The Pursue Vegas Podcast

Hustle and Heart: Paul Roberson on Navigating Entrepreneurship, Trauma, and Vegas's Startup Culture

• Paul Roberson, Dave Burlin, Tawni Nguyen • Season 1 • Episode 8

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Paul Roberson is a serial entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Flo Technology, the innovative company behind Flo Unleashed, a groundbreaking 360° athletic performance training system.

Renowned for his ability to turn disruptive ideas into reality, Paul has made significant strides across industries, from law enforcement to technology. His entrepreneurial journey is defined by a passion for problem-solving and community impact. “You have to be passionate about solving problems. As long as you become passionate about solving problems, you can work in any industry,” he shares.

In this episode of Pursue Vegas, Paul recounts his journey from college football and law enforcement to revolutionizing athletic performance training. Along the way, he played a pivotal role in bringing Lyft to Las Vegas, helping establish the ride-sharing giant in the city.

Paul delves into the critical role of emotional intelligence and mentorship in shaping both his personal and professional growth. “Once you decide to fight, you learn that the war is within yourself, but in life, there are thousands of battles,” he reflects.

He also shares powerful insights from his time in Tony Hsieh’s Airstream community, highlighting the late entrepreneur’s unique approach to investing in people. “Tony invested in people. We don’t have another Tony right now in the ecosystem that’s able to have that mindset,” Paul explains.

As a passionate advocate for collaboration over independence, Paul emphasizes the importance of unity in fostering Las Vegas’s entrepreneurial growth. “Our ceiling is our children’s floor. We have to build a foundation for them to take things even higher,” he says.

This episode offers invaluable lessons on innovation, resilience, and the power of community, making it a must-listen for entrepreneurs, innovators, and community builders alike.

Key Takeaways

  • Entrepreneurial Journey: Paul shares his transition from college football to entrepreneurship and his role in bringing Lyft to Las Vegas.
  • Innovative Solutions: The significance of problem-solving in business, as demonstrated by Flow Unleashed and Float Technology.
  • Community & Collaboration: The need for collaboration in Las Vegas’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, with continued influence from Tony Hsieh’s legacy.
  • Personal Growth: How personal experiences shaped Paul’s approach to business and his philosophy on life.
  • Future Aspirations: Paul’s vision for fostering a unified community and building a foundation for future generations.

Resources

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0:00:00 - (Paul Roberson): Hey, this is Paul Roberson from Flo Technology and this is Pursue Vegas.

0:00:04 - (Dave Burlin): All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Pursue Vegas podcast. I'm your host, Dave Berlin.

0:00:09 - (Tawni Nguyen): And I'm your co host, Tawni Nguyen.

0:00:11 - (Dave Burlin): And I know I always say that we're excited for today's guest, but this one is something super special. Today's guest is Mr. Paul Roberson. He is more than just Paul, right? He's an incredible human and I will say that he is a serial entrepreneur and he has a talent for making disruptive ideas a reality. Right now he's the founder and CEO of Flo Technology and their team is launching a groundbreaking 360°, 360° athletic performance training system, Flow Unleashed.

0:00:48 - (Dave Burlin): That redefines resistance training. Paul the man, welcome to the show.

0:00:53 - (Paul Roberson): What's up, man? That was that. That little one minute spiel right there was better than I could say.

0:00:59 - (Dave Burlin): It's just taking it a little bit of enthusiasm. 2 parts Red Bull and some old school ripped fuel with testosterone booster.

0:01:08 - (Paul Roberson): Oh yeah. You have no fucks to get or.

0:01:11 - (Tawni Nguyen): You can just go basic cocaine, you.

0:01:13 - (Dave Burlin): Know, I think it has a shelf life. And it's expired. So now here we are. No, I'm just kidding.

0:01:18 - (Paul Roberson): And here we go.

0:01:19 - (Dave Burlin): No, man, I'm so glad you're here. I know we saw each other a few times before we met. And it's so funny because just yesterday I'm breaking down the fourth wall because I don't know what order all these episodes are going to come out, but just yesterday we had a great interview with Josh Molina from Makers and Finders. And that's the first time I feel like we really just sat down. It's like, who are you? Who are you? I think I've seen you at WeWork or whatever.

0:01:47 - (Dave Burlin): And then we sat down and I learned that you pretty much brought Lyft here. And then we just started talking about all kinds of crazy stuff. And then you had remarkable things that were happening at the time with Plant Based Sundays. And you've just been able to not only have these crazy ideas, but just activate every single one of them that remotely mattered at all. You're like, let's do it, let's go.

0:02:12 - (Dave Burlin): So please tell us who you are, what you're working on. All the things, bro. All you.

0:02:19 - (Paul Roberson): I'd like to think that I'm smart, you know, entitled myself, like, but I also think, you know, 60 is just willing to go into dark places to find the light. You know, whether it be crazy ideas or, you know, things that I think may you know, may have a place in the future. Right? So yeah, and then, correction. So yes, I was definitely part of an amazing team that brought Lyft to Vegas. I ran the partnerships in Las Vegas. So pretty much the spearhead, the tip of the spear for opening the door, building bridges, and also, you know, the team, we all shared a passion about our approach, you know, versus Uber, which was, our approach was to learn what unique problems the city is experiencing and then how can we help contribute, you know, solving those problems with our superhero power, which was at the time, you know, peer to peer transportation.

0:03:25 - (Paul Roberson): And so we were able to activate, you know, in a more organic nature, you know, focusing on people versus profits. And it worked out for Lyft. You know, we, we definitely. I feel like we conquered the market in regards to brand representation. And that wave that we started still continues to this day. Like, even with a resort world doing a partnership with Lyft, like, we were behind that. Even though none of us were. We all moved on from Lyft.

0:03:57 - (Paul Roberson): We were definitely shout out to Cameron, Alexis, Chris and Cam, or Chris and Cam, Chris and Jakob. But yeah, it was a great time. Gosh, I guess we start from the beginning, huh?

0:04:13 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:04:13 - (Paul Roberson): How everything got into it. Well played college football, came back home to Vegas one summer, right. Thinking I wanted a summer job, got a nightlife, didn't end up going back to play college football. Right. Lack of impulse control and ego. Blame it on that. But shortly after that, got into law enforcement. You know, understanding some of the issues within households. You know, I was very fortunate that I, I didn't come from a two parent household, but I had two parents in my life, right? They're separated and then working, you know, Family Services, being child protective service investigator, and then moving on from then Juvenile Justice Services, you know, working in the same detention center that, you know, I had a, I had a brief visit with, when in my teens.

0:05:03 - (Paul Roberson): And then from there I was just really bored about life. And I was like, all right. Luckily enough for me, I had a mentor who was also my frat brother at the time, Shout Out Ron Ross. At the time, he was the CTO of Humana Healthcare out here in Las Vegas. And so I was always just chopping up with him, you know, just throwing shit at the wall, like, you know, thoughts about solutions, whatnot. And he was like, yo, you need to go get your mba.

0:05:28 - (Paul Roberson): And I was like, what? You know, I graduated, I graduated high school like a 2.6 and then went to college. And, you know, most of my courses were electives and, you know, stuff that you could coast. So I went back to school and surprising enough, graduated with like a 3, 6. So that was like. I think perspective is everything to take away from that. You know, it's not that we're poor students or kids that may be poor students. It's probably just a perspective they have on academia as a whole or academics and how it translates to their life. So nobody taught me that when I was a teenager, you know, coming to school.

0:06:01 - (Paul Roberson): So got the NBA, graduated. But let's just be honest, you know, degrees only give you the ticket to go play ball. You still got to get on the field and, you know, kind of what you say, become battle tested, for lack of better terms, right? Learn the game, learn the ropes, learn how to move, learn the speed of the game, how to think on your feet, whatnot. And I think that, you know, being an athlete, a college athlete at the time, being athlete my whole life, I think that mentality translates like, so fluidly across into corporate world or entrepreneurship.

0:06:41 - (Paul Roberson): And it, it just had. You have to adopt the right perspective and understand, like, what moves the needle forward, you know, what, how to overcome milestones or missions or whatever the case may be. So after getting mba, I went over to unlv. I became the STEM ambassador of a program over there called Gear Up. So essentially focus on getting kids in, you know, high school, middle school excited about, you know, studying science, technology, engineering, mathematics. It was crazy because at the same time, this was like a refresher course for me into academia.

0:07:18 - (Paul Roberson): So I was like, oh, shit, I get to learn about science all over again. I get to learn about the fundamentals of technology and engineering and like, you know, the different optics that you need to have to understand math, right, and how it applies to everything in life. So that was a blessing in disguise because it got me back into academia. But this time, no distractions such as, like, football and just being an adolescence, you know, on your own for the first time. So it, it was great, you know, I was able to have, you know, personal conversations and dialogue with the, with the chairmans of each college. So whether it be the College of Engineering or College of Computer Science.

0:08:00 - (Paul Roberson): And then that's where I met the student body president at the time who became my first business partner, Elias Bendulum. Shout out to Elias. And from there we just focus on the issue that we were both having, which was all the red tape in academia. So red tape being I was only able to work with Title 1 schools for these, like, STEM hands on learning curriculums. And it's like, well, why can't I work with this school that I know really needs it or this school that can use it?

0:08:28 - (Paul Roberson): And he was finding the same red tape issues like, oh, Eli, you could do this by president, but you can't do this. So after sharing the frustrations, right, he's like, well, let's just take this program offline or off campus and offer it to single family households. So that was literally the birth of like our first company, which was called Troph, which was the Greek word for nourishment. And that's when, you know, once we started rolling that out, somehow, someway, we got connected with Tony Hsieh and then Tony Hsieh, you know, rest in peace, Tony.

0:09:03 - (Paul Roberson): Tony Shay, he brought Zappos out here, right? And that's pretty much the gist of all I knew. And so we had like, you know, sit down with them, Tony, and, you know, went through their little interview process and got selected to move and live in this Airstream like community. So imagine a big ass, you know, parking lot, and then you have about 30 tiny homes and, you know, probably 20 Airstreams all in a circle.

0:09:31 - (Paul Roberson): You have a container section where it's like a shared kitchen, shared pantry. We even had a container pool. I think that was just crazy. We had a pet llama named Marley. And so here I am now living in this community. I quit unlv. I just had another Achilles surgery from injury when I was doing law enforcement. And I was just sitting in my light and my little brother had just died, right? I just came, I got my a dui, like probably a month before my brother died.

0:10:04 - (Paul Roberson): And so, you know, this, this, this phase in my life, like moving into that community was such a crazy blessing for me at the time because of the simple fact that I was able to kind of address my trauma indirectly right through learning about not only myself, but new circles, learning about new people from different backgrounds. You know, that. And there's no way I would have met some of these individuals before.

0:10:38 - (Paul Roberson): So living there for 12 months, through collision with others came collaboration, right? And that was the beauty of it. That's where I met my partners on Ponics, because we are all, we all kind of moved in the community at the same time. And so they're a group of about five guys that came down from New York. They basically refabbed the old bluebird school bus to be like their, their. Not only their home with wheels, but it had like a laser cutter on the sushi beds, a sauna in the back. I Think, you know, it's just crazy, right?

0:11:16 - (Paul Roberson): And it ran off. It ran off used vegetable oil. That was. That was the thing.

0:11:20 - (Tawni Nguyen): No way.

0:11:20 - (Paul Roberson): Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 150 gallons.

0:11:23 - (Tawni Nguyen): What does that smell like? You smell like French fries.

0:11:24 - (Paul Roberson): Oh, you smell like. Yeah, you smell like French fries or. Or old, old chicken tacos, you know, so it was, it was. It was great, right? And you know, those guys were. You know, I lost my brother, but I gained, you know, five new brothers, you know, and I really didn't understand the journey I was embarking on in regards to just learning about entrepreneurship. But all the that comes with entrepreneurship, such as, you know, if you don't have emotional intelligence, by the time you say, I want to be an entrepreneur, well, by the time you become successful within whatever you do in entrepreneurship, I guarantee you, you will be.

0:12:04 - (Paul Roberson): Your. Your EQ will be much higher than when you went going into it. Because, I mean, there's no really other way to describe it, but entrepreneurship is, let's say, huh, it's just like blue balls, you know, like, it's a lot of blue balls, right? Like a lot of great conversations, you know, people getting you excited about something. Use like, oh, this motive. This momentum is going great. This shit's rolling.

0:12:33 - (Paul Roberson): And then next thing you know, people either ghost you or they say no and don't tell you why or they tell you why. And you know, it's a bullshit ass reason. And so you have to like, almost become an actor, right? Because you can't wear your emotions on your face, you know, you can't wear your emotions period. So now you gotta, you know, put the smile on. You don't want to smile, or, you know, put the smile on when you're sad as shit, put the smile on when you're mad as fuck, whatever the case you may be doing.

0:13:05 - (Paul Roberson): You know that because your personal life and entrepreneurship, they kind of overlap. As you get deeper into entrepreneurship, that becomes a brand, you know, no pun intended. So with that being the case, you know, it was the. Was the greatest turning point in my life. Like, not only moving in with Tony and living in that community, but also, you know, collaborating and deciding to go live on a bus with these five other guys to take this company, this idea, which was Ponix Farms, you know, and the philosophy around Ponix Farms, it was a container farming company. That was the idea, put farms in containers. Because the philosophy was don't move the food, move the farm.

0:13:57 - (Paul Roberson): And so we can ship farms versus shipping food. Because the reason why, you know, I don't know the number, but let's just say a ton. For. For lack of better words, a ton of people in the world, a lot many reasons why they don't eat is because there's no supply chain infrastructure in place, or you guys, you know, air drop food, but they don't have. No way. They live in a region where you can't really grow food, right? And this is where I think engine, NGOS and that world becomes very powerful and nonprofits. You know, you'll hear about, you know, I'm not going to name job, but you'll hear about people just taking their money to some parts of regions in Africa, you know, drilling wells, right? So they can have well water in that. In that village was all right, this is great.

0:14:42 - (Paul Roberson): They got water. Then we could drop a container, connect, you know, a pump to that container to where now they got water and food. And so that was. That was. That was the glue. That was the passion that brought us all together. That was the focus. And I was like, all right, I threw all my in storage. I have no real reason to kind of stay in Vegas. You know, my girl left me at the time too, because obviously I was just.

0:15:08 - (Paul Roberson): I wasn't very, like, not. I wasn't communicating with nobody. I was a communicator. I don't want to talk to nobody. I was just like, look, I'm. I just got done reading thinking Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. So I was telling myself, man, I gotta get focused on me. I gotta say no to a lot of that. My. My intuitive compass, I guess, doesn't align with. And so just kind of having that philosophy on life.

0:15:35 - (Paul Roberson): I said, yeah, like I said, threw all my. In storage, lived on a bus with five other guys, baby. We moved after a year, Tony. And we all, you know, entered this marriage, so to speak. Our first investor was out in Salt Lake City. So we drove the bus at Salt Lake City, parked the bus in his warehouse, and literally built out a new container by part, by part. Angle iron welding at, you know, three in the morning, staying up all night, sleeping on the bus.

0:16:06 - (Paul Roberson): Showers were like baby wipes. And we take a shower at the gym that was like five miles away, like probably once or twice a week. It was really awkward time, and it was right. And I was. I was 32 at the time, 31. And these guys were, you know, the youngest was, I think 22. And the oldest, I think was 26, 27. So here I am, you know, trying to, like, deal with my own humility, I guess you could say, from being Almost a quote unquote grown ass man on a bus.

0:16:39 - (Paul Roberson): Basically a homeless person right now. But that was the, that was like literally the start of the rocket, right? And how, how everything got in the air and then everything just kind of snowballed from there. Got into crypto, invested in Ethereum at 66 cents and then bought my first Bitcoin at $366. And that was all through cracking platform. And like, gosh, we, we, we snowballed that money to where, you know, collectively I think we all had almost close to half a mil maybe in crypto.

0:17:15 - (Paul Roberson): And you know, I, I don't advise giving kids that been broke their whole lives money, that type of money. I just, I don't advise that at all. But yeah, we moved out to Maria Del Rey. Then we bought the number seven Tesla ever made from a salvage yards using crypto. What? Yeah, yeah, it was, it was wild.

0:17:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like, I'm telling you my head around that.

0:17:38 - (Paul Roberson): These stories are wild. Like, shoot. All right. It was just, this was the, I think the starting phase of like influencers because we live next door to some girl that was like a makeup influencer. And we was like, all right. And then we looked her up and she had like 7 million followers. We're like, what the is this? Like? It was just really wild, that whole experience in LA and it was just, it's just really immersive, the experiences I had. So I think that was like the foundational makeup to, to my mold, I guess you could say, on just not only as an entrepreneur but as a person in general.

0:18:17 - (Paul Roberson): Because we got to meet so many people on the path right along your journey. And as long as you're paying attention, everyone is dropping nuggets in your lap, right. That you're going to take with you. Right. That may have an influence or impact on just your philosophy on life. And I mean like, we're doing like deals. We're going to build containers for this drug dealer out in Oregon. Like, but he was legal, right? Because this is Oregon was literally the only stay at the time that was legal.

0:18:48 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:18:49 - (Paul Roberson): And so we're like, all right, we went up to Rogue, Rogue Valley, Oregon or something. I think it was Rogue Valley, Oregon. And we're out there for a week, you know, and it's like this dude's showing us cannabis trees, they're like 10ft tall. And it was just wild. But that's kind of where I kind of got in tune with mushrooms, Psilocybin. Started learning about that because you got to think now we're in Oregon for a couple months.

0:19:14 - (Paul Roberson): All those guys are living on farms, are hippies, right? So it's just like they're all making tinctures and stuff from, from cannabis and making like, like fresh oils from leaves and stuff to like help with acne. And so I'm just like, this is where it got me into like holistic medicine and thinking about all this stuff. Right? And so like I said, you start to just pick up stuff from people that, that has a, an impression on the way you think.

0:19:43 - (Paul Roberson): And yeah, that, that essentially after that experience, I came back to Vegas for a weekend and that's where I met. I ran to an old friend named Chris. So Chris used to live in that same container village with Tony Shay and you know, 50 other people. And he was paying attention to what we were doing on the road and how we're building the company. And he's like, hey man, let me go into this bar with you. Because we're kind of crossing paths. I was going in, he was coming out, shout out to Brad Johnson, because I think that's who he was with.

0:20:16 - (Paul Roberson): Brad Johnson was Tony Shay's like right hand man at the time. And so went in. That's where he kind of pitched me on the idea of coming to spearhead lift partnerships in Nevada, you know, covering the Las Vegas market in Nevada or Reno. And the very first project was, hey, we're gonna throw a festival. And, and we. It's gonna be in three weeks. Can you, can you start next week? Do you mind starting like two weeks earlier before your actual start date? Just can't tell Lyft.

0:20:48 - (Paul Roberson): I was like, all right, yeah, you got me. Because you know, once you, once you kind of break the threshold of that entrepreneurial mindset, you're always on. There is no, only 40 hours a week, 60 hours a week, Monday through, you're always on. Like if the fight, if there's a fire, call me at three in the morning. Let's put that out. Like, that's the mindset you need to have. You need to not only. You don't have to be passionate about the damn product, you don't have to be passionate about the damn service.

0:21:13 - (Paul Roberson): You got to be passionate about solving problems. As long as you become passionate about solving problems, you can work in any industry. You could do anything.

0:21:21 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. At any time.

0:21:23 - (Paul Roberson): At any damn time. Right. Because analyzing and assessing a problem is the same scope that an engineer may assess a problem or look at a problem, a scientist may look at it or assess a problem, a lawyer may look at assess a problem, a doctor may look at assessment, right? Like, everybody has a framework on how they kind of identify what the problem is and then what the root issue of that problem is.

0:21:49 - (Paul Roberson): Because a lot of people, especially in, you know, I'm not going to say what worlds, I'm not going to say what verticals, but let's just say people tend to put band aids or newspaper on things and say, all right, it's solved temporarily, but it's not addressing the root issue. And I think that's what we or a majority of entrepreneurs like that is like our strong suit is that we can understand what issues are contributing to the problem people are dealing with and then say, hey, this is the root issue, not this surface shit that you think.

0:22:23 - (Paul Roberson): Because people think, oh, my messaging and my copy needs to be better or no, my videos need to be better. No, your SEO sucks. Nobody is seeing not any of your stuff or, you know, you're not even trying to learn about a algo, right? You're not even trying to like, think out the box. And that's what we as problem solvers are able to do. And if you're able to do it well, that's where you become a consultant.

0:22:47 - (Paul Roberson): You know, you work with many different brands across the scope of different verticals because you know how to do what you do. And, and that only comes by having, you know, trauma right along your pathway to becoming, you know, a seasoned, battle tested, professional problem solver. All right? And hopefully, I think, you know, that's what we all are around this table right now. Because one thing I know is that if we say, hey, let's put all our trauma and problems and issues we've had in the last 10 years on the table, I guarantee you everybody's gonna look at everybody's and like, whoa, whoa. Nah, I'll take my right back.

0:23:32 - (Tawni Nguyen): It's like we're playing a game of poker.

0:23:34 - (Paul Roberson): Yeah, yeah. It's like. No, I'll take my pause right back. Right? Because, you know, the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know.

0:23:40 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:23:41 - (Paul Roberson): So I, I think, you know, once people start to understand that we all have a common interest, which is making things better. Yeah, right. Making things more clear, more transparent and share those solutions with people. And I think if we had that lens, that would bring, that would create, that would prevent the fragmentation of all these different silos of people kind of doing this, but doing it their way, but they're doing the same that the other people are doing.

0:24:12 - (Paul Roberson): And I think that's the One thing that I probably have to take around the last decade from my entrepreneurial journey is not what I've become, but what I've learned. And what I've learned is that collaboration is more powerful than independence.

0:24:29 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. Yeah, well. And you've picked a fantastic city to leverage all of that. Right. So when it comes to Las Vegas, you've seen it change in the years that you've been here or that you've left and you've come back. And you've got to see it right from the epicenter when people like Tony shout out again to Tony Hsieh. The whole reason I moved here was I read his book and I listened to his book as I grew a business all over the Midwest.

0:24:54 - (Paul Roberson): Pursuit of happiness.

0:24:55 - (Dave Burlin): Yep. And then. Yeah, delivering happiness. And then. And then coming here, I drove out here in a rental car one way because I wanted to be closer to that energy that he was building and seeing the community that he had made. And I did get to meet him a couple times before. Before he passed, but now there's this wake of creativity that's been just kind of left here, and people like you and some of the other incredible people that we've had on the show or are willing to pick up that.

0:25:25 - (Dave Burlin): That torch. What do you think has been the biggest challenge that you've seen here in the community in the last couple years in the ecosystem, getting everybody to play.

0:25:37 - (Paul Roberson): Well together, support each other.

0:25:40 - (Dave Burlin): Tell me. Tell me more about that. Yeah, no names.

0:25:43 - (Paul Roberson): I think it's a. It's a small pond. Right. It's a small pond. Right. And we don't have many resources in this pond.

0:25:50 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, right.

0:25:51 - (Paul Roberson): That are available to the fishies in the damn pond.

0:25:54 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:25:55 - (Paul Roberson): So the fishies, when they find resources that are available, they try to, you know, gobble it up. Gobble it up. Me, me, me. And it's not more like, hey, guys, look what I found. Everybody come here. And let's. Let's. Let's address how we can use this resource for the community. Yeah, Right. And so that's. That's really the core issue, but the passion is there. Yeah, the passion is the same. Right. People want to be the leader.

0:26:24 - (Paul Roberson): They want to be. I'm not gonna say they want to be. I think people would like to have an influence on ushering in resources and services or being that. That individual that supported, you know, the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. But I don't think that's a title that any one person can wear. You know, the only person I thought that could wear that was Tony.

0:26:47 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:26:47 - (Paul Roberson): Right. And so if we don't have another, you know, I guess Tony right now in the ecosystem that's able to, you know, kind of have that. That fuck it mindset on. Put money in it anyways.

0:27:02 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:27:02 - (Paul Roberson): Like, it doesn't have to have the most successful P L. She or it doesn't have to have the, like. I'm not even worried about the valuation. That's just. I love this person behind it.

0:27:11 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:27:12 - (Paul Roberson): Like Tony. Invest in people.

0:27:13 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. Well, in a way that kind of presented the challenge because Tony's not here now. And where it was predicated on a person, it makes it more challenging to try and duplicate that. And even if we do, it's going to continue to be predicated on the next person. So I've had great conversations around this. It almost needs to. It does need champions to catalyze that movement and understand what the core values of a movement like that creates.

0:27:44 - (Dave Burlin): But then it almost needs to be predicated on a place or a process that everyone can kind of understand and take their own responsibility and build. In addition to that, at least I.

0:27:58 - (Paul Roberson): Think even though Tony's not here, I definitely think his legacy, passion and touch still carries on in those who had the opportunity to like, have a personal relationship with him, you know, such as myself. You got Tyler out there.

0:28:14 - (Dave Burlin): Yep.

0:28:15 - (Paul Roberson): Right. I'm so, I'm so glad that Tyler, you know, was able to not only transition from Zappos. Right. But transition into the role that he essentially did as opposed, which was community builder.

0:28:30 - (Dave Burlin): Yep. For the city. For the city of Las Vegas now. Yep.

0:28:32 - (Paul Roberson): And for now he's at the city. Right. And so now he, he has a more in depth, he has more like streamlined access to resources. And you see him sharing it on his, you know, Instagram or LinkedIn. Right. Whether it's a job or whether it's a grant, he's keeping his ear, you know, on, on the, on the heartbeat of, you know, funding, I guess you could say, or opportunities. But. And you have other people. Right. Heather Brown, she's doing an amazing job. You know, you got another gentleman named Kurt and you got, you know, a few other people out here, you know, yourself.

0:29:10 - (Paul Roberson): Right. Like, I think you were probably the first person I met that I did not have a personal relationship with that when we spoke about collaboration, we actually took action and made it happen.

0:29:23 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, right.

0:29:24 - (Paul Roberson): A lot of people talk about collaboration or talk about doing things for you or with you, but then there's no follow up or action to follow that. It's almost Like a fart. It's like. It's just real. It's just real thick and intense, and he's just like, oh, yeah. And then it just dissipates, Right?

0:29:43 - (Tawni Nguyen): And so it's just, like, high on dopamine and, you know, and so honeymoon.

0:29:47 - (Paul Roberson): Phase, that's kind of like the blue ball situations I try to stay. Stay away from. But, you know, there are. There are individuals out there leading, you know, and I don't think any one person is the tip of the spear. You know, if it is, it might be the governor or whoever's advocating on the Hill to get more, you know, funding to cultivate the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Nevada. Yeah, but like you said, man, there's still much to be done. Yeah, I think that there's still tons of room to grow, and I think that, you know, we could be impactful if people start working together. But it's like, who is going to be that individual to bring everyone together, Right? Who is going to be like, all right, quiet children.

0:30:36 - (Paul Roberson): Like, I. I know Nancy. I know Tommy, but come here.

0:30:39 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:30:40 - (Paul Roberson): Sit in a circle. Right? All right. This is what we're gonna do. And until that individual comes, right, the messiah of Tony's. Right. Like, I think everyone is still going to be out in the woods on their own, trying to figure out how to make things work or what new resources they could bring to the table. But until that happens, I think we're gonna see just many different new brands, new opportunities.

0:31:08 - (Paul Roberson): Know, hopefully we'll have 6, 7 accelerators going on at the same time in Vegas. Right. Because that. I think that there's tons of individuals with ideas that need all the help, you know, they can get. We can get. So. Yeah. Still early now.

0:31:25 - (Tawni Nguyen): I've been listening to your storytelling since the beginning, and I love your use of analogy, like, even through the fries and all that stuff. But, you know, what I've been sitting on is actually your tattoo and with your storytelling on the right, and it kind of just. It's very cohesive in the way you're delivering, like, your story and everything that you went through, even in the beginning with the dark and the light.

0:31:46 - (Tawni Nguyen): And now I can kind of see your philosophy for life and the view of just how you're living through entrepreneurship and letting it not just, like, kick you in the face and face the challenges, but show you who you are and then still come out of it and not use that to be a victim of this society because. Because you seem to be really rooted here, and you want to bring back you know, I love that you brought up education too, because people that don't know Vegas assume just we have the worst educational system, right.

0:32:13 - (Tawni Nguyen): In all of the states. I don't know that personally because I didn't grow up here. So anytime someone brings up just anything with infrastructure and just like foundation as a whole, especially in education and the youth, it touches, like, a certain part of my heart in just being an immigrant and just growing up and really just battling it out with, you know, all of the societal expectations on what entrepreneurship is supposed to be like and all the honeymoon phase that we can joke about with the blue balls and all that stuff. And it's just really hard to stay in touch with and connect to one another because we're so disconnected.

0:32:43 - (Tawni Nguyen): Especially with social media being like a catalyst for some to, you know, show superficial success and then for others that are actually trying to do something to catalyze other. Right. And I really love just that whole story of like the Oregon and the journey and like, you don't know what you were going through until you got here and how it shaped you to be this person. So it kind of makes sense on how things, like, wrapped around for you.

0:33:09 - (Tawni Nguyen): So what is your philosophy? Like, what? I just love the tattoos. I want to talk a little because we don't have conversations often around philosophies on life and stuff. Like, can you share a little bit more about that and how that embraces your philosophy for life?

0:33:24 - (Paul Roberson): Yeah. So like I said, so when I lost my little brother, right? I just had like Achilles surgery, right? Right before that Achilles surgery, got hit with dui and I wasn't even driving. The keys were just ignition. And so my brother passed away. I was in the deepest, darkest depths. You know, I had my first time I took mushrooms, which I don't think I should have took mushrooms the first time with those type of emotions and thoughts.

0:33:57 - (Paul Roberson): But that night, I was ready to go find my brother, right? And it is. And I was in there in the house by myself, which I haven't done mushrooms in, like, closed doors ever since. Like, do mushrooms outside if you ain't do it. But yeah, I let go of like all fucks, right? I was. I was totally red. Like, I felt like, if I will go look for my brother wherever. And so I survived that night. And I watched something dealing with Tony Robbins, right on money. I was like, all right.

0:34:35 - (Paul Roberson): And something around that link led to a book saying, think and grow rich by Napoleon Hill. So I read that book because, you know, I'm on the couch with Achilles surgery. No, cut up and read that book. A book changed my life. Had nothing to do with money, had everything do with, you know, you just managing your spirit, managing your emotions, how to think, the perspective, mindset. You should adopt.

0:35:03 - (Paul Roberson): And that taught me I had a lot of work to do. Right. I had a lot of trauma, you know. Yeah. So. So all that, I think, you know, you have a decision, you know, get down or lay down, right? And when your back is against the wall, some people are going to fight, some people are going to ball up, you know, and you only know in those moments who you are, right? And. And once you decide to fight, then it's like, all right, you learn that. All right?

0:35:34 - (Paul Roberson): Yeah, the war is within myself, but in life it's going to be thousands of battles. But as long as you get through thousands of battles that has to offer, you will win the war which is fighting for your happiness, right? And I think that the two best days of our lives are the day we're born and the day we find out why. And I didn't come up with that. I read that somewhere and it stuck with me. And, you know, ever since then, you know, my passion is to find out who I can become, right? What is my.

0:36:09 - (Paul Roberson): I know who I am now. I. Now I don't look at my flaws. I look at my value, right? Because you look at your flaws, you're kind of, you're not. You know, I don't know if you guys think about positive affirmations and, you know, understanding how your conscious could bring, like, come to reality, bring things to reality. But I was always thinking about really highly negative of myself, right? Whether it was low self esteem or whether it was, you know, regrets, whatever the case.

0:36:36 - (Paul Roberson): So once I started, you know, thinking more positively on just what's the pathway forward, that's where you start getting the confidence to go through brick wall after brick wall after brick wall, right? And that's where you continue to stand after disappointment after disappointment after disappointment. And that is literally the chisel mint taking place who you are and who you will be known as. Because when we die, right? It's not about the year we came into this world, in the year we died.

0:37:14 - (Paul Roberson): It's about that damn dash. What did you. That dash is the most important thing on the tombstone. It's not the little saying, you know, brother, father, mother, you know, sister, all that stuff. It's not that. It's not the dates, it's the dash. And that dash means everything, you know, and that dash is what people talk about. Yeah, at. At your funeral, your wake, or whatever the case may be. And so with that, you know, with that understanding, like, all right, you have a. You have a chance, Paul, to kind of redeem yourself for all the, all the dirt you've done. Because, you know, I came live in Vegas, in Las Vegas streets, so I wasn't a street kid, but let's just say Las Vegas wasn't the healthiest place for a kid to have a youthful, normal upbringing.

0:38:03 - (Paul Roberson): Right. It's not like there's tons of parks and baseball games going on on the west side. So with that into the case, you know, I was, I was blessed to have that mindset, but then even more blessed when I had my son. That actually gave me even more of like a. I already had a. The passion in the fight, but that gave me more tenacity to be aggressive with what I want to do and then be more aggressive on maintaining what I don't want to do.

0:38:35 - (Paul Roberson): Right. Which is saying no to the things you know are like, not healthy for you. And that mindset is just like, you know, I'm 41, so my hat, my. Like the, the pleasures, the party and whatever the case, experiences I've had. I was lucky to have all that in my twenties because luckily my best friend is on my best friend's dime. A lot of it towards the tail end. It's always helpful when you have a best friend as a NFL running back.

0:39:03 - (Paul Roberson): But. But, you know, for our kids, our. Our ceiling is intended to be their floor. You know, our. Our experiences on life, what we learn, what not to do, what we learned, what worked. All that is intended to be passed on to them and down to them. So that's why I say our ceiling is our children's floor. And so my new focus is like, not only am I very passionate on just like seeing how far and how high I could take this, but it's also my job as a father to take this ceiling as high as it can go, to give my son a grounding foundation to take it even higher.

0:39:47 - (Paul Roberson): And yeah, I just, I didn't realize until I had a kid how, how shitty people are who are not in their kids lives or, you know, just don't talk to their kids, like, abandon their kids. Like, I didn't realize that until I had one. I was like, oh my God. And I worked in child protective services. But yeah, that was just a random thought.

0:40:09 - (Dave Burlin): No, man, I love that. And because of everything that not only you've been through, everything that you've witnessed, but also the vision that you have. What would be the one thing if you could wave a magic wand? What's something that you think would really be powerful here in our community that would help you raise your ceiling and everyone else can raise the floor for their children? What would be the most powerful thing that you'd like to see in this community in the next three to five years?

0:40:37 - (Paul Roberson): Somebody to. To make it their focus to be the fabric to wove everyone together. You know, that's. That's really it. Like, if I. My magic wand would bring Tony back. Right. Because I know that he would. He would do it. I mean, everybody would fall in line and, you know, Tony, what we're gonna do, what should, you know, whatever the case may be and hopefully has know people healthier around them. That's.

0:41:05 - (Paul Roberson): Anyway, it's another story. But, yeah, that would probably be it. Like someone who could be that. That. That fabric to wove everyone together to where we could have a more cohesive conversation around topics that we are entertaining collaboration on. Like, if we just had. Whether it's the city, whether it's the county.

0:41:27 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:41:27 - (Paul Roberson): Whether it's the mayor. Right. Whether It's a District 6 assemblyman or whatever the case may be. Someone who can be powerful on both sides of the ball for the entrepreneurs, but also for advocating for additional resources from federal government agencies.

0:41:47 - (Dave Burlin): I love that you brought that up. And it's funny because, you know, we've got a lot of stuff coming up here soon for the community, stuff that I've been very passionate about in Global Entrepreneurship Week. And I remember this is really hard to even talk about. I remember when I tried to get it going in 2021, I had a lot of momentum here for me, and I got to speak at UNLV about it, and I was like, oh, this will be the first big talk about it. And then once unlv, it's going to be this big domino effect. I always saw this whole city and community as. It's a domino effect that can happen.

0:42:28 - (Dave Burlin): And I went through the whole speech and I talked about why I came here. I talked about Global Entrepreneurship Week, what it could do. And the lady, I don't even want to say her name, but she goes, at the end of it all, she goes, dave, that's really great. But you're not the first person to come here with a goal to change the way Vegas does things, and you're not Tony Shea. And I was like, I don't know if you meant to insult me with that, but the fact that you even included me in that same sentence. And it's actually happened a lot where people have compared the things that I'm working on, like, oh, like. And one person even said, like, oh, you're like the new Tony. And I'm like, I don't know how to.

0:43:06 - (Dave Burlin): I don't know how to take that. I will do my part.

0:43:10 - (Paul Roberson): Just remind them that Tony had a couple bills.

0:43:12 - (Dave Burlin): That's exactly. That's what I told her. I said, yo, he had. He had enough money that if he wanted to turn all of the lights in downtown Las Vegas and to llamas, he could do it. And before you even ask why, it was already done. Nobody knew why. It made sense somehow. But there is a difference. So the struggle that I have is exactly why I put this whole project together in the first place and why now it's been burning a hole in my shelf to get it back to the people is because the mission here is to connect the people of our city and show the world who we really are.

0:43:47 - (Dave Burlin): And I learned as much as I thought that I have to change the world. I don't. We don't have to change the world. We just have to change the way that the world looks at Las Vegas, even for a minute. And you mentioned all these great books. Think and Grow Rich. The first job that I ever worked where I was in entrepreneurship, there was a bounty. Hey, if you read this book and write a page on it, I'll pay you 100 bucks.

0:44:12 - (Dave Burlin): And I was like, that sounds weird. I did it. And I ended up growing that guy's company into five cities just because it opened up my whole world to what's possible. And the book that I'm reading right now is called Super Communicators. And I haven't been able to make it past the first chapter. And there's something that echoes in this room right now, and it only takes one conversation at the right time to change everything.

0:44:41 - (Dave Burlin): And I think that's what. At least that's what I'm committed to do. I know that's what Tawny's committed to do. I know that's what you're committed to do. So however we can do that. Let's go, bro. Let's do it.

0:44:54 - (Paul Roberson): Yeah, there's. There's a lot of things to bring it all together that need to happen is definitely some water cooler conversations first to kind of build them momentum, of advocacy, to kind of bring everyone together. So it's almost like you need to have your mafia around. Mafiosa Round table, right? Of all the different families, so to speak.

0:45:13 - (Dave Burlin): Let's go to Pierro's right now. Yeah, I'm just kidding. They open at five, but let's go after. Right, but you got a lot of.

0:45:20 - (Paul Roberson): Ones that just recently popped up, too, that can help, you know, usher in especially. So generator that was brought in by hua, and then you got, you know, zero labs with Quinn and Ryan over there.

0:45:34 - (Dave Burlin): So vets and tech is right around the corner.

0:45:36 - (Paul Roberson): Vets and tech is right around the corner. So I think we're getting closer. Yeah, we're definitely getting closer. And, you know, end of the day is about progression, not perfection. So we've all heard that before, but that shit is real. And I think, I think everyone is moving the needle forward. Everyone, I think, is focused on bringing different resources to Las Vegas. Whether it's, you know, like I said, whether it's Heather on the front line advocating for resources on the government sector and, you know, just, you know, putting stuff together and bringing brands. Whether it's Ryan and them, whether it's Kurt bringing angel investors from LA or California, whether it's, you know, Elias, you know, doing stuff with the youth over at Nevada Partners, whether it's you working with all these different brands on production value. Like, it's already happening.

0:46:28 - (Paul Roberson): Everyone is already moving the needle forward. And I think, you know, we're not too far away from that round table effort of collaboration. And yeah, I think it's coming. So I'm, I'm optimistic on it and I'm, I'm focused on, you know, the pathway forward and like, the history of Vegas. It's almost like what your. The lady told you. Oh, you don't know Vegas like. Nah, I know Vegas and that's why Vegas needs to change. Yeah, Vegas needs to adapt.

0:46:59 - (Tawni Nguyen): Well, thank you so much for sharing your story with us. We want to be mindful of your time and of course, we're going to catch up after this because I feel like we can talk to you for hours and hours and hours on this topic about the things that we can do here in town.

0:47:12 - (Dave Burlin): Where can people find you? How can people. What's the best place to find you? Connect? And for anybody that we just got the. Got the bug of, you know, I know something we can do. How can people best reach you?

0:47:25 - (Paul Roberson): Reach out to Dave Berlin or Elias Bendelum to get a hold of me.

0:47:29 - (Dave Burlin): There it is, there it is. Frontline defense.

0:47:32 - (Paul Roberson): Perfect.

0:47:33 - (Dave Burlin): Well, bro, thank you so much for, for coming in and not just coming, but coming real. We, we. We're there. We're. We're almost there. I think it's on the corner again. That's why this had to come off the shelf. That's why there's no mistake of why I ran into you at 6:00 in the morning. Like right there on the edge of another kick to the kick to the gut. And it was like, oh, hi. I was just crying in my car and then I think I was at the gym crying at the couch in the front, drinking pre workout and you took a creepy ass photo of me and I was like, what I really want to see.

0:48:08 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. And then. And we were able to talk through it and it was that morning in that box, I was like, I'm going, let's go. And here we are. So thank you. Thank you for saying yes. Thank you for showing up and thank you for everything you do in the community. And with that, we will catch you on the B sides.

0:48:27 - (Tawni Nguyen): See you later, guys. That was it for us today. If you want to stay in touch and see how we can offer any resources or add value to whatever you're doing in this town, reach out to Dave and I on Pursue Vegas and we're glad to share some resources with you. Thank you.

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Tawni Nguyen

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