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Welcome back to the Never Been Promoted podcast and YouTube channel. Thank you so much for joining today. If it is your first time coming here, you are amazing. Thanks for taking the step to becoming a better entrepreneur by learning from the journeys of others. If you've been here before, thanks for returning. And, you know, today will be a really cool conversation around, humanity centric innovation with, Pete Dulcamara. And I think I said that right. It's a very cool last name. You're the first, Pete, you're the first Dulcamara I've ever met. So, you're a TEDx speaker too. So welcome to the show. I'm gonna learn so much. And if if no one else is listening and no one else I'm I'm gonna be selfishly learning a ton today. So, Pete, thank you for joining.
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It's great to be here, Thomas. I really look forward to today. Me as well. I mean,
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the idea of humanity centric innovation, and you're a TEDx speaker, you know, it's, I've got so many questions, including your logo. Let's start with that. So I don't know if you're if you're listening to this. It's a little harder to explain. But if you go to, you know, Pete Dulcamara and Associates, if you Google that, you'll see a very cool, interesting logo. Do you wanna explain this logo to us a bit?
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Yeah. You know, so the logo is, the format of a Buckminster Fuller Dimaxian projection of the Earth. So what does that mean exactly? You probably have seen this before, but what Buckminster Fuller did was if you if you take a globe and you basically cut it into this pattern, it'll lay down in a two dimensional surface. And so I'm always intrigued by maps and, so it's kind of a a a a map projection of,
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of the Earth in a 2 dimensional Now I asked him this question because I can feel the nerd in him, and and then when it comes out on a logo like that, that's full commitment to nerdery. So congratulations.
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Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, you you know, I mean, I don't know if your viewers can see it, but I, you know, I have this upside down map behind me, you know. And and people so I love maps, you know, because, there is no upside down from outer space, You know? And and and and and I always love this idea that, to question assumptions. Because so many time, assumptions become, quote, unquote, facts and actually become the paradigm
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in which we see the world. So I always start by, questioning assumptions and trying to change the way I see it. Yeah. It was my next question was with the map being upside down too. I I was gonna draw the connection to it. That's hence why so if you're listening to this, we'll get through this visual part you're now bored about, but you're setting up how he thinks. Right? Pete is he is thinking about things in unconventional ways and challenging the norms that aren't actually norms. So the the world isn't upside down. There is no down from any one direction. There is no real there's polar north and south, but once you're looking at it, it's just, you know, if you're upside down or whatever it is, it's just a relative state. I relate with this with the Cut the Tide, you know, community and movement of entrepreneurs just rethinking how things are, you know, like, think cutting the tide of what you think is a normal job or what, what what what being an entrepreneur should be or what it's gonna be like to be an entrepreneur or have your own business or or TEDx speaker. So I I subscribe to that fully. Before we get into kinda like what your TEDx talk was about and and everything else, can you set your you know, set the stage a bit? You know, tell tell us about you and your background and kind of how you got there. Yeah. Yeah. I'd be happy to. So, Thomas, first and foremost, I'm a husband and father.
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I have, 2 adult children, Rachel and Peter. They're 25 and 23, and my wife Jean and I, we're going to be celebrating 34 years of marriage. So first and foremost, husband and father. Career wise, I was, my background is in chemical engineering. I have degrees in chemical engineering, chemistry, mathematics, and physics. And then I worked for the Dow Chemical Company for 18 years as a r and d executive. And then I went to Kimberly Clark where I spent 17 years at Kimberly Clark, and I served as the chief scientist and r and d vice president, for Kimberly Clark. And last year, I decided to graduate from industry renaissance is this whole idea of humanity centric innovation. I know we're gonna get into that a little bit further, but,
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that's a little bit about my background and, yeah. So when you saw like I said, Renaissance, it wasn't like you're looking not to contribute. You're you're looking to just enjoy what you're contributing to or for, And corporate can can break it down a bit. Kimberly Clark's a massive company that comes up with all kinds of cool, useful things you had never heard of that you needed or known. You wanna talk about that transition a little bit of of you know, because that's where a lot of entrepreneurs come from is they've had a great career, they got a lot of identity wrapped up in it, and then now they're on to something else. So I think you well, I'll I'll get to the next part here, but tell me about that transition. Yeah. You you know you know what's so funny, though, Thomas, is I never really thought of myself as an employee.
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Right? I mean, the whole time I worked at Dow Chemical, the whole time I worked at Kimberly Clark, I've got this personal mission, which is to help raise children that live a life fulfilled and to help create businesses that improve people's lives. That's that's my purpose in life. And I never thought of myself as an employee of Kimberly Clark. And it's not that I'm a megalomaniac, but I always thought Kimberly Clark worked for me. Dow Chemical worked for me. So I got up every day trying to ask myself, how do I create businesses that improve people's lives? And I don't have the technical or financial wherewithal to pull that off, but Kimberly Clark did, Dow Chemical did. And so I always ask myself, how do I use the resources of those companies to create businesses that improve people's lives? And it turned out that Kimberly Clark's purpose is better care for a better world, which sounds a lot like, you know, helping to create businesses that improve people's lives. And so I felt like by achieving their mission, I was achieving my mission. And so I I met I never thought of myself as I work for Kimberly Clark. I always thought Kimberly Clark works for me, but I always worked in service of creating businesses that improve people's lives. So, I mean, that's just how I've always thought. So it it's not like it ever beat me down. It just felt like
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this is this is the tools that I have at my disposal to accomplish my purpose. Well, that's that's a very positive. That's not how most people exit corporate world. So I I will, take check my negativity and come back and come to back to your positive reinforcement. And and and and if even if your story was on more of the, hey. I got laid off or I just got sick of it, it sounds like you already had the family and the support structure in place to do whatever you needed to do in your life, and and I think that's probably a fair statement. Just just based on that you led with your husband and father father.
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Yeah. You know, I I never wanna be one of these people that once I left industry, you know, that I always introduce myself as I'm the former chief scientist. I never wanna be the former anything. I am a husband and father. I've always been a husband and father, and my purpose has always been to help create businesses that improve people's lives. That's who I am. And and so my identity wasn't wrapped up in my corporate identity, if you will. And I love Kimberly Clark. I love Dow Chemical. They're both very highly ethical companies, and, it it was just time for me to graduate. I mean, just like you might love university and you might wanna spend your whole life in university, at some point, you've gotta graduate and go pursue something that you're really passionate about, and that's what I decided to do. My LinkedIn title one day to be. I have f you money now. I don't care. You know, Pete Tom Peters used to always say that, you know, he didn't want his tombstone to say, I would have done some really cool stuff, but my boss wouldn't love me.
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You know? I'm gonna I want you think about, like, your career. Right? Doing good. I I, I'm not probably quite as to the level you are what you're trying to do. I'm really specifically, like, trying to break the mold of how people think about a real job, and it drives me I mean, I actually get a little angry when people are like, well, if he gets a real job I actually want people to go to college for free. Go where you can afford, not where you wanna go because of brand or something else. Get enough skills, and if you have enough to go try your own thing because you're debt free, you don't have all this stuff, go and work for yourself. I want the normal thing to be like, I come out to go build my own thing because that creates more work for others, and and you're like, well, that doesn't make sense. Well, the idea is if you don't, go work for somebody in something you wanna go do for 2 or 3 years with the idea of
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going your own. And you you Hey. Go ahead. Thomas, I think we are on the cusp of the greatest opportunity to ever do what you're talking about. Because I think in the 20th century, institutions hired individuals to achieve the purpose of the institution. But I think what we're gonna see in the 21st century is individuals hiring institutions to achieve the purpose of the individual. And that's what I've tried to do in my career. I hired Kimberly Clark. I hired Dow Chemical to achieve my mission in life. And I think that's gonna become the norm, in the 21st century. I do hope so. You know, because we at our disposal, we have all these tools that have never existed before.
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And, I think it's the greatest time to to be alive. I think it's the greatest time to be an entrepreneur. You know, you you I think you have there's a couple of things that have to happen there. Right? You have to have the right, like, macro things in place that that is the best way to have a company because companies in the day are there to make money. They're always going to be, but to do that is to have the workforce feel this certain way or be a certain way or get the right talent. The company has to be set up. That's the only way that's gonna happen. Otherwise, it's gonna be, you know, profit you know, it's gonna it's gonna be set up how it is today. It's gonna be how it is. I think as new companies get spun up, and not that ours is a small company, but we took, for example, we said, hey, 4 day work weeks. The roles are outcome based, meaning, like, this role pays this much. If you can get it done in an hour, awesome. If it takes you 40, that's what it takes. You can choose to take it or not. And and the idea is that, you know, you you create space for people to have side hustles that are noncompetitive. You create space for people to have interests and things that become the renaissance later. And I think if you take that idea, you get more productivity out of a team and a much more loyal team as well. So I I I I'm with you on this. I think there's a mind shift that's happening, especially in the younger generations. It just we'll see if the if it has enough impact or the wave's big enough to actually impact some of the more established, places.
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Well, you know, and I think the established places that don't get with that program just won't exist They'll buy the ones that that have the stuff and they'll ruin it. Yeah. I mean, you know, you know, just like in nature, you know, extinction's the rule, survival's the exception, and I think the same thing's true in those groups. That's great, great point.
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So let's pivot a little bit. So we got your background, you see where you are, you're, you're a map nerd, science nerd. I'm calling you nerd. I hope you don't mind. But but I I do it because I had to have a you know, previous life, I was AI nerd. So I'm com I use nerd as a badge. More nerd badges than I can get because they run the world, I can get tell me about so what what does human centric innovation mean?
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Yeah. And it's actually human I'm sorry. Humanity centric. No. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so, you know, I mean, people probably are familiar with consumer centric innovation. And consumer centric innovation happens at the creative collision of what's needed by the consumer, what's required by the business, and what's possible through science and technology. And you need all 3 to have an innovation. You can start with any one. You can start with a technology, but you better have a business model and a consumer need or you're not gonna have an innovation. Well, humanity centric innovation happens at the creative collision of what's needed by humanity. What's what's what are the business models of the 21st century, and what can be enabled enabled through exponential technologies. So when I talk about the needs of humanity, these are really captured well by the United Nations 17 sustainable development goals. Things like ending poverty, achieving gender equality, taking climate action. When I talk about the business models of the 21st century, these are things like the free data economy of Google and Facebook or the crowd economy of of Uber. And then when I talk about exponential technologies, these are things like advanced robotics, artificial intelligence, blockchain, quantum computing. And so the idea is to bring those together to create a business that improve people's lives, that solves the biggest problems facing humanity in an economically viable way because it's gotta be economically viable. And and charities are important, but they're not scalable. Businesses are. And so it's time that we create businesses with purpose. Businesses that are driven by humanity centric innovation to improve people's lives. And that's what humanity centric innovation is about. Give a example of of
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of where this maybe people could, you
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know, clamor onto a bit? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so so, you know, one example of company that I I worked with was a company called Satsense. So they're using satellite technology from the European Space Association to, basically, be able to map out the terrain of of of of the landscape to And so it's using an exponential technology like space technology, you know, coupled with a business model of a subscription model to really solve a big problem for humanity around pollution and water. And so that's an example of bringing those three things together to create humanity centric innovation. In that example You know, the Oh, good. Please continue. Yeah. I'll give you one other example. I mean, the big thing that I was pushing at Kimberly Clark, and I think there's a tremendous opportunity here, is to turn a used product, into something more valuable than a new product. And and so in the next 24 hours, about 2,000,000,000 people will use a Kimberly Clark product, Put every biological fluid known to man in that product and simply throw it away. Now imagine if you could access the data in those products to tell a person about their health and nutrition. Now all of a sudden, the the used product becomes more valuable than the new product because you can tell about person about their health and nutrition. Or or, you know, imagine imagine a woman in her twenties harvesting the stem cells from her menses and her Cotex fem pad, banking those stem cells, and then curing her own cancer when she's 80 years old with the stem cells that she banked when she was 20 years old. That's an example of humanity centric innovation. Is that actually possible? Yeah. That that's that's actually possible. Yeah. I mean, there's actually, you can go today. There's a number of, companies where you can actually go today and harvest your stem cells from your menses. There's a company in India that does that, but it's not from your fem pad. You actually go in, they give you a little cup, and you're able to collect your menses, then they separate the stem cells, and then they can actually store those stem cells. Doing with pen pad, you know, I think it would take, some, technology around maybe preservation. It might take, maybe refrigeration.
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Or just the pad the pad itself.
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Yeah. Could be. Could be. You know? But but that that's an example of humanity centric innovation. It's turning everyday products all around us into things that make our life better. And not only our life better, but the life better for every single person on earth. And and I would even extend it to people future generations. You know, the United Nation estimates that over the last 50 1000 years, 100,000,000,000 people have been born, lived, and died on this planet. Today, you and I are one of 8,000,000,000 people living on planet Earth. The United Nation estimates that over the next 50 1000 years, 6.75 trillion people are yet to be born. And so how do the the question becomes, are they gonna consider us good ancestors? When they write their history books about us, will they talk about us creating the next renaissance or the next dark ages? And the choice is up to us and the choice is now. And so we need to we need to make take action that, not only benefits us, but benefits future generations? You know, I I think of an analogy
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just as it comes to me. But I think if you burn anything too bright, it eventually burns out. And so, too much of a Internet, too much of a good thing, too much of science even, can often become the way to a dark side. Right? Because the truth of the matter is we're not here at the ocean. We'll kind of cure everything. Right? Like, nature will take care of us pretty quickly. So, I think when you say how you define, you know, it's the intent, and can that intent be captured in history books
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through through action? Well, you you know, Thomas, I always hear people say we gotta save the planet. And I'm always like, save the planet? I mean, the planet's gonna be just fine. You know, a 1000 years, 10000, a 100000 years, this is gonna be a lush green planet teeming with life. The only question is whether or not humans will be here to enjoy it. So it's not about saving the planet. It's about saving our species
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by saving the planet. We're we're gonna go a completely different world like that. But let's come back to how these help entrepreneurs because I could go down the, the, the science nerd channel all day long. Yeah. And I might say, you know, I just might throw the flags in here and say, hey. You guys, you can leave now. We're gonna change the whole mantra of this podcast, but we aren't. We're gonna come back on. So how long have you been in this journey right now as a kind of solopreneur doing your, you know, your own thing?
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Yeah. Yeah. April April 8th last year. April 8, 2023. Actually, April 7th was my last day with, in industry. And, on April 8th or 9th or 10th, somewhere in there, I formed, my LLC, Pete Dulcamara Associates, LLC, and, you know, created a web page. And I've started to put together what my business model is, which is really around consulting, advising, speaking, writing, and then I also do some volunteer work. So the,
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the the transition's been about it's not quite a year here. It's, we're filming this just well, Happy Leap Day. It's February 29th. You know, this is, the the rarest form of podcast we're found today, so you're not gonna, like, when did you do it? It's a mystery day. But you're you're a year in, and and I know, like, when I came out of corporate world and became an entrepreneur, I had I had to remember I didn't have the resources at hand, and so I had to kinda do the thing. And, you know, what are your biggest challenges that you've seen and faced and and or if you have overcome in the last year?
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Well, you you know, the the biggest challenges that I've faced is is just waiting to do things. I I you know, what I mean is procrastination is a killer, you know, and it's just you know, and and it's amazing, you know. So I've just had to get into a rhythm, of, you know, again, setting my own goals, setting my own expectations, setting my own milestones, and, you know, so it's it's, you know, I wanted to take some time to relax as well. You know, it's great to be able to take a nap in the middle of the afternoon, You know? But but I but I I I feel this this fire under me right now. You know? And, you know, maybe it goes to, like, the 4 stages of retirement. You know, the first stage is vacation. The second stage is kinda like almost like desperation. You wanna do something different. 3rd stage is developing options, and then the 4th stage is where you really find your fit in the world. And, you know, after a year in, I just feel like, I've got a lot to do. I've got a lot to achieve. I've got a lot of things that I wanna accomplish. And and, you know, it's that old adage, you know, if you ever go to I hate to get morbid, but if you get to go to a tombstone, on everybody's tombstone is your birth date and your death date, and there's that little dash in the middle. And I keep asking myself, have I done with my dash that I wanted to do with my dash? And the answer is no. And, at some point, you you just understand the mortality of the situation, and, I I feel like I have a, more of an incentive today to accomplish my mission than I ever have in my life. That's great.
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Procrastination, this is a great entrepreneurial lesson. It's gonna in most almost everybody, it's there, and and and there's a few reasons why it sneaks in. One is a lack of confidence or you're afraid of, you know, being terrible at something or being perceived as not knowing or it like, it's it's, it's it's it's also related to kinda kinda chasing perfect. Instead of just doing it, doing the best you can even if it's not great, a lot of times you get worried about the outcome or what some of us might perceive of it, and so you don't do it. I know I chase FaceTime just finishing my book is that I'm in the last mile and I know I'm kinda like, oh my god. Like, what the hell? But I'm also like, I don't think I'm quite, you know anyway, I'm making excuses, but I procrastinate on it sometimes because I because it's the last mile and it's the first book I'm gonna write, and I also know it's gonna be probably the one if you do anything well, it's gonna be first remembered by. So so there's that. And the other piece is, your heart's not fully into it, which doesn't sound like your case. It sounds like your heart's fully into it. So tell me about and I asked this because I think it's the first. I Thomas Yes. So so it's usually one of those two things. Yeah. I'm I'm I'm right you know, I'm writing a book. It's called the redefining billionaire,
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because I I think there's I think all of us can become a billionaire if we stop defining a billionaire if somebody accumulates a $1,000,000,000 and start defining it as somebody who helps a 1000000000 people through humanity centric innovation. And and, you know, I just read this quote that, the reason it takes so long to write a book is because 90% of writing is procrastination. And it was like, oh my gosh. Yeah. I I and I just and and I just that, you know, that that's one of my biggest regrets in the last year is that I haven't actually completed my book. And now is the time to really get focused and,
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to set on. So Don't be beating yourself up. I I meet a lot of people who are writing books and have written them. Most took years to get the first one out, and once they did, they knock them out yearly. And so so, but I've also been told it's okay to take your time as long as you're trying to not chase perfect, but you're just trying to get your thoughts to be more timeless and not in the moment, if that's the kind of book you're writing. So I wouldn't beat yourself up too bad. I will tell you, though, the key to procrastination, at least, and you can take this to entrepreneurship for listening, is, follow a process and try to add a pebble to your mountain every day. Pebbles are gonna fall out, so you gotta keep adding them on top. And and and if you wanna build your, you know, your metaphoric mountain of what you're trying to create, just add a Petal bowl a day. Just get in there and keep adding them. So for your writing, for me, I know it's like, you know, on Saturdays, I try to go do a couple chapters, revise, And I know, okay. Listen. It should take me 4 or 5 more weeks to do this. And then I may not like it again or whatever else, but the truth is just knock out a pebble or 2. And what I find happens as an entrepreneur is if you change your environment, get out of your pretty office or get out of your thing and you go get in the mood, you can knock out specific to writing, you can knock out the whole thing in a couple hours because your mind would be like, it's time. And so just give yourself the opportunity. So if you're out there procrastinating, try to find a process that produces 1% better. That whole idea, you produce 1% better every year, you're a lot better off. And I was part of this networking group. It's called Peter Diamandis, who did, like, SpaceX and did all this stuff. He has a thing called a 360, and I got invited into this at one point in my career. And these are a bunch of very forward thinking, you know I was by far the poorest person in this room. I don't know how I got invited, but, I mean, by by a factor of a1000000. And one of the guys got on stage and said, hey. Listen. You know, you wanna make a 1,000,000,000? Help a 1,000,000,000. So if you could find a way to help a 1,000,000,000 people, that's the way you're gonna go make a 1,000,000,000. But at that point, you won't care. He's like, so you're you're spot on, and I don't I don't remember the guy's name who said this because he was trying to fill and and I'll and just my language. I'm gonna quote him. He said, I'm not trying to feed a 100 people, not a 1000000, not a 100,000,000. I'm trying to feed a 100,000,000,000 people, and that's his mission. It wasn't a 100,000,000. I'm trying to feed a 100,000,000. I'm trying to feed a 100,000,000,000 people to a couple f bombs in. He was really passionate about that, and that's what he's wanted to go do in India. He was, I wanna feed a 1000000000 people. And so that that that you're you're describing exactly the passion. And from your procrastination, just start chipping away at it. Word
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double bucking. I I I was a member of, a 360 Digital, you know, which was, you know, at the a yeah. And I I just love that that type of group. But and, you know, one of the one of the speakers one time was this, I can't remember his name now, but he had this idea of putting poverty in a museum. That the only place that a child would ever see poverty in the future is right next to the tyrannosaurus That would be a great idea. Because because poverty is just as extinct as the dinosaurs. It might have been the same guy in a different year. It could've.
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Could be. Alright. So listen. Okay. So tell me your role in this. So let's let's pivot the conversation a little bit around what you're doing before you know, you're you're describing some big problems. So if I'm an entrepreneur and I wanna be like this, I can't do that because I would be stuck at I have no funding. And so what is a smaller or what do you recommend, if anything, to the small guy that has the passion or the woman who has the passion for you, you subscribe of humanity centric innovation, but has no money?
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What do they do? Yeah. Well, I I think I think the greatest currency in life is your relationships. And so to me, what's really you know, what what you know is important, but who you know is vital. And, you know, what I have found in the last year is the relationships that I have built over the last 35 years have continued to pay dividends, and it's not because I formed the relationships because I wanted something out of them. It it's just that I've got people that I can tap into and people that are willing to take a risk on me and people who are willing to, you know, get me involved in things. And, I I would say if you don't have money, make sure that you're fostering relationships, fostering networks. And I think the best way to foster a relationship is don't focus on your own success, focus on the success of others. Ask yourself every day how every person that you meet, you can help them be successful. And to me, that's the way you become successful. You know, when when I was, you know, in executive roles at Dow and Kimberly Clark, my mantra always was the best way to have power and control was to give power and control away. And the more power and control that you give away, the more power and control that you have. And the same thing is true with success is is, help others be successful and you'll be successful. And the greatest currency in life is the relationships and the people that you love in your life and the people that you help and, the people who are willing to help you. So I don't think it's all about current you know, money.
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I think relationships are a really important currency. You're, I think you always taught those same teachings was a guy named Jesus. Just gonna throw that out there. I think
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Yeah. No. Absolutely. I mean, you you know, it's a may you know, we don't need to go down that rabbit hole, but, you know, this whole idea of of loving others, is such a powerful idea. I mean, you know, it's Jesus' idea. But I do really think that, if you love others, if you focus on other people's success,
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that that's that's the greatest way to, achieve success in life. Yeah. You know, what is it? People won't remember what you have. They'll remember what you gave.
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Yeah. And and and they'll remember how you made them feel. You know, that you know, whenever I'm speaking, I always think to myself, no one's gonna remember what I say, but I sure hope they remember how they felt,
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when when they heard me talk or they met me for the first time. Amen. Let's say a little prayer here. Guys, bow your heads. No. So I'm not too familiar with religion at all, but the truth of the matter is these concepts of what I'm getting to are not new. They're just misapplied sometimes. And so if you're an entrepreneur coming out, you have a great idea. If you're humanity centric innovation and you don't have any money, It it may the idea of innovation itself does not always tie to money. And I'd say it's sometimes if you have this idea and you've been working in companies that don't have it, seek out a company and this is not brought to you by Kimberly Clark either, but, like, as he described, it was a company that could possibly be a better fit. Maybe you can go find that network, find your purpose even though you're not an entrepreneur. I'm not one who's just go work for someone. But if you described how your work environment was where you felt like they work for you, I mean, I'm not sure I would have became an entrepreneur if I ever felt like that. I am I am personally surprised that a company that big can make you feel that way. So good good for them for doing that.
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Yeah. I I would say don't don't look to get hired by a company. I would say go hire a company. Go hire a company that gives you the financial and technical wherewithal to do what you really are passionate in life. And then through that, opportunity, build your network so that you can set yourself free.
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You you're spot on, and and I think, you know, having that bigger purpose is so, you know, I know in my book I write about this, but it's it's gonna be hard to sustain anything you do unless you have a higher purpose beyond just that immediate passion of what you're trying to create. If it's just wealth or if it's, you know, fame or something else, those things aren't gonna last. You're gonna have to have it tied to some other bigger need because they you're gonna that fuel will burn out at some
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point. And and I Yeah. You you know, Thomas, you know, that that that purpose of help raise children that live a life fulfilled, help create businesses that improve people's lives, I wrote that in December 1997 when my wife became pregnant for our first child, Rachel. I remember that Christmas asking myself, what had I accomplished in life? What did I wanna accomplish, and what do I want my legacy to be? And I wrote that mission down, and it's the reason I left Dow Chemical to come to Kimberly Clark. It's the reason I left management to become chief scientist, and it's the reason I left Kimberly Clark to form my own LLC. It's all in pursuit of that purpose to help create businesses that improve people's lives.
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And that's what's driven every major decision I've made since 1996. So in your 1st year, give us some results. What what have you produced and, you know, how's the last year gone for your for your initiative?
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Yeah. Really you know, so I'm I'm doing some consulting work. I, you know, I've been asked to be a partner at a company called FutureBridge in India. They have offices in Europe and the United States, and they really help companies focus on the next 25 years, you know, to connect markets and technologies to enable, you know, human progress, which is just fascinating. The second thing is I'm working with a company called Midpoint Ventures. We are developing AI curriculum for technical colleges that can offer companies, to their workers on how to learn what does AI mean, how do I use AI in my business, and so forth. And then I'm doing some advising work. I'm on the board of directors of Bassett Mechanical, which is a local HVAC refrigeration metal fabrication company. And, you know, I think they have me on their board to help them think a little bit differently, get out of their comfort zone. I'm also on Stanford University's High Impact Technology Fund, so I'm an executive advisor to Stanford University, advising UW Madison on their life sciences department. I've been working with the University of Chicago at the Pritzker Molecular Engineering Group helping to mentor students. So I'm doing some consulting, doing some advising, and I'm also been doing some speaking. I've been speaking on humanity centric innovation and also speaking on artificial intelligence, and those are paid gigs, which is pretty exciting. You know, my next one is, in April at the American Welders Society in, San Antonio, Texas, but they're really interested in understanding what is gonna be the impact on artificial intelligence. And I keep talking about AI isn't artificial intelligence. AI is augmented intelligence, and how do we use these tools to augment our own intelligence and be able to do better? So the last year has been fantastic, consulting, advising, speaking. What I gotta really tee up is my writing. And then I do I do quite a bit of volunteer work. I know we mentioned Jesus earlier. I am a secretary trustee at a local parish here, and I'm very involved in my church, trying to grow faith, grow fellowship, and grow outreach, around Christianity. So I stay pretty busy, and, I just need to carve out some time to write my book. You know, that's that's great.
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It sounds like, though, with your you know, what you're doing, the speaking and other pieces, that that becomes the content of your book. I mean, like, your your your travel, and it's so good for you on this. I wouldn't beat yourself over on it. Your your ambition should should not taint the value and quality of what you're trying to write because because it doesn't sound like you're progressing. It sounds like you're just trying to find the the right message.
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Yeah. Thomas, what I've started to get involved in is interviewing people that have actually done humanity centric innovation, you know, understanding what problem they solve, what business model they use, what technology they used, and start really piecing those examples together. You know, you know, off camera, we were talking a little bit about, you know, being broad and not deep. And I feel like I've got this humanity centric innovation idea, but it's like a thin piece of veneer on a plywood box. You know, when you dig in deep, you know, there's not the case studies, there's not the dashboards, there's not the tools. And and so those are the things that I'm developing because I want a book that not only describes the concept, but helps somebody in Yeah. And I definitely get to the benefit of a book that's describing,
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specifically, like, the the way to think about it, the way to think about approaching the problem itself. And it's okay, by the way, if the innovation you're describing isn't for the solopreneur. I think some things are left to the resources to that's like the evolution of what a bigger company, I think, should become is one that is responsible now for innovation that couldn't have happened at the individual level. And I and I think that that becomes a corporate responsibility, not for so much for greed, but just for humanity. And then I think and I may it may I think you're probably aligned to that, but, that's that would be a shift in fundamental thinking in general, I think.
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Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And there and there's some big corporations that, you know, are pursuing those thoughts and, you know, trying to find that right balance between purpose, profit, people, is is the triad I think that the most successful companies will be able to find.
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Agreed. You know, and so maybe you're, so as entrepreneur, you're out there, you're thinking, oh, how does this apply to me? You know, if you have just more of a humanity centric approach maybe to your services or how you treat people in the execution of whatever business you are, you're kind of doing some of the part. So you're just trying to think obviously, you can go bigger, go bigger, but I would think if you just can do the small part to be more human and be more considerate and and loving, let's say, and and sincere in what you're doing, I think that contributes to an overall the larger push we talked about that would need to happen to to make the world have more innovation that's more humanity centric.
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Yeah. I mean, I think the key is just to be inwardly driven and externally focused. And, you know, if you're truly externally focused, you're focused on your customer, you're focused on your client, you're focused on humans, you're focused on humanity, but then be inwardly driven based on the value proposition that you can bring to either your customer, your client, or all of humanity. I think these all apply. I mean, it's the old adage, we've got 2 ears and one mouth for a reason. We should listen twice as much as we talk. And I think if we really listen with empathy to our customer, we listen with empathy to other humans,
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and we really focus on solving problems for humanity will make this place a better place to live for all of us. Pete, thanks for coming on today. We're how first of all, who should get a hold of you and how do they do that?
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Yeah. There's a couple ways to do that. You can email me at, Pete at Pete Dulcamara dot com, or you can go to www.petedulcamara.com.
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And, either one of those ways, you'll be able to, contact me and love to hear from you and see if we couldn't do something cool together. Is there a specific kind of, like, person that or, like, you know, in a role at a certain company that might wanna give you a call? And and if they do, what should they expect? Like, should they, hey. Listen. Let's let's meet for 20, 30 minutes. Like, what happens who who should it be, and what happens when they get ahold of you?
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Yeah. You know, I I think it's anybody in the area of innovation. You know, I mean, either in the strategy office, in r and d, or even somebody who runs a p and l or could even be a CEO. It could be a solo entrepreneur, but it's anybody who is really passionate about making the world a better place, through new business models and new technologies to create and solve problems in a economically viable way. I'm not talking about charity. I'm not talking about, you know, anything that's nonprofit. I'm talking about making a profit
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by helping people live better lives. Great. Thank you, Pete, for coming on today. I appreciate your, your passion and what you're what you're trying to do in the renaissance of your career.
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Thank you, Thomas.
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Thank you for having me. Listen. I I I do truly and sincerely mean it, and and I appreciate everyone who's made it this point in the Never Been Promoted podcast. Before we sign off, I listen, I wanna thank the first time visitors for coming. I hope you come back and enjoy it. If you're if this is not your first time and you've come back again, man, you rock as well. And if, you know, if you're an entrepreneur, go help somebody. If you think you've got a great story, get in touch with us and and come on the show. And if you'd like to get mentored, you know, listen. Get out there, and and finding somebody else to help you along your way. And if you need resources for that, just go to neverbeenpromoted.com and and ask us. But, until you until we meet again, until you listen again, to the Never Been Promoted podcast, I want you to get out there, enjoy your lives, but also just get out there and unleash your entrepreneur. Thank you so much for listening.
