration is here. The deals are going I keep it people are great. We are two hours, sometimes just one hour, I had New York four hours ahead la five hours behind London. So it's like a perfect spot for offshoring options to companies like boss, for example, Tata consulting or moving here, Harvard Business School are moving here to so it's a great spot to also connect the best time and the people in the region to come here to write because Uruguay is small country. And it's neutral. You know what I mean? When you are not so big. I mean, it's okay, if people come from other countries, and we have a beautiful shore, beautiful, eco friendly country, people are great. I mean, I love my country. And I have to say I met a lot of people that they try to leave their countries to find a better quality of life. I agreed, and maybe you can find another countries with a better quality of life, however, to be five minutes away from your family be working and riding a bike and having spaghetti on Sunday with your family or going back to work. That's something that is kind of unique, you know, usually in most of the countries, families are not together. And in here, Uruguay, Grandma is 10 minutes away from me, you know, so it's not for me, that's unfortunately, not all that. But you know what I mean? I think that today, in the remote work, you know, that's so important. We need to be more human, you need to be more empathic with each other. And I think that is where Uruguan can win.

Sarah Williamson:

Yes,

Juan Ciapessoni:

Because we are passionate. We of course, we have passion. I mean, yeah, we enjoy life. Yes, you are clearly passionate, I'd like to bottle it actually. I love your passion.

Sarah Williamson:

Okay, so we've all been there, waiting until the very last minute to pull together a conference proposal for an important upcoming industry event. You know, that dreaded moment when you realize you've put this off until that reminder, email pops up in your inbox on what is most likely already a busy day. So you pull something together, read it over, and you think this is pretty good. You hit submit, and you don't think about it for another three months. Then, all of a sudden, when it's completely slipped your mind, you get the email you were hoping wouldn't come. Thank you for applying. We received hundreds of submissions, and we regret to inform you that your proposal was not accepted. But we still encourage you to register for the conference and purchase a booth. That rejection can be deflating, and it definitely gets old when it keeps happening over and over. Trust us. We've been there too. We know how you feel. But the good news is, we've learned what works and what doesn't work with submitting proposals. And we've created a framework for success that is dramatically increased our acceptance rate. It all begins with just a few simple shifts to land significantly more of those Congratulations, your proposal has been accepted emails. If you're ready to up your proposal game, and start landing some big airtime at industry conferences, go to swpr-group.com and click on the Contact Us button and let us know you're ready to get started. Proposal season kicks off in a couple of weeks. And we want you ready.

Juan Ciapessoni:

So tell me about how you have been able to really elevate your profile, because this is a podcast where we try to help people with their PR and their marketing and elevating their profile. So how have you done that for yourself? Because you've done an incredibly well. It's a great question, Sarah. And there was a moment when I really feel that I need to do stuff. It was not about telling and saying it was about doing. You know, especially when I was starting a company and myself my curriculum, I would say in a field that was not known for many. So many times I felt at the beginning of my career that I was kind of a smoke mirror kind of thing. So the only way for me to prove that I was not the dreamer, a crazy entrepreneur, you know, with non business plan behind or not actually, it was executing stuff. So I started to build, build, deliver, deliver, deliver high standards, deliver, deliver, deliver once I start to deliver a lot. And of course technology and creativity and design started to spread. So I learned a lot about different disciplines that was from doing activations to installations to Metaverse, VR AR website, apps, everything you know. So once I finished with all of that 360 I turned into moviemaking, I produce a movie with an amazing director, Luca Taggart about dream of robots. And so I'm doing movies now and then we are doing some architecture stuff too. And then I'm being a professor. And then I remember I was learning to be a DJ so I'm on all the time trying to do new stuff but doing delivering, you know, and that was a thing with Euro way too. I started to be a little bit closer to euro and I tried to help somehow and to start To deliver. That's why with my role of Vice President of the Chamber so technology information companies in Uruguay I launched with a team destitute away as a strategic platform to establish euro as a testbed country in the world for innovation pilot testing, you know, and to convince, and that held to the installation of new lab. I don't know if you're familiar with Nula. But new lab is one of the biggest innovation centers in the East Coast, they are in New York, Brooklyn Heights, and they're coming to airway for four years to do innovation studios, you know, to solve problems and bring in startups around the world to solve from from your way to the world. You know, that's great. So delivering, deliver, deliver, deliver, if I had time, but I would love to give you something that happened. I was giving a seminar, teach New York University. And there were a lot of students there. And they were amazed about everything I was doing. And I asked him, Why don't you do the same thing? And they said, because we are scared because we are from New York. And you can fail here, you know. And that's terrible. Because you're surrounded about many, many talented people probably in one of the best cities in the world, and you are scared about delivering stuff because of your track record. So the the thing about being your William as I think my little secret was that I've been always able to do stuff, because I will never worry about what my neighbor hearing your one might think about. And I was always inspired about high standards, New York, Europe, US references, you know, so my standards all the time, are the stars, you know, so I think that was kind of the perfect secret. I mean, it's a good timing. I know. That's so sad. That's so sad to be that afraid to fail. Yeah, exactly. And you see how Richard Branson with galactic they crash the plane, and three, four years later, he raced again. And that's okay. That's okay. And you can see Elon failing to and Jeff, I mean, if they do it, why don't you do it? You know, you fail.

Sarah Williamson:

And you learn a lot more from your failures than you do your success. That's for sure.

Juan Ciapessoni:

Yeah. But I mean, that's something that everybody said, but not everybody deliver and do stuff. They overthink everything before jumping, you know, people overthink a lot.

Sarah Williamson:

It has to be perfect before it launched this. Yeah, no, just take one small step do small things. First, I love this

Juan Ciapessoni:

Totally, totally. The only way to achieve long goals is by achieving small, yep. Okay. And I think people also underestimate the fact that you have to deliver, like, there's a lot of people that are big dreamers and have these big plans, and you got to meet your deadlines. If a client is expecting something, they better have it early. I like that's just missed that you need to deliver. And you need to know when to stop. There's always going to be something extra, something else that you can do. But this is about, you know, when is the correct moment to deliver. Okay, let it go. I mean, this is perfect. This is I mean, let's go and move on to another thing. And people are they sometimes they don't start because they are think and they are worried about if it's ready or not ready. And some others, they don't release, because they still see. It can be better can be better. But yeah, but at the end, it does 2010 years, five years. And that's a lot today. That's a real problem. I mean, it is a real problem we struggle with too. So yeah, I like to get it done. Get it out. But a lot of people have a hard time with that. For sure. Yeah. Okay, so we talked about failure, can you share a story of when you have failed and overcome a challenge? Yeah, for example, there are many times when you have like, for example, like a project that you approach it in a way that you think it's the correct one. But of course, you need sometimes understand that this is business too. And there is someone on the other side that is just not looking for dreams, or just looking for recognition or a PR somehow. And I know that it does make sense a lot right now that we're talking about PR because usually in communication and marketing, there are a lot of things that are thinking to be just a PR stunt or just a PR stuff. And I think that that is something that is changing a lot right now you actually need to do the stuff you actually need to deliver the stuff and be a business to it's not just awareness for awareness, it needs to be a business behind too. So I think that that beginning, I was a little because maybe I was 20-21-22 or 23, I was more thinking about the idea itself. And execution itself. Instead of thinking about a business behind you know, like business. On the client side. You know, this is not only to be great, ready to be cool, people need to love to engage, but they need to buy the product. And that was one of my main crushes, you know, where he delivered a lot of things we deliver great stuff, but sometimes we find certain clients that they're really want to have a focus on sales, for example. So I need to start to learn how to mix everything in order to be a really, really successful product.

Sarah Williamson:

Like figuring out the problem that you're selling Solving for the client makes sure they prioritize the problem resolving. Right?

Juan Ciapessoni:

Yeah. And that can lead into sales revenue. And I think that is what took me like 3-4-5 years to learn, until we started to combine everything together, plus new business, you know, and that's the main thing. But you always have to have in mind that this is business. So you need to deliver revenue and you need to deliver sales. If not is, you know, it's fun, but it's not too far off. It's not too fun. Because at the end, you want yeah, you want at the end, you want the declined, you know, do well, right? Yeah, that was my main lesson. I will say, I was too naive at the beginning.

Sarah Williamson:

Well, it sounds like you learned it and figured it out. And now nailed it.

Juan Ciapessoni:

Yeah, of course. I mean, yeah. Again, because I need it and accept it. I am a listener,

Sarah Williamson:

You listened?

Juan Ciapessoni:

Yeah, yeah, we listen a lot. And we kind of understand. But the most important thing that keeps us I think disruptive and different is about be an observer, you know, and seeing out there, you know, and being more liquid and being more like a tourist mode, as I told you, I think that's the secret people are doing to their own thing, and they're losing perspective. And that happened also in discussions about absolutely any topic out there, people are losing perspective, or losing the 360 perspective. And that's because they are in their own Twitter bubble on their own in their own social media bubble that aren't surrounded by their own single mind, people, you know, or might not like people. And I think that's a big problem, we need to talk more with people from different angles. And that's a secret, I want to keep it that way. I love that. I love those secrets. Those are good ones. Anything else that we can do to be more creative in our thinking and infuse creativity because a lot of us don't have your natural born passion for just total ingenuity. Yes, give us some advice there. There is a quote from Bruce Lee, that says we will or my friend. And he basically mentioned that if you pour water into a jar, you have a jar, if you just pour water from above, which has gone to spread and probably heard your head, you know, but if you pour it from closer, your hand is going to be soft, you know, and so water can take the shape and be the way you want, basically. So I think that that's my main advice to be liquid, you know, to be all over the place to learn to be like a sponge, also to understand that you are not born to be good, just in one single thing. And your company's not just for one single thing. You can be a liquid company, like Amazon, he got into health going to space exploration, he got into E commerce, like Tesla, like Apple, if tomorrow, take out a car, nobody's gonna ask, Hey, what's Apple doing bringing out a car, you know what I mean? Because those are liquid companies, because they are all over the place. They are like innovation, through innovation, through curiosity, through resilience, you know that. And I think that's, for me is the secret to be someone with a non shaped non labeled non, you know, under a silo, I think that's where we're heading. And we can see that a lot in everything around in fashion engenders, you know, in a lot of things, things are going to start to be more diffused more liquid. So, again, I think that you need to be liquid in order to get inspired, and to be an observer and to understand a little bit more housing. So moving, because if not, you're not going to move. The water doesn't move. It started to stink, as you know. And you know, that's nature. I mean, it is what it is what energy, we need to walk. So if you usually I don't know what kind of music do you like, Sorry, what kind of music do you like? Oh,

Sarah Williamson:

I would say Randy Carlisle's one of my favorite singer.

Juan Ciapessoni:

Okay, let's say you like but do you ever think about listening one morning to Bachata or to rock and roll or to metal rock, you shift those kinds of rhythms. Most of the people, they take their car and they play the same radio, the same kind of music, the same bands, they are fans, and no more. So the people they go back from work to home, the same route. So what I'm saying is that you need to make big changes, but there are certain changes, like your haircut, like going back from work to home in a different route. Even if you take 10 minutes more, or listen to a new, totally different type of music that you never think before that you're going to listen, that's going to bring into your body this feeling about adopt change, change. patient, you know what I mean? You started to feel okay with change. So, once you have that inside, is that for you? It's like I've said the other day in a conference, like uncertainty is what we need, you know, certainty doesn't exist. It shouldn't exist. I mean, we are we need to live in uncertainties through uncertainty. Things happen and invasion happen, you know, and disruption happened. So if we know everything what's going to be in 5-10-20 years and how it's going to be tomorrow? That's not like, I mean, I don't want to live like that now. So I want to be the ones probably, I mean, the one being the Explorer being living in unertainty, you know. So I don't know if that if you get the message, but basically, I hope so. But basically, it's

Sarah Williamson:

I do.

Juan Ciapessoni:

Stay curious, but don't do it, listen to new music, learn you new type of music to dance, take new routes, go to different places for vacation, make your life wider. I love that you just put it in very small steps for us to take. Like, it's easy to just say be curious. And people are like, Okay, what is great, what does that mean? I love taking a different route home. That is a wonderful example. So it gets your mind off autopilot. It's amazing. It's amazing what happened. It's amazing. Because you start to get used to new stuff. I used to go a lot to Colombia, when I was 27. I remember five, six times in Please send me a link to so that was a music Colombia. And people were very happy. Who are some of them were very happy. They're lonely now and you go out and they were very happy. And I started to feel that was maybe because of the music. And I never never never used, I'm a YouTube fan and you know, rock and roll fan and Depeche Mode and that kind of thing. Yeah. And then I started to listen to Bachata. Bachata is rhythm. Typical rhythm from Columbia has a great mood, great reading. It really feels so good. And demonstrates understanding why it felt so good. You know, and then I started to drive home every time from home to work or listening to bachata. So I moved from U2 and Metallica and ACDC to bachata and was awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And my friends were asking, Hey, Juan, what are you listening to? Hey, feel it? You know, it's okay. I mean, you need to explore, Of course.

Sarah Williamson:

I don't know.

Juan Ciapessoni:

Yeah, of course. get happy. Yeah, that's awesome. This has been so fantastic Juan, I love just letting you go because you have such an, You're such an inspiration. And I think everyone's gonna learn a lot from you too. Thank you, Sarah. For me, it's great to connect with people. That's what I do most of the things I did, especially being a professor. And I love that because I think it's amazing moments right now in our life. It's perfect timing. However, the pandemic, yeah, it's terrible. But also, it offers us a lot of room to reinvent ourselves, you know, when to stop doing what we were doing, you know, and start to be a little bit different, you know, and better. So, every space, I can have to do that. It's great. And also, we'd love to invite everybody to your life. You can just text me and I set up everything for everybody. And yeah,

Sarah Williamson:

Oooh, that's a good offer.

Juan Ciapessoni:

And I'm travelling all the time. So yeah, feel free to contact me whatever. And we can have a coffee, whatever you want.

Sarah Williamson:

Okay, wonderful. How should people reach out to you for all that stuff? Should they send you a LinkedIn note? You don't have to give me a phone number an email. How about LinkedIn note?

Juan Ciapessoni:

That's perfect. That's perfect. Okay, okay, cool. Well, this has been so much fun again, and I want to have you back on in a few months or six months or something. Let's reconnect. Sure, sure. And as soon as the movies released on streaming platforms, that's going to happen soon, I'm going to send you the link so you can share with your people.

Sarah Williamson:

We would love it. Okay. Thanks so much, Juan. Talk to you later, Bye-bye.

Juan Ciapessoni:

Bye, Take care. Thank you.

Sarah Williamson:

Thanks so much for tuning in today. If you enjoyed the show, if you wouldn't mind leaving a review, we'd be so grateful. This helps other listeners find and learn about our show. And please reach out if you're interested in learning more about how we can elevate the leaders of your organization with our PR services. If you'd like to even shoot me a direct email at Sarah sarah@swpr-group.com. I look forward to hearing from you and we will see you next time.